At this moment, the golden pillar of light at the center of the Sky Pit had already grown incomparably dim. It looked as though it were covered in rust, with dark red bloodstains everywhere, clump after clump, blotch after blotch, revolting to behold.
Hua Shiniang stood to one side, her face blooming with delight and satisfaction.
"Almost there. Begin the final chant..." she called out softly, ordering the demons around her.
"Yes." The demons answered in unison.
Immediately afterward, a rather orderly chant rose from all around the Sky Pit, and light began to shine from the golden pillar standing at its center.
Yet this light did not come from the pillar itself, but from the blood-colored rust attached to it.
As the bloody glow grew brighter and brighter, an aura of decay spread from within. The entire golden pillar resembled a beam gnawed through by countless insects, collapsing, breaking apart, and disintegrating amid the light.
At last, the final Restriction protecting the remnants of Fangcun Mountain had been breached as well.
"Kill..."
Before Hua Shiniang could give the order, a murderous battle cry rang out from the depths of the Sky Pit.
Right afterward, Elder Xing Qiong led Lingbo City's remaining disciples in charging up from below, leaping out of the Sky Pit.
They intended to fulfill their promise and die before the disciples of Fangcun Mountain did.
Yet the instant they rushed out of the Sky Pit, every one of them froze in place. All around the Sky Pit, hundreds and thousands of demons lay strewn across the ground in disarray.
Some bled from their noses and mouths, some convulsed incessantly, and many of those with lower cultivation had already stopped breathing entirely.
Not only were Xing Qiong and the others utterly baffled by this sight, but even