"Qing Yuan! Go, now!"

Blood Demon gripped Qing Yuan’s arm tightly, her expression fraught with tension, desperate to push her best friend away immediately!

"Blood Demon, what’s going on? What did you see?"

Qing Yuan had never seen Blood Demon so tense.

If Blood Demon had merely been discovered by Ding Jingyi, she would hardly be reacting this strongly.

"There’s no time to explain! We need to leave first!"

Blood Demon grabbed Qing Yuan’s hand and was about to fly away.

But just then, Sect Leader Ding Jingyi’s voice drifted over from the main peak of the Wandao Sect. "Elders, why not stay a little longer?"

As Ding Jingyi’s voice faded, a flash of sword light shot toward Blood Demon’s Blood Sin Peak.

"Son of a bitch!"

Blood Demon cursed, her brow furrowed as she countered with a slash of her own blade.

The crimson saber light collided with Ding Jingyi’s Sword Qi, and a turbulent wave of Spiritual Power erupted, creating a nearly suffocating pressure.

The hearts of all the cultivators in the Wandao Sect jolted. They all turned to look toward Blood Sin Peak, wondering what was happening.

Why were the Sect Leader and the Peak Master of Blood Sin Peak suddenly fighting?

The next moment, Blood Demon’s voice, amplified by Spiritual Power, resounded throughout the entire Sect:

"Ding Jingyi! You bastard! You’ve imprisoned ten of our Wandao Sect’s Peak Masters and Elders beneath your main peak, using the Life Origin and Spiritual Power of my master and the nine other Peak Masters to nourish an Ancient God and try to break its seal! Have you gone mad? Do you have any idea what the consequences of your actions will be?"

Qing Yuan and the rest of the Sect were utterly shocked by Blood Demon’s words.

They could hardly believe what they were hearing.

’What did Elder Blood Demon just say?’

’The Sect Leader is using the Life Origin of ten Peak Masters and Elders to nourish an Ancient God? And trying to break its seal?’

Blood Demon waved her hand again, releasing a Divine Thought that projected everything she had seen at the main peak into the air.

The image showed the ten Peak Masters of the Wandao Sect in a state worse than death!

"Master!"

"Father!"

"How could this be?"

"My master was supposed to have died in the White Bone Secret Realm! Why is he at the Wandao Sect’s main peak?"

When the Hall Master of Rakshasa Hall and others saw their own masters chained up beneath the main peak, their Life Origins being drained without end, they were utterly horrified!

They knew Blood Demon wouldn’t lie to them.

After all, they only had to go to the main peak to see whether it was true or not!

Just when everyone expected the Sect Leader to offer a defense, a faint smile played on Ding Jingyi’s lips. His expression was calm as he slowly spoke, his voice carrying across the entire Sect without a hint of concealment. "So what if I did?"

"..."

A jolt of shock went through everyone, including Blood Demon.

They had expected Ding Jingyi to deny it; they never imagined he would admit it so brazenly.

"Sect Leader, what exactly are you trying to do?" Qing Yuan stepped forward to demand.

"What am I trying to do?" Ding Jingyi chuckled. "I am simply in pursuit of the Great Dao. That is my most fundamental goal."

Ding Jingyi spread his arms, tilting his head back to gaze at the bottomless sky. "None of you have reached Ascension Realm Perfection. You don’t know what that pinnacle is like. You don’t know the torment of being unable to advance a single step further.

"You can’t possibly know the despair of stepping into Ascension Realm Perfection, of possessing the power to touch the heavens, only to find the path forward is severed!

"You cannot know the pain of standing at the highest point, of being just one leap away from grasping the stars in the sky, only to find they are forever beyond your reach!

"At first, I accepted my fate.

"But then, one day in the White Bone Forbidden Land, I witnessed another sight!

The more he spoke, the more fanatical his expression grew, as if he were lost in a reverie. "I saw them! I saw a sky full of gods.

"I saw Them as They controlled the Laws of the world, setting one rule after another for all of creation.

"And I saw the hazy back of a man.

"Though I couldn’t see his face clearly, he was a member of the Human Race. He stood beneath the heavens, one man and one sword, scorning all the Divine Spirits.

"With every slash of his sword, a Divine Spirit fell.

"His very being became the myriad Laws.

"He sundered all of eternity!"

Ding Jingyi lowered his gaze and looked back at the two of them. "If that man could do it, why can’t I?

"We who came after! Why should we be inferior to those who came before?"

"You animal!"

Blood Demon gripped her long saber.

"For your own selfish desires, you would let the sacrifices of our ancestors be for nothing?

"Do you have any idea how hard our people fought to achieve what we have today?

"Do you realize what unsealing the Divine Spirits would mean?"

"That won’t happen." Ding Jingyi shook his head. "The god won’t be revived. It will merely become my sustenance, for me to absorb. And I will become the one true god of this world!"

Ding Jingyi extended a hand toward Blood Demon and Qing Yuan. "I admire you both. Submit to me and become my allies, and I will forgive your transgressions."

"Pah! In your dreams! The sight of you makes me sick!" Blood Demon spat on the ground. Without another word, she unleashed a strike with her blade!

In an instant, the crimson light of her blade seemed to cover the entire Wandao Sect.

Although Ding Jingyi was a major Realm higher than Blood Demon, he didn’t dare to underestimate her.

Blood Sin Peak had, since its founding, always been the branch of the Wandao Sect with the greatest combat strength. Though its cultivators were few, no one dared to look down on them.

After all, the sheer domineering power of the Blood Demon Saber Technique was rarely seen in the world.

BOOM!

A tremendous roar echoed through the air.

The crimson Saber Qi erupted violently once more.

After neutralizing the Saber Qi, Ding Jingyi stood suspended in the air. He flipped the longsword in his hand, then relaxed his grip, letting the entire blade plummet from the sky.