Only killing, never saving

Stone Gate Village.

It was a mortal village near Yongning Commandery.

Once a place of beautiful pastoral scenery, the village was now shrouded in a heart-chilling haze, seemingly produced by some evil formation.

Inside the village's ancestral hall, wisps of bloody light spread outward, accompanied by the mortals' piercing screams.

"Junior brother, my Human Puppets are far more perfectly refined than yours. First, use Pure Spirit Pills to keep these mortals completely lucid, then place them inside a custom Formation Plate. Peel off their skin bit by bit, slice them three thousand times with wind blades, then break every bone in their bodies inch by inch. After that, split open their bellies, scoop out their organs, and grind them up raw. Throughout this process, the Formation Plate continuously releases vitality to heal their injuries. Finally, extract their souls and refine their spirits, send them into the Soul Banner, and subject them to yin fire, soul-rending astral winds, the bites of Soul-Devouring Insects, and the corrosion of resentment."

"Only through all these methods can you refine a superior vengeful ghost. Place it inside a corpse to nurture it, and you'll obtain a Human Puppet stronger than the body was in life." A black-robed man freely expounded on his cultivation insights.

Another cultivator, a woman wreathed in bloody aura, was holding a little girl.

She gripped the girl by the ankle, hanging her upside down like a chicken, and had opened a hole in the top of her skull. White and red flowed together into her vivid red lips.

Before long.

She gave the girl a shake and drank the final drop of blood.

Then she casually tossed the girl, drained of all color, aside like garbage, onto a small mound of other children.

"Seven-tenths full. Only that last one was passable. She probably would have awakened a decent talent for cultivation someday."

The black-robed male cultivator refining Human Puppets asked, "Where's Senior Brother Tu?"

The female cultivator replied, "He cultivates the Killing Life Demon Art. Naturally, he's killing people."

"Don't take things too far. This is the Great Qian Dynasty, after all. Demonic forces are weak here." The black-robed man sounded displeased.

Another young man refining Human Puppets laughed. "What are you afraid of? That senior from the Ning Lineage is undergoing Mortal Transfiguration. What expert at the Golden Core realm or above would dare approach this area?"

"If anyone's being watched, it'll be Demon Scion Gu Zang and his group. Their schemes are much bigger than ours."

But suddenly-

A sword's cry rang out in the distance.

Clang!

The expressions of all three changed at once.

"Damn it! A cursed sword cultivator is here!"

Meanwhile.

At the center of Stone Gate Village stood a huge rock shaped like a doorway.

It had once been the symbol of Stone Gate Village.

Now, however, it was covered in villagers' headless bodies nailed to its surface.

At a rough count, there were at least a hundred.

Their heads had been piled haphazardly atop the rock. A burly man drenched in blood sat cross-legged among the many heads whose eyes remained open in death, cultivating.

Upon hearing the sword's cry.

The burly man abruptly opened his eyes and gripped the ring-pommeled baleful bone saber resting across his knees.

A figure suddenly entered the range of his Divine Sense.

Sensing that the newcomer had not even reached Foundation Establishment, he immediately relaxed.

"Perfect timing!"

A savage gleam flashed in his eyes. After confirming that there was only one sword cultivator, he immediately charged out with his saber.

With his fifth-level Foundation Establishment cultivation, killing a mere sword cultivator at the peak of Qi Refining would be effortless.

Yet after only a few metallic clashes, the burly man fled miserably back into the village's formation, clutching a bloody wound on his chest.

"A monster! He must be a prodigy from some great sword sect!"

The burly man stared at the sword cultivator outside the formation, whose killing intent surged to the heavens. He was even more terrifying than a demonic cultivator like himself who practiced the path of slaughter!

The prodigies of the Nine Provinces were also ranked: third-rate prodigies, second-rate prodigies, first-rate prodigies, peerless prodigies, and those supreme above all.

This sword cultivator had to be a peerless prodigy from some supreme sword lineage!

Spirit Sword in hand, Li Yang hacked again and again at the formation shrouding the village.

Every strike made the formation shudder violently, and soon it was on the verge of collapse.

"Stop, sir!"

All four demonic cultivators were at the Foundation Establishment Realm. They now hovered in midair on their flying artifacts, their expressions grave.

"If I stopped just because you told me to, wouldn't I lose all face?"

Li Yang's sword intent was incomparably sharp. The formation had already begun to flicker and would soon fail.

"In that case, don't blame us for using underhanded methods!" The black-robed cultivator snorted coldly.

He immediately released more than a dozen Human Puppets at the middle and late stages of Qi Refining. They rushed into the village homes, each seizing a villager by the throat.

"If you don't want them to die, stop attacking! We'll leave on our own!"

Just then.

Ning Xinyao, having switched to flying on her sword, arrived as well.

At the sight, flames burned in her beautiful eyes.

But as she watched the villagers struggle violently in the Human Puppets' grips, their faces gradually turning blue, she suppressed her anger.

"Junior brother, stop for now. Saving them comes first!"

Yet Li Yang remained utterly unmoved.

"I'll avenge the innocent villagers who died!"

Seeing cracks spread across the formation, the black-robed man panicked.

"If you don't believe us, we can swear upon our Dao hearts! As long as you let us leave, we won't harm anyone else!"

But he did not understand Li Yang at all.

In Li Yang's eyes, the hostages in the Human Puppets' hands were already dead.

Over his years of cultivation, he had seen this sort of scene so often that it no longer surprised him.

If he wavered, not only would the hostages die, he would die too, unable even to avenge them.

"Do whatever you like. My only mission is to eradicate demons and defend the Dao."

Li Yang gave a savage grin. "Besides, wouldn't letting you leave just give you the chance to slaughter more innocent people?"

Seeing the villagers' faces grow ever worse, their breath leaving them but barely entering, Ning Xinyao immediately shouted at Li Yang.

"Junior brother, stop!"

But Li Yang answered her with an icy stare.

"Shut up! Put away that merciful heart of yours!"

Ning Xinyao's beautiful eyes widened.

He actually told me to shut up!

How dare he?

I'm his senior sister!

Seeing that neither oil nor salt could get through to Li Yang, the black-robed man snorted coldly.

"You're far too confident! You haven't even reached Foundation Establishment, and the person beside you is only at the Foundation Establishment Seventh Layer. If we want to leave, you can't stop us!"

But Li Yang said nothing more, simply continuing to attack the formation.

Crack-boom!

The formation shattered completely, and Li Yang turned into a streak of sword light as he bore down on them.

His eyes were filled with a thirst for slaughter!

When the burly man who cultivated the Slaughter Dao saw that look, he immediately understood.

"Run! This fellow is the same kind of person as me! He isn't doing this to eradicate demons and defend the Dao. He simply wants to kill!"

The black-robed man immediately commanded his Human Puppets to hurl the villagers in their hands in every direction, hoping to delay Li Yang and Ning Xinyao.

But Li Yang did not even glance at them. Without a moment's hesitation, he went straight after his prey.

Ning Xinyao snapped out of the shock of Li Yang's rebuke and immediately began rescuing people.

"You rude junior brother! Don't be reckless!"

Though deeply annoyed, she still worried that Li Yang would be in danger.

A single Qi Refining cultivator was chasing down four Foundation Establishment cultivators with his sword.

Clang!

A streak of sword qi slashed out, targeting the weakest of the Puppet-Crafting Evil Cultivators first.

"Come forth!"

The man immediately summoned six mid-stage Qi Refining Human Puppets and two late-stage Qi Refining Human Puppets.

Yet with a single sweeping slash, Li Yang cut all eight puppets in half at the waist. His fierce, rampaging killing intent destroyed them from within.

"Damn it! He hasn't even reached Foundation Establishment, yet he's developed such terrifying sword intent! Which sword sect's lineage produced this monster?" The black-robed man's pupils contracted at the sight.

But Li Yang unleashed another streak of sword qi, forcing the Second Layer of Foundation Establishment Puppet-Crafting Evil Cultivator to turn and activate a Spirit Artifact to block it.

In that single breath of delay, however, Li Yang had already closed in.

He raised his Spirit Sword high with one arm and brought it crashing down-

In the evil cultivator's eyes.

Li Yang's figure became immensely tall, radiating overwhelming pressure, his eyes gleaming with scarlet killing intent.

Sshk-