Chen Ping’s figure shuttled through the crowd; he was so fast that he left only trails of afterimages.
Each of his sword strikes was precise and unparalleled; whether piercing or slashing, he always penetrated the enemy’s vulnerabilities in the nick of time.
Sometimes, he did not even need to use the Dragon Slaying Sword. With a casual wave of his hand, the golden spiritual power would transform into sharp blades, slicing open the throats of several cultivators.
In just a short while, the dozens of cultivators in the camp had been completely slaughtered; only the skull altar remained, still emitting a ghostly green light.
Chen Ping walked slowly to the front of the altar. As he looked at those divine souls struggling painfully in the green light, a trace of pity flashed in his eyes.
Most of these divine souls were incomplete and fragmented; clearly, they had been tortured for a long time. Their spiritual intelligence had long become blurred; only instinctive pain and fear remained.
He raised his hand and waved it; a gentle and pure golden spiritual power infused into the altar.
Those runes formed by evil qi shattered instantly like glass; the power binding the divine souls disappeared. Those divine souls seemed to feel liberation; they turned into specks of starlight one after another, floating towards the sky and eventually dissipating between heaven and earth.
“Rest in peace.”
Chen Ping said softly; his voice carried a hint of compassion.
He turned around and no longer lingered; he hurried towards the agreed meeting point with Hu Mazi.
As soon as he arrived at the rendezvous, he saw Hu Mazi standing under a giant tree that required several people to encircle it. At his feet lay dozens of corpses of black-robed cultivators; each corpse bore traces of being scorched by talismans.
Hu Mazi’s face was full of anger; clearly, he had discovered something but it had not gone smoothly.
“How did it go?” Chen Ping asked; his gaze swept over those corpses, and he already had some guesses in his mind.
Hu Mazi gritted his teeth and said, “I found three camps, killed over a hundred people, and captured a few alive. But after questioning them all, they said they didn’t know the whereabouts of the Hu clan’s divine souls!”
He paused and then added, “But I caught a small leader. He had a tough backbone; it took some effort to make him talk. He said the core area of the branch hall is in the Blood Bone Valley deep in the mountain range. Those two old ghosts, You Wuxie and You Wuji, should be there.”
“Blood Bone Valley?”
Chen Ping’s eyes narrowed; the Dragon Slaying Sword let out a soft hum, as if responding to his fighting spirit. “It seems the main targets are there.”
“Let’s go! To Blood Bone Valley!”
Hu Mazi could no longer suppress the anger in his heart. Before his words finished, he had already activated several Wind Travel Talismans. The talismans turned into a gust of wild wind that lifted him up; he rushed towards the depths of the mountain range.
Chen Ping followed closely behind. The two travelled swiftly; along the way, any Evil Path Hall cultivators they encountered were all slaughtered.
Hu Mazi’s talismans emerged endlessly. Sometimes they were powerful explosive talismans that could blast a group of cultivators to pieces in an area.
Sometimes they were binding talismans that could instantly immobilise enemies, leaving them at his mercy. Occasionally, he would throw out a few flame talismans, igniting raging fires that burned the evil qi to ashes.
Chen Ping was even more straightforward. Wherever the Dragon Slaying Sword passed, golden light intertwined with flames; almost no one could block it.
Often, with a flash of sword qi, dozens of cultivators would turn into charred remains; it was clean and efficient, without a trace of sloppiness.
The closer they got to Blood Bone Valley, the stronger the bloody smell in the air became; it even formed a faint blood mist.
Dark red streams began to appear on the ground. Upon closer inspection, they were blood that had long coagulated. Stepping on them produced a “creaking” sound underfoot, making one’s scalp tingle.
Blood Bone Valley lived up to its name.
The entire valley was covered with white bones; they spread from the valley bottom all the way to the mountain walls on both sides, like a road of death paved with white bones.
On the mountain walls on both sides hung air-dried corpses. These corpses had various postures; some showed terror on their faces, others displayed pain. Clearly, they had suffered immense torture before death.
In the centre of the valley stood a huge black palace.
The palace was entirely built from black obsidian; it was engraved with weird runes all over. The runes occasionally flashed with a trace of blood-coloured light.
