A Single Breath, Fifteen Corpses

The azure-robed maiden stared blankly at Ji Ning, who stood nearby. Those words… they were simply far too… too overbearing!

The distant crowd of Wanxiang great demons was startled. Immediately, one of them roared, “Human brat, kill every last one of us? You?”

“You’re courting death.”

“A mere human dares to be so arrogant.”

“Kill him.”

The group of Wanxiang great demons all grew enraged, yet none dared to act rashly. The Dragon Whale King beside them raised a hand, instantly silencing every single demon…

The Dragon Whale King scrutinized the human youth before him. Ji Ning’s calm, unruffled demeanor filled him with doubt… What methods did this human youth possess, to be so confident? The Wanxiang manifestation from earlier had already revealed the truth… this youth truly was only a Wanxiang Adept.

In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through the Dragon Whale King’s mind. Finally, his voice low and hoarse, he said, “I will give you one final chance to live. Leave now!”

With his fearsome reputation, how could he be frightened off by a few words from Ji Ning?

“Haha…” Ji Ning laughed, turning to look at Mu Northson at his side. “Junior apprentice-brother, tell me, aren’t they just marching to their deaths?”

“They are marching to their deaths.” Mu Northson grinned as well. He knew exactly what his senior apprentice-brother was capable of. That ‘Soul-Shattering Art’ was comparable to a Primal Daoist’s might. During the Beihe Zhou incident, more than half of those six elite Wanxiang Adepts had died, and they had been protected by life-saving treasures bestowed by their elders. If not for that, they would have been completely wiped out.

These Wanxiang great demons?

At most, it would just take a bit more time.

“Leave quickly. Don’t walk the path of death.” The 729 flying swords hovering around Ji Ning had condensed into a single jade sword that hung suspended before him. Ji Ning reached out, gently flicking the jade sword. A clear, crisp ring echoed through the air. It was evident that the jade sword’s sword-light had condensed until it was as solid as a real flying sword.

“If you still refuse to leave, I will begin a wholesale slaughter.” Ji Ning’s voice was calm and detached.

The distant Dragon Whale King’s pupils contracted. The light in his emerald-green eyes flared, and an aura of savage, monstrous fury billowed into the sky. He immediately bellowed, “Use all your strength! Kill these two humans!”

“We were waiting for that.”

“Leave it to us, big brother.”

“Charge!”

“Slaughter him!”

One by one, the Wanxiang great demons began to shift from their human forms back into their true bodies. Some were birds, some were beasts, some were aquatic creatures. Some had emerald eyes, some had three eyes—all were of variant, exotic bloodlines. As they reverted to their original forms, each of them erupted with monstrous qi that filled the heavens. Accompanied by hissing roars and bellows, they all charged toward Ji Ning and the others.

The sight of this caused the azure-robed maiden at Ji Ning’s side to be greatly alarmed. She looked at Ji Ning and quickly sent a mental message: “Are you bluffing, or do you actually have something up your sleeve? Nine years ago, you hadn’t even reached Xiantian! In nine short years… these are all Wanxiang-level great demons. If you aren’t confident, run!”

“Little snake,” Ji Ning said with a teasing laugh. “Just watch and see.”

Ji Ning lightly flicked the jade sword in front of him, listening to its crisp ring, then smiled. “They’re nothing but chickens and dogs! Junior apprentice-brother, make your move!”

Swish!

The jade sword before him instantly transformed into a grinding flow of water and fire… swift as the wind, howling through the air.

“Alright.” Mu Northson’s hands also flew out with two streaks of black light. The streaks transformed in mid-air into two massive black serpents, which howled through the air toward the enemy.

Ji Ning’s eyes flashed with a fierce light. The ‘Soul-Shattering Seal’ before his soul in his sea of consciousness blazed with brilliant radiance. A massive surge of divine sense, centered on this seal, spread out in all directions. Under Ji Ning’s control, it all surged forward, pressing down upon the enemy… Boundless divine sense, like a surging tidal wave, rolled forward. Anything that dared to resist would face the impact of this psychic tide.

The divine sense was even faster than the flying swords or the puppets.

Before the sword-light had even arrived, Ji Ning’s tidal wave of divine sense had already collided with the souls of those fifteen Wanxiang great demons.

“BOOM!!!”

The fifteen Wanxiang great demons had been filled with boundless murderous intent and confidence. But the sudden, formless impact of the psychic tidal wave struck them all. Each of them felt as though their soul had been savagely hammered by a giant sledgehammer.

“How could this…”

“This is…”

No sooner had these terrified thoughts flashed through their minds than they were all completely stunned.

The jade sword-light of the ninth level of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation was incredibly gentle and warm as it howled through the air like the wind, directly slicing into a golden-furred ape. The golden-furred ape had absolutely no power to resist; it simply let the sword-light cut through it. The sword-light easily sliced it open from head to tail, cutting it completely in half. It then howled onward, cutting toward a white-furred fox. The white-furred fox was instantly carved through as well…

“Kill.” On the other side, the two black swimming serpents controlled by Mu Northson were also slaughtering madly.

The tail of a swimming serpent would suddenly lash out, smashing a Wanxiang great demon’s body directly to pieces.

The tail of a swimming serpent would suddenly coil around a demon, squeezing with such force that its body snapped.

Fast!

Too fast!

How fast was the sword-light? How fast were the flying puppets?

The Dragon Whale King, standing in the distance, had been watching calmly at first. He hadn’t thought much of the sword-light and puppets unleashed by Ji Ning and Mu Northson. He had also believed that his fifteen Wanxiang great demons would easily be able to block them, perhaps even gain the upper hand. “I probably won’t even need to act; those two humans will be dead.”

This thought had just appeared in his mind when he was stunned to see that, in the face of Ji Ning and Mu Northson’s sword-light and puppets, his fifteen great demons were offering absolutely no resistance. They simply let the sword-light and puppets attack them.

It must be understood, these were all great demons. If they didn’t even try to block or defend, even a Primal Daoist wouldn’t dare use their body to block a Sword Immortal’s sword-light, even if that Sword Immortal was only at the Wanxiang Adept level.

“Swoosh!”

Sword-light danced. Puppets flew.

In the blink of an eye, the sword-light had already slain nine great demons in a row. Each of the other great demons was killed with a single strike… except for the black-shelled giant turtle. The first strike didn’t break through its shell. On the second strike, Ji Ning’s sword-light moved like a skilled butcher dissecting an ox, following the gaps between the shell plates, and only then was he able to kill the black-shelled giant turtle.

The other six great demons were directly smashed into pulp by Mu Northson’s puppets.

In that short, fleeting instant, all fifteen great demons had been slain!

“No!” The white-furred fox, which had been cleaved in two, actually began to reform its body. It fled in terror, a look of panic on its face.

“Fiendgod Body Refiner?” Ji Ning let out a soft laugh. “You can’t escape.”

The oppressive, rolling tide of divine sense smashed once more into the white-furred fox. The fleeing fox was once again stunned into a daze. The sword-light in the air howled over once more, incomparably elegant, easily cutting its body apart. At the same time, a brilliant Water-Fire Lotus bloomed around it, enveloping it completely, quickly grinding its flesh and blood to mush. The divine power contained within its flesh and blood was swiftly exhausted, until it had been utterly consumed. It could not die any further.

All fifteen Wanxiang great demons had been slain!

“Killing a Wanxiang great demon is much easier than killing a Wanxiang Adept,” Ji Ning murmured to himself. “Not a single one had a life-saving treasure bestowed by their elders.”

Silence!

The entire wilderness fell silent. Ji Ning and Mu Northson both stood there, relaxed and smiling. But the azure-robed maiden beside them was stunned into a daze. “Fifteen Wanxiang great demons… all powerful, many at the mid-Wanxiang, late-Wanxiang, or even the peak Wanxiang stage! How did this Ji Clan brat manage to kill them all in an instant, without them offering any resistance at all?”

Because Ji Ning’s divine sense had avoided her, she hadn’t even noticed the psychic shockwave.

“It’s only been a little over nine years,” the azure-robed maiden muttered, staring at Ji Ning in a daze. “I am a Skygreen Serpent, a Godbeast. I’ve traveled to many places, encountered many strokes of fortune, and even become a disciple of a monstrous Immortal… and I’ve only just broken through to Wanxiang. How did this Ji Clan brat… become so powerful that he can kill Wanxiang great demons like slaughtering chickens? How is he even stronger than me now?”

Back in the Eastmarsh Swamp, when they had clashed time and again, their strength had been roughly equal.

The Skygreen Serpent was confident that her power had advanced at an incredible rate. But now…

The distant Dragon Whale King was first shaken by a furious rage, but then he quickly calmed down. He stared hard at Ji Ning and Mu Northson, his voice low and hoarse: “No wonder you are so confident. You have a divine sense secret art. And your souls are incredibly powerful as well, to be able to hit all fifteen Wanxiang great demons simultaneously with your psychic attack.”

Ji Ning smiled.

Before he had even entered the Black-White College, his soul was already at the ‘Divine Sense’ level. Now, more than three years had passed since then. His realm had improved, his Sword Heart had been tempered, and he had been visualizing the Nuwa Diagram daily for three years, further strengthening his soul… compared to a Primal Daoist, Ji Ning’s soul was already considered formidable. What did it matter if he had to deal with fifteen Wanxiang great demons all at once?

The pressure those fifteen had exerted was less than what he had felt from the six Wanxiang Adepts of Beihe Zhou!

As for this Dragon Whale King…

Ji Ning was confident he could handle it, and even more confident in his ability to escape. But if he wanted to defeat it, let alone kill it, Ji Ning wasn’t completely certain.

After all, this demon was gifted with an extraordinary physique. It was both a Fiendgod Body Refiner AND possessed divine abilities. Killing it would indeed be an extremely difficult task.

“Leave now, and I will spare your life.” Ji Ning looked at the Dragon Whale King, his voice cold.

The Dragon Whale King’s eyes flickered with cold light.

Bearing the momentum of having just killed fifteen great demons, Ji Ning’s words still carried a certain amount of intimidation.

“You think that by killing these great demons, you can scare me into leaving?” the Dragon Whale King said hoarsely. “I was born in the boundless Northern Seas and have traveled far and wide. I entered these lands and came to the Mount Yujue Wasteland… I have roamed for over ten thousand years! I have fought against Primal Daoists many times. A mere little Wanxiang Adept thinks he can scare me away? What a dream!”

Ji Ning shook his head from afar. “Then there is nothing more to say. Prepare to die.”

“Prepare to die?”

The Dragon Whale King let out a wild, booming laugh. The sound was like crashing thunder, rolling across a hundred li of land.

BOOM!

He vanished from his spot, transforming into a vast, churning mist that coalesced in mid-air into a single, incredibly enormous, bizarre beast. This bizarre beast had a dragon’s head atop a whale’s body. Its dragon whiskers alone were hundreds of zhang long. The Dragon Whale’s entire body was over a thousand zhang in length. As the aquamarine light on its surface flared, its body began to slowly expand once more, until it was a full three thousand zhang long.

The three-thousand-zhang Dragon Whale floated in the sky, seeming to blot out heaven and earth, plunging the area beneath it into darkness. Its boundless, terrifying aura of fiendish brutality filled the air, causing the hearts of all who witnessed it to tremble.

Ji Ning, Mu Northson, and the azure-robed maiden all looked up at it.

“So big,” Mu Northson muttered, his eyes wide.

“Ji Ning… can you really handle this thing?” The azure-robed maiden’s face turned even whiter.

Ji Ning looked up at it from afar. “Little snake, just watch!”