Li Ling, to the shock of onlookers who had heard the discourse between them, actually made the first move, raising a finger and summoning a Meteor down on his foes, causing their faces to change with horror.

"What?! Another Perfection-stage daoist art at the second realm?! What kind of monster is this?!" Jian Chen roared with horror, immediately adopting the Formless Cloud Array with his fellow disciples.

They immediately channeled all their power and more, even throwing out all available protective talismans they had, blocking the meteor's smash head-on with their combined power. Despite this, all of the Qi Refinement cultivators among them burst into mists of blood, pulverized and crushed by the force of the powerful daoist art.

｢System Prompt: You have gained 260 Slaughter Points.｣

Twenty-six peak Qi Refinement cultivators killed in one hit, leaving only seven Foundation Establishment cultivators, including Jian Chen, who were pale-faced and spitting blood. This meteor was something not even an entire marketplace with two Core Formation cultivators could resist, so the reason for their survival lay in a defensive treasure granted to Jian Chen by his master before coming.

That specific treasure was shown to be a fragment of a sword hilt, which had an ornate design with a golden jewel lodged in its guard area. When Li Ling saw it, his eyes narrowed as his spirit sense was immediately sliced when passing over it, showing that this artifact had significant spirituality and was at least of the fourth grade, equivalent to the Nascent Soul!

Yet no matter what, it could not display its full power due to the one in control of it, who was merely at the 5th level of Foundation Establishment. As such, it could only act as a life-saving treasure that could negate most attacks below the fourth grade, but the cost for use was too heavy, bottoming out their magic power at once.

Even then, it still couldn't save those Qi Refinement fellows, something which made Jian Chen's eyes go red with hate as he glared at the solemn Li Ling. "You fool! You madman! How dare you attack us?! Don't you know the penalty for breaching a heavenly oath?!"

Indeed, Li Ling glanced upwards and felt something malevolent brewing in a place he couldn't see, aiming to strike him down with such force that coming out crippled would be his best outcome. Yet he showed no despair nor worry, simply raising an eyebrow and sitting cross-legged in mid-air.

Li Ling made the Heaven-Earth-Man Hand Sign and entered the Blessed Augury's space, allowing his spiritual incarnation to open the book and ask: "How much to cancel the penalty for the oath?"

The Book of Heaven's Secrets began to flip its pages rapidly, landing on a page that displayed the cost. Li Ling bent over to look and almost spat, seeing that the Will of Heaven wanted the equivalent of his entire cultivation, both body and qi, as well as 200 years of life to offset the penalty.

With a look of disdain, Li Ling communicated with the Infinite Slaughter System. "How much would it cost when converted to Slaughter Points?"

[1000 Slaughter Points will need to be sacrificed by the host to satisfy the Will of Heaven.]

Well, a thousand was not much for him right now. Li Ling would just be more conscious to drop a few more meteors on cities and he could quickly regather it in due time. However, it left a bad taste in his mouth that the obviously biased Heaven's Will would benefit from its blasted ways.

Suddenly, Li Ling had an idea. "What about if I externalize Slaughter Points to resist the backlash of heaven?"

This one took a while for the system to respond, during which Li Ling's spiritual incarnation became shaky because some commotion was occurring in the real world, but the answer soon came.

[It is possible. A meager Will of Heaven is nothing before the incumbent Slaughter God of the Myriad Realms. The value of Slaughter Points needed would depend on the level of heavenly punishment.]

Li Ling narrowed his eyes and chuckled. "Then let's take a gamble today. I'd rather pay more to resist directly than give Heaven's Will even a crumb to spare my life!"

Saying this, his spiritual incarnation cracked and faded away, forced out of the Blessed Augury space after too much interference from reality.

Meanwhile, earlier on, the moment when Li Ling entered the Blessed Augury space…

Jian Chen, still filled with hate, immediately saw Li Ling sit cross-legged in mid-air and felt absurd. They were still in the midst of battle, and this fellow actually dared to lower his guard? Did he think just because he mastered some daoist arts at Perfection, he was invincible under heaven?

"Senior Brother, now is a good time to vanquish this demon! Let's use our strongest attack!" one of the other Foundation Establishment disciples whispered with bloodshot eyes, filled with utter hate as he glanced at Li Ling.

The rest also wore such expressions, wishing they could skin Li Ling alive for the crime of murdering their innocent junior brothers and sisters. Jian Chen narrowed his eyes and grunted with affirmation, not caring about martial ethics like not attacking a defenseless foe.

In his mind, martial ethics could only be discussed between two people of the righteous path. All demonic disciples, in the pursuit of the art and their cruelty, had given up such privileges and could be taken down using any means necessary.

Immediately, the group formed a thinner Formless Cloud Array which was 30% weaker without the Qi Refinement fellows to act as connectors to strengthen the link and provide a minor amount of energy. As such, when Jian Chen made a hand sign and pointed forward, the Bright Sword that was generated was about a third weaker than usual.

"Slash!" Jian Chen roared, not in the mood to call out the attack's name, infusing all his killing intent into this blow!

"Oh no, the Master is not in a position to defend himself!" Kong Beiwu saw this and was deeply shaken, wanting to rush over to assist with his body, but Li Ling ordered him the next moment to stay put through voice transmission, much to his surprise.

As for the sword attack, both Jian Chen's group and the bunch of ladies looked on with hope, feeling that this should have some effect on this careless demonic sect disciple.

CLANG!

However, just like the other time, the sword was stopped by a Golden Blockade at Perfection, unable to take a single step further no matter how it pushed down. Jian Chen and his group exerted their spirit sense to apply more force to the Bright Sword, pushing until their faces became red, yet it still did not move Li Ling's Golden Blockade in the least.

However, it did consume his magic power, causing Li Ling to open his eyes with a hint of annoyance. He had just gotten the price from Heaven's Will and was full of reluctance to pay such a foolish bill.

"Aren't you tired? Why not just wait for heaven to strike me down first rather than fight stupidly?" Li Ling asked with puzzlement.

The Bright Sword slowly dispersed into motes of light as Jian Chen and his group panted heavily, yet the young man still answered Li Ling with a tone of righteous anger. "That's because of us! Since heaven judges our intentions for breaking the oath post-conflict, it also does the same for you! However, you are definitely dead while we will be fine!"

Li Ling rubbed his chin. "Huh, how convenient for you guys. Does the Will of Heaven also wipe your asses after you take a shit too?"

Kong Beiwu's lips twitched while Jian Chen and his crew's faces became red with embarrassment, wondering how this young man could spew such filthy words from his mouth. Meanwhile, Li Ling finally smiled as he got the answer he wanted from the Infinite Slaughter System, sitting up from his seated position with a cold smile.

"The first time we met, I could have killed you all back then, but I held back because of your background, so I proposed a fair compromise. Who would have thought that you'd not regard my kindness and seek to abuse your privileges to try and harm me."

Jian Chen gritted his teeth, swallowing a pill that could recover his magic power rapidly as he tried to delay a bit. "Against demonic disciples, there is no need for courtesy! You cause too much suffering and pain in this world to be given fair treatment!"

Li Ling nodded. "Since you think so, I will stop playing around then."

Immediately, Li Ling sucked in a breath of air, puzzling everyone until he finally unleashed the Fire Stream Art, a sea of flames churning towards Jian Chen and his righteous sect brothers. The opposing group's faces changed to ones of abject horror, not understanding what they were supposed to be looking at.

"Three?! Three Perfection-stage daoist arts at the second realm?!" Jian Chen bellowed with disbelief, immediately taking out the talisman that his master gave him, planning to escape rather than fight back.

PUCHI!

However, Jian Chen could only gaze downwards in shock at the hand that punched through his torso, hollowing out his chest area. When he raised his head, he saw a severely burned and scarred Li Ling who was rapidly healing, wearing a smile of mockery.

"After doing all this, you think you can run?" Li Ling teased, snatching the talisman and pocketing it while taking his hand from Jian Chen's chest, holding his beating heart in hand.

"I… am not… reconciled…" Jian Chen managed to say weakly as his body was soon engulfed by the flame, burned to ashes like his other brothers and sisters who lost access to the Formless Cloud Array's defense after Li Ling took the core node down.

｢System Prompt: You have gained 180 Slaughter Points.｣

Li Ling looked at the charred corpses and collected their void rings, planning to go through them later. As this had nothing to do with his dispatch, he had no plans to share these spoils with Pang Wen, not to mention the fact that the fellow already had a lot to deal with on his plate with nine beauties incoming.

Before Li Ling could make a move though, the power of heaven descended upon him, formless and unseen, but everyone could feel it. The raw fury and wrath of a being far superior to them in terms of life level caused everyone's faces to change and even the Demon Sparrow to tremble greatly, almost crashing to the ground.

Li Ling stumbled a bit in midair, his body anticipating a strike of pain like when he harmed Bai Ruyi, but nothing came. He was perfectly unscathed, and if it wasn't for the prompt screen that appeared before him, he would have thought that everything was a joke.

｢System Prompt: You have sacrificed 500 Slaughter Points to resist the punishment of heaven.｣

Looking at the prompt, Li Ling was deeply silent for a long while, his expression gloomy. When he killed the Qi Refinement fellows but did not kill Jian Chen and his ilk, Heaven's Will demanded the equivalent of 1000 Slaughter Points to let the matter go.

Yet after he killed the whole batch of them, it only cost 500 Slaughter Points to resist the actual backlash.

Indeed, create a problem and sell the solution.

If you were a car manufacturer and a client came to buy a new engine part because their old one was damaged, you could completely decide whatever price to sell the new part at because you were the only one who produced it.

Li Ling shook his head, now somewhat understanding why the Six Paths Demon Sect, despite having ties in the upper realm and possessing the same number of peak powerhouses as the Heavenly Mandate Sect, was not ranked second but at fourth place.

It seems his idea to slaughter the Will of Heaven had to be realized sooner rather than later!

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