“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
At this moment, the Buddha statues hanging in the void began to crack apart. Their stone bodies shattered and plummeted to the ground, smashing into piles of rubble and mud, kicking up clouds of dust.
The number that fell totalled more than a thousand. Of the original statues, fewer than five hundred now remained.
Moreover, many people had also turned into corpses, dropping from the sky one after another.
The death toll was no less than the number of destroyed statues, probably exceeding a thousand.
Death seemed related to cultivation level; almost all who perished were the relatively weaker ones.
The three great powers had stronger overall strength and suffered fewer losses, yet even so, roughly half their people had died on the spot. The casualties were devastating.
In other words, the Ji family, originally over two hundred strong, now had little more than a hundred left.
The Sacred Heaven Gate and Azure Dragon Gate, each with around two hundred, were reduced to just over a hundred. In that single instant, half of those with weaker cultivation had fallen.
The mortality rate was terrifyingly high.
“Rip!”
Right then, a thread-thin beam of light suddenly shot from between Lin Xiao’s brows, piercing straight towards the ashen-faced, blood-dripping Yi Xiaoxi.
The beam was too fast. Yi Xiaoxi, already heavily injured, had no time to block it. The light entered his forehead and exited through the back of his skull.
Black smoke billowed from Yi Xiaoxi’s head and body. From the inside out, everything turned charred.
Disbelief filled his face; his scorched pupils stared wide, clearly dying with everlasting regret.
The Sacred Heaven Gate’s most outstanding eighth-level Martial Emperor genius had actually been assassinated just like that.
“Beast!!!”
A Sacred Heaven Gate eighth-level elder unleashed a heaven-shaking roar of fury. Rolling waves of aura surged around him as he charged straight at Lin Xiao.
Their sect’s supreme genius had been killed by Lin Xiao in a sneak attack. This was an enormous loss. One could imagine his rage.
With that, the rest of the Sacred Heaven Gate, along with Ji Yue and the Ji family members, all moved. They streaked violently towards Lin Xiao and the bald fatty, overwhelming auras blanketing the sky.
“Whoosh!”
Lin Xiao turned and fled without hesitation. He threw out the Void Heavenly Phoenix Wings, stepped onto them, and poured a huge pile of blue spirit stones directly into the wings.
From behind came the bald fatty’s voice: “This poor monk will just stand here and let you hit me!” Immediately afterwards, all sounds of pursuit vanished from Lin Xiao’s ears.
Glancing back and seeing no one catching up, Lin Xiao finally breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
Fortunately, that fatty was righteous enough to hold them off.
Otherwise, being chased by a horde of experts, he wasn’t sure he could have escaped.
It was also lucky he had the Void Heavenly Phoenix Wings for flight; otherwise, the trouble would have been immense.
As for Yi Xiaoxi, no matter what, Lin Xiao had to kill him.
A genius like that was far too dangerous. Leaving him alive would be a massive future threat.
Thankfully, the lightning-fast Thunder Dragon Heaven-Annihilating Light had succeeded as a surprise attack.
He had not flown long before a sinister, bone-chilling aura hit him head-on.
Lin Xiao immediately dispersed the energy within the Void Heavenly Phoenix Wings, slowing them down.
As his speed dropped, his vision cleared.
Seeing the scene ahead, his heart lurched violently.
Before him stretched countless low-to-medium mountain peaks, interspersed with innumerable valleys.
Each valley was carpeted with piles of white skeletons. Under the moonlight, those bones gleamed with an eerie lustre.
A gentle breeze stirred, sending bone dust swirling into the air. In some places, ghostly phosphorus flames even flickered.
One glance revealed endless valleys filled with dense bones and dim ghost-fire. Under the eternal night sky and bathed in moonlight, the entire area appeared utterly sinister and terrifying.
Lin Xiao could not help sucking in a cold breath.
Had he accidentally charged into the Evil Valley the bald fatty had mentioned?
“I wonder how deep I’ve gone.”
A chill crawled up Lin Xiao’s spine.
He had poured a massive number of blue spirit stones into the Void Heavenly Phoenix Wings, making his speed insane. In just that short time, who knew how many thousands of li he had covered.
Fortunately, the moment he sensed the sinister aura, he had instantly dispersed the wings’ energy.
Otherwise, who knew how deep he might have plunged or what taboo he might have triggered.
“I wonder what dangers and opportunities this area holds.”
Lin Xiao silently assessed.
Eventually, he urged the Void Heavenly Phoenix Wings forward slowly, flying above one of the valleys and observing the piles of skeletons below.
Beneath the thick layer of bone ash, complete skeletons were rare. In an entire valley, barely a handful of intact frames remained.
Lin Xiao sent out a strand of spiritual force, stirring the bones below and drawing one relatively complete skeleton towards him.
When it reached him, he grasped its arm. With a light squeeze, the bone crumbled easily into ash that scattered downwards.
Lin Xiao shook his head in disappointment. He had hoped to brand these skeletons for combat use.
Unfortunately, these bones had lain here for who knew how many years. They were completely brittle and would turn to dust at a touch, utterly unusable for branding.
He released the skeleton and let it fall. The moment it hit the ground, it smashed into a pile of bone ash as expected.
Whoosh! That soft impact seemed to trigger something. A wild, whistling howl suddenly erupted.
Fierce winds sprang up from all directions. Thick bone dust was whipped into the sky.
The wind caused by a falling skeleton felt strange to Lin Xiao. He immediately accelerated the Void Heavenly Phoenix Wings and shot forward.
Yet at that moment, he sensed something attacking from behind. Whirling around, he saw the dense cloud of bone dust suddenly condense into hundreds, no, thousands of sword-shaped forms that slashed towards him.
Lin Xiao’s brow furrowed. He formed a massive spiritual-force palm and slapped it towards the incoming bone-ash swords.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A series of explosions rang out. The bone-ash swords shattered one after another, dispersing back into dust.
However, the bone dust passed straight through the spiritual palm instead of being knocked backwards.
After penetrating the giant palm, the dust immediately re-condensed into swords and continued streaking towards Lin Xiao.
“Hm?”
Lin Xiao’s expression changed. He instantly unleashed the Heaven-Devouring Art.
Something that could penetrate spiritual force, re-form into swords, and seemed to have no controller; this was far too eerie.
“Rip!”
Behind Lin Xiao, a colossal vortex of black, cyan, and blue suddenly appeared. Overwhelming devouring energy, incinerating energy, and thunder energy filled it. All thousand-plus flying swords were irresistibly drawn in and swallowed by the vortex.
