The First Immortal of Destiny

Once captured by the Universe in the Sword and drawn into the sword prison, the enemies ensnared by the divine technique must either fall to the assaults of the entire Sword Prison Realm or endure until the technique’s power is exhausted and they break free!

Given Shen Mo’s current cultivation level, this divine technique is indeed formidable; any Divine Bridge Realm foe caught in it will find it exceedingly difficult to escape alive.

However, Mingpeng is a great demon of the Formless Realm, and naturally will not easily perish; even when faced with the crushing force of the entire Sword Prison Realm, it might not sustain the slightest injury.

At this juncture, Shen Mo utilized this divine technique not to harm Mingpeng, but purely as a means of control...

The Sword Prison Realm exists for a very brief moment, just the time it takes for a sword light to flash, but in the fierce battles between mighty figures, a moment’s distraction or a flaw can lead to an irrecoverable disaster!

Shen Mo does possess similar techniques, such as the Ghost Golden Sheep Palm, which can paralyze the body and confine the soul, or the Jingmu An Palm, which can transform into a prison to trap enemies. There are even potent high-level talismans and restraining magic treasures like the Immortal Binding Rope; however, none of these means could easily hit Mingpeng’s evil corpse body, and they are far less incisive compared to the divine technique Universe in the Sword.

As Mingpeng vanished, Shen Mo shook the Soul Refining Flag, forcibly compelling the nine Class V Demon Soul Generals serving as the array core to offer up their soul bodies and cultivation level.

These Demon Soul Generals had been cultivated by Shen Mo recently, and they were not among the first-rank Demon Souls like Fairy Pei Yu or the Ghost Bride; they possessed no authority with the Soul Refining Flag nor had awakened their gnosis. Under the oppression of the blood flag, they did not have a single thought of resistance!

The next moment.

From the bodies of the nine Demon Soul Generals at the array core, raging demonic flames erupted, twisting the space slightly, even causing the nature’s spiritual energy to boil.

Subsequently, the changes within the formation aroused the entire Soul Generals Array’s momentum, where nearly a million Demon Soul Generals and ordinary Soul Generals, regardless of strength, were ignited by the demonic flames. Their surging primal Essence and Qi sources were forcibly drained by the formation as if a dam had burst.

Instantly, the God Slaying Array, which had been reduced in size by more than half, escalated its power to a level that even awed Shen Mo!

"Boom!"

Infinite sword lights exploded, revealing Mingpeng’s silhouette in the distance, where awaited him was the Soul Generals Array driven to its utmost by the blood sacrifice magic.

"Boom!"

"Rumble!"

Engulfed in demonic flames, the grand array swallowed Mingpeng, with various fierce visions and phenomena more intense than ever before by dozens of times.

In an instant, the insect prison formed from human-skin magic robes, Mingpeng’s magical barriers, the demonic flame runes, and fierce phenomena within the great array, swiftly surged, collided, flickered, and perished...

The full power of the battle erupted, plunging the sky into utter darkness for a moment, followed by a brilliance so dazzling it could blind the eyes of powerful figures.

The terrifying aftershock rippled across thousands of miles, shaking the heavens and earth, with tremors and thunder.

The remaining evil insects on the ground vanished within an eye blink by ninety percent, first turning into specks of dust, which then faded into nothingness, entirely scattered into the ether.

The earth’s crust began to fracture, the rotten spatial barriers were entirely dismantled, and as the dense spatial rifts spread, they completely merged with the outer realm. Soon after, these rifts also vanished completely!

The Crystal Brahma Flame on Shen Mo flickered incessantly like a dying candle in a gale, ultimately disintegrating entirely.

The turbulent aftershock collided with him, emitting a strange and horrid sound, scattering sparks that resembled countless metal blades striking a solid rock.

Luckily, his Dao Body and vitality were extremely formidable, not inferior to demonic beasts of the same level, and he promptly activated the Nine-Extreme Crystal Sand Energy and donned the Indestructible Body. Otherwise, even he might have been harmed by this terrifying wave!

...

Once the explosions and visions receded, the world reverted to clarity, leaving the Creation Array constructed by a million Soul Generals completely vanished, without a trace of remnant soul or Demonic Qi.

The Soul Refining Flag in Shen Mo’s hand similarly lost nearly a million soul marks from its surface, lightening the burden on his mana and soul.

Simultaneously.

A massive pit, as vast as a lake, emerged on the earth and rock, scarred and strewn with jade fragments.

A faint silhouette, wrapped in a ragged human-skin robe devoid of immortal charm, quietly lay in the pit’s center. It was the Formless Realm great demon, Mingpeng, left severely wounded by Shen Mo at the cost of nearly a million Soul Generals turned to ashes!

At this point, his vitality wasn’t entirely severed, but only a breath away from absolute death and soul destruction.

The countless evil insects on his body had almost all perished, dying in various manners—some cleaved into segments, some charred to coal, some rotting into pus, some ground into mush. Only a few insects in his brow barely clung to life... The blood-faced curse left by Cheng Qianbao, whether through its inherent traits or a twisted illusion from the death of evil insects, seemed to morph from a crying face into a smiling one!

Such tiered entities, if not utterly annihilated, could possibly recover from severe injuries using unexpected methods to claw back from the brink of death.

The next thought.

Shen Mo descended close by Mingpeng, raising the Taiyi Sword high, its blade gleaming coldly.

"Hiss..."

The evil insects in Mingpeng’s brow, struggling to lift their heads towards Shen Mo, emitted a sinister hiss.

"To pay such a heavy price just to kill me, is it worth it?"

A weak and eerie voice echoed in Shen Mo’s ear, "As long as my clan’s venerable still lives, it won’t take long before I am resurrected from the sanctuary. Ultimately, you are incapable of killing me..."

Before he could finish speaking, a stroke of Demon Slaying Sword Qi imbued with Uncommon Victory force slashed into his brow, completely severing his vitality.

"Worth it!"

"If I can kill you once, I can slay you tenfold or hundredfold in the future. If it comes to it, I’ll go slay the Hollow Venerable, the Demon True Immortal, that you won’t be able to resurrect." Shen Mo retracted the Taiyi Sword, speaking expressionlessly.

This was the first time he’d heard that a creature annihilated in both body and soul could still be resurrected.

However, considering the evil traits of the Thousands Insects Evil Corpse clan and the Hollow Venerable who, as an immortal forged from an evil corpse, could resurrect fallen powerful evil insects, it wasn’t inconceivable!

Even so, Shen Mo wouldn’t regret sacrificing nearly a million Soul Generals to slay Mingpeng, even if he could revive.

Then, he produced the Demon-Suppressing Tower to collect Mingpeng’s corpse.

Possessing Formless Realm cultivation, even a life-dead corpse would spawn disasters here; creatures below the Yuan Dan Realm (Fourth Order) approaching it would be polluted and distorted into demon-like evil insects by its residual primal power!

But for Shen Mo, this corpse could be a blazing fuel to propel his own cultivation upwards, likely guaranteeing a smooth ascension to the peak of the Divine Bridge Realm.