Shangguan Bubai

"This boy is vicious. He absolutely cannot be allowed to live. For now, we can only ask the sect master to act." As the First Elder looked at the injured senior and junior brothers on his side, he imperceptibly crushed a green communication talisman in his sleeve.

Zhang Tian pressed in close. The Phoenix Cry Sword cut out a terrifying sword-light, and pale-green sword energy dozens of meters long sliced through metal and jade, instantly severing the strange blade in the Third Elder's hand.

"Ahhhhh! Demon Severing Mad Blood!" The Third Elder's clothes exploded apart. His entire body seemed to turn into that of a blood-soaked man, yet at this moment he ignored everything and seized the sword energy dozens of meters long with his bare hands.

Blood kept flowing from his hands beneath the sharp sword energy. His palms clamped down hard on the sword energy, and with a violent wrench, he actually tore it apart.

"Third!" the First Elder cried out despite himself. The Third Elder, Nie Tian, had magical beast blood in his body. Once that power was triggered, he would become terrifyingly strong, and his body would grow as hard as a magical beast's. However, he would also lose his reason and turn into a bloodthirsty monster who knew only battle.

"Roar!" A beastly roar like that of a wild animal burst from Nie Tian's throat. The pupils within his eyes contracted until they were like needle tips, and the whites of his eyes turned completely blood-red.

"Is this... the same kind of bloodline as Qing Lin's?" Zhang Tian sent the Third Elder flying with a slap of his halberd, but the man charged back up as if nothing had happened.

When magical beasts and humans bred descendants together, there was also a slight chance the offspring would inherit the magical beast bloodline. Powerful magical beast emperors could even take human form.

The Void Ancient Dragon Zi Yan looked like a little loli.

Humans also had bloodlines, but compared to Dou Di bloodlines that could only be passed down after one became a Dou Di, magical beast bloodlines, though inferior in grade, were far more common and much easier to encounter.

One thrust pierced beneath Nie Tian's ribs, nearly punching through half his body. His body stiffened slightly, and the enormous pain even caused some of the blood-red whites in his eyes to fade, letting a trace of reason return.

The Dragon Yin Halberd pulled free, then slapped down on his head again. From the wound beneath his ribs, his surging blood could no longer be stopped.

"Splatter." Like the sound of a watermelon ball bursting apart, Nie Tian's head exploded all at once. His blood-red body twitched weakly twice, then knelt on the ground.

"Third!"

"Third Elder!"

"Brother Tian!"

Amid a grief-stricken roar, a young man came treading through the air from the horizon. His feet seemed to step on invisible stairs, and his speed was actually much faster than that of a Dou Huang using Dou Qi wings.

"Dou Zong!" Zhang Tian narrowed his eyes as he looked at the young man. There was something eerie about this man that made him feel faint threads of threat.

When the young man saw Zhang Tian, he looked at him as if Zhang Tian were the murderer of his father. Holding a Dragon Sparrow Greatsword, he brought it down directly in a Mountain Splitting Chop.

Zhang Tian blocked horizontally with the Dragon Yin Halberd, but he was caught off guard and was sent flying straight back. Before he flew out, Zhang Tian sensed something was wrong and hurriedly changed moves, flicking his halberd upward straight toward the young man's pupils.

"Die!" Seeing the Dragon Yin Halberd stab toward his eyes, the young man did not panic at all. His eyes were filled with hatred, and he actually changed his move as well, using Azure Sea Tide Generation to slash against the spear tip of the Dragon Yin Halberd.

"Alas." Zhang Tian sighed rather regretfully. However, he had been about to be knocked flying anyway and could no longer move, so after changing moves, he let himself fly backward.

"Yun Yun, be careful. There are still two Dou Huang on the other side." After giving a warning, Zhang Tian charged straight at the young man. This man's strength was extraordinary, and in terms of realm, he possessed the terrifying power of a Seven Star Dou Zong.

It was still somewhat difficult for him to instantly kill two Dou Huang again while being blocked by the young man.

"Senior Brother Xiahou, capture that woman first," the young man said to the First Elder. Though he was furious, he had not been blinded by hatred.

"All right." The First Elder, Xiahou, nodded. He and the Second Elder were one Seven Star Dou Huang and one Five-Star Dou Huang. Taking down Yun Yun, a mere Three-Star Dou Huang, would naturally be effortless.

On the other side, Shangguan Bubai grew more and more alarmed as he fought Zhang Tian. Every one of Zhang Tian's spear strikes, every move and stance, carried immense power, as if every spear strike was a Dou Technique. But how could that be possible?

One spear broke through the mortal dust, and the Dragon Sparrow Greatsword barely managed to catch the Dragon Yin Halberd by the slimmest of margins.

"His attack speed is actually faster than mine!" Shangguan Bubai was horrified, crying out inwardly at how impossible it was.

"Damn it." The Dragon Sparrow Greatsword in his hand sank again, but at that moment, a slender sword suddenly rushed in from the side. Shangguan Bubai's heart jolted. With his Seven Star Dou Zong strength, he could barely make out a streak of flowing light and faint traces of its path.

He turned his body aside, but his left arm was severed cleanly at the shoulder, chopped off directly by the Phoenix Cry Sword.

"Ah!"

With a cry of pain, Shangguan Bubai was both shocked and furious. He hurriedly pulled away.

"Sect Master!" The disciples of the Shang Qing Spring Sect could not help crying out in alarm. In their eyes, the sect master was their spiritual pillar.

Seeing the sect master lose an arm to a sneak attack, even the First Elder could not help turning back.

When Zhang Tian saw that Shangguan Bubai had dodged his Phoenix Cry Sword and only lost one arm, he could not help giving a soft sound of surprise. Sure enough, this young man was not simple.

"Sect Master, this won't do. Please bring out the divine weapon!"

The Fourth Elder looked at the Third Elder's corpse, grief showing in his eyes. The Teaching Elder, who had been meditating to heal his wounds, spat out a mouthful of blood, his whole body burned black with charred flesh.

"We ask the sect master to bring out the ancestral weapon and suppress this beast!"

"This boy will surely become a great calamity in the future. He absolutely cannot be allowed to live!"

"We boldly ask the sect master to offer up the ancestral weapon!"

"Please, Sect Master, offer up the ancestral weapon!"

Protectors, elders, the Enforcement Elder—one old man after another who held no low status in the Shang Qing Spring Sect, middle-aged Dou Wang, and some disciples who did not understand what was happening all knelt on the ground, asking Shangguan Bubai to invite out the ancestral weapon.

Seeing this, Shangguan Bubai's expression shifted between gloomy and clear. He gritted his teeth and tore open his own back, then sucked in a cold breath as he pulled a bloodstained ruler from his spine.

The ruler was incomparably eerie. It gave off blood-red killing aura, and also resembled a bloodstained longsword, with faint strands of black energy coiling around it.

It was a peerless murder weapon nourished by countless generations of Dou Zun and Dou Zong experts of the Shang Qing Spring Sect.

The sect master's body hid the weapon and nurtured the weapon.

But because of the erosion of the killing aura, few sect masters of the Shang Qing Spring Sect could live past two hundred years. Although Shangguan Bubai looked young, in truth, he did not have many decades left to live.

What they gained in exchange, however, was a blood ruler whose power far exceeded its original might.

"This Dao Rule Ruler is the ancestral weapon of my Shang Qing Spring Sect. It is a holy weapon. If you die here, it can be considered a worthy death." The originally handsome Shangguan Bubai had pulled the Dao Rule Ruler from his back, and great streams of blood flowed from his spine. His waist hunched over as well, yet his face carried a trace of madness.

He had clearly had his mind eroded by that vicious weapon.

Zhang Tian's heart shook. What was a sacred weapon? It was a weapon left behind by a Dou Sheng in ancient times, containing immense power.

And after thousands of years of blood sacrifices, it had now become a cursed weapon, its might even greater than before.

The name Shang Qing Spring Sect sounded like a righteous sect, but there was a soul-form old Dou Zun demon hidden in their forbidden ground, the Third Elder's magical-beast bloodline, and now this cursed weapon, along with Shangguan Bubai, who had gone utterly mad.

No matter how he looked at it, this was a demonic sect!

The famous Shang Qing Spring Sect was actually an evil faction.

Zhang Tian gave a cold snort and stood proudly between heaven and earth. Light kept flowing over the Dragon Yin Halberd, and the phantom of a hundred-zhang-long great halberd appeared. Endless water-aspected energy gathered between heaven and earth, and the fluctuations of water-aspected Dou Qi were simply like a tsunami.

"I'm betting your sacred weapon has no Dou Qi!"