Jiang Chunye felt herself regain control of her facial expressions, and a smile crept onto her face. The moment the Sword Sovereign attacked, she must have released her technique, allowing Chunye to transform her body into a shadow-like state.
'I have no chance of defeating her. I have no choice but to escape!' Jiang Chunye thought. She transformed into a streak of shadow and flew off into the horizon. Or, at least, she attempted to.
'Why can't I control my body?' Jiang Chunye asked herself. Except for everything above her neck, she couldn't feel anything else!
Just as panic settled in, she noticed her field of view fall, literally. Something slick and sticky coated her cheek, and Jiang Chunye knew what it was, the blood of the Buzhou Immortal Sect disciples she killed.
'No! Impossible!' Jiang Chunye wanted to scream, but because her head had been severed from her neck, she couldn't push any air through her vocal cords.
With a thud, Jiang Chunye watched in horror as her headless body collapsed in front of her. 'No, no, nooo!'
'That's it, I can just separate my soul from my body and flee!' Jiang Chunye thought, but she thought too optimistically. She should have noticed something was wrong when she couldn't even sense her head being sliced off her neck.
Her horror grew as she discovered that she was trapped in her flesh like a caged animal. No matter what she did or how much she struggled, she couldn't change her fate. As the light of vision faded from her eyes, the last thing Jiang Chunye saw was Hun Jusang's blackening eyes as he kneeled down to cradle her head.
Mengfei looked down at the kneeling Hun Jusang. Her slash had already slain all the Leakless Sect disciples nearby. Only Jiang Chunye and Hun Jusang were the disciples of the Nihility Sect present in the Leakless Sect. And although Hun Jusang survived, black blood continuously leaked from the wound across his chest.
However, Hun Jusang acted as if it didn't exist, even as it stained Jiang Chunye's head. He continued to cradle it, mumbling, "Chunye, Chunye. There's no way you died like this, right? You were always so amazing, no one could keep you down for long. That's why, hurry up and open your eyes and call me stupid for thinking you died."
Mengfei raised her sword above her head. Everyone was to be killed with one exception. She brought her sword down.
The scene of Hun Jusang suddenly displaying power far greater than his realm suggested didn't occur. Mengfei's sword sliced cleanly through him, head to toe—not even Jiang Chunye's head was spared.
The two halves of Hun Jusang split apart and fell onto their sides, dyeing the ground black with their blood. Mengfei gazed at this with rippleless eyes before turning around and preparing to leave.
Mengfei's foot paused as she slowly turned around. The black devil's blood started to spread and submerged everything as if it had turned into a black lake. The corpses, artifacts, vegetation, and very land itself disappeared. Once it neared Mengfei's foot, she blasted a qi pulse, preventing the black blood from tainting her feet.
Oh, it tried. The black tried to climb up her barrier like tiny little mites scaling a foot, but flashes of qi later, the blood disintegrated around her. However, it wasn't done. As if on rewind, the black blood started to gather again. After the blood retreated, it only left behind barren land polluted with devil qi.
Hun Jusang's and Jiang Chunye's corpses had already merged into the black blood, and what was left was a floating sphere. Mengfei's hand moved, and so did her sword.
The black blood sphere split in half, but Mengfei's attack didn't have her desired result as a figure cloaked in black dropped down. The split shell the figure fell out of transformed into robes that released mists of devil qi.
The figure stood up, revealing a complexion far too white, especially against her long hair that was blacker than ink. Aside from that, the girl looked exactly like Jiang Chunye, except that she had a devilish allure the original didn't have.
"Who are you?" Mengfei asked. She couldn't detect any signs of life from the girl, as if she wasn't alive. By conventional means, anyway.
The unnamed girl blinked. The whites of her eyes were pitch-black, and her irises were the color of envy. She smiled. "I am Chunsang."
The girl who identified herself as Chunsang opened her mouth to say more, but Mengfei unleashed a second slash. A sword-shaped qi flew out and pierced Chunsang's forehead, causing her neck to snap at a ninety-degree angle.
"I hate you," Chunsang's voice sounded as her neck returned to normal, as if someone had physically snapped it back into place.
The hole in Chunsang's head allowed Mengfei to see the other side, but no blood or brain matter leaked out despite the injury. In fact, Mengfei couldn't even see any organs, bones, or flesh. It was as if Chunsang was just a blob plastered with human skin.
Mengfei didn't waste any words as a violet, gold, and silver glow encased her crystalline sword. Chunsang must have sensed the danger because she turned tail and fled, but Mengfei didn't give chase. She continued accumulating the power in her sword, and once it reached the optimal output, she slashed.
Seemingly for no reason, Chunsang collapsed onto the ground, and a mass of black tumor-like flesh peeled off her. She lay motionless, devoid of all life.
Mengfei narrowed her eyes. Her left hand's forefinger twitched, and a gigantic crystalline sword over a hundred meters long pierced downward at Chunsang from the sky.
"Bitch!" Chunsang screamed as her figure jumped out of the black tumorous mass. Her form had shrunken until she appeared to be twenty years old, but the malice in her eyes only intensified.
Mengfei frowned. She continued to unleash sword qi after sword qi. Each time her sword qi cleaved Chunsang, a hunk of black blobs would fall off her, and she would shrink in form and age.
With a wave of her sword, thousands of crystalline swords appeared around Chunsang. So numerous were the swords that it appeared as if a crystalline sphere had surrounded Chunsang. Mengfei flicked her wrist, and the swords impaled Chunsang, leaving nothing behind but a black gurgling mess.
However, Mengfei still wasn’t assured. She brought her left palm to her lips and gently blew. A black bubble formed above her palm and floated toward the bubbling pool of liquid. The closer it got, the larger it became until it was over ten meters wide and encased the space around the bubbling liquid.
The black bubbling liquid squirmed as if something was trying to jump out and outside the bubble, but it was too late as Mengfei whispered, "Collapse."
The bubble burst, revealing a pure white space where nothing existed. Dirt, oxygen, karma, and even the very space ceased to exist. The world closed in and mended the hole Mengfei's technique caused.
Mengfei nodded in satisfaction. She still had an immortal emperor to deal with. Her foot paused, and she turned around again. Her gaze lingered on the tumorous blobs that had fallen off Chunsang. She raised her sword.
"You goddamn bitch!"
The black tumorous masses gurgled as they rapidly expanded and conglomerated together, forming a gigantic black figure. It was a muscled humanoid that resembled a cross between a man and a woman, with a long pointed tail, two bat-like ears, two curved horns, and two pairs of envious eyes of ruin.
Black tendrils sprouted from its back and speared towards Mengfei, whose figure disappeared. When she reappeared, she was in the air above the thousand-meter-tall devil.
Mengfei raised her sword again. She could sense that the devil was more of a spiritual body than a physical body, significantly lessening the oppression of her Eight Trigrams Tri-Unity World. A phantom sword longer than the devil's height appeared behind her. She slashed down, and the phantom sword followed suit.
The devil shouted some unintelligible string of words that she didn't recognize. It charged straight at the slashing sword with reckless abandon. Its tendrils shot forward but were all sliced. However, when the sword reached the devil's body, it only phased through, and the devil continued to run unimpeded.
Mengfei raised her left hand in front of her. Just as the devil would crash into it, it disappeared. When the devil reappeared, it was shackled by spatial chains above the Leakless Sect.
The black crystalline sword in her hand disappeared into tiny motes of light, and Mengfei formed several hand seals in quick succession. As she completed each one, a terrifying gravitational force shrouded the entire Tri-Unity World with the devil as the epicenter.
The devil roared as it curled up into a fetal position from the gravitational force. However, the roar slowly grew weaker, not because its volume had decreased but because the gravitational force pulled it back. Not just the devil but the land and buildings of the Leakless Sect were pulled toward the epicenter, chunk by chunk.
Even the cultivators were not spared, especially mortal cultivators. Almost every single one of them was pulled into the growing orb, their flesh crushed, and not even their souls could escape. Even true immortals too close to the epicenter could not escape the same fate.
When the orb stopped pulling mass to itself, it had already reached the size of Earth's moon, perhaps even larger.
Mengfei clasped her hands together. Just as she was about to fully press her palms together, she caught something shooting toward her from the corner of her eye. She dodged, but the object still struck her arm, wounding her arm and disrupting her seal.
The floating orb thrummed for a second and fell back to the land. Although it wasn't exactly what she had planned, it still resulted in the moon-sized orb flattening the Leakless Sect's headquarters. The orb crumbled into giant rocks, dirt, and everything that made it up, only malformed.
However, Mengfei ignored her handiwork as she observed her assailant. He flew toward her in a sword-shaped streak. She raised her uninjured right arm, and a black crystalline sword materialized in her hand.
Clang!
An elderly Daoist wearing silver robes clashed against Mengfei, sword against sword. "You madwoman! Aren't you afraid of being punished by the Heavenly Dao for all the Karmic Sin you've accumulated?"
Although killing cultivators, who had not reached the Immortal Realm, would grant the same amount of karma as a regular mortal was not much, Mengfei killed millions. Even though she was an origin immortal, Karmic Sin would descend upon her.
"Have you gone blind, Emperor Solesword?" a voice shouted.
Chasing after Emperor Solesword were three emperor-level war formations led by three immortal monarchs. They had been tasked with killing Emperor Solesword, but they failed to blockade him, much less kill him. The war formations' auras flickered, having been injured by said emperor.
"Open your blind eyes and take a good look. What Karmic Sin are you talking about?" the war formation mocked. "Now, obediently accept your death! Your Leakless Sect is over!"
Emperor Solesword took a closer look and recoiled. He could not see a hint of Karmic Sin lingering around Mengfei. In fact, he even saw a faint film of Karmic Merit. How was this possible?
He growled and glanced at the coming war formations. "The Leakless Sect may fall today, but the disciples who have escaped won't let it end like this! They will avenge us!"
Emperor Solesword whirled toward Mengfei as he blocked her incoming slash. "As for you, I'll take you down with me! I'll show you what it truly means to be called a sword immortal, you fake!"
Mengfei remained expressionless as she sent strike after strike against Emperor Solesword. Despite his superior swordsmanship, he could not overcome Mengfei's brute speed and strength, falling into a disadvantage. However, it was still abnormal.
A whole realm separated the two, yet he was able to deflect most of her blows while oppressed by her Eight Trigrams Tri-Unity World. It wasn't like Emperor Solesword was at the peak of the Extremity Immortal Realm. Had he been, it would have been much more reasonable to go toe to toe with Mengfei, who was the Early Origin Immortal Realm.
Upon closer inspection, Mengfei noticed a faint red wisp radiating off Emperor Solesword's body. Not just that, she can even sense soul particles rippling off him. He had used a forbidden technique to ignite both his blood essence and soul in order to gain a temporary surge of strength.
His current strength had even surpassed the half-sovereign from the Numinous Sword Sect Mengfei had clashed with in the Vast Void, Emperor Yanxu. But there was a price. At the rate Emperor Solesword consumed his blood essence and soul, he would not even last five minutes more.
"Coward, fight me!" Emperor Solesword shouted as he saw Mengfei retreating, and a hint of urgency appeared in his heart.
He waved his arm, and ten thousand sword artifacts appeared. They formed a giant rotating circle around him and Mengfei. "Life and Death Duel Sword Formation, rise!"
Mengfei felt the space around her solidify and twist. She opened her mouth and softly said, "Shatter."
In a split second, the rhythm of the ten thousand swords became disoriented, and no matter what they did, they couldn't reorient themselves in a pattern again. But this was enough. Emperor Solesword only needed to distract Mengfei that single moment.
Emperor Solesword's entered a stance with his beloved sword. His strength, speed, endurance, blood, soul, and even very emotions entered his sword. The sword was not him, but he was the sword.
"Cut."
The word spoken was from Emperor Solesword's mouth, but it contained nothing. No emotion, no thoughts, like a preprogrammed puppet speaking as it was instructed.
Then, he slashed.
Mengfei felt as if everything in her world was dyed silver. Her Eight Trigram Tri-Unity broke away from her control and transformed into a sword world. No matter what she did, that slash would strike her.
"Pffft!" Mengfei spat out a mouthful of blood as a bloody hole appeared in her chest, and blood leaked from her lips.
