Ash.
Great drifts of ash.
Endless white ash.
The blood, bone, and flesh of living beings had turned to ash beneath the sun's radiance. It drifted on the wind and filled the sky, spreading across the entire realm. For a time, it even blotted out the clouds, leaving the heavens gray and the light dim.
These Flesh-Demon Puppet Dao Soldiers had died long ago.
They had been tortured for countless years, suspended between sentience and something no longer human. Imbued with the Immortal Artifact Sect's exquisite immortal techniques, they could control formations with the flexibility and precision of living beings without burdening their formation master. Yet they had none of a living being's fear, confusion, or selfishness. They had easily attained the Dao Soldiers' state of "ten thousand hearts as one." Nothing of the self remained.
This death was merely a release, the end of endless torment.
Yet the sight of their blood and bone turning to ash and scattering across the world, blotting out the sun, stirred boundless terror. It was as though the end of the world had come.
Countless Immortal Order spies felt a chill in their hearts and trembled without cease.
The Pure-Yang Sword Heir was far too ruthless!
Sword cultivators prized killing, but even among them, few slaughtered so many beings at once. Looking from this scene toward the future, the spies seemed to glimpse an upper realm awash in endless storms of blood.
Clang!
Jiang Ding's sword returned to its sheath.
He beckoned, and a female cultivator puppet with skin like ice and jade appeared in his hand.
This was the Heavenly Inquiry Inheritance's bonded puppet, and her last resort for escape. Had the sword been even a hair slower, this puppet would have shattered and reappeared within the Immortal Artifact Sect's mountain gate.