Zhi Xuan paid no heed, his sapphire eyes glowing from behind the Ghost Veil. He felt his spiritual essence being suppressed, an indication that those who remained here were being slowly drained by the cursed Natural Law. He took a soft breath, and the pillar pattern on his forehead emerged; the Heavenly-Blood Body Law began to ripple, craving blood.

  "You are insane! We will die!" roared the woman in the tattered robe as she stumbled backward while Zhi Xuan stepped into the center of the chaos, ignoring their hysterical wailing.

  Zhi Xuan raised the Heavenly Sword, its blade shrouded in reddish lightning that hissed softly. He did not turn; his gaze was fixed only on the Blood Corpses now moving wildly, driven by the freshly spilled blood, and also on the fertilizers running about at the sight of him.

  The ruins were instantly divided into two groups: the cursed beings made of thick blood and the wretched cultivators who now saw Zhi Xuan's figure as a terror colder than death itself.

  Zhi Xuan did not speak, his face showing no expression, but the Heavenly Sword swung slowly. He leaped forward in slow motion, delivering a cross-slash followed by reddish lightning toward the woman.

  Whissh! Zzrtt!

  The slash was not released with the speed of ordinary lightning. Zhi Xuan controlled it, giving the woman enough time to witness the blade of the Heavenly Sword, enveloped in Extreme Lightning, drawing near. It was a deliberate death, a final mercy to sever the chains of despair.

  The woman screamed, not because of the coming pain, but because of the betrayal of her last hope. The scream was choked as the reddish lightning tore through her aura, devouring her remaining Spiritual Essence. The blade of the Heavenly Sword pierced her heart with a clean sound.

  Ssttt! Ssttt! Hsshhh!

  The moment the Heavenly Sword pierced the woman's body, Zhi Xuan's Heavenly-Blood Body Law rippled wildly. The fresh blood inside the woman's body, which should have spilled and become fuel for the Blood Corpses, was instantly absorbed and pulled out by the pillar pattern on Zhi Xuan's forehead. The woman's body dried up in an instant, becoming a light mummy even before her corpse could touch the debris of the ruins.

  The woman's soul was not absorbed into the Soul Lantern; Zhi Xuan intentionally suppressed it with the Heavenly Devouring Cauldron that resonated with the Extreme Yang, making the reversal of Soul purity a rejection of the soul to be absorbed. However, the Heavenly-Blood Body Law did not seem to form the sixty-second Slaughter Seal.

  Zhi Xuan merely remained silent, the Heavenly Sword swinging again and stabbing into the ground by his side. He turned to look at the other cultivators staring at him in terror, and Zhi Xuan stepped back deliberately, swinging cross-slash after cross-slash aimed at every cultivator.

  "Wait! What do you want? I can give you treasures! I have Spirit Pills! Don't!" roared a man, crawling away from the dry mummy that had just become Zhi Xuan's victim. The man's eyes were filled with tears and blood flowing from his wounds. He did not plead for mercy, but rather offered a mortal price for his life.

  Zhi Xuan did not respond. He stepped toward the middle-aged man. Every step was calm and measured, but in the man's eyes, every step was a marker of the end of his Dao Path. The Heavenly Sword rose again, reddish lightning coiling around the blade, emitting the cold scent of Purifying Destruction.

  "You cannot do this! I am innocent toward you! We were only looking for treasure!" the man shouted, his voice containing a faint confession—that it was greed that had brought them to this hell.

  Whissh! Zzrtt!

  The slash came. No longer at the heart, but at the throat. The Extreme Lightning severed the Spiritual Essence and the remnants of life, and the Heavenly-Blood Body Law worked with a more brutal speed. The man's blood was sucked dry, leaving behind parched skin and bones lying on the debris.

  Yet still, the Heavenly-Blood Body Law did not react by forming a Slaughter Seal; nothing formed, leaving Zhi Xuan confused within himself. However, his face remained still and showed no emotion. It was as if what he was doing was a fair exchange.

  Zhi Xuan stood in the middle of the ruins which now smelled of absorbed blood and dry ash. He had created a calm island in the middle of a storm of destruction. The Blood Corpses around him, which had been moving wildly, suddenly stopped. They smelled the scent of fresh blood, but that blood had vanished, completely absorbed by the pillar pattern on Zhi Xuan's forehead that pulsed faintly.

  However, the most terrifying part was the wailing of the remaining cultivators. They were no longer focused on the Blood Corpses; their terror was now entirely directed at the calm, veiled figure of Zhi Xuan.

  "You Devil! You... you are absorbing our blood!" roared a cultivator in a patched robe, his thin face deathly pale as he witnessed the dry mummies of his companions. He saw Zhi Xuan's Heavenly Sword decorated with Extreme Lightning, and then the faint pillar pattern on Zhi Xuan's forehead.

  "You are not a savior! You... You are the worst! You seek our blood!" the man roared, stumbling and falling, crawling away from Zhi Xuan toward the Blood Corpses. To him, dying at the hands of the Blood Corpses was a more honorable fate than becoming fuel for that Demonic Law.

  Zhi Xuan ignored the wails and accusations. He knew that in their eyes, his actions were the ultimate betrayal. He did not help, nor did he kill as an enemy. He only swung his sword, without emotion and without a goodbye or cruelty.

  He stepped toward the man in the patched robe. His feet stepped on the debris, yet his voice was not heard. Every step radiated a cold pressure, forcing the man to face a swift end.

  "I have a child! I have a small Sect I must protect! I came here for them!" the man shouted, his voice choked by creeping despair. He no longer offered treasures; he offered a mortal alibi. "Please! Do not take my Dao Path! I do not want to die like this!"

  Zhi Xuan raised the Heavenly Sword. The reddish lightning hissed. He did not speak, gave no justification, and offered none of the requested mercy. The man stared straight at the sword blade, seeing the reflection of his face filled with fear and tears.

  Whissh! Zzrtt!

  A clean slash. The light of the Extreme Lightning severed the neck and extinguished the spark of life. The Heavenly-Blood Body Law immediately seized the blood inside the man's body, making his skin dry up and his light body fall onto the debris.

  Zhi Xuan turned back to his surroundings; there were still dozens of fertilizers waiting. He did not waste his time; with a cold hand, he stepped and lunged in a spinning strike, swinging cross-slashes toward the Blood Corpses around him. In a single strike, five Blood Corpses melted and were split apart.

  Zhi Xuan did not stop there. Every swing of his sword was a deadly silence, a dance of death without mercy. He moved nimbly, like a shadow among the debris, lunging through the thick blood mist, the blade of his Heavenly Sword becoming an invisible silver-red line.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  A young cultivator, who had been hiding behind a cracked jade pillar, now screamed hysterically as Zhi Xuan suddenly appeared before him. The Blood Corpses surrounding him were split into blood ash by Zhi Xuan's swift slash, yet the young man only saw the flashing Heavenly Sword.

  "No! I beg you! I didn't do anything!" the youth wailed, his eyes widening as if they wanted to pop out of their sockets. "I just followed along! I didn't know it would be like this!"

  Zhi Xuan did not respond. His sapphire eyes remained cold, without expression. The Heavenly Sword, which had just annihilated the Blood Corpses behind him, now swung horizontally, cutting the air with a hiss of lightning.

  The reddish lightning tore through the youth's chest, and Zhi Xuan's Heavenly-Blood Body Law greedily absorbed every drop of his blood. The youth's body collapsed, drying into a light mummy without a sound.

  In the middle of the chaos, the eternal Blood Corpses continued to rise, but they now faced a new threat. Several Blood Corpses that tried to attack Zhi Xuan from the side were slashed with deadly precision.

  The blade of the Heavenly Sword split them into blood dust and extinguished their cursed spark of life, but Zhi Xuan did not allow their blood to touch him. He leaped forward, using the destroyed bodies of the Blood Corpses as stepping stones, lunging toward the next cornered cultivator.

  An old man in a gray robe, who had lost an arm and was kneeling amidst a pile of debris, raised his head in resignation. He had seen the deaths of his companions, seen how their blood was absorbed by the veiled figure before him.

  "I... I am not afraid to die," the old man whispered, his voice hoarse and barely audible. He looked at Zhi Xuan with a blank stare. "I only... want to know... why are you so cruel, boy? We were only... looking for a way."

  Zhi Xuan paused for a moment before the old man. For a second, a suffocating silence fell. The reddish lightning on the Heavenly Sword hissed softly, as if waiting for a command. Zhi Xuan's sapphire eyes stared at the old man, a cold, unblinking gaze. There was no regret, no mercy, only the swing of the Sword and the wails of the cultivators.

  Whissh! Zzrtt!

  The sword came down, decapitating the old man with one clean slash. The blood that should have flooded his neck was instantly sucked dry by the pillar pattern on Zhi Xuan's forehead, leaving a lifeless body that dried up within seconds. The severed head, with eyes wide open, did not even have time to touch the ground.

  With every slash, dozens of cultivators died with different wails; they hoped, but Zhi Xuan only slashed without justifying or blaming, not enjoying the killing yet not stopping the killing either. He only swung his sword, yet the Heavenly-Blood Body Law did not react at all and only absorbed the blood.

  A male cultivator whose robe was torn, along with two women, ran from Zhi Xuan with echoes of cries and screams. However, they were only met by the silent and killing slash of the Heavenly Sword; their blood was spilled and absorbed, yet their Souls were rejected and floated in silence.

  The last remaining cultivator, a burly man with a broken large axe, crawled backward, tears wetting his wounded face. He no longer screamed. His voice was choked by absolute terror. He saw Zhi Xuan stepping closer, his flashing Heavenly Sword radiating an inevitable aura of death.

  "I... I swear... I will do whatever you ask!" the burly man whispered, his voice breaking. "I will be your slave! I will give you everything I have! Don't... don't kill me like this!"

  Zhi Xuan ignored the oaths. He arrived before the burly man. He raised his Heavenly Sword. The blade hissed, radiating a cold lightning light.

  Whissh! Zzrtt!

  The final slash. The Heavenly Sword pierced the man's heart, and the Heavenly-Blood Body Law worked for the last time, absorbing every drop of his blood. The burly body dried up, becoming a light mummy, collapsing amidst the debris.

  Silence immediately enveloped the ruins. Dozens of dry mummies were scattered on the ground, silent witnesses to the massacre that had just occurred. The Blood Corpses around him, which had been moving wildly, now stopped. They smelled the thick scent of fresh blood, but that blood was gone. All had been absorbed by the veiled Devil.

  Zhi Xuan stood in the center of the ruins, the Ghost Veil still covering his head. The Heavenly Sword in his hand no longer hissed. The ruins that had been filled with wails and screams were now only filled with the sound of the blood mist hissing softly and the faint vibration of the Heavenly-Blood Body Law pulsing on his forehead, as if it were full.

  However, the Slaughter Seal had still not formed. He knew that if they were allowed to live longer with their wails and despair, their screams would only last longer, ending neither in destruction nor the longed-for life. This silence was the answer to his actions.

  "I did not kill you; I ensured your deaths," Zhi Xuan said calmly, looking at the ruins with a flat gaze. "May Reincarnation guide you to live well."

  Zhi Xuan turned; he took the Ghost Veil off his head, storing it into his storage bag. He stared coldly at the Blood Corpses now surrounding him; with the glint of blood dripping from the blade of the Heavenly Sword, Zhi Xuan lunged heavily as his spiritual essence was suppressed. He swung physical slashes at the Blood Corpses, no longer using essence.

  Whum!

  The sword blade cut through the air with a heavy sound. The first Blood Corpse, trying to crawl at his feet, was split in two. However, instead of turning to ash, the dark red blood of the Blood Corpse immediately spilled onto the debris, and the black moss around it glowed again with a terrifying red hue, threatening to revive the creature.

  The Blood Corpse, moving with agility newly acquired from the absorbed blood, immediately crawled closer. They no longer had a target of fresh blood; their target was now the figure carrying great energy and moving—Zhi Xuan.

  Zhi Xuan snorted softly, his eyes narrowing. Right. Killing them in the ordinary way would only repeat the cycle. He had to annihilate them to their spiritual core or drain all the blood around them. He leaped back from the reach of several Blood Corpses trying to grab him.

  "Killing Intent," Ruo Xianxue's hoarse voice echoed again in the Sea of Consciousness, now filled with a subtle seduction, cutting through Zhi Xuan's intention to purify. "You must kill without will. Do not annihilate them; let them come back to life. Temper your Killing Intent, release your desire to form the Slaughter Seal. Swing your sword, and let that Seal form with pure killing intent."

  Zhi Xuan clenched his jaw. He understood Ruo Xianxue's meaning. The Heavenly-Blood Body Law had absorbed the blood of the mortal cultivators, but because the act was done as an exchange and not as a massacre, the sixty-second Slaughter Seal did not form. That blood only functioned as a refill, not as a Dao foundation.

  He had to release his intent to purify. He had to swing his sword without thinking of the end or mercy. He had to kill merely to kill, letting those Blood Corpses revolve in their cursed cycle, so that his Killing Intent could be tempered in a moral void.

  Zhi Xuan closed his eyes, taking a long breath; the scent of dry and rotten blood filled his senses. He cast aside all thoughts of Zhu Qinglan, of safety, of the Xuan-Huang Energy. He let the cold Killing Intent, which he had long hidden, crawl out from the corners of his Sea of Consciousness.

  The pillar pattern on his forehead pulsed more strongly, and the Heavenly Sword in his hand felt heavy, as if wanting to split the entire universe. Pure killing intent—without cause and without purpose other than pure violence—began to flow.

  The Blood Corpses, now more numerous, began to crawl faster, drawn to the majestic energy from Zhi Xuan. They crawled, letting out hoarse hissing sounds, ready to seize him.

  Zhi Xuan opened his eyes. His sapphire eyes no longer carried calmness, but a cold emptiness, a mirror of the absence of morality. He did not leap back. He stepped forward, the Heavenly Sword swinging.

  Whum! Whum! Whum!

  This time, the slashes were released with brutal speed, without Extreme Lightning, only pure physical strength and the sharpness of the Immortal Artifact blade. Three Blood Corpses in front of him were split apart, their dark red blood spurting and soaking the ruins.

  Zhi Xuan ignored the blood. He ignored the non-reacting Heavenly-Blood Body Law. He ignored the rot of karma creeping on his skin. He merely moved, swinging the Heavenly Sword in a patternless dance, every slash aiming to sever limbs, decapitate heads, or split the core of the Blood Corpses.

  He did not kill to purify their cycle. He killed so they could rise again. He killed so that slaughterhouse would never run dry. The newly split Blood Corpses immediately began to vibrate and reform their shapes from the blood mud below. They rose again, but with every resurrection, Zhi Xuan swung his sword faster, more lethally.

  Zzrtt!

  A Blood Corpse that had just risen and tried to attack him from the side was immediately torn apart by the Heavenly Sword. Zhi Xuan leaped backward, avoiding the spurt of blood, and slashed the Blood Corpse behind him. He moved like the wind, his blade leaving only a trail of silence among the hoarse screams of the Blood Corpses.

  Zhi Xuan's Killing Intent, tempered in the midst of this chaos, began to solidify, feeling like a moving iceberg in the Sea of Consciousness. He no longer saw the Blood Corpses as cursed beings, but merely as targets to be swung at, sliced, and destroyed.

  He let his Heavenly Sword become an extension of his cold Killing Intent. He slashed without hesitation, without emotion, without pause. His blade shot through the blood mist, splitting and destroying.

  The cycle repeated. Blood Corpses were killed, their blood spilled, the blood ignited the mud, and they rose again. Zhi Xuan did not care. He only swung his sword.