High above the northern ring of the capital, the winter clouds parted like curtains before a stage.
Sword Fairy Chu Lingxiao held the Purple-Thunder Nine-Heavens Immortal Sword with both hands. Her white silk sleeves fluttered in the freezing slipstream, but her posture was as solid as an ancient mountain peak.
The translucent violet blade hummed with a sound like a hundred temple bells ringing at once. Golden runes of heavenly tribulation lightning writhed along the steel, crackling with pure, righteous heat.
Opposite her, Ancestor Murong Lie was completely crazed.
His gray, wrinkled face was covered in burst capillaries. Black blood leaked from his ears and nose as he poured every drop of his remaining life essence into the bone staff. The Quasi-Rank 5 Blood-Soul Banner fluttered wildly, its dark crimson cloth billowing like a curtain of coagulated gore.
“Die! Die! Die!” Murong Lie screamed, his voice turning into an animal screech. “Blood-Wraith Feast! Tear her marrow! Eat her soul! Devour every drop of her righteous blood!”
The thousand blood-wraiths formed a massive, roaring vortex of dark red claws and fangs. The stench of rotting corpses was thick enough to choke a horse. It spun through the cold night air, blotting out the lights of the city below.
