"Treacherous dog!"
"Are you even a fucking human?"
"You eat from the Li family's bowl, yet you turn around and smash our pot! You motherfucker!"
The Seven Ironclads had spent many years tempering themselves in the Auric Empire and had already reached the Divinity Transformation realm.
All seven possessed physical bodies that could only be described as monstrous.
Now, in the heat of battle, their features shifted into ferocious forms: one sprouted massive wings from his back, another towered like a giant, and a third was entirely encased in dragon scales.
With trouble brewing back home, and the elders and juniors pinned down in the Western Frontier, they naturally had to step up and fight this massive battle.
It was the perfect opportunity to strike wherever commanded and earn some well-deserved face in front of the younger generation.
Yet they had never expected to sense the sudden disappearance of the old ancestor's aura on a distant battlefield. Nor did they anticipate the Martial Emperor pulling a cowardly stunt like this, prompting their furious barrage of curses.
"Elders, let us kill them all together."
Li Zhiheng furrowed his brow slightly.
As he manipulated the myriad Dharmas within the Sacred Heart Domain of his Void Refining space, his "Heart-Slaying" technique had just begun to take its toll on the two from the Qiu Clan.
He certainly hadn't expected the Martial Emperor to be the first one whose heart faltered instead.
The remaining defenders exchanged a swift glance, nodded in unison, and charged forward with killing intent.
The Seven Ironclads were impossibly fierce and brave.
Having reached the Divinity Transformation realm, the unique benefits of bathing in the blood of the Mad Blood Demon Lord had grown exponentially more potent. How could they possibly fear death?
Li Zhiheng himself possessed the Heavenly Dao Divine Heart.
Back then, the Zhao Clan's old ancestor had been a similar kind of monster—one whose heart would not extinguish, and whose physical body and Spirit Soul refused to perish—though he simply hadn't been as overwhelmingly powerful as the Seven Ironclads.
"High Ancestress, use your Red Spider Lily arts to cover us from the outside! The clan elders and I will lock them down in close combat!"
As Li Zhiheng's voice echoed, the eight of them charged out without a second's hesitation.
In an instant, a storm of Red Spider Lilies filled the sky.
The Seven Ironclads pushed the vanguard, charging forth one after another.
Battered by overpowering Void Refining Spiritual power, their bodies were repeatedly blasted into a bloody mist, yet they relentlessly reformed and charged again.
Li Zhiheng fared slightly better. Already at the Void Refining realm, whenever his body was torn to shreds, his Heavenly Dao Divine Heart would issue a resonant thump, and he would instantaneously recover.
"Bastards! There has to be a way to deal with these eight. Xunfa, combine your ice arts with mine to seal them away!"
Qiu Naihe barked harshly.
They had been deadlocked for what felt like an eternity, but what truly chilled him to the bone were these eight unkillable freaks.
Even the Mad Blood Demon Lord—currently clashing with Qiu Xundao—was an equally undying monster.
If not for this, he wouldn't have needed to rope in the Martial Emperor.
Seeing the Martial Emperor genuinely take their side and shatter the giant among the Li Clan's Seven Ironclads with a single punch, the mounting dread in his eyes finally dissipated by a fraction.
"Thank you, Your Excellency," he said in a deep, grateful tone. "Once the Li Clan is annihilated, the Grand Tutor and we will ensure you are handsomely rewarded!"
Seeing the Martial Emperor genuinely take their side and shatter the giant among the Li Clan's Seven Ironclads with a single punch, the mounting dread in his eyes finally dissipated by a fraction.
"Thank you, Your Excellency," he said in a deep, grateful tone. "Once the Li Clan is annihilated, the Grand Tutor and I will ensure you are handsomely rewarded!"
In the next heartbeat, the scene within the Void Refining space shifted into something utterly bizarre.
Above the sprawling sea of Red Spider Lilies, a furious blizzard raged; wherever the icy blooms landed, indiscriminate slaughter followed.
Qiu Xunfa, a cultivator of the Dao of Shadows, continuously shifted his form, seamlessly swapping places wherever shadows fell.
Boom! Boom! Dharma Treasures clashed relentlessly, echoing like thunder.
Fairy Hongxiu's crimson sleeves swept outward, carrying a torrent of Red Spider Lilies toward the two Qiu Clan members and the Martial Emperor, only to be violently repelled by their surging Spiritual power.
Ultimately, her cultivation base was just a fraction too weak.
Yet, amidst this maelstrom of Spiritual power, the eight members of the Li Clan put on an absolute visual feast of immortality.
Blasted to pieces, only to be instantly reborn, they relentlessly charged and unleashed their techniques without pause.
The Seven Ironclads channeled the seven great pillars of the Shaman Tribe, powers formed by fusing totems the clan had seized from decades of bloody war against the shamans.
Even in the fleeting moments of their "deaths," their bodies automatically unleashed devastating Shamanic arts.
Surges of undying demonic qi cascaded outward, carrying vile, invasive Spiritual properties: pollution, corrosion, and virulent poison.
If tainted by even a drop of their blood, a Void Refining cultivator would suffer.
But Li Zhiheng was exponentially more troublesome.
His Heavenly Dao Divine Heart flawlessly deduced the myriad Dharmas, allowing him to weave complex techniques at his mere fingertips.
He battled Qiu Xunfa—who could strike at any moment from the shadows cast by the sky full of ice flowers—with an entirely expressionless face.
Even when half his torso was blown away, his remaining half casually continued weaving hand seals.
Suddenly, the Martial Emperor's phantom flickered into view and obliterated Li Yundou with a single punch, sending his scale-covered head sailing high into the clouds.
Li Yundou's disembodied head cursed loudly, "You stinky old man, are you actually hitting us?!"
In the blink of an eye, the splattered flesh and blood sprouted writhing tendrils, aggressively snapping back together to perfectly restore his body.
Frustrated, Li Yundou glared at the Martial Emperor's highly punchable face and threw a retaliatory hook.
A second later, confusion washed over his face as he stared at his own fist, and then at the Martial Emperor, who was suddenly rocketing backward.
"Huh? Is my punch really that overpowered? I just sent a peak Void Refining expert flying!"
Little did he know, the Martial Emperor's dramatic backward flight was an intentional maneuver to track a retreating shadow hiding beneath a falling ice flower.
That slippery shadow was desperately trying to attach itself to another reflection.
"Found you."
The myriad phantoms of martial arts, fully refined into Dharma, rapidly condensed.
Across the Void Refining space, these projections surged over the frozen ice and the blooming sea of Red Spider Lilies.
A trace of old cunning flashed across the Martial Emperor's wrinkled face; he had already locked onto the panicked Spirit Soul of Qiu Xunfa lurking within that shadow.
The martial Dharma phantoms overlapped layer upon layer, forming a massive, inescapable hollow pillar. It completely encircled the shadow, forcing Qiu Xunfa to dart around in a blind panic like a tiny fish trapped in a water bottle.
As the phantoms executed their martial forms, an overwhelming density of martial Spiritual power condensed into a singularity.
"Old Ancestor, save me!!!"
Qiu Xunfa shrieked in absolute terror.