After tying up the loose ends, erasing the surrounding traces of his aura, and dealing with every surviving cultivator, Qing Chen rode his escape light back to Xuanchi Island with the speed of wind and lightning.
When he came to a steady halt, he was holding a head that still retained a trace of warmth-none other than the severed head of Mysterious Altar True Person.
Even though his head had been separated from his body, the pressure of a Middle Golden Core Stage cultivator lingering upon it seemed not to have fully dispersed.
Atop the city wall, Lin Changsheng, who was on watch, was the first to spot the head. His voice trembled uncontrollably. "Devil Lord, you truly... truly killed Mysterious Altar True Person?"
He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, only to see Qing Chen calmly flick his hand. Mysterious Altar True Person's head struck the city wall with a thud, as though Qing Chen were tossing away a piece of rubbish.
At Qing Chen's signal, the Demon Guards already waiting in formation swiftly gathered around.
As they gazed at the head that filled them with terror, every face turned pale.
At the front of the crowd, Han Shi crouched down and poked a finger at the head's brow. "The Middle Golden Core Stage! Such a powerful being, yet he really is dead through and through!"
At those words, the eighteen hundred utterly exhausted Demon Guards instantly straightened like pines.
They looked at Qing Chen as though he were a demonic god who commanded life and death.
They had witnessed far too many scenes of the strong bullying the weak: Foundation Establishment cultivators slaughtering those at the Qi Refining Stage, Golden Core cultivators crushing those in the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Yet they had never imagined, much less witnessed, a cultivator