That lair was... different.
Usually, such refuges were almost impossible to find, incomparable networks of tunnels with hundreds of false entrances.
The real one always changed. One week it was in one place; the next, it was dozens or hundreds of kilometers away, always surrounded by cloaking arrays.
That lair was not like that.
The surrounding forest area was clear, and for dozens of kilometers, all the villages were burning. Even signs of recent battles with local purge forces were clearly visible.
It was strange, as if they knew what was about to happen and trusted that the church was preventing the empire from sending any specialist powerful enough to exterminate them in a single breath.
Both Sapphire and Aeryn had the same thought in mind, but in the end, they remained silent.
Celestia didn’t care much about such things, and Qingyi hardly seemed to take it seriously, while Lucien himself was too busy with his impulsiveness and jealousy to notice anything around him.
The two beauties could only exchange cautious glances, staying close to Qingyi.
The entrance to the lair was simple: a hole in the ground with a greenish brick mausoleum on top. The only access door was guarded by two guards with power equivalent to a False Immortal realm cultivator.
They were no match for Lucien’s attack. A blade of light and golden mana emerged from his sword, striking the entrance with a bang.
Before the bodies cut in half even hit the ground and the mausoleum began to collapse, hundreds of magic arrays and Qi arrays activated at the same time.
From defensive arrays, forming hundreds of barriers around them, to offensive arrays, with thousands of blades rising to the skies, immediately targeting them.
"Oh... it seems we have a little group of interesting mice here..."
A voice echoed, feminine and sensual. From where the thousands of blades had appeared, a woman came.
Just like the cultist Qingyi had killed before, she also had both a Dantian and a mana heart. Her voluptuous body rose to the skies, propelled by the two energies.
Qingyi barely paid attention to that woman’s status screen before shuddering.
That thing with breasts must have so many STDs that, in his past life, she would have been classified as a biological weapon.
Perhaps not even his body, powerful and resistant to almost every kind of poison, would be able to prevent his dick from falling off if he got one step closer to any of that woman’s holes.
"Who are you, heretic? Tell me your name!" Lucien demanded, pointing his sword at the woman.
Behind her, other figures appeared. Dozens, hundreds, thousands, quickly surrounding the group.
"These are..." Aeryn’s eyes widened as she tried to recognize those creatures.
"Jiangshi, a type of undead used by unorthodox cultivators in my land," Qingyi replied, watching the creatures with interest.
Their skin was dark, and between their rotten teeth, almost covered by the talismans on their foreheads, black blood flowed incessantly.
He had never seen one of these in person, although he had heard many stories.
From their robes, they were the soldiers sent on the many extermination missions, at least the most powerful among them.
Their red eyes were empty, and their limbs stretched out sickeningly. Among them, more figures appeared, this time similar to that woman, though a little weaker.
They were just False Immortals with a few True Immortals, compared to her, who was at the peak of the True Immortal realm.
"Oh..." The woman’s eyes changed, focusing on Qingyi.
Her body turned into a blur, and in a single moment, she appeared in front of Qingyi.
"We have a very interesting one here, tell me your—"
The woman couldn’t even finish her sentence as Qingyi’s fist tore through the air.
Intense pain overwhelmed her jaw, burning blood exploding as she was sent flying backward like a cannonball. Dust rose as a shockwave spread out.
She only stabilized after nearly five hundred meters, her jaw hanging below her face, every bone reduced to dust.
What the hell had just happened? How could that bastard have such strength?
She only didn’t grit her teeth because she was physically incapable of doing so.
Using a sound transmission to order her subordinates to attack, her eyes burned with rage as her demonic Qi and mana burned.
In the skies, the thousands of flying blades changed, taking a single moment before exploding into speed. Tearing through the air at supersonic speed, they carried with them enough power to kill a False Immortal.
Individually, they weren’t much, but together? They were extremely dangerous.
Sapphire summoned a barrier that encapsulated both Celestia and Aeryn, but this protection wasn’t even necessary.
Qingyi placed himself in front of them, the Heaven-Defying Thunder Sword cutting through the air, easily parrying the first blade.
The impact caused his feet to sink into the ground, his back hitting the barrier behind him.
But he didn’t care, continuing to swing his sword as thousands of blades converged on his figure.
The world seemed to slow down as he easily parried everything, calculating the trajectory with his draconic eyes.
Each swing of his sword caused him to be engulfed by powerful shockwaves, the ground beneath his feet being further destroyed.
"Bastard!"
The cultist advanced toward Qingyi, her broken jaw snapping back into place. A guttural, terrible scream escaped her cracked red lips, nothing but pure hatred taking over everything.
Her nails grew, sharp as razors, slashing toward Qingyi’s neck.
The handsome young man simply covered his neck with black scales.
The impact of that woman’s claws caused nothing but a sea of sparks and broken nails, barely leaving a scratch on Qingyi.
His eyes descended, full of contempt, watching the shock on the woman’s face.
"You’re pretty persistent for a disgusting and annoying little worm, huh?"
Without hesitation, Qingyi kicked.
This time, not sending her flying away; quite the opposite.
His feet made contact with her face, and then he smashed her into the ground with all his strength, immediately turning everything beneath him to dust.