"I'll deal with the Grandmasters."
Guo Bingfu swayed slightly, and the earthen-yellow aura within him, heavy as a mountain, steadied his body.
Even gravely injured, the overwhelming power of Sky-Supporting Force was more than enough for him to crush a few ordinary Grandmasters.
Beneath the sky he supported, no one in his realm could rival him. This was no boast, but an iron law forged through countless actual battles.
"You go mop up the remaining troops."
Guo Bingfu coughed twice and spat out a mouthful of stagnant blood, looking a little more spirited afterward.
Then he tapped a piece of rubble with his toe and drifted into the depths of the ruins like a withered leaf.
Li Xiang watched Guo Bingfu disappear, then turned around.
"Move."
He drew the Ghost-Slaying Blade and gave the order to Zhang Qilan, Guo Kai, and Chu Tian.
Scattered screams rose and fell in the distant ruins.
The villains of the White Lotus Sect and the rank-and-file soldiers of the Heavenly Demon Divine Church, their formations shattered, were fleeing in every direction. But the Beiyang covert operatives led by Zhang Yunqing and the outer cordon commanded by the two Grandmasters, Withered Hand Chen Sanyin and Thunderclap Fist Wei Tie, had already turned all of Duanmu Manor into an airtight cage.
There was no road to heaven, no door into the earth.
The outcome of the ensuing purge was never in doubt.
Li Xiang led the three others in a dragnet search near the side gate, the dark-red glow on the Ghost-Slaying Blade flickering in the deepest darkness before dawn.
Whenever they passed a patch of ruins, he swept beneath the ground with the Feng Shui Master's [Earth Vein Affinity], making sure they missed no hidden passages or secret chambers.
Zhang Qilan followed behind him, forming