"Heading south directly is a dead end!"
"The capital is guarded by the Red Night Ancestor. If our army moves south, and Emperor Red Night leads his troops to surround us, wouldn't we be in danger?"
"Pursue! Follow Emperor Red Night. We absolutely cannot let him return to the capital safely. Inform the troops, fifty thousand sword cultivators will go west with this old man, and the rest will continue to be stationed at Sanyuan Pass."
...
"Yang Ye of the Great Han Dynasty?"
Jian Dong looked at the distant army and murmured softly. This was the first time he had heard of a second top-tier Venerable in the Great Han Dynasty, besides the top-tier Venerable Xu Chu.
"Great Han Dynasty, I am Jian Dong, the patriarch of the Jian Clan from the Jian Shen Sacred Land. If you retreat now, I will pretend this never happened. If you take another step forward, you will be considered a mortal enemy!"
He Yuanqing gripped his dual hammers and struck with a thunderous force, making the eardrums of the surrounding sword cultivators roar.
"Old fossil, what do you want!"
"Don't you dare!"
"You..."
Jian Dong's face flushed crimson. Who was he? The patriarch of the Jian Clan, a powerhouse at the peak Venerable realm, how could he endure such humiliation?
"Jian Dong, if you can surrender and pledge allegiance to the Human Emperor, you will be spared. Stepping into higher planes in the future will be as simple as raising a finger."
Han Shizhong held his long saber and spoke indifferently. A top-tier sword Venerable and hundreds of thousands of Tianwu sword cultivators – this was a force that could not be ignored. A single bloody battle, relying on his own strength, could have swallowed the million-strong army of the Nan Tian Family and the Xi Ling Empire, demonstrating the formidable power of the way of the sword. If they could surrender and form their own army, they would surely be able to conquer the four directions and expand the territory for Great Han!
"Surrender?"
"Impossible!"
"The way of the sword, how can it bend!"
"Ten Thousand Sword Array, gather!"
"Weng~~~"
Hundreds of thousands of sword cultivators, weary, gathered their primal energy. The long swords in front of them were far less stable than in the daytime, trembling and shaking. The blood-red light emanating from the nine colossal swords was faint.
"Condense!"
Jian Dong extracted two peak sword intents from his sword bone and merged them into the grand formation. A blue phantom slowly solidified, grasping the blood-red giant sword.
"Stubborn!"
Yang Ye's expression was cold. Without any extraneous movements, his long saber dissipated. He raised a finger, gripping the White Tiger Army Banner tightly. He unfurled it in the void, and the heavens and earth roared!
In the dark, dark sky, a dazzling white light appeared, expanding further and further until it illuminated half the world.
"Roar~~"
A tiger's roar shook the heavens and earth!
A ten-thousand-zhang white tiger divine beast materialized in the void. The moment it appeared, the blood-red giant sword held by the blue phantom had its ferocity weakened by three points. The blood-red long sword in Jian Dong's hand also seemed to waver, unable to directly face the void white tiger.
The White Tiger divine beast governed the way of slaughter, being the god of slaughter. How dare the way of the sword look directly at a divine being!
The army banner unfurled again. The White Tiger descended upon the heavens!
"Kill, leave none alive!"
Yang Ye roared, and the White Tiger strode through the air. The entire illuminated white light instantly reached above Jian Dong's hundreds of thousands of sword cultivators.
"Swish!"
The White Tiger's claws flashed several white sword marks, traversing the void and directly striking the blood-red giant sword. The immense surge of primal energy shattered tens of thousands of sword cultivators. Within a few dozen feet of leaving the grand formation, they were all reduced to blood mist.
"Great Han Dynasty, if this Venerable were not at his peak, how could I allow you to run rampant here!"
Jian Dong's face turned dark purple. A mouthful of congealed blood got stuck in his throat, unable to be spat out. His icy gaze swept over Yang Ye, who was brandishing his army banner.
"Fall...!"
Jian Dong straightened his spine, his single-handed sword now held with both hands, he thrust it downwards with all his might.
The giant sword descended, striking the White Tiger's enormous maw. Layers of clashing slaughtering blood energy blocked the incessantly deepening blood-red giant sword.
"Fall..."
"Fall..."
"Crack crack~~"
Jian Dong, with all his strength, felt his arms tear inch by inch, blood splattering out. The long sword in his hand, his companion who had witnessed the peak of Cangyuan martial arts, could not withstand the immense pressure and began to show fine cracks!
"Boom!"
Behind him, tens of thousands more sword cultivators turned into blood mist. The grand formation let out a humming roar. The blue phantom dissipated. The blood-red giant sword, maintained in its downward thrust, was accompanied by strands of silver lightning.
"Puff!"
Jian Dong spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. His back clothes burst open, revealing a bloody and mangled back. His bone-scarred sword bone emitted a light tremor of breaking bones.
"Jian Clan, undying!"
Jian Dong used his last ounce of strength to merge his sword bone into the grand formation. As his sword bone left his body, his physical form disintegrated, and his primordial spirit scattered.
Yang Ye looked coldly at Jian Dong, who had turned into blood mist. With his death, the hundreds of thousands of sword cultivators were like headless birds.
He turned and swept his gaze across the army. The army banner shook, and the void white tiger roared to the heavens. A white light shot out from its enormous mouth, carrying divine radiance that propelled the blood-red giant sword into the ninth heaven.
"Boom boom boom!!"
Above the ninth heaven, divine light blazed, like the sun!
The blood-red giant sword vanished, and the grand formation shattered. The tens of thousands of sword cultivators standing closest to Jian Dong, the moment the blood-red giant sword disappeared, had their spines shattered, their long swords snapped, and their eyes lost their light. Their bodies, as if their strings were cut, fell powerlessly to the ground.
"Patriarch!"
"Patriarch!"
The hundreds of thousands of surviving sword cultivators swayed precariously in the void. Their bodies, after a bloody battle and multiple formations condensed, were already exhausted. If Jian Dong had not drawn upon the peak sword intent from his sword bone, they might not even have been able to condense the grand formation this time.
"Ching!"
A three-inch sword blade slid down from the ninth heaven, carrying a chilling cold light, and merged into the earth.
Jian Dong, the patriarch of the Jian Clan and a top-tier Venerable, had fallen!
The army banner was retracted, and Yang Ye's army banner transformed into a long saber. The hundreds of thousands of White Tiger legion soldiers dispersed and, within half an hour, surrounded the tens of thousands of sword cultivators.
The cold gleam permeated the Western Sea Plain, as if it had entered winter. The hundreds of thousands of sword cultivators huddled together, their faces filled with panic as they looked at the surrounding White Tiger soldiers clad in silver and white.
He Yuanqing, holding his giant hammer, strode through the void and shouted forcefully, "Surrender, or die!"
His voice boomed like a bell in the ears of the sword cultivators, like the grim reaper's pen stroke, startling hundreds of thousands of sword cultivators into retreating.
"Surrender, or die!" Su Dan Xiaoshuo Wang
He Yuanqing roared again.
"Boom!"
The White Tiger soldiers from all directions raised their weapons and spears, and low growls of tiger roars echoed across the Western Sea Plain.
"I am willing to surrender!"
A sword cultivator threw down his sword and hastily knelt on the ground, tears welling up in his eyes.
"I surrender too!"
"Surrender!"
"Me too!"
...
The clanging sound of swords hitting the ground echoed. Within a few dozen breaths, hundreds of thousands of Tianwu sword cultivators knelt down, their heads bowed to the blood-soaked earth, dyeing their black hair crimson.
"Where is He Yuanqing?" Yang Ye roared.
"Your subordinate is here!"
"Order He Yuanqing to lead one hundred thousand White Tiger soldiers to escort the hundreds of thousands of sword cultivators back to Great Han via Michuan Road!"