398: Chapter 392 Let's pretend we didn't see it!

Commander Chen Jiao watched Li Shuang dancing wildly in the rain of blood like a demon god. He swallowed hard, forcibly suppressing the fear in his heart, and slapped the back of that Disciple's head. "Shut up! Don't ask what you shouldn't! As long as she can kill the enemy, even if she eats all those Loose Cultivators, we'll pretend we didn't see a thing!"

Just as Li Shuang was launching a one-sided, frenzied slaughter in the buffer zone...

At the edge of the Formation's light barrier, intense ripples emanated once again.

Two thousand Demonic Path Vanguard Camp Cultivators—clad in black robes, riding various flying Magical Artifacts, and wielding sinister tools like Hundred-Bone Banners and Yin Soul Nets—finally braved the violent storm. They broke through the outer Formation's delay and descended upon the battlefield in a dense swarm, like a flock of vultures scenting blood.

"You useless lot from the Blood-Slaying Camp! Stop eating! Cooperate with us immediately to destroy the Formation nodes..."

A Demonic Path Foundation Establishment Stage deacon charging at the front was about to bark out an order. But before he could finish, his voice cut off abruptly.

His eyes widened as he stared at the battlefield below in disbelief.

The expected scene of Loose Cultivators being unilaterally massacred had not occurred. Instead, a black-clad woman, wreathed in pitch-black Devilish Qi like an Asura descended to earth, was frenziedly slaughtering the Blood-Slaying Evil Hounds they took such pride in!

More than half of the severed limbs and the rivers of foul-smelling blood on the ground actually belonged to their Demonic Path monsters!

"Who... who is that woman?!" The demonic Cultivator deacon's pupils contracted violently. "The Aura on her... why is it so similar to our Holy Sect's Cultivation Techniques? No, it's even more sinister and pure than ours!"

In the instant he was stunned, Li Shuang had already sensed their arrival.

She casually crushed the throat of a blood hound attempting a sneak attack and slowly looked up. A smile that was exceedingly glamorous yet chilling bloomed on her blood-stained face.

"The true blood-food is finally on the table."

Li Shuang licked her lips and kicked off the muddy ground with a sudden burst of power. With a loud "boom," she left a large crater where she stood and shot into the sky like a cannonball, plunging directly into the demonic Cultivator Formation in mid-air!

"Seeking death! Form the 'Ten Thousand Ghost Soul-Devouring Formation'! Take her down!" the demonic Cultivator deacon reacted swiftly, immediately roaring his orders.

Hundreds of black-robed demonic Cultivators simultaneously waved their Hundred-Bone Banners. Countless wailing black vengeful Souls surged from the banners, coalescing in mid-air into a massive, sky-blotting ghost face. It opened its bloody maw and lunged to devour Li Shuang.

Facing such a terrifying Demonic Path combined attack technique, Li Shuang did not retreat in the slightest. Instead, her laughter grew even more arrogant.

"Playing with Souls in front of the successor of the Youming Sect's Old Ancestor? You're just showing off before a master!"

Li Shuang slammed her hands together in front of her chest. From her pure black eyes, two beams of dark light that made the Divine Soul tremble instantly shot forth.

"Soul-Searching Life-Snaring! Break!"

A surge of black Devilish Qi, even more massive and ten times purer than that of the giant ghost face, erupted from Li Shuang's body like a volcanic eruption! This Devilish Qi transformed in mid-air into an even larger, more hideous face of an ancient demon god.

The demon god's face merely let out a silent roar, and the Ten Thousand Ghost Soul-Devouring Formation formed by the hundreds of demonic Cultivators shattered like fragile glass!

Countless vengeful Souls were swallowed in one gulp by that demon god's face, turning into pure energy that fed back into Li Shuang.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Suffering from the Formation's backlash, the hundreds of demonic Cultivators controlling the Hundred-Bone Banners simultaneously spat out mouthfuls of blood and tumbled from their flying Magical Artifacts like kites with severed strings.

"This is impossible! This is an ancient Demonic Technique that was lost long ago!" The demonic Cultivator deacon was scared out of his wits. He finally recognized the origin of these terrifying methods, his voice turning shrill with extreme fear. "Retreat! Retreat quickly! She is using the purest Heavenly Demon Blood Transformation Great Method of the Youming Sect! We are no match for her at all!"

"You want to run now? Too late!"

Li Shuang's figure was like lightning, appearing before the demonic Cultivator deacon in an instant. The deacon tried in terror to summon a defensive Magical Artifact, but Li Shuang's bone-pale right hand pierced through his chest without resistance, crushing his heart directly.

"Ah—!"

With a shrill scream, the Foundation Establishment Stage demonic Cultivator deacon was sucked into a withered skeleton by Li Shuang in just two breaths' time.

Li Shuang tossed the skeleton aside like trash and turned to look at the demonic Cultivators scattering in flight, the red light in her eyes growing increasingly eerie.

"Kill! Leave none alive!"

At this moment, the roles in the buffer zone were completely reversed.

The once-insufferable Demonic Path vanguard army had become the hunted prey, while that female Cultivator fighting under the banner of a Righteous Path Sect...

...had become the most terrifying demon god on this battlefield. Wherever she passed, blood was drained and Souls were devoured; whether friend or foe, all became her nourishment.

...

Outside Heavenly Sword City, amidst the deep-sea gales.

A massive black bone ship rose and fell within the towering waves.

Beside the blood-colored throne at the bow, whose armrests had been crushed, the withered, skull-like face of Old Ancestor Blood Nether no longer held its previous rage. Instead, it was replaced by extreme shock and an incredibly grave expression.

His eyes, burning with eerie green ghost fire, stared fixedly at the battle in the buffer zone dozens of miles away. With his terrifying Nascent Soul Stage Divine Sense, he could naturally see everything happening there with perfect clarity.

"That technique... that Aura... there's no mistake!" Old Ancestor Blood Nether's hands trembled slightly from excessive force.

"The Heavenly Demon Blood Transformation Great Method! The Youming Demon Hand! What that girl is using is actually a supreme Demonic Technique of my Holy Sect that had its Legacy cut off thousands of years ago! And... and the purity of the Devilish Qi in her body is actually a notch higher than mine!"

"Old Ancestor..." Beside him, the Ghost Bone elder, whose face was pale after just setting his broken bones, also looked as if he'd seen a ghost. His voice trembled as he spoke.

"That woman is a complete and utter lunatic! Our vanguard camp's two thousand elites and those five hundred Blood-Slaying Evil Hounds are being slaughtered by her alone until they're crying for their parents; they can't even maintain their Formation."

"She... she absorbs blood qi too fast. If we keep feeding her like this, I'm afraid she'll make a Breakthrough to the Golden Core Stage right on the battlefield!"

"Breakthrough to Golden Core?" The ghost fire in Old Ancestor Blood Nether's eyes flickered violently, then he suddenly let out a burst of hair-raising, crazed laughter. "Hahaha! Good! Well done, Chen Zhiwen! You've truly given me a massive surprise!"

Old Ancestor Blood Nether turned abruptly, kicked a corpse on the deck aside, and strode to the very front of the bone ship. Facing the storm, he threw his arms wide and roared at the sky.

"Chen Zhiwen! You hypocrite!"

Old Ancestor Blood Nether's voice, laced with the terrifying true essence of the Early Nascent Soul Stage, pierced through the layers of the storm and boomed over Heavenly Sword City like rolling heavenly thunder.

"You, a Grand Elder of the Central Province's Ten Thousand Swords Sect, constantly call yourself a member of the prestigious righteous Sects, yet you keep a pure demonic Cultivator who practices ancient Demonic Techniques under your command! Your methods are a thousand times more demonic than us Demonic Path practitioners of the Southern Barrens! What, couldn't make it in the Central Province, so you ran to this backwater to use a righteous skin to carry out this business of rearing demonic creatures and slaughtering living beings?!"

Faced with Old Ancestor Blood Nether's sky-shaking questioning and mockery...

...Chen Zhiwen, standing atop the highest wall of Heavenly Sword City, did not show the slightest change in expression.

He still stood with his hands behind his back, his moon-white robe unstained by dust in the wind and rain, forming a sharp contrast with the blood-soaked, muddy battlefield below.

He quietly listened to Old Ancestor Blood Nether's roar, his lips slowly curling into an arc that was as cold and elegant as a blade's edge.

Chen Zhiwen did not shout at the top of his lungs; he merely flicked the hilt of the "Autumn Water" longsword at his waist with great casualness.

"Zheng—!"

A crisp, ethereal sword chime rang out, yet it seemed to possess some kind of magical power.

It instantly drowned out the thunder and waves across the sky, reaching Old Ancestor Blood Nether's ears with absolute clarity.

"Old Dog Blood Nether, you've lived for a thousand years; do you really not understand such a simple truth?"

Chen Zhiwen's voice was very light, carrying a high-and-mighty laziness and disdain. "Cultivation Techniques have no distinction between righteous and evil. A blade can kill, but it can also save. In my, Chen Zhiwen's, hands, whether she is a demonic Cultivator or a Sword Cultivator, she is nothing more than a tool I use to slay an old waste like you."

Chen Zhiwen slowly raised his right hand and lightly tapped the void with a slender, fair finger.

"Don't you like using human lives to fill Formations? What, now that you see the swine you've reared being eaten as nourishment by a Disciple of my Ten Thousand Swords Sect..."

"...you're heartbroken? If you're heartbroken, then crawl over here yourself. This sword of mine hasn't tasted Nascent Soul blood for two hundred years; it is quite hungry."

Arrogant!

An all-disregarding arrogance!

Chen Zhiwen's words were like a resounding slap across Old Ancestor Blood Nether's face, trampling the last shred of his dignity as a Nascent Soul powerhouse into the dust.

"Arrogant child! You go too far!"

Old Ancestor Blood Nether was finally completely enraged. The green ghost fire in his eyes surged over three feet long, and his withered flesh suddenly expanded violently as if inflated. Bursts of foul-smelling...

...dark red mist, so thick it seemed ready to drip blood, surged frantically from his body, instantly enveloping the entire massive bone ship.

"Ghost Bone! Order the whole army! Advance the bone ship!"

Old Ancestor Blood Nether's voice had become a hoarse, beast-like roar.

"Activate the 'Ten Thousand Blood Return to Ancestry Array'! I will personally take action to skin that little brat Chen Zhiwen! I'll pull out his tendons! I want him to watch with his own eyes as this Heavenly Sword City is turned to scorched earth under my wrath!"

With Old Ancestor Blood Nether's near-manic roar, the sky over the entire sea region turned into a desperate shade of dark red at that moment.

A terrifying pressure, far exceeding that of the previous Blood Sea Nether Cannon, slowly bore down on Heavenly Sword City like Mount Tai.