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The air crackled, thick with the promise of carnage. Qi Lantian stood like a bastion, his voice a low rumble that presaged an eruption. "It seems discussion is pointless. To touch my Qi Clan, you must first pass through me!"
A predatory grin split Fen Juechen's face. "I think not. You have no idea how long I've waited for this." His own blade slid from its scabbard with a chilling ring, and his voice rose to a feverish shriek that ignited the bloodlust of his followers. "MEN! SLAUGHTER THE QI CLAN! PAVE THE ROAD TO OUR RISE WITH THEIR BONES!"
"YES, SECT MASTER!" The roar from twenty-five hundred throats was a physical force, a shockwave of sound that swept across the plains, kicking up a storm of dust and pebbles as their collective energy erupted.
Unfazed, Qi Lantian offered a sly, contemptuous smile. "MEN! MAKE SURE TO PUT DOWN THE DISTURBING DOGS THAT CAME TO OUR DOOR BARKING!" His own aura flared, a towering inferno of will that met the enemy's momentum head-on.
"ATTACK!" A Qi Clan soldier raised his flaming spear, his battle cry slicing through the tension and unleashing hell.
Two human tides surged toward one another, a chaotic symphony of war cries and clattering steel. The air, already smelling of ozone and grit, now filled with the acrid scent of ignited gunpowder, waiting for the single, inevitable spark.
BOOOM!!!!
The collision was not a meeting, but a demolition. The front lines vanished in a mist of blood and flying viscera. The metallic stench of blood and the sickly-sweet odor of burning flesh assailed the senses immediately. Battlefields are not dueling grounds; they are meat grinders.
Ughh—gack! A Fen Clan disciple staggered back, a flaming spear buried deep in his eye socket. Fire erupted from the shaft, cooking his brain from within until the light in his other eye was extinguished, his body collapsing into a growing pool of crimson.
Nearby, a Qi Clan soldier screamed as a blade of condensed wind cut him in two at the waist. A fountain of blood drenched the earth, and his corpse was instantly trampled into a pulp by the advancing tide, his former drinking partners forced to step over what remained of him.
This was the reality of war—a brutal, bloody calculus where the only goal was to survive the next second. The Qi Clan, though outnumbered, fought with the desperate strength of cornered beasts. Their lines held, but only by a thread, bending under the relentless pressure of three combined sects.
Amidst the chaos, a contingent of Qi Clan fighters moved with sinister purpose. Their expressions were cold, calculated. Strangely, Fen Clan disciples seemed to intentionally avoid them, weaving around their undefended flanks. These were the Beast Flame Sect infiltrators, slithering through the fray like venomous snakes, positioning themselves for the perfect, devastating betrayal. In the heat of battle, who would notice?
As the masses fought, a wide circle was unconsciously formed around the leaders. Qi Lantian stood alone, his flaming spear held steady, facing the combined might of Fen Juechen, Hua Piao, and Huayen. In this space, the cacophony of war faded to a dull roar, isolated by the sheer pressure of their auras.
Seeing his disciples fall like wheat to the scythe, Hua Piao sighed, a sound of genuine sorrow. His Sword Spirit Sect had been used as cannon fodder at the Western Gate, and now their remnants were being spent here. "Patriarch Qi Lantian," he called out, one last attempt. "There is still a way out. This war need not consume us all. Hand over the core, and I swear we will share its power equally among our four powers."
"Your words are empty, Hua Piao," Qi Lantian spat. "I will never let you ride roughshod over my clan because of a fool's suspicion."
"Suspicion?" Fen Juechen's voice was icy, his knuckles white on his sword hilt. "This was confirmed by envoys from the Divine Martial Continent itself! Do you think powers of that stature would deign to lie? They have elders who could erase Floating Cloud City with a wave of their hand! What do you mean, 'suspicion'?".
I don't know how you planned it and got the envoys of divine martial continent to take part in all this but since it is you fen jeuchen I guess it's within my expectations but "I do have something to say to you."
Fen Juechen already knew an insult was coming, but a cruel curiosity made him permit it. These would be the man's last words, after all. "Talk," he uttered, the word dripping with frost.
"I would like to bestow upon my three 'friends' their posthumous names," Qi Lantian declared, his voice ringing across the clearing. "For you, Fen Juechen: 'Eunuch Fen.' For you, Hua Piao, so easily led: 'Gullible Piao.' And for you, Huayen, blind to it all: 'Foolish Huayen.'"
The effect was instantaneous. Huayen's face purpled with suppressed rage, his fiery aura flickering violently. But it was Fen Juechen who truly shattered.
The title "Eunuch Fen" was a direct strike at a twenty-year-old wound, a deep, humiliating shame known to all. The killing intent he had barely contained came flooding out, a palpable, blood-red haze in the air. His hands trembled, his teeth gritted so hard a trickle of blood seeped from his gums. He offered a freaky, blood-coated smile.
You fool, Qi Lantian, Hua Piao thought with a final, internal sigh. You've just signed the death warrant for every man, woman, and child in your clan. There will be no mercy now.
"Is that all?" Fen Juechen's voice was a chilling whisper, yet it carried over the din of battle.
"My last words are a lifetime away," Qi Lantian retorted, his spear flaring with brilliant orange flame. "You should be worrying about your own. I will show you the supreme might of a Nascent Soul realm expert!"
He leveled his spear, the tip drawing a line of fire in the earth between them.
"Let's fight."
"As you wish!" Fen Juechen and Huayen moved as one. Two swords were unsheathed—one howling with a tempest's fury, the other sheathed in searing crimson flame. The energy that erupted from the three adversaries was a maelstrom, forcing the soldiers at the periphery to scramble backward, widening the circle of their impending divine battle.
The symphony of slaughter continued unabated, but it was now underscored by a new, more terrifying overture—the booming shockwaves that began to emanate from the center, where the fate of the entire conflict would be decided.