Before the millions-strong Da Yuan Clan army stood a red-haired man. Lan Xiaobu knew that Da Yuan Clan members typically had three eyes, but this cultivator was different: his third eye was closed. Moreover, he had five fingers instead of four, and his body exuded a robust dao aura, clearly marking him as an Eighth Step Great Path existence.
“Did you kill our Da Yuan Clan’s protector, Ding Yinyin, and slaughter hundreds of thousands of our clan’s lives?” the red-haired man asked, his tone icy as he stared at Lan Xiaobu.
With just one sentence, he branded Lan Xiaobu as the slaughterer of the Da Yuan Clan.
As Lan Xiaobu observed the man’s dao aura fluctuations, which seemed vaguely familiar, Hu Qian stepped aside and whispered, “Brother Lan, this is Zhu Fen, the Da Yuan Clan’s strongest, an Eighth Step Great Path cultivator. His most powerful technique is the Dream Entry Domain, which can trap opponents in a dream realm, exposing their dao principles and allowing him to crush them effortlessly.”
Hu Qian himself was wary of this man; falling into Zhu Fen’s Dream Entry Domain was almost certainly a death sentence.
Dream dao principles? Isn’t that Hui Zhi’s branch? Lan Xiaobu thought. Even Hui Zhi, an ancestor, had to bow before him. Did this man think he could play with dream dao in front of him?
“Hu Qian, you’re siding with this human?” Zhu Fen had been puzzled about why Hu Qian stood with Lan Xiaobu and had refrained from speaking.
He had initially suspected Hu Qian was deceiving Lan Xiaobu, planning to team up to secretly eliminate him. Now he realised Hu Qian had truly allied with Lan Xiaobu to target his Da Yuan Clan.
Hu Qian said coolly, “Brother Lan and I hit it off instantly. The human race has always been peaceful and never overstepped. Yet your Da Yuan Clan sent an army to destroy Renhuang City. Heh, those who commit injustice will meet their own ruin.”
Hearing Hu Qian say “those who commit injustice will meet their own ruin,” Zhu Fen nearly laughed in anger. What vile deeds had the Beast Soul Clan done that were any better than the Da Yuan Clan’s?
As Zhu Fen seethed, ripples suddenly pulsed through the distant void, and warships began emerging from a vortex.
Zhu Fen’s eyes narrowed. The Beast Soul Clan’s army?
Soon, the densely packed Beast Soul Clan army appeared on the warships, confirming his suspicions. More warships kept arriving through the void’s teleportation vortex.
The Beast Soul Clan had a teleportation gate, and this method of arrival signified their highest war command.
As millions of troops appeared in the void, Zhu Fen was certain: the Beast Soul Clan was aiding this human to attack his Da Yuan Clan.
“Hu Qian, have you lost your mind?” Zhu Fen, unaware of Lan Xiaobu’s defeat of Jie Ti, couldn’t fathom why Hu Qian would do this. It was utterly incomprehensible.
Hu Qian sneered. Mad? If he didn’t do this, *that* would be madness. He was certain that if he didn’t act, Lan Xiaobu would destroy the Da Yuan Clan and then the Beast Soul Clan next. As for himself, he might not even live to see his clan’s destruction. Heh, better a dead ally than a dead self. Even if he were a fool, Hu Qian knew how to choose.
“We greet the Dao Ancestor,” four Seventh Step Great Path Beast Soul Clan cultivators said, bowing to Hu Qian after organising their army.
Lan Xiaobu glanced at them. Compared to Hu Qian, these four Seventh Step cultivators were far inferior. Two had disordered dao auras, clearly having imperfectly fused their souls and bodies after possessing human cultivators. Their ascension to the Seventh Step was pure luck.
The other two had fused relatively well, showing no trace of Beast Soul Clan dao principles.
Hu Qian nodded and bowed to Lan Xiaobu, “Brother Lan, the Beast Soul Clan army has arrived. Please give your instructions.”
Lan Xiaobu nodded, “Take them and wipe out the Da Yuan Clan completely. As for this Zhu Fen, leave him to me.”
In truth, with Lan Xiaobu handling Zhu Fen, Hu Qian didn’t need such a large army. Hu Qian alone could destroy the entire Da Yuan Clan. Yet he had summoned the army to show Lan Xiaobu his complete allegiance.
“My Beast Soul Clan’s holy army, do you know that the Da Yuan Clan has been secretly slaughtering our innocent cultivators? When I uncovered this, they still sought to attack us. Today, our Beast Soul Clan joins forces with the human race to destroy the Da Yuan Clan and avenge our kin. From this day forward, the Beast Soul Clan and the human race will stand as close allies, never harming a single human ally without cause,” Hu Qian declared loudly.
“We obey the Dao Ancestor’s holy command!” millions of troops responded in unison.
“Thus, my Beast Soul Clan’s holy army, charge!” Hu Qian ordered, leading the assault himself.
Lan Xiaobu was pleased with Hu Qian’s performance. This man was sharp. As a Dao Ancestor, he not only led the charge but also publicly affirmed an alliance with the human race before his clan.
Zhu Fen’s eyes blazed with fury. Raising his Soul-Splitting Blade, he roared, “The Da Yuan Clan is not for anyone to bully as they please! Da Yuan Clan’s holy army, heed my command: slaughter the Beast Soul Clan ants!”
With that, he charged toward Hu Qian.
The Da Yuan Clan’s rise in this universe was a history of slaughter.
Though Zhu Fen called for his army to charge together, in reality, once the charge began, the Da Yuan Clan’s commanders would form a perfect slaughter formation. This was their time-honed experience, requiring no detailed orders.
The Beast Soul Clan, however, lacked such battle experience. For their army, formation was irrelevant; what mattered was the strength of the leader. With Hu Qian leading, as long as no Eighth Step Great Path cultivator blocked him, he alone could destroy the Da Yuan Clan.
This had always been the Beast Soul Clan’s approach: their leader would eliminate the enemy’s command, and the army would swarm, a tactic that never failed.
Watching the two armies clash, Lan Xiaobu knew that if he didn’t intervene, the Beast Soul Clan would be annihilated today.
One side swarmed chaotically, while the other had formed a structured front-middle-rear formation, methodically cutting down the Beast Soul Clan.
For a fleeting moment, Lan Xiaobu considered not acting. If he let the Da Yuan Clan slaughter the Beast Soul Clan and then destroyed the Da Yuan Clan, wouldn’t that be a clean sweep? But he quickly dismissed the thought.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t do it or had moral qualms. If he did, the human race would have no chance of survival here.
He couldn’t stay in this place forever. This universe wasn’t just home to the Beast Soul and Da Yuan Clans. If he left, human cultivators would become targets for all.
Seeing Hu Qian still relying on the old tactic of a full assault, Zhu Fen sneered. As long as he held off Hu Qian, the Beast Soul Clan would be slaughtered. As for the human, Lan Xiaobu? Heh, Zhu Fen had prepared a hundred-thousand-man trap-kill formation, led by two Seventh Step Great Path cultivators and bolstered by a trap-kill treasure. Even if it couldn’t kill Lan Xiaobu, it would hold him long enough. Once he killed Hu Qian or the Da Yuan Clan’s army wiped out the Beast Soul Clan’s, he’d have plenty of time to crush Lan Xiaobu.
In Zhu Fen’s view, Lan Xiaobu’s ability to kill Ding Yinyin likely stemmed from strong Seventh Step Great Path prowess, amplified by array techniques.
To Zhu Fen’s surprise, Hu Qian ignored him and charged straight into the Da Yuan Clan’s army.
Zhu Fen was furious. Hu Qian’s plan was clever. If he let Hu Qian slaughter the Da Yuan Clan’s powerhouses, wouldn’t his clan be wiped out?
“Your opponent is me,” Zhu Fen hadn’t expected that, as he took a step, the space would be locked by a powerful domain, and Lan Xiaobu appeared before him.
“Courting death,” Zhu Fen had no time to waste words with Lan Xiaobu. He had only meant for others to hold Lan Xiaobu back, but since Lan Xiaobu sought death, he wouldn’t hold back.
The Dream Entry Domain surged, and the Soul-Splitting Blade slashed toward Lan Xiaobu. Blade beams transformed into blade souls, each seeming alive, carrying deadly killing intent to envelop Lan Xiaobu completely.
Originally, Zhu Fen hadn’t planned to kill Lan Xiaobu so quickly. A human reaching the Seventh Step Great Path was rare and valuable. He wanted to capture Lan Xiaobu to study his dao direction, naturally stripping his consciousness and meridians.
But Lan Xiaobu’s interference at this critical moment left him no choice. So he unleashed the Dream Entry Domain and struck with the Soul-Splitting Blade’s divine technique, the Life-Soul Blade Path.
Let alone a Seventh Step like Lan Xiaobu, even Hu Qian, caught in his Dream Entry Domain and under the Life-Soul Blade Path, would likely fall.
