Having tasted the incredible benefit of the Skull Curse—plundering Blood Essence and converting it into Cultivation—the cold glint in Qi Yun’s eyes intensified.

"Too slow... one by one is just too slow!"

He murmured, his eyes narrowed, gazing at the panicked Zombie Alliance Cultivators on the battlefield as if they were walking, humanoid elixirs.

’This battle won’t last much longer. I need to speed things up.’

As he channeled the spell, the surging Magical Power in Qi Yun’s body erupted with unprecedented force. He threw his arms wide, and the Hundred-refined Steel Sand around him spread like a black tsunami! 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Sand Iron Technique: Black Rope Hell!

With a fierce shout, countless dark, cold Sand Iron Chains shot out from behind him, emitting a hair-raising whistle as they tore through the air, wildly pursuing and attacking every Zombie Alliance Cultivator in all directions!

The chains were incomparably fierce, shattering zombies and breaking through Magic with raw power as they launched attacks from impossible angles.

A Zombie Alliance Cultivator was struggling to block the Sword Qi of a Holy Sect Disciple when he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet tremble.

Before he could react, a dark gleam erupted from the earth—it was a Sand Iron Chain, as sharp as a spearhead!

CRACK!

The chain whipped sideways with unstoppable force. With a sharp crack, it shattered his spine.

The intense pain didn’t even give him time to scream.

Only a gurgling, choking sound escaped his throat.

The next moment, as if with a life of its own, the blood-stained chain shot upward and wrapped tightly around his neck, hoisting him off the ground and leaving him dangling in mid-air like a man at the gallows.

His limbs twitched weakly, his eyes filled with endless pain and terror.

The cackling White Bone Skeleton swiftly flew up to him, hovering before his face.

The green flames in the skull’s eye sockets danced madly. From its seven orifices, a Power of Devouring Essence erupted like a tangible vortex.

The Zombie Alliance Cultivator’s body trembled violently. Thicker and more crystalline than before, strands of shimmering Cultivation, mixed with his very lifeblood, were forcefully squeezed and drawn from his seven orifices. They formed streams of light that poured continuously into the openings of the skull.

And this horrifying scene was happening in three different places at once!

Standing in the center of the battlefield, Qi Yun felt wave after wave of thermal energy—far purer and more immense than before—surging wildly into his Dantian’s Qi Sea through a mystical connection. He could almost feel his meridians swelling to the bursting point.

His aura surged at a visible rate, and the Evil Qi emanating from him became so dense it was almost tangible.

’Hm? So the Cultivation I gain from Devouring Essence comes with its own Evil Qi?’

Noticing the dense Evil Qi he was emitting, Qi Yun raised an eyebrow. ’Just as I thought. Among the Ten Thousand Laws of this world, nothing is absolutely strong, and nothing is absolutely weak.’

It was a double-edged sword.

While the art of Devouring Essence could steal another’s Blood Essence to bolster one’s Cultivation, the power gained by harming others for personal benefit came with a trace of Evil Qi.

Over time, this Evil Qi would corrupt one’s Heart and Spirit, unknowingly turning a person into a mindless madman bent on slaughter.

’Good thing I’m a Holy Sect Disciple. A long illness makes for a good doctor, and when it comes to this Evil Qi stuff, I happen to be an expert.’

Gazing at the seething Evil Qi around him, Qi Yun’s Storage Magic Bracelet glowed faintly, and a thick stack of premium Evil-Exorcizing Talismans appeared in his hand.

’It’s only Evil Qi. An easy fix.’

He tossed out a large handful of the Evil-Exorcizing Talismans as if they were free. A clear Dharma Light rained down, washing away every trace of the dense Evil Qi, leaving him with an almost transcendent air.

’Ahh, perfect clarity~’

Feeling the burden on his body lighten, Qi Yun closed his eyes and tilted his chin up slightly. Then, he slowly opened them, his gaze sweeping over the surrounding Zombie Alliance Cultivators.

Having witnessed Qi Yun’s methods of slaughter—gruesome even by the standards of the Demon Dao—a chill ran down the spines of the Zombie Alliance Cultivators.

The next second, they turned in unison and fled.

"Hahaha! Where do you think you can run?"

The Evil Qi was gone, but his ferocity remained. Qi Yun laughed freely, and with a flick of his wide sleeves, he transformed into a gust of wind and shot into the sky.

The great battle had raged on for several hours now.

The setting sun stained the sky a brutal crimson, casting its light upon the Asura Battlefield below and adding to the sense of desolation and cruelty.

By now, both the Holy Sect Disciples and the Zombie Alliance Cultivators had been fighting at high intensity for so long that their reserves of True Qi and stamina had ebbed away like a receding tide, most of it already spent.

The once-deafening war cries and the roar of Magic gradually subsided.

Both sides began to consciously pull back their lines, trying to catch their breath and recuperate.

They moved with more caution, no longer unleashing a reckless barrage of attacks as they had at the beginning.

Everyone conserved what little True Qi they had left, watching their opponents warily while also guarding against sneak attacks from the shadows.

On such a brutal battlefield, exhaustion meant being slaughtered at will. No one dared to be careless.

However, on this battlefield—now deceptively calm but still churning with undercurrents—one person was the absolute exception.

And that was Qi Yun!

Using the White Bone Skeleton’s marrow-sucking Power of Devouring Essence, he converted the Blood Essence of every Zombie Alliance Cultivator he killed into the purest energy to replenish his own.

As his enemies waned, he only waxed stronger. Far from being depleted, his aura grew more and more powerful.

Rampant True Qi surged and roared through his meridians, threatening to burst from his body!

He fueled his war with war, growing stronger with every battle!

His powerful aura, like the sun at its zenith, stood in stark, despair-inducing contrast to the panting, pale-faced cultivators around him.

Desperate wails and horrified screams echoed across the field, but nothing could slow his advance.

The chains of Hundred-refined Steel Sand continued to hunt down every fleeing Zombie Alliance Cultivator with precision and efficiency.

Once they were entangled,

they were dragged back before Qi Yun.

The next moment, the cackling White Bone Skeleton would appear like a shadow to mercilessly drain them of their last ounce of value.

At Qi Yun’s feet, the bodies of Zombie Alliance Cultivators were piled in a disorderly heap, almost forming a ghastly mound.

Without exception, all the corpses were unnaturally shriveled and cracked.

After slaughtering another Zombie Alliance Cultivator, Qi Yun casually took the head and stuffed it into his Jade Scroll.

This was the sole criterion for calculating scores after the examination was over.

It determined whether he could enter the Holy Sect Treasure Vault to select a reward, so it couldn’t be forgotten.

As the last ray of sunlight vanished from the sky.

Faintly feeling a trace of fatigue, Qi Yun slowly lowered his hands. His True Qi was still abundant and surging, but the long hours of slaughter and spellcasting had taken a significant toll on his mind.

WHOOSH...

Qi Yun slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and, standing atop a mountain of corpses, turned to look back.

At that moment, as if sensing something, the remaining Demon Sect Disciples subconsciously looked up.

They saw, in a world now plunged into profound darkness, a pair of cold, deep eyes looking down.

A single gaze pressed down on the remaining Demon Sect Cultivators,

silencing them completely.

...