Heavenly Sword Saint
Long Tian slowly walked toward Jian Chen.
Each step echoed through the blood-soaked palace.
The once proud Crown Prince no longer looked fearful.
The dying Jian Chen had finally reached his limit.
Long Tian stopped three meters away and looked down at him.
"The greatest genius of the Divine Realm..."
"So this is how your legend ends."
Jian Chen leaned against the shattered altar.
Blood continuously flowed from his chest.
His meridians had completely collapsed.
His dantian had shattered.
The poison had consumed every trace of life within him.
He knew...
His time had come.
Yet his eyes remained calm.
Long Tian frowned.
"Why are you still looking at me like that?"
"Even now..."
"You refuse to bow?"
Jian Chen smiled faintly.
"A sword..."
"...would rather break than bend."
Long Tian's face darkened.
"You still dare speak proudly?"
He slowly picked up Jian Chen's fallen sword.
It was the sword that had accompanied Jian Chen since childhood.
The sword that had defeated countless geniuses.
The sword that had made the younger generation tremble.
Long Tian sneered.
"You don't deserve this sword anymore."
Clang!
He snapped the blade across his knee.
The broken pieces fell onto the bloodstained ground.
Seeing his lifelong companion destroyed...
Jian Chen's expression remained unchanged.
Instead, he slowly looked toward Lin Xue'er.
Twenty years.
For twenty years...
She had been his childhood sweetheart.
His fiancée.
The person he trusted above everyone else.
"I have one final question."
His voice was weak.
"But I hope you'll answer truthfully."
Lin Xue'er looked at him silently.
Jian Chen asked,
"In these twenty years..."
"Was there ever..."
"...even a single moment..."
"...when your feelings for me were real?"
The ancient palace became silent.
Long Tian looked at Lin Xue'er with a faint smile.
Lin Xue'er met Jian Chen's gaze.
Her beautiful face remained cold.
"No."
"Not once."
"Everything was for today."
"I stayed by your side to gain your trust."
"I laughed with you."
"I cultivated with you."
"I encouraged you."
"I even accepted our engagement."
"Everything..."
"...was a lie."
Jian Chen slowly closed his eyes.
For a brief moment...
His memories flashed before him.
The day they first met.
The promises beneath the stars.
The times he protected her during dangerous expeditions.
The countless gifts he had given her.
Every precious memory...
Had become the sharpest blade.
He opened his eyes once more.
This time...
There was no sadness.
No anger.
No hatred.
Only emptiness.
"I understand."
Long Tian raised his hand.
"It's time to end this."
Golden spiritual energy gathered around his palm.
Without hesitation...
He struck Jian Chen's forehead.
Boom!
Jian Chen's sea of consciousness shattered.
His soul began to disperse.
His vision slowly faded into darkness.
His final thoughts were not of revenge.
Nor of hatred.
Only of regret.
Regret that he had mistaken deception for love.
Regret that he had trusted the wrong person.
As his consciousness disappeared...
His lips moved one final time.
"If there is another life..."
"I shall devote my heart..."
"...only to the Sword."
His hand fell limply to the ground.
The light in his eyes vanished forever.
Jian Chen...
The unrivaled genius of the Jian Clan...
Had fallen.
At that instant...
Boom!
The Heavenfall Secret Realm shook violently.
The ancient palace collapsed.
The sky split apart as countless bolts of heavenly lightning descended.
An ancient sword chant echoed across the entire Secret Realm.
Every sword within the ruins let out a sorrowful cry.
As though mourning...
The death of the greatest swordsman of his generation.
Far beyond the Secret Realm...
Deep within the ancestral grounds of the Jian Clan...
The ancestral sword that had remained motionless for ten thousand years suddenly trembled.
A crack silently appeared upon the Jian Clan's Destiny Tablet.
The flame representing Jian Chen...
Went out.
The greatest genius of the Divine Realm...
Was dead.