21: This sword strike will reduce you to ashes, understand?

The golden sea of fire came quickly and left just as fast.

When the last wisp of Imperial Fire dissipated into the air, the sky returned to its cloudless azure state, as if the world-burning catastrophe just now was merely an absurd nightmare.

But the thick smell of burning and the several thatched huts on the ground that had been collapsed by the sound waves silently reminded everyone—

Just now, a Nascent Soul Old Ancestor had died here, along with several hundred people.

Not even ashes remained.

The trio of Xiao Chen, Shi Tian, and Leng Yanran remained in a posture of looking up at the sky, their mouths wide enough to fit an egg, their jaws nearly dislocated.

Shock.

Unprecedented shock.

They knew their Revered Master was strong, but they never imagined he could be strong to such an absurd degree.

In the flick of a finger, a powerful enemy was reduced to ashes.

This was no longer something that could be described as "strong."

This was a god.

This was a... deity walking the mortal world!

"Mas... Revered Master..."

Xiao Chen's voice was wavering; he felt his knees go weak, having an urge to kneel down and sing "Conquest" on the spot.

Li Daoxuan ignored his three dumbfounded Disciples.

His gaze pierced through thousands of miles of the Void Realm, landing on the distant mountain gate of the Blood Fiend Sect.

There, a few surviving Warships were burning Spirit Stones, fleeing frantically toward their nest like headless flies.

"Running?"

A cold sneer curled at the corner of Li Daoxuan's mouth.

"Did I let you run?"

He turned his head and sighed as he looked at his three Disciples who had yet to come to their senses.

"Why are you all dazed? Come over, class is in session."

"Huh?" Shi Tian scratched his head, looking bewildered. "Revered Master, what class?"

"The final lesson."

Li Daoxuan pointed at those fleeing blood-colored spots of light, his tone as flat as if he were saying "the weather is nice today."

"If you don't pull up the weeds by the roots, they will grow again when the spring breeze blows."

"Since a grudge has been formed, you must take out the person and their nest together, even digging up their foundation, leaving not a single chance for the embers to reignite."

"This is what's called being steady."

Saying that, Li Daoxuan bent down and casually snapped off a half-foot-long withered branch from a nearby crooked tree.

The branch was dry and even had two wormholes on it.

"Revered Master, you are..." Xiao Chen was even more confused.

A lecture is a lecture, why snap a branch? Is he going to... give us corporal punishment?

Li Daoxuan didn't explain.

He held the branch, which looked to Xiao Chen like it would break with a single snap, and pointed it toward the distant sky.

Just like a child playing a war game.

Gently.

He gave it a swing.

"Swish."

The movement was very casual.

Even a bit perfunctory.

No Qi fluctuations.

No Sword Qi sweeping across.

Only a faint, nearly inaudible sound as the withered branch sliced through the air.

However.

At the moment Li Daoxuan swung the branch.

Heaven and earth seemed to stand still.

The wind stopped.

The clouds solidified.

Even time seemed to have its pause button pressed at this moment.

An indescribable, unspeakable sharp intent flashed and vanished from that ordinary branch.

Immediately after.

Tens of thousands of miles away.

At the Blood Fiend Sect mountain gate.

On those Warships that had just landed, the surviving Elders and Disciples hadn't even had time to catch their breath before they felt a chill down their backs.

They instinctively looked back.

Then.

They saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives, and which was also the last scene of this life.

A thin grey line.

A thin grey line, coming from nowhere and going nowhere, appeared out of thin air on the horizon.

The thin line was silent and without a trace of heat.

It sliced through space, sliced through the Law, and sliced through all things tangible and intangible.

"What... what is that..."

A Blood Fiend Sect Elder tremblingly reached out his hand, wanting to touch that thin line that seemed within reach.

The next second.

The thin line passed through.

His body, along with the Warship beneath him, along with the entire grand mountain gate of the Blood Fiend Sect that stretched for a hundred miles, along with the thousand-foot-tall Main Peak Great Hall behind the gate... were all wiped away like an eraser on a painting.

Silently.

Completely.

They turned into the most primitive particles.

It wasn't an explosion.

It was annihilation.

From the physical level to the Soul level, a complete and total evaporation.

A great Evil Path sect that had been passed down for thousands of years.

A tumor that had occupied the East Wasteland and acted tyrannically.

It was just... gone.

Not even a pit was left.

Only a huge empty space remained, shaved flatter than a mirror... Hidden God Sect.

Li Daoxuan withdrew his hand and casually threw the branch, which had completed its mission, onto the ground.

"Clatter."

The branch fell into the dust, looking no different from ordinary trash.

He turned around.

Looking at his Disciples behind him, who were completely dazed like three stone statues, he nodded with satisfaction.

"Did you all see clearly?"

"This is called being reduced to ashes."

"Not only do you have to kill the people, but you also have to scatter their homes, leaving not even a single brick behind."

"Understand?"

*Gulp.*

Xiao Chen swallowed hard with difficulty.

He looked down at the "fruit knife" in his hand that he had thought was incredibly cool just now, then looked at the ordinary withered branch on the ground.

Suddenly he felt that... the divine weapon in his hand was no longer appealing.

Shi Tian's mouth was wide open, his eyes staring blankly, and he didn't even notice the drool running down the corner of his mouth—

—at all.

He pointed at the distant sky that had turned into flat ground and stammered:

"Mas... Revered Master..."

"There... there seems to be... nothing left..."

Only Leng Yanran.

This former Demon Empress was currently trembling violently all over.

There was no fear in her eyes, only a near-manic fervor and worship.

A single branch.

Across tens of thousands of miles, destroying a whole sect with one sword strike!

What kind of heaven-reaching method was this?!

This was no longer something a Great Emperor could achieve!

This was clearly the legendary... Sword Immortal!

"Revered Master above! Please accept your Disciple's bow!"

Leng Yanran knelt on the ground with a "thud," this time throwing herself down in worship from the depths of her Soul.

Li Daoxuan was taken aback by this sudden grand gesture.

"What madness are you having now?"

"It was just tearing down an illegal building; is there a need to be this excited?"

He waved his hand, acting as if it were only natural.

"Alright, stop kneeling, it looks unlucky."

"Everyone, get up."

He pointed in the direction of the Blood Fiend Sect, a money-grubbing smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"The people are all dead, but the things should still be there."

"Let's go."

"To loot... ahem, to clean up the battlefield."

"Let's see if those paupers left any inheritance for us."