The moment that terrifying Divine Sense swept through the inn, Mo Fan almost believed he'd turn to ash the next second.
Fortunately, perhaps because the Mystic Realm's Divine Sense couldn't identify a Necromancer's unique "otherworldly" aura, the anticipated destruction didn't arrive.
However, the calm lasted only moments. Above in the sky, the war belonging to the Golden Core stage officially commenced.
As Elder Liu Yun's slender finger pressed gently downward, the entire sky above Qingmu Town completely transformed.
The originally gray, oppressive clouds were instantly dyed a translucent azure-green.
The clouds churned violently, each one seemingly carved and reassembled by invisible blades, transforming into countless fine sword Qi swimming across the sky. At this moment, the firmament was no longer a firmament but a magnificent sword tomb suspended overhead, gleaming with cold light. Every stream of flowing light emanated a heart-stopping sharpness.
On the ground, that blood-colored python erupting from underground refused to yield.
Amid the withered old man's maniacal laughter, dark crimson malevolent Qi exploded like a tsunami, staining the earth within ten miles blood-red. The originally solid dirt roads rapidly softened and collapsed under the malevolent Qi's corrosion, becoming a churning blood plasma swamp with foul bubbles.
Above was an azure sword domain; below, a crimson blood sea.
Two completely different forces representing Golden Core peak power crashed together above Qingmu Town with thunderous impact.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Because the energy density was too great, already exceeding the air medium's carrying capacity, sound was swallowed by terrifying spiritual pressure the instant it formed. Heaven and earth seemed muted, leaving only visually suffocating color collisions.
Hiding behind a ruined wall, Mo Fan saw only the air at the cyan-red boundary violently distort like water ripples, then shatter, forming a visible vacuum fault line across the sky.
Within that fault line—pitch blackness, as if even light had been severed.
Then came the delayed, devastating shockwave.
"Whooom—!"
No sound, only searing pain like ruptured eardrums.
Those surviving buildings on Qingmu Town's outskirts silently collapsed under this soundless impact like sandcastles, turning to dust without leaving a single intact brick or tile.
At that very moment, the white-robed disciple Luo Yu floating in mid-air moved. His Spirit Sword transformed into a massive light screen, covering Qingmu Town's central area like a bowl, barely blocking this destructive aftershock.
"This is... Golden Core stage?"
Mo Fan huddled in a load-bearing wall's dead corner, hands pressed firmly over his ears, blood flowing between his fingers. Watching this mythological scene unfold before him, his mind went blank, his worldview completely reshaped in this moment.
In mid-air, the battle had entered white-hot intensity.
"Liu Yun! This place has been refined by me into a Blood River Formation!"
The withered old man stood atop that three-hundred-foot blood python, form rising and falling with blood waves, hand seals shifting unpredictably. Though the python's body was shattered countless times by the sky full of sword Qi, each time the exploded blood water would instantly reassemble before hitting ground, becoming even more violent.
"I have earth vein spiritual energy endlessly replenishing me! As long as the earth veins remain unbroken, I am an immortal body! What will you use to kill me?!"
He suddenly produced from his sleeve a tattered, ancient-smelling black flag—the [ Blood River Banner ].
With a wave in the wind, the small flag instantly swelled to thirty feet tall, countless ferocious faces embroidered on its surface seemingly coming alive.
"Wooo-wooo-wooo—"
Countless shrill screams echoed through heaven and earth. These were the resentments of countless beings previously devoured by the blood river, now transformed into thousands upon thousands of hideous blood-colored arrows that, like a locust plague, overwhelmingly attacked Liu Yun in the sky, trying to gnaw at his protective spiritual light.
Facing this sky full of demonic might, Elder Liu Yun's expression remained calm as still water, not even shifting his stance.
As an orthodox sword cultivator, he needed no flashy techniques.
He merely opened his mouth and gently exhaled.
"Go."
A point of jade-green cold light flew from his mouth.
This was a three-inch jade-green small sword—Liu Yun's life-bound flying sword Qingming, nurtured for a hundred years. Though the sword body was small, it was engraved with densely packed ancient cloud patterns, each line seemingly sealing a thunderbolt within.
The small sword swelled in the wind, instantly becoming a thousand-foot giant sword spanning heaven and earth. Azure lightning coiled around the sword body—manifestation of sword intent condensed to its extreme.
"Suppress."
Liu Yun uttered one word lightly.
The giant sword fell.
Without any flourish, just pure, unreasonable "severing."
This sword strike carried a rule-force seemingly capable of cutting space. Those blood-colored spiritual energies flooding upward, upon contact with sword intent, directly annihilated to ash without even time to scream, no chance to reassemble.
This was sword cultivation's dominance—one sword breaks ten thousand techniques.
CLANG—!
The giant sword struck the blood screen transformed from the Blood River Banner, producing an extremely crisp metallic tremor.
This sound was no longer silent but a high-frequency sonic attack, sweeping out in tangible ripples.
"Ah!"
Mo Fan in the ruins screamed, curling up like a shrimp.
Just the residual sound waves from two magic treasures colliding made his internal organs resonate, as if pulverizing his bones.
The System Panel on his retina was instantly covered by glaring red light, that series of frantically jumping warning characters like Death's countdown:
[ Warning! High-frequency spiritual power sonic impact detected! ]
[ HP: 80 ➜ 75 ➜ 68 ➜ 60... ]
His health bar dropped like leaking water.
"Damn! Is this immortals fighting while mortals suffer?!"
Mo Fan couldn't care about hiding his strength anymore. He frantically circulated the Iron Bone Art, his entire skin instantly turning the color of black iron, muscles tensing to their limit, resisting that pervasive sonic wave like an unyielding stone.
"Too strong... My skeleton army before this kind of power isn't even cannon fodder—at most dust."
Mo Fan gritted his teeth, eyes full of shock. His prized [ Corpse Explosion ] before this casual basic attack was simply child's play.
In the air, the withered old man clearly hadn't expected Liu Yun's life-bound flying sword to be so sharp.
Seeing the Blood River Banner suppressed, even developing a crack on its surface, the previously smug demonic cultivator finally panicked.
"Good! Good! Good! Since you won't give me a way to live, then let's die together!"
Madness flashed through the withered old man's eyes. His hands formed an extremely bizarre seal and pressed down forcefully.
"Rise for me!"
He was forcibly extracting the last bit of essence from the underground spiritual veins—destroying Qingmu Town's foundation!
Divine Ability: [ Blood Demon Disintegration ]
RUMBLE—
The earth shattered. Underground soil mixed with foul blood water churned wildly, actually condensing before everyone's eyes into a hundred-meter-tall mud-blood giant.
The giant had no features, only a massive maw devouring heaven and earth, body flowing with corrosive pus and blood. It swung fists even larger than city walls, carrying poisonous corrosive spiritual power, roaring as it smashed toward Liu Yun in the sky.
If this punch landed solidly, not just Liu Yun—even Qingmu Town below would be razed flat.
"Obstinate and unrepentant, daring to damage the earth veins."
For the first time, true anger flashed through Liu Yun's eyes.
The earth veins were the sect's foundation—this demonic cultivator was cutting off Azure Cloud Sect's sustenance.
"If so, you cannot be left alive."
Liu Yun abandoned his previous contempt. His hands rapidly formed seals, behind him suddenly appearing a massive azure Dharma Image—a towering pine, branches like swords, standing proud in the firmament, emanating an eternally enduring aura.
He no longer used his sword but raised one hand to the sky.
Divine Ability: [ Azure Wood Divine Thunder ]
In the originally azure-green sky, countless green thunderbolts suddenly emerged.
These weren't ordinary lightning but Wood Element Divine Thunder carrying dual attributes of vitality and destruction. Vitality to repair the earth veins, destruction to purify demonic Qi.
"Fall!"
With Liu Yun's great wave.
BOOM!
Ten thousand thunderbolts fired simultaneously.
Green thunder plasma poured down like a waterfall from the ninth heaven, instantly submerging that hundred-meter blood giant.
No explosion, only a scalp-tingling "sizzle."