Shan Hu's silhouette silently vanished from Dragon's Hidden Mountain. His peak Qi Condensation strength, combined with the Immortal Emperor's exquisite command of cosmic laws, made his speed far surpass any mortal's imagination. He streaked across thousands of kilometers like a black bolt of light, heading straight for the frigid Northern Extremes.
His target—the Black Fiend Sect—was one of the most dreaded forces in the Chinese martial world. It leveraged the harsh environment of the icy tundra to cultivate poisonous arts and dark sorcery, acting with brutal malice and routinely causing bloodshed in the mundane world, earning the hatred of all righteous sects.
In the Immortal Emperor's eyes, however, they were nothing more than a cluster of rats huddled in a damp, dark corner.
The extreme northern ice field was perpetually covered in snow and wind. The Black Fiend Sect's headquarters lay hidden within a massive glacier crevice, masked by illusion arrays.
Shan Hu hovered in the air, gazing down indifferently at the world of ice. Before him, all deceptive barriers were useless. He raised his hand, pointing at the center of the glacier rift, and flicked his finger.
"Omm—"
An invisible wave of spiritual energy, like a precise tidal wave, slammed directly into the foundation of the sect's protective array. The array, strong enough to withstand the full strike of a Martial Grandmaster, let out a painful groan under the Immortal Emperor's casual attack.
"Crack! Crack!"
Enormous fissures spread outward at a visible speed, and the protective array collapsed instantly. Countless terrified Black Fiend disciples rushed out of the ice cavern, their faces etched with shock and confusion.
"Who dares violate the sacred grounds of my Black Fiend Sect?!" a thunderous roar bellowed.
The Black Fiend Sect Master, known as "Poison King" Jiang Wuya, flew out. His body was gaunt, his eyes sinister, and he exuded an array of nauseating poisonous gas. He was the most powerful grandmaster the sect had produced in centuries, already halfway to the legendary Xiantian (Innate) Realm.
When his eyes finally landed on the figure hovering in the void, his pupils shrank violently.
"Who are you?!" Jiang Wuya had never seen such a young powerhouse, nor anyone capable of truly floating in mid-air!
Shan Hu's tone was cold and clinical, as if passing judgment on a condemned prisoner: "The Black Fiend Sect cultivates evil arts and poisons the innocent. Today, this Emperor sentences you all to extinction—the sect is destroyed, the Dao legacy is severed."
Before his words faded, Shan Hu moved. He employed no flashy spells, merely taking a single step forward, and the immense pressure bore down like the collapse of the heavens.
Jiang Wuya felt an irresistible force lock onto him, and the operation of his internal True Qi instantly seized up. He roared in panic, rapidly forming hand seals and expelling a cloud of black poison mist—this was his "Ten Thousand Corpses Toxin," refined over ten years, powerful enough to corrode steel.
Yet, the moment the black mist touched the space three feet in front of Shan Hu, it was vaporized completely by an invisible barrier of power.
"Overestimating yourself."
A flicker of disdain crossed Shan Hu's eyes. He clenched his fingers into a claw and squeezed the air!
"Boom!"
Jiang Wuya's body violently jolted in the air, his protective True Qi shattering like paper. He let out a shriek of agony, seized by the invisible force and violently slammed into the glacier below.
"Rumble!"
The glacier fractured, ice shards scattering everywhere. Jiang Wuya was smashed into a deep crater, spitting blood, his bones clearly shattered—gravely wounded.
The elders and disciples of the Black Fiend Sect were utterly petrified by this horrifying display. Their Sect Master couldn't even withstand a single exchange against this opponent!
"Kill! Activate the Ten Thousand Poisons Soul Refining Array! Fight him!" one elder shrieked, desperately attempting to organize a resistance.
Shan Hu had run out of patience for these mortal martial artists. He took an ordinary jade stone from his storage ring and swiftly carved an extremely tiny character, "Slay" (戮), onto it with spiritual energy.
He tossed the stone gently into the air.
"Vanish."
The jade stone, marked with the "Slay" character, instantly magnified a hundredfold, transforming into a massive jade talisman that pulsed with faint golden light. The talisman descended, bringing not fire or ice, but a pure, unadulterated essence of deprivation, targeting the soul and life force itself.
This was a simplified "Soul Annihilation Talisman" from the Immortal Emperor realm.
Under the golden shroud, every disciple, elder, and even the hidden poisonous insects and蛊 (Gu) within the sect, instantly stiffened. The expression on their faces froze into fear and despair.
There were no explosions, no pained screams. When the golden light receded, the entire Black Fiend Sect headquarters was left with hundreds of corpses, frozen in mid-attack, their life force completely extinguished.
Shan Hu retrieved the talisman and used his powerful divine sense to search the entire compound. In the deepest ice cavern, he located the spiritual materials and secret scriptures collected by the Black Fiend Sect over generations, taking all valuable items into his possession.
His mission was a complete success. The destruction of the Black Fiend Sect signified the complete eradication of the northern scourge of the Chinese martial world and marked the perfect culmination of Shan Hu's peak Qi Condensation cultivation.
Shan Hu turned, once again transforming into a black stream of light, and vanished from the extreme northern ice field. Behind him, the glacier was largely destroyed, and the Black Fiend Sect's headquarters was completely reduced to ruins.