They felt violent tremors beneath their feet.
The hearts they had only just managed to settle leaped into their throats again!
"Heavens! There are more?"
"Obviously! Man-Faced Sand Serpents never appear alone in one place. There are always at least four!"
"There must be seven or eight of them!"
"One was terrifying enough. Seven or eight? Does the elder who assessed this secret realm have a grudge against us?"
"I'm just a lowly Martial Apprentice. What did I ever do to deserve entering a secret realm like this?"
Bang! Bang! Bang...
The next instant, Man-Faced Sand Serpents burst from the ground one after another, raising hundred-meter pillars of sand.
Facing seven Man-Faced Sand Serpents with ten thousand years of cultivation each, Ye Qingcheng had little confidence, but she still channeled her spiritual energy and released the Heavenly Abyss Sword, leaving it standing upright before her.
She unleashed her technique, turning one sword into a hundred and forming a Sword Formation that revolved around her like a hurricane.
"Go!"
Ye Qingcheng pointed forward, and the Hundred Swords divided into seven groups, shooting toward the Man-Faced Sand Serpents!
Boom! Boom! Boom...
The Man-Faced Sand Serpents opened their foul, cavernous maws. Orange-red light flared within as they spat streams of flames that scorched the heavens!
Only the physical Heavenly Abyss Sword managed to grievously wound one Man-Faced Sand Serpent.
All the other phantom swords shattered.
The weakness of depleted spiritual energy swept down from the crown of Ye Qingcheng's head, flooding her entire body.
She smiled bitterly. "It seems using a Saint Rank weapon to perform the Sky Sword Sect's supreme technique is still too much for me."
She swiftly took a white jade medicine bottle from her Spatial Ring, poured out several energy-replenishing pills, and slipped them into her mouth.
This was no time to stop and rest.
Ye Qingcheng could disregard whether the others lived or died.
But the disciples of the Tianyuan Holy Land were part of Chen Mu's "family holdings," both now and in the future.
Ye Qingcheng could not simply watch them perish in the serpents' jaws.
She had to fight with every last shred of strength! Only then would she live up to his efforts to nurture her.
Once her spiritual energy recovered a little, she faced the seven Man-Faced Sand Serpents shooting straight into the sky.
Ye Qingcheng targeted the Man-Faced Sand Serpent she had grievously wounded earlier, whose right eye bore a gash that pierced straight through and continuously streamed blood.
She dropped swiftly, skimming almost flush against its venomous fangs, then mustered all her strength and swung the Heavenly Abyss Sword sharply across.
Rumble!
Sword Qi pierced the Man-Faced Sand Serpent, sending a visibly massive spray of bloody mist into the air.
Bang!
The Man-Faced Sand Serpent's head separated from its body, and both crashed heavily onto the sand, its head kicking up a thousand waves of grit.
Ye Qingcheng was completely swallowed by the dust, leaving those outside unable to see what was happening within.
What they could see, however, was the other Man-Faced Sand Serpents immediately bending their bodies and turning their heads, converging into the sandy haze like a flower bud closing.
Boom!
The dust surged! It spread farther, rushing explosively toward the crowd!
Just as they were worrying that Ye Qingcheng might die here and preparing to rush forward to help her,
The six Man-Faced Sand Serpents suddenly stopped moving.
After half a second of stillness, their enormous bodies abruptly exploded, spreading clouds of bloody mist!
"Six ten-thousand-year Man-Faced Sand Serpents were... were instantly killed by Saintess Ye all on her own?"
"There isn't even a scrap of their remains left! What kind of technique could be this terrifying?"
"Could Saintess Ye have concealed her cultivation? How could someone in the mere martial master realm do this?"
"When I accompanied our Holy Son to the Sky Sword Sect for an exchange of techniques earlier this year, Saintess Ye wasn't this strong. She and our Holy Son were evenly matched."
"Then what are the odds now?"
"The gap is too wide to calculate."
Then a fierce wind howled.
The dust and bloody mist scattered completely.
At last, everyone could see what lay within.
"What is that?!"
"An iron man?"
"He has no aura of life and doesn't look human, but his spiritual energy is incredibly powerful."
"Could he be the one who killed those six Man-Faced Sand Serpents?"
Everyone buzzed with speculation.
Only Ye Qingcheng had clearly seen this fellow emerge from her own shadow.
Thinking he was an enemy, Ye Qingcheng had swung her sword at him.
Yet the Shadow Puppet had easily blocked it with a single finger.
The blade trembled, and the energy transmitted back through it left Ye Qingcheng's arm horribly numb.
That single exchange made her understand the gulf between them with profound clarity.
It was like the distance between heaven and earth, an almost impossible chasm to cross!
Especially when, in the very next second, she witnessed the Shadow Puppet wave his great hand and instantly turn the six ten-thousand-year Man-Faced Sand Serpents attacking from overhead into bloody mist.
"..." Ye Qingcheng felt as though her entire body and soul had plunged into an ice cavern.
That might terrified her so thoroughly that her hands and feet went cold, and her limbs no longer obeyed her.
Even though Ye Qingcheng knew this could not continue, that remaining frozen would only cost her life for nothing, she could do nothing at all.
It was as though this body no longer belonged to her.
Ye Qingcheng had never felt such overwhelming pressure, even when facing the Sky Sword Sect's Martial Saints or human immortal realm experts.
Who exactly was this man in silver armor?
Why had he been hiding in my shadow?
A peak human immortal realm expert? Or... someone in the quasi-emperor realm?!
Questions came one after another, troubling Ye Qingcheng's heart, yet none found an answer.
Meanwhile, just as Ye Qingcheng puzzled over it to no avail, strange noises sounded repeatedly underground!
The Shadow Puppet first enveloped Ye Qingcheng's entire body in spiritual energy, then struck her with his palm, sending her dozens of meters back to rejoin the others.
Immediately afterward, an enormous boom erupted!
A Man-Faced Sand Serpent burst from the ground, thrusting the Shadow Puppet into the sky.
The Shadow Puppet stood perfectly upright, raised his foot, and stomped down.
Bang! Boom!
Then everyone watched, dumbstruck, as the Man-Faced Sand Serpent's body rapidly swelled and bulged.
Soon, its flesh could no longer withstand the pressure and split open. Blood sprayed out, pouring down overhead in a torrential rain that dyed the sea of sand before them red.
Its hundred-meter body—skin, flesh, and bones—was effortlessly torn apart in the blink of an eye, killing it outright!
"One... stomp? You're joking, right?"
"If I'm not mistaken, that Man-Faced Sand Serpent was also at the ten-thousand-year level, wasn't it?"
"You're not mistaken. Its cultivation was even stronger than those earlier ones."
"Just where did this fellow come from?"
"I'd say he most likely has something to do with the Tianyuan Holy Land. Didn't you see him protect Saintess Ye just now?"
"So he really is connected to the Tianyuan Holy Land!"
"..."
She felt their gazes converge on her, seeking answers.
Ye Qingcheng knitted her brows tightly.
If she could, she would also like to know exactly who he was.
Fortunately, one thing was certain: he was not an enemy.
Without that protective layer of spiritual energy just now, Ye Qingcheng would already have ended up like the Man-Faced Sand Serpent, her skin, flesh, and bones torn apart by that palm strike and reduced to a cloud of bloody mist.
The mere thought made Ye Qingcheng shudder uncontrollably.
Her terror had yet to subside.
"Who cares who he is? All you need to know is that he saved our lives."
"That's ri—"
Rumble!
This earthquake far surpassed all the previous ones combined.
Before anyone could speak,
A monstrous creature that blotted out the sky and sun appeared before them!
At this distance, even craning their heads back as far as possible, they could not take in its entirety.
Visibility plummeted!
An oppressive atmosphere descended!
The stench of death hung thick in the air!
Before you continue