Chapter 24: The Purple Heaven Sacred Land Comes Calling

On the third morning of his seclusion, inside the retreat chamber at the pinnacle of the Scripture Pavilion, Ye Chentian’s eyes snapped open. Nourished by the Myriad-Year Spirit Origin Pill, the Immortal Emperor-realm spiritual energy within his body had become increasingly refined. His aura, already unfathomable, stirred like a dormant primordial beast; with the slightest movement, it caused the spiritual energy tides of the entire Xuantian Sect to tremble.

"The pressure of the Immortal Emperor realm is indeed growing more vast."

Ye Chentian took a deep breath. The sparse spiritual energy within the chamber poured into him like shoals of fish, circulating through his meridians on its own. He could clearly perceive the pulse of the thousand-year-old cypress tree outside the pavilion and even hear the crisp sound of morning dew dripping onto the roof tiles a hundred meters away. His five senses were more than ten times sharper than before.

"Boom—!"

A purple-black rift tore across the sky. Amidst churning clouds, one thousand Sacred Guards clad in purple-gold armor hovered above the Xuantian Sect. Their spears wove into a net as they arrayed themselves before the sect's mountain gate.

"Ye Chentian! Get out here and meet your death!"

Lei Yao’s roar, infused with the pressure of the ninth level of the Void Refining realm, crushed down from above. Behind him, the Prison-Suppressing Thunder Pagoda rotated slowly.

"The Sacred Master has issued a decree! You annihilated the Biluo Sect and insulted the dignity of our Zixiao Sacred Land. Today, I have come to raze your Xuantian Sect to the ground!"

"Prison-Suppressing Thunder Punishment!"

Lei Yao shifted his hand seal, and a purple bolt of lightning as thick as a barrel shot from the top of the pagoda, slamming violently into the sect’s protective formation. The light barrier of the Xuantian Sect distorted wildly.

"Who dares to trespass against my sect!"

A white-robed figure stepped into the air—it was Ye Chentian.

He hovered outside the formation’s barrier. Though there were no spectacular visions surrounding him, the Immortal Emperor-realm pressure he exuded acted like an invisible blade, instantly piercing through Lei Yao’s oppressive aura.

"What... what is this aura?!" A Zixiao Sacred Guard shrieked, his haughty expression freezing instantly. "Why do I feel my entire body's spiritual energy trembling? It’s as if I am facing the laws of heaven and earth themselves!"

Lei Yao’s pupils contracted as he stared fixedly at Ye Chentian. His divine sense frantically scanned the man, but he encountered only an abyss of chaotic imperial power. Unable to gauge his opponent’s depth, a storm of terror surged in his heart: "What... what realm are you truly in?!"

Ye Chentian glanced at him indifferently, his tone calm yet edged with sharpness: "A mangy dog from the Zixiao Sacred Land, bringing a bunch of trash to run wild in my Xuantian Sect?"

"Arrogant!" Lei Yao roared. "Regardless of what hidden secrets you possess, you will die beneath the Thunder Pagoda today!"

"Is that so? Then I shall see if you have the strength to back it up!"

Ye Chentian flicked his fingertips, wielding the Flowing Light Purple Electric Sword, his momentum overwhelming.

A flicker of malice flashed in Lei Yao’s eyes as he barked an order: "Sacred Guards, heed my command! Form the 'Zixiao Thunder Prison Array'! Annihilate him!"

"Yes!"

The thousand Sacred Guards moved in unison. The thunder patterns on their purple-gold armor ignited simultaneously as they stepped into complex geometric paths. In an instant, a thousand bolts of lightning intertwined to form a thunderous prison covering a radius of ten miles.

Each of these guards was at the ninth level of the Golden Core realm, while dozens of captains had reached the first to third levels of the Nascent Soul realm. Their armor was forged from deep-sea thunder iron mixed with purple-gold sand, capable of withstanding a full-force strike from a ninth-level Nascent Soul cultivator—a team built at great cost by the Zixiao Sacred Land.

The brilliance of the Zixiao Thunder Prison Array lay in its ability to perfectly fuse the power of a thousand guards into a single, lethal blow. Their spiritual energy linked through their thunder-patterned spears, condensing into a thousand pillars of purple lightning at the center of the formation. Each pillar contained the full force of a Golden Core cultivator; combined, their power was equivalent to a full-strength strike of a third-level Void Refining expert!

"Die!"

The thousand pillars converged into a single column of purple lightning, a hundred yards in diameter, and struck toward Ye Chentian!

Ye Chentian stood in the heart of the prison, his sword vibrating slightly as a cold, sharp smile touched his lips: "Is this all you have?"

As the words left his lips, he flicked his wrist. The Flowing Light Purple Electric Sword slashed through the void. A purple blade-aura that pierced the heavens took shape, meeting the incoming thunder pillar head-on. The combined force of a thousand men was sliced cleanly in two!

Immediately after, the blade-aura transformed into dozens of electric sword beams, raining down upon the guards.

The sound of sword energy piercing armor rang out in a continuous barrage! The purple-gold armor shattered like thin paper. Before the thousand guards could even scream, they were reduced to ash within three breaths!

At the foot of the mountain, the spectating cultivators stared at the empty sky, their jaws hanging open as they gasped in disbelief.

"My god! One strike! It really took only one strike to break the Zixiao Thunder Prison Array fueled by a thousand men?!"

"That... that was an array capable of slaying a third-level Void Refining expert! It was broken just like that?!"

Seeing his guards annihilated in an instant, Lei Yao’s eyes turned blood-red, his face twisting into a grotesque mask. These thousand guards had been meticulously selected from a hundred thousand cultivators over a century of effort. Each possessed a Lightning Spirit Root, raised from childhood on secret Zixiao techniques, tempered daily in thunder pools, and forged nightly with thunder patterns. He never imagined they would all be wiped out by a single move from Ye Chentian.

"Today, the century of effort of my Zixiao Sacred Land has been destroyed!" He roared at the sky. "Ye Chentian! Either you die or I do! If I do not grind your bones to dust, I am no man!"

"Zixiao Divine Thunder: World-Extinguishing Calamity!"

He frantically channeled the Prison-Suppressing Thunder Pagoda behind him, the thunder patterns on his body surging three feet high as he spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the top of the tower.

The entire pagoda shook violently, and all thousand thunder patterns illuminated simultaneously. The Zixiao Thunder Pearl at the peak erupted with blinding purple light, transforming into a purple-gold lightning pillar a hundred yards wide that descended upon Ye Chentian.

"This strike gathers the accumulated power of a century! Even a ninth-level Void Refining expert would have to flee! Die!"

"Hmph, overestimating yourself."

Ye Chentian’s eyes were cold. Holding his sword in his right hand, he formed a seal with his left. The Flowing Light Purple Electric Sword suddenly erupted with a dazzling purple-gold radiance, and nine ancient patterns emerged on the blade, each containing world-shattering power.

"Break!"

With a soft command, the sword transformed into a bolt of purple-gold lightning, colliding head-on with the cataclysmic thunder pillar!

"Boom—!"

For that moment, the world seemed to lose all sound. The purple-gold lightning cleaved through the pillar like a hot knife through butter, shattering it entirely before striking the Prison-Suppressing Thunder Pagoda itself!

"Crack—"

A crisp sound echoed for a hundred miles. The supposedly indestructible Prison-Suppressing Thunder Pagoda, forged from Nine-Heaven Profound Thunder Iron and inscribed with thirty-six thousand patterns, began to crumble piece by piece from the top. The Zixiao Thunder Pearl exploded with a bang, scattering into a sky full of purple light.

"No... impossible..." Lei Yao stared blankly at the pulverized remains of the pagoda—the sect-protecting treasure of the Zixiao Sacred Land, a supreme Earth-grade artifact. He could not believe it had been shattered by a single blow!

The momentum of the purple-gold lightning remained, piercing through Lei Yao’s protective aura and punching straight through his brow.

"What? How... how is it... so fast?"

Lei Yao’s body froze in mid-air, his eyes still filled with horror and resentment before he slowly toppled. His Nascent Soul had been completely shredded by the sword radiance; he was well and truly dead.

"One strike to break a thousand-man formation, another to shatter the Prison-Suppressing Thunder Pagoda... this... how can this still be the power of the Void Refining realm?!"

"The pride of the Zixiao Sacred Land couldn't even withstand a single blow..."

"Terrifying! Too terrifying! With such combat strength, Sect Master Ye must have already transcended the Void Refining realm!"

At the foot of the mountain, the spectating cultivators were left in a state of absolute shock.