The Grief Valley City Lord’s momentum surged.
Strengthened by the Hard for Ordinary Men to Resist battle formation, his aura was more than double that of Hen Xiu.
“Hen Xiu, the enmity between the two of us is time to end!”
The Grief Valley City Lord gave a great shout.
Holding a soul banner in his hand, he gave it a light shake and myriad ghost spirits flew out from within.
The sound of the soul howls nearly shattered eardrums.
On the other side Hen Xiu was unwilling to show weakness.
At a single command countless blood beasts emerged from the blood mist filling the sky and charged head-on against the army of ghost spirits.
Twisted blood beasts and ghost spirits filling the sky slaughtered one another.
The scene was gloomy and terrifying, as if the hell of Yama.
This was still only the prelude.
The conflict between the two had not yet fully erupted.
Both the Grief Valley City Lord and Hen Xiu remained wary of each other.
A Golden Core cultivator stood beside the Grief Valley City Lord.
Through the strengthening of the battle formation his aura had already reached the early stage of Nascent Soul.
This person was precisely the Grief Valley City Lord’s capable subordinate—Zheng Rong.
Facing the Grief Valley City Lord, Zheng Rong spoke in counsel.
“City Lord, these ghost spirits filling the sky are merely cannon fodder and are entangled by the blood beast army. Why not allow this subordinate to step onto the field and probe Hen Xiu’s strength?”
The Grief Valley City Lord pondered for a moment and nodded in agreement.
“Then go. Do not force yourself. Probing is sufficient.”
Zheng Rong received the order and flew into the chaotic battle group.
With the support of the battle formation, every spell Zheng Rong released was strengthened to the Nascent Soul level.
With a single move he could instantly kill a Golden Core-level blood beast leader.
Feeling the surging, billowing power within his body, Zheng Rong felt that he was unprecedentedly powerful.
“Is this the feeling of a Nascent Soul cultivator? Truly powerful. It is a pity I am still not a true Nascent Soul.”
He sighed once.
Just as Zheng Rong prepared to kill freely and wantonly, a sudden change occurred.
A scarlet spider demonic beast the size of a house abruptly revealed its form and in a single bite severed Zheng Rong’s left arm.
Zheng Rong let out a miserable scream and hurriedly retreated several li in distance, covering his empty left arm with an expression of complete disbelief.
“How is this possible? How could it appear so silently without a sound!”
His tone was filled with incredulous shock and panic.
A large amount of emerald-green poisonous blood surged from the wound on Zheng Rong’s left arm.
In less than a single breath of time the toxin of the Emerald Blood Poison Spider had eroded more than half of Zheng Rong’s body.
Zheng Rong was ultimately not a true Nascent Soul. The moment he was ambushed he nearly lost his life.
“City Lord, save me!”
Zheng Rong shouted loudly toward the Grief Valley City Lord for rescue.
His condition at this moment was extremely poor. The blood vessels of half his chest had already turned a bizarre, ghastly green.
The Grief Valley City Lord watched this scene with cold eyes and snorted coldly in his heart.
His wariness toward Hen Xiu deepened by several degrees.
“Previously when battling against me, the Emerald Blood Poison Spider was completely unable to conceal its aura so perfectly. In the end, did Hen Xiu hide a hand, or did he borrow the strengthening of this grotto-heaven?”
Hen Xiu had already refined half of the Thousand-Li Flourishing Landscape Chart and, like the Grief Valley City Lord, was half a master.
Zheng Rong remained on guard while casting a gaze of seeking aid toward the Grief Valley City Lord.
The Grief Valley City Lord naturally could not watch him die without saving him.
Moreover, this “Nascent Soul combat power” of Zheng Rong could not be lost lightly.
The Emerald Blood Poison Spider crushed and ate the arm within its mouthparts.
Just as it prepared to attack Zheng Rong once more, a large jet-black hand appeared from thin air, clutched Zheng Rong within it for protection, and delivered him before the Grief Valley City Lord.
The Grief Valley City Lord swiftly acted to suppress the toxin within Zheng Rong’s body.
Yet regarding the severed limb, he was powerless.
“Thank you, City Lord. Just now this subordinate was rash.”
Although the ghastly green blood vessels upon Zheng Rong’s body had not recovered, they had stopped spreading.
He weakly offered thanks toward the Grief Valley City Lord.
“No matter. This is not your fault. Hen Xiu originally estimated that hiding this hand was to ambush me. Now that he sees I possess Soul Transformation combat power, he used this card upon you in advance.”
The Grief Valley City Lord’s analysis was not far off the mark, already eight or nine parts correct.
Hen Xiu’s method was extremely wise.
This move could no longer deal with the Grief Valley City Lord, so it was better to use it early and weaken the opponent’s overall strength.
“Hehehehe. Old thief of Grief Valley, your guess is correct. It is only a pity that this dog leg of yours reacted too quickly. Originally this strike was aimed at his head.”
Hen Xiu laughed with a jie jie sound, his tone revealing a cruel smile.
“Today let me show you this seat’s true strength!”
After speaking, Hen Xiu tore off the black robe upon his body in one pull, revealing his true appearance. His cultivation also exploded upward from the peak of Nascent Soul to the early stage of Soul Transformation!
“First layer of Soul Transformation! Such an aura… how is this possible!”
Seeing Hen Xiu suddenly change from Nascent Soul to Soul Transformation, beads of cold sweat the size of beans emerged upon the Grief Valley City Lord’s forehead.
“When did you advance to Soul Transformation! You must know that advancing to Soul Transformation is extremely perilous. Not only must one face the tribulation’s test, one must also withstand the baptism of the three qi!”
The Soul Transformation aura was genuine. The Grief Valley City Lord could not deny it.
He did his utmost to suppress the panic in his heart.
In this world, small realms were a matter of slow grinding effort.
Yet the elevation of every major realm was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.
Hen Xiu must have become Soul Transformation long ago.
There was no such thing as a breakthrough on the battlefield.
“Hehe. When? Naturally this seat was already Soul Transformation from the very beginning when I first made a move against you.”
“Enough… this seat will not play with you any longer. It is time to reclaim the Thousand-Li Flourishing Landscape Chart.”
Hen Xiu’s true body stood more than two meters tall.
His voice was like that of a withered-wood old man.
He still wore a mask upon his face, yet from the handsome lines of muscle he appeared as if no more than twenty or thirty years old, extremely young.
Under his control the Emerald Blood Poison Spider once more concealed its form and ambushed, waiting for an opportunity to act.
From within the blood mist filling the sky that permeated the edge of the battlefield, six enormous, twisted, and bizarre Golden Core blood beasts also walked out.
A tree-shaped Golden Core blood beast twisted its hundreds of branches and, striding upon eight tree roots, charged into the crowd of ordinary people to carry out slaughter.
A bloody maw upon the trunk continuously opened and closed.
Branches constantly rolled up the broken corpses upon the ground and sent them into it for chewing.
The ordinary people screamed and wailed in misery.
They exerted their full strength swinging the large blades in their hands yet could not even cut through a single branch of the blood tree.
The Grief Valley City Lord saw this and his hair stood on end in fury. He sent out a single soul nail that blasted the Golden Core blood tree into bone slag and flesh pulp.
“Hahaha! Slaughter to your heart’s content! This expanse of earth needs the nourishment of blood!”
Hen Xiu spread both arms and laughed toward the heavens. He muttered words under his breath.
The death of the Golden Core blood tree was merely a drop in the bucket.
There were far too many blood beasts, more than could be killed, as if endless.
He Shu and the five people were among the pile of ordinary people, resisting the blood beast army together with the other cultivators who had not formed the battle formation.
“There are too many blood beasts! Not good, Little Mu, careful!”
Behind Mu Xinlian a blood beast bat opened its bloody maw as if about to swallow her alive, yet in the next instant it was chopped into fragments by several streaks of sword light.
Shen Qingci had not employed any spells.
He purely relied upon the foundation of his own physical strength to slash out sword qi, and thus there was no true essence consumption at all.
He Shu saw this and let out a long breath of relief. Among the five people the one with the poorest combat power was Mu Xinlian.
Not only was her cultivation the lowest, she cultivated the Medical Path and Pill Path.
“At a time like this do not be frugal. What of those so many Explosive Thunder Pills you bought? Quickly use them!”
He Shu hurriedly reminded Mu Xinlian, only to receive the news that the Explosive Thunder Pills had already been used up earlier while traveling.
He Shu was immediately choked. She truly had no strength left to complain.
Just at this moment a blood-colored bead of unknown origin smashed into her waist.
“Aiya, what is this… hmm?”
He Shu picked up the blood-colored bead and looked.
Her expression immediately changed from cloudy to clear.
This was actually the blood core of a Golden Core blood beast!
He Shu guessed in her heart that if nothing unexpected had occurred, this ought to be the blood core of that Golden Core blood tree.