The pure killing intent, unbound by cruelty or anger but rooted in the cold certainty of a Hermit treading his Dao, finally began to manifest itself after days of being submerged in the swing of the blade.

  Whum!

  As the Heavenly Sword cleaved through dozens of Blood Corpses simultaneously, the Killing Intent gathered and tempered in boundless ruthlessness finally resonated with the Heavenly-Blood Body Law. The pillar pattern on Zhi Xuan's forehead lit up with a terrifying dark red light, and an incredibly subtle vortex of blood appeared in his Sea of Consciousness.

  The Sixty-Second Slaughter Seal. The seal formed, solid and vibrating, forged from blood and pure Killing Intent. The blood of the cultivators absorbed earlier served as the foundation, while the blood of the Blood Corpses absorbed by him formed the Seal. Meanwhile, the sea of blood beneath his feet became the spark for his ruthlessness.

  Zhi Xuan withdrew his Heavenly Sword, stopping in the midst of the blood and debris. He felt the new Slaughter Seal, a seal formed from meaningless killing, a seal demanding endless cruelty. He had found the way. The Blood Corpses, eternal in their cursed cycle, were the perfect mine for Slaughter Seals.

  As long as they rose, his Killing Intent could be tempered, and the Heavenly-Blood Body Law would carve new seals. Zhi Xuan exhaled. He looked at the Blood Corpses now crawling faster, more wildly, drawn to the energy of the newly formed Slaughter Seal. His cold, expressionless face now carried a hint of hidden satisfaction.

  Zhi Xuan found a difference; he felt how the Slaughter Seal formed with pure Killing Intent was denser compared to when he used to slaughter bandits and absorb them. Pure Killing Intent triggered his body to continuously seek blood without needing a reason to kill.

  "This seal is stronger than the blood of bandits," Zhi Xuan murmured, snorting coldly. "It feels very alive and familiar."

  The sensation of the newly formed Seal felt like oil poured onto the fires of hell within him. The Heavenly-Blood Body Law now operated with a more savage efficiency. The pillar pattern on his forehead, the manifestation of the Slaughter Seals, emitted a resonance demanding more moral void and cruelty.

  He stepped forward again, ignoring the hoarse screams of the Blood Corpses that had risen and surrounded him. The thick, acidic blood mist in the valley now felt like fresh air to his senses. The tattered Ghost Veil at his waist was no longer needed; this entire valley was the perfect curtain of cruelty.

  Whum! Whum! Whum!

  The Heavenly Sword danced. It was no longer a controlled dance, but a vortex of cold destruction. Zhi Xuan no longer channeled Spiritual Essence—he relied solely on the sharpness of the Immortal Artifact and his physical strength, which felt like a living weapon.

  His body moved nimbly, avoiding the grasp of blood-red nails and broken bone blades. Every slash was a precise annihilation, splitting, decapitating, and destroying the cores of the Blood Corpses.

  Zzrtt! Zzrtt!

  Dozens of Blood Corpses were split into blood mud. The mud spread over the debris, absorbed by the greedy black moss, and within seconds, the split figures began to vibrate, pulling the blood mud and reuniting themselves. This cycle was a blessing for him.

  Zhi Xuan ignored their resurrection. He only swung the Heavenly Sword, moving from one point to another, annihilating those who rose. He did not focus on the quantity of kills, but on the unbroken tempering of Killing Intent.

  Every time he killed, the Killing Intent solidified. The resurrected Blood Corpses were the perfect challenge; they had no fear, no emotion, and there was no point in saving them. Killing required no reason; it was just something to end everything for no reason at all.

  Time passed without meaning in the ruins of the Heavenly Light Sect. For Zhi Xuan, day and night were only faint changes in the intensity of the blood mist surrounding him. He had become part of that cursed cycle—a butcher who did not kill to break the chain, but to weave it stronger.

  In the following six days, the hundredth to the two-hundredth Slaughter Seals were formed in succession. Each Seal was denser, stronger, and more demanding than the last. His Heavenly-Blood Body Law now pulsed with a threatening frequency. The pure Killing Intent had seeped into his very marrow.

  "This feeling," Zhi Xuan hissed while continuing to swing his sword, sinking deeper into the tempering of Killing Intent. "This blood feels increasingly heavy."

  At the bottom of his Sea of Consciousness, the Demonic Seed continued to suck the blood produced by Zhi Xuan's massacre. The Demonic Seed, which previously only absorbed silently, now absorbed the form of Zhi Xuan's slaughter without hesitation, causing the red ring in Zhi Xuan's sapphire blue pupils to thicken again and plunging him into the refinement of the Heavenly-Blood Body Law.

  The pillar pattern on his forehead now pulsed in sync with his slowing heartbeat, creating a terrifying rhythm of annihilation. Every time the steel of the Heavenly Sword tore through the stiff flesh of a Blood Corpse, the Killing Intent no longer merely flowed but exploded like a tidal wave crashing against rocks.

  Zhi Xuan streaked through the ruins, his shadow seemingly merging with the increasingly dense blood mist. He no longer cared about his physical fatigue. In the void of his mind, only one command echoed: slash. One horizontal slash split five Blood Corpses before him, and before their foul blood touched the ground, his Killing Intent had ensnared their essence, engraving it into the two hundred and tenth Slaughter Seal.

  "More... I need more emptiness," he murmured, his voice sounding foreign to his own ears, more like the hiss of wind in a burial ground.

  Ruo Xianxue, from a branch of the Demonic Tree of Life, watched with double eyes glowing with adoration. She saw how the Demonic Seed at the base of Zhi Xuan's soul began to bloom, strands of darkness starting to twine around the youth's cultivation foundation.

  "Keep slashing, my little Devil," Ruo Xianxue whispered, her laughter crawling softly between the clanging of the sword. "Let the mortal world forget your name, and let the Heavens tremble seeing what you are forging in this hell."

  Zhi Xuan did not hear the whisper, or perhaps he chose to ignore it. His world was now limited to the reach of his sword blade. The Blood Corpses that continued to rise were no longer a threat, but pieces forming his new destiny. Every time they reunited from the blood mud, Zhi Xuan welcomed them with an ever-burning sharpness.

  On the tenth day, the Slaughter Seals, which had now reached three hundred, radiated from his forehead like a constellation of darkness. The red rings in his pupils were now so thick they almost swallowed the remaining sapphire blue color. Zhi Xuan's Killing Intent had reached a terrifying level, capable of making the space around him vibrate faintly as he moved.

  "Three hundred Seals... in only half a month," Ruo Xianxue murmured, her voice a mix of awe and ecstasy regarding Zhi Xuan's achievement. "Do not lose your mind; Killing Intent is not meant to make you go insane."

  Ruo Xianxue flicked her slender fingers; her nine tails moved and extended toward Zhi Xuan's Sea of Consciousness, crawling directly toward the dark seed that was the Demonic Seed, severing the lines of absorption the seed used to take blood from Zhi Xuan's massacre.

  "Enough, dark purple hair," Ruo Xianxue hissed, a low laugh echoing in the Sea of Consciousness. "You are full enough; it is not yet time for you to act as you please."

  "Auntie Fox," Ao Sheng murmured, a bit startled and with eyes wide upon seeing that. "That... what is that?"

  Xiao Die, who was sitting and fluttering her wings near the Demonic Tree of Life, turned to Ao Sheng. "Big Brother Golden Dragon, that is Senior Zhi Xuan's second soul seed. It originated from a Great Saint who spat out that demonic seed upon Senior Zhi Xuan's agreement in the past."

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  "You are right, little moth," Ruo Xianxue replied calmly, turning to look at Ao Sheng. "Little dragon, you are no longer trembling upon seeing me?"

  Ao Sheng fell silent for a moment, straightening his body near the Tree of Life, trying to withstand the pressure of Ruo Xianxue's aura which still felt suffocating despite her spiritual form. His golden eyes stared straight at the nine tails entwining the Demonic Seed with a suppressed sense of horror.

  "I am a descendant of the Ancient Golden Dragon," Ao Sheng stated, his voice trembling slightly but full of pride. "But, if Auntie Fox is someone who has been with Senior Zhi Xuan for a long time, then Auntie Fox is Senior Zhi Xuan's Master, is she not?"

  Ruo Xianxue burst into laughter, a sound that resembled soft thunder rolling over a sea of blood. She withdrew her tails, releasing the grip on the Demonic Seed which had now calmed and dimmed.

  "Master?" Ruo Xianxue floated down, landing before Ao Sheng with the elegance of a dark empress. "I am the witness to his beginning and his destruction, the observer of his madness, and the shackle that ensures he does not fall too deep before the time arrives. If you call that a master, then I am the mirror that shows how terrible the Path he has chosen truly is."

  Ao Sheng gasped and his entire body shivered; he was about to step back to distance himself from Ruo Xianxue, but three fox tails shot toward him and bound him firmly. Ao Sheng clenched his jaw, reaching out and holding onto the Divine Furnace floating nearby.

  "Interesting," Ruo Xianxue hissed as she brought her enchanting yet deadly face closer to Ao Sheng. "You are so afraid, yet your hands grip the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron tightly. Are you trying to borrow the majesty of the soul artifact to withstand my presence? Pitiful, yet commendable for a little golden worm."

  "I-I am not a worm!" Ao Sheng protested in a high-pitched voice, almost resembling a frightened bird's chirp rather than a dragon's roar. "I am a Golden Dragon! A symbol of nobility! You... you are a very rude Auntie Fox!"

  Witnessing the scene, Xiao Die covered her small mouth with her hands, trying to suppress an explosion of laughter. Her transparent wings vibrated violently. "Hihihi... Big Brother Golden Dragon looks like he is being hugged tightly by a fierce furry blanket," she chirped innocently, making Ao Sheng's face turn even redder with embarrassment.

  "Xiao Die! Help me, don't just laugh!" Ao Sheng cried out in panic, while Ruo Xianxue's tails began to tickle his belly, a blatant insult to the dignity of dragon-kind.

  Ruo Xianxue snorted in amusement, her double eyes glinting with mischief before she released her grip with a small jerk that sent Ao Sheng falling onto his backside at the base of the Sea of Consciousness with a thud not easily forgotten.

  Zhi Xuan stopped moving abruptly. The Heavenly Sword was stabbed deep into the shattered jade debris. He stood tall amidst thousands of crawling Blood Corpses, but this time, the creatures did not dare approach within a five-fathom radius. The aura radiating from Zhi Xuan's body was no longer just bloodlust, but a pressure capable of freezing the air circulation.

  The pillar pattern on his forehead no longer just pulsed red but began to emit thin black steam—the remains of the Demonic Seed's energy previously suppressed by Ruo Xianxue. The three hundred Slaughter Seals rotated slowly within his Sea of Consciousness, forming a circular formation that looked like a gateway to the void.

  He grabbed the collar of his robe and pulled it aside for a moment to see the pattern of Seals on his chest. "The seals are getting denser," his hiss was cold, staring at the weave of seals on his chest which now looked like a dark-colored spider web.

  Zhi Xuan took a deep breath. Every oxygen molecule entering his lungs now carried a thick scent of metal and death. He slowly raised his hand, staring at his own palm which appeared paler, almost transparent under the moonlight covered by red mist.

  "So this is... the weight of three hundred rejected lives," Zhi Xuan murmured. His voice was no longer his own; an ancient echo vibrated behind every word spoken.

  The clink of the Heavenly Sword's steel hitting the stiff bones of a Blood Corpse created a terrifying rhythm in the silence of the Heavenly Light Sect ruins. Every movement Zhi Xuan made now had no trace of mortal doubt; he was a machine of destruction moving on the impulse of crystallized Killing Intent.

  Whuush!

  Zhi Xuan spun his body, a wide horizontal slash cutting through the blood mist, sending a shockwave that collapsed the remaining jade walls around him. Thirty Blood Corpses that had just risen again had their bodies torn apart into fragments of rotting flesh and bone. However, not for a second did Zhi Xuan give his breath room to rest. Before the dust from the ruins fell, he had already lunged toward another crowd of cursed beings.

  The Heavenly-Blood Body Law within him roared with delight. Three hundred and ten, three hundred and twenty... new Slaughter Seals were engraved on his spine, radiating a heat that burned his suppressed spiritual essence. The pressure from the anti-spiritual field in this valley became the perfect forging hammer, forcing every muscle fiber and his will to transcend the limits of humanity.

  "This Killing Intent... is no longer just a sword," Zhi Xuan whispered in his heart, his voice echoing in the void of his emotions. "It is my very breath."

  He felt how every drop of blood spilled from the Blood Corpses seemed to whisper to him, telling of thousands of years of suffering trapped in a wrong cycle of immortality. However, Zhi Xuan no longer had any sympathy.

  To him, these Blood Corpses were merely whetstones for his Dao. If the Heavens cursed this place with an eternal cycle of life and death, then Zhi Xuan would use that eternity to forge an unparalleled destruction.

  "Killing to end," Zhi Xuan murmured as the three hundred and eightieth seal formed. "Killing without hesitation, there is only the intent to end."

  He rotated his wrist, feeling the weight of the Heavenly Sword which now seemed to merge with his own bloodstream. Around him, the earth shook. The Blood Corpses that were previously crawling began to emit low growls, a resonance of thousands of years of suffering now triggered by the presence of Zhi Xuan's Killing Intent.

  Without warning, hundreds of Blood Corpses lunged simultaneously. They formed a wave of rotting flesh and thick red bone, swallowing the dim light at the bottom of the abyss. However, Zhi Xuan no longer moved with measured agility. He became a storm.

  Whum! Whum! Whum!

  Every swing of his sword was no longer a mere slash but a burst of energy from crystallized Killing Intent. He used no lightning, yet the air around his sword blade broke from pure pressure. Those stiff bodies exploded before they could even touch his robe.

  Maroon blood spurted in all directions, yet strangely, not a single drop stained Zhi Xuan's face; the blood seemed to submit to the gravity created by the pillar pattern on his forehead. The four hundredth Seal. The completion of this seal brought a great shock to his Sea of Consciousness.

  The red vortex in his soul now spun at a speed that could swallow stars. Zhi Xuan felt an alien sensation—as if his skin was no longer the boundary of his body, but the entire atmosphere in these ruins was part of his senses. He could feel every vibration of a Blood Corpse's step, every ripple in the blood mist, even every cursed whisper from the souls trapped at the base of the sect's foundation.

  "This world... is so fragile," Zhi Xuan hissed, staring flatly at the sea of blood surrounding him. "Why does reincarnation never come... Living like a bloody river of time."

  Zhi Xuan stood frozen in the middle of the rippling red puddle, his eyes which now possessed thick red rings stared into the distance, piercing the blood mist that was beginning to cool. Around him, dozens of blood corpses rose again and crawled toward him, and Zhi Xuan merely raised the Heavenly Sword and slashed them.

  "Satiety, what is the meaning of Slaughter," Zhi Xuan hissed coldly, the Heavenly Sword in his hand radiating a faint aura of blood lightning. "Killing to step forward, seeing the sun shine upon a King."

  He felt the weight of the four hundred Slaughter Seals now imprinted throughout his body. The energy produced was no longer just bloodlust, but an authority over death itself. Every time he exhaled, the red mist around him was sucked into his skin, purified by the Killing Intent that had now reached a point of saturation.

  "Slaughter requires neither a beginning nor an end to its cause," a heavy and authoritative voice echoed in the air, yet it did not originate from his Sea of Consciousness. It was like the sound of a waterfall rubbing against a distant cliff.

  Zhi Xuan turned his neck stiffly, a movement more like a wooden puppet than a living human. On the edge of the high abyss stood a shadow shrouded in dim moonlight. The figure radiated no aura, yet its presence made the entire ruins of the Heavenly Light Sect seem to hold its breath.

  Zhi Xuan did not answer. He only raised the Heavenly Sword, its tip pointing to the ground, dripping with remnants of maroon blood that refused to dry. His empty mind tried to process the foreign presence, but his Killing Intent screamed to attack, to swallow anyone who dared disturb the silence of this giant tombstone.

  "A youth with Five Element cultivation," the figure atop the abyss stepped down, not jumping but walking in the air as if there were a transparent staircase supporting him. "Surviving the Blood Corpses for half a month, as if a leaf stepping over the Heavens only with its conviction to float."

  The figure finally set foot on the blood-stained jade debris. He was a man in clean white robes that looked contrasting amidst the rot of these ruins. His face was calm, with a neat thin beard, radiating the aura of a great scholar rather than a slaughtering cultivator.

  However, in Zhi Xuan's eyes, this man was a mountain whose peak was invisible—an entity that had surpassed mortal limits and perhaps touched the boundaries of the Heavens. On the other hand, he felt a familiar aura from this old man, as if he had met him before in a distant time.

  "Who?" Zhi Xuan's voice came out more like the growl of a wounded beast, hoarse and full of the friction of killing intent.

  The man in white robes smiled thinly, his eyes looking at the hundreds of dry mummies that were Zhi Xuan's handiwork and the thousands of Blood Corpses now crawling near in the distance, not daring to approach. "Names are not important, little shepherd. In a hundred years, you have reached the perfection of the Five Element realm, truly different from the youth with the cracked Divine Wheel of old."