His aura was steadily rising, and the momentum emanating from him grew increasingly formidable.
Chen Ping, who had initially struggled against a single demonic corpse, was now fighting with growing valour.
Flames danced wildly around him, continuously burning and purifying the surrounding malevolent yin energy, forming a blazing domain centred on him.
Under the scorching flames, the demonic corpses slowed, emitting pained wails.
Chen Ping moved with agility, weaving effortlessly through the horde.
At times, he leapt into the air, severing a corpse’s head with a single strike; at others, he swept low, slicing through their legs in one clean cut.
As the corpses fell, Chen Ping’s aura reached a terrifying peak, his entire being resembling a fiery war god, reducing every corpse in his path to ashes.
In the city lord’s mansion, Gadfly stared intently at the scene in the bronze mirror, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.
Having governed Rhino City for years, he had seen countless gifted cultivators, but never one with such a terrifying rate of progress.
Facing thousands of demonic corpses alone, not only did Chen Ping not retreat, but he grew stronger with each battle, a scene utterly unprecedented.
“How is this possible…” Gadfly muttered, his fingers unconsciously gripping the armrests of his chair.
Watching Chen Ping’s flame-wreathed figure in the mirror, his mind was flooded with questions.
Who was this young man?
How could he convert the purgatory arena’s malevolent yin energy into his own power in such a short time?
Moreover, the Dragon-Slaying Sword in his hand was clearly no ordinary weapon, capable of slaying demonic corpses with such ease.
What unsettled Gadfly further was that Chen Ping’s displayed strength far exceeded his expectations for a trial participant.
As Gadfly’s thoughts raced, the scene in the mirror suddenly intensified.
Chen Ping let out a roar, and the flames on his Dragon-Slaying Sword surged, forming a massive fiery blade.
With a fierce swing, the flame blade swept through the corpse horde, reducing swathes of them to ash.
Chen Ping had fought his way to the centre of the horde, his figure flickering like a phantom, each flash of his sword felling a corpse.
The flames on the Dragon-Slaying Sword grew fiercer, gradually forming a faint fiery dragon shadow coiling around the blade.
Even more astonishing, a visible black vortex formed in the air around Chen Ping, frantically drawing in the malevolent energy released from the slain corpses.
As the final corpse was cut down, Chen Ping slowly sheathed his sword.
Though his body was covered in corpse blood and dust, his gaze grew ever more resolute and bright.
The once sinister and terrifying purgatory arena now felt less oppressive, its malevolent yin energy diminished by the death of countless corpses.
Chen Ping took a deep breath, feeling the surging power within him, a satisfied smile curling his lips.
Amid the purgatory arena’s eerie winds, the ashes of the corpses still drifted, and the scorched earth smouldered with faint smoke.
As Chen Ping sheathed his Dragon-Slaying Sword, a low, resonant hum suddenly echoed from the depths of the void, as if an ancient beast were awakening from slumber.
He snapped his head up, spotting a pitch-black rift twisting in the air. Rusted bronze chains slithered out like living things, dragging a figure clad in heavy black iron armour crashing to the ground.
“Boom!”
The ground instantly fractured into a web of cracks, and amid the scattering debris, the armoured figure slowly rose.
From the rusted slits of its helmet, ghostly green flames flickered in the rotting skull’s eye sockets. Beneath the cracked black iron armour, maggots crawled in and out of the ribcage’s hollows, the stench of decay far more nauseating than that of a thousand corpses.
The figure wielded a massive mountain-splitting axe, nearly ten feet long, its blade dripping with a black substance that corroded the ground, sizzling into deep pits. This was no ordinary foe, but a demonic corpse of the Loose Immortal realm.
