As the crescent moon rose, its silver light illuminated the world, and then the light of sunset shone on the horizon.
Silver radiance complemented the red sunset, but in the middle of this strange and beautiful phenomenon was endless killing intent.
The light was gentle like the hand of a lover, and the representatives didn't feel anything as it touched them, but when it fell on the Bloodguards, it was like pouring boiling oil onto snow. Steam instantly roiled up, the light melting away all the blood it touched, and the Bloodguards began to crumble.
"The Ethereal Ocean Moon Formation! Illuminating the world with purifying light!" the Blood River Lord howled. "You're the Water Moon Celestial Sovereign's disciple!"
"That is the ancestor of my lowly sect," Tang Jie said with a smile.
The formation he had just used was the Basking Moon Sect's Ethereal Ocean Moon Formation, one of the guardian formations of the Basking Moon Sect. It was passed down from the Water Moon Celestial Sovereign and intended for subduing evil and purging demonic energy. The Bloodguards were the work of evil arts, so there was no better formation than this to deal with them.
The moment he used it, almost all the Bloodguards that had appeared so far were exterminated, with only that Blood River General managing to jump back into the Blood Sea before the moonlight killed him. Even so, the blood plasma covering him had been devastated by the moonlight.
The representatives were delighted by this sight.
Hei Yan shouted, "Why didn't you use it earlier!?"
Tang Jie bitterly smiled. "Because it's the only one I have, and the Bloodguards… There are still more of them."
As he spoke, more Bloodguards emerged from the Blood Sea and continued to charge at them.
Tang Jie's original plan was to wait until all the Bloodguards had come out and then use the formation to kill them all, but the Blood River Lord was extremely cautious with his soldiers, sending them out in batches rather than mindlessly sending all of them out.
In the end, Tang Jie waited until he saw that everyone else had reached their limit to finally make his move.
The Ethereal Ocean Moon Formation had only brought everyone a little breathing room, but as more Bloodguards charged out, the little comeback he had staged was very quickly reversed.
And at this time, the Blood River General who had escaped into the Blood Sea returned.
The Ethereal Ocean Moon Formation hadn't been able to kill him, but it had burned most of his external flesh, revealing the black bones within.
Tang Jie was stunned when he saw these black bones.
He finally realized where that sense of familiarity had come from.
The ghost guard!
Looking once more at the ghost guard who had now become the Blood River General, Tang Jie said with excitement in his eyes, "And here I thought I had already lost you, but it seems not… That's great, that's great!"
He heartily laughed.
The ghost guard once more began to sprint at Tang Jie, and as he ran, the blood plasma flowed over him, healing the wounds caused by the formation. He ran faster and faster, gradually turning into a crimson arrow aimed straight at Tang Jie, his eyes burning with ghostly flames. It was clear that he didn't recognize his master.
Tang Jie angrily barked, "Stop! Evil beast, hurry and come back already!"
Using the power of the Four-Nine True Words, he essentially gave the ghost guard a sharp strike to the head, bringing him back to his senses.
His sprinting figure suddenly froze, his eyes losing focus, seeming confused and trying to remember something.
But then those ghostly flames flashed red, and the ghost guard regained his composure and continued to charge at Tang Jie.
Tang Jie knew that this was the reason the Blood River Lord could control the ghost guard.
He didn't know the exact method the Blood River Lord had used, but whatever it was, the ghost guard was his, and he was going to take him back.
Tang Jie clenched his teeth and muttered, "You were mine in the past, and you will be mine in the future!"
He threw his head back and howled.
It was a mournful, sharp, and savage howl, like the wailing of a ghost.
Tang Jie was using the Ghost Summoning spell, the strongest ghost-controlling spell recorded in the Ghost Classic.
The ghost guard was fundamentally still a ghost, and no matter what method the Blood River Lord had used on it, so long as he didn't change its nature, the ghost-controlling methods of the Ghost Classic would still work. Moreover, this howl was also suffused with the power of the Four-Nine True Words, making it even more effective.
As expected, the ghost guard shuddered once more, and the ghostly fires in his eyes flickered, and then something began to crack and burst within his body.
"No!" the Blood River Lord howled.
He could already sense that the seals he had placed within the Blood River General were shattering and breaking apart, and the ghost guard was beginning to break free.
He knew that this was trouble, so he thrust out a palm with a howl, attacking not Tang Jie, but the ghost guard. At the same time, Tang Jie felt something intrude upon his connection with the ghost guard and savagely attack his mind.
As expected of an Immortal Platform Titan like the Blood River Lord, he had used the moment where Tang Jie was subduing the ghost guard to send a sliver of his mind into the ghost guard and then attack Tang Jie through it.
This mental attack was a Divine Will attack. The Blood River Lord was paying a rather heavy price in the hopes of killing Tang Jie.
This was the most dangerous attack Tang Jie had encountered yet, and even though he had taken medicines that had increased his resistance to Divine Will attacks, as the attack was coming through his link to the ghost guard, even Tang Jie wasn't sure he could endure it. At this moment, there was a bright and brilliant cry.
A giant firebird manifested behind Tang Jie.
This firebird was similar to the firebird the Pale Cloud Flame had turned into, yet these flames weren't those of the Pale Cloud Flame, but of another kind of divine flame.
"The Southern Divine Fire?" the Blood River Lord bellowed, staring behind Tang Jie in disbelief. "How could this be?"
The firebird suddenly shrank down into a violet flame, and then a girl shouted, "So unlucky! I barely came out to play and there's already a problem. Tang Jie, you owe me for this. You decide for yourself how many drops of essence blood to deduct. I'm going first!"
The voice disappeared.
Tang Jie knew that the Vermillion Bird had manifested using the firebird within his body and called upon the Southern Divine Fire to save his life. The Southern Divine Fire was a flame that attacked the mind, so it could naturally block the Blood River Lord's Divine Will. But the price for this was that the Vermillion Bird had burned up that sliver of will she had left in Tang Jie's body.
The same act had also completely undone the seals within the ghost guard, and with a howl, he charged out of the Bloodguards, went up to Tang Jie's side, and got down on one knee.
"Master!"
"Very good." Tang Jie smiled in satisfaction. "I originally thought you were dead, not expecting to get you back. It seems like you've gotten stronger."
Everyone was dumbfounded by this scene.
This Blood River General that had been tearing through them had suddenly become Tang Jie's subordinate, leaving them both shocked and delighted.
Na Shan shouted, "See if you can't have him command the Bloodguards to attack the Blood River Lord!"
The Blood River Lord chuckled. "'Attack me'? Ridiculous! The army is mine. You think that the defection of a single general can let you control my army? Keep dreaming! I've lost one commander, so I can just make ten more! Divide my soul and enter their bodies! Rise!"
As he shouted, one of the Blood River avatars suddenly divided into ten and threw themselves into the bodies of ten Bloodguards.
A moment later, the ten Bloodguards let out mighty roars, blood plasma flowing over their bodies and turning into robes, armor, helmets, and boots. Together with the spears they were already holding, they appeared identical to the ghost guard.
These newborn Blood River Generals each had Spirit Ring Tier cultivation, and while they were a little weaker than the ghost guard in combat, they were just as savage, powerful, and fearless.
The Blood River Lord pointed at the representatives and ordered, "Kill them!"
Under the command of the ten generals, the Blood River army charged.
Everyone could only groan at this sight. The Blood River Lord was just too strong, able to split himself and come together, and he seemed to have an endless number of tricks up his sleeves.
Even Tang Jie's formation diagrams couldn't turn the tables, and gradually disintegrated under the endless tide of the enemy.
The stone giants were pulverized into debris by a forest of spears.
The eighteen pillars were toppled by the Bloodguards, the 72 mirrors shattered.
The lightning cloud had to deal with countless arrows and tossed spears from the Bloodguards below, the powerful blood energy infused into them exploding within the cloud. Hole after hole was torn in the cloud, until there was nothing left.
They stomped through thorns and marched atop blood with neat and orderly steps. Raising their spears, they advanced through a storm of spell arts.
They were silent, cold-blooded, savage, and cruel.
They congregated into a mighty crimson torrent that devoured all, and even the Nine Heavens Calamity Blade became nothing more than a small drizzle to it.
In the face of this offensive, the representatives finally started to pay a terrifying price.
Zheng Yuanjie, inheritor of the Hongwu Zheng Clan, possessor of the domineering Heavenly Son Fist, released powerful shockwaves with each punch. Like a diligent farmer harvesting wheat, his every swing would take the lives of several dozen Bloodguards. At least two thousand Bloodguards had fallen to him, and only when the 127th spear stabbed into him was he finally harvested himself.
Gu Qiulai was a young expert from a demonic sect of the west, and his body was always covered in black demonic energy that obscured his face. Akin to Tang Jie's Flesh Millstone, this demonic energy was his greatest weapon, constantly grinding away his foes and absorbing their power for him to use, allowing him to keep going seemingly forever. But even this seemingly eternal demonic energy had a limit, and as it killed and killed, it faded until it gradually revealed the youth's face. He lay on the ground, allowing the Bloodguards to stomp over him as he recalled his master's teachings: The day your demonic energy is removed is the moment of your death. "Master, you were right about that." He laughed as he looked up at the sky and then closed his eyes for eternity.
Xia Houqian was a beast puppet expert from the frozen regions of the polar north, and he had thirty-some wolf beast puppets like Nine Abyss Wolves and Iceseal Wolves, each one comparable to an ordinary Spirit Ring expert. His overall strength was such that he served as the vanguard of the representatives. But the vast Bloodguard army drowned out his puppets, and as the wolf beast puppets struggled and tore at the Bloodguards, they howled in pain. Finally, they would fall, vanishing with splashes of froth into the Blood Sea. When all the puppets disappeared, Xia Houqian fell into despair. He charged into their ranks and detonated his Celestial Heart, ending his battle and taking three hundred Bloodguards with him.
Yun Tian was a prodigy with an eight-cycle Jade Gate, and he had a divine grasp of Wind-type spell arts. He possessed a movement technique similar to the Chaoswind Step that allowed him to freely travel through the army, and the Bloodguards couldn't even touch him. He didn't die because he ran out of spiritual energy. Rather, his confidence got to his head, allowing a Blood River avatar to creep up behind him and lightly press a palm to his back. This light touch temporarily stripped Yun Tian of his ability to teleport about, after which countless Bloodguards rushed in and dragged him into their crimson tide.
Pang Ziruo, Cao Fei, Zhou Xingchen—one representative after another was felled.
These people were all prodigies of their respective factions, top of the class among their peers. They had been called here by the Four Heavenly Kings, thinking that they could make a name for themselves, but because of this, they had run into the Blood River Lord and met an early end.
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