Battle Against the Aztecs

Yaan targeted the twins first.

The duo's style of attack was to be quick and discrete. They cooperated by mirroring one another's movements, each diving towards their target from either side. They possessed concealment methods, but compared to Yaan's illusion dao, it was just child's play.

He allowed them to reach a dozen feet from him, then he vanished from view completely.

Shocked expressions plastered their faces. Neither of the twins knew what to do in this situation, so they both chose to pull back immediately.

They instantly rushed backwards straight into the concealed pair of illusory swords imbued with Soul Force.

Illusions combined with Soul Force quite nicely. Generally speaking, illusions on their own possessed little attacking power, whilst Soul Force could be defended against if you were prepared. However, hiding Soul Force within an illusion made for the perfect combination.

The Soul Force did not affect their bodies or Vital Energy, it directly stabbed into their Primal Souls. Terrified, the twins each tried to remove the slaughterous blades of Soul Force from their souls, but it was to no avail. And now, with such intense slaughterous power drilled into their Primal Souls, it was only a matter of time before they died.

But they fought on!

These two had undergone Nirvana Life and received the Heavenly Blessing, they both had an abundance of Life Essence, they would not be killed so easily!

Their deaths would come around soon enough, but for now, they could still fight!

CHI CHI CHI CHI!

Yaan pierced each twin with two more darts of pure slaughterous Soul Force. The Soul Force darts were disguised by his illusions such that they could not be evaded.

BANG!

Yaan could no longer care about the twins, because Flaming Lion was already upon him. This person had the greatest amount of Life Essence of the six 6-Star Realm warriors, because he actually had immortal stage dao comprehension into the dao of fire.

As the other three surrounded him, Yaan knew that he could no longer hold back. He took out the abyssal blood sword, coating it in his slaughterous Soul Force.

Bang bang bang!

As Flaming Lion attacked Yaan ferociously, each of his strikes inflicted absolute devastation upon the below lands, but likewise, Yaan's counterattacks were terrifying. His every movement shot out snaking tendrils of slaughter to massacre every living thing in sight.

BANG!

Yaan was struck from behind as a giant shadow slammed into him like a tidal wave. He narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth, quickly turning around and staring at the massive entity behind him.

It was a 6-Star Realm astral spirit!

Even the other Aztecs looked shocked, this was also their first time seeing a 6-Star Realm astral spirit!

It was simply huge, akin to a mountain in size!

Yaan coughed out a mouthful of blood and his Vital Qi was sent into turmoil. Even his core was shaken, causing his Spirit Soul to tremble within.

Ignoring his injuries, Yaan immediately lashed out. His gaze became cold, and he directly used his Agile Illusion Art, the 1st step!

Whoosh!

His body moved so fast that nobody could even see it. It was as if he had simply transported himself directly into the centre of the 6-Star Realm astral spirit in an instant!

The others were stunned, not because of his impossible speed, but because…he actually deliberately walked directly into the centre of the 6-Star Realm astral spirit?!

Yaan's blade coated in slaughterous Soul Force dug into the astral spirit, but he did not emerge from the other side. He found himself within the mountainous creature, watching slowly as the slaughter spread out from his Soul Force, entering the astral spirit and killing it from the inside out.

The astral spirit thrashed about, but there was nothing it could do. In fact, even Yaan hadn't expected this battle to end so easily…

But this situation was actually very good for him.

A 6-Star Realm astral spirit was a Rank 6 being. He was able to watch as his slaughterous power killed its existence, slowly but surely.

Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Yaan stabbed out into multiple places within the astral spirit, observing the rate of spread of the slaughter. He experimented with using weapons, sword arts, illusion-formed weapons, and simply releasing his slaughter in its most direct form.

In the end, directly releasing the slaughter from his soul worked the best, but if he pushed it too far, he would lose himself completely, it was not a viable option.

But it made Yaan wonder…

It seemed that his Spirit Soul, which was infused with slaughter, would grow at the greatest rate when its slaughter was allowed to spread out and devour even more slaughter.

How did this differ from the Fiend Transformation Technique?

When a human developed the Fiend Foundation, their body became able to naturally absorb and refine the Slaughter Aura released from the living beings that they killed into Qi…

That was what Yaan had always believed.

But was the Fiend Foundation's ability to refine Slaughter Aura actually related to the body? No, in actual fact, this facet of the Fiend Foundation was solely related to the Dantian!

The Dantian drew in the Slaughter Aura. The Dantian walls refined the Slaughter Aura into Slaughter Energy, then the Dantian refined the Slaughter Energy into Innate Qi!

Bang!

Finally, Yaan put the 6-Star Realm astral spirit out of its misery. In the same instant, he decapitated its master, killing him along with the behemoth of a spirit.

This was the weakness of the astral path. Astral power cultivators were too reliant on their astral spirits, and without their spirits, their cultivation was basically crippled.

Yaan glanced at his remaining opponents. One was dead, two were fated to die soon enough, and now, only three remained…

Finally, the obese Aztec acted. Moving at a speed difficult to believe for his size, he unexpectedly shot towards Yaan, colliding with him and sending him flying…but just before Yaan was hit with the force of a mountain, he stabbed into the obese Aztec's stomach.

Yaan's ribs cracked, he choked out more blood, his organs were crushed; he was a mess. He slammed down into the ground and lay there for a moment, watching as the obese Aztec fell down towards him.

Just as the obese Aztec was about to reach him, Yaan slowly lifted his finger. His movement seemed small, and yet, his hand crossed the distance in an instant, reaching the Aztec before he landed.

Yaan formed a small, illusory sword, made from illusions and hidden with slaughterous Soul Force.

The obese Aztec laughed mockingly.

"My vitality transcends the heavens, what can that small sword achieve?!"

As Yaan lay there, not bothering to move, he slowly lifted his hand, before tapping the tip of the illusory blade onto the obese Aztec's nose, moments before the expected collision.

Cling…

Agile Illusion Art, the 2nd step!

"Huh?!" The obese Aztec didn't understand how he died, but his body was assaulted by a force one hundred times more overbearing compared to the attack that he was about to use on Yaan. This force was now imbued with slaughter, pervading every cell in his body, slaughtering through every fibre of his being thoroughly and without restraint…

The slaughter was so thorough that no corpse was left behind. In fact, even the obese Aztec's blood, organs and bones were vaporised, and the ash turned to black smoke and blew away.

Yaan's eyes widened, stunned by his own power.

Slowly, he stood up. For a moment, as the remaining two opponents, Flaming Lion and the female Aztec stormed down towards him, he forgot all about slaughter.

"Sword arts…are supposed to be simple, gentle, and effortless…" Yaan muttered to himself.

Flaming Lion slammed down with his hammer, aiming to obliterate Yaan in a single strike.

Yaan tapped the hammer at a certain angle, throwing it off balance, and instead causing the strike to obliterate the arm of his comrade, the female Aztec!

"Argh! You bastard!"

"It was the Red Demon, it was his trick!"

In the end, they both turned towards Yaan hatefully.

He had massacred their tribesmen, killed their friends, ruined their plans and crushed their prides!

No matter what, he needed to die!

The two attacked ferociously, whilst Yaan, injured, tired and out of breath, seemed to be barely evading. But eventually, the two noticed something odd.

They were in good condition, filled with energy and life, whilst he was on the verge of death, tired and nearly defeated…

So why couldn't they land a single strike?!

Yaan's footwork was slow, but it was practically perfect. It was as if he knew where to stand before they had even decided how and where to strike him!

The entire flow of the battle was within his grasp, he was dancing, like a leaf in the wind.

For a moment a faint smile appeared on Yaan's face.

But just for a moment.

He was not here to perfect his sword arts, he was here to slaughter. It was time to finish this.

He decided to finally do it, to use the spell that Rui had taught him…the infamous spell that was renowned for driving even the most sadistic of demons completely insane. Ordinarily, this spell should be impossible for a mortal like him, but due to his Slaughter Soul, it should be effective.

The spell was called Soul Death.

As the female Aztec again swung her sword at him angrily, Yaan suddenly turned towards her. His eyes were wide open, filled with dark grey slaughter in its purest form.

Yaan made eye contact with the woman, briefly entrancing her into his endless killing gaze.

The connection had been established. For the briefest moment, she was entirely entranced by the killing intent in his eyes. Given another moment, she would snap right out of it…

But Yaan did not give her that moment.

"Die." He spoke this one word softly, and without another sound, the 6-Star Realm female warrior dropped to the floor, dead.

"What?!" Flaming Lion stared in horror, then turned to face Yaan with a mixture of trepidation and anger. "What did you do to her? What did you do?!"

Yaan again made eye contact, this time with his final opponent, Flaming Lion. He opened his eyes wide, allowing a powerful whirlpool of slaughter to flood his gaze.

Flaming Lion was horrified by that gaze…and that was enough.

"Die."

Flaming Lion dropped dead to the ground.

Just like that, the leader of the Aztec Flame Province had died! This man was a legend, with centuries of successful battles and conquests to his name. His fame had long since spread across the entire Kingdom of Lunar Song, he was renowned as being one of the strongest warriors below the Immortal Step on the continent!

But even so, he died in such a pitiful manner, slaughtered by a single word uttered by a red-robed child. As Yaan stared at his enormous corpse, he couldn't help but think that life…was far too fragile.

He was brought out of his daze when Rui's voice echoed bluntly in his mind.

"Your soul cultivation talent is abyssmal, but your comprehension of life and death, and particularly slaughter, is sufficient such that you can use this spell with your Slaughter Variant Spirit Soul. Be careful though, it has a back lash. Using this spell as a mortal will increase the strength of your Nirvana Death Heavenly Calamity."