“Next stop, Azure Wood Sect. Take the ten-thousand-year Soul-Nurturing Wood Hearts!”
The dragon army arrived swiftly and departed just as quickly, leaving behind the shaken people of Mysterious Nether Sect and their beautiful sect master with a heart full of complicated emotions: humiliation, lingering fear, and perhaps a trace of… relief?
At least the sect still stood. At least they still lived.
In the days that followed, the entire Nine Heavens plunged into unprecedented shock and panic!
Chen Ping led the dragon army like an unstoppable flood of steel, sweeping across the Nine Heavens!
They descended upon sect after sect, ancient city after ancient city, secret realm after secret realm.
Those who complied willingly, such as Azure Wood Sect, watched their sect master hand over three sections of ten-thousand-year Soul-Nurturing Wood Heart with aching reluctance, yet having witnessed the fate of Heavenly Evil Sect and Mysterious Nether Sect, he obeyed without protest.
True to his word, Chen Ping caused them no further trouble. He even pointed out a flaw in their sect-protecting formation, leaving the entire Azure Wood Sect weeping in gratitude.
Those who were evasive, who tried to stall or pass off inferior goods, such as Hundred Herbs Pavilion, attempted to fob him off with several five-thousand-year Nine-Revolutions Soul-Returning Grasses.
Old Black shattered their mountain-gate plaque with a single claw and scorched half their medicine mountain with dragon breath. The terrified pavilion master scrambled on all fours to present every treasured ten-thousand-year Soul-Returning Grass core in their collection.
As for those who stubbornly resisted to the death, such as Blazing Soul Sect, who swore “while the soul stele stands, the sect stands” and refused to surrender their sect soul stele.
Chen Ping did not hesitate for a moment. He gave one simple order.
“Kill.”
The dragon army surged forward like a tidal wave. In less than the time it takes to burn one stick of incense, the ten-thousand-year-old Blazing Soul Sect lay in ruins: mountain gate shattered, disciples slaughtered, soul stele forcibly seized, the entire sect reduced to scorched earth and rubble.
When the news spread, every power in the Nine Heavens was utterly terrified!
Chen Ping’s will, carried on the iron hooves and blazing flames of the dragons, was branded into the hearts of every sect leader in the most domineering, blood-soaked manner possible!
Prosper by following me. Perish by defying me.
This was no longer a slogan. It was bloody, living reality.
Countless sects flung open their sealed treasuries and, hearts bleeding, brought forth the precious materials guarded for generations, praying only to send away this god of death and preserve their lineage.
Many more powers began secretly forming alliances, hoping to mount a united resistance, yet in the face of absolute disparity in strength, every alliance looked laughable and fragile.
Chen Ping paid no attention to these undercurrents. Before absolute power, all schemes and plots were futile.
He pressed forward, crushing everything in his path while gathering what he needed.
Inside the Ten-Thousand Transformations Blood Soul Bead, Scarlet Cloud Demon Lord’s soul fire grew brighter and more solid with every infusion of origin soul liquid materials. It even began to emit faint pulses of life.
At the same time, Chen Ping kept his promise to Liu Xue.
He chose an ancient blessed land called Tongtian Cliff, rumoured to have once been a node connecting to the heavenly realm in primordial times. The spiritual qi was astonishingly dense, the terrain precipitous and defensible.
He drove out the demonic power that had occupied it, then ordered all the sects that had submitted to contribute manpower and resources. Construction began on a grand scale to rebuild Heavenly Gate!
He would forge the strongest, most glorious foundation in the Nine Heavens for Liu Xue!
The entire Nine Heavens trembled, submitted, or was destroyed beneath Chen Ping’s will.
Resources flowed toward Chen Ping and his forces like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.
Under continuous battle and abundant resources, the dragon army’s strength soared, their aura growing ever more ferocious.
Chen Ping also dispatched large quantities of resources back to Yama Heaven Sect. He knew that although Shen Zhiyan and the others had the Demon-Suppressing Tower to accelerate time, without sufficient resources, recovery would still be difficult.
After everything was settled, Chen Ping led the dragon army to the final top-tier power in the Nine Heavens that still possessed an ancestral statue and had yet to declare its stance: Myriad Laws Sect!
Myriad Laws Sect, known as the origin of all arts and spells, boasted an extremely ancient inheritance. Within the sect stood a white-jade statue said to contain a trace of their founding ancestor’s origin soul force, the very symbol of their orthodox lineage.
In strength, Myriad Laws Sect ranked just below the former Heavenly Evil Sect and was considerably stronger than Yama Heaven Sect.
