With Zong Shou’s Prime Soul safe atop Mount Shangxiao, the several thousand Blood Cloud Riders below let out a collective sigh of relief.

Zong Yuan’s gaze flickered, and he immediately took the lead position, replacing Zong Shou to command the entire army.

“Raise the banners! Blood Slaughter Without Pardon!”

As his voice fell, two figures behind him hoisted two great banners aloft.

One bore the character for ‘Blood,’ and the other, ‘Slaughter.’

Then, Zong Yuan pointed his halberd forward once more: “Change formation, disperse! One hundred zhang spacing, Swan-Wing Formation! Sweep the remnants!”

The Blood Cloud Riders immediately split into units of three hundred, spreading out in all directions. Each unit maintained a hundred-zhang separation. The entire battle formation widened to sixteen hundred zhang, beginning to sweep down the mountain, eradicating all routed soldiers. Wherever the crimson mist passed, scarcely any life managed to survive.

They were like reapers of death at the foot of the mountain, constantly harvesting lives.

At this moment, almost everyone on the entire battlefield stared fixedly at those two blood-colored banners.

Lie He and Tian Du, positioned above presiding over the Ten Absolute Dome Array, immediately burst into maniacal laughter, bordering on frenzy: “It is the Blood Slaughter Double Banners! My Lord has not deceived us; he intends to cut them down completely! Until the Twin Banners are lowered, blood shall flood a thousand li! If the enemy is not annihilated, the blades shall not be sheathed! The Shangxiao Profound Spirit Sect shall perish! Yuan Kong, Yuan Kong, on the day you followed the Lingyun Sect to destroy my Fu Ling Sect, did you ever imagine that your Shangxiao Sect would also face annihilation? But now, your Shangxiao Profound Spirit Sect will be utterly destroyed, none surviving!”

As he spoke, he poured his soul power into the golden disk with ever-increasing madness.

Their disciples, along with the remaining cultivators of the Fu Ling Sect, arrived beside the two men.

All remained silent. Each formed their own array to assist Ming Du Lie He in continuing to expand the Ten Absolute Dome Array. The combined effort of dozens of people made the heavenly curtain enveloping the world even more solid and secure.

There was nothing more exciting or anticipated than witnessing these enemies fall one by one.

Down below, Shui Lingxiao let out a slight sigh. His expression was one of complex emotion, mixing profound sentiment with a touch of unbearable pity.

“What a pity for the ten-thousand-year foundation of the Shangxiao Profound Spirit Sect to be ruined in a single day. That Highness truly intends to massacre everyone on Mount Shangxiao—”

Tian Qi smiled faintly, completely unconcerned: “If it were not so, how could hegemony be achieved? Our Lord has been patient for nearly a year, precisely to gather and annihilate the elites of the Eastern Lin Sects and this Thousand Cities Alliance here on Mount Shangxiao. How could he hold back now?”

As he spoke, he noticed the disciples managing the Prime Extinction Divine Crossbows from the Kong Qi Sect looking towards him, their eyes asking for instruction.

Tian Qi waved his hand, signaling them to continue. Since Zong Shou could remain unharmed under the bombardment of thousands of spirit arts and thousands of spirit artifacts on Mount Qiantian, the Prime Extinction Divine Crossbows should pose no threat to him either.

Yet, many in the crowd remained puzzled. Jing Yin felt only bewilderment: “What is the meaning of the Blood Banner and the Slaughter Banner? Why is everyone reacting this way?”

Among those around her, she was only familiar with Zhao Yanran and hadn't expected a reply.

However, just as she asked, Kong Yao frowned: “These are the Blood Slaughter Double Banners! It is an old custom of the Blood Cloud Riders of the Wulie Kingdom from over ten thousand years ago.

Before any massacre, they would raise these Blood Slaughter Double Banners. Every time the flags were raised, blood would surely flood a thousand li. No surrender, no pardon; they would not cease the slaughter until total annihilation. That Demon King is preparing to wipe out everyone in the Shangxiao Sect, leaving no survivors—”

Jing Yin’s body instantly trembled. She then put her hands together in prayer, intoning the name of the Primordial Buddha, Amitabha. Her delicate brows furrowed, and she remarked: “I did not expect this Highness to possess such intense murderous intent! Such a person is no demon, yet no different from one. Benefactor Yanran, you are destined to attain the Venerable Buddha fruit status; it is best for you to stay far away from this Highness!”

Zhao Yanran merely let out a soft laugh, covering her mouth, a hint of cruelty playing on her face.

It had taken so long to witness Zong Shou being so decisively ruthless, acting as a true sovereign. This display had greatly refreshed her mood. To suggest staying away from Zong Shou? Was she joking?

Her Dao Embryo Cauldron was meant to possess such ruthlessness!

While the others were speaking, Zong Shou was less than seven hundred zhang from the Shangxiao Spirit Mansion on the mountaintop. His gaze was steady as he looked upward. He could even clearly hear the discussions of the Shangxiao Profound Spirit Sect and the cultivators of the allied sects reaching his ears.

“The Blood Slaughter Double Banners, they are actually the Blood Slaughter Double Banners!”

“He truly intends to slaughter our entire sect—”

“If this person lives, neither of us has any hope of survival!”

“Damn it!”

“If we had known this, we shouldn't have provoked this Demon King. It is all Han Nishui’s fault for bringing this great disaster upon our Shangxiao Sect!”

“Scoundrel! If we hadn't struck first to eliminate this brat, would this brat tolerate our Shangxiao? We can only blame Martial Uncle Yuan Kong—he struck too late! Allowing Zong Shou to gain such power!”

“The only plan now is to resist together with all our might; we can only fight to the death!”

Zong Shou’s lips curved slightly, as if he hadn’t heard, continuing to ascend the steps steadily, one by one.

Above him, countless spirit arts, spirit artifacts, and talismans continued to rain down.

But by now, Zong Shou was utilizing the method of twisting space, similar to a black hole, with increasing ease.

Previously, only five in a thousand attacks could reach his soul body; now, fewer than two in a thousand could pierce the distorted space.

His Prime Soul remained completely unscathed. Meanwhile, the Prime Extinction Divine Crossbows behind him began roaring again, channeling beams of vital energy that continuously hammered the mountainside, shaking the mountain-protecting array and causing the runes and spirit restrictions on the mountain to continuously crumble, revealing more gaps.

Just then, a cold voice suddenly reached Zong Shou’s ears: “It is spatial distortion! I see. This secret technique is indeed formidable. No wonder they cannot harm you! But I wonder if you can evade this ninth-rank sword?”

In the void, three streaks of sword light suddenly lunged, stabbing towards Zong Shou from the upper left and right. Their arrival was sudden, with almost no warning.

In the blink of an eye, the sword shadows had not yet appeared; in the next blink, their tips were right before his eyes. The sharp sword qi caused Zong Shou’s Prime Soul to fluctuate momentarily.

Yet, Zong Shou’s smile remained unchanged.

They saw through it!

—But even if these people had discerned his technique of spatial distortion, what of it?

Stripped of that single art, Zong Shou could still press down upon ninth-rank sword masters!

The spiritual energy and vital essence absorbed from that ninth-rank expert moments ago was currently needing an outlet!

The Duan Qiu Sword in his hand flashed with sword light once more, as light and nimble as a swallow soaring through the sky! It sliced through the barriers of space and time.

Then came a sharp zheng sound, and a middle-aged man in a daoist robe stood twenty zhang away, his face etched with disbelief. Exactly one crimson sword mark appeared between his eyebrows.

As for the two sword shadows on the left and right, Zong Shou completely ignored them. He took a step forward, covering thirty zhang, precisely after brushing past the daoist robe-clad man.

The man’s body instantly exploded into dust, scattering as a rain of blood down the mountain!

Before Zong Shou’s eyes, the vital energy vibrated once again. Ten Ninth-Rank Soul Tigers appeared before him.

Their soul bodies were wreathed in lightning, deep purple in hue, with twin wings growing from their backs. The Nine-Headed Thunder-Winged Tigers began to merge immediately upon appearing, and in an instant, their forms swelled several times over. Their aura rapidly soared, seeming to cross the boundary of the Immortal Path and dive straight into the Spirit Realm, causing the heavens and earth to begin rejecting and suppressing them.

Then, this colossal soul beast roared furiously and lunged downward.

Zong Shou glanced at it, slightly surprised, but remained unconcerned.

They were indeed close to the Spirit Realm, but only close. The ten soul beasts were all Thunder-Winged Tigers, but they were a fusion, not an integrated entity.

—There were far too many flaws!

He swung his sword, and the sword qi shot up nearly a hundred zhang. Bursts of vital energy erupted around Zong Shou.

But when the light and shadow dissipated, the soul beast, which was near Spirit Realm level, had completely collapsed and vanished without a trace.

Looking back at Zong Shou’s sword, countless strands of lightning were now coiled around it.

He first used a feigned sword force to incite conflict within the merged soul beast, then transformed the feigned force into reality, stabbing into its weak point, ending it with a single stroke.

The entire process was utterly simple.

Zong Shou’s figure strode another thirty zhang. Suddenly, a vast swath of purple lightning descended from the sky. It pierced directly through the distorted space and struck his soul body.

This purple lightning also arrived unexpectedly; even Zong Shou had not taken much precaution.

He first used sword intent to resist, then Zong Shou simply ignored it, letting the purple lightning flow wildly around him.

Then, the Thunder Luan Imprint within his Sea of Consciousness suddenly activated. Two massive purple lightning wings, forty zhang wide, violently unfurled behind his back!

He also utilized the Heaven Swallowing Art, constantly absorbing the lightning techniques blasted down by the Shangxiao Profound Spirit Sect cultivators. Every measure of energy absorbed made the lightning wings behind him grow stronger.

“Ninth-Rank Spirit Cultivator!”

He raised his eyes to look upward, seeing an old man of nearly sixty, with the bearing of an immortal, also dressed in daoist robes, looking down in shock.

He seemed stunned that the Shangxiao Sect’s supreme secret technique—the Shangxiao Ultimate Purple Calamity Lightning Art—had failed to harm Zong Shou in the slightest.

Zong Shou glanced once, then withdrew his sight. A point of silver light suddenly shot out from his sleeve. Then, the purple lightning wings behind him abruptly shrunk to ten zhang. The electric glow coiled around the Duan Qiu Sword also vanished without a trace.

At this moment, the Startling Cloud Divine Destruction Sword Intent within his body had completely dissipated and could no longer be replicated. However, there was no need to borrow it now.

A blade light flashed, covering several hundred zhang in an instant. He darted through the mountain-protecting spirit array atop Mount Shangxiao, changing direction several times. The surging sword intent focused on the blade erupted violently, and the blade accelerated again.

“Peng!”

With a muffled sound, the daoist’s body was impaled—literally nailed through. Vast thunder-light exploded, tearing his physical body and Prime Soul into fragments.

This was Six Gods Controlling Blade! Once the blade is thrown, it never misses its mark!

Zong Shou took another step upward. Sword light flashed again, piercing through layers of sword shadows, and immediately another ninth-rank sword cultivator died, their sword shattering!

A few zhang away, Lei Dong sucked in a cold breath with a hiss.

“—That is one step, one ninth-rank!” (To be continued)