The City Lord of Tianqiong City was overseeing the cleanup. Never in his life had he fought such an easy battle.
First, Ye Ling had suppressed the Demonic Cultivator spies hidden in the square. Then the upper ranks of the Righteous Path Alliance took over the fight against the Demonic Cultivator leaders.
Since the Heavenly Demon Sect had deployed mainly high-end combat forces this time, the number of low-level Demonic Cultivators was naturally small—bring too many, and there wouldn't be enough credit to go around.
Although Tianqiong City had lost quite a few cultivators, the outcome was still a decisive victory. It was the kind of triumph that would be recorded in the history of the Righteous Path Alliance.
Just as the City Lord began to relax, however, two thunderous explosions erupted almost simultaneously—one in front of him, one behind.
A massive spatial rift tore open before him. From within it, a humanoid monster crawled out, countless tentacles writhing from its back. Behind the creature, more than a dozen Righteous Path Alliance cultivators were desperately trying to hold it back, only for each of their attacks to be intercepted by the forest of tentacles.
Compared to the brutal fight earlier, the City Lord had long anticipated this development. He wasn't particularly concerned about his own life or death.
Before his thoughts had fully formed, his hands were already moving through a spell formula. A Flying Sword shot toward the monster.
At the same time, the commander and deputy commander of the Garrison Guard, along with the abbot of Golden Light Temple, attacked with all their strength.
But the explosion from behind was far more alarming. It meant only one thing—the crowd was in trouble.
Soon, the City Lord had no time left to worry about that.
The instant his full-force strike collided with the monster, a violent backlash slammed into him, knocking him unconscious.
His Life-bound Flying Sword shattered on impact. His all-out attack failed to stall the monster for even half a second.
No—not just him. Even combined with the other three Nascent Soul Stage cultivators and over a dozen Golden Core Stage cultivators, they couldn't hold it back for half a second.
Faced with such a gap in cultivation, their attacks were no more than a mosquito's bite.
"Gui Ying, why go this far?"
Tie Chunsheng's voice rang out from behind the monster. As he cast his spells, he shouted, "Hand over the roster and you may still have a chance to reincarnate. Continue like this, and you'll end in complete annihilation!"
"Hiss… save your breath…"
Gui Ying was once again shrouded in black shadow, thicker and darker than before. His voice carried naked mockery.
"Hiss… once I fully control this power… hiss… I'll devour you all…"
Forcefully devouring ten Tribulation Transcendence Stage powerhouses through a Secret Technique was no light burden, even for Gui Ying.
He needed to reconnect with Heaven and Earth, to reestablish his link with the outside world. Inside that barrier, he couldn't unleash his full strength.
"I won't let you succeed!"
Tie Chunsheng's expression hardened. He spat out a mouthful of essence blood.
In the next instant, the world seemed to freeze.
A tower steeped in the aura of the Primordial Era emerged from the void. At its peak stood a golden sparrow with wings spread, bathed in a hazy divine glow.
Golden Sparrow Tower.
This was Tie Chunsheng's life-bound Dao Artifact, a high-grade Dao Artifact passed down since the Primordial Era.
Infused with his essence blood, the Golden Sparrow Tower radiated an immortal aura so formidable that even the tentacles behind Gui Ying recoiled, unwilling to touch it.
Tie Chunsheng's hands moved rapidly, forming one profound Dharma Seal after another and driving them into the Golden Sparrow Tower. Its presence swelled dramatically.
Golden Sparrow Iron Locks, Suppressing Ten Thousand Years!
Though it was a sealing art, its power was enough to make Heaven and Earth change color. As the Golden Sparrow Tower swept forward, it tore terrifying spatial rifts in its wake. It was clearly a killing move as well.
Tie Chunsheng could no longer afford restraint. He had to eliminate Gui Ying immediately, or the damage to this world would only grow worse.
He could also sense the battle raging in the distance. There was no time to waste.
But—
"Do you think I'm still the same as before?"
Faced with this world-shaking strike, Gui Ying revealed a deeply contemptuous smile.
In that brief moment, he had already reconnected with Heaven and Earth.
More importantly, the dark art he wielded had received a response.
Master who resides afar, heed your devout follower. Grant me unmatched power, and I shall offer you sacrifice!
Gui Ying had obtained this dark art during a mission, killing its original owner and taking it for himself. It was said to have originated from the Western Continent.
It was precisely because he had mastered this dark art that he dared to challenge the Sect Leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect.
Still, he knew his wings were not yet fully grown. He had hoped to let the Sect Leader shield him for another decade or so, slowly chipping away at the Sect Leader's faction step by step.
Unfortunately, this miscalculation forced him to move ahead of schedule.
Fortunately, though it was his first time using this dark art, its effect—
"Get lost!"
The tentacles behind Gui Ying, which had recoiled from the immortal aura radiating from the Golden Sparrow Tower moments ago, suddenly fused into a single, massive appendage and lashed out at the tower.
"Pffft—!!!"
The instant the tentacle struck the Golden Sparrow Tower, Tie Chunsheng spat out a mouthful of blood. The sheer force of the backlash was far beyond anything he had anticipated.
What stunned everyone present even more was that the tentacle showed no sign of damage whatsoever. Instead, it was the Golden Sparrow Tower that—
Cracked.
A massive fissure split across the body of the Golden Sparrow Tower. Its divine light dimmed at once. A dignified high-grade Dao Artifact had failed to withstand a single strike from a tentacle formed of Gui Ying's eerie power.
Gui Ying himself had braced for impact, expecting to bear the recoil. Instead, the blow felt like striking a thin plank of wood. It hardly hurt at all.
Praise the Lord!
You are supreme!
I adore you, my Lord!
Understanding what this meant, Gui Ying burst into frenzied praise of his newly acknowledged master.
But at that very moment, a long-forgotten hunger surged through him, nearly driving him insane.
With the last shred of clarity he had left, he realized such terrifying power did not come without a price. If he wanted to continue drawing strength from his master, he would have to offer more sacrifices.
"I'll start with you!"
Gui Ying thrust out a tentacle toward Tie Chunsheng, who was still reeling from the backlash.
Yet just as the tentacle shot forward, it was knocked aside by the combined force of a chess piece and a bronze cauldron.
"That last strike was just for show. Everyone, attack together!"
Chess Saint Lu Changtian let out a long breath. He had thought Gui Ying had already defied the heavens and was prepared to self-detonate if necessary.
But upon making contact, he realized the tentacle was not as invincible as he had feared.
"That was clearly a dark art! Don't panic. Form up and eliminate this fiend together!"
Qishan's Medicine Elder Tan Yue also raised his voice, rallying the others.
To be honest, although Tie Chunsheng had suffered heavy injuries and the four Tribulation Transcendence Stage formation masters had been gravely wounded and lost their combat capability when Gui Ying forcibly broke the formation, the remaining forces were still formidable.
Combined, they were even stronger than Tie Chunsheng alone.
Earlier, they had held back, assuming Tie Chunsheng could kill Gui Ying by himself. They had conserved their strength in case of unforeseen complications.
Now the unforeseen had clearly arrived. There was no choice but to go all out.
"Pathetic!"
In truth, that earlier strike had only seemed overwhelming because Gui Ying was distracted by his hunger and hadn't used his full strength.
So when he faced the combined full-power attack of Lu Changtian and the others—
"Die!"
A towering tentacle shot up from behind him and swept directly toward the formation they had formed.
"BOOM—!!!"
A violent explosion tore through the air.
Before the dust had even settled, Lu Changtian and the others were sent flying backward out of the smoke, hurled dozens of miles beyond Tianqiong City before finally managing to stop themselves.
"A bunch of ants, daring to challenge my master's might?"
Gui Ying hovered in midair, looking down on the cultivators of the Righteous Path Alliance.
His mere presence was enough to drive cultivators below the Golden Core Stage into madness. Those even weaker simply fainted on the spot.
At this point, Tianqiong City's combat strength was essentially wiped out—
Except for the square.
"Let me see… who should I eat first?"
The moment the words left his mouth, even Gui Ying was startled.
He hadn't expected to feel hunger for human flesh.
He paused only briefly before regaining his composure, not even realizing there was anything wrong with what he had just said.
Just as his tentacles were about to sweep across the battlefield, a cool, pleasant female voice sounded by his ear, tinged with faint curiosity.
"There's actually an Otherworldly Demon?"
"Hm?"
Gui Ying turned around.
At some point, a woman had appeared behind him. A faint, soft light cloaked her figure, obscuring her features.
An overwhelming sense of dread flooded him—like the terror of someone who had been beaten senseless dozens of times. It was instinctive, uncontrollable.
The M-Master… retreating?
No matter how unwilling he was to admit it, Gui Ying could clearly feel the strange, terrifying power within him reacting like a mouse spotting a cat, scrambling in panic to escape.
But perhaps because it was bound too tightly to him, it could not separate itself in time.
"Trying to run?"
Unable to see her face, Gui Ying could only judge by her tone.
She sounded… displeased.
Before he could react, a palm formed from Spiritual Qi slammed him straight into the ground. He didn't even have time to defend himself.
"How boring. I thought I'd found someone worth fighting. Turns out you're not even first stage."
The woman showed no concern for Gui Ying's pride as she looked down at him, flattened against the earth like a fly, and spoke with cutting disdain.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it…!"
Her words struck directly at Gui Ying's wounded pride.
"One after another, you keep ruining my plans!"
"Kill!"
"I'll kill you!"
"I'll slaughter—"
Before he could finish, the woman yawned and casually pointed at him.
"BOOM!"
A crisp explosion rang out.
Gui Ying died on the spot.