"When trying to kill someone, one should be prepared for retaliation too~" She calmly replied while absorbing the fire released by the man's attack. After completely assimilating it, the sea of fire behind her finally took a corporeal form.
"If it was you a few decades ago, I would have lost my life with that attack of yours. Seems that the rumours are indeed true. You are clearly weakened…" The man licked the blood coming out his mouth and revealed a cruel smile.
"My clansmen, fear not! This evil woman is no longer as strong as in the past. You can see that even her cultivation base had regressed to the Jade Core realm. Today is the day we'll resolve our hatred!" As his words echoed out, all the voices became silent. In the very next instant, be it a man or woman, all of their eyes shone with a thick murderous light.
At first, many of them had the thought of running away. But after seeing that their hateful enemy has become weaker, they decided to attack.
In response to their words, she remained unaffected. The sword in her hand released a hymn and filled the area with its sharp will.
But she could attack, one of them bit their tongue and spat out a red-coloured pearl.
As soon as he crushed the pearl, Tianlong felt as if he was standing in a congested space.
Trying to breathe, he felt as if his entire body was being restricted by some kind of seal. It was just like how one would have their movements slowed down underwater due to the water pressure. Even Long Qianmei's actions slowed down a bit.
"Did you prepare this to restrict my husband's powers? Truly foolish!" Although her movements were slowed down a bit, she wasn't afraid at all.
Their attempts only incited a dark chuckle from her.
As she laughed, the sea of fire behind her roared. The locking of space couldn't impede her sword intent or fire sea. With a whooshing sound, turned into a circle of flames and surrounded their settlement.
Just like how they were trying to kill her, it seemed that she too wanted them to die. The circle of fire enlarged and turned into a fiery dome that enclosed all of them.
Seeing the sky above them being replaced by a sea of fire, repressed memories appeared on the minds of everyone as many of them screamed in trauma.
"It is that fire that killed my kinsmen!" Many of them showed vicious expressions and cut off their horns. A stream of blood rushed out of the forehead of the clansmen.
"If my blood can't even quench this fire, what use is there in possessing it!" As one of them shouted, he grabbed the horn in his forehead and viciously lodged it from his skull.
From the resulting hole, dark red blood essence rushed out which resulted in his skin losing its red complexion and becoming pale white.
The drops of blood concentrated to form a bloody hawk and rushed towards the sea of fire. It was a divine ability that they could perform when multiple clan members sacrificed their blood essence.
"The fire that burns eternally, I order it to douse!"
While the blood hawk rushed forward with a screech, the members who had cut of their horns let out a painful howl. Their body expanded in size until each of them were tens of metres tall. The red horn in their hands turned into different weapons such as swords, halberds or battle axes.
All of these giants had stark white skin with a hole at the centre of their brows where the horn was supposed to be. There was a hollow expression on their faces as if they had just lost their soul.
"Albino Giants and Blood Falcon, interesting!" Long Qianmei's eyes shone with excitement. Taking a step forward, she immediately rushed towards the giants.
Seeing her incoming figure, the giants let out an enraged roar. Even if their consciousness was muddled, they recognised her as their mortal enemy. Creating booming sounds all over, they rushed towards her and tried to crush her figure with a stomp.
"People usually relate sword with the element of metal. But in reality, swords aren't just a piece of metal. No, a sword is something that can cut anything in your path. If you have a sword in your heart, even a blade of grass, a gust of wind, even a ray of light can become your sword!" As she spoke, her sword intent rushed out and created a spiritual storm around her.
"Fire!" With a single thought, the thousands of fiery swords emerged from the sea of fire in the sky. Like raindrops falling from the sky, all of them dropped towards the giants.
With a swing of her sword, the thousands of fiery swords whistled and reached the incoming giants. Crashing with the incoming weapons, most of them exploded, but the one which survived destroyed the giants' magical treasures.
Tianlong's eyes shone with unprecedented brightness as he saw her attacks. All of her stances looked extremely simple which was totally different from his complex swordplay. But every time she moved, she seemed to invoke some magical law.
One of the foolish giants tried to stomp her to death upon losing his weapon. But before his legs could come near her, it was directly severed from its torso and became mincemeat.
A similar fate fell on other giants that tried to hit her with their bare fists or legs.
The land shook as Long Qianmei slew one more giant. Its pale body had become mincemeat under the effects of the sword intent. But strangely, even as brain matter and innards spilt out, there was no blood. It was all sucked by the blood hawk.
As the giants breathed their last, Long Qianmei herself staggered back hundreds of steps back with a thin stream of blood along her lips.
It was really difficult to use her sword intent with just Jade Core cultivation base!
Seeing her haggard appearance, the leader of the Ju Clan's remaining forces Ju Xun, became even more sure of his decision of not running away.
Long Qianmei was seriously injured. He had to use this chance to kill her!
It was both to get revenge for his fallen clansmen and to stay alive.
"All of you, follow my lead!" Although he was injured in the first encounter, he still directed the clansmen and led them to battle against their nemesis.
Only a few of them with a high cultivation base had turned into those white giants.
Others couldn't display such ability and could attack her with their different magical treasures that shone with a distinct blood-red glow.
While they were battling her below, the blood hawk was entangled with the sea of flame. With every flap of its wings, it would send out waves of yin blood and try to extinguish the flames.
Its screeches weren't any less loud than the screams of the Ju Clansmen. Having been born from their blood, it seemed to have inherited their hate.
Rumble!
All of the buildings have already been destroyed along with a large expanse of forest. Sword marks and flames burned down everything.
Nevertheless, this terrifying destructive force came at a price. Long Qianmei looked more spent as time passed by.
There were many wounds on her body. A large part of her robes was smeared with blood. Half of it was of the Ju Clansmen, but the other half was her own.
An Intent Domain was something that cultivators could start comprehending at the Nascent Soul realm. But unless one reaches the Soul Transformation stage, they wouldn't be able to unleash its full might.
It was just like how a toddler couldn't do anything if he was handed a big sword. Even if the child managed to handle its weight, it would be tired in just a few swings; they might even injure themselves.
For Long Qianmei who didn't even have a Nascent Soul realm cultivation base, constantly using her sword intent was extremely strenuous. Her old wrinkled skin split apart multiple times under her own sword intent.
However, she didn't seem to notice her injuries and continued to battle with reckless fervour. Even with her body being weakened every passing second, her eyes glowed brighter than ever.
This caused the crazed Ju Clansmen to feel terror. None of their magical treasures could get close to her. As soon as their divine abilities and magical treasures reached her, they would be violently split apart by the sword intent. It was as if she was standing amidst a vortex of swords that would shred anything trying to get near her.
Unable to kill her, one of them threw himself at her. Just as his body was going to become mincemeat under her sword intent, he laughed and chose to detonate his Jade Core. "Evil creature, die!"
Boom!
The blinding flash became the last brilliance he released with his life.
As the earth rumbled, all of the cultivators were pushed back hundreds of metres away by the violent winds.
The self-detonation of a Jade Core cultivator created a crater in the already charred ground.
After the deafening rumble subsided, a weakened Long Qianmei walked out of the crater. There were even more blood patches on her. Even the sword intent around her had been weakened significantly.
Many of them had tears in their eyes upon seeing their fellow clansmen's sacrifice but when they saw Long Qianmei's condition, all of them were filled with hope.
"She's injured, quickly activate the sealing formation!"
In this world where demonic beasts and evil cultivators run amuck, every major settlement needed some methods to defend itself.
And defensive formations were clearly the best measure.
They could be inscribed and preserved for a long time and only needed a certain amount of spirit stones to operate.
Ju Xun held a silver disc in his hand. Upon seeing the blood-soaked and charred figure of Long Qianmei, he knew that his chance had come. He quickly dripped a drop of his blood in the disc and crushed it.
Upon its destruction, it released a red light that swept across an area of 30,000 metres surrounding their settlement.
Under the exposure of the red light, deep formation patterns could be seen across the mountain. The formation lines, formation eyes and power sources all were making use of the spirit vein beneath the ground.
"Devils should be hunted and buried deep beneath the earth…" Seeing the glowing formation eyes, the man softly mumbled. Even though he was injured, his eyes shone with a dangerous glow.
Long Qianmei who was engaged in combat with the last few remaining Albino giants, stopped for a moment when she saw the glowing formation beneath. However, her pause was only momentary and she continued to exterminate those giants with a cold smile on her lips.
She had already seen through this formation when she arrived here.
Its activation was all according to her plans!