Chapter 124: A Single Battle Stuns the World

Xiu Binggan and his party, consumed by overwhelming shame and fury, represented the most formidable force of the Asura Mansion, excluding their Old Ancestor, and stood as the preeminent power in the Southern Region. Yet, this operation had spiraled into a near-catastrophic embarrassment.

Based on intelligence gathered by the Mansion and the list provided by Elder Xiu Ji, they had anticipated that the strongest of their adversaries would be no more than at the peak of the early Transformation God stage. They had dispatched Elder Xiu Gang, a late-stage Transformation God powerhouse, to lead the mission, accompanied by no fewer than thirty powerful executives at the Great Perfection stage of the Nascent Soul realm. They had expected an easy victory, a display of absolute dominance to intimidate the Southern Region and, indeed, the entire Fengshen Continent. This aligned perfectly with the ambitions of Vice Mansion Master Xiu Xuantian: to march across the world and bare their fangs once more.

The slap in the face, however, was brutal: the high-spirited Elder Xiu Gang was forcibly crushed to death during the display of might; the twenty Nascent Soul Great Perfection experts accompanying him were wiped out, none left with a body intact; and two other Nascent Soul Great Perfection experts—along with several others of varying ranks—happened to be caught in the path of Helian Tu’s frantic retreat and were dealt with in passing.

Although the ten thousand troops newly deployed to the Southern Region by the Puppet Sect—from the lead Transformation God official down to the lowest Qi Refining disciples—were almost entirely annihilated, the Asura Mansion’s Pyrrhic victory turned them into a laughingstock across the Fengshen Continent. This was something Xiu Binggan and his cohorts could never allow.

Thus, witnessing the culprit, Helian Tu, repeatedly burning his life force without regard for the consequences to gain speed, the four super-powerhouses of the Asura Mansion, currently in the Tribulation Crossing stage, gritted their teeth and forced themselves to burn their own potential, accelerating in desperate pursuit.

Helian Tu was suddenly filled with profound regret. He regretted forcing himself into the limelight when his mission had only been to lead the Dark Division in gathering intelligence. He regretted that, upon reaching the site where Huo Wei had self-destructed, he had chosen to toy with Xiu Gang instead of finishing him off with a single, decisive blow. Finally, he regretted that after killing Xiu Gang, he hadn’t immediately fled, instead wasting a breath to wipe out those grasshopper-like Nascent Soul Great Perfection experts. This delay meant that even as he burned his life force, he was being caught by the Asura Mansion’s elite.

In a race between super-powerhouses at the Tribulation Crossing stage, a delay of even half a breath could lead to a disastrous, irredeemable end. Helian Tu, fleeing with a deathly pale face, looked a hundred years older than he had moments before. The pursuers from the Asura Mansion also looked aged and haggard from burning their potential. Yet, none of them cared. This was no longer just about killing an enemy; it had devolved into a battle for face between the Asura Mansion and the Puppet Sect, watched by the entire world.

...

Meanwhile, Gu Xiaopang, having reunited with the secretly lurking Bai Ling'er, saw the fleeing and pursuing titans tearing across the sky toward the northernmost reaches of the Southern Region. His mind raced. Although the members of the Puppet Sect’s Dark Division he had subdued had not served their original purpose in this battle, Gu Xiaopang decisively pulled out a jade slip and issued a command.

The members of the Puppet Sect’s Dark Division, hidden throughout the Southern Region and watching the bloodbath of their comrades with hearts dripping with agony, suddenly received the order from their demonic young master. Upon reading it, they turned ashen-faced and relayed the command further.

Within the Asura Mansion, where everyone was focused on the pursuit, dozens of Great Perfection Golden Core deacons, acting on the Dark Division’s orders, suddenly rose up in the midst of the unsuspecting disciples.

"Ah..."

Countless disciples of the Asura Mansion, many famous on the Earth Rankings, fell in an instant.

"How dare you! Insolent!"

By the time nearby Nascent Soul experts noticed, arrived, and moved to stop them, over a hundred elite disciples lay dead.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom..."

"Ah..."

Before the attacks of the Nascent Soul experts could reach them, the dozens of Great Perfection Golden Core assassins chose to self-destruct. The sounds of explosions and screams filled the sky, drawing the attention of countless cultivators across the Southern Region.

Gu Xiaopang, who never left empty-handed, gave a word to Bai Ling'er after sending the command, tore through space, and vanished from the Endless Forest. When he reappeared, he was at the site where the Puppet Sect’s Transformation God expert had self-destructed and been crushed. With everyone’s attention fixed on the Tribulation Crossing powerhouses, the cyan-clad figure moved like a gust of wind, vanishing as quickly as he had appeared. When he surfaced again, he was ten thousand miles away.

Gu Xiaopang used spatial travel to visit every battlefield in the Southern Region except for the north. By the time he returned to Bai Ling'er’s side in the Endless Forest, he was grinning from ear to ear. The harvest from his brief excursion was beyond imagination: two interspatial rings left behind by the Transformation God experts, over twenty storage bags from the Nascent Soul Great Perfection experts, and countless spoils picked up or looted from other battlefields. A cursory glance told him that this haul was more than a hundred times greater than his previous looting of the beast dens in the Endless Forest.

What he did not know was that his departure had scared the Supreme Elder Nangong Hongbo, who was hiding his aura to the extreme in the high skies above the forest, half to death. The elder silently cursed, "Little ancestor, at such a critical moment, couldn't you stay put, keep a low profile, and show some consideration for an old man?" Only when Gu Xiaopang’s aura reappeared in the Endless Forest did the elder’s heart, which had been in his throat, finally settle.

...

Back in the northern Southern Region, bordering the Central Region, countless human factions—sects, royal courts, and aristocratic families—were caught in the crossfire. Explosions, screams, and wailing filled the air.

Helian Tu, having burned his potential continuously until his early-stage Tribulation Crossing cultivation showed clear signs of instability, was eventually cornered by the four pursuing Asura Mansion powerhouses. Unlike the battles of lower-level cultivators, the four—led by Mansion Master Xiu Binggan—unleashed their most powerful techniques relentlessly upon the surrounded Helian Tu. Even the resilient void was left with cracks and ripples under their immense power.

Trapped in the center, Helian Tu was a mangled mess. One leg was gone, his chest and back were shredded with exposed bone, and he coughed up blood incessantly. As the gods fought, the shockwaves of their techniques hammered the earth below. Despite the protective arrays of the sects and families, they shattered within moments, leaving countless innocent casualties. This was a debt that would never be collected; none dared to demand an explanation from the enraged, humiliated Asura Mansion.

Seeing several more Transformation God auras approaching, Helian Tu, now devoid of any ability to resist, still frantically sought a breakthrough. After suffering several more devastating blows, his right arm exploded into a mist of blood. His wrinkled eyelids seemed unable to remain open; everything was now driven by instinct.

"How dare you! Stop! Stop at once!"

Several powerful auras streaked across the sky like black dots, accompanied by furious roars. Helian Tu’s blood-stained lips curled into a faint smile; he knew his Sect Master and old friends had arrived.

Alas... it was a breath too late.

Before Helian Tu could savor the relief, the combined lethal attacks of Xiu Binggan and his men struck him once more.

"Haa..."

"Boom!"

With a long, guttural roar, Helian Tu bid a silent farewell to his Sect Master and friends, gathered every remaining ounce of energy into his Dantian, and, at the very moment the fatal blow landed, self-destructed.

"Damn it!"

The self-destruction of a Tribulation Crossing powerhouse was no small matter. Staggered by the blast, Xiu Binggan and his men cursed in fury.

"Old Tu!"

"You deserve to die!"

The Puppet Sect Master, Tai Shi Zheng, and his companions, arriving three breaths too late, wept as they roared in rage, launching a fierce assault on Xiu Binggan’s party, swearing to avenge their friend. Xiu Binggan and his men, already drained, were blasted back over a thousand meters.

"Old Ancestor!"

At Xiu Binggan’s desperate cry, a terrifying aura—the aura of an early-stage Great Completion expert who had been in seclusion for years within the Asura Mansion—erupted, suppressing the entire Southern Region as if the ancestor were about to awaken.

"Retreat! Everyone, retreat!"

Seeing the overwhelming aura of the enemy’s ancestor, Puppet Sect Master Tai Shi Zheng realized the situation was lost. He grabbed Helian Tu’s mangled remains and signaled his men to withdraw instantly.

Xiu Binggan and his panting cohorts, along with the newly arrived Transformation God experts, exhaled deeply as they watched the Puppet Sect masters retreat into the distance. The oppressive aura of the Old Ancestor vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and silence returned to the world—only to be broken seconds later by the wails rising from the northern sky.

Swallowing high-grade pills to recover, Xiu Binggan and his men looked down at the devastation below with a sense of helplessness, then turned and returned to the Asura Mansion. To them, the lives of the low-born were as insignificant as blades of grass. They felt no remorse for the carnage, let alone any inclination to compensate for it.

...

In a single day, over ten thousand casualties, more than thirty Nascent Soul Great Perfection experts dead, two Transformation God experts self-destructed, and one early-stage Tribulation Crossing powerhouse fallen...

A single battle that shook the world!