Before the mountain gate of the Xuantian Sword Sect, in the Ten Thousand Swords Mountain Range.
The once sacred immortal land, filled with soaring sword qi and abundant spiritual essence, had now descended into a bloody Asura hell.
Demonic clouds surged like ink, blotting out the sun. Beast roars shook the heavens and earth, tearing through the firmament.
The dazzling light curtain formed by the Big Dipper Sword Stellar Demon Subduing Grand Array, under endless demonic qi erosion and frenzied brute force impacts, had become thin as cicada wings. It flickered uncertainly, emitting overburdened, heart-palpitating creaking wails.
The seven sword peaks glowed dimly. Even cracks had appeared on their bodies, as if they might collapse at any moment.
Inside and outside the mountain gate, corpses lay strewn about. Blood flowed in channels.
There were shattered sword robes and mangled remains of Xuantian Sword Sect disciples, as well as charred bones of demon sect cultivators and massive carcasses of beast fusion warriors.
The air was thick with intense bloody stench, burnt odour, and the cold silence following soul annihilation. The surviving sword sect disciples, most bearing wounds with bloodstained robes, still gripped their long swords tightly. Their eyes resolute, they held firm at their array positions.
Yet deep in those eyes, an inescapable trace of exhaustion and despair had inevitably crept in.
The mountain-protecting grand array had reached its limit.
Ling Yunzi stood atop the tottering main peak. The radiance of the “Xuantian Sword” in his hand was no longer as brilliant as before. Fine cracks even covered the sword body.
His face was deathly pale like gold paper. His chest robes were soaked in blood. His aura was utterly chaotic. Clearly, he had reached the end of his rope.
Yet he still held his spine straight, like an eternal mountain that would never fall. He stared fixedly at the two figures outside the array emanating overwhelming ferocious might, Hun Sha and Zheng Gu.
“Jie jie jie… Ling Yunzi, why continue this trapped beast’s struggle?”
Hun Sha hovered in the air, demonic qi roiling around him. On that face once slapped by Chen Ping, venomous resentment and glee intertwined, making it exceptionally hideous.
“Look at your mountain-protecting grand array. How many more blows can it withstand?”
“When the array breaks, this seat will personally extract your soul and refine it. I will reduce your Xuantian Sword Sect’s ten-thousand-year inheritance to ashes! And that little beast Chen Ping… this seat will find him and grind his bones to dust!”
Zheng Gu’s enormous body resembled a mobile volcano. His dark red demonised scales gleamed coldly in the dim light. He brandished his giant axe burning with demonic flames. His voice rasped like a broken gong.
“Crack Heaven’s lackey! Chen Ping’s accomplice! Today, we use your blood to consecrate the path of my Beast Fusion Holy Sect’s rise! Kill them all! Leave none alive!”
Zheng Gu roared hoarsely, like a maddened beast.
Inside the array, the sword sect disciples, hearing this, burned with even greater sorrow and indignation. Yet not one retreated.
They knew well that today there was no path back. Only a fight to the death remained.
Ling Yunzi took a deep breath, suppressing the surging sweetness of blood in his throat. His voice hoarse yet carrying unyielding resolve. “Disciples of the Xuantian Sword Sect, hear my command! Follow me… activate the ‘Seven Stars Perishing Immortal’. Let us perish together with them!”
“Perish together!!”
The remaining disciples roared in unison. Their voices tragic and majestic, rushing straight to the ninth heaven.
They poured their final sword essence without reservation into the array bases beneath their feet. Some even began burning their essence blood to exchange for a momentary burst.
The seven sword peaks shook violently. Mountain bodies cracked. One after another, ancient sword intents long hidden deep underground, incomparably sharp, were forcibly awakened. Like imprisoned dragons emerging from the abyss, they began converging towards the peak tops.
That was the final foundation of the Xuantian Sword Sect. It was also their swan song of mutual destruction with the enemy.
Seeing this, Hun Sha and Zheng Gu showed no fear. Instead, cruel and excited smiles spread wider.
This was exactly the effect they wanted.
Forcing the Xuantian Sword Sect to destroy its own roots meant they could eliminate this mortal threat from the Tenth Heaven at the smallest cost.
At this hair-trigger moment, just as the Xuantian Sword Sect was about to ignite its final brilliance, which was also its ultimate destruction,
“Boom!!!”
A thunderous roar indescribable in words erupted not from the battlefield, but from the extreme depths of the distant vault of heaven.
It resembled the first peal of thunder at the universe’s birth, or the heavy sigh of a chaotic giant awakening. In an instant, it overwhelmed all the killing, roaring, and array wailing on the battlefield.
Immediately after, an indescribable terrifying pressure descended abruptly like an invisible heavenly curtain.
This pressure was not merely powerful. It carried a supreme, transcendent aura, ancient and vast, as if it held sway over creation and destruction.
Under this aura, the surging demonic clouds suddenly froze. The roaring beasts fell silent. Even the about-to-erupt “Seven Stars Perishing Immortal” sword intent seemed gently pressed down by an invisible hand, its agitation subsiding.
Everyone, whether from the demon sect, beast fusion, or sword sect disciples, involuntarily halted their actions. Horrified, they looked up at the sky.
They saw the firmament shrouded in demonic clouds suddenly tear open a massive vortex void without warning.
At the edges of the void, space shattered inch by inch like glass, revealing the profound darkness behind.
A figure stepped out from that void, unhurried and measured.
He wore a seemingly plain cyan robe. Its sleeves fluttered fiercely in invisible energy turbulence, yet remained spotless.
In his hand, he held an ancient long sword. The blade emitted no light, yet seemed to devour all surrounding illumination.
Most heart-shaking were his eyes, calm, indifferent, like an eternal cold pool, or the boundless starry sky.
Overlooking the hellish battlefield below, there was no anger, no killing intent. Only a kind of absolute indifference and detachment, as if a deity gazing down upon ants in conflict.
It was none other than Chen Ping.
But the him of this moment was worlds apart from the one who acted on the Crimson Blood Plain days ago.
Back then, though strong, he still carried a trace of mortal warmth.
Now, a profound “dao charm” flowed around him, as if he breathed in unison with heaven and earth, his pulse aligned with the laws.
He simply stood there quietly, yet gave the terrifying sensation of being heavier than mountains, vaster than the starry sky, more unfathomable than the abyss.
Especially the faint chaotic halo swirling around him, and the occasional phantom of a flame lotus within it, capable of incinerating all things. It made all with keen perception tremble in their divine souls.
