Grand Return System

The Sword That Opened the Heavenly Gate [Part 3]

Everyone’s expression changed.

Some went pale.

Others stared at the opened Heavenly Gate in horror.

They remembered.

They had seen this sword before.

Back then, Leon had relied on this very strike to kill Dario.

That scene had already been burned into their memories.

The Heavenly Gate.

The descending sword.

The overwhelming power.

And the death that followed.

Now Leon stood before Gareth.

Once again, he had used the same sword technique.

But unlike last time...

This time, Leon held a ferocious sword from the ancient era.

The Supreme Demonic Sword.

A deep, blood-red light flowed along the blade. It painted Leon’s face in crimson.

Yet his expression did not change.

He wasn’t excited.

He wasn’t arrogant.

There wasn’t even a trace of killing intent on his face.

There was only focus.

Absolute focus.

It was so intense that the entire battlefield seemed to fall under an invisible pressure.

The air grew heavy.

Even breathing suddenly felt difficult.

"What an astonishing aura..."

"I can feel that pressure from all the way over here."

"How terrifying..."

"Why do I have the feeling that even a Martial Sovereign powerhouse wouldn’t be able to withstand that strike?"

The surrounding cultivators spoke in hushed voices.

Nobody dared to raise their voice.

Their eyes remained fixed on Leon.

Then, almost instinctively, many of them looked upward.

The Heavenly Gate had opened above them.

Its enormous presence hung over the battlefield like the gaze of some ancient existence.

Several cultivators unconsciously stepped backward.

Others tightened their grips around their weapons.

Some even swallowed nervously.

They had witnessed countless battles.

They had seen experts tear mountains apart.

They had watched blood flow across battlefields and witnessed powerful cultivators fall from the sky.

Yet none of that could compare to the feeling this sword gave them.

It wasn’t simply powerful.

It was terrifying.

The kind of terrifying that made the instincts buried deep within their bodies scream at them to run.

And Gareth felt it more clearly than anyone else.

The pride he had displayed earlier was completely gone.

His face had turned pale.

His lips trembled slightly.

Even his hands were shaking.

"No..."

The word escaped his mouth almost unconsciously.

Gareth stared at Leon.

His eyes widened.

"It must be an illusion."

His voice became strained.

"How could he possibly possess such a powerful sword technique?"

He refused to accept it.

He simply couldn’t.

For countless years, Gareth had believed that he was the master of his own destiny.

He had crawled through darkness to reach where he stood today.

He had manipulated Dario from the shadows.

He had sacrificed countless lives without hesitation.

Every sacrifice had been made for his own advancement.

Every betrayal had served a purpose.

Every bloodstained step had brought him closer to the summit.

He had broken through one cultivation barrier after another.

He had even refined the Dark Body.

All of it had been for one goal.

To stand at the very top.

To become an existence that nobody could threaten.

Nobody could control.

Nobody could kill.

That belief had supported him for years.

It had become the foundation of his entire life.

But now...

As that cold sword intent settled upon him, that foundation began to crack.

Gareth could feel it.

The sword intent wasn’t merely surrounding his body.

It was piercing through everything.

His defenses.

His darkness.

His flesh.

Even his soul.

A chill slowly spread through his entire body.

For the first time in many years, Gareth felt something he had almost forgotten.

Fear.

Real fear.

The kind that didn’t come from the possibility of losing.

It came from realizing that death was actually standing in front of him.

And then Gareth finally understood something.

Something that made his heart sink.

Leon had never truly regarded him as an equal opponent.

All those exchanges...

All those clashes...

Every time Leon had retreated.

Every time he had appeared to be struggling.

Every time Gareth thought he had finally forced Leon into a desperate situation.

It had all been a lie.

Leon had been watching.

Observing.

Learning.

Waiting.

Like a hunter patiently studying an animal that didn’t even realize it had already entered the trap.

Gareth’s expression twisted.

His breathing became heavier.

"No..."

He shook his head.

He didn’t want to believe it.

But the truth was already standing before him.

Leon had never been fighting with everything he had.

He had simply been playing with him.

Like a monkey.

And now...

Leon had finally decided that the game was over.

The moment that thought entered Gareth’s mind, his blood ran cold.

Only then did Gareth truly understand just how enormous the gap between them was.

It wasn’t a distance that desperation could erase.

It wasn’t something another breakthrough could suddenly overcome.

The difference between them was simply too great.

For the first time in his life, Gareth felt a cold realization settle deep inside his chest.

Everything he had built over the years...

Everything he had fought for...

Everything he had taken pride in...

It could all be crushed beneath a single sword strike.

The thought made his blood boil.

How could someone as proud as him accept that?

How could he lower his head?

His heart burned with rage.

His pride screamed at him to fight.

His instincts screamed at him to run.

But Gareth knew there was nowhere to run.

The strange aura buried deep within his body suddenly erupted.

Boom!

Dark energy surged through his veins like boiling blood.

His muscles tightened.

His entire body trembled under the overwhelming force.

The black mist surrounding him suddenly expanded outward.

It rolled across the ground like a living darkness.

Cracks spread beneath his feet.

One after another, the earth split apart.

The surrounding mountains trembled beneath the pressure.

Yet Gareth still wasn’t satisfied.

His anger continued to rise.

And strangely enough, the more furious he became, the stronger that mysterious aura grew.

It was as though his rage had become fuel.

The strange power inside his body surged again.

Then again.