Zhao Ziqi saw Xu Yangyi’s face and said not another word. After he stood up, he faced all around and sincerely bowed. “I’ve troubled everyone.”

There were actually other people around?

Xu Yangyi stroked his pallid chin and studied his surroundings. Such a thing as a bloodline… was truly hard to explain.

Zhao Ziqi bit down, breaking the skin of his hands, and swiped over his eyes. As his eyes opened, his pupils had shockingly become black-and-white Taijis, tirelessly spinning!

“The Nether and Yellow Springs… The crooked path to serenity!”

Swoosh! Xu Yangyi felt his surroundings pulse with a chilling wind. Less than five seconds later, Zhao Ziqi’s eyes quickly shone with light, and his body strangely floated up into the air like a scrap of paper. Straight afterwards, he hurriedly rushed towards a passage with unfathomable speed!

Xu Yangyi’s gaze flashed. Absent of hesitation, he followed.

The passage couldn’t be considered long. As he entered the next room, he stared blankly. To his amazement, the inside was a picture-perfect copy of the last room!

In the outside world, the captain of the Screaming Wind Legion was stunned. He hadn’t anticipated whatsoever… that Xu Yangyi would actually charge into the Reincarnation Puppet’s mouth! This absolutely wasn’t the method he knew of to defeat the monstrosity!

After several seconds, his head reared back and he erupted with loud laughter!

“The heavens aid me!” he chuckled heartily. “The Xingtian Legion’s strongest military power is the branch master! And he now actually dares enter the Reincarnation Puppet’s body!”

“Ridiculous! Ignorant!!! Has that pitiful speck of IQ of yours thought up of something that our Linghu Clan hasn’t? How many cultivators have been buried in a Reincarnation Puppet’s stomach?! There’s no lack of major captains from the Screaming Wind Legion! Just relying on yourself, an insignificant late-stage Qi Condensation? Alone? Hahaha!”

Having his fill of laughter, he pulled down his facial armor and made a sharp cry of metal and iron clashing together. His voice also became icy-cold. “But… I have to thank you.”

“For the Screaming Wind Legion… If it weren’t for your stubborn willfulness, how could we have the opportunity to breach a Featherwood Guard branch stronghold?” He held the spear in his hand and waved his left arm. An already somewhat tattered banner of a white tiger fluttered in the wind. Following the appearance of this flag, the remaining twenty-odd Screaming Wind legionnaires all gathered around him.

A black flood swiftly built up behind the Featherwood Guard. They were merely twenty-six soldiers, but… the Xingtian Legion was facing the Reincarnation Puppet’s pressure right now!

How many could the Xingtian Legion still withdraw to defend against this attack?

No… they wouldn’t even think of it. They absolutely couldn’t leave! The Linghu Clan’s sword had never shifted away from the Xingtian Legion’s neck!

“Wait…” His gaze was like electricity, unflaggingly trained on the Featherwood Guard. After three minutes, the Reincarnation Puppet lifted up the Spiritcleaver Awl in its hand again!

“NOW!” His eyes suddenly brightened, and he exploded with unparalleled battle intent! His longspear tilted to point ahead, he roared, “Cultivators of the Linghu Clan… an army is reared for a thousand days to be used but for a single hour! Follow me… and kill!!!”

“KILL!!!”

A united shout for murder revealed a hint of iron dagger-axes and armored horses. In the next second… the black tigers under them, already riddled with scars and bruises, slightly curled back to pounce. Immediately, the twenty-six riders formed a cone-shaped formation and crashed down like lightning on the golden light-cloaked Featherwood Guard a thousand meters away!

Longspears already aimed downwards, twenty-six gorges of death were left on the ground in the cavalry assault’s wake. Men like dragons, and tigers like wind, halos of white light brightened again on each person’s body. With a tremor through the ground, they all pushed forward at top speed!

“Hold it off!!!” At the same time in the Featherwood Guard, Zhao Wuye had already entered formation himself. He screamed at the top of his lungs towards the fall of the demon-god-like Spiritcleaver Awl in the sky. “Spirit Accumulation Cannons! Fire!!!”

Boom boom boom!!! Another ten people had come to fill the gaps, their faces already pale. The spirit cannons in their hands twinkled with the radiance of qi once more! Ten rays of light formed together to focus straight at the coming awl!

Crash! The qi was like a tide, yet the awl was like the Staff of Moses! The tide was practically useless! The azure Spiritcleaver Awl cleaved through layers of the tide like a sharp sword. Again and then again, for a second time, the awl was stabbed above Jun Man’s shield of wood with extreme precision!

Hum… A low droning sound covered the horizon of the wood shield, akin to an old woman unable to bear a heavy load. A tooth-aching noise came from below the awl, and fragments scattered into the air. Meanwhile, the ground fiercely swayed again as if it was experiencing another earthquake! Each person’s face was a few shades of healthy red less, but their eyes were searing hot!

Yes… Having undergone the battle with the Screaming Wind Legion, they were no longer spring chickens who had entered the battlefield for the first time. Here, a single person, even if they only had a shred of battle intent, would help each other and form a complete entity.

Presently, the fight above had yet to conclude. They were likewise defending the Featherwood Guard to their deaths!

“How many more people are there?!” Zhao Wuye’s eyes were reddened, and he grabbed onto the collar of a cultivator aide besides him. His spittle almost sprayed onto the other’s face.

“A-Another ten!” The cultivator was sullen. “Fellow Daoist Zhao, this isn’t something that a lot of effort can change! This is a Reincarnation Puppet! It’s a Reincarnation Puppet!”

Zhao Wuye’s teeth began to grind. He looked at the aide’s face that resembled the grimace of vicious animal. The cultivator said shakily, “During the start of the Nation’s Founding, the Nalan Clan wiped out seven great demon clans in a row… and the Bluedawn Winding Corridor wasn’t even mobilized! Twenty Reincarnation Puppets trampled seven lairs! Its name spread through the world because of this! This is one of their hidden cards! And that’s not mentioning that Featherwood Guard branches aren’t ordinarily built… E-Even a few cultivator clans can band together and uproot it! W-We…”

“Shut up.” Zhao Wuye’s voice was seeped through with gloominess, and he stared into the cultivator’s eyes as if he was looking at a dead man. “Could it be… that you think Fellow Daoist Xu can kill it, but this old man can’t?”

A shiver traveled down the cultivator’s body. He dared not speak more.

Zhao Wuye tossed the man to side in passing and fixed his eyes on the present scene. Ahead, Mo Yeyu and Jun Man were offering their full support! The duo, in addition to Xuan Chengzi’s sword, had managed to resist the Nalan Clan’s heavenly tribulation with difficulty. However, it was barely enough! The Bluedawn Winding Corridor was like a relentless perpetual motion machine! If this continued on, there was a chance they would squander their lives away!

Behind these several people were a total of forty low-level cultivations from the Zhao Clan and Hidden Dragon Legion. Each person was holding a Spirit Accumulation Cannon and overdrafting their spiritual force. Occasionally, one could see a few people taking out pill elixirs and drinking them. In solely pill elixir, the amount of spirit stones the three clans had paid was a mystery!

All around… the animal-like tendrils were firmly wrapping around the entire wooden shield! Once the area above was broken through… a heavenly calamity would perhaps turn everyone into flying ash!

“Have the last ten people…” He shut his eyes and clenched his teeth. “Promise them, if we stand firm in Nanzhou City… their descendants will be looked after with all strength.”

The cultivator behind him was dazed, his face betraying mournfulness. Immediately though, he gritted his teeth and nodded.

“Have them… ignite their longevity and tie their might to their strongest magik artifacts… After the wooden shield breaks…” Zhao Wuye opened his eyes and powerlessly waved his hands. He could not bring himself to say the word of “self-detonate”.

However… it was in this moment that the ground began to rumble with faint tremors.

It was gentle, very gentle, yet it was slowly becoming heavier!

Level and uniform, it did not cease at all!

They still hadn’t sensed anything at the beginning, but ten seconds later Zhao Fenglai was the first to discover something was wrong! He didn’t speak, rather looking behind in disbelief. He dared not believe; he was incapable of belief. At such a vital time, someone was actually mounting a surprise attack from the rear! Very soon… under the moonlight, he saw the Screaming Wind Legion that had been chased by the Reincarnation before. At this moment, although they did not form a wide breadth together, they were a black flood of certain fatality! The stars draped over their shoulders and the moon colored their faces as they toiled away, the cavalry was attacking them for a sure kill!

Thump… His mouth slightly opened, wanting to yell, yet he was simply unable to.

This opportunity was too deadly… the magik shield wasn’t even on all sides. In order to oppose the Reincarnation Puppet, a majority of spiritual force had already been transferred to the front. Their rear was a hollow expanse! Just a soft nudge and it would break! Who could’ve even imagined that the enemy would actually carry out a surprise raid at such a time!

One, two, three… Zhao Fenglai’s mind was blank space. He robotically counted a total of twenty-six rider, yet even these twenty-six were now fundamentally unresolvable!

“Enemy attack… ENEMY ATTACK!!!” His bleak voice finally spread through the air! As everyone looked over, they saw the spirit summoning banner that Zhao Fenglai had taken out with an ashen face. It was unknown when, but he was already standing behind. In front of him, however… 500 meters away was a cavalry of black tigers, riders who they couldn’t be more familiar with! [1]

Upon being presented with this view, Zhao Wuye’s hand and feet became ice-cold, and his heart sunk. Everyone, their hopes, was shattered in this instant. In the air, the absolute heavenly calamity loudly pushed down! It advanced towards the azurewood shield at a blazing pace!

“What are you all going dumb for?! Withstand them!!!” As if waking up from a dream, Zhao Wuye turned his head back and shouted in fury. The qi tide finally stabilized again, but…

His gaze contained a trace of despair as he looked behind. Here in the branch… what was to be done! By allowing these merciless riders to charge in, all that was awaiting them was a slaughter! Or if the defense was perhaps broken, the Reincarnation Puppet’s calamity would incinerate them into ashes!

It was at this moment that an azure figure slightly flickered in silence. Zhao Fenglai, who stood tremblingly ahead, only felt his body lighten. He was tossed back as if he was soaring cloud.

In his eyes, he saw a Daoist, and that three-foot-long azure blade was unsheathed yet again. Like an indomitable and unyielding pine tree, it blocked the only path that the twenty-six riders could take!

“KILL!!!” The Screaming Wind Legion wasn’t surprised in the slightest. This person’s vigor was uncommon, as if he was leisurely sauntering inside a courtyard. In fact, the strength coming from his body was unfathomable! The captain suspected that this person could contend with those famous geniuses. He confirmed that this person was undoubtedly the user of that heaven-startling sword just now.

Yet regardless of who was barring them ahead, he had to rip them into shreds! This was also the meager wish of the Linghu Clan!

“GROWL!!!” The ferocious tigers of twenty-six riders reared their heads back and erupted with roars. Longspears dyed with blood turned red again. The Screaming Wind Legion’s slaughter formation sped up for the second time!

Rumble! The ground was faintly shaking. Sand and dust covered the ground, rubble swirling in the air. Against this black tide, Xuan Chengzi brought his sword before him, and the index finger of his left hand softly wiped the length of the blade.

Under the glow of the moon, the radiance of his sword was dazzling.

“Nine, serves as the utmost number.”

“In the secret legends of the Dao Sect, there are total of nine separate forms of the Extreme Sword. Each sword is an untransmitted secret of the Dao Sect. The entire Dao Sect has tens of thousands of people, and only Mountain-Protector Inheritors of the three mountains, a sum of twelve people, can study it. Yet those capable of cultivating the mysteries of sword arts and the Extreme Sword’s form and concept to reach the golden core do no exist even in one out of a hundred.”

The sword-cultivator didn’t look at the twenty-six riders. Although only 200 meters away, the cavalry’s murderous aura and erupting qi were already causing all his clothes fly up. Still though, he said indifferently, “Nine Revolutions Return To One, Eight Trigrams Cave Profound, Seven Stars Cupping Fortune, Six Unities Reign Supreme, Five Phases Cardinal Extreme, Four Divisions Reincarnation, Three To Transform Life, Yin-Yang To Form, and…”

“KILL!!!” On a narrow path fraught with enemies and rivals alike, the brave triumphed! Both sides were already almost within reach! The longspears of the Screaming Wind Legion were leveled evenly, glaring red lights taking form into an all-consuming red tide that directly bore down on Xuan Chengzi who was a couple dozen meters away!

The cavalry’s murderous aura and spiritual force completely burst free! Likewise, they also felt the Daoist facing them. He seemed at peace, yet his body was home to a formidable spiritual force!

“And…” Xuan Chengzi’s sword softly began to tremble. In an instant, his sword flew to shock the heavens!

“Origin Returns To Genesis!!!”

1. Spirit summoning banner. This is an actual thing. Not just used in this cultivation setting. Commonly used in funeral rituals. Look up: 招魂幡 for pictures.