Bo Kay's death alongside the other three was expected. In fact, those observing applauded him significantly for surviving so long.
Only Xue Yifei, holding a peculiar hand-seal, her eyes shining with demonic brilliance, expected as much. "She's unlike my husband; although, they are very similar in how they kill."
The death of Xun Yicao by beheading was a renowned event of Wei Wuyin's supremacy, recorded and often viewed by countless souls.
The extremely talented and innately gifted Temporal Arts and Saber Arts even grasped a profound understanding of time, reaching incredible heights in their arts and comprehension. More than a hundred cultivators had joined the Ascendants off this enlightened boon. Xue Yifei had also witnessed the death of the former Grand Prince of the Myriad Monarch Sect. They both lost their heads in a single, decisive swing.
"Commander Bo's speed allowed him to survive that long with a hectic barrage of attacks. Unfortunately, the shift in his internal flow of energy and focus led to a slight, almost insignificant opening that was seized and exploited immediately, costing him his life." Xue Yifei expertly inferred.
There was no world where the Second Commander of the Ascendants' Legion was weak. It was 'her' who was abnormal. Very abnormal.
Xue Yifei kept observing.
Da Shan's grip tightened, releasing spatial shockwaves from her enlarged fingers and her bronze war hammer. Seeing Bo Kay decapitated left her feeling emotions that stung her heart, stirred her murderous intent, and roused her fighting spirit.
The urge to go in swelled within her soul, yet she remained uncharacteristically patient. If it was anyone else, she would have rushed into the fray, launching devastating world-ending strikes, but Su Mei was not someone she could carelessly face.
Meanwhile, the fastest Ascendants took action; they swiftly engaged Su Mei in combat, unleashing spells at mid-range, while simultaneously launching swift strikes at close range. Within a flash, four figures were attacking Su Mei's lone figure standing on the lake's surface with extraordinary weapons in hand.
Three other figures executed hand-seal after hand-seal, ripples of spiritual fluctuations emanated from each of them as they cycled through spells. Various manifestations jetted forth. Flaming white chains, cyan-colored doves, and green misty light snaked their way through the epic melee, aiming solely at Su Mei.
Unmoving, Su Mei brandished her finger as a saber. She met each of their weapons with a swing, her body was fluid and her movements were minimalistic to an extreme. Every strike from the Ascendants was repelled, parried, or redirected. They often clashed against each other. Fortunately, they were well trained in these group tactics, stabilizing and adjusting to prevent them from hectically and chaotically clashing as they began to pace their flurry of attacks and assisted in covering their allies' openings.
A swing of her fingers severed the flaming white chains wrapping around her figure. A swing of her fingers obliterated the doves mid-air. A swing of her fingers devoured the green misty light into their edge. The darkly-colored, jet-black saber light howled faintly.
Despite their tempestuous attacks, they couldn't cause Su Mei to take a single step back or forward.
They gritted their teeth. However, none of them was fearful in the slightest; they were Ascendants, and fear against an enemy didn't exist. Whether it was the grotesquely strong Evil Sentinels or the Aeternal Sky Divine Emperor before them, as long as His Majesty's image existed within their hearts, no fear could nestle within them.
The lake!
The Ascendants simultaneously changed tactics. Those from afar aimed at the lake. Their goal was simple: Get her in motion.
They summoned forth Martial Arts and Spiritual Arts, aiming them at the lake itself. If they hit, the lake region would undergo a drastic, disastrous change.
Su Mei lightly tapped her feet against the surface of the lake. A dark radiance swept across the surface. Immediately, as the attacks approached, a reflection of a saber emerged to match them. The moment they came into contact with the lake's surface, their attacks were severed by a saber until they popped like bubbles.
Several of the Ascendants spurted out colorful blood. Their eyes effused saber light as they howled internally. Hurriedly, they swallowed their blood as they redoubled their efforts. The Ascendants weren't those who surrendered after a single attempt.
Su Mei's expression remained unchanged as she faced four simultaneous melee attacks, all coordinated almost instinctively, targeting her from every direction. At the same time, the three Ascendants unleashed another set of world-altering attacks at the lake, each infused with profound Intent. There was almost no delay between attacks despite them suffering blood-spurting injuries. Clearly, they were relying on their tough bodies to push their Starforce and Astral Force to their limits.
A hint of brief satisfaction lit within Su Mei's eyes. Then-
She waved her fingers seven times. With each movement, a head flew and the attacks collapsed like bubbles popped out of existence. The speed of her attacks was almost invisible to an Ascended's eye. In fact, even ordinary Demi-Mortal Lords might barely see her swing her hand only once!
WHOOOOSH!!
Suddenly, Su Mei inclined her head slightly. A gushing beaming radiance of multicolored solar light slammed against the lake and her figure from above. The tyrannical solar beam instantly evaporated the lake region.
"Did they get her?!" Tula Yi was observing from afar. The fight was extremely fierce, and these strange mortals seemed to target this lone woman as if she were a great enemy. Moreover, she was utterly shaken that each of these mortals could likely defeat her in battle with ease, causing her heart to violently tremble. Were their original displays of strength just them holding back?
When she thought about that peerless woman who had beheaded the golden-bodied Evil Sentinel, forever etched into her heart and memory, Tula Yi felt that this possibility was increasingly likely.
Did they never consider them as proper opponents?! What was this world? For mortals to not even see Ascended being Chosen as insurmountable foes?! WHO WERE THESE PEOPLE?! WHO THE HELL WERE THEY?!?!
Her reaction was not unique at all, especially as they saw thirteen Solar Stars subtly rotating around each other in a faint formation, all releasing a beam of concentrated radiance that gathered beyond the sky before shattering through the atmospheric layer and violently piercing into the vast lands.
Tambu Ma swallowed a wad of saliva. "No."
A single word encapsulated reality itself; Su Mei's figure remained within the beam of multiple Solar Stars. She slowly walked forward through the air, exiting the thick beam of solar energy, using dark light itself as a platform to do so.
"She's redirecting the flow of solar light!" Aghast, Tula Yi exclaimed. The vigorous solar radiance twisted around Su Mei's body, not touching even the corner of her black clothes almost as if it was unwilling to touch its sovereign. Her finger still exuded a bloodthirsty saber light. It had claimed eleven lives. This was not the end.
"So it didn't work," Xue Yifei nodded inwardly. Once again, she confirmed something, and her eyes shone with increasingly bright demonic light. Su Mei's cultivation base wasn't entirely known, and she knew it involved heavily in light energy.
The others didn't need to be instructed; they withdrew their World-Bound Solar Star's cascading solar light, no longer daring to use any form of light energy in their attacks.
Seeing the dissipating solar light, Su Mei took a light breath. The remnant solar light energies began to rapidly gather into her nostrils as a condensed brilliant mist, slowly causing the world itself to grow extremely dim with a degree of shadowy darkness, an indicator of a lack of light energies in the surroundings. This extended for several miles.
"Argh!" A few pained exclamations erupted out of a few Ascendants at the Star Core Phase. They began bleeding from their orifices, especially their glabella. A shadowy light emerged in their eyes, glinting with invasive, predatory spiritual strength.
A Spiritual Spell!
Up above, the Solar Stars that had linked together to launch that beam of solar light began to shrink at a visible speed. From afar, it felt as if an incomparably large, shadowy hand was slowly sniffing them out like a candle. The darkness was haunting.
They instinctively realized that Su Mei was aiming for their Solar Stars. Trained deftly against this, they executed various arts to swiftly recall their World Bound Star Domains. The same arts that allowed them to dodge the assaults of Ascended beings earlier.
Wu Baozhai and Xue Yifei's expressions greatly changed. They simultaneously shouted spiritually:
"Don't recall yo-"
Unfortunately...
...it was too late.
Their spirits were already being besieged by Su Mei's vicious spell, unable to properly think, acting on trained instinct alone.
The Solar Stars were recalled into their Mind's Eye, safely kept at extreme speeds within their homes. Then, thirteen heads emitted a saber howl. A dark, shadowy, sharp, bloodthirsty saber light pierced through their glabella.
Their heads exploded like watermelons exploded from the inside. Bloody mush, bits of fragmented skull, and minced brain tissue scattered into the air. Their bodies with incomplete, half-heads, some with their bloody, wet tongue hanging out of half a remaining jaw, others with a single eye hanging out of a shattered eye socket, and with only a single stomp of a neck, geysering green blood.
Dead.Twenty-four.09:48.
Xue Yifei gnashed her teeth. Wu Baozhai's starry eyes were abnormally fierce. Da Shan ground her heels into the earth. The An Sisters clasped their hands together harder.
Tula Yi was terrified. How did that happen?! The dimming of that area left her utterly shaken, the shadowy hands grasping at the Solar Stars sent her spiraling, but the deaths of those thirteen mortals caused her spine to tremble so violently she thought it would break out of fear. Her heart was pounding violently, fiercely, and sporadically.
Su Mei slowly stepped onto the lakeside of the depleted, evaporated lake region. She eyed the Ascendants in the distance. She gave off an airy, light, serene feeling yet the hearts of each Ascendant were seized by strong, palpitating emotions.
This was Su Mei.
"Draw your saber," a voice resounded throughout the world that caught those spectators off-guard. An auburn-haired, valiant woman with a unique charm stepped out of the Ascendants' group. Her step was as even and leveled as Su Mei. There was no fear or hesitancy within her movements or eyes.
The two women were valiant entities, bearing a strong resemblance to goddesses of the battlefield, each with their unique appeal and temperaments. They stood thousands of miles away, but their eyes met each other through a vast distance.
"..." Su Mei didn't speak; she embodied Wei Wuyin's principles of battle, and she wouldn't speak unless it was absolutely necessary for victory itself. Currently, it wasn't.
At this moment, each step of Su Mei's was a circulation of her cultivation base, strengthening her momentum with each passing second. None of her actions was done without pursuing victory itself.
However, her silence and the flickering dark saber light from her fingers spoke volumes. It was sufficient of a reply.
Hong Chunhua's steps also gathered momentum. Each step rapidly circulated her cultivation base by a cycle, gathering strength. They seemed to cultivate very similar arts. In fact, Hong Chunhua had learned this art from Su Mei, delivered alongside her current Cultivation Method. None of their movements or lack thereof lacked meaning.
A heavy tension built.
Wu Baozhai glanced toward Xue Yifei. There were faint signs of sweat on the Dragonborn Saintess' forehead, but her eyes were demonically brilliant and exuded a raw, calculating force that was outrageously active. Wu Baozhai gripped her halberd and held back her desire to fight.
Da Shan was utterly gigantic. Directly beneath her legs was Xue Yifei. It was hard to tell by her height, but the way she dug her heels into the earth was enough to indicate that, while she wished to take action, she wouldn't take a single step forward.
Yao Huoyi looked at Shui Fengbao. The latter nodded, his flaming form flickering intensely.
"How many?" Bing Weiwei asked softly from behind Hong Chunhua. Her slender figure was utterly frigid, exuding a sharp chill that could freeze worlds and sever all bonds. Even her voice felt enough to condemn the world's soul.
"Two hundred and seventeen," Hong Chunhua answered flatly. Then, her step went forward, causing her fragrant aura to scatter for tens of thousands of miles, stimulating the olfactory senses of every living being.
Bei Weiwei nodded.
Suddenly, Hong Chunhua took a step forward. It brought her a hundred miles forward, her figure gushing with radiant, blinding sword light. The light condensed rapidly, forming a sword with the hilt of a booming rose and the grip of its stem. Then, she took another step. Then, another. Then, another.
She took a total of eighteen steps, each bringing her closer and closer to Su Mei, and each causing a rose sword to form behind her, all upside down, with their blooming roses pointing to the sky. Each rose was of a different color, creating a gorgeous display as the fragrance within the world intensified eighteen times. As the roses bloomed, tiny, hand-held-sized Solar Stars of various colors were born at their center.
Su Mei's eyes focused slightly.
The First Ascendant Vs. The First Commander.
