Translator: CinderTL
Light!
A blinding radiance descended from the heavens, surpassing even the brightness of the sun, utterly illuminating the eastern reaches of the Wood Spirit Empire, which had already been plunged into twilight.
At that moment, every living being in the Imperial Capital found their gaze irresistibly drawn to the radiant spectacle, staring in awe toward its source.
It was a spectacle of pure magnificence, an indescribable, destructive beauty.
From ordinary Wood Spirit citizens to soldiers, generals, imperial ministers like Fara and Raven, and even Regent Imperial Princess Elsa herself, all were involuntarily captivated by the dazzling display of colors.
All sound vanished.
Time itself seemed to freeze.
Until...
Boom!
A terrifying roar shook the very foundations of the Lesser Thousand World!
This world-shattering tremor, traveling at supersonic speed, slammed into the Wood Spirit Empire's capital, finally jolting the petrified Wood Spirits out of their stupor from witnessing this cataclysmic strike.
An uncontrollable wave of emotion surged from their lips.
"By the Mother Tree!"
"What... what kind of divine power is this?!"
"A miracle! A miracle! A divine act of destruction unleashed by a Human Race Divine Spirit!"
Faced with this immense, world-shattering power, even Fifth-Tier Wood Spirits—whose strength rivaled the Primordial Spirits of the Human Race—were overwhelmed with awe and terror.
Fortunately, the Wood Spirit Empire was vast and powerful.
If this strike had targeted a smaller Lesser Thousand World spanning only a few thousand miles...
Even if it hadn't completely annihilated the world, it would have wiped out nearly all life on its surface, plunging the entire realm into an irreversible mass extinction!
Even within the Wood Spirit Empire, every living being within the strike's radius faced divine judgment on an apocalyptic scale.
Within a hundred-mile radius of the epicenter, nothing survived.
Only Fifth-Tier Wood Spirits managed to endure within a three-hundred-mile zone.
This single blow...
...had directly exterminated over a hundred thousand Third and Fourth-Tier Wood Spirits!
As the Wood Spirits reeled from the apocalyptic spectacle, a piercing shriek suddenly tore through the Imperial Capital: "Storm incoming!"
The piercing wail jolted the Wood Spirits on the city walls back to their senses.
Only then did they realize that the aftershocks from the cataclysmic strike, even after traveling thousands of miles, had unleashed a storm resembling a towering "black wall."
This tempest, imbued with the oppressive force of dark clouds bearing down on the city, slammed into the Imperial Capital's City Protection Grand Formation with unexpected speed.
The terrifying spectacle spurred the puppet Wood Spirits besieging the capital to unleash their full arsenal in a desperate attempt to shatter the storm.
Yet even their combined efforts couldn't stem the onslaught. Massive waves of the storm's residual force crashed against the Array Formation, which the Wood Spirits were straining every nerve to maintain.
In an instant, the entire eastern sector of the Imperial Capital was engulfed in darkness and tempestuous winds.
The sounds of impact and battering were no less deafening than a concentrated barrage from Third and Fourth-Tier Wood Spirits.
Huddled beneath the glowing barrier of the City Protection Grand Formation, the Wood Spirit soldiers trembled before the world-devouring storm's aftershocks, their hearts pounding in their throats.
Nor were they alone. Fifth-Tier Wood Spirits like Fara and Raven gritted their teeth, pouring their strength into reinforcing the Array Formation against the storm's corrosive onslaught.
Once the Array Formation shattered, the storm would engulf the Imperial Capital, inevitably causing tens of millions of casualties among its hundreds of millions of residents.
However, unlike ordinary soldiers, the Fifth-Tier Wood Spirits still possessed the strength to observe the battlefield even as they endured the storm's aftershocks.
Through the sky-darkening tempest, their Divine Sense surged toward a point a thousand miles away.
But...
Instead of detecting the towering figure of the Human Race Divine Spirit they sought, the first thing to assault their Heart-Minds was the very fabric of heaven and earth.
Yes, heaven and earth themselves!
It felt as if their Divine Sense wasn't probing a living being or a cultivator, but the essence of this entire realm.
An unprecedented sense of vastness, majesty, and boundless expanse permeated the direction they were investigating—a grandeur unmatched even by the direct power of the Life Mother Tree.
It was as if the World Will had materialized in a form they could comprehend, becoming a human Avatar to carry out divine retribution, punishing all invaders who had persecuted the Wood Spirits on this planet.
And in truth...
Perhaps that was precisely what was happening.
Above the battlefield's Heavenly Vault, a figure rode a beam of sword light, traversing the Void at unimaginable speed.
His movements flickered with impossible swiftness, as if the very cosmos were his chessboard.
His Flying Sword, peerlessly sharp and indestructible, pierced the Void repeatedly, precisely targeting and eliminating every lifeform corrupted by the alien entity.
These beings, mere moments ago, had been familiar Fifth-Tier Wood Spirits.
Individually, they were nearly as powerful as him, especially now...
Corrupted and controlled by the alien presence, their unleashed strength far surpassed his own.
Yet before this Flying Sword, even these beings far more powerful than himself shattered like fragile paper.
Ordinary Third and Fourth-Tier Wood Spirits had been sent scattering by the earlier celestial strike, suffering devastating losses. Now, the Fifth-Tier Wood Spirits were being swiftly eliminated by the sword light's pinpoint strikes.
The rebellion, which had threatened to collapse the entire Wood Spirit Empire's leadership, was being effortlessly suppressed and shattered by this single, awe-inspiring being.
Fara and Raven watched the scene, their hearts filled with a profound shock and awe that defied words.
The shock wasn't limited to Fara, Raven, and the other Fifth-Tier Wood Spirits. Yu Jin, Dong Xuan, and the other cultivators from the Azure Star Minor Realm also stared intently into the Void, unable to tear their gazes away.
This wasn't the first time they had witnessed Li Chunjun channeling the World Will, using his own will to seek out and lock onto Heart Demons, then systematically annihilating them with his Lifebound Flying Sword.
Yet knowing that Li Chunjun had recently been in the Azure Star Minor Realm, and now witnessing him descend upon the Wood Spirit Minor Thousand World wielding the destructive power of the shattered Void—a feat on par with Void Refining Great Powers—still left them profoundly shaken.
"Void traversal warfare! This is the exclusive domain of Void Refining experts! Has Swordmaster Li truly grown this formidable?"
"We're stranded in a foreign realm, besieged by Heart Demons, yet fortunate enough to accompany Swordmaster Li. What incredible luck!"
The Primordial Spirit and Nascent Soul cultivators aboard the Silver Leaf were overwhelmed with emotion.
Many had long anticipated the immense power of Heart Demons. Had Swordmaster Li not swiftly identified and eradicated these threats, their fate would have been no better than that of the Wood Spirit Clan. At best, they might have endured for a year or two before succumbing entirely to Heart Demon corruption—their inevitable destiny.
But now, not only had the crisis in the Azure Star Minor Realm been resolved, but they also had the capacity to aid other races. Moreover, cultivators like Yu Jin and Su Fang had even cultivated Mind Power, a rare and invaluable opportunity for them. For them, it was nothing short of a heavenly blessing.
The battle raging thousands of miles away quickly subsided as Heart Demons were systematically hunted down and annihilated.
But Li Chunjun's relentless pursuit of these entities showed no sign of stopping.
The Wood Spirit Minor Thousand World was significantly larger than the Azure Star Minor Realm.
Yet, by borrowing the power of the Life Mother Tree and harnessing its Seventh-Rank Heart-Mind power, Li Chunjun brought the entire Wood Spirit Minor Thousand World under his surveillance. He was intimately aware of every Heart Demon rushing toward the Wood Spirit Empire's capital, intent on delivering a fatal blow.
As the Scarlet Sky Sword landed in his hand, Li Chunjun poured his Essence, Qi, and Spirit into the Flying Sword, reactivating the once-dim Void Dao patterns.
Buzz! Buzz!
Visible spatial ripples spread outward.
When the ripples reached a critical point, Li Chunjun struck again.
Sword Breaks the Void!
Instantly, a bridge materialized, connecting him directly to a group of Heart Demons thousands of miles away, their positions locked onto by the Life Mother Tree's Heart-Mind power as they converged on the capital.
Dao Technique—Void Bridge!
In an instant, Li Chunjun traversed the Void Bridge, wielding the destructive power of shattered space, and slammed into a gathering of over a dozen Heart Demons and tens of thousands of Third and Fourth Tier Wood Spirit puppets tens of thousands of miles away.
Due to the relatively short distance of this Void Acceleration, the destructive force wasn't as earth-shattering as his previous sword strike.
Yet, the sword's trajectory still pulverized mountains and shattered the very fabric of space across hundreds of miles, reducing everything to dust.
The dozen Heart Demons reacted swiftly, but their efforts were utterly futile against Li Chunjun.
At best...
Their suppression by Li Chunjun's Mind Power would unleash a significant mental contamination, a lingering residue of their defeat.
For ordinary cultivators, even Void Refinement Realm Great Powers who had mastered the second or third layer of Mind Power, such contamination would be a grave nuisance, requiring decades to completely eradicate.
But Li Chunjun treated this contamination as if it were nothing.
He allowed the defeated Heart Demons to wail their lamentations as he crushed them.
After refining and slaying another Heart Demon, Li Chunjun paused.
He glanced at the status of the Human Emperor Banner.
[Life Level: 32 (196,481/200,000)]
Then, his gaze shifted toward the Life Mother Tree.
"More than half of the Heart Demons in the Wood Spirit Realm have fallen to my sword. Now that I've marked the remaining ones, their complete eradication is only a matter of time. It's time for you to fulfill your promise," Li Chunjun declared.
The Life Mother Tree responded with remarkable composure. "In truth, my remaining strength is insufficient to maintain this observation of the Wood Spirit Realm any longer."
Defending against the Void Storm had exhausted her completely. Her current state could only be described as a final, flickering flame of life.
However, as a Seventh-Rank being, her final burst of radiance lingered longer than usual.
"I will condense my remaining life force into a seed and entrust it to the current Wood Spirit Empress. I will explain to her that the material formed from my original body serves as the Wood Spirit Clan's tribute to you."
The Life Mother Tree transmitted its consciousness.
Li Chunjun nodded slightly.
The Life Mother Tree's true form was composed of Seventh-Tier Dao Artifact-grade material.
Unfortunately...
This material wasn't particularly well-suited for his Lifebound Flying Sword.
Otherwise, refining it into the sword would not only ensure that the Scarlet Sky Sword became a top-tier quasi-Dao Artifact, but also lay the foundation for its future ascension to a true Dao Artifact.
Lacking suitable Dao Artifact materials and on the verge of increasing his Life Level...
He could only perform a blood refinement on the Scarlet Sky Sword, enhancing his mastery over it and preparing it for its eventual transformation into a top-tier quasi-Dao Artifact.
Naturally, he couldn't allow the Life Mother Tree to sense this process.
In fact, for his own safety during the blood refinement of his Lifebound Flying Sword, he couldn't even allow such a powerful Seventh-Rank life form as the Life Mother Tree to remain nearby.
Therefore, it was time for the Life Mother Tree to pay its due.
(End of the Chapter)
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