Chapter 984 - Apocalyptic Sword Qi
“This is the residual energy from a chaotic battle.”
Ye Qingyu instantly discerned what it was.
It was not a surprise attack.
A grand Saint realm battlefield, chaotic like no other, was in the main hall.
The battlefield on which Saint realm experts had exerted power was as terrifying as a mountain of knives and a sea of flames. Even the residual energy left in the Void was powerful enough to instantly annihilate those ordinary Immortal Step realm experts.
Standing at the entrance of the main hall, Ye Qingyu swept his eyes, within which purple lightning was flickering, across.
With just a glance, he and Hu Bugui were both astounded.
The Void in the main hall was densely filled with specks of brilliance akin to stars in a dark night sky. All kinds of illusory images manifested endlessly, with some resembling sword marks, some resembling rifts cleaved out using knives and axes, and others resembling large holes punctured by fists. As yuan qi surged throughout the hall, the chaotic qi within the nearly-shattered spatial barriers let out shrilling howls, partially yet accurately recreating the terrifying scenes within the chaotic windstorms.
These were the brands left behind by the Saints’ exertion of battle techniques.
The Saints’ battle marks had filled the Void with brands which continued to possess significant battle strength even though the Saints had died and which would engulf anyone who walked in. This was not the kind of zone which an ordinary Saint would dare go near to.
However, Ye Qingyu was no ordinary Saint.
After his astoundment subsided, he reached out a hand and straightened his fingers.
Divine Emperor sword will diffused from his fingers and wove into silver nets which grabbed toward the Void.
Bam bam bam!
Huge blares tremored the entire place.
Those specks of brilliance were visibly shattered by a more powerful force while the residual will was swiftly destroyed. Dazzling streaks of brilliance turned into smoke and completely dissipated among the Void. All of the Saints’ battle remains were wiped away immaculately.
The fog faded away completely.
“These are… corpses… too many of them,” Hu Bugui said aloud.
Shocked, the silly dog, too, let out whining noises.
In the Three Mountains Pavilion in front of Ye Qingyu and the others were hundreds of bodies that were dead through and through. Some were lying at sixes and sevens on the black rock surface, while others were piled out like small hills. Looking across, one could see that the dead comprised of various large races, including the Human Race and the Demon Race.
The bloody sights in front of the party reminded one of an Asura hell.
The smell of blood was pungent and hard to bear, causing one’s breath to become difficult.
“Let’s take a look first.” Ye Qingyu had calmed down by this time.
Hu Bugui nodded and then walked into the hall while pinching his nose and continuing to observe all around him.
Ye Qingyu, too, walked into the hall.
A moment later, as if he had discovered something, Hu Bugui waved a hand at Ye Qingyu while pointing in a certain direction with his other hand, saying, “Brother, look at those three… Is that a weapon rack? Or an artifact rack? Why do I feel that this palace… is an arsenal?”
Ye Qingyu looked toward the direction Hu Bugui was pointing in.
Placed beside the west wall were three oddly-shaped, stone-made weapon racks. They were shaped like giant fans and on their surfaces were many bulging ridges which were apparently used to hold certain kinds of weapons in place. However, these racks were completely empty at present.
Although the rock walls of the palace showed no signs of having been damaged by the battle, the broken weapons which were scattered everywhere on the ground, together with the many broken limbs and huge amounts of essence and blood of the dead experts, made the hall look like an utter mess.
It appeared that a violent fight had broken out among these experts as they scrambled for the treasures on the weapon racks.
The outcome was that hundreds of Saint corpses were left behind while the victors walked away with the “booty”.
This large battle was truly too shocking.
However, in connection to what was seen and heard earlier, it felt rather strange that the battle had ended so quickly.
Feeling doubtful, Ye Qingyu subsequently beamed his divine consciousness toward the hundreds of corpses to examine them carefully. He roughly estimated that there were four hundred bodies in the main hall.
Among them were around fifty to sixty human Saints who were dressed differently and emitted different yuan qi auras. Their death states also varied, with some apparently struck by fists and others decapitated by halberds, albeit they all seemed to have died in that messy battle a while ago.
Among the piled-up corpses were more than one hundred foreign race experts. The distribution of corpses suggested that they had surrounded the Human Race experts, albeit their death states were similar to those of the Human Race bodies – they had died not long after and their demonic power continued to flow and surge endlessly.
However, on the other side from these corpses were more than two hundred piled-up corpses which appeared rather strange.
“Based on the exterior features and dress of these corpses, they are probably experts from the Star Wolf Race and the Demon Owl Race.” With one glance, Hu Bugui recognized their identities and recalled, “They are notorious for their hatred of the Human Race, and would attack and seek to kill any Human Race force they run into among the myriad domains, without sparing even the old, weak, female, or young. Hmph, they most definitely had something to do with those dead Human Race bodies to the side. I guess that their Saints had joined forces to attack the humans.”
Ye Qingyu nodded.
Hu Bugui's assessment was similar to the results of his observation.
He had begun to mentally recreate the battle and slaughter according to the marks and clues he had found in the area. The distribution and condition of the corpses roughly showed that those fifty to sixty Human Race experts were first to reach this place but foreign race experts quickly caught up. While these races were fighting over those divine weapons and valuable treasures, the Star Wolf Race and Demon Owl Race swiftly barged in before encircling and slaughtering both parties.
However, as the saying went, while a mantis is pursuing a cicada, an oriole is sneaking up on it.
The Star Wolf Race and Demon Owl Race apparently did not expect that another force would turn up just as they were about to leave. Possessing extremely terrifying strength, this force slaughtered both these races in almost no time at all, before walking away with all the treasures in the main hall of the Three Mountains Pavilion, leaving nothing but a sea of corpses.
“As they say, evil begets evil. The deaths of these Star Wolf and Demon Owl crooks certainly count as retribution. However, I’m unable to figure out who could’ve slaughtered so many Saints of these two races at the same time.” Somewhat puzzled, Hu Bugui walked over to several Demon Owl corpses and carefully checked the wounds on them.
Ye Qingyu could not help feeling somewhat curious as well.
The Saints of these two races added up to more than two hundred and thus could be considered a very powerful group, yet they were annihilated in little time.
“Huh? There don’t seem to be any fatal wounds.” Hu Bugui looked perplexed as he continually flipped the bodies and checked.
He could easily be mistaken to be searching the corpses for treasures.
Ye Qingyu, too, crouched down and carefully examined.
“This… this is… sword qi!” An astonished expression suddenly flashed across his eyes when his finger was feeling the left abdomen of a corpse.
There was an extremely smooth and fine incision near his finger. It was barely visible and was akin to a hairline wound. If his fingertips had not felt the vibration in the body, he probably would not have noticed it.
After some thought, he carefully peeled the wound open.
An extremely overbearing and incisive sword qi suddenly shot out from the fine sword wound and surged toward the duo.
“Careful!” Hu Bugui exclaimed.
But Ye Qingyu, who was already prepared, instantly grabbed hold of the sword light.
Bam!
As a bursting noise rang out in his hand, the sword light turned into countless specks of light dust and dissipated.
Hu Bugui let out a sigh of relief.
Instead, a look of astonishment flashed across Ye Qingyu's face for a moment.
He had clearly felt the terror of this sword qi during that moment when the sword light burst.
Despite his physical cultivation already attaining the pinnacle of the Great Saint realm, he was unexpectedly shocked by a beam of sword light and his wrists tingled in bouts. It was thus evident that the owner of this beam of sword light possessed strength which was at least at the pinnacle of the Saint realm and had mastered a highly terrifying sword will which was comparable to a [Divine Emperor Sword Mantra]. He would certainly be a formidable foe if ran into.
“Are you alright?” Still somewhat fearful, Hu Bugui swallowed his saliva.
“Not too bad.” Ye Qingyu shook his head.
With that, he resumed flipping and examining the other corpses.
“It was the same person and same kind of sword qi which caused the fatal blows to their bodies and souls.” He quickly formed a verdict.
Hu Bugui nodded, suggesting that he had realized this too.
Two hundred Saint-level experts had actually died to the same kind of sword qi.
Moreover, the sword qi at the wounds was terrifying like no other, containing lasting sword light and surging waves of sword force. Its might had not diminished in the least bit, and a world-destroying aura still seemed to linger.
The strength of the assailant was simply too frightening.
Ye Qingyu muttered inwardly, a look of astonishment flashing across his eyes.
“This sword qi… feels rather familiar.” Hu Bugui suddenly remembered something after pondering. “This… might be Apocalyptic sword qi!”
Apocalyptic qword qi?
The Apocalyptic Demon Sect?
Ye Qingyu was stunned for a moment, immediately realizing something.
The sword qi on these corpses was exactly the same as that on the Demon Saints’ corpses they had encountered in the Wei River Mountain Range.
“Could it be that experts from the Apocalyptic Demon Sect had killed the Star Wolf Race and the Demon Owl Race to avenge the dead Human Race experts?” Hu Bugui squirmed slightly as he spoke in a still-rather-doubtful tone, “But… this shouldn’t be… Years back, the Apocalyptic Demon sect master’s strength could indeed be considered to be in the top among the entire Clear River Domain, but even then, his strength was only at the pinnacle of the Immortal Step realm, and he was no match for a Saint. How could his strength have grown so terrifying in only a few years… such that he can slaughter so many Saint-level experts? This isn’t possible.”
There was no way that the Apocalyptic Demon sect master could possess such strength.
He absolutely could not have cultivated to this kind of level in such a short time.
Yet, aside from him, which other expert could have mastered the Apocalyptic sword qi?