Atop an ancient tree in the Yanran Mountain Range.
This place was not far from the Forbidden Ground on Dragonhead Mountain. As the Sword Qi came rolling over, Zhu Pingfang and Zhu Lifang were caught off guard and nearly blown away by a stray wisp of its aftershock.
Fortunately, Earth-Character Thirty-Nine raised his hand slightly and released a small measure of Spiritual Power, catching the two and bringing them back into the crown of the tree.
Clutching the Jade Slip in his arms and gripping his brush tightly, Zhu Pingfang stared with wide eyes, still shaken. His mouth hung open unconsciously, and cold sweat streamed down him.
He looked up.
"This-"
The thousand-mile expanse of demonic clouds shrouding the Dongyuan Sect had been cleaved in two by a single sword strike. The lingering Sword Qi remained condensed, illuminating the Dongyuan Sect, the Yanran Mountain Range, and Spirit Source Marsh as brightly as daylight.
"How is this possible-"
One strike. He had unleashed only one strike.
Nine Nascent Soul Realm cultivators, and not even a single nascent spirit had escaped?
"Brother-"
Zhu Lifang's eyes went round. He instinctively looked at his older brother and, finding him equally astonished, swallowed.
Then both looked up at their master.
"-"
Earth-Character Thirty-Nine remained silent, his mask keeping the Zhu Family brothers from seeing his expression.
But his trembling hands, tucked into his folded arms, betrayed him.
Was this truly power that a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator could possess?
Inconceivable.
He had reincarnated and possessed only Nascent Soul Early Stage cultivation. Moreover, according to the confidential intelligence retrieved before their departure, although Chen Linyuan's core had attained a grade when he condensed it, it had only been third grade.
It was hard to imagine what the world had been like tens of thousands of years