Crushed

With the death of Long Wuyin, Supreme Elder of the Yunxiao Sword Sect, the entire sect was gripped by the terrifying sensation that the sky itself had collapsed. Every cultivator possessing the capability leapt into the air, flying on their swords to flee for their lives. However, regional hegemon factions like the Yunxiao Sword Sect typically concentrated the resources of the entire sect to sustain a single top powerhouse. Or rather, the entire sect had developed around that lone figure. On Beihai Star, a sect was not about heritage, nor was it about kindred spirits. A sect was merely an institution formed when an expert felt the need for helpers to handle trivial daily matters; once word was put out, the weak would voluntarily attach themselves and willingly serve the strong. Consequently, on Beihai Star, nearly all sect members existed to serve the one or two supreme experts at the pinnacle. The Yunxiao Sword Sect was a prime example. Aside from Long Wuyin, their strongest expert with an Incandescent White Golden Core, the sect did not possess a single Radiant Sun Golden Core, and their Crimson Golden Cores could be counted on one hand. With Qi Chixin's fate serving as a cautionary tale, Li Hanqiu naturally had no intention of letting tigers return to the mountain. With an ethereal wave of his hand, of the four Crimson Golden Cores—three fleeing and one begging for mercy—three were instantly wiped out. As Li Hanqiu moved to strike down the last fleeing cultivator, Yaoguang spoke up. "Leave this one to me." "You?" Li Hanqiu looked at Yaoguang. "This Crimson Golden Core didn't take the Battle Immortal path—he is a genuine Crimson Golden Core who has cultivated essence, qi, and spirit in unison. Are you certain?" "I'm confident," Yaoguang said. Li Hanqiu glanced at the Golden Core cultivator, who appeared to have broken through not long ago. Letting Yaoguang use him for practice was not a bad idea. He nodded. Yaoguang immediately mounted the Swimming Dragon Sword, swiftly giving chase to the fleeing Crimson Golden Core. After a moment, he seemed to recognize something. If the information provided by Fang Yueming was accurate, this fleeing Crimson Golden Core was none other than Ran Tianchi, who had ambushed and killed Qi Chixin six years ago. Six years ago, he had only been in the Constant Light realm, yet in just six years, he had attained a Crimson Golden Core. Add to that his age... Under eighty! Such talent would nearly qualify him to become an outer disciple of the Taiyi Immortal Sect. ... Ahead, Ran Tianchi, having already unleashed a forbidden art, sensed his pursuer behind him, a flicker of fury igniting in his eyes. "Heavenly Fire realm?!" A mere Heavenly Fire realm cultivator dared to hunt down a Crimson Golden Core like him?! If a Void Piercing powerhouse had not been backing the brat, he would have spun around on the spot to teach him the meaning of death. For now, however, he had to get away—far away from the Yunchuan Mountain Range. As he fled, hatred and murderous intent churned uncontrollably in his chest. "With my talent of achieving a Crimson Golden Core at just seventy-seven, if Long Wuyin hadn't bound me with a blood oath, why would I have stooped to languishing in a petty place like the Yunxiao Sword Sect?! Fortunately, Long Wuyin is dead. I've regained my freedom. As soon as I survive this calamity, I can easily join a major sect—even becoming the disciple of a Void Piercing elder wouldn't be an extravagant dream! If I break through to the Void Piercing realm one day, not only will you petty Heavenly Fire ant die, but the Void Piercing backer behind you will die too!" He glanced back at Yaoguang, who was giving chase. "One day, I will return to the Yunchuan Mountain Range. When that time comes, the sect masters and leaders of every faction in the Yunchuan Mountain Range will kneel before me and revere me as..." His thoughts reached this point when he suddenly felt something was amiss. He was a Crimson Golden Core! The energy released by the Golden Core within him was immense. Under such energy output, a single evasion covered three to four li. A mere Heavenly Fire cultivator behind him should have lagged leagues behind. Why... Was he closing the distance?! A Heavenly Fire cultivator was moving faster than a Crimson Golden Core?! What kind of infernal joke was this?! ... No matter how incredulous Ran Tianchi was, Yaoguang continued to draw closer. Furthermore, as he grew more proficient in using the supreme divine ability Nine Transformations of Heavenly Walk and tapped deeper into his Child of the Void talent, his speed in pursuing Ran Tianchi grew faster and faster. When the gap between them narrowed to a single breath, countless stellar essences within Yaoguang's Star God body underwent rapid fission. Under precise control comparable to the divine mind of an Incandescent White Golden Core, an immense power capable of destroying cities and nations surged forth, pouring entirely into the blade of the Swimming Dragon Sword. Once his Child of the Void talent attuned to the rhythmic vibrations flowing through the surrounding void, this force concentrated at the sword's tip struck out like void-cleaving sword qi, crashing violently toward Ran Tianchi's figure. Sky-Cleaving Strike. Sensing the void-shattering strike behind him as he fled for his life, Ran Tianchi's expression changed drastically. The Crimson Golden Core within him surged to its limit, akin to compressing all the energy released by a red star in a single day, and the moment he turned, he slashed out. Although Beihai Star exerted an exceptionally powerful devouring force on energy forms, and the surface pressure alone rivaled the cores of many planets, the erupting energy still formed a colossal flaming sword hundreds of meters wide that violently collided with Yaoguang's incoming Sky-Cleaving Strike. The moment the two clashed, the flaming sword hundreds of meters long seemed struck by a mountain, bursting on the spot into ten thousand zhang of brilliant radiance, scattering endless light and flames in all directions. If this were somewhere like the Cangwu Great World, these exploding bursts of light and flame would have rained down like meteors, triggering earthquakes and volcanic eruptions sufficient to lay waste to thousands or even tens of thousands of li of land. On Beihai Star, however, these splashing flames flew merely several thousand meters before rapidly dispersing into the atmosphere due to tremendous "air resistance." Aside from raising the ambient temperature slightly, they inflicted virtually no physical damage upon the ground. "How can this be?!" Feeling his divine ability, the Flame Fiend Saber, crushed, Ran Tianchi was shaken to the core. Yet any cultivator on Beihai Star who attained success was a battle-hardened veteran. The instant his divine ability was broken, he reacted with extreme swiftness: misty vapor swirled across his body as he abruptly unleashed a second divine ability—Cloud Dissipation and Mist Concealment! When the residual force of the Sky-Cleaving Strike struck his defensive divine ability, it was like a bullet entering water, its power swiftly decelerated. Seizing this opportunity, Ran Tianchi united with his sword and shot forward like a streak of light. Accompanied by a burst of bloody light, his speed soared to a level far exceeding that of a typical Crimson Golden Core. "He blocked it?" Yaoguang was slightly surprised. A moment later, he realized that he simply lacked combat experience. Relying on his higher-dimensional comprehension, his mastery of divine abilities progressed at a pace beyond anyone's imagination. However, conceptual understanding was one thing; practical application was another. Still, hadn't he kept Ran Tianchi alive precisely to gain practical experience? Otherwise, had he summoned his external core and unleashed the Sky-Cleaving Strike with it, the battle would already be over. With this thought, he executed the Nine Transformations of Heavenly Walk once more. And this execution showed yet another leap forward compared to the last. If this supreme divine ability had a proficiency bar where going from beginner to minor mastery was 1/100, then right now, each time he executed it, his proficiency jumped by 20, 30, or even 40 points. Within a few uses, he reached minor mastery, and after a dozen more, he would rise to major mastery and eventually perfection. Of course, even if he brought this supreme divine ability to perfection right now, he wouldn't be able to unleash its true, ultimate might. His own cultivation realm was simply too low. Yet by relying on the intrinsic power of the supreme divine ability, he forcibly closed the speed gap between the Heavenly Fire and Crimson Golden Core realms, once again catching up to Ran Tianchi. Correcting the deficiencies from his previous Sky-Cleaving Strike, he delivered another blow. Though he was merely a Heavenly Fire cultivator—equivalent to the fourth realm of the nine Golden Core realms—he managed, through the might of the supreme divine ability, to evoke a trace of the imposing presence possessed only by Void Piercing experts. Although it had only the sound and not the full form, let alone the soul, when the strike's might amplified under the ripples of the void into the ominous aura of void collapsing and void shattering, it was still enough to terrify the Crimson Golden Core cultivator out of his wits. For the first few clashes, Ran Tianchi was barely able to rely on his rich experience to hold his ground, fighting while fleeing. But as Yaoguang's proficiency in wielding this supreme divine ability climbed steeply, every subsequent Sky-Cleaving Strike shook this Crimson Golden Core cultivator's core to its foundation. When Yaoguang drew close once more and brought down the sixth Sky-Cleaving Strike, even though Ran Tianchi unleashed secret forbidden arts, he could only watch as the strike carried the momentum of space itself, annihilating his resistance like crushing dry weeds. Its momentum unabated, the strike slammed into his body. Under the violent shockwave, even the Crimson Golden Core inside him could no longer bear the strain and fractured on the spot. At this moment, Ran Tianchi looked like a Battle Immortal on the verge of self-detonation. "Mercy! Immortal, show mercy! The Yunxiao Sword Sect is already destroyed; I pose no threat to you! I am willing to swear a blood oath to follow at your side as a slave, to be dispatched as you see fit! I only beg the immortal for a way to live..." He immediately projected his divine mind, begging piteously, seeking only to preserve his life. As long as he did not die, anything was possible! This was the universal consensus among all cultivators of Beihai Star! Cruel competition had taught them early on that surviving was more important than anything else! Those unyielding figures with spines of steel had all turned into countless piles of bleached bones on Beihai Star before ever growing to fruition. "A way to live?" Yaoguang's divine mind rippled. "Do you know why we destroyed the Yunxiao Sword Sect?" "Could it be that the Yunxiao Sword Sect offended you, Immortal? I have not been with the Yunxiao Sword Sect for long; I bear no intention whatsoever to live and die with them!" "Not long? It's been at least thirty years, hasn't it?" Yaoguang said. "After all, it has been over thirty years since Perfected Cultivator Qi Chixin took up residence in Huaigu City." "Qi Chixin?!" Hearing Yaoguang mention this name, Ran Tianchi immediately understood. "You people..." These people... Had come to avenge Qi Chixin?! In an instant, his eyes filled with despair. "It's over." Yaoguang reached out again, unleashing a Sky-Cleaving Strike with more than double the ease and swiftness he had shown at the beginning. At this moment, Ran Tianchi, whose Golden Core was already shattered, could no longer resist. "I hate it! I hate it! I only hate that I was too weak! Too weak to slaughter every cultivator on Beihai! In Beihai, the weak are meat for the strong! One day, you will be reduced to ashes at the hands of cultivators stronger than you!" He let out a despairing, resentful howl as the energy within his shattered Golden Core released entirely. Instantly, what appeared to be a red sun over a dozen li in diameter rose into the sky, annihilating everything.