The Qingfeng Sect at this moment was completely different from how it had been just a few hours earlier.
The entire mountain peak resembled a living hell.
The stench of blood was thick and choking, the ground thoroughly soaked crimson.
Ye Dingzhi stood quietly, dozens of figures kneeling submissively behind him.
Across the entire Qingfeng Sect,
there had been a total of thirty-five people: twenty-five experts at the Nine Heavens Realm, eight at the Fuyou Realm, and two at the Great Xiaoyao Realm.
Fifteen had died in battle, while five had been drained into dried husks by the white-bearded elder and the short, stout elder.
Of the remaining ten who died, Ye Dingzhi first used them to sacrifice his sword, then absorbed their inner strength with the Void Thought Art.
The final twenty were branded with demonic seals and turned into human puppets.
Ye Dingzhi carefully sensed his current strength.
First came the demonic sword.
After the blood sacrifice,
its compatibility with him skyrocketed.
The blade now radiated a blood-red glow, with condensed baleful qi clinging tightly to the sword body—terrifying to behold.
More importantly, as the number of blood sacrifices increased,
the quality of the demonic sword continued to rise.
Originally, the demonic sword had been an unrivaled divine weapon forged by Luo Bing Shen using extraterrestrial meteoric iron.
Its quality had reached the Immortal Palace tier—
the absolute limit that could be forged by mortal hands.
Now, after successive blood sacrifices,
the sword's quality had advanced to the Earth Immortal tier.
Ye Dingzhi sensed that if he carried out a few more such blood sacrifices, the demonic sword would advance to the Heavenly Immortal tier!
One had to know—
immortal swords above the Immortal Palace tier could only be forged by sword immortals.
A master craftsman whose forging skills and cultivation both reached the sword immortal level—just imagining such a person made it clear how rare they were.
As for Earth Immortal–tier swords,
they required at least a Half-Step Shenyou expert to forge.
Above that,
stood the highest quality: Heavenly Immortal swords.
On the current Top Ten Famous Swords list, the strongest sword, Heaven-Slaying, and the second-ranked Vermilion Bird, were both Earth Immortal–tier immortal swords.
That meant—
Ye Dingzhi's demonic sword was now on the same level as Heaven-Slaying, the strongest sword in the world.
And as the number of blood sacrifices increased,
the demonic sword could continue to grow stronger—
even surpassing Heaven-Slaying and becoming the strongest sword in existence.
…
Aside from the demonic sword,
Ye Dingzhi had also used the Void Thought Art to absorb the inner strength of ten Xiaoyao Heaven Realm experts.
Blood sacrifice absorbed blood, while the Void Thought Art absorbed inner strength.
The two methods did not conflict.
Among these ten Xiaoyao Heaven Realm experts,
nine were at the Nine Heavens Realm, while the remaining one was the short, stout elder, a Great Xiaoyao Realm expert.
After absorbing this inner strength,
Ye Dingzhi's power increased significantly once again.
Within the Half-Step Shenyou Realm, he had already reached the absolute pinnacle.
Even against a true Shenyou Profound Realm expert, he could exchange a move or two.
It had to be said—
after falling into demonic cultivation, the speed of advancement was truly terrifying.
Not only was ordinary cultivation extremely fast,
one could even grow stronger through killing.
And the strength gained from killing was several times greater than that from normal cultivation.
Only now did Ye Dingzhi truly realize—
killing was the correct way for demonic cultivators to cultivate.
However,
though he was a demonic cultivator, he would not slaughter the innocent indiscriminately.
Ordinary civilians—no matter how many he killed—would not grant him the slightest increase in strength.
Only top-tier martial experts were worthy targets.
Though he had fallen into demonic ways, these so-called top experts of the martial world were hardly any better.
In fact, they were often even more demonic than he was.
Every single top expert had climbed to their position atop mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Among those he had killed, any random one, if singled out, had hands stained with the blood of hundreds or even thousands.
The white-bearded elder and the short, stout elder required human vital blood to cultivate their techniques; to reach the Great Xiaoyao Realm, they had absorbed the essence blood of at least tens of thousands.
The Qingfeng Sect Master specialized in poison—once, in a single night, he had poisoned an entire small city to death just to test his toxins.
In the martial world, people could kill at will over the slightest displeasure.
Ordinary civilians, before these top experts, were not even treated as human—no different from pigs or dogs.
As for the imperial court,
it was even more ruthless than these martial experts.
Top experts merely killed people;
the court treated the common folk as cattle, stripping bone and marrow, draining every last ounce of value.
…
Ye Dingzhi gazed at the dozens of figures prostrating themselves before him, his eyes flickering slightly.
Even the weakest among them was at the Nine Heavens Realm.
The strongest was at the Great Xiaoyao Realm.
Such a force
was nothing short of terrifying.
Even if he wanted to flatten all of Nanjue,
there would be no obstacle whatsoever.
However, the martial world of Nanjue
had already been completely swept clean by him.
Continuing further would serve little purpose.
At this moment,
a mechanical electronic voice rang out in Ye Dingzhi's mind.
[Congratulations to the host for completing the second task of the Demonic Path Leader.]
[Preliminary formation of a force!]
[Host has successfully controlled twenty-one Nine Heavens Realm experts, eight Fuyou Realm experts, and one Great Xiaoyao Realm expert.]
[Reward: Soul-Refining Banner!]
As the system's voice faded,
Ye Dingzhi moved his thoughts.
Instantly,
a bizarre Soul-Refining Banner appeared in his hand.
He examined it carefully. The banner's staff seemed to be crafted from some kind of special bone, jet-black throughout, while the banner cloth itself appeared to be made from an unknown hide.
The surface was covered with strange, profound runes and patterns. Just looking at them made one feel an involuntary chill.
Perhaps because the banner had not yet been refined, and no human souls had been infused into it,
the Soul-Refining Banner looked eerie but did not yet emit any terrifying aura.
"It seems… I'll need to kill more people."
Ye Dingzhi thought calmly.
His demonic sword required blood sacrifices, the Void Thought Art required inner strength,
and now there was an additional Soul-Refining Banner that required human souls.
It truly exploited every resource to the utmost.
Putting away the Soul-Refining Banner,
Ye Dingzhi looked into the distance—toward Beili.
"It's time… to go to Beili."
...
The next day.
All of Nanzhao was thrown into turmoil.
"What?!!"
"The dozens of Xiaoyao Heaven Realm experts of Qingfeng Sect were completely wiped out???"
"Even the two imperial palace retainers died on the spot—one drained into a dried husk, the other leaving no corpse behind?!!"
At this moment,
everyone in Nanzhao was utterly shaken.
Inside the Nanzhao imperial palace.
"Is this news true?!!"
The Emperor of Nanzhao asked in fury and shock.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, this news… is absolutely true!"
"Bang!!!"
The emperor's hand trembled violently, knocking a vase off the desk.
"That was more than thirty Xiaoyao Heaven Realm experts! And two Great Xiaoyao Realm experts!"
"Even a Half-Step Shenyou expert couldn't possibly keep them all there!"
The emperor's face was filled with disbelief.
If people had merely died—even if it had been mutual destruction—he wouldn't have been so shocked.
They were expendable.
But the problem now was—
they were all dead.
Yet the purple-robed demon had vanished without a trace.
That was what truly terrified him.
This battle was enough to show that the purple-robed demon's strength had already stepped into the Half-Step Shenyou Realm.
If this demon continued to rampage through Nanzhao—
or even stormed the imperial palace itself—
could the palace withstand it?
Thinking of this,
the emperor's expression turned pale with fear.
"Effective immediately, place the imperial palace under the highest level of lockdown!"
"Also—invite the Grand Supreme Retainer to emerge!"