222: Chapter 222 Thousand Mountains in Silent Extinction

He gripped the hilt with both hands and raised it high above his head, pouring all the Golden Core spiritual power within his body without reservation into the zhanling sword.

In that instant, the zhanling sword seemed to come alive, its blade trembling to emit a long, clear, and resonant sword hum that pierced through the all-encompassing Devilish Qi and bloody, baleful mist.

Thousands of sword images of varying sizes emerged from the Void Realm, spinning and dancing around his body—some fast, some slow, some rigid, some soft. Every single sword image contained a different Sword Intent, transforming into a boundless kingdom of swords.

All the pouncing blood-colored vengeful spirits, once they barged into the sword domain, were chopped and torn to pieces by countless sharp sword images.

Piercing shrieks rose one after another, and a massive number of resentful Souls rapidly perished like melting snow. The thick, bloody baleful Qi was mangled and shredded by the Sword Intent, no longer able to gather into momentum.

The Myriad Corpse Soul-Devouring Tribulation was forcibly dismantled by more than half!

Yet the lingering tide of Souls still coiled endlessly, refusing to disperse like maggots on a bone.

Taking advantage of this gap, two corpse puppets had silently slipped behind Ye Gucheng, their sharp, pitch-black bone claws lunging straight for his heart. The air was torn apart by those bone claws, producing a sharp whistling sound.

The other three corpse puppets also pounced from all directions, their mouths full of fangs. Foul-smelling, venomous saliva continuously dripped down, corroding charred holes into the ground one after another.

Lian Mo seized this fleeting opportunity, his figure transforming into a bloody devilish flash as he appeared directly in front of Ye Gucheng.

The supreme Magic Treasure in his hand, a devil-bone longsaber, gathered all his strength and poured in a massive amount of spiritual power. The blade was pitch-black like ink, and bloody runes lit up sequentially along its edge, carrying a terrifying might as it slashed toward Ye Gucheng's head!

There was a devil saber in front, corpse puppets on both sides and behind, and a tide of resentful Souls in the gaps above and below—an all-encompassing encirclement and killing with no blind spots whatsoever!

Life and death in an instant!

Ye Gucheng was unflustered and calm. The spiritual power of his Innate sword body surged to the extreme, and his feet stepped out in a dragon-like sword stride, his body dodging sideways at the most critical juncture.

His movements appeared light and agile, but they actually contained absolute control over the battlefield's situation; every angle and every inch of distance was precise down to a hair's breadth.

The devil-bone longsaber slashed down, brushing past his shoulder. The terrifying Saber Qi directly tore through several miles of open air, leaving a bottomless chasm on the ground.

The bone claws of the corpse puppet behind him barely caught an afterimage, the sharp claw tips brushing past a few inches from the back of his head, and the violent wind kicked up blew his hair into flying strands.

It was precisely in this split second of dodging that Ye Gucheng found that fleeting flaw—the positions of the five corpse puppets and Lian Mo had an extremely brief gap during this strike.

"Heavenly Profound Secret Sword — Thousands of Mountains, Annihilation!"

The body of the zhanling sword erupted with a dazzling silver-white brilliance, and all the thousands of sword images circling outside his body gathered and converged into one, condensing into a thirty-zhang-long peerless sword aura.

That sword aura was brilliant to the extreme, as if it had gathered the light of the stars in the heavens, and as if it was about to slaughter everything before it into nothingness.

This sword strike was one of Ye Gucheng's trump card ultimate moves, consuming a massive amount of energy; unless it was a matter of life and death, he would never use it lightly.

At this moment, nearly thirty percent of the spiritual power throughout his body had been extracted, and his complexion was as pale as paper, yet his posture remained upright, and his hands gripping the sword were as steady as a monolith.

The sword light flashed, slashing out across the sky!

The sword light swept past the four Tier 3 Peak corpse puppets on both sides first.

Puff!

Those few Tier 3 Peak corpse puppets didn't even have time to let out a roar before their bodies were neatly cleaved in half from the top of their heads to their crotches.

The dark green venom flowing inside their bodies splashed across the sky. The moment it came into contact with the lingering righteous Sword Qi of the sword aura, it directly burned away completely, leaving not even ashes behind.

Slashing four Tier 3 Peak corpse puppets with a single sword!

The remaining momentum of the sword did not abate as it continued forward, directly slashing at Lian Mo!

Lian Mo's expression changed drastically, never expecting that in a death trap surrounded on multiple sides, the opponent could still erupt with such a terrifying counterattack.

The dominance of that Sword Intent and the sharpness of the sword momentum made him feel an unprecedented threat of death in an instant.

He hurriedly horizontally blocked the devil-bone longsaber in front of him, simultaneously mobilizing all remaining corpse-fiend devil yuan to construct thick, multi-layered devilish baleful shields in front of him. Each layer of the shield was several feet thick, stacked layer upon layer like a bronze wall and iron fortress.

Boom—!!!

The sword aura of Thousands of Mountains, Annihilation fiercely bombarded the layers of devil shields.

The first layer of the devil shield shattered instantly, and the second and third layers collapsed one after another!

The shattered Devilish Qi splashed in all directions, blasting countless pits into the ground within dozens of zhang around.

The devil-bone longsaber trembled violently, and the blood-colored runes on the blade collapsed in large areas, scattering like sparks.

Lian Mo's entire person was blasted flying backward for several hundred zhang by the immense force, spitting out a large mouthful of pitch-black devil blood from his mouth.

The devil robes on his chest split open, and a shallow sword wound on his chest continuously oozed black blood while the devil yuan inside his body violently churned like turning rivers and overturning seas.

"Damn it!!"

Flying backward, before Lian Mo could steady his figure, the sole remaining bone-winged corpse puppet desperately pounced forward to block in front of Lian Mo, its bone wings opening like two pitch-black shields to bear the scattered Sword Qi aftermath for its master.

The bone-winged corpse puppet's bony wings were instantly hacked into tattered pieces by the Sword Qi, cracks covering its entire skeleton as large chunks peeled off and fell to the ground, its combat power plummeting by more than half.

It let out a low, mournful cry, its massive body half-kneeling on the ground, yet it still desperately guarded in front of Lian Mo.

In just a few rounds, out of the five Tier 3 Peak corpse puppets Lian Mo had summoned, four died directly in battle, and one was heavily injured and crippled.

Lian Mo panted heavily, the killing intent in the depths of his eyes nearly turning into substance.

Ever since he began campaigning on the borders of the two domains, he had never suffered such a huge loss at the hands of Righteous Path Cultivators.

That humiliating feeling of being crushed by absolute strength gnawed at his pride and self-confidence like ten thousand ants devouring his heart.

Coldness appeared in Ye Gucheng's eyes once again.

"Heretical paths, simply unpresentable!"

He snorted coldly, holding the zhanling sword high above his head.

At the tip of the sword, a hundred-zhang sword glare soared into the sky, piercing into the dark clouds like a pillar supporting the heavens, shredding the all-encompassing Devilish Qi into pieces.

"Slash!"

With a single sword stroke, it fell.

Wherever the sword light reached, the bloody baleful Qi melted away like boiling soup poured over snow.

The blood-colored runes on the Myriad Corpse Blood-Baleful Banner flashed wildly, then shattered inch by inch, producing crisp sounds like shattering glass.

Lian Mo's pupils shrank abruptly, and he hurriedly tried to retract the devil banner, but it was already a step too late—across the surface of the banner ran a clear sword mark, the devil banner's spirituality heavily damaged, dropping by an entire grade from then on.

"You…" Lian Mo was both shocked and angry, the killing intent in his eyes replaced by fear for the very first time.

Ye Gucheng did not give him a chance to continue speaking.

The white-robed figure closed in like a ghost, the zhanling sword thrusting nine times in succession.

These nine sword strikes seemed scattered, but they actually secretly aligned with a certain profound trajectory, sealing off all of Lian Mo's retreats simultaneously from nine directions.

Lian Mo let out a violent shout, summoning a supreme defense Magic Treasure shield to block in front of him while his dual palms struck out a sky full of blood light, attempting to use offense as defense.

But this sword strike by Ye Gucheng was a lethal move he comprehended after his swordsmanship reached Major Achievement — Nine Stars Aligned.

Nine streams of sword light converged into a single point. Even the supreme defense Magic Treasure was pierced through instantly, the shield shattering into pieces. The remaining momentum of the sword light did not abate, stabbing straight at Lian Mo's throat.

At the very last moment, Lian Mo used the remnants of the devil banner to block, his entire person utilizing the recoil to violently retreat several hundred zhang.

But his chest was still swept by the sword light, leaving a bone-deep wound running diagonally from his left shoulder to his right waist. Devil blood gushed out wildly, staining his entire robe red.

"Impossible…" Lian Mo's complexion turned pale as paper, his eyes revealing true fear for the very first time.

He could sense that if that sword strike had deviated by even half an inch, his Golden Core would have shattered, and his Divine Soul would have been shredded to annihilation by the Sword Intent.

Ye Gucheng paid no further attention to Lian Mo, sweeping his Divine Sense across the battlefield.

At this moment on the battlefield, only nine Righteous Path Golden Core Cultivators were still alive, while twenty-six Demonic Path Golden Core Cultivators remained.

The numerical comparison remained vastly disparate, but the demonic Cultivators had already lost their sharpness, their formations scattered, and everyone wore expressions of dread and hesitation.