Wang Xian stood motionless.
His hands flashed through sword seals, veins bulging at his temples as spiritual energy poured from his whole body into the sword formation like floodwaters released from a sluice. Each burst of Sword Qi left his face a shade paler.
The fourth wave, the fifth... the tenth!
Nearly a third of the Demonic Beast's demonic hands were gone. Its black fog had thinned enough to reveal the faintly visible, pulsing black core within, like a heart.
But its fighting spirit only grew more frenzied. Its remaining demonic hands lashed out in an impenetrable storm, while its three vertical eyes fixed on Wang Xian, the ghostly flames within nearly spitting from their sockets.
The fifteenth wave, the twentieth...
Wang Xian's breathing grew ragged, and the arm holding his sword trembled. The spiritual energy drain was too great. Even with his deep foundations, sustaining the sword formation at such intensity had brought him close to his limit.
But the Demonic Beast was in even worse shape!
Only a hundred or so demonic hands remained. Sword marks of varying depths covered its torso, and black blood dripped from it, evaporating into foul-smelling smoke in the void.
"Again!"
Wang Xian gritted his teeth and summoned the twenty-fifth wave of Sword Qi with a sword seal.
This time, the Peace Talisman itself began to tremble, fine cracks appearing in its runes. The sword formation was powerful, but it had reached the limits of what it could bear.
The Demonic Beast seemed to sense this. Instead of defending completely, it braced against the Sword Qi with dozens of demonic hands, while the rest suddenly stretched out.
Like black spears, they stabbed toward the formation's core!
Toward Wang Xian!
"Looking to take us both down?" Wang Xian sneered, neither dodging nor retreating. "Then