At the center of the battlefield.
After a brief rest, the old emperor suddenly leapt to his feet, gripping the Myriad Soul Banner.
He dashed toward the edge of the ancient battlefield.
It looked like he wasn’t planning to keep entangling with the three of them.
The moment the Myriad Soul Banner touched the edge of the barrier—
A powerful force exploded!
The evil power within the banner surged forth, while the barrier flared with dazzling sword light.
They collided and compressed, darkness and light intertwining.
The Sword Spirit had no choice but to split her attention—one part to maintain the battlefield, and the other to fend off the endless incoming enemies.
As they neared, they were easily reduced to dust by the three great sword formations swirling around her.
The three sword formations formed a protective ring around the Sword Spirit.
However, as time passed—
Those vengeful spirits, under the control of the Myriad Soul Banner, threw themselves at the formations without any regard for life or death.
The three sword formations ground them down like millstones.
Finally, a figure wielding a longsword suddenly burst forth from the crowd of souls.
Behind him, a colossal golden Dharma body emerged.
The Dharma body gripped a radiant golden flying sword in both hands.
The flying sword came slashing down toward the Sword Spirit with tremendous force.
In that instant, the sword light shot forth like a rainbow, sword qi weaving in all directions.
On this battlefield, even three Tribulation Stage cultivators appeared dwarfed in strength.
They were up against an unending army of souls, each wielding their peak strength from previous lifetimes, unafraid of death.
“Break it for this old man!!”
The old emperor, holding the Myriad Soul Banner, ripped the barrier apart and finally burst out.
As if he would ever die here.
Visions of the past flickered before the old emperor’s eyes.
Beaten by a corrupted beauty, beaten by his daughter’s ex-fiancé, beaten by a consort he had banished to the Cold Palace.
Backstabbed by his own mother, betrayed by his best brother, betrayed by his own son.........
Beaten within an inch of his life, only to rise again, again and again.
He’d endured so many trials—nothing could scare him anymore.
The old emperor stood in the sky above Shencao Mountain, clutching the Myriad Soul Banner.
“Li Xuanxiao!!! Come out.”
“Face me like a man! Stop hiding like some coward.”
His voice carried immense pressure and rage, shaking the heavens and earth.
As that roar echoed, his powerful divine sense swept forth like a storm.
Wherever it passed, mountains collapsed, boulders rolled, the ground trembled nonstop.
Several nearby mountain ranges were instantly flattened into dust and debris under the sweep of his divine sense.
Yet even so, there was no sign of Li Xuanxiao.
Only the echo of his voice lingered in the valleys…
The old emperor’s figure flickered.
Deep underground, Li Xuanxiao’s figure was finally exposed to the old emperor.
At that moment, the old emperor wished nothing more than to obliterate this scheming b*stard.
But clearly, this wasn’t the time to act on impulse.
With a wave of his sleeve, he attempted to capture Li Xuanxiao.
The ground beneath Li Xuanxiao cracked open.
In an instant, deep, dark chasms split through the earth in every direction.
The land was torn into countless fragments, and at the very center of it all, Li Xuanxiao felt an unprecedented pressure.
His body uncontrollably flew toward the old emperor.
Just then, a figure flashed past.
Di Nü Feng shouted, “Take my divine skill—Central Plains’ Number One Beauty Punch!!”
The old emperor backed off and punched in response.
The moment their fists collided, spiritual power exploded at the mountaintop.
Di Nü Feng’s icy blue energy clashed with the old emperor’s black aura, freezing half of the cloud sea and staining the other half in darkness.
As the air compressed to its limit, it rang with the sound of shattering glass, and fine cracks in space spread wildly along the path of the impact.
Nine skulls emerged on the old emperor’s fist, thick black energy erupting from his knuckles.
Di Nü Feng’s nether-cold aura formed into an ice dragon that crashed into the skulls head-on.
At the center of the collision, the energies collapsed into a pitch-black vortex, swallowing the entire cloud sea.
This was the purest clash of power—no tricks, no artifacts.
Just raw fist-to-fist combat.
Di Nü Feng clenched her teeth. “Don’t you touch my junior!!”
Several breaths later, a deafening boom echoed through the heavens.
Both of their protective auras shattered into sparks.
The old emperor’s cultivation regressed, clearly inferior to Di Nü Feng.
Even his arm began to crack.
Di Nü Feng pressed forward confidently, ready to follow up.
But just then, the old emperor shouted—
“How could I fall here!!!”
A crisp cracking sound came from Di Nü Feng’s hand bones.
The ice dragon behind her crumbled and let out a mournful cry before vanishing.
The old emperor’s hair flared wildly, his black aura growing thicker.
Di Nü Feng was sent flying.
Like a kite with its string cut, she crashed into the deep mountains.
The old emperor, with Fusion Stage power, had punched her down.
However, it was clear he’d misjudged his strength.
With that explosive burst—
Li Xuanxiao, not far away, couldn’t possibly withstand the shockwave.
A shard of one of the scattered skulls shot straight toward him.
It moved so fast that Li Xuanxiao couldn’t even track it.
By the time he reacted, the jagged skull shard was already inches from his face.
Taking that hit would mean certain death.
The next instant, a figure appeared in front of the shard.
Two fingers gently pinched it mid-air.
The old emperor stared in disbelief.
Lingxu stood in white robes, hair to match.
With his back to Li Xuanxiao, he effortlessly held the shard between his fingers.
“My unruly, disobedient disciple… what did you get into this time?”
Lingxu spoke calmly, exuding the presence of a master.
His fingers casually twirled the shard.
To him, the sharp fragment was nothing but a toy.
At the same time, the old emperor looked stunned.
But his attention wasn’t on Lingxu at all.
Lingxu flicked his bangs and smirked.
“What? Stunned by my entrance too?”
But quickly, Lingxu noticed the old emperor wasn’t looking at him—
He was staring past him.
Lingxu turned around in confusion—only to see his cheap disciple Li Xuanxiao,
Head already sliced off.
Lingxu frowned and realized—
He’d miscalculated the shard’s length.
He had only caught the front half, posing coolly with his back to Li Xuanxiao.
But as he twirled it in his fingers—
Whoosh—it chopped Li Xuanxiao’s head clean off.