Above the ruins of Shura Hall, blood-red mist churned like viscous plasma.
The essence blood spurted by Sang Tianyang soaked the ancient token in his hand, its surface, etched with ferocious ghost-face patterns, suddenly glowed, each groove oozing scarlet streams of light, twisting and writhing like living creatures.
From the cracks in the earth came first a muffled impact, as if thousands of war drums thundered below, then countless arms, clad in dark purple scales, burst through the soil, their nails tearing through rock with deafening screeches.
“Shura Guards, activate the formation!”
Sang Tianyang’s voice rasped like a broken bellows, blood froth surging from the stumps where his arms once were, yet his eyes burned with final resolve.
Thousands of figures erupted from the fissures, each Shura Guard standing three zhang tall.
Clad in black iron war armour etched with flowing blood-red patterns, their helmets bore no faces, only two flickering orbs of netherworld ghost fire.
Their long halberds’ tips spewed dark poisonous mist, and upon emerging, they formed an intricate battle array, halberds aimed at the Tianyuan Pavilion Master in the sky, unleashing a terrifying killing intent strong enough to rend clouds.
As the array activated, the blood-red mist on the ground was forcibly drawn, condensing into a blood-coloured band encircling the Shura Guards, within which countless tormented, twisted faces faintly appeared, all the souls of Shura Hall’s fallen heroes.
The Tianyuan Pavilion Master hovered atop the blood mist, his pupils, controlled by the blood corpse, devoid of emotion, showing only utter indifference to life.
He didn’t even bother to glance at the Shura Guards, merely raising his right hand, wrapped in blood corpse energy, as blood light spilled from his fingertips, transforming into thousands of blood-red needles, each carrying a foul stench that corroded all.
“Buzz, hum!”
The needles rained down like a storm, and the front line of Shura Guards instantly erupted in blinding purple light.
The core band of light swelled, blocking the needle swarm three zhang away, but the blood-red needles clung like maggots, gnawing at the array’s light wall layer by layer.
Amid the “crack, snap” of shattering, the front-row Shura Guards suddenly knelt on one knee, the ghost fire under their helmets flickering wildly, their energy being forcibly drained by the needles!
“Foolish resistance.”
The Tianyuan Pavilion Master’s voice, a chilling blend of male and female tones, was sharp and cold, “The power of the blood corpse, how can your mundane battle array withstand it?”
With a flick of his wrist, the blood light needles accelerated, no longer targeting the array but piercing precisely into the gaps of each Shura Guard’s armour.
The first Shura Guard’s ghost fire snuffed out, its black iron armour shattering inch by inch, revealing a long-decayed body within.
Then the second, the thirtieth, the entire Shura Guard array crumbled like dominoes in mere breaths, reduced to ash.
Only the clanging of their falling halberds echoed dully across the silent battlefield, piercingly stark.
Sang Tianyang watched his life-saving Shura Guards slaughtered like ants, a metallic sweetness rising in his throat.
He recalled these Shura Guards, forged over a millennium by Shura Hall, each bearing the remnant soul of a mighty warrior, now reduced to dust by the enemy.
“No, never!”
He roared like a trapped beast, his broken body trembling violently, the essence blood in his dantian boiling uncontrollably once more.
At that moment, two jet-black streams tore through the blood mist, the two warriors previously unleashed from Chen Ping’s body!
Wreathed in dense deathly aura, their dark war axes carved distorted arcs through the void, ancient runes glowing on the blades, the very ancient war souls Chen Ping had once subdued.
Now free of Chen Ping’s control, drawn by some force deep within Shura Hall, they charged straight at the Tianyuan Pavilion Master!
“Hm?”
The Tianyuan Pavilion Master finally reacted, turning to face the two warriors, a trace of doubt crossing his blood-corrupted face, “You two haven’t perished yet, but suppressing us now, it’s impossible…”
