Fourth on the Azure Sword Ranking, Li Shangjue

He stood in midair.

Beneath his feet was a large runic disc formed from flames.

He stood very high up.

Few Thunder Bulls could hurt him.

Lin Tian, on the other hand, had been fighting with his flesh alone.

His injuries were far from light.

The mission was already over.

Lin Tian abruptly retreated.

He also breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.

He withdrew into the distance and took off his shirt again.

He swallowed two pills.

Taking out the medicinal liquid Ziwei had given him, he applied it to his body again.

The Heavenly Sword scooped up a tiny bit of medicinal liquid and applied it to Lin Tian's back.

Then.

The Heavenly Sword gently patted Lin Tian's shoulder, seemingly aching for its master.

"Zhenwu, that sword of yours actually has spiritual intelligence!"

Ziwei landed beside Lin Tian and exclaimed in surprise.

Lin Tian focused on healing, paying Ziwei no attention at all.

Ziwei smiled without minding, then looked at the Heavenly Sword and said:

"Zhenwu, would you sell this sword? I'm willing to pay a high price."

But the moment Ziwei finished speaking, he regretted it.

Because although Lin Tian said nothing and did not even look at him.

Ziwei could clearly feel a bone-piercing chill coming from Lin Tian.

"I was just joking. Don't take it seriously."

Ziwei took a step back and said with an awkward smile.

Only when he saw the chill around Lin Tian dissipate considerably did he breathe a sigh of relief.

"So sword cultivators really are all the same under heaven."

He muttered under his breath.

Without consulting each other, neither of them had chosen to return to the Extreme Realm.

Their purpose was the Kui Bull's blood essence.

At that moment, up in the sky.

The Sword Capital's martial artists and the Kui Bull were fighting with abandon.

The Kui Bull blazed like the great sun overhead, shrouded in countless bolts of lightning.

It illuminated almost the entire Sword Capital.

Though it was clearly night, it seemed like broad daylight.

The earth cracked, and the city walls shattered.

One human expert after another fell.

It was like a disaster.

Over the course of the battle, many sword cultivators had already fallen.

A few had charged into the city.

Now, over a thousand Thunder Bulls had rushed into the city and begun slaughtering civilians.

If they were not stopped soon, all the mortals in the Sword Capital would probably be killed.

In this battle.

Ordinary people were like ants.

They died in swathes.

Although Lin Tian and the others had been fighting outside the city all along, they could imagine how horrific things were within.

The soldiers outside the city were now dead or wounded.

They had killed nearly the greater part of the Thunder Bulls.

The remaining ones that had charged into the city probably would not be able to run rampant for much longer.

"Zhenwu, let's go into the city. Every one we can kill counts."

Ziwei looked at the battlefield and said.

"Don't enter the city."

Lin Tian stood up.

Holding his bloodied shirt, he shook it, sending a large amount of blood streaming down.

The clothing Ziwei had given him was made from a very special material.

Earlier, he had been covered in blood.

But now, most of the bloodstains on the garment had already drained away.

With a slight shake, it became a white shirt again.

"We're not going in?"

Ziwei looked at Lin Tian, his face beneath the mask somewhat uneasy.

Still, he was not the overly saintly sort.

It was just that watching people die without helping pricked his conscience somewhat.

Lin Tian looked at the Kui Bull in the sky, looming over all living beings like the great sun.

He was inwardly horrified.

This was the destructive power of high-level combatants.

Terrifying.

The dozens of martial artists were all exceptionally powerful.

Although they had suffered casualties.

They had forcibly kept the battlefield above the city walls.

Otherwise, once the Kui Bull entered the city.

What it brought would be annihilation.

In truth, Lin Tian naturally wanted to enter the city.

After all, through continuous slaughter.

His strength would keep growing.

Moreover, he was now just like the Heavenly Sword.

It was as though he had activated a lightning talent.

If he continued slaughtering Thunder Bulls, the lightning power within him would grow stronger.

However, these Sword Capital cultivators did not know.

But Lin Tian did.

The mission issued by the Extreme Realm had made it very clear.

The Kui Bull was about to revive.

The Kui Bull before them did not look as though it was about to revive at all.

Why were they charging into the city to slaughter people?

Wasn't it to provide Blood Qi for the Kui Bull's revival?

Yet this Kui Bull was perfectly fine right now.

Then there was only one possibility.

There was another Kui Bull.

Very likely, that Kui Bull was hidden beneath Heavenly Sword City.

If they entered the city and encountered the Kui Bull's revival.

Wouldn't that be courting death?

Hum!

The ringing of a sword resounded between heaven and earth.

From ten thousand meters away, a keen Sword Intent spread over in an instant.

A sword light tens of thousands of meters long suddenly swept toward them.

Moo!

As though sensing a threat, the Kui Bull raised its head and bellowed at the sky.

Its roar reverberated tumultuously, violently shaking everything around it.

Crack!

The lightning on its body erupted instantly, blasting away Dean Chen, who was fighting it.

"Vile beast, you deserve death!"

A man's forceful, ringing voice sounded.

Just as the Kui Bull roared in fury, a great sword spanning the sky crossed ten thousand meters, sweeping forward in a slash.

Whoosh!

The great sword pierced the Kui Bull's body.

Crack!

Lightning erupted from the Kui Bull.

Several streams of blue blood imbued with lightning sprayed out.

"Kui Bull blood essence!"

"Quick, collect it!"

Seeing the Kui Bull wounded, the martial artists who had been fighting it instantly roared.

They flew toward those streams of blood.

At the same time, below the city walls, from the nearby shadows.

Dozens of figures with powerful presences darted out in an instant.

They rushed toward the streams of blood.

"So many old sixes!"

Ziwei cried out in surprise, never having expected so many people to suddenly appear.

Lin Tian, however, was not surprised.

After all, in this world.

Only selfishness could gain you more.

And just then.

Sword light shot across the sky.

It instantly pierced the bodies of several martial artists vying for the blood essence.

"Until the Kui Bull is dead, I'll kill anyone who dares seize its blood essence!"

The man's voice rang out again.

A peculiar, mighty presence spread across ten thousand meters, sweeping over from that direction.

It was a handsome young man dressed in black and holding a sword.

His ear ornaments gleamed like polished jade, and the jewels on his cap shone like stars.

He stood in midair, just dozens of meters in front of the Kui Bull.

His presence alone overwhelmed every martial artist.

"Fourth on the Azure Sword Ranking, Li Shangjue!"

One of the martial artists recognized the man and cried out.

The other men preparing to seize the Kui Bull's blood essence also stopped at once.

They looked at Li Shangjue and no longer dared.

"So handsome!"

Ziwei exclaimed in admiration.

Lin Tian gave him a strange look.

"Uh."

As though noticing Lin Tian's scrutiny, Ziwei made an awkward sound, then said:

"Looks like we don't have a chance anymore. Li Shangjue is here. If we try to seize the Kui Bull's blood essence, he'll kill us."

Lin Tian looked toward the city walls.

Li Shangjue had already engaged the Kui Bull in battle.

Sword light filled the heavens, and he had already gained the upper hand in no time.

"Leave the Kui Bull to me. Enter the city and protect the people!"

Li Shangjue spoke as he fought.

"All right!"

The deputy general and Dean Chen exchanged a glance, both seeing delight in the other's eyes.

Then Dean Chen looked toward Lin Tian.

His gaze seemed to pierce through layer upon layer of obscuring leaves.

His eyes met Lin Tian's.

Then he flew into the city.

Lin Tian's heart tightened.

He had been within the other party's sight all along.

Then Li Shangjue must have spotted him too.

Should he slip away now?

Or wait a little longer?

Lin Tian deliberated for a long time.

"Should we head back? I feel like we've got no chance,"

Ziwei said, his voice trembling slightly.

"Let's wait a little longer,"

Lin Tian replied.

Of the four hours the Extreme Realm had given him, only an incense stick's worth of time remained.

Even if something unexpected happened,

he could still have the Extreme Realm teleport him away directly.

Moo!

A sudden bellow

rang out from within the city.

Boundless pressure seemed to come from every direction.

Li Shangjue froze for an instant.

He looked into the Sword Capital.

"This is bad!"

He let out a low shout.

Crack!

Seizing the moment of his distraction, the Kui Bull struck him with a bolt of lightning.

Li Shangjue felt his entire body go numb and tingly.

Just as he was about to retaliate, the Kui Bull rammed its head into him.

A vast swath of lightning exploded.

Li Shangjue was sent flying, only coming to a stop above the Sword Capital.

"This is bad!"

"Everyone, scatter!"

The cultivators within the Sword Capital were horrified as they sensed an even stronger pressure emerge.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The earth writhed.

Throughout the Sword Capital,

the ground cracked and heaved.

Terrifying waves of air surged out from underground.

They charged upward from beneath the earth.

As though an earthquake had struck, they spread for several kilometers across the ground.

The city walls, shops, and courtyards-everything began to tremble.

Houses crumbled into dust one after another, and the streets vanished in an instant.

The fleeing civilians tumbled in panic into the fissures opening in the earth.

Over ten thousand people were crushed to death by the pressure spilling out from underground before they could even scream.

Severed limbs lay scattered, blood splashed everywhere.

Amid the tremors, shafts of dazzling golden light spilled from the cracks in the ground and shot straight into the clouds.

Moo!

Accompanied by rolling, howling thunder,

a second blazing sun appeared beneath the earth.

An even larger Kui Bull burst out from underground.

Its savage, ancient presence made Ziwei's heart pound with fear as he watched from outside the city.

"The... second Kui Bull!"

"Its presence is even more terrifying than the first one's!"

His body was trembling slightly.

He was already beside himself with terror.

"Zhen... Wu, I don't dare stay here any longer. I'm leaving. Take care!"

Ziwei spoke in a trembling voice, unable to muster even the slightest thought of seizing the Kui Bull's essence blood.

Then his voice faded.

He vanished from Lin Tian's side.