The terrifying Sword Twenty-Two cared nothing for who you were, whether you roared or rejoiced. A supreme sword condensed and descended in a single strike, making space itself tremble. Even a mid-stage Great Emperor would not dare take it head-on.
"Nine Lotuses Obscure the Heavens."
Hun Tiandi dared not be careless and unleashed his full power.
At that moment, the terrifying attack erupted to its utmost. A lotus, like the first opening of heaven and earth, blotted out the sky and sun as it stood behind Hun Tiandi.
Ye Changge watched from the side, with no intention of intervening.
Rumble!
Aah!
Hun Tiandi's agonized scream rang out amid the explosion.
Clearly, he had been injured.
He had suffered considerable injuries in that clash just now.
"Who exactly are you? How can you be this strong?"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Hun Tiandi's hair hung in disarray. One move-just one move had left him in a wretched state.
"I am Dugu Jian, an elder of the Primordial Forbidden Zone."
Dugu Jian's expression was icy.
"If you can withstand this next sword strike, you may live."
As he spoke, Sword Qi crisscrossed around him, and the terrifying might of the sword Dao erupted to its utmost at that moment.
Watching this, Ye Changge felt his scalp prickle.
Clearly, he had already guessed that Dugu Jian was about to unleash his ultimate move.
A supreme sword condensed behind Dugu Jian, radiating sky-surging might.
With one sword strike, heaven and earth lost their color; with one sword strike, all things withered.
"Could this be Sword Twenty-Three?"
Ye Changge's expression grew grave.
Sword Twenty-Three was a move capable of slaying Xiongba.
In particular, the Sword Twenty-Three comprehended by the Sword Saint was countless times stronger than the Sword Twenty-Three comprehended by Wuming.
This was the most powerful move of the Heavenly Sword.
"The Primordial Forbidden Zone? That fallen Primordial Forbidden Zone that dropped from the Nine Heavens? How could that be? Impossible!"
Hun Tiandi was stunned. He simply could not believe it.
Such a powerful Great Emperor was actually an expert from that fallen Primordial Forbidden Zone.
After all, that forbidden zone had fallen from the Nine Heavens.
It might once have known glory, but he knew better than anyone what it was like now. Yet now, a Great Emperor Realm sword Dao expert had emerged from it.
"Ten thousand souls return to one! I am the Heavenly Emperor, undying through ten thousand ages!"
Hun Tiandi dared not be careless and unleashed his strongest technique.
Endless soul power surged forth, with boundless resentment roaring wherever it passed.
Give me your life!
Kill, kill!
Seeing this, Ye Changge's expression turned icy. The formation began operating with overwhelming force, and slaughter began to spread.
It had been a killing formation all along. Earlier, it had merely been used to trap Hun Tiandi so Dugu Jian could test his sword.
Seeing the cultivation technique Hun Tiandi practiced, there was no telling how many innocents he had slaughtered. At that moment, Ye Changge could no longer endure it and intervened directly.
With the emperor formation working together with Sword Twenty-Three, Hun Tiandi's expression changed drastically.
"Damn it! Am I going to fall here? I can't accept this!"
Whoosh!
Just as he roared, a sheet of golden paper flew out.
It blocked part of the attack for him.
Two peerless attacks clashed.
Sword Twenty-Three was far too powerful. It no longer attacked only the flesh; even the soul came under attack.
Hun Tiandi's soul-targeting attack was instantly dismantled.
Even so, Dugu Jian's soul was still injured.
Soul power attacks were impossible to guard against completely and were the most uncanny of all.
"Soul power attacks really are uncanny."
Dugu Jian's expression was grave.
"Human, a single emperor formation cannot kill me."
Hun Tiandi looked at the golden paper, his confidence multiplying at that moment.
Even if he had been injured, even if Sword Twenty-Three had wounded him badly, so what? Not only did the golden paper possess powerful restorative abilities, but it was itself equivalent to an extreme Dao emperor weapon.
"Is that so? I wasn't planning to kill you just now, but you truly deserve death. If one emperor formation can't finish you, then two, three, four-I believe there will be enough to finish you eventually."
Ye Changge spoke icily.
Hearing this, Hun Tiandi was scared out of his wits. What was he seeing? Seven or eight emperor formations appeared in an instant. What sort of heaven-reaching ability was this?
"Who are you? This..."
Rumble!
What answered him was the sound of an emperor formation self-destructing.
"No...!"
Under Ye Changge's control, the first emperor formation self-destructed, and a terrifying explosion instantly burst forth.
Hun Tiandi was instantly blasted into a severely injured state. Even his hair burned away, leaving him bald.
With seven or eight emperor formations providing protection, the emperor formation's eruption instantly tore through seven of them.
Fortunately, the blast's aftershocks were stopped in the end.
"Hun Tiandi, how was that?"
As Ye Changge spoke, he entered the emperor formation.
A dark-gold longsword appeared in his hand. The instant it left its sheath, a world seemed to appear, radiating boundless might as it bore down upon all the heavens and myriad worlds.
"The Primordial Sword? How could it be in your hands?"
Hun Tiandi was dumbfounded.
Others might not know of the Primordial Sword, but he, Hun Tiandi, did.
The Primordial Sword was said to have been forged by a peerless expert from the Primordial Realm. An entire realm-and the Primordial Realm at that. Several Great Emperors had emerged from the Primordial Realm in its day, and even a Heavenly Emperor had been born there. It was an exceedingly ancient great world.
Yet because it offended someone, it had been refined directly into a sword. Merely thinking about how powerful that sword was felt terrifying.
"Since you recognize the Primordial Sword, it seems there's no doubt that you really are a reincarnated Heavenly Emperor."
Ye Changge spoke with a faint smile.
Hearing this, Hun Tiandi was frightened out of his soul.
"Unfortunately, you must die today."
As he spoke, Ye Changge swung his sword. Hun Tiandi activated the golden paper, trying to block the attack.
Yet the attack ignored the golden paper and struck his arm directly.
His right hand instantly fell off. Seeing this, Ye Changge waved his hand, drawing the arm over and taking the spatial ring from it.
"Thief! Give me back my spatial ring!"
"Hmph. Since you dared to set your sights on my disciple, you should have anticipated today's consequences."
As he spoke, a formation descended, directly imprisoning Hun Tiandi.
"I understand now. So that's it. So that's it."
With that, Hun Tiandi chose to self-destruct.
He wanted to escape, but unfortunately, before an emperor formation master, everything was futile.
"Trying to escape? Can you get away? Seal!"
As his voice fell, a sealing emperor formation appeared. Hun Tiandi, protected by the golden paper, was suppressed once more.
"So this is a Great Emperor who reincarnated from a Heavenly Emperor and cultivated anew? Far too weak. You can't even beat my subordinate."
Ye Changge spoke disdainfully.
"You... kill me or carve me up, do as you please."
"Is that so?"
As he spoke, Ye Changge directly searched his soul.
Aah! Aah!
"Damn it..."
In less than a minute, everything was settled.
After searching his soul for his memories, Ye Changge was instantly stunned.
As it turned out, this was only one of Hun Tiandi's clones. He had cultivated One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones. A clone's death would not affect the original body, and the original body could act to condense it anew.
"One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones really is powerful. Unfortunately, everything you have now belongs to me. The next time we meet, even if you are a Heavenly Emperor, I will kill you."
Ye Changge's expression darkened to the extreme. From the memories, he learned that Hun Tiandi had offered the Martial Realm as a blood sacrifice. Only after sacrificing all the living beings of that entire world had he broken through to the Great Emperor Realm.
The Martial Realm was a world like the Desolate Ancient Continent. No Great Emperor had been born there for untold tens of thousands of years. Hun Tiandi had seized that opportunity to offer it as a blood sacrifice. It was utterly inhuman.
Having learned everything, he plundered the Soul Hall's treasury clean.
In his fury, he set up an emperor formation and banished the entire sect into the void.
He would not kill them himself; he would leave them to live or die on their own.
"Young master, why didn't you just kill them?"
"Dugu, killing someone is no more than making their head touch the ground. Who would choose death if they could live? Strip them of everything, then banish them, and let them experience what those offered as blood sacrifices felt before they died."
With that, Ye Changge left with Hun Tiandi's two wives.