“Lock onto your opponents! Do not let a single one escape!” Wang Hao’s command echoed through the chaos. Since the Gu Family had dared to plot against Green Bull Market, Wang Hao intended to send them on their way to the Yellow Springs.

The second wave of attacks crashed down, and several more Gu clansmen collapsed in pools of blood.

The enemy’s losses were catastrophic. Their numerical advantage had evaporated in moments. Wang Hao felt a knot of tension loosen in his chest; the outcome of this battle was already decided.

High above, the panicked Foundation Establishment elders of the Gu Family tried to break out, diving from the sky to flee. They were intercepted immediately.

Li Yaozu and Li Derong had been waiting for this moment. They emerged from the clouds, cutting off the escape route.

“You… You are from Green Bull Market!” one of the Gu elders screamed, eyes widening in recognition. Although the families belonged to different Golden Core factions, their territories bordered each other. They knew each other’s faces. The attackers hadn’t even bothered to change their robes.

“Since Fellow Daoist Gu has recognized us, you can stay here forever,” Wang Longyou sneered, his voice dripping with killing intent. “You harbored thoughts you shouldn’t have. Now, pay the price.”

“Ah! Elder, save me!”

Below, the slaughter continued. Under Wang Yanzhao’s command, the Wang and Li cultivators harvested the lives of the Gu family members like reapers in a field of wheat. It was a classic case of the prepared crushing the unprepared. Despite their numbers, the Gu cultivators were in disarray, beaten back step by step.

The lucky survivors scrambled to erect defensive barriers, channeling their spiritual power desperately just to stay alive. Counterattacking was a luxury they could not afford.

Seeing the enemy fall in droves, the coalition cultivators felt a surge of adrenaline. Yet, for many, this was their first time killing humans, not demon beasts. Hands trembled as they gripped their artifacts; faces paled as the metallic scent of blood filled the air.

“Ahhh!”

An elderly Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Gu family, watching his kin get butchered, let out a beast-like roar of despair. “You animals! I will drag you down with me!”

His eyes turned crimson. Ignoring the lethal attacks from Wang Hao and Li Derong, he abandoned all defense and dove straight toward the cluster of Qi Refining juniors on the ground.

“Stop him!” Li Derong shrieked.

Wang Hao reacted instantly, summoning the Chaos Earth Seal. The artifact expanded in the wind, transforming into a small mountain of golden light to shield his clansmen.

“Not good! He’s going to self-destruct!”

A Foundation Establishment cultivator’s self-destruction was not as cataclysmic as a Golden Core’s nuclear-level detonation, but it was far beyond what any Qi Refining cultivator could survive. Even Wang Hao, at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, was in mortal danger.

“Die together!”

The old man howled, his sanity completely gone. His body swelled grotesquely, expanding to five times its normal size like an overinflated balloon. His skin cracked, spiderwebs of fissures leaking blinding red spiritual light.

Then, he collapsed inward—and detonated.

A terrifying shockwave of True Essence, mixed with blood and bone, erupted outward. The power exceeded a full-force strike from a peak Foundation Establishment expert.

Wang Hao had prepared a Divine Consciousness attack, but it was too late. There was no mind left to attack.

“Uncle Yanzhao, raise your shield!”

Wang Yanzhao, participating in a battle of this level for the first time, had frozen. The suicidal ferocity of the enemy had scared him witless. At Wang Hao’s desperate scream, he snapped out of his daze and hastily activated his defensive artifact.

A yellow light shield materialized, layering over the group.

An instant later, the shockwave hit.

BOOM!

The sound was deafening, like a mountain collapsing. Wang Yanzhao’s Red Kite Shield didn’t last a single breath before shattering into dust. Wang Hao’s massive Chaos Earth Seal was blasted backward, tumbling through the air like a toy.

The ground was scoured clean. The cultivators of the Wang and Li families were flattened, lying motionless in the dirt.

Even Wang Hao was blown dozens of zhang away. He hit the ground hard, his head spinning. A sharp pain tore through his chest, and he vomited a large mouthful of blood. He tried to stand, but agony flared in his limbs. He swayed drunkenly and collapsed again.

My bones…

He grimaced. He was a dual cultivator; his physical body was harder than steel, far surpassing ordinary cultivators. Yet, even his bones had fractured. The power of that explosion had been terrifying.

Careless!

Regret gnawed at Wang Hao’s heart. He had assumed their superior strength guaranteed an easy victory. He hadn’t accounted for the sheer destructive potential of a cornered beast.

In the past, Wang Hao had always been the underdog. His stronger opponents had often underestimated him, playing cat-and-mouse until he turned the tables. Today, the roles were reversed. He had been the cat, arrogant and assured, and the mouse had just bitten off his paw.

Li Derong descended from the sky in a panic. Seeing the devastation, she rushed to Wang Hao’s side. His robe was shredded, leaving him clad in bloody rags. She didn’t hesitate, placing a hand on his back and channeling a stream of healing spiritual light into his body.

“Take this,” she said, feeding him a high-grade healing pill.

The warmth of the medicine and her energy stabilized his injuries. Wang Hao let out a ragged breath.

“I’m fine,” he rasped, forcing himself to sit up. “Go help the others.”

He draped a spare robe over his shoulders and struggled to his feet to assist with the wounded.

Wang Yanzhao’s face was as white as paper. Wang Hao checked his pulse; fortunately, his life wasn’t in danger. His artifact had been destroyed, causing a severe backlash, and the shockwave had knocked him out.

After Wang Hao fed him a pill, Wang Yanzhao groaned and opened his eyes.

Seeing the miserable state of his clansmen groaning in the dirt, Wang Yanzhao’s eyes filled with tears. “It’s all my fault! I was scared stupid… If I had defended properly, we wouldn’t be in this state!”

“Save your tears,” Wang Hao said grimly.

In the distance, the surviving Gu family Qi Refining cultivators had used this breathing room to regroup. They didn’t flee. The suicidal sacrifice of their Elder had ignited their bloodlust.

They began to move in unison, spiritual energy linking them together.

For years, under the Burning Heaven Sect’s orders, they had drilled in War Formations. Though they lacked real combat experience, a formation was infinitely stronger than a rabble fighting individually.

Whoosh!

A spiritual arrow materialized from the formation and shot across the battlefield.

Thud!

It buried itself in the chest of a Wang clansman who had just staggered to his feet.

“Twenty-third Brother!” Wang Yanzhao screamed.

“Uncle Yanzhao, stand up!” Wang Hao roared, his voice cutting through the elder’s grief. “Pick up your weapon and kill them! Avenge our kin! Do not stand there sighing and lamenting like a useless coward! If they finish that formation, we are all dead!”

Wang Yanzhao froze, stunned by the ferocity of the rebuke. Then, reality slapped him awake. He wiped his eyes, his expression hardening into a mask of rage.

His condition was poor, but Wang Hao was worse off. Wang Hao had taken the brunt of the blast to protect the others; his meridians were screaming, and he couldn’t mobilize his spiritual power. He was standing on sheer willpower alone. If Wang Yanzhao didn’t step up, they were doomed.

The Gu family’s War Formation solidified. A thick, turtle-shell barrier rose around them, and spells began to rain down from its center.

Li Derong, the only uninjured Foundation Establishment cultivator, stepped forward. She unleashed a flurry of defensive spells, intercepting the incoming attacks. But as an early-stage cultivator, she could do nothing to break the turtle shell formed by forty desperate disciples.

The War Formation was a double-edged sword. It consumed massive amounts of spiritual power to maintain both offense and defense. If they could stall, the Foundation Establishment cultivators would eventually win.

But they had a problem.

Li Yaozu and Wang Longyou were gone. The other Gu family Elder, seeing the explosion, had realized the battle was lost and fled instantly. To prevent him from returning with reinforcements or escaping to warn the main force, Li Yaozu and Wang Longyou had chased after him, leaving the ambush site.

Now, the injured group was pinned down.

Li Derong was forced into a passive defense. Wang Hao tried to summon a talisman, but the movement tore at his internal injuries, forcing him to vomit another mouthful of blood.

He wiped his mouth, eyes cold. He was incapacitated. The situation had turned into a deadly stalemate.