Chapter 58 Fierce Battle_1
"Slash!"
Shen Mo tightly gripped the Dragon Sparrow Sword, his expression cold and stern as he faced the countless lost souls.
"Flow!"
His longsword rose slightly. Amidst the surging Sword Light, lost souls met by the sword in his hands turned one by one into dissipating green smoke.
Shen Mo had already cultivated this set of Shangqing Swordplay to a masterful level.
Even when facing the lost souls assailing him from all directions, unleashed from the Soul Refining Flag, he showed no signs of faltering.
Countless beams of Sword Light converged, transforming the area around Shen Mo into an impenetrable net of swords.
Not a single lost soul could breach this sword-net and get within a foot of Shen Mo.
"Hmph, let's see how long you can last!" Gu Ming's eyes glinted with murderous light as he continued to wave the Soul Refining Flag, commanding the lost souls to overwhelm Shen Mo.
This isn't sustainable! Shen Mo calculated inwardly even as he slew the charging lost souls.
This Soul Refining Flag could harness the power of lost souls gathered through Blood Sacrifice, summoning them in battle. This particular Soul Refining Flag had been fed with the Blood Sacrifices of at least several thousand people, meaning it imprisoned several thousand lost souls. If he were to slay them one by one like this, he would exhaust himself long before he could eliminate them all.
More importantly, Shen Mo wasn't truly destroying these lost souls. Although they crumbled at the touch of his sword Qi, dispersing into endless black fog, they would quickly re-enter the Soul Refining Flag and be reborn. As long as the wielder of the Soul Refining Flag could endure the consumption of True Yuan and vitality, the souls could be summoned endlessly, like a perpetual motion machine.
Passive defense is useless. I need to take the initiative and attack!
"Kill Life!"
In a flash, Shen Mo resolved himself. He poured his Spiritual Qi into the Dragon Sparrow Sword and roared.
"WHOOSH!"
The Dragon Sparrow Sword, empowered by Shen Mo's vast Mana, erupted with dazzling light. Finally, an incredibly sharp and unstoppable sword emerged from it, shooting out fiercely.
"RIP!"
The sword transformed into a streak of light. Wherever it passed, all lost souls in its path were shredded, dissolving back into black fog.
Breaking through the dense encirclement of lost souls, the sword shot directly for Gu Ming's face, the one commanding them.
When Gu Ming saw the sword rushing toward him, alarm bells blared in his mind. He could sense the terrifying power of this attack; if he were struck by it, he feared that his indestructible body, which he prided himself on, would be reduced to chunks of flesh.
"BANG!"
He barely managed to raise the Soul Refining Flag before him, blocking the strike.
The sword failed to shatter the Soul Refining Flag, merely causing it to tremble slightly. But this momentary impact also made the relentlessly biting and charging souls within the flag halt in their tracks.
The pause was very short, only a brief instant. But this instant was the opportunity Shen Mo had been waiting for!
"Shangqing Swordplay, Slash!"
He retrieved a Qi Restoring Pill from his Universe Bag, swallowed it, and unleashed the powerful Sword technique he had comprehended from the Shangqing Swordplay.
"RUMBLE!"
Terrifying sword Qi surged forth, rippling out from the Dragon Sparrow Sword and filling the air.
Numerous lost souls both inside and outside the main hall had their forms shattered under the assault of the sword Qi.
"SPURT!"
As the lost souls disintegrated, Gu Ming, the caster, could not withstand the backlash power. Blood gushed from his nose and mouth. This backlash instantly and severely injured him, rendering him incapable of using the Soul Refining Flag to harm anyone further.
"We won!"
"The Immortal Master has won!"
Outside, the martial artists who witnessed this cried out in excitement. The preceding perilous situation had truly made them sweat, not just for Shen Mo, but for themselves as well. These people had followed Shen Mo here; if Shen Mo had been defeated by Gu Ming's Evil Magic and killed, it was feared that, given the Bright King's temperament, not a single person from the righteous path present would have escaped.
Luckily, the Immortal Master truly had some skill! With a single killing move, he had dispersed the sky full of blood souls.
Severely injured, Gu Ming still refused to concede defeat, struggling to rise from the ground.
"Move again, and you die."
Shen Mo's Dragon Sparrow Sword was pressed against his throat. The indifferent voice and the chill from the sword's tip made Gu Ming abandon any thought of resistance. He could only allow Shen Mo to shatter his scapula.
"Good item... A pity it's a demonic artifact," Shen Mo mumbled, snatching the Soul Refining Flag from Gu Ming's hand and examining it briefly.
The power of this item had somewhat exceeded his expectations. Shen Mo had initially thought that his strength far surpassed Gu Ming's, and that even if Gu Ming had some trump cards, he could easily overcome them. He hadn't expected Gu Ming's hidden trump card to be the Soul Refining Flag, capable of summoning countless spirits. If Shen Mo hadn't also possessed the ultimate killing move of the Shangqing Swordplay, he might truly have suffered an unexpected defeat.
"Spare me, Immortal Master!"
Gu Ming was too severely injured to fight. Seeing the situation was lost, Hall Master Wei and Hall Master Zhou of the Blood Robe Sect spinelessly knelt before Shen Mo, kowtowing and begging for mercy.
"SWISH!"
Shen Mo glanced at the two, and with a wave of his longsword, two heads flew high into the air as blood geysered within the great hall. Shen Mo needed to return and interrogate the evil cultivator about his identity; he had no time to waste on these two, so he dispatched them cleanly. These two were butchers who had killed countless people; their deaths were not unjust.
"The main culprit is eliminated; the rest are just small fry," Shen Mo announced. "You can handle them. I'm returning to the Shen Family."
With these words, Shen Mo departed the Blood Robe Sect's headquarters, carrying the immobilized Gu Ming.
As soon as he left, the righteous martial artists immediately began to mop up, slaughtering the remaining cult members. Afterward, they began searching everywhere, inside and outside the headquarters, for the legendary divine manuals and Divine weapons said to have been plundered and hoarded by the Blood Robe Sect. Their efforts were not in vain, as they indeed found many treasured divine manuals. However, the ownership of these manuals sparked numerous disputes and bloody conflicts. Once the demon head was dead, these righteous individuals promptly engaged in a vicious internal struggle.
But none of this concerned Shen Mo any longer. He couldn't be bothered with such worldly affairs.
「 」
"Sister..."
In a tower at the Shen Family's Lingfeng Terrace, Gu Ming awoke to see Gu Zhao detained in the same room.
"Sigh..." Gu Zhao sighed upon seeing Gu Ming's utterly wretched state.
Although she hadn't dared to deceive Shen Mo earlier and had revealed the Blood Robe Sect's location, she hadn't entirely given up the will to resist. Instead, she had secretly hoped that her younger brother, who had cultivated to the Myth Realm of martial arts, would have the means to turn the tables and kill his opponent. But looking at the current situation, that hope seemed laughably naive.
The brother and sister looked at each other, falling into silence.
"Will he kill us?" Gu Ming asked. He had always been a minor figure, his disposition far inferior to those martial arts titans. It was only through a fortuitous Adventure that he had enjoyed his recent period of glory. For the first time, he realized how fragile his strength was before others, and he began to feel utterly lost.
"The Immortal Master didn't kill us on the spot, so he must have a use for us," Gu Zhao said after a moment of silence, offering advice. "Most likely, he wants information about Xuanzhi Superior Master. When he comes to ask, don't hide anything. Tell him everything you know. Perhaps the Immortal Master will spare our lives."
"Okay." Gu Ming nodded heavily. That was what I was thinking too. The matter of the Blood Sacrifice for the Soul Refining Flag had been exposed. If Xuanzhi Superior Master learned of this, Gu Ming dared not imagine how he would be tortured and killed. So, it's better to just sell out the person behind the scenes and beg for a chance to live.
"Tell me," Shen Mo's voice interrupted them. He had entered sometime earlier and, seeing Gu Ming awake, began his inquiry. "How did Xuanzhi Superior Master find you? Explain everything from beginning to end."
"I wouldn't dare deceive you, Immortal Master..." Gu Ming took a deep breath and recounted everything in meticulous detail: how he had met Xuanzhi Superior Master, and how the latter had threatened and bribed him.