The blast swept through the void for a hundred li around!!
A terrifying fissure tore across a thousand li, and the barren wasteland beyond was utterly obliterated.
The sheer force hurled everyone violently tens of thousands of zhang away. Coughing up blood, their bodies hurtled uncontrollably backward!!
Within the shattered void, the vast majority of the experts were grievously wounded. No one knew just how horrific the battle inside had been.
Nearly every powerhouse was battered and bleeding, while the most formidable Liang-ranked experts of the Sha organization were all slain!
Covered in blood and missing half her body, Hong Zhi gripped her blade in one hand and slashed it directly into Sha's neck!!!
Sha's robes hung in tatters. Beneath his mask, his face was shrouded in gray chaotic qi, and his eyes glared fixedly at Hong Zhi before him.
His right hand clamped tightly onto her blade edge, his gaze filled with bitter resentment and madness.
Half of Nangong Xuandu's face was a mangled mess of flesh and blood. Chankongzi knelt halfway in the void, hovering between life and death.
Youming's legs had disintegrated under demonic qi, and he lay unconscious in the depths of the void with only the faintest breath remaining.
All the others were gravely injured. The only ones still capable of moving were Hong Zhi and Nangong Xuandu!!
The chaotic qi over Sha's face suddenly dissipated, as if he could no longer sustain it.
It revealed an utterly unfamiliar countenance—a middle-aged man whose features were thoroughly plain, not even handsome.
The man's eyes gleamed with wild mania as he tightened his grip on Hong Zhi's blade, laughing harshly.
"Did you think... you could... kill me?!!!"
At the same time, his gaze abruptly swept toward Ye Feng, who was flying backward through the air!!!
Suppressing the blood churning up his throat, Li Guanqi immediately sensed disaster and roared, "Second Brother!!!"
Before his voice could fade, killing intent surged in Hong Zhi's eyes. Her pale, blood-stained lips parted slightly.
"I'll personally send you on your way!!!!"
Boom!!!
A blade light flashed, and a head tumbled.
The falling head bore a bizarre smile, while his physical body was utterly extinguished into nothingness.
A single point of light abruptly materialized.
Immediately after, an irresistible pull surged forth!!
Sha's remnant soul, condensed as though it were solid, vanished in a flash and burrowed straight into Ye Feng's arm!!
The phantom of an ancient soul lamp emerged from Ye Feng's arm, and in the next instant, Ye Feng's body was dragged directly into the soul lamp's projection.
Ye Feng's eyes were hollow. His piercing gaze swept across everyone, and a chilling voice slowly rang out.
"As long as I live, don't any of you dream of sleeping in peace."
Summoning her last ounce of strength, Hong Zhi brought her blade down with everything she had, slashing toward Ye Feng!!
Nangong Xuandu unleashed a colossal sword astral hundreds of zhang wide, hurtling through the air!!
Seeing that lightning-fast sword light, Li Guanqi's eyes nearly split open, and he yelled at the top of his lungs.
"No!!!!"
The soul lamp flickered with faint light, dragging Ye Feng's body into nothingness in an instant.
Right at that moment, Li Guanqi snapped his head up, his eyes glaring fixedly at the rift left by the soul lamp.
"Song Zhi'ang!!!!"
Indeed, he had seen Song Zhi'ang's phantom.
That woman, whose appearance and aura had undergone an earth-shattering transformation, bore a bizarre black floral pattern gleaming between her brows.
Her illusory figure was utterly cold and detached, her gaze inscrutable.
The matching soul lamp in her hand glowed with an eerie light!
The blade light and sword astral crisscrossed and burst forward, yet they still failed to stop Sha and Ye Feng.
Ye Feng's body plummeted into the fissure and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Rumble!!
Boom!!
The blade light and sword astral carved two terrifying chasms ten thousand zhang long into the earth.
Li Guanqi stood rooted to the spot, dazed. Beneath his sleeves, his clenched fingernails dug deep into his flesh, yet he did not dare look up or show the slightest sign of abnormality!!!
For the final sentence Ye Feng had spoken while still lucid was ringing in his ears.
"Eldest Brother..."
"If Sha is to be your greatest threat, then let me plunge into the abyss and become a villain reviled for ten thousand generations."
Crack!
Li Guanqi shattered his teeth, standing with his head bowed for a long, long time.
Disheveled hair veiled his face, but Cao Yan saw two crystalline tears fall.
Everything returned to silence.
It seemed only that fissure in the void, stretching for a thousand li and refusing to heal, could attest to what had just taken place here.
Everyone was grievously wounded. Even Li Guanqi was severely depleted of primal energy, and the wounds covering his body were blackened and weeping pus.
No one had been able to stop the methods Sha used as he fled; everyone had fought almost to utter exhaustion.
The Liang-ranked assassins were each among the very best of their respective stages within the Mahayana realm.
This time, with the sole exception of Sha, who had fled as a remnant soul, nearly all of the Sha organization's Chi, Mei, Wang, and Liang, as well as their red-robed assassins, had been slaughtered to the last!!
It could be said...
Save for Sha himself, the Sha organization no longer existed.
Yet everyone knew that so long as Sha was not dead, there was always the possibility that the organization would one day rise from the ashes!!
Bitter reluctance flashed in Hong Zhi's eyes, and her body fell powerlessly downward.
Buzz!!!
The void tore open, and Xiang Huaizhi, bathed in blood, arrived late.
The moment he saw everything before him, his heart shuddered violently!!
Seeing the wretched state of the crowd, he didn't waste time asking questions and hurriedly took out pills to treat everyone's injuries.
Li Guanqi flew up to a ruined mountain peak on the outside, setting Red Lotus down beside his feet.
Holding a jar of strong liquor, he looked down at the scorched earth beneath him, lost in thought.
No one disturbed him, quietly clearing the battlefield instead.
Li Guanqi simply gulped down the liquor, mouthful after mouthful...
He had once thought there might be something wrong with Ye Feng's ghost hand, yet he had never imagined this was actually Sha's hidden contingency!
"I... I should have realized it sooner..."
"The Sha organization used array methods to open the Purgatory Abyss."
"How did I not realize Second Brother's arm was connected to them?!"
"I thought that after Spirit Absolution, the ghost hand wouldn't have any more problems..."
Cao Yan stood not far behind Li Guanqi. Listening to his murmurs, he had no idea how to comfort him.
Two Abyss Demons had been hiding inside Ye Feng's ghost hand—something no one had anticipated.
Lurking undetected until now, it had truly been part of Sha's calculations all along.
Ye Feng's final words echoed endlessly in Li Guanqi's mind like the voice of a heart demon.
He didn't know what Ye Feng would become in the future.
Would he be the next Song Zhi'ang?
Would he turn into an evil cultivator who committed every atrocity and slaughtered the innocent?
He didn't know...
He didn't know how the two of them would face each other if that day truly came.
Would they draw their swords against each other with bloodshot eyes, or simply turn a blind eye and a deaf ear?
Li Guanqi clutched his head in agony, beating it with force!
"Aaaah!!!!! Why?!!!"
Scenes flashed rapidly before Li Guanqi's eyes.
From the very beginning, when that gambler Ye Feng had made a bet with him, to the battle at Ziyang Palace, to Ye Feng carrying him through the mountains alone against a hunting squad of dozens, fighting to the death without retreating a step.
To Ye Feng stepping alone into the Purgatory Abyss after they parted, climbing his way out of the depths just to catch up to him.
To Ye Feng brandishing his sword to storm the execution grounds, standing alone with his blade before Li Guanqi, his face filled with youthful bravado.
Yet now...
Upon hearing that Sha was immortal and fearing that Sha still wouldn't be wiped out this time, Ye Feng had chosen to willingly open his mind and merge with the power of the demon spirit.
Did those parting words grate on his ears?
No, Li Guanqi didn't think so, because he knew none of those words had been spoken against Ye Feng's heart.
Li Guanqi slowly raised his gaze. His white eyes were bloodshot, and the icy killing intent around him condensed almost into physical form!!
"Sha!! One day, I will kill you!!"
"Second Brother, wait for me. That day won't be long."
"I just hope... you don't do too many wrong things..."
Chapter 931