Chapter 299: Immense Profits

[Elder Yang wasn't the only one looking bewildered.]

[The minds of the other nearby cultivators were just as blank.]

[One moment, the sacred land of the Soul Dao Lineage had been a blazing sun they could only look up to in awe. A second later, it was reduced to dust and ruins. For the many cultivators who witnessed this, it was as if the sky had fallen.]

[One by one, the cultivators instinctively turned their eyes in a certain direction. A young man stood there. Just moments ago, an indescribable sword qi had erupted from his body, followed by a sky full of sword light that plunged into the Soul Capital.]

[And then, this was the result.]

[The Soul Capital was gone.]

[“Heavenly Monarch Wanhua... That figure rushing out of the underground fissure at the very end was Heavenly Monarch Wanhua...”]

[A Nascent Soul Stage true monarch trembled in fear. As the boundless sword light rained down on the Soul Capital, layers of Rank 5 grand arrays had been shredded. The cultivators outside were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of the scene inside. Among the destruction, a figure radiating a terrifying soul dao aura—as vast as heaven and earth—had been annihilated by a single streak of sword light.]

[Nascent Soul true monarchs of the ancient era had better judgment than those of the near-ancient era. They occasionally saw Heavenly Monarchs, so they were familiar with the aura of the Deity Transformation Stage. That figure with a soul dao aura as vast as heaven and earth clearly surpassed the Nascent Soul Stage. It could only be Heavenly Monarch Wanhua of the Soul Dao Lineage.]

[Yet, even someone as mighty as Heavenly Monarch Wanhua couldn't withstand that sky full of sword light... This, this, this...]

[A few Early and Mid Stage Nascent Soul true monarchs looked at you with traces of terror in their eyes. These true monarchs came from auxiliary branch factions, and a rare few even belonged to the Dharma and Body Lineages.]

[The greater their background, the more they knew, and the deeper their fear ran. Ordinary cultivators might not have processed what had happened yet, but these discerning experts realized something horrifying: since you could erase the Soul Capital and Heavenly Monarch Wanhua with a single sword strike, wiping them out with another would take no more than a passing thought.]

[As for their backing factions seeking revenge later? The Soul Dao Lineage was second only to the Dharma and Body Lineages in the Human Realm. If this was the fate of the Soul Dao Lineage, what did the other factions amount to?]

[Even the Dharma and Body Lineages wouldn't dare risk their lives against an existence capable of wiping out the Soul Dao Lineage in a single strike.]

[“The Youming Earth Vein has been severed... Just which Heavenly Monarch is this? Sword dao? Isn't the sword dao an unorthodox path? When did such an existence emerge...”]

[Among the crowd of cultivators, a Grand Cultivator at the Late Nascent Soul Stage broke out in a cold sweat. With his senses, he had already detected the tremors deep underground and the vanishing of countless soul dao auras.]

[A single sword strike had erased hundreds of thousands of miles of the Soul Capital, slain Heavenly Monarch Wanhua, and completely severed the winding Youming Earth Vein. What kind of existence was this? Could a Heavenly Monarch at the Deity Transformation Late Stage even accomplish such a feat?]

[“What should I do now...”]

[This Grand Cultivator at the Late Nascent Soul Stage desperately wanted to flee. But when he remembered that even Heavenly Monarch Wanhua hadn't escaped, he realized that suddenly running for his life might draw your attention and get him killed even faster.]

[“Forget it.”]

[Sorrowful and resigned, the Late Nascent Soul Stage Grand Cultivator decided to leave it to fate. If you harbored killing intent toward the other cultivators present, no one would be able to escape. If you didn't, he would survive without needing to run.]

[The other nearby Nascent Soul true monarchs made similar decisions. Faced with the unimaginable and absolute power you had just displayed, they didn't even dare to flee. They could only stand in place and await your judgment.]

[The higher their cultivation, the better they understood exactly what your sword strike meant.]

[You also looked at the ruined Soul Capital, sensing the karmic ties fading away in the unseen depths.]

[True Monarch Chiyun had destroyed Artifact Forging Valley. Your parents and relatives had all died at his hands.]

[Naturally, heavy karma existed between you and True Monarch Chiyun. A true monarch at the Nascent Soul Stage would find it difficult to accurately detect and lock onto such karma, but at the Deity Transformation Stage, following the karmic threads to confirm the other party's general location or whether they were dead was not difficult.]

[And right after you unleashed that sword strike, you felt the karma between you and True Monarch Chiyun vanish. This meant he was thoroughly dead.]

[“The Soul Dao Lineage...”]

[You glanced at the underground fissure in the center of the Soul Capital. The Youming Earth Vein was the gathering place for soul dao aura between heaven and earth. Every soul cultivator looking to break through a major realm—such as from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation, from Core Formation to Nascent Soul, or from Nascent Soul to Deity Transformation...]

[...would ideally break through within the range of the Youming Earth Vein.]

[Now that the Youming Earth Vein had been severed, the soul cultivators of the world had lost their optimal breakthrough site, infinitely lowering the chances of another soul dao Heavenly Monarch being born. Furthermore, that sword strike just now had wiped out the most elite soul cultivators in the Human Realm.]

[It was safe to say that your declaration, “From now on, there will be no more soul cultivators in the Human Realm,” was not an empty boast.]

[The Youming Earth Vein was useless to you since you weren't a soul cultivator. Severing it not only cut off the path for the Human Realm's soul cultivators, but also served to clear out a cultivation space for yourself.]

[As the sacred land of the Soul Dao Lineage, the Soul Capital contained a Fifth Tier Middle Grade spirit vein in addition to the Youming Earth Vein.]

[That Fifth Tier Middle Grade spirit vein had merged with the nether energy emitted by the Youming Earth Vein, making it extremely suitable for soul cultivators.]

[Heaven and earth spirit qi was the foundation of everything. Even soul cultivators needed to absorb and refine it during their cultivation.]

[By severing the Youming Earth Vein so it no longer released nether energy, that Fifth Tier Middle Grade spirit vein would naturally regain its purity, making it suitable for your own cultivation.]

[You looked at Elder Yang, who was standing in a daze nearby, and slowly said, “Elder Yang, Artifact Forging Valley's revenge has been exacted.”]

[“Ah?” Elder Yang snapped out of his daze as if waking from a dream.]

[He took a deep, fierce breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them a long while later and confirmed he wasn't dreaming, reality finally set in.]

[It had been sixty years.]

[For the past sixty years, he had spent every waking moment thinking about how to get revenge and make True Monarch Chiyun pay.]

[But now that the day had actually come, Elder Yang couldn't quite accept it right away.]

[Not only was True Monarch Chiyun dead, but the entire sacred land of the Soul Dao Lineage had been erased by you?]

[Elder Yang steadied himself, looked at you, and finally asked, “Wuyou... are you still Wuyou?”]

[The cultivation world did not lack methods like soul possession. Elder Yang himself had undergone soul possession once.]

[The strength you had just displayed was simply not something a sixty-year-old cultivator could possess.]

[Sixty years old? At sixty, Elder Yang was still in the Foundation Establishment Stage.]

[Thus, Elder Yang's very first thought was whether you had also been subjected to soul possession.]

[“I am me. I have never changed,” you said calmly. You and the Sword Lord were never in a relationship of possessor and possessed. Strictly speaking, the Sword Lord was born from your "Legend of a Generation" talent. You were the Sword Lord, and the Sword Lord was you.]

[“Good, good, good!” Elder Yang's eyes grew red. Not only had you avenged Artifact Forging Valley's blood feud, but you also possessed such earth-shattering power. If the past ancestors of Artifact Forging Valley knew of this in the afterlife, they would surely weep tears of joy.]

[“Elder Yang, you can stay by my side from now on,” you said, glancing at him.]

[“Yes,” Elder Yang replied. Now that his great revenge was complete, he felt somewhat directionless. What was he supposed to do next? Cultivate? After undergoing soul possession, his cultivation could no longer advance.]

[Being able to stay by your side—by the side of the former valley master's son—left Elder Yang more than satisfied.]

[You looked toward the many nearby cultivators. Right now, all of them were trembling and filled with dread.]

[“Everyone, you may leave.” The moment you spoke, your voice reached every cultivator's ears.]

[Instantly, all the cultivators felt a massive weight lift from their shoulders, and they quickly scattered in retreat.]

[You took a single step forward, arriving in the sky above where the Soul Capital used to be.]

[Sweeping your massive divine sense downward, you began to loot the spoils of war.]

[As the sacred land of the Soul Dao Lineage, the Soul Capital's most precious natural treasures were of the fifth tier, or even Quasi-Tier 6.]

[The sword strike you had unleashed earlier was locked onto soul cultivators possessing living auras, along with any grand arrays or obstacles standing in front of them.]

[As for the numerous heavenly materials and earthly treasures... the collateral damage they suffered wasn't severe. The more precious the resources and treasures, the fewer soul cultivators were present where they were stored, meaning the likelihood of their preservation was much higher.]

[“Spirit-Nourishing Fruit... Jade of Myriad Souls... Soul-Nourishing Fruit... Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Marrow...” You looked over the spoils one by one, feeling incredibly pleased.]

[Although most of them were soul dao treasures, they were still useful to you, as they could strengthen the power of your divine soul.]

[“Hm? Many inheritances of the Soul Dao Lineage, as well as the forging methods for soul dao spirit treasures. The Myriad Soul Banner... the Soul-Capturing Banner...” As you looted, you also browsed the functions of each spoil. You weren't very interested in the inheritances of the Soul Dao Lineage, but the various soul dao spirit treasures caught your eye.]

[“As expected of the ancient era. The resources are just too abundant...” After merely a few dozen breaths of looting, you had reaped a massive harvest. Of all the spoils you found, you only recognized a small fraction; you couldn't identify the vast majority of them at first glance.]

[Soul dao treasures were inherently rare. Even Heavenly Sword Peak in the near-ancient era hadn't collected many of them.]

[“Heavenly Monarch Wanhua...” You arrived at the site where Heavenly Monarch Wanhua had fallen. Under your sword strike, this soul dao Heavenly Monarch's body and divine soul had both been utterly obliterated, leaving behind only a few soul dao spirit treasures and a Storage Ring.]

[You picked up the Storage Ring and noticed it was layered with heavy soul dao restrictions, so you didn't immediately try to break them.]

[Instead, you planned to finish looting all the spoils before slowly taking inventory.]

['In the Soul Dao Lineage, aside from Heavenly Monarch Wanhua, there's also Heavenly Monarch Diming... It's just that this Heavenly Monarch Diming isn't in the Soul Capital...' you pondered. If possible, you naturally didn't plan on letting this Heavenly Monarch Diming off. To pull out weeds, you had to tear out the roots. Since you had completely cut off the path of the Soul Dao Lineage, that Heavenly Monarch Diming definitely hated you to the core.]

[However, you didn't know where he was. Karmic locking? You had no karma with Heavenly Monarch Diming, so you couldn't lock onto him the way you had with True Monarch Chiyun.]

[In fact, even if karma did exist, at the Deity Transformation Stage, anyone capable of detecting karma could naturally obscure it, meaning it would still be very difficult to lock onto him.]

[“Forget it. I'll deal with him later when the opportunity arises.” You weren't worried. With your talent, you would only grow stronger as time passed. Unless that Heavenly Monarch Diming stayed hidden for the rest of his life, he would still die.]

[You had no intention of personally searching for Heavenly Monarch Diming.]

[It was too much of a waste of time. Heavenly Monarchs at the Deity Transformation Stage could borrow the power of space and even briefly leave the bounds of the Human Realm.]

[With the time it would take to hunt him down, you could easily advance your cultivation once more.]

[At the exact moment you unleashed that sword strike to erase the Soul Capital, slay Heavenly Monarch Wanhua, and sever the Youming Earth Vein, every Heavenly Monarch-level existence across the entire Human Realm looked toward your location.]

[“What a terrifying aura. Is this the sword dao?” At the sacred land of the formation dao lineage, Heavenly Monarch Juezhen wore a grave expression. With a slight shift of his thoughts, a blurry image surfaced before his eyes, showing the exact scenes that had just unfolded in the Soul Capital.]

[As the Human Realm's strongest formation dao grandmaster, Heavenly Monarch Juezhen's array skills had reached the Fifth Tier High Grade. In his eyes, the entire Human Realm was one unprecedented grand array. Since it was an array, as a formation dao grandmaster, he could lightly manipulate a fraction of its authority.]

['The Demon Lords of the Demon Abyss Realm are secretly coveting our Human Realm, and now another sword dao Heavenly Monarch with such terrifying offensive power has appeared... Sigh...' Heavenly Monarch Juezhen sighed inwardly, feeling rather distressed.]

[The moment you acted, you erased the Soul Dao Lineage. Although you weren't a Demon Lord from the Demon Abyss Realm, your methods were clearly ruthless. Not knowing your stance on the Demon Abyss Realm, Heavenly Monarch Juezhen naturally felt uncertain in his heart.]

[Over at Ethereal Peak, a white-robed old man was also looking toward the sacred land of the Soul Dao.]

[“Is it that new Heavenly Monarch who broke through in the Southern Sea Territory?” The white-robed old man continuously made finger divinations, trying to deduce some information. “Mm, the reason this newly advanced Heavenly Monarch struck the Soul Capital was due to an existing grudge between them...”]

[By going all out in his Divination and using the critical information of the Soul Dao Lineage being erased by you as a medium, the white-robed old man had finally managed to deduce a few useful details.]

[“It's a good thing he acted out of a grudge.” The white-robed old man breathed a secret sigh of relief. His greatest fear was that you were indiscriminately slaughtering people. If that were the case, wouldn't all the major factions in the Human Realm be in constant danger?]

[“Fellow Daoist Xingmang, should I go pay my respects right now?” A chubby, round-faced man appeared and looked at the white-robed old man.]

[Originally, the white-robed old man's intention had been to wait several decades before visiting you. Now, however, the terrifying strength you had just displayed meant there was naturally no need to wait.]

[The white-robed old man's daoist title was "Xingmang". Not only did he possess the strength of a Heavenly Monarch, but his Divination skills had also reached the Fifth Tier Middle Grade.]

[“There's no need. I will make a trip personally.” Heavenly Monarch Xingmang pondered for a moment. He was at the Deity Transformation Middle Stage and controlled the foundational heritage of Ethereal Peak. Visiting you in person would show you the proper respect.]

[“Alright.” The chubby, round-faced man immediately nodded. If he really had to go pay his respects, he would have been rather apprehensive. Even Heavenly Monarch Wanhua had died by your hands; he was terrified too.]

[In a snow-covered valley within the Northern Plains Domain, a figure radiating black mist was sitting cross-legged.]

[This figure was none other than the other Heavenly Monarch of the Soul Dao Lineage—Heavenly Monarch Diming.]

[“Wanhua... he died instantly? Without sending me a single message? And the Soul Dao Lineage? The Youming Earth Vein has been severed as well... That razor-sharp sword qi? Just who is attacking us? Who is trying to exterminate my Soul Dao Lineage?” Heavenly Monarch Diming suddenly shuddered, a sense of mortal peril welling up in his heart.]

[“I can't show myself. I have to hide...” Heavenly Monarch Diming didn't have the slightest thought of revenge. What could he even use to take revenge? If Heavenly Monarch Wanhua didn't have the slightest ability to resist, what could he do?]

[Besides, since you had attacked the Soul Dao Lineage and Heavenly Monarch Wanhua, would you come for him too?]

[At this moment, Heavenly Monarch Diming's only thought was to hide, observe how the situation unfolded, and then make further plans.]