An avalanche of sword force descended like a scythe toward the terrain, not so much striking into the ground but plowing and carving through it. Hundreds and thousands of cubic meters of dirt, ice, snow, and trees were ejected from the forming ravine. The remaining ground that did not get obliterated by the sword force was forced out of the cleft, rolling over on itself, molten from the incredible pressure.
Just like that, a two-kilometer-long trench, dozens of meters deep, opened between the opposing cultivators. Zhu Xuelian’s group quickly dived into the cover of the zig-zagging ravine with molten walls.
But the ground was not the only thing struck by the peerless sword force. So many lives evaporated under the sword, in the distance, that Zhu Xuelian couldn’t even reasonably count them.
Dozens. Maybe hundreds.
Zhu Xuelian did not need to see it; even at this distance, she could feel the might of the defensive formations that the Heavenly Mountain Pavilion disciples summoned to resist that one move from Wu Yulan. The Heavenly Mountain Pavilion truly earned its reputation for being the Formations Sect.
Even though it meant very little against Wu Yulan.
Who was Wu Yulan? There are two kinds of Nascent Soul cultivators. Those who only recently entered the cultivation realm, and those who could access the full power of their Nascent Soul. The latter were sect elders, and they would spend the remainder of their lives trying to cross into Nihility. Wu Yulan belonged to the latter group, but she also had something that even most elders did not possess.
The air froze solid around her as tongues of golden lightning crawled through the ice. An extreme sword force gathered within the surroundings, focusing on Wu Yulan. Under her extreme ice energy and catastrophic sword force, the natural laws crumbled.
Three words appeared in the gathering confluence of snow, ice, and sword qi.
ALL
HEAVENS
DESTROY
The words hovered and swapped places, creating all sorts of meanings from just those three words.
“Nine Apocalypse Arts,” Wu Yulan whispered and slashed horizontally with her sword. “Heavens Fall.”
A shrieking sound emitted from somewhere in the distance, and a glaring point of light appeared just above the far end of the ravine. The air vibrated as a shock wave knocked the snow off the trees and peeled the frozen bark off their trunks. The shrieking turned into a hiss, and then the landscape transformed again.
Large cubes of dirt and ice launched into the sky, breaking apart into even smaller fragments near the apex of their trajectory. They rose toward the hovering point of light, becoming large sections of carved-out rock and ice, and then disintegrated.
When the hissing sound disappeared, a tremendous amalgamation of true sword qi and an otherworldly ice attribute descended toward the light and struck the dome of the multi-layered defensive formation. A ring of vapor blew out from the spherical defensive barrier of the Ark itself, and another one followed from below. The sword force washed over the barrier and collided with itself at the bottom.
A crater immediately formed beneath the Heavenly Mountain Pavilion disciples. A forest of spires rose from the edges of the craters, and the ice turned red, then black, then a cool white-blue. Though the formation remained intact after the initial impact, dozens more cultivators fell from the sky, their bodies either disappearing into the crater or impaled on the frozen spires of thorns.
A few seconds later, the sound of the explosion reached them in the trench as Wu Yulan also hurried into the ravine, consuming a handful of qi recovery pills.
“I am all out,” she said. “It’s up to you now.”
Zhu Xuelian nodded, and then proceeded further into the ravine, followed by the others.
Moments later, the terrible counterattack commenced. Dazzling lights of all colors carved and obliterated the area above the ravine, laying to waste entire square kilometers of trees and landscapes. The area became a fog of snow that only partially concealed the awesome might of an entire sect that specialized in Formations.
Zhu Xuelian couldn’t see it from the trench, but she could tell by the sound alone that if they met this attack above ground, they would have to burn every resource they had and even then, survival wouldn’t be guaranteed.
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Not even Zhu Xuelian looked as calm and as brave as before, but this was especially true for everyone else. Lei Yangming was the only exception, and he maintained an expression of calm and dignity as he navigated the ravine.
“This ravine should provide cover until we reach the other end. Good thinking, Yulan,” he said.
“Should we just wait here for now?” Tian Li asked. “Let them come to us?”
Zhu Xuelian shook her head.
“If we stay, they’ll bombard this until there’s nothing left of us,” Lei Yangming said. “While we still have the advantage of surprise, we need to make it to the sect.”
“We need to hurry,” Ren Jinhai said. “If they deploy the Thousand Dragon Slaying Formation, forget about us; they’ll erase this ravine from existence.”
“Weisheng!” Lei Yangming called out. “How many Barrier Talismans do you have?”
“Around forty,” Ren Weisheng said. “But they’re made for ground combat. I don’t know how they’ll work out if we are flying.”
After all, in the Killing Formation, they never fought while flying, only while on the ground.
It’s like Zhu Xuelian had told them before. Fighting demonic beasts and cultivators was not the same — it wasn’t just about intelligence or martial arts.
“They will work,” Lei Yangming said. “Qiuyue, Liling, Weisheng, you’ll form a vertical wall behind us. Deploy the talismans when I give the signal.”
“Understood,” they said and moved to the rear of the formation.
“Xuelian, can you break through the front with Mu Jingyu and Tian Li?” Lei Yangming asked.
“Can,” she said.
Lei Yangming nodded. Mu Jingyu and Tian Li moved to the front.
“Yun Fei, can you cover the sky in poison like you did back then on the Ark?” Lei Yangming asked.
Yun Fei nodded. “It will take some time, though, but I can try my best.”
“We’re nearly at the end,” Wu Yulan said.
“All right, this is it. Stick together. Don't get separated,” Lei Yangming said. It was a simple warning, but everyone knew that it wasn’t going to be that simple to adhere to it.
Zhu Xuelian sharply accelerated, and then turned upward, rapidly emerging from the ravine into the waiting arms of a hundred or so Foundation and Core Formation cultivators.
Here, the snow was red with blood, and the landscape was littered with remains of which not many were in one piece. Wu Yulan’s brutal attack, while it had only a negligible effect on the total fighting strength of the Heavenly Mountain Pavilion, had a profound effect on the morale of the survivors who lost the initiative to attack Zhu Xuelian as soon as she emerged.
Zhu Xuelian drew her sword and raised it high. “Nine Salvation Arts,” she whispered.
ALL
HEAVENS
BURN
The words blazed above her figure in golden, wavering flames on a canvas of red and black fire.
“Sublime Sun.”
Zhu Xuelian’s sword emitted a bright flame as it cleaved down, and this projection of sword energy and extreme fire laws cut through the group of cultivators right down the middle. It directly struck only four disciples, who immediately became ashes.
However, in the vacuum of consumed air, dozens of disciples were thrown off balance and sucked into the path of the slash, and following this lifeline of air, the black and red flames washed back, becoming a pyre that burned through the rest of the cultivators.
Those who did not immediately burn to ashes fell like candles toward the ground, and when their gold cores burned away, so did their bodies. Few managed to escape the dire flames, either because they were further away, or because they were a newer or much older generation of top prospect.
Despite the total destructive effect of these flames, Zhu Xuelian felt their heat and warmth restore her stamina and vitality, and she wasn't the only one to benefit from this.
As Mu Jingyu and Tian Li also rose from the ravine to engage the enemy, Zhu Xuelian stepped off her talisman sword and crossed a sea of collapsing stars toward the next group of cultivators.
She crashed into their intact ranks with the Purification Wheel and drew a vast circle with her sword, carving a blazing line through their treasure swords, treasure spears, and personal defense formations.
Behind her, Mu Jingyu and Tian Li fought the survivors of the first group, striking them down with their profound martial arts that were not that far behind Zhu Xuelian’s own destructive power, and bolstered by the restorative effects of the burning flames.
Tian Li comprehended the deeper layers of the Galaxy Sword Method, while Mu Jingyu was a peerless genius who wielded the amazing Glacier Breaking Sword. Swords of winter-ending wrath and galaxies clashed against the Heavenly Mountain Pavilion disciples, obliterating their lesser treasures and martial arts with practical ease. They simply stood no chance against these two geniuses who earned their heavy hitter position in the formation.
Meanwhile, Zhu Xuelian’s sword danced through the ranks of the next group, figuratively and literally. Dance of Molten Glass Rain was a move Zhu Xuelian developed on her own while fighting her replica in the Secret Sword Realm Nexus. It was in part a movement technique, but also a deadly sword art that utilized the qi transformation properties of the second layer of Salvation Ashes — turning flames into sword energy, and motion into an expression of death.
Against her replica, her sword danced up and down to avoid the molten beads of glass — any disturbance in her sword, or loss of velocity, would lead to instant defeat, even if it impacted in something as simple as a tiny drop of molten glass. Here, the tip of her sword avoided spears, swords, and anything that could be used as a defense, and chopped through dozens of cultivators, creating a new kind of rain: ash and blood.
Suddenly, a body impacted her from the side and she barely reacted in time to stop a spear from plowing through her guts with her sword. Her sword trembled as it resisted the spearhead trying to disfigure her immortal grade treasure, and throwing sparks into the flames.
The elder who attacked her from the side was faster than her, and likely stronger, too, and Zhu Xuelian recognized that her cultivation was in the Duality realm. A corpse waiting for death, brought out from seclusion to participate in this war.
