Speed Is of the Essence!

Watching the black Escape Light of his own Old Ancestor flee in disarray and vanish over the horizon,

Wang Lie froze in midair.

In that instant, he felt as though someone had ripped the backbone from his body.

All around him, the battlefield roared with cries of slaughter. Beneath his feet lay the bloody, muddy remains of his son.

And before him, several figures approached, bristling with killing intent.

Zhang Yunshan held the Bronze Cauldron in one hand, his expression grim as he pressed forward step by step.

At his side, several Zhang Family elders fanned out to encircle Wang Lie, already sealing off every possible escape route.

"Wang Lie, your backer has run away."

"Today is the day you pay for your crimes!"

"Haha... Hahahaha..."

Wang Lie suddenly let out a nervous, unhinged chuckle. The laughter grew louder and louder, until it became a mad cackle.

His hair hung loose, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"Run away? Yes, they've all run... My son is dead, and the Old Ancestor has run..."

Wang Lie raised his head. There was not a trace of a Golden Core Family Head's dignity left on his face.

Only madness remained.

"If none of us can live, then we'll all die together!"

"You want my Wang Family's legacy? Dream on! Even if I'm reduced to ashes, I'll knock every last tooth out of your mouths!"

Before his words had faded, the Spiritual Power within Wang Lie began to reverse course.

An extremely violent and unstable energy surged from his dantian,

spreading frantically through every inch of his body.

His body swelled rapidly like an inflated ball, and countless bloody cracks split open across his skin.

Dazzling golden light shone through them.

"Bad! That madman's going to detonate his Golden Core!"

The Zhang Family elders surrounding him paled.

They instinctively tried to retreat.

The self-destruction of a Golden Core Great Perfection cultivator was comparable in power to a full-force strike from a Nascent Soul Early Stage expert.

At such close range, only Zhang Yunshan might survive by relying on his life-bound treasure.

The rest would likely be blown to pieces, not even leaving bones behind.

Even half the mountain on Sunset Island below them might be leveled.

"None of you are getting away! Die with me!"

Roaring, Wang Lie charged at the Zhang Family members without a care for anything else.

Yet just as he was about to detonate his dantian,

"Enough."

A voice, calm to the extreme yet imbued with supreme authority,

suddenly rang out above the battlefield.

In the next instant, a giant golden palm appeared above Wang Lie out of thin air.

Its lines were sharply defined as it pressed down with casual ease.

The space within a hundred zhang seemed to freeze in an instant.

Wang Lie's body had already swollen to its limit and was about to explode, yet now he was like a fly trapped in amber.

He could no longer move at all.

The violent Spiritual Power within him was suppressed by that overwhelming force,

and forcibly driven back into his dantian.

"No... That's impossible..."

Wang Lie's eyes widened, filled with despair and terror.

Could he not even take his enemies down with him in the end?

The next instant, an Azure Sword Light flashed.

There were no unnecessary words...

No flashy techniques, either.

The sword light flowed like water, slicing across Wang Lie's neck.

Pfft.

His head shot skyward.

Under the pressure of the giant golden palm, his headless body burst into a cloud of Blood Mist.

Even the Golden Core that had been about to detonate was shredded by the terrifying Sword Qi.

Zhang Tianzheng stood with his sword lowered. Not a speck of dust had touched the hem of his robe.

He did not even glance at the Blood Mist.

His cold gaze swept across the battlefield.

"F-Family Head is dead..."

With Wang Lie's fall, the Wang Family cultivators still on the battlefield completely broke down.

Even those few Guest Officials, who had always prided themselves on being vicious desperadoes, now had legs too weak to hold them up.

They could barely keep hold of the Magic Artifacts in their hands.

That had been a Golden Core Great Perfection cultivator!

Before that Zhang Family Old Ancestor, he had not even been allowed to self-destruct. The man had been killed as easily as a dog being slaughtered.

"Spare us! Senior Zhang, please spare us!"

"We were forced by the Wang Family! We're willing to surrender!"

Many Wang Family cultivators threw down their weapons, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed like pounding garlic, begging only to be allowed to keep their miserable lives.

Looking at those people kneeling and begging, Zhang Yunshan showed not the slightest pity.

He turned to look at the Zhang Family members behind him, all drenched in blood, and remembered the humiliation the Zhang Family had suffered over the past few years.

He remembered the heart-stopping moment just moments ago.

"Surrender?"

Zhang Yunshan gave a cold laugh and swept his hand through the air, his voice chilling to the bone.

"When you ambushed my people, did you ever think to spare them?"

"When that old monster Wang was about to crush us just now, did you show even the slightest mercy?"

"Pass down the order! Seal off the entire island!"

"Leave the uninvolved Rogue Cultivators alone. Every member of the Wang Family and every Guest Official who aided their tyranny—kill them all without exception!"

"Yes!"

The long-suppressed fury erupted in that moment.

Zhang Chen carried the longsword still dripping with blood and walked side by side with Lin Qingxue.

Leading the elite clansmen behind them, the two charged without hesitation into the fleeing crowd.

Mercy to one's enemies was cruelty to oneself.

The cries of slaughter on Sunset Island continued for a full half-hour before gradually subsiding.

The air was thick with the stench of blood.

No matter how the sea breeze blew, it could not disperse it.

The Desolate Islands, once like a paradise beyond the mortal world, had now become a Shura Field.