How terrifying and unbelievable!
In the minds of the members of the three major sects, Lin Li, who was supposedly only at Foundation Establishment Stage 1, had just unleashed a power far beyond what they could have ever imagined!
The overwhelming blood-red aura surged wildly from around Lin Li, whipping his already tattered, blood-stained robes into a frenzy. His blood-matted long hair was blown upwards by the fierce energy, standing on end. At this moment, Lin Li appeared like a crazed demon!
...Slaughter!!!
Faced with the combined attacks of the Bone, Corpse, Golden Gu, and Blood Mosquito Hall Masters, along with four Corpse Control and four Beast Control Incense Masters, Lin Li finally revealed his trump card after entering this Demon Sect branch!
"If not now, when?"
Holding the Blood-Drinking Demon Sword, Lin Li had no intention of hiding his slaughter mode until the last moment.
The only reason he hadn't activated it earlier was because...
There hadn't been enough prey!
But now, with the overwhelming numbers of skeletons, rotting corpses, Red Hair Zombies summoned by the Corpse Control Incense Masters, and the four beasts summoned by the Beast Control Incense Masters, Lin Li felt a thrill deep within his soul, not fear like the others from the three sects, but pure excitement!
"Jinghong Sword!!!"
In that instant!
With Lin Li in slaughter mode, his strength soared! Though every second that passed drained his spiritual energy due to the effects of the slaughter mode, it also gave him an intense burst of power!
A flash of the Jinghong Sword, a sweep of light!
With one sweep of his sword, the originally golden sword arc was now tinged with a bloody hue!
The vast area in front of Lin Li was completely enveloped by the blood-red light of the Jinghong Sword.
[Killed Stage 7 Rotten Corpse, gained 79 evolution points]
[Killed Stage 5 Skeleton, gained 45 evolution points]
[Killed Stage 6 Rotten Corpse, gained 52 evolution points]
[Killed Stage 8 Skeleton, gained 88 evolution points]
...
In an instant, the vast army of skeletons and corpses in front of Lin Li was wiped out by his single strike!
Ye Fan was exhilarated as well!
"With just this one strike, I've killed hundreds—no, thousands of targets!"
Ye Fan cheered excitedly, "Even though these small fry only give a few dozen evolution points each..."
"The sheer number of them means this one strike alone brought me close to fifty thousand evolution points!"
"With the twenty thousand points from before, I'm now only fifteen thousand points away from the four hundred thousand I need to evolve into a top-grade magic weapon!"
"If Lin Li can make it through this encirclement battle at the Demon Sect branch, he might earn enough evolution points for me to ascend. I can't wait!"
...
"What?!!"
The eight Incense Masters and even the four Hall Masters of the Demon Sect branch widened their eyes in disbelief.
"How is this possible?!"
"He just wiped out most of the two Hall Masters' signature moves with a single sword strike!"
"Unbelievable!"
The tactics of the Bone and Corpse Hall Masters relied on overwhelming numbers!
As Foundation Establishment cultivators, these two Hall Masters were formidable because, no matter how strong their opponents were, they would eventually be worn down by the sheer numbers of skeletons and corpses, until they could be easily finished off.
But what they could never have imagined was that their prized horde tactics would be rendered utterly useless against Lin Li. In fact, with just one strike, Lin Li had destroyed nearly half of their skeletons and corpses!
Even further back, the higher-ups of the Demon Sect branch felt their hair stand on end, their hearts filled with shock.
"This kind of power?!"
The Demon Sect Protectors exclaimed, "This isn't the strength of a Foundation Establishment sword cultivator. It's more like the attack of a cultivator at the False Core stage!"
The term "False Core stage" was commonly used in the cultivation world.
It referred to those who had reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage but had been unable to successfully condense their Golden Core. These cultivators, while far stronger than typical Foundation Establishment cultivators, were not yet at the level of a true Core Formation stage expert. Thus, they were given the honorary title of "False Core cultivators" by their peers.
Today, the leader of the Demon Sect branch was the only False Core cultivator holding down the fort.
"Could it be that he's also a False Core cultivator?!"
The Demon Sect branch leader pondered in disbelief, "That must be it! There's no way the three major sects would send useless pawns to destroy our blood sacrifice altar. They must have sent at least one False Core cultivator as a trump card!"
"Everyone, listen up! Protectors, follow me and join the Hall Masters and Incense Masters. We must kill that sword cultivator immediately!"
"Sacred Guardian Beast! Do you see those Daoist cultivators turning back?"
The massive toad demon beast beside the Demon Sect branch leader let out a loud croak in response: "Croak! Croak!"
"Go! Hold them off! Once we've killed the sword cultivator, we'll capture them alive and extract information about the three sects' plans!"
"Croak! Croak!"
The giant toad let out another two calls and leaped into the air!
With a massive leap, the ground beneath the toad's feet cracked into two giant craters from the force, and its body shot into the sky, heading straight for the returning cultivators from the three major sects.
...
The Daoist cultivators of the three sects saw the giant toad charging at them and immediately felt a chill in their hearts.
"We never imagined that in just a few months, Lin Shi-di's Jinghong Sword would have reached such a level!"
Wei Heng, the leader of the Heavenly Sword Sect, marveled. "It seems that when Uncle Zou said Lin Li was a once-in-a-millennium genius of our sect, he wasn't exaggerating!"
The others from the two sects were equally shocked. "That kid, supposedly only at Foundation Establishment Stage 1, is actually this powerful?!"
"This is truly unbelievable!"
The leader of Tianjue Mountain furrowed his brows, "It seems, for now, we don't need to worry about that kid."
"The real trouble is coming right at us!"
The giant toad was already closing in on them!
...
"Hahaha! Amazing!"
Lin Li's sword strike had nearly drained him of all his spiritual energy.
However...
After killing hundreds and thousands of targets with a single strike, the magic sword in his hand quickly returned an endless stream of energy back into his body!
In an instant, his spiritual energy was fully restored, and...
It was even stronger than before!
"Foundation Establishment Stage 4... Peak!!!"
Lin Li's heart raced with excitement!
That's right!
The energy returned from that one sword strike had instantly pushed his cultivation to the peak of Foundation Establishment Stage 4!
And that wasn't the end!
Lin Li could feel that the sword's energy return wasn't finished yet!
"I'm almost there! I'm about to break through to Foundation Establishment Stage 5!"
At that moment...
The leader of the Demon Sect branch and two more Protectors joined the four Hall Masters and eight Incense Masters.
All the power of the Demon Sect branch was now gathered in one place!
All of this—just to deal with the terrifying sword cultivator standing before them, whose blood-red aura raged around him like a hellish demon!