He felt a sudden impulse in his heart to utterly erase this filth from the world.

But amidst the boundless rage, Brand found another realization. It was not a cold intent to kill, but a calm—space was in stasis, despite his overwhelming anger, another self-reflective thought emerged from it. This thought made the young man's mind crystal clear, as if he could observe his anger from a transcendent perspective and calmly control it.

Or rather, at this moment, it seemed as though there existed two Brands. One completely shrouded in endless murderous intent, and another calmly examining this anger from a detached perspective.

Thus, Brand realized he could fully control the anger within his heart.

He felt his strength doubling, this realization merging with the insight gained from the battle with his grandfather, and Brand finally touched upon a solid barrier.

He knew,

that it was the Elemental Wall—

At that moment of contact, he sensed a few extremely fleeting words flicker through his mind: calm, stasis, stability. Immediately, the wall mercilessly rebounded him back, wanting to breach the Enlightenment Element? Not qualified enough!

Then all illusions crumbled, the spiritual world seemed to fragment, time resumed its flow in an instant, pulling him back to reality.

Only then did Brand hear the crackle, the glass and porcelain shattering to bits before him; the temperature in the hall seemed to drop dozens of degrees instantly, with thick frost forming on the walls.

The first thing Brand did was place his hand on the silver-plated sword hilt. Just this one action caused Baron Gruding and the twenty-plus knights behind him to be forced back a step by an invisible aura, the chairs behind them simultaneously cracked with a sound, breaking into butterfly-like wooden fragments.

"Protect me!"

Baron Gruding screamed.

The knights around him felt uneasy but were forced by his command to draw their swords and block again; what awaited them was Brand's seemingly ordinary slice—

Thumb and index finger pressing against the cross guard, pinky hooked around the sword hilt, middle finger, ring finger, and palm together controlling the stability of the sword. The wrist swung from left to right, the elbow and shoulder had already drawn the simplest arc.

White Crow Swordsmanship.

Power Burst—

From any angle, this was the most basic swordsmanship. As if it were the first strike of a novice swordsman, the trajectory clear, the intention obvious, even a slightly experienced person could easily decipher how the strike would proceed.

Yet the twenty Black Iron Middle Rank knights, not a single one could evade.

The sword seemed to stretch in space, the chilling glow on the blade made everyone feel a bone-deep cold. The chill climbed up each of their bodies, then instantly frosted over, forming a thick layer of ice.

Element, Ice.

Immobile—

A sweep of white light, twenty heads flew high. At that moment, nearly everyone was petrified, no, not just petrified, but utterly terrified beyond control. Chairs, utensils overturned in a cacophony, nobles on either side of the table scrambled back, clutching tightly to the walls—in the cold not even caring, as if afraid to approach this fearsome young man.

Twenty ice sculptures crashed down before them, turning into lifeless corpses. The breath of death was displayed blatantly for the first time before Baron Gruding. All his life he had held the power over life and death with such composure, but at this moment he finally understood how defenseless the weaker side is, like a drowning person unable to resist destiny.

It was the deepest sorrow, human civilization's pride being thoroughly trampled.

He could no longer endure it, he thought Brand was at most a Silver Middle Rank swordsman. This status was on par with his own, naturally allowing for mutual attempts to outdo each other.

But now he realized his mistake, that was no Silver Swordsman. It was a terrifying existence already touching the edge of the Element, no, once the element is enlightened, it is already deemed non-human.

He realized the one seated before him was not an easy individual to provoke, but a beast ready to devour.

Brand stood forward coldly, the long table instantly splitting into two halves with a tearing sound. Others didn't even see how he attacked, just saw the young man step forward, and all obstacles between Baron and him vanished.

Brand remained silent, hand once again pressing on the sword hilt.

"I am the Lord of the Kingdom—!"

Gruding broke down, wailing uncontrollably. He glanced around desperately hoping someone would come to save him, but alas, no one. Everyone was paralyzed with fear, never expecting a feast to turn into such a scene or that a powerful entity touching the edge of an Element would come to such a remote place.

Brand stepped forward, looking at this man as if watching a dog.

He lowered his hand, ready to end this man's life.

But at that moment, Brand felt a hand placed over his. He was slightly stunned, turned around, and saw Qian holding a war-hammer, her amber eyes looking at him earnestly.

"Qian?"

The red-haired ponytail girl looked at him and shook her head.

(PS. To the students who find the plot disjointed, please read on. Due to the daily limited update length, not everything can be expressed, the answers you seek will appear in the subsequent chapters.)(To be continued, to know what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com, more chapters available, support the author, support official reading!)

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