After the five Blood Fiend Sect elders were forced back, they did not rush to attack again. They exchanged glances in midair and swiftly changed formations. Their eyes beneath the bronze masks glimmered with a cold, ghostly light. The five took up positions in a bizarre pattern, faint strands of blood-colored aura linking them together.
"Blood Fiend Formation." Murong Zhan gave a low warning from behind him. "The Blood Fiend Sect's combined attack formation. With five people working together, it can unleash power far beyond their individual cultivation. Be careful, Young Master Shen."
Shen Xiu nodded, his gaze fixed on the five men's movements. He could sense the five streams of Blood Fiend power, once acting independently, merging together in a strange manner. They grew ever denser, ever more solid. A heavy stench of blood filled the air, enough to make one retch.
The five elders raised their hands at the same time, five blood-red spheres of light gathering in their palms. The spheres grew larger and larger, their blood-colored auras binding ever more tightly, as though they were about to merge into one enormous blood-red sun.
"Blood Fiend Burning Heaven!"
The five roared in unison. The five bloody lights shot forth at once, merging in midair into a colossal blood-red pillar that blasted toward Shen Xiu with an aura capable of destroying heaven and earth.
Wherever the pillar passed, the air sizzled as it burned. The grass on the ground instantly withered and blackened, while even the soil was scorched into charcoal. A suffocating wave of heat rushed at him, as if it would reduce all things to ash.
Shen Xiu's expression did not change. He crossed his hands before him as the Thunder Origin within his body circulated madly.
"**Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Art, Third Form—Thunder Stirs the