Chapter 382

He swung down with a single blade.

Mu Yi could clearly see the evil ghost whose face changed dramatically beneath the blade, and after the blade drew near, the opponent's surface Inner Qi armor could not withstand the strain, shattering and tearing apart.

——Ten Thousand Armies Take Head

All defenses before this blade were like sandcastles on a beach washed away by the tide, collapsing instantly.

The Great Summer Dragon Sparrow Sword 'slowly' split open the heavy defense, and amid the ghostly, gloomy wind, it carved a crimson blood line.

The blade's light flowed like water, and all sounds fell silent.

Only the abrupt, cut-off screams and the sound of flesh, bone, and marrow being hacked and crushed into oblivion remained.

The slain evil ghost seemed to be a member of the Earth Fiend Stars; Mu Yi could not identify him by appearance alone, and could only barely discern him with the aid of starlight.

Under the blade's slash, it began with Mu Yi and ended upon the earth.

Everything blocking the blade's path was violently split in two by the powerful strike.

The evil ghost struck head-on had no chance to struggle, dying instantly; his soul was also taken away at once by the Reincarnation Barrier and locked in Hell Path alongside Qin Ming.

At this moment, all evil ghosts were terrified beyond measure; the mist was dissipating, and they watched Mu Yi's move in full view.

They didn't even have time to wonder why the Heavenly Marshal and Earthly Fiend Grand Formation had been broken in an instant, before they saw Mu Yi suddenly appear, his Great Summer Dragon Sparrow Sword chopping down straight at Earth Fiend Star Du Qian.

There was no resistance at all; life and death were decided in an instant.

The Earth Fiend Star's body was split open with a boom, his soul unable to escape; even his body halved, under the violent destruction, it directly exploded into a rain of blood across the sky.

Accompanied by the patter of falling blood rain, everyone froze for a moment.

"Pfft~"

Heavenly Chief Star Song Jiang spat out a large mouthful of blood, as the core of the formation that bore the pull of two starlights by his own strength; at the moment the Heavenly Marshal and Earthly Fiend Grand Formation shattered, he suffered a backlash far greater than anyone else.

He couldn't understand; clearly it was 107 versus 1, the advantage was theirs, so why did this happen?

In their formed state, the nearly peak Earth Fiend Star Du Qian was simply slashed down by a single blade.

This left him utterly unable to accept it.

Qin Ming's untimely death, Huangfu Duan's loss of control, and Du Qian's death in battle directly ruined their original plan beyond repair.

Song Jiang's mind was a complete mess; he didn't know what to do next.

The Liangshan bandits suffered heavy casualties, losing three of the Heavenly Marshal and Earthly Fiend; it seemed only flight remained as an option.

However, Song Jiang wanted to flee, but it depended on whether Mu Yi would let him go.

After slashing Du Qian with a single blow, Mu Yi immediately charged at another evil ghost.

"Earth Demon Transformation!"

Earth Demon Star Song Wan saw Mu Yi charging at him, not daring to delay, he shouted loudly, his stature instantly shooting up from the ground, his size swelling several times, becoming dozens of feet tall, as if piercing the heavens.

After transforming, Earth Demon Star Song Wan's demonic flames blazed sky-high, like a demon god rushing out of Hell, he threw a punch at Mu Yi, who was smaller than his fist.

But the next moment, a towering figure suddenly swelled from within Mu Yi's body; the Great Asura Dharma Aspect blocked the punch, and without a word, it brandished the mist in its hands and hurled it at Song Wan.

"All together, attack and kill him!"

Taking advantage of Song Wan and the Great Asura Dharma Aspect being entangled, Earth Courage Star Bing Yuchi Sun Li swung a steel whip at Mu Yi.

Mu Yi felt no fear, directly advancing toward Sun Li, blade and sword descending together to envelop him.

After exchanging dozens of blows, the Great Summer Dragon Sparrow Sword directly severed the steel whip, striking Sun Li in the face.

An evil ghost that had been a threshold between high-level Legend and demigod fell thus beneath the Great Summer Dragon Sparrow Sword.

"We can't go on like this; the Cloud Energy suppresses us too much and bolsters him even more—continuing to fight will only increase our casualties!"

「I'll perform the spell; you seize the opportunity and directly slay him! 」

「Heavenly Gang Five Thunders! 」

Only hearing a loud shout, the Heavenly Leisure Star enters the Cloud Dragon; Gong Sun Sheng makes hand seals, points his sword at the heavens, several bolts of lightning flash above the firmament, then crash down.

However, the heavenly lightning had just struck Mu Yi's body; the next moment, another bolt of heavenly lightning crashed down, missing Mu Yi and hitting Gong Sun Sheng instead, causing him to vomit blood uncontrollably, near death.

The lethal power of heavenly lightning against these evil spirits is even more terrifying than against ordinary beings.

「Courage commendable! 」

Mu Yi sneered as he praised Gong Sun Sheng's courage, employing the Heavenly Gang Five Thunder Orthodoxy imparted by the Heavenly Court's Thunder Division to strike this righteous god of heaven and earth; he didn't allow Gong Sun Sheng a chance to backlash in one breath, only able to say his cultivation was not bad.

「I don't know whether you've really worn away your wisdom over endless ages or what, but it's been so long and you still haven't noticed? 」

Looking around at the evil spirits that wanted to surround him but were somewhat hesitant, his face showed a hint of contempt.

To be honest, he originally thought this wave would require a desperate fight.

As a result, after he consecutively beheaded Du Qian, Sun Li, and severely wounded Gong Sun Sheng, the remaining evil spirits dared not act.

It made Mu Yi feel both amused and mocking; he had calculated for a long time, yet never expected these evil spirits to be such a loose sand.

Having previously seen the evil spirits form a great formation to charge, he had thought they at least possessed some organizational strength, but he never imagined these evil spirits were merely strong on the outside and weak within; once his overwhelming power was gone, their internal contradictions were immediately laid bare.

It also allowed him to drag out the last bit of preparation time.

If it weren't for the heavenly stars just happening to restrain the divine ability of the vast heavenly fog, he wouldn't have risked his life, actively charging forward to fight desperately with these Liang Mountain evil spirits.

Probably due to protection of fortune and destiny's favor, everything went smoothly, allowing him to drag it out to the final step.

「If that's the case, then let's welcome judgment! 」

As Mu Yi's words just fell, icy frost energy condensed above the firmament into a huge azure-blue vortex, continuously pouring into his body; a dharma manifestation grew at a visible speed.

At the same time, the dissipating frost aura around turned into various weapons, humming as they encircled the growing dharma manifestation and began to revolve.

Unlike the cunningly condensed dharma manifestation of the Great Asura, at this moment Mu Yi's dharma manifestation is a composite integrating the entirety of the Great Army Cloud Energy, having absorbed the heavenly and earthly essence within a hundred-li radius.

A ferocious aura burst forth from Mu Yi, gleaming gilt light continually swirling upward, directly tearing a huge hole in the sky, forming a pillar of light that pierces heaven and earth.

At this moment, the 150,000-strong army became a complete entity, its surging momentum like a mountain-collapse, sea-overwhelming pressure pressing upon the hesitant evil spirits.

A dharma manifestation giant a hundred zhang tall appeared between heaven and earth; its own radiance and the sunlight shining down from the rift made all the evil spirits feel glare and discomfort.

Originally ten zhang tall, like a colossal being, the Vajra of the Cloud, Song Wan, now is even shorter than the dharma giant's shin.

Mu Yi lifted the foot of his Dharma Aspect with a blank expression, and with one stomp he crushed Cloud Vajra Song Wan into a pulp!

Watching the horde of evil spirits scatter in disarray, Mu Yi simply raised his hand calmly, and the Reincarnation Barrier expanded at this moment, sucking all the evil spirits inside.

"Die!"

The frost weapons swirling around his Dharma Aspect converged toward Mu Yi's hand, countless frost weapons merging into a single giant blade exuding an extreme chill.

After a brief pause, the blade exuding extreme cold pulled a tremendous shockwave in the air, then, wrapped in the force of ten thousand jun, it came crashing down onto the earth.

At this moment time seemed to freeze, the extreme cold as if it had halted time itself, and all the evil spirits were enveloped within the giant blade's attack range.

Only now did these evil spirits exert all their strength, hoping to oppose Mu Yi.

Yet a strike that gathered the essence, energy, and spirit of 150,000 people plus the heavenly and earthly essence within a hundred-li radius could not be easily blocked.

"Boom!"

Under the giant blade's slash, everything turned to powder—whether the evil spirits' secret techniques or the spirits themselves, all were violently sliced away, dissipating into fine particles.

The frenzied blow also pierced the Reincarnation Barrier, and the sound of shattering annihilation echoed across the entire battlefield.

The residual force from the blast shattered the ground completely, even blasting out a huge pit, and the formation beneath the earth was suddenly blown apart by Mu Yi's strike.

But it was no longer usable.

The Dharma Aspect dissipated, Mu Yi fell from the air to the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Bearing such power beyond his limits and then unleashing it placed a tremendous burden on Mu Yi himself; at this moment he felt as if his whole body were being crushed, wracked with pain.

He gazed at the altered terrain of Liangshan, waiting for the ice and snow to melt, after which this place might very well become a great lake.

But at last the dust has settled.

Just as Mu Yi was thinking that, a dark light shot straight at his face.

"Clang!"

The Great Asura Dharma Aspect manifested on its own, blocking the blow for Mu Yi.

Mu Yi frowned as he watched several evil spirits tumble out of the void.

He hadn't expected that, despite this strike, some evil spirits would still survive.

"Hehehe, didn't see that coming, did you? We managed to survive after all, thanks to Brother Shi Qian being able to slip into the void; otherwise we'd really be dead!"

Wu Yong climbed up from the ground, looking at Mu Yi with a hint of fear in his eyes.

But seeing Mu Yi's pallid face and weak aura, the fear in his eyes turned to madness.

"Let's all rush up and kill him!"

This time, the few evil spirits who had luckily survived showed no hesitation, immediately unleashing their killing techniques toward Mu Yi.

Without the suppression of Cloud Energy, these evil spirits' strength returned to its peak, every gesture carrying the power to cleave rivers and split mountains.

The Great Asura Dharma Aspect held for only an instant before being shattered; to reform it would require starting the sacrificial refinement anew.

"Good thing I held back a trick, otherwise I'd really have fallen today!"

Looking at the evil spirits charging at him, Mu Yi's face showed a hint of relief.

A surge of earthly undulation arose, and Mu Yi's form was pulled by Chu Yi to dozens of li away.

In Mu Yi's place stood over a dozen officers exuding a valiant aura.

"Kill them!"

Li Zhu drew his golden sword, having witnessed Mu Yi's overthrow of the entire Liangshan, filling his heart with nothing but awe for Mu Yi—such immortal means are beyond ordinary men.

There was not the slightest hesitation in obeying Mu Yi's orders.

The remaining officers who had signed the life-and-death pact also wore looks of lingering trepidation; they had originally harbored minor objections to Mu Yi's methods, but now all those doubts vanished like smoke.

The generals under Tian Hu and Wang Qing, even if not matching the Liangshan evil spirits, were not far off; moreover, the martial faction led by Lu Junyi and others had basically been defeated, leaving Wu Yong and the rest, so the average strength of both sides was roughly equal.

And Li Zhu now had numerical superiority, so in a fight he naturally held the advantage.

After Mu Yi, with Chu Yi's help, barely recovered some of his vital energy, Wu Yong and the others were all captured alive by Li Zhu and his men and presented before Mu Yi.

"Supreme deity, spare my life! Supreme deity, spare me!"

Wu Yong begged for mercy frenziedly; they knew very well what would happen next.

"It's easy to spare you—go ask the living beings of Qingzhou whether they're willing to spare you!"

Mu Yi waved his hand, too lazy to waste words on Wu Yong and these humanity‑annihilating evil spirits.

He unfolded the barely recovered Hell Path, casting the souls of Wu Yong and the others into it, where mountains formed from their sins pressed them down to endure the torment of the netherworld fire as atonement.

He waved his hand to signal Li Zhu and the others to retreat, then, with Chu Yi's assistance, sat cross‑legged on the summit of Liangshan.

He discovered an advantage: although these 108 individuals who faced calamity had died, the Starlight of the Heavenly Stalwarts and Earthly Fiends they represented had not dissipated.

Mu Yi didn't know whether this had been deliberately left for him or if there was some other secret, but as the saying goes, 'He who fails to take advantage is a bastard.'

After such a hard‑fought battle, he ought to gain something.

Seated cross‑legged on the Liangshan summit, Mu Yi directed the soldiers of the Human Path, setting up the Great Array of Heavenly Stalwarts and Earthly Fiends, drawing together the 108 strands of Starlight and focusing them so they shone upon him and Chu Yi.

The power of the Starlight shone upon them, then seeped bit by bit into their bodies; this Starlight is the purest heavenly and earthly essence, greatly benefiting their essence, energy, and spirit.

The Starlight's power seemed inexhaustible until the stars lost their light and retreated into the firmament, by which time nearly three hours had passed.

【Zongwang Prompt: You have received a special energy boost!】

"You have undergone the basic baptism of brilliant Starlight!... automatically gaining the 【Starlight Tempering】 feat! 1"

"Your body has gained a faint Starlight trait! You have gained a faint affinity for Starlight magic!"

"Your physique attribute has increased, your perception attribute has increased, and your maximum Inner Qi value has increased."

【Starlight Tempering】 (Legend Feat): Your body has been tempered by Starlight for some reason, increasing your resistance to spell damage; against any spell you gain an additional 108% resistance and ignore 108 points of Starlight spell damage.

This ability can be enhanced by absorbing Starlight; as the Starlight tempering progresses, you will gain ever stronger resistance bonuses!

"What a great harvest!"

Mu Yi clenched his fist, having not only returned to peak condition but also gained a considerable boost.

No wonder those who bear the fate of the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha stars are so formidable, not in the slightest inferior to the boost of vast fortune; when the two are combined, the effect is even better.

Just as Mu Yi was satisfied, a stream of light fell from the horizon before him.

(End of chapter)