On Tuoyue Mountain, everything inanimate had long since been refined into one by the Great Demon prime culprit, apart from the cultivators and the mountain spirits that guarded it. Each time the Mountain Protecting Formation was destroyed and restored, time flowed backward by a year. That rendered every concealment spell and escape art used by the Demon Race Cultivators on the mountain meaningless. After each round of sword strikes from the five sword cultivators of the Sword Qi Great Wall, every Demon Race Cultivator except the prime culprit reappeared where they had been. But the Spiritual Energy in their acupoints and the Magic Treasures at their sides did not return with them.
They were like a pitiful band of travelers walking beside the River of Time. Forced to press on through wind and rain, they trudged from one crossing of time to the next, wearing down their legs bit by bit, only to be sent inexplicably back to where they had begun. Then they had to face an even greater despair: sword light blotting out the sky.
In the five sword cultivators' earlier joint assaults on Tuoyue Mountain, the Yin Guan had usually led the charge, cutting through the mountain's River of Time formation first. The other four killed demons while wearing away the Spiritual Energy and Mountain and water fortune Tuoyue Mountain had amassed over ten thousand years with their vast Sword Qi and sword intent, until even the advantages of time and terrain began to change.
Chen Ping'an alone had delivered a full three thousand sword strikes.
Each time, the Great Demon prime culprit, the Savage Lands Great Ancestor's Founding Disciple, was split in two by a line of sword light drawn down from the center of his forehead.
Chen Ping'an struck too quickly, and every stroke fell