Wherever the sword light passed, even the array plate barrier erected jointly by the cultivators began to show fine cracks!
A vicious glint flashed through Qu Xingzhou's eyes. Tearing open the domain with a wave of his hand, he dragged out dozens of cultivators in the Soul Formation Realm and Void Refining Realm!
All of them were bound together by spiritual light, a manic madness gleaming in Qu Xingzhou's eyes.
"Detonate!"
Dozens of cultivators began swelling in terror, and in the next instant, dozens of thunderous explosions roared out in unison!
Li Guanqi recoiled violently. His robes were riddled with scorched holes, leaving him in a ragged state.
His face darkened, and he said chillingly, "How does doing this make you any different from devils?!"
By then, Qu Xingzhou had already torn through the barrier. Through the rift, the reception heavenly tribulation had already begun to manifest!
Seeing this, the others followed suit at once, unleashing their respective auras to summon their own heavenly tribulations!
*Buzz!*
Standing upon Li Guanqi's shoulder, Pengluo said gravely, "Master, do we strike?"
Li Guanqi's chest heaved slightly. Exhaling a breath of turbid air, he uttered with icy resolve, "Strike!"
*Hum!*
Pengluo transformed into a streak of white light and instantly merged into Li Guanqi's body.
Immediately after, an esoteric purple pattern bloomed upon the center of Li Guanqi's brow.
His aura surged madly, rocketing to the half-step Tribulation Transcendence realm in the blink of an eye!
This ascent to paramount power caused Li Guanqi's killing intent to burn even fiercer.
"I gave you all a chance."
The moment the words left his mouth, a terrifying pressure clamped down upon the void!
Qu Xingzhou roared in horror, "Quick! Stop him!"
*Swish!*
Li Guanqi's afterimage remained rooted where he had stood, yet his real body had already appeared behind two of them.
The sword in his hand moved with peerless speed—so fast that even his opponents caught only a glimpse of a blood-red blur in the corner of their vision.
"Red Lotus: World's End!"
*Boom!*
One of the mighty cultivators poured everything he had into mounting a defense, yet all his techniques were utterly useless before that beam of sword light!
*Rumble!*
A massive chasm spanning over seven hundred zhang carved straight through several towering peaks!
Violent thunderous power, laced with absolute destructive force, tore through the void.
*Crack, crack, crack!*
A flurry of crisp fractures sounded as the array plate embedded with shards of an Immortal Realm dharma artifact shattered into pieces!
Li Guanqi said coldly, "Sword Ruins: Spirit Absolution!"
*Boom!*
Thousands of blood-red threads erupted from Li Guanqi's body, shooting out in all directions like steel needles.
In an instant, the colossal barrier cracked and crumbled into pieces.
Li Guanqi murmured under his breath, "Blade Break, Striking Force, Illusory Form!"
*Buzz! Boom!*
A pillar of purple lightning surged up from the ground, piercing straight into the clouds!
Li Guanqi's upper body was covered in dragon scales, his ferocious appearance striking fear into the hearts of all who beheld him.
The aura he radiated at this moment was potent enough to crush anyone present!
A suffocating sense of mortal peril enveloped the entire crowd.
Gritting his teeth, Qu Xingzhou looked up at the sky, which was gradually tearing apart. The ascension passage was on the verge of opening.
Madness consumed his eyes completely!
Thirty people... eighty people... two hundred people... four hundred people!
Qu Xingzhou had hurled out almost every single disciple of Wushuang Hall!
All of them glared at Qu Xingzhou with venomous hatred.
They could not believe that their usually gentle and amiable hall master would do something so depraved and insane.
Their bodies were no longer under their own control, and their dantians began swelling frantically!
Seeing this, Li Guanqi's killing intent solidified into near-tangible fury!
*Buzz!*
"Spirit Absolution!"
*Boom!*
A tempestuous divine sense rivaling that of a half-step Tribulation Transcendence expert erupted in a flash.
In less than a breath, it severed Qu Xingzhou's control over dozens of disciples!
Li Guanqi clenched one fist, and his divine sense transformed into thousands of ethereal swords that shot forward like lightning!
Sensing something amiss, Qu Xingzhou whirled around and roared, "If you don't strike now, every last one of us will die!"
*Boom!*
"Detonate! Detonate! Detonate!"
*Boom, boom, boom!*
One after another, cultivators' bodies swelled and detonated—at a speed so blinding that even Li Guanqi could not intervene in time.
Not only Qu Xingzhou, but the others had clearly realized the truth as well: if they hesitated any longer, all of them would perish!
Several spatial rifts opened, and the remaining seven figures dragged out the cultivators of their own clans.
Madness burned in their eyes as they forced their own kin to self-detonate in a frantic bid to stop Li Guanqi!
"Utterly deranged..."
Li Guanqi could even sense that many of the cultivators being forced to self-detonate shared direct bloodlines with them!
These were their own relatives... their own flesh and blood!
Gathered together, the dense swarm of cultivators numbered nearly two thousand.
Seen from a distance, they looked like a dense cluster of black specks emerging into the air, only to blast apart one after another.
*Boom, boom, boom!*
A sky-spanning sea of flames nearly swallowed the heavens whole!
Yet right at that moment, several beams of lightning sword light bloomed from within the inferno!
Li Guanqi's heavy murmur echoed through the chaos.
"Eight Desolations: Extinction!"
*Boom!*
A beam of terrifying sword light seemed to swallow every trace of light in the world. All anyone could see was the fleeting flash of a dazzling bolt of lightning sword light!
"No!"
"Attack together! Stop it!"
"Aaaah! Die, die, die, die!"
The remaining cultivators descended into frenzy, yet the blinding sword light remained faintly visible even from a thousand li away!
A Seventh Domain cultivator who had rushed over from the Lingxu Continent froze in his tracks.
"What a terrifying sword!"
"Why are there so many people?! Could it be... all the vanished ascenders are right here?! Damn it!"
When the sea of fire finally cleared, Li Guanqi stood drenched in blood, his hair in disarray.
His entire body was covered in charred burns and gruesome sword cuts, the flesh around his wounds charred and rolled outward.
The dragon scales across his upper torso were completely shattered, the remaining scales upturned and soaked in gore, as though they had been ripped off alive.
A piercing sword wound ran clean through his abdomen; had he not clutched it with his right hand, his entrails might have spilled out.
And before him... severed limbs and broken torsos rained down from the sky like dumplings dropped into boiling water.
The only person still left standing before him was Qu Xingzhou!
A single strike of the sword had wiped out seven Mahayana experts!
Li Guanqi's face was bloodless, his lips ash-white.
He had taken the full-power blow of eight peak Mahayana cultivators head-on, along with the simultaneous self-detonations of nearly a thousand cultivators...
Qu Xingzhou's pants were soaked through. The flesh of his arms had been stripped away, leaving only half-shattered bone.
Half of his face had been shorn of flesh, making him look horrifying and gruesome.
"Cough... cough... *blergh*..."
Above Qu Xingzhou's head, heavenly thunder rumbled. The reception heavenly tribulation was about to descend, the dark clouds churning violently.
Qu Xingzhou looked up with his single remaining eye, completely consumed by madness!
The internal organs within his body burst in an instant, unleashing a massive plume of blood mist.
His body surged toward the cloud layer at an unimaginable speed!
Li Guanqi jerked his head up, panic flaring in his eyes.
Burning away his very life force, Qu Xingzhou roared in frantic defiance:
"Didn't you all try to seal this away for all eternity?!"
"Today, I'll see for myself what happens when immortals descend to the mortal realm!"
Li Guanqi shot forward at breakneck speed, the muscles of his arm bulging as he slashed violently toward Qu Xingzhou's back!
"Immortal Slayer!"
*Boom!*
The sword light exploded forward, yet Qu Xingzhou's body was already swelling rapidly!
The very instant his form drew near the ascension rift in the heavens...
*BOOM!*
The shockwave of the detonation crashed into Li Guanqi, instantly enveloping him in searing, destructive energy.
His flesh burned away, his hair was instantly reduced to ash, and his chest and cheeks were charred black.
His body crashed violently into the earth, smashing clean through an entire mountain peak!
*Rumble!*
"*Pfft!* Cough... cough!"
Li Guanqi lay inside the deep crater.
Looking up at the shattered barrier, he could see the lingering shockwaves continuing to expand outward in all directions.
With a furious roar, he summoned the last dregs of his strength and clenched his fist toward the direction of Linyan City!
*Clang!*
Chapter 1199