Zhi Xuan did not wait for an answer. He streaked away like a shadow cleaving the dawn, leaving the scent of ice lingering in the plaza air. His departure was so sudden it created a suffocating void, leaving Yang Jin standing frozen, his face flushed with suppressed fury, while the other practitioners could only stare at one another with bated breath.

  "Young Master... please reconsider," whispered Yang Jin’s elderly guard, his voice trembling violently. "The cold aura he released just now... it wasn't mere spiritual essence. It was killing intent that has crystallized. The Eternal Sun Mirror is indeed grand, but is it worth pitting an ancestral relic against a Devil who doesn't even blink when challenging five Crimson Lotuses?"

  Yang Jin clenched his jaw stiffly, his eyes fixed on the point where Zhi Xuan had vanished. "Silence! You think me a coward? If he is truly capable of slaughtering five Crimson Lotuses, he will be at his weakest after the battle. That is when the sun shall judge his darkness!"

  At another corner of the plaza, a cultivator clad in black robes stood with his arms crossed, his eyes narrowing inquisitively. "What a fool Yang Jin is. Trying to lure a hungry tiger with his little torch. But that Southern Devil’s words... 'harvesting fertilizer'? He truly doesn't view the Crimson Lotus as a threat."

  "Perhaps he's just bluffing, Senior Brother Chu," replied a female disciple from the same sect. "The West Swamp Forest possesses toxins capable of melting a Divine Soul. Even if he is strong, without an antidote from the Sacred Pavilion, he will rot there."

  The black-robed cultivator shook his head slowly. "Look at his footsteps from before. He wasn't stepping on marble; he was dictating the space beneath his feet. Gu Fengyan... you truly wish to tear the veil of peace in this Western Region, don't you?"

  Meanwhile, in a high pavilion hidden behind eternal mist, two female figures stood gazing into the distance. One was the Eternal Snow Fairy, while beside her, a woman in a sky-blue veil radiating the scent of peach blossoms and morning dew stood rigidly.

  "You felt it, didn't you, Junior Sister Xishui?" the Eternal Snow Fairy asked softly. "The vibration of that cloth-wrapped sword... he has just left for the West Swamp Forest."

  Ye Xishui, the Morning Dew Fairy, did not answer with words. However, her slender fingers gripped the hem of her robe until they turned pale. Her eyes, usually as clear as a lake, were now turbulent, reflecting a massive internal storm.

  "The Law of the Four Seasons..." Ye Xishui whispered, her voice barely audible, as faint as the rustling wind. "He has brought it this far. Senior Sister, why did you let him take that deadly mission? You know the density of that swamp is a prison for those without a protector of light."

  The Eternal Snow Fairy sighed, looking at her sister with pity. "He chose his path, Xishui. You cannot continue to provide understanding for someone who calls himself a Devil."

  Ye Xishui closed her eyes, letting a single crystalline tear fall; it evaporated into pure energy before it could touch her cheek or the ground. "He didn't come to prove anything, Sister. He came to reclaim what should be his... or to destroy anything that tries to stop him."

  Zhi Xuan now stood at the outskirts of the Holy City, facing a vast expanse of forest shrouded in a pulsing, thick green mist—the West Swamp Forest. The damp, putrid air and the smell of sulfur greeted his senses, attempting to seep into his pores.

  "This swamp... has a strange heartbeat," Ruo Xianxue spoke, her tone now full of vigilance. "Be careful, Zhi Xuan. I feel thousands of eyes that do not blink beneath the surface of that mud. And they... they are waiting for fresh blood."

  Zhi Xuan re-tied the white cloth on the hilt of the Heavenly Sword, ensuring his grip was firm. "Let them stare," he replied coldly. "I didn't come to feed them; I came to collect a debt from nature."

  Zhi Xuan's first step into the swamp immediately caused the black ripples of water beneath him to freeze. An unnatural silence took hold, as if the entire forest were holding its breath to welcome the predator from the South. In the distance, hoarse roars from high-level beasts began to echo, signaling that the Crimson Lotuses had sensed the uninvited guest.

  "Five soul cores," Zhi Xuan murmured as he streaked into the green darkness. "My time is limited before the seventh bell tolls."

  "Well, the Crimson Lotus is no match for you anyway, I must admit," Ruo Xianxue replied from within his mind, letting out a soft laugh. "Don't attack them too harshly; just sever their necks with your blade. Even if you didn't use the Heavenly Sword, you could crush them with your physical form, strengthened by these thousands of Slaughter Seals."

  Zhi Xuan did not respond to her flattery. He glided over the ink-black swamp water, his feet creating only fine ice ripples whenever they touched the foul liquid. Giant mangrove trees with roots twisting like the bones of an old dragon surrounded his vision, while green poisonous mist thickened, trying to erode his mental essence defenses.

  "One to the northwest, three hundred paces from here," Zhi Xuan hissed.

  His keen sense of smell caught a sharp, fishy odor and a vibration of hot energy amidst the cold of the swamp. It was a Swamp Fire-Ink Lizard, one of the five Crimson Lotus-rank creatures inhabiting this area. The creature was not hiding; instead, it was flaunting its power, burning the surrounding vegetation until the swamp water boiled.

  GROAAAARRR!

  A giant tongue of flame lashed out from behind a thicket of poisonous ferns. Zhi Xuan did not dodge. He simply raised his left hand, letting that jet-black limb form a shield that instantly split the flame as easily as if Zhi Xuan’s body could no longer be burned by a mere beast's fire.

  From the mud emerged a giant lizard, ten paces long, with scales glowing like the embers of hell. Its steady yellow eyes stared at Zhi Xuan with primal hatred. Before the creature could exhale its second breath of fire, Zhi Xuan was already above its head.

  "Too slow," Zhi Xuan said coldly. He did not draw the Heavenly Sword. His black left hand clenched into a fist, concentrating the physical power forged by thousands of Slaughter Seals. The blow fell like the strike of a god’s hammer from the heavens.

  BOOM!

  The lizard’s hard skull cracked instantly. The shockwave from the punch pressed the massive body five meters deep into the mud, creating a crater of churning black water. The glow of the Tree of Life and the Divine Wheel supporting the creature began to wither and dim.

  Zhi Xuan landed lightly on the back of the twitching creature, and with a flick of a finger infused with sword energy, he tore open the beast's chest and pulled out a glowing sphere—the soul core that housed the soul seed of every Crimson Lotus.

  "A Soul Seed," Zhi Xuan muttered as he floated the soul core before him. "Useful for someone in the Five Elements realm to break through to the Soul Transformation stage. Interesting."

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  He looked down at the lizard's body beneath his feet. "The meat of a Crimson Lotus beast... it must be quite delicious."

  Zhi Xuan flicked his left hand, shedding the remnants of the fishy blood clinging to his black skin. He glanced at the Fire-Ink Lizard’s corpse, which was beginning to cool beneath his feet. With a wave of his sleeve, he stored the giant carcass into his storage bag. To ordinary practitioners, Crimson Lotus meat was a medical treasure, but to Zhi Xuan, it was merely provisions for his stomach between hunts.

  "Ao Sheng, Xiao Die," Zhi Xuan murmured with a thin smile, glancing toward the depths of the forest. "We shall eat this delicious beast meat later."

  Zhi Xuan did not let the silence of the swamp consume him for long. With a stomp of his foot, he took off again, cleaving through the poisonous mist that now seemed hesitant to approach the cold air radiating from his body. Within his mind, the Heavenly Wheel of Samsara spun slowly, and the Divine Eye on his right mapped every energy fluctuation scattered throughout this cursed territory.

  "Two more auras merging to the east, about five miles from here," Ruo Xianxue provided guidance with an increasingly excited tone. "It seems they are fighting over territory, or perhaps... they sense a predator higher than you."

  Zhi Xuan narrowed his sapphire eyes. "Two at once. That will save time before the second bell tolls."

  He moved like purple lightning crawling over the water. The deeper he entered the West Swamp Forest, the stranger the vegetation became. The giant trees here no longer had leaves, but fine tentacles that tried to snatch the essence of life from the air. However, every time a tentacle tried to touch Zhi Xuan's black-and-white robe, it instantly froze into ice shards and shattered into pieces.

  Zhi Xuan pierced through a curtain of thickening mist where the air contained not just poison, but a heavy pressure from the collision of two spiritual essences swallowing each other. In a mud lake thousands of paces wide, two giant silhouettes were fighting fiercely: a Thousand-Mountain Dragon Snake, its body coiled like green mountain ranges, and a Three-Headed Earth Ape with fur as hard as celestial metal.

  Both were Crimson Lotus-rank sovereigns that had lived for thousands of years, yet in Zhi Xuan’s eyes, their dance of death was merely an obstacle to be swiftly removed.

  "Two wretched beasts fighting for territory, unaware that death stands behind them," Ruo Xianxue chuckled, the echo of her laughter clashing with the sound of cracking trees around the lake.

  Zhi Xuan wasted no words. He hovered in the air, his robes fluttering in a wind that carried the stench of the swamp. His right hand moved behind him, gripping the hilt of the Heavenly Sword, still wrapped in white cloth. Even though the cloth tightly bound the blade, the deathly aura leaking from the fibers was enough to make the air around the mud lake freeze instantly.

  Zhi Xuan took a deep breath, letting the energy from the Heavenly Wheel of Samsara flow into his right arm. He did not intend to fully unwrap the cloth; to him, these two beasts were not yet worthy of witnessing the pure flash of the Heavenly Sword that had drunk the blood of thousands of practitioners. However, the weight of the relic was enough to act as a terrifying crushing mace.

  WHUMP! WHUSH!

  With a burst that cracked the ground beneath him, Zhi Xuan streaked toward the two beasts, giving them no time to react or even manifest a defensive technique. With speed uncatchable by mortal eyes, Zhi Xuan moved from different directions in the air before reappearing behind the two beasts above the mud lake.

  WHUSH! ZZRTTT! ZZRTTT!

  Zhi Xuan let out a soft sigh; he rose and stood straight without letting the mud soil his robes. Behind him, the eyes of both beasts widened. Before they knew it, cracks on their bodies began to widen and bleed; soon, sharp roars erupted as red flashes, like lightning without thunder, cleaved their bodies with lines coming from every direction.

  The two giants didn't even have time to let out a final roar. The body of the Thousand-Mountain Dragon Snake, which had been coiled firmly, was now shredded into dozens of large chunks of meat that hit the mud with sickening, wet thuds.

  Beside it, the Three-Headed Earth Ape, which possessed skin as hard as celestial metal, appeared like a cracked statue; its three heads detached simultaneously, spraying thick red blood that froze into crystals before hitting the black water surface.

  Zhi Xuan stood with his back to the destruction, his fingers moving gracefully to pull back two glowing orbs floating amidst the puddles of blood. Two more Crimson Lotus soul cores were now in his grasp.

  "Man-Sword Unity," Zhi Xuan murmured, letting out a sigh of disappointment. "I thought they would survive this sword art. But look—their meat is mixed with mud."

  Zhi Xuan took a long breath; a puff of cold vapor escaped his lips, freezing in the damp swamp air. He looked at the heaps of meat mixed with putrid black mud with a flat gaze. To him, this destruction was a waste; the meat that should have been a delicious meal was now tainted by the poisonous swamp essence due to his overly wild slashes.

  "A pity," Ruo Xianxue spoke, her tone almost like a click of the tongue. "Your sword art is getting sharper, Zhi Xuan. You no longer just cut the physical form; you have sliced them before they even realized it. But look, you've destroyed your own food. Didn't you promise that little dragon and little moth?"

  Zhi Xuan did not answer; he simply moved his sleeve, creating a gust of cold wind that swept away the remnants of sword essence still dancing in the air. "Two more to go," he said flatly, his sapphire eyes turning to stare deep into the swamp where the green mist was beginning to turn purple—a sign of a deadlier territory.

  He stored the two newly acquired soul cores into his storage bag and streaked away again, cleaving through the mangrove thickets that now seemed to tremble as if possessed by a terrified soul. The air around him grew heavier; the purple mist he had seen earlier now enveloped everything, carrying the smell of rusted metal—a sign that he had entered the Heart of the Swamp.

  "Hmm, could there be more than five Crimson Lotus beasts here?" Zhi Xuan murmured, still feeling intrigued by the West Swamp Forest, known as a nest for high-level beasts. "If that’s true, then the more soul cores I get, the more Heavenly Jade I obtain."

  Zhi Xuan stopped on a petrified tree branch. His sapphire eyes swept the expanse of purple mist creeping beneath his feet like venomous snakes. The swamp water was no longer still; it churned, forming small whirlpools that radiated a dense aura of death.

  "Of course there are more than five, Zhi Xuan," Ruo Xianxue replied, her voice now carrying a hint of bloodlust she could hardly hide. "This forest has consumed thousands of practitioners. The five Crimson Lotuses requested by the Sacred Pavilion are merely gatekeepers."

  "Then I shall bring back cores beyond their request," Zhi Xuan countered with a cold smile. He reached for the Heavenly Sword and brushed its blade; with a fluid swing, he sent out a slash of reddish lightning that cleaved the swamp, splitting the water for a moment and causing it to spray upward.

  WHUMP!

  Zhi Xuan leaped into the air, standing in the sky and looking down, seeing the mark of his slash forming a water jump two zhang high. From the depths of the swamp, split by the reddish lightning, a roar that sounded more like the moan of the earth shook the atmosphere.

  The water that sprayed two zhang high did not fall back as droplets; instead, it froze in mid-air, forming ice pillars that trapped the purple mist within. Zhi Xuan stood tall in the sky, his black-and-white robes fluttering like a banner of death.

  His sapphire eyes caught massive movement at the bottom of the swamp he had just torn open. The ground beneath vibrated, and slowly, a giant back covered in ancient moss and purple crystals began to rise to the surface.

  "The Sky-Crust Turtle..." Ruo Xianxue hissed, her voice now completely serious. "This is no ordinary Crimson Lotus. It has touched the boundary of a higher realm. Look at the crystals on its back; that is the collection of swamp poison essence from ten thousand years."

  The creature rose fully, its size like that of a small hill. Every time its webbed feet hit the mud, a shockwave of earth essence traveled and toppled the surrounding trees. Not just one—behind the giant creature, two slender shadows streaked from behind the purple mist: Purple Shadow Spiders, having eight pairs of eyes glowing with malice.

  "Three at once," Zhi Xuan murmured. He showed no sign of fear; instead, the aura from the Heavenly Wheel of Samsara within him spun faster. "Finally, worthy opponents for the Eternal Star."

  Zhi Xuan did not withdraw his sword essence; rather, he let it overflow like a flood breaking a dam. The sapphire light from his eyes merged with the glow from the mark on his forehead, creating a mental pressure so heavy that the poisonous mist around him was forced aside, forming an empty dome in the middle of the swamp chaos.

  "This Gu is in a hurry," Zhi Xuan said, his cold voice traveling over the churning water surface. "If you hand over those soul cores now, I will let your remains stay whole to merge with this earth."

  GROOOOOM—!

  The Sky-Crust Turtle answered with a roar that shook the very foundations of the earth. The purple crystals on its back glowed brightly, then fired dozens of poisonous light-needles capable of piercing the essence shield of a Soul Transformation practitioner. Simultaneously, the two Purple Shadow Spiders lunged from the left and right, their legs as sharp as celestial daggers, aiming for points on Zhi Xuan's neck and chest.