Peerless Beauty and Frost Shadow slid back into its sheath, while a misty star cloud swirled around Jiang Ke’er.
She gazed around, her eyes sweeping over the ground littered with Demon Race and Ta Ming Sect Cultivator corpses.
Two streams of clear tears uncontrollably rolled down her cheeks.
“Thank you for your trust. Your deaths will not be in vain…”
“Cut down the monsters! Eliminate the calamity! Kill!!!”
Thunderous shouts, filled with the heat of righteous blood, crashed over the battlefield.
The Dan Sect Alliance cultivators were feverish with fanaticism—just looking at her, and the chilling darkness from moments before, if she was not a calamity, what else could be called a calamity?
The slaughter, stalled for a moment, began anew.
This time—it would not end until one side was annihilated!
Li Yuan was already exhausted, unable to fight further.
He and Li Jing, besieged by five Black Armored Venerates, were already covered in wounds, their spiritual power depleted.
These five came from the Great Sima Nation’s most elite battle force, veterans of countless wars, no weaker than Li Yuan or Li Jing. For the two to delay them for nearly a minute was already their limit.
Li Yuan closed his eyes.
The Golden Ring Blade was mere inches away, its golden light slashing his skin.
This time, he could not evade.
“Boom—”
When he opened his eyes again, what he saw was the head of a Black Armored Venerate exploding.
Blood sprayed everywhere, splattering Li Yuan’s head and face.
Jiang Ke’er hadn’t used her sword—she had used her fist.
A wild wind surged. She spun and pressed down on another Black Armored Venerate’s head, twirling three hundred and sixty degrees, and slammed him into the ground like a dunk!
The remaining Venerates had no chance to finish Li Yuan off.
The last three Black Armored Venerates decisively charged after Jiang Ke’er!
But Jiang Ke’er lightly raised her hand.
Her slender, jade-white fingers pinched together and lifted before the three Black Armored Venerates.
Time and space seemed to freeze in that instant.
“Snap~”
A crisp finger snap echoed, rippling out in sinister, dark-purple waves.
The ripple swept over the human cultivators, leaving a mark on each of them.
Then, where the ripple passed, space itself tore open, transforming into boiling Blood Pools, from which countless withered hands reached forth.
From beneath the Blood Pool came hellish wails and furious resentments.
They clawed desperately at the marked living beings around them, intent on dragging them down into hell as their companions…
“No, let me go! No—”
Wails, sobbing, and utter terror engulfed the battlefield!
Below the Immortal rank, all human beings fell into the bloody mire.
“What kind of Sinister Art is this?”
“It hurts… it burns!”
“Help, I beg you, please stop!”
“Ahhh—”
Whether Four Symbols or Venerates, before the Blood Pool, all were powerless to escape, left only to scream in terror as they felt themselves being dragged bit by bit into the pool.
Watching themselves being pulled step by step into that horrifying unknown, becoming one with the Resentful Hand… It was a terror that could shatter the mind!
Lord Zuo’s heart was gripped with fear. He could clearly sense that as time passed, Jiang Ke’er’s power was growing stronger.
The Jade Crystal at the center of her brow was fusing ever more deeply with her.
Now, what she used was but the tip of the iceberg of the crystal’s power… If she completed the fusion, it was unimaginable!
Within the dark-purple Jade Crystal, blood vessels gradually spread, connecting and interfacing with Jiang Ke’er’s body.
Sinister pulses radiated out again and again, flickering like a beating heart.
“She still hasn’t reached Immortal strength,” Luyia continued to bar Lord Zuo’s way, “By the rules, you can’t intervene yet.”
“She’s a demon! She’ll bring ruin to the Vast Land of Shenzhou, are you just going to watch her grow stronger?” Lord Zuo was nearly crazed.
“Even without her, the Vast Land of Shenzhou would still suffer calamity.” Luyia’s gaze at Jiang Ke’er was concerned, yet unshakable.
“You…”
Lord Zuo was livid, but no matter what he did, he could not get past this barrier named Luyia.
Desperate, he gritted his teeth, slashed his palm, and began carving an array on the ground with his own blood.
Staring at the suddenly reversed situation, watching the cultivators wailing in blood and finally vanishing, Lord Zuo’s eyes were bloodshot.
“Descent of the Heavenly Demon, catastrophe for the Vast Land of Shenzhou! I, Lord Zuo, am powerless, willing to atone with my death. Let my body serve as the sacrifice—just let the Immortal Gate open, so that celestial spirits and Daoist friends may descend to slay the demon…”
The array flared with light. Lord Zuo stood in the center, his body gradually crumbling into ash.
He screamed as the rules of the Great Dao tore him apart—his soul was ground into primal energy, an agony beyond bearing.
But he succeeded.
“…Immortal Gate! Open!”
High in the sky, the clouds parted in two. Amidst thunder and lightning, a distant, colossal Heavenly Gate revealed its form!
Behind the gate—over a hundred Jiesian stood in formation, backed by layers of resplendent Palace Towers, flaunting a luxury beyond mortal comprehension.
The Immortal Gate flung wide; the Jiesian descended into the world.
Luyia stamped her foot in anger. She swiftly pulled out her Communications Crystal and tapped in a string of numbers.
Soon, a voice came from the other side of the call: [Sen lei di fa~ ou hang you dai lei hui ga~]
Luyia was speechless.
[Luyia? What’s up? What happened?]
Luyia hurriedly said, “Ilei? Stop messing around, I’m blocked here… Yes, Immortal rank, 157 of them… At the Taiming Sect… Okay, hurry! Are the others with you?”
[Yes.]
“Bring everyone! Something huge’s happened!”
[Got it, got it.] The call was impatiently hung up.
Brilliant light flickered, and in a blink, six terrifying presences appeared beside Luyia, each with power above the Jiesian level!
Yiqin, upon seeing them, was elated and hastily bowed to each: “Greetings to the Qingjin Peak Ancestor, Starfall Peak Ancestor, Shenghuo Peak Ancestor, Earth Spirit Peak Ancestor, Water Cloud Peak Ancestor, Xihe Peak Ancestor.”
Including the main peak, Xihe Peak, the Taiming Sect had seven peaks, each with its own founding Ancestor.
Once assembled, the Xihe Peak Ancestor—a female warrior bearing a heavy sword on her back—frowned and said, “So many of them… forget fighting, let’s just slip away…”
Luyia quickly grabbed her: “Ilei, this isn’t about us, our mission is just to protect the Taiming Sect.”
“Well, that’s fine,” the warrior Ilei breathed a sigh of relief, “Don’t overdo it. We’re already retired, not what we once were.”
“Mm.”
Jiang Ke’er fearlessly lifted her head.
Staring at the hundred or so terrifying figures in the sky, Jiang Ke’er’s rage grew fiercer.
“Yao Fox Jiang Ke’er, you have thrown the world into chaos, killed countless innocents. Surrender now, and you may yet live.”
A celestial official confronted Jiang Ke’er from afar, his cold gaze full of only disdain and loathing.
Jiang Ke’er gently gripped the sword’s hilt with both hands.
Behind her, the star-cloud radiance spread to fill the sky, standing as a rival to the Divine Palace!
“You say I’m a calamity, a demon, that I bring chaos, bewitch all beings, slaughter without end…”
Her grip on the sword tightened, knuckles cracking.
Suddenly, she broke into a brilliant smile.
“Then if I do nothing, wouldn’t that be a waste?”
“If you want to see a calamity… then today, I’ll show you a calamity!”