The Curtain Falls!

The Great Xia Sword Sect disciples about to be surrounded and slaughtered were liberated in an instant. With one man and one sword, Li Guanqi broke through the blockade, plunging straight into the enemy's Foundation Establishment disciples!! Terrifying killing intent and blood-red eyes chilled anyone who laid eyes on him to the bone. In just a few breaths, Li Guanqi had slaughtered nearly twenty Foundation Establishment disciples!! Corpses plunged from the air like dumplings dropping into boiling water. Not a single fallen corpse remained intact; wherever that lightning-swift sword light flashed, countless mangled chunks tumbled down. Splattering blood dyed his white robe crimson. At this moment, Li Guanqi was like a god of slaughter. Even early Core Formation disciples could not last three breaths against him! Under Red Lotus's Soul Release, the lethal power of every strike was terrifyingly vast! Coupled with the plundered Blade Break ability, unless an opponent wielded a natal soul armament, none could withstand a single blow!! In a dozen breaths, five Core Formation disciples had already fallen by Li Guanqi's hand. Yet within Li Guanqi's body, the golden core had grown dim. In such sustained warfare, the spirit stones in his robe could not keep up with his consumption. Almost the exact moment his origin energy ran dry, Li Guanqi unhesitatingly tore open his collar with his teeth and swallowed the bloodstained fabric whole!! And inside his collar were sewn two whole Spirit Burst Pills! Boom!!!! The instant the pills entered his body, a shrill, agonizing scream was wrenched from Li Guanqi's throat!! His blood seemed to ignite at that very instant—an agony that scorched the soul and tore through the flesh! Standing where he was, Li Guanqi's body suddenly erupted into a plume of bloody mist!! His body twisted hideously in midair, his hands flailing wildly as though seized by violent convulsions. Boom!!! Li Guanqi's aura surged wildly upward!!! Mid Core Formation... peak mid Core Formation!!! He snatched the floating Red Lotus sword beside him, his pupils completely turned blood-red. Thump!! A muffled sonic boom rang out, and Li Guanqi's figure streaked forward like a flash of purple lightning!! Many disciples who had previously swallowed Spirit Burst Pills were gradually growing frail and exhausted. Yet whenever a flash of purple lightning swept before their eyes, the enemies facing them would suddenly burst apart. The powerful experts high in the sky had long noticed the situation below. Yet how could the peak elders of the Great Xia Sword Sect allow Nascent Soul cultivators to lay a hand on Li Guanqi? Every one of them staked their very lives to hold these foes at bay. A ruthless glint flashed in Lu Kangnian's eyes as he roared thunderously, "Swallow the pills!!" Boom!!!! Almost the second Lu Kangnian issued the command, every elder and peak master of the Great Xia Sword Sect swallowed the pills held in their mouths in unison! Their auras began climbing wildly!! After swallowing the pill, Lu Kangnian's surrounding spiritual pressure spiked dramatically!! A hundred-zhang domain expanded in an instant!! Lu Kangnian grabbed one man's arm and, with a savage grimace, slashed downward!! Squelch!! Lu Kangnian violently tore the old man's arm off with brute force, then split his body in two with a single sword slash!! A bloodbath!! Neither side retreated, but the disciples of the Great Xia Sword Sect were pushed to their limits. Around Li Guanqi stood eight Core Formation cultivators! These eight surrounded him tightly, giving him no opportunity to strike. Among them were two late Core Formation elders whose attacks were sinister in the extreme! For a time, Li Guanqi was fraught with perils, wounds accumulating across his body. Covered in blood, Li Nanting saw this and moved to break away to Li Guanqi's aid, but the three surrounding him gave him no chance. Suddenly!! A terrifying explosion erupted!! A violent shockwave hurled everyone within fifty zhang back by dozens of zhang!! Tu Kui roared in anguished grief, "Linhai!!!" Tianjin Peak Elder Meng Linhai had detonated his golden core! In such dire straits, the resolve to die sparked in the eyes of many! In an instant, explosions rumbled one after another!! A youth in the prime of his life laughed boldly, "Ji Ren of Tianmu Peak willingly embraces death today!!" With that, the young man hurtled into the crowd, his hands clamping like vices onto two Qinglong Island disciples. "Ahhh!!! Get off me!!!" Swish! Swish!! Sword lights flashed, severing Ji Ren's arms, yet he sank his teeth directly into the man's shoulder!! Boom!!! Flames burst forth, and the three figures vanished into thin air, disintegrating into a cloud of bloody mist. The disciples of the Three Sects who had rushed in to reinforce looked upon this and swallowed hard, muttering under their breath, "Madmen... they're all fucking madmen!!" "Tiantu Peak disciple Zhu Yingwei!" Boom! Boom! Boom!! Lu Kangnian watched with tormented eyes. Below, disciples continuously exhausted their last drop of strength attempting to plant an azure banner atop the pavilion of Ziyang Palace! Yet Ziyang Palace disciples repeatedly struck out to sever the flagpole! Suddenly!! The void was torn open, and a cloud boat appeared!! Li Ye radiated a tremendous pressure as he barked in a deep voice, "Zhenyue Mountain arrives to reinforce!!!" "Kill them all!!!" Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!! In an instant, hundreds of figures soared up on their swords!! The tall, imposing Shen Qi held a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. At a single glance, he spotted Li Guanqi surrounded by enemies. At this moment, Shen Qi had actually broken through to the Core Formation realm!! A ruthless look crossed Shen Qi's stalwart face, and he tossed a Spirit Burst Pill into his mouth. He leaped and streaked straight toward Li Guanqi!! "Brother Li, hold on!! I'm here to back you!!" Boom!! Shen Qi's aura surged with immense power as he planted himself firmly behind Li Guanqi, shield in hand. He roared, "As long as I draw breath, leave your back to me!!" The scales that had already tilted were forcefully hauled back by the arrival of Zhenyue Mountain! Li Guanqi's gaze shifted, and his sword momentum suddenly cleaved out like a majestic mountain!! Many recognized it—this was the very sword style he had used to slay Zhao Beichen back then!! As the surrounding foes scattered to avoid its edge, Li Guanqi's figure flickered and dashed out!! Shen Qi followed close behind, deflecting several flashes of sword light!! With an explosive burst of speed, Li Guanqi arrived on the rooftop of Ziyang Palace's grand hall in the blink of an eye. A three-zhang-tall sect banner appeared in his hands. Gripping the flagpole with both hands, he rammed it downward!! Bang!! Crack, crack!! The flagpole shattered the rooftop's gilded tiles and sank deep into the main beam!! The sect banner snapped and fluttered in the high wind. Standing alone on the rooftop with sword raised, Li Guanqi roared with blood-red eyes, "I stand right here!! If you want to pull it down, come kill me!!!" At this moment, this was the ultimate humiliation inflicted by the Great Xia Sword Sect upon Ziyang Palace! Even the Ziyang Palace disciples who had contemplated retreat felt rage surge within them, charging toward Li Guanqi like madmen! Yet this sight not only provoked the Ziyang Palace disciples; it ignited the entire Great Xia Sword Sect. All at once, every disciple of the Great Xia Sword Sect began converging around Li Guanqi. Covered in blood, Han Tiange could no longer even speak. Around Lu Kangnian, a full eight Nascent Soul cultivators had already gathered!! As long as Lu Kangnian died, the outcome of this battle would be beyond dispute... Suddenly! A ray of sunlight climbed over the mountain peaks and bathed the earth. One terrifying pressure after another descended upon the void with thunderous majesty!!! Han Tiange snapped his gaze toward the void rifts ripping open across the heavens, murmuring in absolute horror, "Which faction has arrived now?" Figures clad in shimmering robes of various colors emerged continuously from the void! "Tianjin Peak disciple, Ji Hua, returns to the sect!!" "Tianmu Peak, Duan Chunqiu!" "Disciple Lü Yiyao!" "Disciple Zong Hui!" "Tianlei Peak! Ding Yang!!" Five Nascent Soul grandmasters... Yet the rifts in the sky continued to multiply!! Ten... eighteen... twenty-three!! "Tianfeng Peak, Fu Hong!" "Tianhuo Peak! Xu Yingyi!" "Tianlei Peak! Qiu Jun!" "......" Forty-seven!! Fifty-eight!! A full fifty-eight Nascent Soul grandmasters!!! Yet those who arrived were far from only these! In an instant, radiant clouds of light practically blanketed the entire sky over Ziyang Palace!! Countless cloud shuttles appeared in rapid succession, each carrying at least two people. Three hundred Core Formation... five hundred... seven hundred!!! Buzz!!!! The spectacle before him shook Han Tiange's soul to its core!! The fighting in the sky had long ground to a halt; at this point, fighting had lost all meaning. Yet right at that moment, aura after aura that caused the very void to tremble manifested! Ye Shaozhen, his face ashen, muttered, "The aura of the Soul Formation Realm..." Immediately after, a short-haired man clad in golden armor slowly stepped out from the void! His features were sharp and chiseled, with sword-like brows and star-like eyes, his countenance brimming with a fierce spirit of slaughter! The man turned to Lu Kangnian, bowed deeply, and said in a grave voice, "Thirty-seventh Peak Master of Tianjin Peak, Cui Quan!" Early Soul Formation! Buzz!! An alluring woman dressed in ice-blue robes stepped forward upon blooming ice flowers. "Thirty-fifth Peak Master of Tianshui Peak, Tu Shan!" Mid Soul Formation! Yet this was still not all. An elder in white robes carrying a dragon-head walking stick walked slowly out from nothingness. His hair and beard were completely white, his long brows extending past his nose. With just a slight glance downward, malevolent energy flared around him! "Thirty-third Discipline Master, Kong Yan, returns to the sect!" Late Soul Formation!! Heaven and earth fell dead silent. Han Tiange's eyes were hollow, his face ashen as death... His lips trembled, but not a single word could come out. This moment would perhaps be etched into the annals of the Northern Region's history. Sunlight washed over the earth, and the blood-soaked sect banner fluttered and snapped in the wind. Upon that sect banner, the bloodstained words 'Great Xia' burned glaringly bright.