As for the situation before this moment, or what comes after, it will cease to matter after this single strike!
While the Seven Star Big Dipper Formation being operated by the Can Tian Shi Hun contingent currently holds the substantive advantage, even the greatest edge does not equate to assured victory, let alone absolute triumph! Jun Mo Xie desires complete victory, not a pyrrhic one! Yet, what they face now is a life-or-death struggle between Second Level Saints, both sides possessing tenacity bordering on the miraculous!
Even those in an utterly desperate situation can, if they resolve to fight to the death, drag their opponent down into mutual annihilation!
The reason Jun Mo Xie managed to slay a Saint with a single sword stroke was twofold: firstly, the element of stealth and surprise in his ambush; secondly, the sheer force of his cultivation far surpassed Xia Dongting’s at the moment of attack, allowing him, after the initial blow landed, to use several times the opponent’s Xuan Qi to completely incinerate Xia Dongting’s meridians, robbing him of any final chance to struggle!
Otherwise, given Xia Dongting’s formidable strength as a Third Level Saint and his robust self-repairing capabilities, he would never have died so silently, so completely!
Unless his body was cleaved apart on the spot! Even if a master pierced the vital core of the heart, or even shattered it completely, a Saint could still forcibly utilize their inherent Xuan Qi to seal off the thoracic cavity’s functions, halting blood circulation, a state they could maintain for at least a full day—ensuring they didn't immediately expire...
But the current predicament facing Can Tian Shi Hun and the other six members of their group is exactly this dangerous scenario.
If they engaged the seven opponents, bound by fraternal devotion, in a simultaneous, desperate, all-out battle, the resulting explosive combat power would certainly drag the Seven Star Battle Formation down with them, into the Stygian Pool of Poison!
Thus, Jun Mo Xie’s strategy from the start was to emulate Shi Pai Zhou’s maxim: it is better to sever one finger than injure ten!
From the outset, they adopted the most rigorous posture of counter-attack and defense, refusing to strike first: slowly gaining control of the situation, accumulating advantage, then transforming that advantage into an absolute lead, before suddenly striking—even at the cost of injury—with all seven members swarming one individual! The goal was to dismember and kill that person instantly in a single, overwhelming flurry!
Only by eliminating one person first could they shatter the combined offensive power of the Seven Fiend Battle Formation, preventing the enemy's attack from reaching its absolute zenith; even if the enemy erupted in a frenzy of vengeful fury over their fallen brother, if their own side immediately reverted to a tight defensive stance, they could ensure safety until the enemy’s onslaught waned, allowing for a decisive counter-offensive...
Of course, the most ideal outcome would be that, concurrent with one death, the remaining six, crippled by grief and shared loss, would collapse without the will to fight, allowing the victors to press the advantage and eradicate the remaining six entirely!
Both scenarios carried immense variables, but the singular requirement remained: annihilate the enemy without suffering a single casualty!
And the current flow of the battle was indeed moving in the direction Jun Mo Xie had anticipated... Sword lights rained down like a tempest, yet the combatants within the Seven Fiend Battle Formation remained outwardly composed. Though they had spearheaded the offense since the fight began, expending considerable stamina, they exhibited no impatience.
The enemy’s strength had indeed surpassed their expectations, but in their centuries of combat experience, such stalemates were hardly unfamiliar; as long as their offensive remained under their control, even if the initiative currently lay with the opposition, it was no grave concern!
The principle that prolonged defense inevitably leads to failure is known to all high-level martial artists; their sustained fighting capacity was considerable. In the past, others had attempted to exhaust the seven brothers into submission, but invariably, it was the attackers who collapsed first. They wondered if the seven facing them now—whose cultivation and power were somewhat inferior—would prove to be the exception.
Blade light swept out like impenetrable screens, obscuring everything. The speed of the seven black figures accelerated, their positional rotations growing ever more frequent. Often, one figure would leap, and before he reached his designated spot, the other six would have already initiated their sequence, exchanging positions mid-air, yet the curtain of blade light never slackened for an instant...
Suddenly, the entire space filled with a blinding white light, and the original black silhouettes vanished completely! All that remained was a surging torrent of silvery-white starlight, whipping back and forth across the arena!
In that rapid motion, drawing upon the power of the Big Dipper Great Formation, the seven stars perfectly channeled the energy of the celestial bodies, transforming themselves into a divine, ethereal glow...
As the spectators gasped in awe at this marvel... the dazzling blade radiance suddenly erupted into a riot of seven colors, blinding and magnificent! At this moment, the blade light was like the blazing midday sun, too glorious to behold!
"Despicable!" A furious shout echoed from within the battle formation, immediately followed by a deafening clash of metal on metal!
The seven members of the Seven Fiend Battle Formation, upon witnessing the strange phenomenon appear, instinctively heightened their awareness and vigilance, seasoned as they were by countless dangerous foes. Yet, they had never anticipated that the seven opponents would then move up in precise sequence, suddenly thrusting their blades straight out!
At this moment, the great sabers in their hands were wielded like straight-thrusting longswords!
This was undoubtedly an extremely bizarre maneuver. Furthermore, a clear distance of over ten feet separated the two sides—were they intending to charge? The instant this thought crossed their minds, the Seven Fiend Battle Formation braced itself to meet the impending rush. Just then, the most unbelievable, and seemingly contemptible, move manifested: from the body of the great sabers held by the seven dark-clad figures, seven streams of blade light suddenly shot forth, like lightning meteors, detaching from the blades themselves, flying toward the seven opponents to strike!
A sheath within a sheath, a blade within a blade, where spirits and demons wail in vain; since ancient times, no man worth his salt has lacked poison, cutting down all foes without yielding an inch!
It was that unpredictable, soul-stirring strike!
The seven men parried horizontally with their swords, but the force of this Qiankun Yi Zhi (Heaven and Earth Throw) from the opposition was immense, causing a slight numbness in their tiger’s mouths. At that precise instant, the seven rows of blade waves converged, forming a blade mountain, which descended simultaneously upon the central figure within the Seven Fiend Battle Formation!
The blade light at this moment was exquisitely beautiful, far surpassing the earlier flashes! Any expert could see that the seven newly unsheathed blades held a profound secret!
Indeed, there was a secret, and it was no small one!
This was the true killing steel!
The blades within the blades—it was the divine weaponry that had remained concealed until now! Such divine artifacts were not merely the 'scarce three' that Qu Wuhui had mentioned, but rather... one for every one of the more than three hundred men!
The outcome of this battle, the very starting point of its victory or defeat, was decided by this single strike!
The Seven Fiend Battle Formation committed three fatal errors at this moment. First, they failed to anticipate that the opponent's drawn swords possessed a layer of sheath. Second, they failed to realize the opponent's blades were divine artifacts! Third, they did not expect the opponent to launch a direct assault on the core of the formation!
Attacking either the vanguard or the rear would have been easier to handle than striking the formation's heart. Consequently, they had focused their defenses on countering anticipated counter-attacks, maintaining tight formations at the periphery. But in this moment, they realized their calculations were utterly wrong!
The blade light flared fiercely, dazzlingly bright, like the gaping maw of a hellish demon revealing its monstrous teeth!
The leader of the Seven Fiends at the formation's center poured forth his entire cultivation, parrying the incoming blade sheath, blocking it with a sharp clang—the first strike, swift as thunder, landed ferociously upon his longsword!
This attack was the culmination of an unknown period of preparation, a strike meant to kill, delivered without reservation!
And he responded in haste.
Although the blade in his hand could be considered a rare weapon, it was simply not in the same league as the divine weapon forged by Jun Mo Xie using immortal techniques—the difference was not merely one tier! Following the collision of Xuan Qi, the edges of the blade and sword met head-on, with only a faint shing, and the longsword snapped!
The great saber continued its downward trajectory without hesitation!
Blood sprayed!
This blow cleaved directly into the left shoulder of the Seven Fiend leader, the sheer force driving the blade almost to his chest! Simultaneously, the immense power crushed his entire body downwards, sinking him knee-deep into the earth!
He roared, striking back with his open palm, which met the dark-clad figure’s chest with a heavy bang. Under the force of the powerful Xuan Qi counter-attack, the black-clad figure grunted, and his long saber, trailing a streak of bloodlight, was ripped from the shoulder and sent flying backward through the air. Both men spat out a jet of crimson blood!
But almost without pause, the second strike landed on his right shoulder, piercing the clavicle and slicing straight down, again almost reaching chest level! The Seven Fiend leader bellowed, kicking out his leg, striking the attacker in the lower abdomen, sending him—man and blade—flying away, accompanied by a spray of his own dripping blood... Simultaneously, his Xuan Qi cycled wildly, and the entire left shoulder, which had been nearly wrenched from his body, began to draw inward, seemingly healing automatically—but his face was now etched only with despair...
Because the third and fourth blows fell almost simultaneously, striking precisely where the second blow had landed!
With a swish, the left half of his body, which hadn't even finished recoiling, was cleanly severed with a snap and sent flying outward!
That was not the end; the fifth and sixth blows followed like lightning, slicing into the wound inflicted by the first blow! The Seven Fiend leader now possessed no capacity to defend himself; he screamed toward the heavens with a sound no longer human, watching helplessly as the entire right side of his torso, shoulder, and arm were sheared away! Clutched tightly in his severed right hand was still his longsword!
His eyes fixed on his sword, filled with regret and indignation... Both sides of his body revealed raw, exposed viscera!
Gory and steaming hot!
But his feet were still dragging backward! He understood perfectly that survival was impossible, but as the leader, he bore the responsibility of leadership. He knew clearly what effect his instantaneous death would have on his brethren, so even in death, he needed to hold onto his last breath!
At least, he needed to utter one final sentence! That sentence might grant his six brothers a sliver of hope for survival!
Alas, fate was unkind; he lost that opportunity forever!
The seventh man, the seventh strike, arrived! It pierced directly through the internal organs protruding from the right side of his mutilated torso, emerging as a glistening sliver of blade edge from the other side! It twisted his five organs and Dantian into a mass of shredded pulp—