Yet, the children felt no pain. They continued to smile and sing their songs until they fell silent and still. Then, their bodies were rendered into Longevity Wine by the cultists.

The veins on Yan Yuwei’s hand, clenched around her greatsword, bulged. A wave of fury washed over her, so intense she nearly ground her back teeth to dust.

Xu Yunfan grabbed her wrist. His gaze flickered to the edge of the corpse pile, where a young man in the uniform of the Celestial Craft Cave’s Outer Sect was curled up, his chest still faintly rising and falling.

"Help..."

The young man’s eyes suddenly shot open to cry for help, but an iron hook had pierced his vocal cords.

The old Priest lifted an earthenware jar, a pleasant smile on his face. His murky eyes reflected the frothing blood inside. "The thirty-sixth catalyst is complete. With the Cui Bo City ritual finished, the Ming Venerable should be able to manifest in our world. Our grand cause will finally be realized."

In that instant, Xu Yunfan’s Thunderfire Hammer came whistling through the air.

The force of the hammer’s swing sent three black-robed figures flying. He took the chance to scoop up the young man and fall back.

Not to be outdone, Yan Yuwei ignored the wounds tearing open on her body. Her greatsword shrieked as she swung it. The ferocious power of her Melting Gold and Forging Iron technique sent shattered stones flying, carving a bloody path through the corpse pile.

"Hall Master Zhou?!"

Yan Yuwei froze on the spot, her longsword unconsciously dipping.

The gray-robed elder walking slowly from amid the mountain of corpses and sea of blood was none other than Zhou Yuande, Hall Master of the Celestial Craft Cave’s Foreign Affairs Hall!

The old man’s kind, benevolent face was spattered with blood, and he was still holding a half-eaten Poria Cake.

But he was incredibly old; most of his teeth had fallen out, and his vitality felt so withered and decayed it wouldn’t have been surprising if he dropped dead at any moment.

"I’ve been waiting for you."

Zhou Yuande wiped the crumbs from the corner of his mouth. "I have already sent word to the Celestial Craft Cave. You two are True Inheritors, pillars of our sect. You shouldn’t be wandering about. It would be difficult to answer for it if something were to happen. Come with me..."

"Message, my ass!"

Yan Yuwei sliced a black-robed man lunging at her side in two, a low growl rumbling in her throat.

"For Cui Bo City to suffer such a fate without a single word getting out, you must take all the credit, mustn’t you, Hall Master Zhou!"

Zhou Yuande looked confused. "What are you talking about, Niece? Cui Bo City is perfectly fine."

"The Incense and Candle Sect is slaughtering everyone in the city, and you’re in league with these heretics!"

Yan Yuwei raised her longsword, pointing it straight at Zhou Yuande as she cursed him relentlessly.

"You old monster! You’re a disgrace to humanity!"

Seeing their vigilance, Zhou Yuande’s smile suddenly cracked his face into a spiderweb of wrinkles.

He shakily raised his right hand.

The back of it was covered in age spots, with iron filings still embedded under the nails.

"Look! Just look at these hands!" His roar startled the crows in the treetops into taking flight. "Why do you get to be in the prime of your youth, while I have to take that damnable life-extending Five Poison Powder every single day!"

Xu Yunfan’s pupils constricted.

He noticed a purple patch on the side of Zhou Yuande’s neck, a telltale sign of long-term consumption of potent venom. He had somehow found a way to use poison to cling to life.

An iron tube was partially visible at the old man’s cuff. It was the Mechanical Box for the ’Thousand Mechanism Guide,’ a device from the Celestial Craft Cave’s Mechanical Hall capable of wounding even a Blood Exchange expert.

He had coveted one for a long time, but that stout old Elder Mo had flatly refused him. To think that Zhou Yuande of the Foreign Affairs Hall would possess one.

"The Ming Venerable shall descend and grant me true Longevity..."

Zhou Yuande frantically tore open his robes, revealing a festering abscess over his heart. His decrepit body was so emaciated that his collarbones jutted out sharply. His wrinkled skin hung loosely, a truly gruesome sight.

"I only need to offer up the lives from three more cities, and this fleshly prison will..."

"You deserve to die!"

Yan Yuwei roared and lunged forward, bringing her greatsword down on Zhou Yuande’s head.

Zhou Yuande showed no sign of panic. He even grinned, revealing a mouthful of rotten teeth, as he activated the Bronze Compass embedded over his heart.

Twelve golden threads stretched from the face of the compass into his sleeves, connecting to the joints of the Bronze Puppets. "Nephew Xu, I imagine you have yet to experience the Hundred Refinements Silk Binding Strength, have you?"

Before Yuwei’s greatsword could fall, seven Iron Thorn Nets erupted from the ground.

Xu Yunfan had already reacted, pulling her into a backflip up into a hawthorn tree. The spot where they had just stood was now bristling with Poisoned Steel Needles, the Celestial Silkworm Threads tied to their ends glinting coldly in the twilight.

"Earth Evil Stakes linked with Seven-Star Nails." Yan Yuwei, coming to her senses, tore off a piece of bark and threw it. The bark was shredded by Iron Thorns shooting from the shadows, and her expression grew grim.

"The old bastard turned this entire Chaotic Burial Mound into a Mechanical Array!"

Zhou Yuande’s withered fingers twitched, and the twelve Bronze Puppets suddenly sprang to life.

Black Gold Threads, nearly invisible to the naked eye, extended from each puppet’s joints. The other end of each thread was wrapped around the Profound Iron Ring on his finger.

The two foremost puppets opened their iron-toothed mouths and spat out Phosphorus Fire Powder, which burst into flame on contact with the air!

"Hold your breath!"

With a flick of his wrist, Xu Yunfan’s Thunderfire Qilin Hammer became a Chain Hammer and flew from his grasp, roaring toward Zhou Yuande.

Zhou Yuande’s fingers twitched. The nigh-invisible Black Gold Threads trembled, and several Bronze Puppets flew forward to intercept the Flying Hammer.

The instant the Thunderfire Qilin Hammer smashed into the Bronze Puppets, their chests exploded.

Sulfurous smoke and iron shrapnel sprayed everywhere. The Black Gold Threads of three puppets melted in the intense heat, but the impact triggered an explosion with the force of a cannonball.

Countless iron pellets instantly bombarded Xu Yunfan, producing a cacophony of metallic clangs. DING! DANG! CLANG!

Though he was unharmed, it left Xu Yunfan looking disheveled and grimy.

The insult was immense.

"Watch closely, you old dog!"

The muscles on his back rippled like a furious tide as he swung the Thunderfire Hammer in a full-moon arc.

The hammer’s chain wrapped around a fourth puppet’s neck, and he swung the puppet itself like a Meteor Hammer straight at Zhou Yuande’s face.

The elder’s withered fingers trembled rapidly as the remaining puppets stacked into a shield wall, but the combined force of the swung puppet and the wreckage of the first three smashed them to pieces.

Zhou Yuande staggered backward, two of his fingers torn off along with the Profound Iron Ring.

His decrepit, century-old body simply couldn’t keep up. A storm of blows from Xu Yunfan’s hammer rained down upon him.

The first blow shattered his left collarbone, shards of bone piercing his gray robe. The second smashed his right knee, shattering the kneecap into a dozen fragments. The third went straight for his skull but was barely blocked by an Iron Bone Umbrella.

"Back when I reigned supreme in the Mortal World..." Blood trickled from the corner of Zhou Yuande’s mouth as a poisoned short blade sprang from a mechanism in the umbrella’s handle.

"Outdated tricks!"

Xu Yunfan spun and kicked the canopy of the umbrella, using the rebound to wrap his hammer’s chain around a nearby tree three times.

As his core muscles tightened like a bowstring, the entire cypress tree was torn from the ground and came sweeping toward his foe with unstoppable force.

The rushing treetop was reflected in Zhou Yuande’s pupils. The sigh of his master from fifty years ago echoed in his ears: ’All the scheming in the world is no match for absolute power...’

"Ming... Ming Venerable, save me!!!"

Zhou Yuande howled, his voice as shrill as a banshee’s.

BOOM!

The cypress tree smashed through the last three puppets and, with its momentum unchecked, slammed Zhou Yuande into the mountainside.

The rock face spiderwebbed with cracks. The old man was embedded in the fissure, his chest caved in like a broken drum.

Xu Yunfan raised his Heavy Hammer, the muscles all over his body coiling and twisting like a nest of pythons as he summoned immense strength.

CRUNCH!

The impact of the Heavy Hammer and the sound of the collapsing rock wall exploded in unison.

When Xu Yunfan landed, dragging the headless corpse with him, the Thunderfire Hammerhead was still dripping with brains.