Human Realm Purgatory

"Father! Save me! Save me!"

"Mother! Mother! Don't touch my mother!"

The guards under Zhu Xun plundered property at will and brutalized the common people. Any woman with even a little beauty, whether already married or a maiden in the bloom of youth, was dragged onto the carriages. The slightest resistance from the people was met with slaughter!

"Mother! Mother!" A three-year-old child wept as he chased after a young married woman being seized by the soldiers and dragged onto a carriage, only to be kicked flying. He vomited blood, his bones shattered; whether he lived or died was unknown.

An old man clutched a plow, his eyes blazing with fury. "You beasts! I'll fight you to the death!"

A long halberd descended, and the old man died miserably on the spot!

Yet Zhu Xun had shed his usual lecherous expression. Watching the horrific scene before him with a grave face, he kept sneering. "What a human realm purgatory!"

The women sobbed in grief. Two among them were especially beautiful. One was a woman surnamed Zhu, while the other was Zhao Lanlan, Hu Cheng's childhood sweetheart.

Zhu Xun was staring blankly at the scene when his heart suddenly began pounding wildly!

A thirty-meter Sword Qi swept over with a thunderous roar! Wherever its sharp edge pointed, soldiers fell dead, men and horses were thrown into chaos!

Liu Yunshen appeared in the midst of the field, sword in hand!

Zhao Dingjiang, Hu Lieshan, Lei Zhaoye, Gong Liefeng, and the others followed close behind!

Seeing the utterly horrific scene in the village, every one of them was so enraged their eyes nearly split apart!

"What kind of world is this? Are the common people not even allowed a way to live?" Huang Zongyue's hair seemed to rise in anger!

"Kill!!!"

Killing intent surged through the rusted iron sword. Beneath Liu Yunshen's double pupils lay mountains of corpses and seas of blood! He swept up his longsword and charged into the formation!

"Liu! This has nothing to do with me!! It's not what you think!!" Zhu Xun cast aside his former lecherous, wretched manner. His face was filled with rage as he righteously shouted for his guards to fight back!

More than ten second-realm experts deployed a sword formation. Dozens of fifteen- to eighteen-meter-long Astral Qi streaks descended from the sky like an endless rain of arrows, sparing neither villagers nor soldiers!

"Save them, quickly!!"

"It's too late!"

"Senior Brother Gong, Senior Brother Lei! Form the formation at once!" Cao Langao was exceptionally clever, and her sharp cry jolted everyone awake!

Lei Zhaoye, Gong Liefeng, Cai Yuelin, Cao Langao, Ouyang Qingcang, Huang Zongyue, and Wei Gui formed a formation. The Four Swords Sect's sword formation grew more powerful the more varied its sword arts were and the more people it contained!

The formation formed by the seven firmly enveloped Zhao Family Village! When the Sword Qi filling the sky struck the space above the Four Swords Sect's sword formation, it was like stones crashing against eggs—the Sword Qi shattered at once!

Over a hundred villagers huddled together, looking up at the space just three feet above their heads. It was like the five-colored barrier created by Nuwa, and an indescribable sense of tragic grandeur rose in their hearts!

"We did it!" Cao Langao was overwhelmed with joy. Yet Lei Zhaoye was terrified. "The villagers are safe, but what about Brother Liu, Brother Zhao, and Brother Hu?"

"Don't worry about them! I, Hu Lieshan, am enough to slaughter all these beasts!" Hu Lieshan's steel saber was faster than lightning as he darted back and forth across the field. Not one enemy could withstand even a single exchange with him!

Zhao Dingjiang wielded the Heavenly Wolf Spear. Its tip extended and retracted, releasing countless cold gleams, and at times it opened and closed in great sweeps, clearing fifteen meters at a stroke! Even more terrifying was the Heavenly Wolf's blood aura, which faintly empowered everything within three hundred meters. Not only had Hu Lieshan's arms thickened by a third, even Cao Langao within the Four Swords grand formation had grown an inch taller!

Liu Yunshen was even more unstoppable. His rusted iron sword swept freely in all directions, and of the more than ten second-realm cultivators, nearly all were dead or wounded. Only three remained, surrounding Zhu Xun and resisting to the death!

"You three should leave. There's no need to die with me!" Zhu Xun sighed and gave a bitter smile. "For half my life, I ate, drank, played, and enjoyed myself. What haven't I experienced? It's enough. Come! To die beneath your sword would be an honor!"

"Young Master!"

The three deathsworn refused to retreat. Liu Yunshen gave a long cry, and Sword Qi howled forth—like thunder, like a storm, containing yin and yang, forming the eight extremes, unfathomable to gods and ghosts, endlessly changing. The three men's eyes widened, and they died on the spot!

Zhu Xun stared at Liu Yunshen without saying a word.

"You slaughtered Hu Family Village and drove so many people of Zhao Family Village to their deaths. Your hands are stained with blood. I imagine you have nothing left to say!" Liu Yunshen did not strike at once, merely stared Zhu Xun down!

"You want me to repent?" Zhu Xun gave a crazed, low laugh. His hoarse voice carried an eerie, demonic quality. "What does a country boy like you understand! Compared to those great figures who created this rotten world with their own hands, what am I? No more nonsense! Come!"

"After committing so many sins, you still refuse to admit your guilt even now!" Liu Yunshen's rage reached its peak. His longsword became a streak of lightning, Sword Qi crisscrossing in an instant, weaving back and forth like a shuttle! Rainbow gleams swifter than light and shadow flashed repeatedly!

Zhu Xun suffered as though being carved by a thousand cuts. The flesh and blood across his entire body were sliced away, yet he did not make a sound. Through his breastbone, one could see his black heart pounding fiercely, seemingly wailing for the tragic end about to descend!

With a furious shout, Liu Yunshen brought down his iron sword. Zhu Xun's body exploded, and bloody splendor splashed across the rusted iron blade. The mottled rust receded by another third, reflecting a biting chill in the night!

"Watch out!!"

Lei Zhaoye shouted loudly, but he was still a moment too slow. Liu Yunshen had no time to guard against the danger behind him!

A powerful Sword Qi three hundred meters long shot straight into the field!!

"It's that feeling!" Liu Yunshen was both shocked and enraged. In his haste, he gathered all his Sword Intent and domain. Seven stars instantly rose! A hundred-meter sharp edge collided with that Sword Qi!!

Boom!!!

After the deafening explosion, more than ten large trees snapped apart! Liu Yunshen was sent flying more than one hundred and fifty meters, a massive wound over two feet long reopening across his chest as he continuously vomited blood!

"Save him, quickly!"

The seven members of the Four Swords Sect swiftly descended around Liu Yunshen. Everyone continuously poured power into him. His Dantian's Yellow Sprout seemed to sense fissures in the root soil. Struggling desperately, sun, moon, rivers, black earth, and slaughtering gold qi surged in. The Yellow Sprout's roots grew wildly, doubling in size in merely twelve breaths!

Even stranger was the black date in his abdomen. Another small portion fell away, and the essence of countless fragments of date flesh coursed through his meridians, merging into his marrow. Then, carried by the river chariot, it rose to the crown of his head. Boundless jade liquid instantly filled up, passing through the twelve tiers and transforming into rain that poured down to nourish the Yellow Sprout!

The Yellow Sprout rose skyward like a small tree, standing proudly within the world of his Dantian!!

"The fourth stage, Rain-Nourished Branching, has reached perfection!" Liu Yunshen stopped vomiting blood, and only a faint bloodstain remained upon his chest!

Mournful cries came from afar!

Zhu Xun's teacher, the high-crowned Daoist Chang Yi, was crouched on the ground, stroking the scattered chunks of flesh and bloody splendor. Beating his chest and stamping his feet, he wailed, "Xun'er! Xun'er! Heavens, why must you treat me this way!"

"Who would have thought this beast could shed tears too!" Cai Yuelin had always loved to smile, but today his face showed a hatred unlike anything before.

"This is bad! This Daoist is at least at the fourth Qi Refining realm, perhaps even at perfection! If we simply leave, what if he slaughters the villagers in rage?" Zhao Dingjiang stared at the male Daoist, his heart trembling!

"Brother Zhao, you worry too much. The gap in our dan power is so immense that we cannot even escape!" Lei Zhaoye sighed. Yet Liu Yunshen rose proudly to his feet and closed his eyes to contemplate for twelve breaths.

The high-crowned Daoist looked at the villagers trembling in terror, then at the youth in the distance, and was struck with boundless shock. "This brat took one of my sword strikes and still hasn't died! In such a short time, he has actually reached the third Qi Refining realm! A monster! This child must not be allowed to live!!!"

The Daoist came with sword in hand. With a casual wave, he sent out a powerful Sword Qi far beyond what these youths could resist!

Liu Yunshen stirred his dan power, sending everyone flying back, then charged forward with his iron sword in hand!

Boom!!

Another loud explosion rang out. A terrifying shockwave raised dust more than three meters high, instantly engulfing Zhao Family Village.

The high-crowned Daoist Chang Yi spread his immortal sense across ten li. Sensing Liu Yunshen fleeing westward, he pursued again in fury and alarm!

"Even perfection in this realm can't contend with him! This Daoist is too powerful!" Liu Yunshen's chest was grievously wounded once again. He ran at high speed, and within moments his injuries had recovered by another thirty percent, but the old Daoist had already flashed before him, hovering in midair as he brought his sword down upon Liu Yunshen's head!

The immortal weapon was already before him. There was nowhere to evade!

Liu Yunshen raised his rusted iron sword to block. Struck heavily again, he spat out a huge mouthful of blood and fell to the bottom of the riverbed!

The high-crowned Daoist looked at the fourth-tier immortal sword in his hand, which had shattered inch by inch from the impact, and was overwhelmed with shock and fury!!