Tianming did the same thing he did back during the realm war: course correction. He made minor adjustments in the direction he traveled from time to time.
"What are you doing? Circling around?" Lin Xiaoxiao said, feeling a little dizzy from all the turns.
"Just follow me and you'll know."
"You're really annoying, you know."
"I'd like to hear you say that after you find out what happens later." He could see Gu Shaoyu leaving their main force with another female chief. He then left to command the troops at the fringes as the leader of the scouts.
The Dimensional Battlefield was so large that nobody noticed a white-haired youth zipping straight through the battlefield toward his nearest opponent. For all they knew, Tianming was merely heading in the general direction of his foes. However, he was actually pinpointing Gu Shaoyu's location with his Insightful Eye. Right now he was like a wolf, tracking his opponent nonstop.
"You're insane. There’s a hundred thousand of them ahead, you know," Lin Xiaoxiao said.
Tianming ignored her and kept correcting his course. "The scouts will be spread out, looking for people to fight."
Within the illusory world, Tianming closed his third eye and stealthily circled around a mountain. Looking down into the valley, he smiled.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Just look."
"Gu Shaoyu! Shouldn't we run? Wait... you came here looking for him! You can find enemies in the illusory world?"
"Amazing, right?"
"It is. But what are you planning? He's a fifth-level empyrean saint, you know."
"I want to slaughter pigs." He chuckled and drew Brightnight, then placed it on the ground before he grabbed her by her clothes. "Let's go snow surfing!"
"Aaaaaah!" she cried.
Tianming sped down the snowy mountain at breakneck speed. Within the valley, Gu Shaoyu's fat lips were smacked against that female chief's.
"A hundred thousand people are watching you do the deed. I bet it's very exciting," Tianming said as he tossed Lin Xiaoxiao to the side and drew his sword, then charged toward Gu Shaoyu.
"Li Tianming?! Why are you here?!" This was the flank of their army!
"I've come looking for you." Tianming took out his Scarletflame Tome.
"What are you planning, fool?!" Gu Shaoyu let out a smirk. However, all he saw was Tianming tossing that tome then slashing with Brightnight. The tome was now all torn up as it scattered across the snowy ground. It was a sign that he would never surrender, much to Gu Shaoyu's shock.
"I'm here to kill you!"
Gu Shaoyu couldn't help but chortle. Even the female chief in his embrace was bending over in laughter.
"Would you dare tear your Scarletflame Tome up?" Tianming asked.
"Sure thing!" Gu Shaoyu spat on the ground as he tore up his own tome.
"Great. Now that's guts." Tianming shot the female chief and said, "Hey, I prepared an opponent for you, so don't get in the way."
"Hall Lord?"
"Go."
"Alright!" The chief's shy expression turned cold the moment she saw Lin Xiaoxiao.
"Tianming, you—" Before Gu Shaoyu could finish, he saw a flash of stars and felt a whack on his face. His chubby cheeks jiggled from the impact.
"Did I ask you to talk?" Tianming lashed out three more times, causing him to yelp each time.
"Damn your ancestors! If I don't skin you today, I'll take your surname! Dammit!" Gu Shaoyu's raging face was redder than a tomato. He now regretted not killing Tianming the first time they met in Dragonmight Hall.
Right as he finished, Tianming's three lifebound beasts appeared. The snowy terrain changed into the sea with the activation of Azure Oceanic Purgatory. Shocked, Gu Shaoyu sent out his own beast, whose size rivaled even Lan Huang's. Though it was a wild boar, it was easily the most terrifying one Tianming had ever seen. It seemed to be covered in metal and had two long spear-like tusks. Its empyrean gold body made it incredibly tough. It had more than a hundred and thirty stars in its eyes, making it a proper tribulation beast. Only tribulation manna could allow a lifebound beast to evolve to that level. Its body could easily be far stronger than a beastmaster’s.
"Ultimate Warhog, kill them!" Gu Shaoyu ordered.
"Now that's a badass name!" Tianming said with a chuckle.
The next instant, the warhog and Lan Huang clashed, causing the two-headed dragon to be sent flying. The oceanic terrain was gone in an instant.
"Now that's fearsome." Tianming exchanged glances with Ying Huo. He had planned to have Meow Meow help him, but it seemed that it would take all three of his beasts to deal with the warhog's empyrean gold body.
"Hold on and wait for me. Let's go!" Ying Huo said. With the three of them all using their different techniques, it would be enough to take on the warhog. However, Tianming still had to defeat Gu Shaoyu as quickly as he could.
Gu Shaoyu wielded a greatsword that seemed heavier than mountains. It was a tribulation weapon called Unparalleled Slasher. His charge almost seemed to make the earth itself shake. "Die! Without your tome, let's see who’ll come save you!"
"Greensteel Blazesun Body?" Tianming saw how his foe's skin had turned into green steel. Empyrean gold bodies were terrifying indeed. Swiftly, Tianming crossed swords using Brightnight, only for him to notice that his Invincible Sword Ki couldn't pierce his opponent’s steely skin.
"Damn, you have thick skin!" Tianming immediately swapped Brightnight out for the Grand-Orient Sword. There wasn't anyone around to see him use it, not to mention the audience was far away outside.
"Your puny skills can't pierce my defenses!"
"Is that so?!"
"Just try it!"
"Stretch your neck out then!" The Grand-Orient Sword was also a greatsword that could hold its own against the tribulation weapon. He immediately activated the Imperealm Sword Formation and gathered all of his strands of Invincible Sword Ki into the sword. As Gu Shaoyu came charging at him like a mountain again, Tianming somehow recalled the Hexapath Sword God. Cultivate my Hexapath Samsara Sword with your life!
At that moment, it clicked and the intricacies of the technique flooded into his head. The first strike was called Mortal Dao Sword. It contained the essence of humanity, sentient beings, and all citizens. Needless to say, sudden bursts of potential were the most terrifying in a fight to the death, and he had comprehended the technique at just the right moment.
He split the Grand-Orient Sword in two and said, "One sword for life, one sword for death! The death of mortals shall fuel the cycle of reincarnation, perpetuating life for eternity!"
Just because he had a sudden epiphany didn't mean he had mastered the strike. Nevertheless, it changed his stance drastically from before, when he was planning on using the fourth Shenxiao sword strike.
"Sentient beings?" Gu Shaoyu was stunned when he saw billions of phantasmal people standing behind Tianming, all of whom were watching him before stabbing out at him. "What?!"
With a loud clink, Tianming's gold sword broke his tribulation weapon. That was the sword of life. The next was the black sword of death that pierced through his throat.
"Aaaaaagh!" Gu Shaoyu cried with his eyes wide, but his voice didn't travel far. "I... I..."
He was struggling like a drowning man. However, nobody could escape the countless hands that dragged them into the vortex of death. He was terrified out of his mind by the countless people he saw. What kind of sword strike was that? It was definitely far beyond a samsara-ranked battle art.
"Darn you, Li Tianming! Waah!" Before he managed to finish his last words, Tianming's gold sword sent his head flying.
"Shut up, will you?" He received no reply as Gu Shaoyu's corpse fell to the ground. "So what if you’ve got a Greensteel Blazesun Body?"
While it couldn’t be pierced by Invincible Sword Ki, it was like butter to the Grand-Orient Sword. Tianming turned back with both swords in hand, ignoring the turmoil he had caused in the Dimensional Battlefield. All he cared about was whether that warhog was dead.
He was greeted by the sight of Ying Huo, Meow Meow and Lan Huang covered entirely in blood. However, there was a dead tribulation beast with its guts split open on the ground. They hadn’t needed his help at all.
"Remember this in your next life, piggy! If you want to refine your body, you’d better start with the balls!" Ying Huo said. Tianming could only imagine what method they used to win.
Meanwhile, the female chief stopped fighting and stared at Tianming blankly.
"Goodbye." Tianming called out to Lin Xiaoxiao and left with her.
Crude is the hat the forlorn hero wears, sharp is the treasured sword he wields,
Fast is the brilliant white steed he rides, as he streaks like a meteor through the fields.
He halts not from fear across miles and miles, a kill every ten strides, culling the weed,
Swiftly leaving after the deed, leaving neither name nor creed. [1]
Moments later, the chief's cry was heard piercing the clouds. "The Hall Lord of Greenvoid Hall has been killed!"
......
"Faction Lord, the Greenvoid Hall Lord is dead," reported the female chief as she knelt.
"Come on, stop joking!" The others merely laughed.
"This is his head," she said as she took it out of her spatial ring, instantly silencing tens of thousands of others.
"Who did it?" Xuanyuan Yufeng said, his third black eye glowing fiercely.
"Li Tianming of the Swordking Faction!"
1. First few stanzas of Li Bai's poem, Xia Ke Xing, or 'Ode to Gallantry', written during the Tang Dynasty.