Spirit Ruin, Sword Coffin, Blind Swordsman

Somewhere in an unknown stretch of the void, five of the Eight Generals had Sha surrounded. A battle could erupt at any moment.

Only the Eight Generals were capable of confronting Sha. Even Li Guanqi would not dare step into a battle of this caliber.

Although their cultivation appeared to be only at the late Mahayana Realm, every one of the Eight Generals was an elite among elites. None of them felt daunted by a half-step Tribulation Realm opponent like Sha.

Any one of them could fight an opponent one minor realm above themselves. And this so-called minor realm actually represented the gulf between two major cultivation tiers.

A half-step Tribulation Realm opponent was probably the strongest any one of them could handle alone. Or perhaps the ability to do so was merely one of the requirements for becoming one of the Eight Generals.

Sha stood alone at the center of the array tray suspended in the void. His hands were clasped behind his back as he slowly raised his head toward the sky, showing no fear.

“So… this day has finally come.”

His inscrutable gaze swept over the Eight Generals, and he let out a cold laugh.

Boom!

Terrifying pressure erupted at once. It bore down on everyone, pinning them in place and making even the slightest movement difficult.Sha was finally revealing his true strength. His red robe snapped in the resulting storm.

Hong Zhi narrowed her eyes, her expression turning incomparably grave. She had once lost to Sha and knew exactly how formidable he was. He was at least Long Hou’s equal and possibly even stronger. But Long Hou was away on a mission, leaving only them to carry out this assassination.

Buzz!

Demonic qi spread across ten thousand zhang. Countless vengeful spirits writhed within the churning black mist, shrieking and struggling to escape.

Hong Zhi said solemnly, “Everyone, be careful. He’s stronger than I am!”

The others’ expressions sharpened.

Sha’s pale hands emerged slowly from his sleeves. Blood-red patterns suddenly appeared on his mask, glowing faintly.

The eerie, blood-marked mask made their hearts lurch. Beneath it, his eyes burned with madness, and his features twisted into a strange, incomprehensible smile.

Boom!

“Transcendent Demon Titan!”

Boom!

Demonic qi churned as though boiling. The overwhelming pressure swept across the battlefield, and the forbidden-domain array You Ming had constructed rippled violently.

A fierce gale swept through. Li Guanqi narrowed his eyes, and everyone’s expression grew increasingly grave.

Clang!

Hong Zhi’s long blade flew from its sheath.

“Move! Stop him!” she quickly shouted.

She looked overhead. A massive vortex of demonic qi had suddenly appeared overhead, churning amid the gathering wind and clouds.

Nangong Xuandu surged upward with a three-chi azure sword in hand. Violent wind erupted beneath his feet, propelling him forward like lightning.

Four figures attacked Sha from four directions at once.

“Come out,” Sha murmured.

Boom!

Crackle, crackle, crackle!

You Ming’s expression darkened.

Above them, a colossal black shadow burst from the surging demonic qi, standing hundreds of zhang tall. Three pairs of cold, emotionless, blood-red eyes lined its face, sweeping across the battlefield like a demonic spider’s compound eyes. Perhaps because its body was so massive, only its upper half emerged from the demonic cloud.

A gigantic claw plunged into the array tray You Ming had created.

Screech! Crackle!

Sparks flew everywhere. You Ming erupted in fury and shot forward, appearing atop the blood array as he glared up at the shadow.

He formed hand seals, and thick clouds of blood mist burst from his arms. Crouching slightly, he slammed both palms onto the array.

“Who do you think you are? Mountain Dwelling, Stabilize! Blood Seal, Sever! Forbidden Art, Blood Barrier!”

You Ming’s veins bulged across his neck, his face flushed crimson, and fine cracks began splitting across his arms. Void energy fused into the array as multiple layers of blood-colored light arrays stacked together.

But the shadow’s pressure was overwhelming. The blood barriers shattered one after another.

Boom!

The massive shadow broke through the array and towered behind Sha. It swept both arms outward, sending Hong Zhi and the others flying.

You Ming was hurled through the air as well. He spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes filled with disbelief. “That bastard! This shadow feels off! It... It’s his manifested clone!”

Everyone was stunned.

Hong Zhi steadied herself and looked down at her split palm. Frowning, she said in a low voice, “Impossible! He’s already at the half-step Tribulation Realm. How could he conceal something like this from the heavens, severing his own three hun and seven po to create a clone?”

Li Guanqi and the others were sent flying for thousands of zhang. They felt as though a mountain had landed on their chests, making it hard to breathe.

Li Guanqi’s heart trembled as he stared at the demonic shadow looming high above, more than a hundred zhang tall.

Sword Spirit’s voice echoed in his mind. “That truly is his manifested clone. Someone from the Immortal World must have guided him. Severing the soul to forge a divine body... Accomplishing such a thing in the Human World should be impossible. Even in the Immortal World, almost no one knows of this technique.”

Li Guanqi frowned. “How is this different from my clone, Coward Li?”

Sword Spirit’s gaze sharpened, and she answered quickly, “There is a vast difference. This method takes an ordinary clone and tempers it repeatedly until it reaches this state. Each refinement consumes a small fragment of the original body’s divine soul, though that lost divine soul power can be restored. There must be someone else backing him!”

The words had barely left her mouth when Sha slowly raised his right hand. The massive demonic shadow thrust one arm into the interlayer of the void.

Black array runes flickered wildly. In an instant, a thousand-zhang wall of array light rose and shrouded the entire world.

Hong Zhi’s eyes flashed with cold determination. Instead of retreating, she charged forward, and the clear chime of a bell resounded through the void.

Boom!

A terrifying blade of crimson light, five hundred zhang long, suddenly appeared. It shot forward so swiftly that Nangong Xuandu and the others saw only a red flash streak past them.

“Seven Killings Asura Slash!”

The blade light shook the heavens.

Sha’s lips curled slightly. The demonic shadow shifted sideways to block the strike and crossed its arms before itself as a dark, ghostly light surged around it.

Boom!

The shadow forcibly blocked Hong Zhi’s attack. A deafening explosion erupted. The impact drove it back more than a hundred zhang before it finally came to a stop beside Sha.

Both its arms had been severed, and a horrifying wound gaped across its chest. Yet, the torn flesh regenerated in the blink of an eye.

Sha murmured, “Come, then. Whether you can destroy the Sha organization will depend on your strength.”

Buzz!

Violent spatial fluctuations rippled through the black array. The next moment, masked, red-robed figures began appearing one after another.