The Art of War: Speed is of the Essence!

Watching the black streak of light that was his Old Ancestor vanish in a humiliating escape at the horizon.

Wang Lie froze midair.

In that instant, he felt as though someone had ripped out his spine.

Around him, the battlefield roared with the clash of battle cries; beneath his feet lay the muddy pulp of his son's remains.

And ahead, several murderous figures were closing in.

Zhang Yunshan held the Bronze Cauldron in his hand, his face cold as he pressed forward step by step.

At his side, several Zhang Family elders fanned out in a semicircle, long since sealing off every escape route for Wang Lie.

"Wang Lie, your backer has fled."

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

"Ha... hahaha..."

Wang Lie suddenly let out a nervous, low laugh. The laughter grew louder, until it became a mad cackle.

His hair was disheveled, his eyes blood-red.

"Fled? Yeah... they all fled... my son is dead, the Old Ancestor ran..."

Wang Lie lifted his head. On that face, there was no trace left of the dignity of a Golden Core Family Head.

Only madness remained.

"Since none of us can live, then let's all die together!!"

"You want the Wang Family's legacy? Dream on! Even if I turn to ash, I'll shatter every last one of your teeth!"

Before his words faded, Wang Lie's spiritual power suddenly began to reverse.

An extremely violent and unstable wave of energy, centered on his dantian.

Raged wildly through his limbs and meridians.

His body swelled like a blown-up leather ball, countless bloody cracks splitting open on his skin.

Piercing golden light shone through.

"Not good! This lunatic is going to self-destruct his Golden Core!"

The Zhang Family elders surrounding him changed expression drastically.

Instinctively, they began to retreat backward.

The self-destruction of a Golden Core Great Perfection cultivator packed the power of a full-force strike from a Nascent Soul Early Stage expert.

At such close range, aside from Zhang Yunshan, who might survive by relying on his lifebound treasure.

Everyone else would likely be obliterated, their bones and flesh scattered in the blast.

Even Sunset Island below would have half its peak sheared off.

"None of you are getting away! Be my burial companions!!"

Wang Lie roared, charging recklessly toward the Zhang Family clan members.

But just as he was about to detonate his dantian.

"Noisy."

A voice, utterly flat yet carrying supreme authority.

Suddenly rang out above the battlefield.

The next moment, a giant golden palm appeared out of thin air above Wang Lie's head.

The lines on that palm were clear and distinct. It pressed down lightly.

The space within a hundred zhang seemed to freeze instantly.

Wang Lie, whose body had already swollen to its limit and was about to explode, was like a fly trapped in amber.

He could no longer move a single inch.

The raging spiritual power inside him was suppressed by this overwhelming force.

Was forcibly driven back into his dantian.

"No... this can't be..."

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

Couldn't he even achieve mutual destruction?

The next moment, a cyan sword light flashed.

No superfluous words...

No flashy techniques.

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

Puchi.

A fine head, soaring into the sky.

The headless body, under the pressure of the golden giant palm, instantly burst into a cloud of blood mist.

Even the Golden Core that was originally about to self-destruct was ground to pieces by that terrifying Sword Qi.

Zhang Tianzheng sheathed his sword and stood tall, not even a speck of dust clinging to the hem of his robe.

He didn't spare a single glance at the blood mist.

His gaze swept coldly across the entire battlefield.

"The... the Family Head is dead..."

With Wang Lie's fall, the Wang Family Cultivators still lingering on the battlefield completely collapsed.

Even those few Desperado Guest Officials, who usually prided themselves on their ruthlessness, now had trembling legs.

They couldn't even hold their magical tools steady.

That was a Golden Core Great Perfection!

Before that Zhang Family Old Ancestor, he didn't even have the right to self-destruct—killed as easily as slaughtering a dog.

"Spare us! Senior Zhang, spare us!"

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

Many Wang Family Cultivators threw down their weapons, kneeling and kowtowing like pounding garlic, begging only to keep their worthless lives.

Zhang Yunshan looked at these kneeling supplicants, not a trace of pity in his eyes.

He turned around, gazing at the blood-soaked Zhang clan members behind him, recalling the humiliations the Zhang Family had suffered over the past few years.

Remembering the heart-stopping moment just now.

"Surrender?"

Zhang Yunshan let out a cold laugh, waving his hand grandly, his voice bone-chilling.

"When you ambushed and killed my clan members back then, did you ever think of begging for mercy?"

"When that Old Monster Wang was about to crush us to death just now, did any of you show the slightest hesitation?"

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

"Except for those unrelated rogue cultivators, every Wang Family member and those Guest Officials who aided the tyrant—not one left alive. Kill them all!!"

"Yes!!"

The pent-up rage of years was finally unleashed in this moment.

Zhang Chen, holding his still-dripping longsword, walked side by side with Lin Qingxue.

The two led the elite clan members behind them, charging without hesitation into the fleeing crowd.

Mercy to the enemy is cruelty to oneself.

The sounds of slaughter on Sunset Island lasted a full half hour before gradually subsiding.

The air was thick with the heavy scent of blood.

No matter how the Sea Breeze blew, it couldn't disperse it.

This desolate island, once a paradise, had now turned into a Shura Field.