Outside the great rift of Immortal Ancient lay a desolate plain, now sunk in a suffocating silence.
A faint breeze swept across the parched earth, carrying a thin scent of blood.
The Blood Bat Sect Master's massive, mutilated corpse lay sprawled amid the rubble, the smooth bloody hole between his brows a horrifying sight.
This Giant, infamous throughout the Three Thousand Provinces and feared by countless cultivators, had not even managed a scream before a seemingly fragile golden willow leaf pierced him on the spot, erasing both body and soul.
That Divine Edict of "Cease Hostilities," which had resounded through heaven and earth amid a skyful of golden leaves, was like an invisible divine mountain, weighing heavily upon the hearts of every sect master present.
Even those supreme Giants who normally stood high above all others and treated human lives like blades of grass could not help but feel a deep chill rise within them after witnessing a peerless expert of their own rank killed in an instant.
Everyone tacitly halted their attacks, staring uncertainly at the golden willow leaves still drifting slowly down through the air.
The brief display of power brought the battlefield, once boiling with violence, to a standstill.
Yet that deathly silence did not last long.
"I don't believe it."
A harsh shout shattered the plain's stillness.
The Lord of Sword Valley abruptly stepped forward, his right hand clenched tightly around a divine sword flowing with peerless sharpness. Waves of sword force surged around him like a raging tide, forming a vast ocean of the Sword Dao that carried his entire body aloft.
The Lord of Sword Valley stared fixedly into the depths of the void. Though a trace of apprehension remained in his eyes, there was even more of a near-mad certainty.
"It definitely isn't