"Let me introduce to my babies. Sabres of Five Elements!" The white soul that Zailing had nurtured, White Tiger, was extending its soul threads into these sabres, controlling them from afar. The killing aura from the sabres were tenfold the aura from Zailing himself.
"Cruel Sword Formation, First Stage!" Zailing cut his skin with his sharp sabre, drawing out potent blood that landed on the Sabres of Five Elements.
The sabres starting vibrating with increasing frequency, dispersing the negative aura in the area, before they flew and formed a pentagon around Howick and the clone of Zailing. Since the sabres were all divine weapons, Howick could not manage to replicate such an effort.
The sabres then started to create a whirlpool in their blades. From the whirlpools, swords that were made from the elements themselves flew out and targeted the beings that were inside the formation.
"Wow. You're more certified to be a devil than even I am. How many of your fellow kind and other beings have you slaughtered to make such a formidable blood wave?" Howick coldly sneered. He could feel that this Cruel Sword Formation was based upon slaughter runes, which had its origin in demonic sacrifice.
"You just have to die, demon!" Zailing did not answer Howick'a question, and started to fire golden arrows from a distance.
The golden arrows exploded into illusionary talismans upon reaching the baleful aura that Howick radiated. The talismans covered Howick, turning into chains that bound his movement.
"Hmph. I thought you would be better, considering how much living creatures you have killed." Howick shook off all the attacks from the Cruel Sword Formation, making it look like a child that was hitting him. The illusionary chains did not do any much better, breaking apart in a matter of seconds.
"How dare you break past my Cruel Sword Formation and Daoist Arrows? Seeking death!" Zailing cut off his unarmed arm, throwing it to the Cruel Sword Formation, which tore it apart and absorbed it immediately.
The Cruel Sword Formation became even more vicious, with the addition of swords made of blood flying up to pierce Howick. The swords shot forward with even more strength and precision.
Since the formation had reached the point that Howick could not ignore it, he commanded the clone of Zailing to defend himself while he broke out of the formation.
The clone moved supremely fast, due to it having the ability to grow various limbs at the same time to defend. With eight arms, the clone looked like an Asura, deflecting all the swords for Howick.
Howick looked at the restrictions brought on about by the Cruel Sword Formation and smiled. He knew where all the weak points were after pressing his hand on the boundary which trapped him inside.
Howick started flying from corner to corner, tapping on the weak points of the formation and infusing his destructive power inside. It revealed the blood of Zailing that were forming the slaughter runes, which lost its lustre upon being tapped on.
"Now, for the finale." Howick lightly tapped onto the formation, which completely exploded on the spot. The swords all flew back into the ring, heavily damaged. Zailing also spat out a large amount of blood, as his soul connection had backfired.
"Now, it's time to reap my rewards." Howick's negative aura spread towards Zailing, which slowed him down. The clone rushed towards him, intending to finish him off with one blow.
"Not so fast. It's your turn now, Ruo Ling." Zailing collapsed onto the ground from his injuries, but he gave Howick one last maddened smile before he lost consciousness.
"What do you mean?" Howick could not figure out the intentions behind Zailing's smile, until someone suddenly grabbed him from the back and pinned him onto the floor with just one hand.
He could feel that the person had extremely high strength, and the flesh of that person was also not able to be corroded by his powerful negative aura.
"Who... are.... you?" Howick tried to say some words, but every time he said a word, that person would raise his head up and slam it harder onto the ground.
"Didn't he tell you earlier? I'm Ruo Ling, the Empress of Quanli Empire." The powerful body of Ruo Ling continued to dig deeper into Howick's shadowy flesh. Howick made one of his eyes worm to his back and surface. What he would see would surprise him for the rest of his life.
It was the face of a soul stealing beauty, superimposed onto the body of a giant muscular figure that was covered by several robes. In her other hand, the demon soul was being crushed to death.
"How vicious! Implanting the body seed of the 2nd Mandated Emperor onto yourself, even a talent would suffer numerous miseries!" Howick grinned, even as he was choked.
Sensing that something was off, Ruo Ling took out an eye with green pupils, which attached itself onto Howick. The shadowy body dissipated immediately, leaving only a white gateway that was surrounded by three golden fleshy arms.
The green eye had attached to itself to one of the arms, releasing pulses of green light for every breath that Ruo Ling took. At first, Ruo Ling was entranced by the white gateway, but the green lights released managed to pull her back into sanity.
As Ruo Ling recovered, one of the fleshy arms broke off, and the white gateway abruptly disappeared, as if nothing had happened at all. However, the fleshy arm that had detached remained, serving as a reminder to Ruo Ling of the events that had just transpired.
"White Shadow... the reincarnation of the devil ancestors is actually underway. 101 Billion Headed Buddha devils!" Ruo Ling was no stranger to the strange event that had just happened. After all, she had also inherited the 2nd Mandated Emperor's memories.
The White Shadow door was one of the infamous anomalies in the world. Its reputation stretched beyond the Five Star Continent, and was one of the omens of a calamity. It heralded the resurrection of the devil ancestors, old monsters that could claim a whole planet on their own.
"Looks like I have to collaborate with everyone to deal with this threat." Ruo Ling's body started to shrink into a petite figure. All the muscles just now collapsed on each other, forming an alluring beauty again.
All the robes but one flew into a ring that was on Ruo Ling's hand, storing them in case she needed to reveal her true form again. After everything was covered up, the area around her exploded from the force of her movement, as she shot back towards the palace.
***
"How many of them are still there?" Tang Peng's heart was beating at an extremely fast rate. There were numerous men laden with silk robes that were chasing after him non-stop.
Each breath they made carried a wind that slowed down Tang Peng's every movement. All of them looked to be highly muscular, but they were clearly cultivating immortal energy, as they were using Qi to manipulate their surroundings.
Tang Peng was clearly no match for their superior cultivation. Soon enough, these cultivators caught up, and in one synchronised action, sealed all of Tang Peng's acupoints.
Tang Peng did not even put up a fight, as he would only be seeking death. It was not like he possessed any trump cards that could turn the tide of this situation.
"... Too greedy. I got too greedy again!" Tang Leng berated himself internally, as a quick chop to his neck made him unconscious.