Chapter 490: Tempering by Blood

Chapter 490: Chapter 488: Tempering by Blood

By now, everyone understood the power of the Nine Stars and Ten Palaces. It was a miracle. Once this flawlessly sealed domain unleashed its absolute power, it could crush everything.

“Kill—” In that instant, the surviving Ghost Zen Eight Saints charged him again. A shadow flickered, and the Ye Xing Emperor struck at Li Qiye once more.

“Everyone, together! Hack him to pieces!” It’s unknown who shouted, but in an instant, weapon after weapon aimed for Li Qiye while treasure after treasure bombarded him.

At that moment, several thousand experts leaped out and attacked Li Qiye in unison. Those who wanted his life swarmed him like a pack of wolves.

Everyone understood that in a one-on-one fight, it was impossible to kill Li Qiye, no matter who they were. His Nine Stars and Ten Palaces were already a miracle; even a Saint Emperor might not succeed in killing him. The brat was simply heaven-defyingly invincible. Thus, the others could no longer hold back and leaped out to strike.

“The more the merrier!” Li Qiye laughed wildly and kicked the Divine Armor Heavenly Venerable away. With another crazed laugh, his Earth Vein Root grew like a Divine Tree, drawing in a boundless sea of Heaven and Earth Energy and the power of an entire nation for him. The starry sky blazed, and the Power of One Realm cascaded down like a Celestial Waterfall.

Li Qiye’s Thousand Hands Reverse Nine Realms erupted to its absolute limit. A thousand hands and ten thousand arms slowly rose, lifting up the Three Thousand Worlds!

“Kill—” Facing a vast army, Li Qiye remained utterly fearless. In fact, he grew excited, like a shark that had scented blood. In one hand, a long saber; in another, an iron sword. A third hand manifested the Kunpeng Six Transformations, while a fourth cast a net that encompassed the world…

SCREEECH— A Kunpeng’s cry shook the Nine Heavens. The Chaos Kunpeng swept forth, instantly unleashing a torrential rain of blood. With a single flap of its wing, the Chaos Kunpeng formed from Li Qiye’s Dao Foundation slaughtered several hundred Princes, True Masters, and Ancient Saints!

“Everyone, together! Cut him to ribbons!” Faced with Li Qiye’s utter dominance, a Little Saint Venerable roared and charged forward. Another three to five thousand experts immediately joined the fray.

Pinghe Ghost King, the Bone Demon of the Netherworld Well, the Black Mountain Corpse Emperor, the Eight Slaughter Saint Venerable… One after another, renowned figures of the Ghost Race from the Ghost Sacred Realm threw themselves into the war.

“Excellent!” Li Qiye, however, only grew stronger the more he fought. His Heaven-Spanning Eight Blades went straight for the Ghost Zen Eight Buddhas. His Three Talents Sword drove the Ye Xing Emperor into a corner with no escape. A world-engulfing hand seized the Divine Armor Heavenly Venerable. Another hand plucked a withered blade of grass. The grass instantly turned incomparably brilliant, transforming into a Celestial Sword wreathed in the light of myriad stars—this was the Grass Sword Immortal Technique. A single grass sword swept through a thousand foes. As it passed, the heads of True Masters and Ancient Saints flew into the air, and a bloody rain fell from the sky.

The battle had become apocalyptic. Rivers were severed and mountains crumbled. Li Qiye even ripped a long mountain range from the earth and wielded it like a club, sweeping it across thousands of miles…

Li Qiye’s enemies had also been driven into a killing frenzy. The sight of blood—be it Li Qiye’s or anyone else’s—was all it took. Like a shiver of sharks smelling blood in the water, all who wanted him dead swarmed him.

Treasure after treasure soared into the sky; weapon after weapon thrummed with power. The battlefield was pure chaos. Waves of powerful experts assaulted him, each hoping to be the one to land the killing blow. The enemies attacking Li Qiye had forgotten everything else. Whether for reward or for revenge, it no longer mattered. Their eyes were red with bloodlust, and they had only a single thought: kill Li Qiye!

Li Qiye laughed without end, rampaging through the massive army. Time and again, he carved a bloody path out of the encirclement, only to charge right back in, determined to slaughter every last one of his foes.

“Kill—” The remaining onlookers who had yet to join the battle now threw themselves in. They had all gone mad, desperate to skin Li Qiye alive and drink his blood.

Corpse after corpse fell from the sky. In a short period, the land was dyed red. Blood pooled into rivers, and bodies piled into mountains. The scene was utterly terrifying.

By now, Princes, True Masters, Ancient Saints, and Saint Venerables—experts of all levels—had joined the battle. Only the Old Undyings hiding behind the scenes began to hesitate, because Li Qiye was simply too ferocious. He was fighting a bloody war against a vast army, often bare-handed. The long saber and iron sword he wielded were forged from mortal iron, not treasures at all. This made some of the Old Undyings realize that Li Qiye wasn’t just trying to kill his enemies. He was tempering himself and enjoying the process!

At this realization, one of the Old Undyings shuddered. ‘Li Qiye hasn’t even used his true abilities. He still has his Killer Lanthanum!’ It was for this very reason that the hidden Old Undyings and the older generation of Saint Emperors were unwilling to make a move.

Those who had reached the Saint Emperor Realm were all figures of the older generation. Their Dao Practice had been hard-won, especially for those who started their cultivation during the Tough Dao Era. This was why they hesitated.

Li Qiye was intentionally tempering himself. He hadn’t even used his Prison Suppressing Divine Body or Flying Immortal Body. ‘If I brought out these two great Immortal Bodies,’ he thought, ‘this battle would be no fun. It would be over in an instant.’

He hadn’t taken out his other treasures, either. ‘I have too many Killer Lanthanums. Taking out any one of them would be enough to turn this army to ash and end the war in an instant!’

“Die—” Li Qiye laughed maniacally as he swept through the army. He was covered from head to toe in blood—some of it was his, but most of it belonged to his enemies.

Drenched in gore, Li Qiye showed no signs of fatigue. On the contrary, he seemed invigorated. The more he killed, the more energized he became.

CLANG! The saber’s cry echoed to the Nine Heavens. The sixth form: Godslayer! The long saber in Li Qiye’s hand seemed to go berserk. As he unleashed the sixth blade of the Heaven-Spanning Eight Blades, its momentum became completely frenzied. Eight beams of saber light descended, cleaving the Ghost Zen Eight Buddhas in half!

SHINK! In that split second, the Ye Xing Emperor moved like a phantom, breaking through Li Qiye’s defenses. His dagger flashed like lightning and plunged into Li Qiye’s body. But it was useless. Li Qiye’s Power of One Realm was pouring down like a Celestial Waterfall. The dagger had pierced his flesh, but it couldn’t possibly kill him.

“AHHH—” A bloodcurdling scream erupted. An extra pair of arms had sprouted from Li Qiye’s sides, seizing the Ye Xing Emperor. Before the emperor could even think to escape, the arms ripped him in half!

“I’ve been waiting for you.” Li Qiye laughed, tossing the two halves of the corpse aside with his extra arms.

It was hard to say whether the Ye Xing Emperor had ambushed Li Qiye, or if Li Qiye had ambushed him. It didn’t matter now. All that remained of the Ye Xing Emperor was a corpse torn in two.

“Kill—” The enemies charged like madmen. Li Qiye let out a crazed laugh and roared, “I’m going to kill every last one of you!” With unparalleled dominance, he shot forward and caught up to the fleeing Divine Armor Heavenly Venerable in an instant.

“No—” the Divine Armor Heavenly Venerable screamed in horror. But under Li Qiye’s Power of One Realm, he was stomped into a bloody pulp. Even his Great Successor Vajra Body couldn’t withstand such a tyrannical blow.

“Kill—” Li Qiye’s Yin Yang Blood Sea billowed, throwing up immense waves of Blood Qi. This tyrannical energy fueled his Three Talents Sword as if it were slaughtering demons. One moment, it was an Earth Radiance that devoured the blood of heaven and earth. The next, a Celestial Sword that brought only annihilation. The next, a Human Sword, brimming with endless vitality yet capable of total extinction!

SLIICE! The Pinghe Ghost King managed to sever one of Li Qiye’s countless arms, but a newly-grown hand simply ripped the Ghost King’s head clean off his shoulders…

At this point, Li Qiye was like a butcher in human form. He had sustained injuries, but they were of no consequence. Empowered by the endless Blood Qi of his Yin Yang Blood Sea and the might of his Nine Stars and Ten Palaces, not even a Saint Venerable wielding a Great Sage’s Soldier could land a fatal blow on him in a short amount of time.

For a time, Li Qiye slaughtered until rivers of blood flowed. Wounds accumulated on his body, but for every injury he sustained, he killed countless more enemies.

Watching Li Qiye break out of the encirclement only to charge back in, again and again… The sounds of shattering bones, collapsing Daos, wretched screams, and furious roars all wove together into a symphony—a symphony from Hell that chilled all who heard it to the bone.

By this point, every expert who had come to kill Li Qiye had joined the battle. The entire battlefield had become a black hole devouring countless lives. Once you stepped in, there was no leaving. Li Qiye would not allow anyone who entered this battlefield to escape; he would slaughter every last one of them.

At this moment, Li Qiye looked as if he were bathing in blood. There was the vivid purple blood of the Ghost Race and the bewitchingly vibrant blood of the Blood Race. But soon, all the blood mixed together, making it impossible to tell whose was whose—impossible to distinguish Li Qiye’s blood from that of his enemies.

Li Qiye was covered in wounds; even his shoulders had been pierced through. And yet, he only fought with increasing ferocity, sweeping away tens of thousands of enemies with a single hand as he strode across their corpses.

The sheer arrogance of his invincibility, the brutal aura that threatened to shatter the heavens, the courage that scorned life and death—all of it made Li Qiye seem like a god-fiend on high, bathing in endless blood as he slaughtered his myriad foes.

In that moment, it dawned on everyone: not even the gods and demons of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands could stop Li Qiye’s advance.

Countless people who witnessed this scene felt their hair stand on end and a chill creep into their hearts. Before today, how many young Ghost Race experts had looked down on Li Qiye? How many geniuses of the younger generation had dismissed him as nothing special?

But now, after witnessing such a cataclysmic battle, even the most dazzling genius would have to lower their arrogant head. Those who once sneered at Li Qiye would now likely not even dare to breathe in his presence.

Among the many Ghost Race grandees observing from the distant horizon, countless faces turned pale. One of them couldn’t help but murmur, “This brat is too terrifying. If he had an Invincible Weapon, who in the world could possibly stop him?”