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"Today, I will rescue this demon. Let’s see who can stop me,"
Xu Zimei said indifferently.
Watching his figure, with Demonic Qi surging to the sky, the Absolute Sword Elder snorted coldly and said, "Stop wasting words, just capture him."
All around him, the vast Immortal Qi surged towards him, and a heavy longsword tore through the quiet sky, shattering the endless void, pressing down directly towards Xu Zimei.
With a "boom," just as the heavy sword was about to strike, a giant hand extended from the void.
It caught the blade of the heavy longsword, motionlessly suspended in midair.
Then, the giant hand flicked lightly, and with a "boom," an explosion occurred, breaking the heavy sword into two.
The Absolute Sword Elder let out a muffled grunt, and his figure retreated swiftly.
Everyone then cast their eyes over, only to see the Divine Emperor standing in the Firmament clad in a black robe.
His wide black robe enshrouded his entire body, and one could hardly feel any Spiritual Energy around him.
He had countered the Absolute Sword Elder’s heavy sword with pure physical strength.
The crowd’s expression grew serious as they saw the Absolute Sword Elder stabilize himself and wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.
After all, the heavy sword was his Innate True Weapon, bound to him.
Having suffered damage, he naturally felt unwell himself.
"And who might you be?"
"Just a nameless individual," the Divine Emperor replied indifferently.
"Are you also a member of the Demon Race?" Lan Jiulin asked with narrowed eyes.
"To be precise, no," the Divine Emperor shook his head slightly.
"Then you might as well stay out of this mess," Lan Jiulin said.
"Good and evil, to me, depend on a single thought. Whether I’m considered demon or righteous, others’ opinions are irrelevant,"
the Divine Emperor said indifferently. "As for the so-called mess, your Lan Family is not enough to concern me."
"Just a coward who doesn’t even dare to reveal his own name, spouting nonsense," the Sword Demon Dugu Wenchang sneered.
"I am not just talking. Even if your ancestor, the Heaven-Defying Great Emperor, were here, he might not be able to make me yield," the Divine Emperor replied in a calm tone.
"There are more than three thousand swordsmen in Heavenly Sword Mountain, not to mention the ancestor; we can extinguish you ourselves," said the Sword Demon Dugu Wenchang proudly.
"In the world, there are thirty million Sword Immortals, yet all must bow before me," the Divine Emperor retorted, shaking his head.
With a slap of his large hand, the endless space before him completely collapsed, and space within a hundred miles began to distort.
"Stop him," the Sword Demon Dugu Wenchang commanded in a cold voice.
He wore a cyan-brown sword robe, similar in design to a kimono.
His long hair was tousled all around, with only his sharp, star-like eyes visible on his face.
In his eyes, infinite sword lights flickered on and off.
He was called the Sword Demon because he was obsessed with swords to the point of madness.
Dugu Wenchang stood arrogantly in the sky, slowly drawing the longsword from behind him.
It was a four-foot-long sword with a dark edge, engraved with countless shattered stars.
"This sword is named Star Slasher Sword; it weighs three thousand seven hundred pounds, forged from meteorites from beyond the heavens.
The stars on the sword, splendid and resplendent."
Dugu Wenchang, holding the Star Slasher Sword, gathered sword intent as if it were a fiery purgatory, enveloping the sky above.
The storm formed by the sword intent almost covered half the Firmament.
At the moment he drew his sword, numerous people’s side swords "clang" resonated.
Those side swords seemed to respond to Dugu Wenchang, as if wanting to fly out of their sheaths.
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"With one sword from the west, grinding over the eight desolations, with another, ascending to the Nine States upon the wind."
The frosty voice of Sword Demon Dugu Wenchang came from the edge of the sky.
Immediately after that, one could see the supreme Sword Intent gathering around him, forming together with the Star Slasher Sword he held in his hand into an enormous and mighty greatsword.
The moment the Star Slasher Sword fell, heaven and earth seemed to weep in shock.
A rumbling explosion erupted all around.
The Divine Emperor saw this spectacle, his body neither dodging nor evading, simply allowing this vast Sword Intent to strike down upon him.
Then there was another "boom," the aftereffects of the explosion rippled outward, and it seemed as if the entire firmament trembled.
"This guy, he took that hit of mine head-on," Sword Demon Dugu Wenchang’s pupils contracted as he uttered with slightly parted lips.
One saw the shattered sky slowly mending itself, and as everyone’s gaze shifted, the Divine Emperor stood calmly upon the firmament, not even a wrinkle on his clothes.
"You really don’t even have the qualifications for me to take you seriously," said the Divine Emperor lightly.
"How can this be," Sword Demon Dugu Wenchang stood frozen, his mouth agape and speechless for a long moment.
Xu Zimei stepped toward the formation, the Life and Death Demon Extinguishing Array was still turning slowly, with Demonic Qi surging skywards from within.
"Everyone, work together to stop him," Lan Jiulin, the Ancestor of the Lan Family, reacted instantly and said to the people next to him.
Altogether, ten figures, each with Immortal Qi vast and billowing like an ocean, ascended and surged towards Xu Zimei and the Divine Emperor. 𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝘤𝑜𝘮
"How dare the light of a grain of rice compete with the glorious moon," the Divine Emperor sneered.
With a wave of his right hand, the space before him was completely twisted, as though strands of the power of reincarnation were spiraling.
The space around him warped at a strange angle, eyeing those ten approaching to slay him.
As the ten figures stepped into his warped space, the Divine Emperor clenched his right hand.
Abruptly, ten vortices appeared in the sky, with five rotating counterclockwise and five clockwise.
Then, a devouring force emanated from the vortices, and all ten figures were sucked into the black holes of the whirlpools.
"Be careful, everyone," Lan Jiulin cried out in alarm and hurriedly used all his strength to resist the devouring force of the whirlpools.
Xu Zimei looked up and stepped forward to the front of the Life and Death Demon Extinguishing Array.
"My lord," Bai Meng asked Xu Zimei, his voice trembling.
"You have underestimated the people of this world," Xu Zimei said with a faint smile.
"When the final moment comes, even if I have to sacrifice my life to activate the tenth Vein Gate, I will eradicate the Lan Family," Bai Meng said with shame.
Xu Zimei shook his head with a smile, and then slowly drew the Tyrant Shadow from behind his back, with Blade Qi slashing around him.
Commencing the Way of Inquiry, he slowly raised the Tyrant Shadow with both hands, and Wu Geng’s Blade Intent fell from the void.
With a "boom," the longsword heavily landed on the formation.
The formation trembled slightly, and cracks had appeared on the surface of the barrier.
"Don’t let him break the formation," the Ancestor of the Lan Family, Lan Jiulin, roared from above.
They were too busy preventing the engulfing of the black whirlpools to pay attention to Xu Zimei.
Below them, members of the Lan Family all had solemn expressions, as Lan Juntian took a deep breath.
He turned to look at the panic-stricken descendants and said loudly:
"Our Lan Family has been established since the era of Wild Desolation, for countless years.
Our forefathers used their lives, generation after generation, to build the Lan Family we see today.
Now, at the moment when our family’s survival is at stake, are you afraid of death?"
After Lan Juntian said this, he did not give everyone a chance to respond.
Instead, he immediately added, "Fear of death is human nature; there’s nothing to be ashamed of, who doesn’t want to live well?"