The overwhelming Nascent Soul aura descended upon Black Devil Peak like a mountainous presence. The patrolling cultivators immediately fell to their knees, the very thought of resistance slipping away from them.
As Ma Feiyue passed by, a mere flick of her fingers caused the heads of these cultivators to burst instantly—as if crushed by an invisible, mighty hand. Wherever she went, a trail of dismembered bodies followed. Not a single cultivator survived.
Yet, someone, in their dying moments, managed to sound the alarm. The loud clanging of the bell echoed piercingly through Black Devil Peak, waking every sleeping cultivator and mortal on the mountain.
Though Lin Fan was known as the least impressive among the Golden Core disciples under the elder of the Myriad Souls Sect, Black Devil Peak housed over a hundred cultivators, including Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators. Including the mortals serving these cultivators, the population reached at least five thousand.
A man and a woman clutching a child were attempting to flee when they burst out of their dwelling, only to see the sinister figure of a woman standing before them—behind her, two headless corpses lay in a pool of blood that stained the stone path red.
The man and woman turned ashen and immediately fell to their knees, begging for mercy. "Immortal, please spare us! We are but ordinary mortals..."
Ma Feiyue sneered. "Mortals? Mortals serving the demon are not innocents; they are deserving of death!"
With a single grasp, the man and woman were horrifically crushed together by an indescribable force, instantly turning into a grotesque mash of flesh and bone, unrecognizable as human. Even their bones were pulverized.
With a thud, this mass of flesh fell before the child, making a sickening sound.
The child, only five years old, could not comprehend why his parents were suddenly reduced to a pulp. Tears streamed down his face as he began to wail.
Ma Feiyue, seeing the child's loud cries, frowned in annoyance. "Crying? I despise crying the most."
With a fierce slap, the child, who had been crying just a moment ago, was now smashed into the stone pavement, perfectly flush with the ground.
Ma Feiyue's cold laughter echoed as her form, ghostlike, surged forward with devastating speed. With a mere wave of her hand, the ground seemed to rupture as an entire area of mortals' dwellings collapsed, burying those inside under rubble and debris before they could even think to escape.
At the summit's grand hall, Zhu Jie, roused by the thunderous noise, sleepily stumbled out of bed. As he pushed open the door, he was met with the sight of a woman bathed in moonlight slowly approaching. Despite being alone, her presence was suffocating, like the immense pressure of an ocean weighing down upon him.
Instinctively filled with dread, Zhu Jie didn't hesitate to crush a talisman stone—a protective measure given to him by Chu Xuan.
"Who are you! How dare you barge into the grand hall of Black Devil Peak!" Zhu Jie managed to shout, gasping for air.
Ma Feiyue sneered, "A mere Foundation Establishment cultivator dares to roar at a Nascent Soul?" She unleashed her aura forcefully.
With a thud, Zhu Jie was forced to his knees, not by choice but overwhelmed by the vast gap in their power. He screamed in agony as the intense pressure was so great that his thigh bones shattered through his knees, embedding deeply into the floor of the grand hall. Blood quickly pooled around him.
Ma Feiyue's expression remained indifferent. "Such an unpleasant scream." With a slight lift of her hand, she violently squeezed.
With a grotesque sound, Zhu Jie's head burst, just like those of the other cultivators on Black Devil Peak, and his screams abruptly ceased.
Ma Feiyue strode towards the cultivation chamber. The chamber's door, thick and carved with arrays, would have been a formidable barrier to any Golden Core cultivator. But to a Nascent Soul like her, it was as fragile as tofu. With a single palm strike, she blasted the stone door apart, shattering the array engraved upon it.
As the dust settled, she was confronted not with the interior of the chamber but a swirling, dense fog that seemed almost alive with hidden lethality.
Ma Feiyue frowned. Another array? Who layers an array within an array? This Lin Fan, does his paranoia know no bounds?
Without hesitation, she launched a powerful palm strike, conjuring a giant wind-formed hand that slammed into the roiling fog. Her attack meant to dispel the mist, felt like it had hit cotton—her force completely neutralized.
Ma Feiyue let out a light gasp, bewildered by the ineffectiveness of her repeated palm strikes into the swirling fog. Despite her continuous assault, the mist swallowed all her efforts like drops of water in the sea. After a short while, sweat began to bead on her forehead. Something was amiss.
She had hammered the array with twenty powerful strikes, depleting two-thirds of her Spiritual Qi, yet the fog showed no signs of dissipating. Even the finest Golden Core period array should not withstand more than a few hits from a Nascent Soul cultivator like herself—unless, Ma Feiyue realized with a jolt, "This is a Nascent Soul period array?"
"But that's impossible! How could a mere Golden Core early-stage cultivator possess a Nascent Soul period array?" Ma Feiyue's mind raced with confusion and suspicion.
She decided to retreat.
"Killed my people, destroyed my home, and now you want to leave?"
A chilling voice suddenly echoed, causing Ma Feiyue to feel as if a snake had slithered up her back. Her hair stood on end. Without a second thought, she instinctively activated a defensive spell.
A barrier of swirling wind formed in front of her.
However, she soon realized with horror that the danger was coming from beneath her.
A terrifying ice spike shattered the ground beneath her feet, catapulting her into the air. Her defensive spells proved useless against it.
Ma Feiyue spat out a mouthful of blood while mid-air, her anger and shock palpable. This was no Golden Core cultivator's power; her assailant was another Nascent Soul cultivator!
In an instant, the giant ice spike exploded, scattering palm-sized shards at astonishing speeds throughout the small cultivation chamber. The shards were lethally fast, slicing through anything they touched.
The cultivation chamber was now filled with a bone-chilling coldness, infused with dense Yin Qi that froze the soul. The wounds Ma Feiyue sustained were penetrated by icy Spiritual Qi, weaving through her flesh like burrowing maggots, making her body stiff and numb.
"Die!" The icy voice came again from within the mist.
Suddenly, two beams of cold light shot out from the fog, aiming straight for Ma Feiyue's forehead and heart.
For the first time, Ma Feiyue felt the genuine threat of death. She screamed, not hesitating to eject her Nascent Soul, and even burned her Nascent Soul's essence to teleport instantaneously, desperate to escape.
A sinister chuckle sounded from the mist, "You cannot escape!"
A figure darted out with incredible speed, catching up to the fleeing Nascent Soul in an instant. A large hand grasped it tightly.
At that moment, Ma Feiyue experienced true despair.