The Modern Martial Immortal

Perfected Lord Crimson Malevolence flew along the border of the Xuan state while relaying information to the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord behind him. His true body was a wisp of malevolent shadow that had gained sentience and transformed into a different life form, feeding on malevolent qi.[1]

And no malevolent qi compared to that of a yin malevolent land, formed where tens of thousands of cultivators lay buried together.

So what he loved most was to slaughter cities and wipe out nations, to dig pits for a hundred thousand or even a million bodies, and then lodge within them, cultivating for decades or centuries without moving.

Thanks to his peculiar life-bound Dao Technique, ordinary cultivators found it nearly impossible to lock onto his form and kill him. That was precisely why the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord had sent him to slip into the southern domain and cooperate with Jing Zhengyang.

The task was done now, however, and his return was imminent. He only needed one or two hours more to leave the southern domain, yet the Void-Refining fiendish cultivator couldn't help but feel restlessness welling up inside of him.

The Void-Piercing Realm, Void-Refining Realm, and Void-Shattering Realm belonged, in theory, to the same tier. A Void-Shattering cultivator held a higher status than a Void-Refining one, but since no chasm-like gap separated them, a Void-Refining cultivator didn't need to grovel before a Void-Shattering one.

It was much like how a Void-Piercing cultivator would show respect to a Void-Refining cultivator yet would hardly prostrate himself to homage them.

Under such circumstances, though the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord had ordered him not to stir up trouble, he didn't treat that order as gospel. Besides, wasn't the whole point of walking the Fiendish Dao to do exactly as one pleased?

A little city of merely thirty thousand cultivators, what expert could it possibly have? I'll just stop by, take one small bite, and carry off half the people as fertilizer for nurturing malevolent qi. At the thought, the Void-Refining Realm fiendish cultivator spun around and dove straight toward the small city he'd set his eye on.

The instant he reached it, he manifested his true fiendish form, conjuring an enormous black curtain that stretched across more than ten thousand meters and kept spreading rapidly, expanding toward thirty thousand, fifty thousand, a hundred thousand meters, as if wanting to shroud the entire city within it.

After all, he had come all this way. Taking one small bite and carrying off half the people was no different from sweeping away every last soul in the city. So why not directly gorge himself?

The moment the fiendish cultivator appeared, everyone in the city felt terror grip their hearts. But before he could fully cover the city, sword light slashed out from within, its edge tearing the vast black curtain apart in mid-air.

"A Void-Piercing cultivator?" Perfected Lord Crimson Malevolence was startled.

A small city of just thirty thousand cultivators could hope to have a Blazing White Golden Core cultivator presiding over it at most. More likely, it would have a Radiant Sun Golden Core, or even just a Crimson Golden Core cultivator. Yet a Void-Piercing cultivator had appeared?!

"Mo Ye?" Crimson Malevolence identified the Void-Piercing Realm cultivator at once.

The guardian of the Xuan state. He doesn't seem to be much of a powerhouse, though. With a bit of effort, I can kill Mo Ye before the southern domain's domain lord has time to come to the rescue. And if I make a scene here, the lord of the southern domain might even think it is the Yin Lunar Sect's retaliation and lower his guard.

At that thought, Crimson Malevolence's psychic thought, laden with a cold and sinister air, spread outward. "The Heavenly Dao Sect killed a Void-Refining peak master of mine, so naturally there's a price to pay! Today I'll kill a Void-Piercing cultivator of yours and refine a city of yours, to make you understand the consequences of opposing my sect!"

At once the great black curtain spreading across the city closed on itself, forming a black cage that imprisoned Mo Ye.

Sensing the danger, Mo Ye struck out with his sword again and again. His Dao Technique, born of the Great Dao of slaughter, allowed him to display exquisitely refined close-combat skills.

But the vast black curtain that Perfected Lord Crimson Malevolence had turned into was nothing but a mass of fiercely corrosive, black malevolent qi. Scattered in one place, it gathered again at once somewhere else.

No matter how hard Mo Ye fought, the black cage of pure malevolent qi only grew smaller and smaller.

The malevolent qi within it eroded his body without pause, pressuring his grotto-heaven and disrupting its operation. He could feel clearly that, because of the malevolent qi, his grotto-heaven was operating slower and slower.

Just as he felt he had only a few more minutes before he risked perishing, the black curtain that had fully surrounded and confined him was abruptly torn open, split cleanly in two as though sheared apart by exceedingly smooth scissors.

"The Void Sword!?" Crimson Malevolence, who had already trapped Mo Ye, let out a cry of alarm.

The all-encompassing malevolent qi drew rapidly inward, about to gather into his true body and flee at top speed. But before the qi could converge, countless sword lights, infused with the Great Dao of destruction and driven by the power of the void, came thundering in.

The malevolent qi at the very core swiftly turned to nothing. This was the Great Annihilation Sword Qi!

"The lord of the southern domain!? No!" The Crimson Malevolence Perfected Lord cried out in terror.

He instantly cast out his Dao Artifact, a sheet of black cloth that swept toward Yaoguang to engulf him. But before the cloth could cloak Yaoguang, the Wandering Dragon Sword had already struck the artifact, carrying with it the power of the Void Sword Dao Technique.

Although the Wandering Dragon Sword had not reached the level of a high-grade Dao Artifact despite all the years Yaoguang had spent refining it, it was outstanding among ordinary Dao Artifacts.

Coupled with the mastery-stage Void Sword, the combined power of the Dao Artifact and the Dao Technique nearly tore the cloth-type Dao Artifact apart the moment they touched it.

"My Black Heaven Shroud!" Crimson Malevolence cried.

But facing a Void-Refining powerhouse like Yaoguang, who had already slain Evil Eye, he did not have time to grieve over the Dao Artifact.

While the Black Heaven Shroud held Yaoguang up, his form became a mass of black mist and surged toward the Xuan state's border at top speed, then plunged headlong into the Heaven-Sealing Stele.

The Heaven-Sealing Stele, which Yaoguang had cast out from afar, trapped the Void-Refining cultivator inside. Dao Techniques each had their specialties, and this Void-Refining cultivator was unlike Evil Eye.

His Dao Technique leaned toward self-preservation and sealing, and so did the Dao Artifact in his hand. He came nowhere near Evil Eye, who had wielded the lightning halberd together with a lightning Dao Technique to swiftly shatter the Heaven-Sealing Stele.

Still, with a Void-Refining cultivator's capacity, even a dozen or so breaths would be enough for Crimson Malevolence to break free of the Heaven-Sealing Stele. But a dozen breaths were enough to decide the outcome of a battle.

With Perfected Lord Crimson Malevolence sealed away, the Black Heaven Shroud couldn't withstand Yaoguang's Void Sword. In less than a breath, the spirituality within the artifact was thoroughly scattered and crushed.

As Yaoguang spread his empty hand, the somewhat battered Dao Artifact fell into his grasp.

"The Void Sword... Its offense is a bit too fierce," Yaoguang remarked.

Yaoguang looked at the Dao Artifact that was now his spoil... To be precise, he looked at the several gaps the Void Sword had torn into it, and felt pained.

Unlike the Great Annihilation Sword Qi, his Dao Technique couldn't directly annihilate swaths of living beings and matter, and it struggled against foes that could disperse into separate parts or possessed great numbers of incarnations. But in a head-on assault, in a raw clash of strength, a single attack was enough to overpower most Dao Techniques, Dao Artifacts, or living beings.

"Damaged this badly, the price will likely have to be halved. Repairing it wouldn't be hard for me, but in the time it takes to repair one Dao Artifact, I could forge one or two new ones. Better to just sell it off cheap."

Yaoguang put the Dao Artifact away and then reached out again, his hand coming to rest on the shaking Heaven-Sealing Stele.

With a thought, the Wandering Dragon Sword shot into the air, stirring up a great surge of void power, compressing it layer upon layer to condense a peerless edge.

Then the Heaven-Sealing Stele opened, and Crimson Malevolence burst rapidly out.

"Yaoguang, my master is the..."

The Void-Refining Realm fiendish cultivator opened his mouth to announce his lineage, but the Wandering Dragon Sword was already primed and waiting, carrying an edge sharp enough to cleave through space. The moment it descended, it tore Crimson Malevolence's body apart on the spot.

The Great Annihilation Sword Qi followed immediately. It was even stronger than normal when against fiendish cultivators. The successive blows left the fiendish cultivator stunned.

After the first strike, the second wave followed at once, so fast that the fiendish cultivator's heavenly fiend origin couldn't even be gathered. A great quantity of his heavenly fiend origin was torn apart and scattered, then refined by Yaoguang's grotto-heaven.

Subjugated by the Heaven-Sealing Stele and unable to struggle free, the Crimson Malevolence Perfected Lord kept up his verbal threats. "Yaoguang, I am the eldest among the personal disciples of the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord, as well as a high-ranking member of the Yin Lunar Sect who has reached the Void-Refining Realm. If you dare kill me, the Yin Lunar Sect will never let it rest, if only for the sect's honor. When that time comes, a full-scale invasion—"

But before he could finish, Yaoguang cut him off. "Then let's start a war."

He said flatly, "The Yin Lunar Sect has many strong Void-Piercing, Void-Refining, and Void-Shattering elders, but fiendish cultivators have always had their limits. Your Void-Piercing cultivators might still fight the Heavenly Dao Sect's Void-Piercing cultivators to a draw, but at the Void-Refining Realm their momentum falters, and at the Void-Shattering Realm they're clearly a fir bit weaker than the Heavenly Dao Sect's. If it really comes to a fight, let's see whether your sect's fiendish flames burn hotter, or the Heavenly Dao Sect's immortal power stands stronger."

"Why go that far? However this battle turns out, the southern domain will surely be beaten into a wasteland, and won't you, its lord, be the one to suffer for it? Just let me go, and I'll plead with my master. From now on, the Yin Lunar Sect and the southern domain can keep to our own waters and never trespass—"

"Don't. Actually, I hope more fiendish cultivators of the Yin Lunar Sect come visit soon. The more, the better." Yaoguang gave no ground.

Drawing on the Daemon Hunter branch, a single Void-Refining fiendish cultivator could add more than 10 % to his realm progress, so the more Yin Lunar Sect fiendish cultivators came, the better.

In fact, once his cultivation rose, if the Yin Lunar Sect's fiendish cultivators didn't come to him, he'd have to make a few rounds along the Yin Lunar Sect's borders himself.

***

In under half an hour, Crimson Malevolence was gravely wounded in his vitality, with no power left to resist.

Considering the Eight Desolations Fiend Lord standing behind this fiendish cultivator, however, Yaoguang didn't spend several days at the border refining the Void-Refining fiendish cultivator down completely. Instead, with the Heaven-Sealing Stele holding the man, he carried him straight for the Southern Capital.

Before leaving, Yaoguang relayed a task through his psychic thought. "Improve your surveillance system as quickly as you can. If you need manpower or resources, you can get them from Li Hanqiu! The moment any fiendish cultivator crosses the border, notify me at once! And if a Void-Shattering fiendish cultivator enters, appeal directly to the sect for aid!"

"Yes!" Having watched with his own eyes as Yaoguang refined a Void-Refining fiendish cultivator, Mo Ye's eyes brimmed with excitement.

His entire family had been slain by the Yin Lunar Sect's fiendish cultivators, so simply seeing a cultivator from the Yin Lunar Sect die set his heart at ease. And since this cultivator's death owed something to his own effort, it amounted to an indirect revenge, doubling his satisfaction.

1. Basically a type of supernatural being that is formed from malevolent qi. Malevolent qi is a type of qi that is malevolent in nature. It is often found in places where there are many dead people. ☜

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