The battles in the Western Territory had never ceased, and the clash between Hanyu and the Faceless One amalgamation grew ever more savage.
Both sides abandoned long-range attacks. Every blow landed flesh to flesh.
The Faceless One tried to break through Heaven's Dao Bell at close range so it could impose its rules on Hanyu.
Hanyu, meanwhile, swung Heaven's Dao Bell, smashing the incoming rules again and again while crushing the Faceless One's physical form with merciless force.
Ink-black flecks swirled across the battlefield. Before they could return to their physical forms, they were beaten into oblivion by one wave of plundering rules after another.
The battlefield between them kept expanding. Vast shock waves spread outward, and everything around them crumbled.
Countless small Faceless Ones also turned into ink-black flecks and converged.
At this point, the Western Territory was no place to watch the battle, either.
The Central Continent cultivators who had still been fighting in the Western Territory hurried to evacuate.
They left this entire stretch of land to the two combatants.
Of the four territories—east, south, west, and north—two had now become battlefields no one could approach.
Once he could no longer sense any Central Continent cultivators nearby, Hanyu recalled Heaven's Dao Bell and hung it above his head. Then he swung Hexi Slash once more.
This time, a Heavenly Saber spanned heaven and earth, its enormous blade chopping down as if to cleave the world apart.
Hanyu hacked away without restraint, repeatedly tearing pieces from the Faceless One's body.
Heaven's Dao Bell rang out just as furiously, stopping every attack that struck it.
The voices within the Faceless One grew more and more panicked, until they were almost paralyzed with fear.
"We can't beat him."
"Then absorb more."
"Grow stronger, or we all die together."
Amid the