402: Chapter 396 The cultivation world of the Southern Wilderness will be shaken!

On the city wall, Chen Zhengchu, who had managed to stand up with great difficulty, saw this scene and was so shocked his jaw nearly hit the ground.

A dignified Nascent Soul powerhouse, leading thousands of elites in a grand assault, hadn't even touched the walls of Heavenly Sword City before being scared out of his wits by a single sword strike from the Grand Elder, directly slaughtering his own people to flee via a Blood Escape! This surreal scene, if spread, would likely shake the entire cultivation world of the Southern Wilderness!

"Grand Elder! You can't let him escape! If this old devil escapes back into the deep mountains and forests to recover his Origin Qi, he will surely become a grave threat to our Ten Thousand Swords Sect in the future!" Chen Zhengchu stomped his feet in anxiety, unable to resist shouting a reminder.

However, within the void.

Chen Zhiwen, who had already approached within ten miles of the bone ship, watched the blood-colored streak of light diving into the spatial rift; his footsteps didn't falter in the slightest, and he didn't even strike a posture to give chase.

He still kept his hands behind his back, his moon-white robe fluttering gently in the sea breeze, like a banished immortal coldly looking down upon a Mortal farce.

"Escape?"

At the corner of Chen Zhiwen's mouth, that mocking curve grew even colder.

"Two hundred years ago, when I was still in the Golden Core Stage, you were able to use this Blood Escape technique to escape from my sword. Do you really think that today, two hundred years later, the same trick will work a second time before me?"

Chen Zhiwen slowly raised his right hand, not reaching for his sword, but instead, with extreme casualness, he lightly snapped his fingers toward the direction where the spatial rift had vanished.

"Snap."

A very faint, crisp sound, like glass shattering, rang out over the open sea.

But it was this single crisp sound that seemed to touch upon some core Law of the world!

"Buzz—! Buzz—! Buzz—!"

The sea area within a hundred-mile radius suddenly vibrated in an extremely eerie manner!

Then, under everyone's shocked gazes.

The massive ice-blue rift in the sky, originally split open by Chen Zhiwen's sword strike, actually collapsed with a bang in an instant! Countless tiny but extremely sharp ice-blue Sword Qi, like a rainstorm falling from the heavens, instantly sealed off the space of the entire sea area!

This was no ordinary Sword Qi; this was the Sword Intent Domain belonging to a Late Nascent Soul Stage Great Sword Cultivator!

"Ah—!!!"

A piercing, shrill scream, mixed with endless despair and pain, suddenly drifted out from the depths of the void.

At the edge of the space completely sealed by the ice-blue Sword Intent, the dark-red blood cocoon that had already fled inside was forced out of the void as if hitting a bronze wall made of ten million blades!

"Chiii—!"

Countless ice-blue Sword Qi, like sharks smelling blood, crazily sliced at the blood cocoon condensed from over three thousand lives. In just a few breaths, the seemingly indestructible blood cocoon was shredded to pieces.

Old Ancestor Xue Ming's withered body fell heavily from mid-air like a tattered sack.

But before he could even land on the sea, the surrounding air temperature dropped to an inconceivable level in an instant.

"Crack! Crack!"

Accompanied by a tooth-aching sound of freezing.

Old Ancestor Xue Ming's body suddenly froze in mid-air. A layer of extremely thick, faintly blue-glowing ice began to spread frantically upward from his feet at a visible speed.

Calves, thighs, waist...

In just the blink of an eye, this demonic giant who had dominated the Southern Wilderness for over two hundred years was completely frozen into an ice sculpture, fixed in a posture of terror!

His only remaining left hand reached forward in despair. Within his skeletal eye sockets, the ghostly green fire had not yet been extinguished, but it was tightly sealed within the hard ice, unable to even flicker once.

Dead silence.

In this moment, there was no sound in the entire world except for the wind.

Chen Zhiwen still stepped through the void at a leisurely pace, treading upon invisible stairs condensed from Sword Intent—one step, two steps, three steps...

Finally, he arrived in front of the ice sculpture.

Chen Zhiwen looked down from above at Old Ancestor Xue Ming frozen in the ice, his deep eyes revealing a coldness that made the Old Ancestor's Soul tremble.

"I let you flee, but can you escape?"

Chen Zhiwen spat out these words with extreme contempt, his voice devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"In two hundred years, you've only learned how to run like a dog. This Physical Body of yours is absolutely disgusting; keeping it would only pollute the air of the Southern Wilderness."

Chen Zhiwen slowly extended his fair and slender right hand, placing it casually on top of the ice sculpture's head.

"No... don't..."

A very weak Divine Sense transmission, filled with pleading and fear, came intermittently from inside the ice. It was Old Ancestor Xue Ming begging with his last bit of Divine Soul power.

"Fellow Daoist Chen... Senior Chen! Spare me! I am willing to submit! I am willing to hand over all the resources of the Sacred Sect... I am willing to swear a Heavenly Dao oath to be a watchdog for your Ten Thousand Swords Sect for all eternity! Please... do not destroy my Dao foundation..."

A dignified Nascent Soul Old Monster, for the sake of survival, had now completely abandoned all dignity, becoming lowlier than the mud on the ground.

But on Chen Zhiwen's cold face, not even a hint of pity appeared.

"A watchdog?" Chen Zhiwen sneered, a cruel curve hooking the corner of his mouth, "Are you even worthy?"

"My gate is not something any random cat or dog is qualified to watch. Besides, didn't you just say you wanted to extract my Soul and refine my spirit, lighting a sky lantern for a thousand years? I have always been one to settle scores clearly. Since you enjoy toying with Divine Souls so much..."

The cold light in Chen Zhiwen's eyes flashed suddenly, and his right hand resting on the head of the ice sculpture abruptly applied force!

"Crack—!"

A crisp explosion.

Old Ancestor Xue Ming's head, frozen into solid ice, burst apart instantly like a watermelon hit by a hammer! Countless ice-blue fragments mixed with dark-red tainted blood splattered in mid-air.

Immediately after, Chen Zhiwen's right hand reached into the shattered ice sculpture like lightning.

"Ah—!!!"

Accompanied by a Soul-piercing shriek ten times more miserable than before.

A translucent infant only the size of a palm, emitting a ghostly green light, was forcibly dragged out from the depths of the ice sculpture's Dantian by Chen Zhiwen!

The infant's face was identical to Old Ancestor Xue Ming's, but now that tiny face was filled with extreme pain and malice. This was the Nascent Soul that Old Ancestor Xue Ming had condensed through over a thousand years of bitter cultivation!

"Chen Zhiwen! You will die a horrible death! You demon! Even if I become a ghost, I will never let you go!" The Nascent Soul struggled frantically in Chen Zhiwen's palm, its tiny hands desperately releasing faint wisps of blood light, attempting to bite through Chen Zhiwen's fingers.

But the surface of Chen Zhiwen's palm was already covered with a layer of tangible Sword Qi defense; no matter how the Nascent Soul bit and tore, it couldn't harm him in the slightest.

"Become a ghost?" Chen Zhiwen looked at the Nascent Soul in his hand like a cornered beast, a dangerous light flashing in his eyes. "You overestimate yourself. In my hands, you won't even have the qualification to become a ghost."

Chen Zhiwen slowly raised his left hand and unfastened the "Qiushui" longsword from his waist.

He stroked the cold, clear scabbard with great affection, as if touching the skin of a lover.

"My 'Qiushui' has followed me in battle for nearly five hundred years. It has drunk the blood of countless geniuses and severed the heads of countless Yao Beasts, but it is only missing a primary Soul of sufficient weight."

Chen Zhiwen slowly moved the Nascent Soul in his hand toward the hilt of the sword.

"Although you old dog are a bit of a waste, you are at least an Early Nascent Soul Stage. It'll suffice, barely."

Hearing Chen Zhiwen's words, Old Ancestor Xue Ming's Nascent Soul instantly understood what the other party wanted to do, and the malice on that tiny face was immediately replaced by endless terror.

"No! You can't do this! Refining a fellow Cultivator's Nascent Soul into an artifact spirit is a Demonic Path action! You will suffer heavenly retribution! Senior Chen, Ancestor Chen! I was wrong! Let me enter Reincarnation! I beg of you—!"

"Heavenly retribution?" Chen Zhiwen sneered mockingly, "In this Southern Wilderness, I am heaven."

The moment his voice fell.

Chen Zhiwen's right hand, which held the Nascent Soul, suddenly erupted with an extremely terrifying, freezing Sword Intent!

"Chila—!"

This Sword Intent did not directly crush the Nascent Soul but instead acted like countless extremely fine, cold steel needles, forcibly stabbing into every inch of the Nascent Soul's Divine Soul!

"Aaaaaah—!"

That extreme pain of the Divine Soul being sliced a thousand times and having its consciousness stripped away bit by bit caused Old Ancestor Xue Ming's Nascent Soul to let out the most miserable wail of its life. That sound penetrated the void and echoed over Heavenly Sword City, causing all the Cultivators and Mortals below to tremble involuntarily, their scalps tingling.

Chen Zhiwen turned a deaf ear to this tragic wailing, expressionlessly operating the core Artifact Refining technique of the Ten Thousand Swords Sect to forcibly erase Old Ancestor Xue Ming's independent consciousness.

As the shrill screams gradually weakened, the light in the eyes of the originally ghostly-green glowing Nascent Soul began to dim rapidly, finally turning into a pure glowing body containing only vast Soul energy.

"Go in."

Chen Zhiwen slapped the scabbard with his left hand, and with a "clang," the Qiushui sword unsheathed half an inch.

He pressed the Nascent Soul, whose consciousness had already been erased, onto that half-inch of blade without hesitation!

"Buzz—!"

The Qiushui sword let out an extremely excited, dragon-like sky-shaking sword cry! A burst of blinding ice-blue light erupted from the blade, greedily swallowing the mass of Nascent Soul energy!

With the injection of the Nascent Soul, a very complex ancient pattern emitting a faint blood-colored luster faintly emerged on the blade of the Qiushui sword. The aura of the entire sword underwent a qualitative leap in this moment; originally just a Top-grade Magic Treasure, it now faintly emitted a terrifying pressure belonging to a Spirit Treasure!