After mastering the Panwu Divine Art, Liu Wuxie's physique had become monstrously powerful. The Yuan Clan ancestor's technique posed no threat, and Liu Wuxie ripped it apart effortlessly.
Without hesitation, he activated the Spatial Dao Art and vanished, reappearing before the Yuan Clan's ancestor in the blink of an eye.
"You can die now," Liu Wuxie said coldly.
The murderous aura he released locked the ancestor in place. Fear overwhelmed the old man, and he lost control of his bladder.
"Don't kill m—" he screamed.
Before he could finish his plea, Liu Wuxie's fist slammed into his head with a thunderous boom. His skull exploded, and his primordial spirit had no chance to escape before Liu Wuxie annihilated it.
Most Heaven Profound Realm cultivators would preserve a sliver of their spirit for reincarnation, but Liu Wuxie obliterated every trace of it.
Members of the Yuan Clan stared in horror as their mighty ancestor fell. Gasps rippled across the battlefield.
For generations, everyone believed that Heaven Profound Realm cultivators stood at the pinnacle of power. Though they knew such experts could fall to others of the same realm, none imagined one could be killed —by an Earth Profound Realm expert.
With a single punch, Liu Wuxie rewrote history. He shattered the common understanding of cultivation, trampling centuries of belief beneath his feet.
Without rest, he turned toward the Wang Clan's ancestor.
"You're next." He unleashed the Frost Dao Art. Ice sealed the sky into a frozen world.
"So cold!" Cultivators thousands of miles away shivered as the chill pierced their bodies.
Having refined the Yuan Clan ancestor's laws, Liu Wuxie's aura surged again, rising to the pinnacle of the seventh-level Earth Profound Realm. He was now one step from the eighth level.
Indecision gripped the Wang Clan's ancestor. He teetered between flight and resistance. If the Yuan Clan's ancestor couldn't survive, how could he?
"Run!" he shouted, making a split-second decision. If he managed to escape, his clan could rise again. If he died here, then the Wang Clan would collapse.
"Trying to run? Not happening!" Liu Wuxie had already sealed the battlefield. No one would leave.
The Frost Dao Art spread like wildfire, freezing even the air. Combined with the Spatial Dao Art, it left the Wang Clan's ancestor sluggish and vulnerable.
"Great Five Elemental Palm!" A massive palm descended from the heavens like divine punishment.
With no way to escape, the Wang Clan's patriarch braced himself for the strike.
Cracks echoed across the battlefield as his laws shattered beneath Liu Wuxie's crushing force. They broke like brittle shells.
"How could this be...?" he muttered, stunned.
He couldn't believe that an Earth Profound Realm expert had defeated him.
"Die," Liu Wuxie said, calm and absolute.
The enormous palm crashed down, reducing the Wang Clan's ancestor to a puddle of blood drifting in the wind.
Liu Wuxie summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, which swallowed the spiritual energy and laws from the corpse.
His aura surged again.
In an instant, he stepped into the eighth-level Earth Profound Realm.
He could already kill Heaven Profound Realm cultivators at the seventh level, and his strength had grown even more terrifying. At this point, he could crush first-level Heaven Profound cultivators with ease, and his physique alone was powerful enough to do it.
The Panwu Divine Art had forged him into an unstoppable force.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, the Liao Clan's ancestor remained locked in a desperate fight against the Heretic Blade. The blade carved deeper with every strike, painting his crimson robes a deeper shade of red.
Without his right arm, his strength had plummeted. He could only scream in pain and frustration.
Liu Wuxie's aura continued to rise, finally stabilizing at the mid-to-late stage of the eighth level.
"So many spirit stones," Liu Wuxie muttered as he examined the two interspatial rings in his hand. The Yuan and Wang Clan ancestors had lived for centuries, hoarding unimaginable resources.
Liu Wuxie had nearly depleted his own during his last breakthrough, but the tens of millions of supreme-grade spirit stones now in his possession instantly replenished everything he had consumed.
"Devour!" He consumed one million supreme-grade spirit stones at once. The desolate world within the cauldron surged with energy. His cultivation stabilized at the peak of the eighth-level Earth Profound Realm, and more star nodes lit up through the Panwu Divine Art.
After consolidating his realm, Liu Wuxie unleashed a pressure so immense that even Quasi-Heaven Profound experts bowed in submission.
"Heretic Blade, finish it." He stood motionless as his weapon surged into action.
The Heretic Blade erupted into a violent torrent of blade auras, descending like divine retribution.
"NO!" the Liao Clan's ancestor screamed, twisting to flee, but he was too late. The blade sliced him into countless fragments, leaving behind only a blood-stained skeleton.
Liu Wuxie summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, devouring the energy and laws within the corpse.
Though it didn't spark another breakthrough, it further solidified his cultivation. He now stood like a towering mountain, unshakable to all who looked up at him.
"Kill them all!" Liu Xiucheng roared as the final ancestor fell.
The Liu Clan charged forward, sweeping through the remnants of the three clans.
Liu Wuxie had slain their patriarchs and elites, leaving only weak disciples behind.
Within ten breaths, he wiped them out, rivers of blood marking the field. Just like a few months prior, Liu Wuxie had annihilated the same three clans. They had attacked the Heavenly Dao Society then, and now, the Liu Clan.
The result was the same—destruction.
"The three clans will cease to exist tomorrow," sighed several aged elders.
The Four Great Clans had been keeping each other in balance for generations. No one had expected their demise to happen this way.
Liu Wuxie had single-handedly reshaped the power structure of the Central Plains.
"Seize them!" Liu Dazhi bellowed, locking eyes on Liu Shen, Liu Xiaotian, and the others who had betrayed the clan.
Liu Shen's former subordinates quickly captured over five hundred traitors.
From the moment they defected, the Liu Clan had branded them as traitors and stripped them of their clan status.
Tears streamed down their faces as they wept in regret. If they had remained loyal, they would have been basking in victory by now.
Despite reaching the pinnacle of the Earth Profound Realm, Liu Shen didn't bother to resist. He knew there was no point, as Liu Wuxie could end him with a breath.
Liu Xiaotian fell to his knees before Liu Xiucheng.
"Big Brother, please spare me! Liu Shen forced me!" he exclaimed, weeping to try and shift all blame.
"I gave you countless chances over the years, but you never cherished them. Take your own life," Liu Xiucheng said, offering him the dignity of a self-inflicted death.
By right, Liu Xiaotian ought to have died long ago for his crimes. Liu Xiucheng had forgiven him again and again. Yet today, he tried to seize the patriarch's position and even forced Liu Xiucheng to attempt suicide.
This betrayal could not be forgiven.
Liu Xiaotian collapsed to the ground, trembling. He didn't want to die. However, no one paid him any attention as Liu Xiucheng turned to Liu Shen; he wanted to know why.
"Liu Shen, I treated you as a brother. What wrong have I ever done to you?!" Liu Xiucheng shouted, his voice cracked.
Liu Xiaotian was his blood brother. Liu Shen, too, had once been like family. Their betrayal pierced him like a blade.
"The winner takes it all. Spare me the sentiment. The Liu Clan stagnated under your leadership. The other clans surpassed us. Someone as mediocre as you is unfit to lead," Liu Shen sneered. There was no point in dragging out the conversation. The outcome was already decided.
Before Liu Wuxie's return, the Liu Clan had indeed been in decline. However, that wasn't entirely Liu Xiucheng's fault. Someone had stolen the clan's alchemy formulas and poisoned Liu Xiucheng, and it was none other than Liu Shen.
He sabotaged the clan from the shadows, leaking intelligence to the three rival clans. He had done everything to claim leadership of the Liu Clan.
"You still feel no remorse!" Liu Xiucheng cried, voice cracking. He could no longer recognize the man standing before him.
Liu Shen had become something terrifying—cold-blooded and heartless, willing to betray even his closest kin for power.
Two silent tears rolled down Liu Xiucheng's cheeks.
"This is partly my fault for failing to see your true nature. Kill yourselves. I'll bury you in the ancestral mountain after your deaths," he said, turning away.
"Thank you, patriarch!" the defectors sobbed as they knelt. As long as the Liu Clan buried them in the ancestral mountain, they could still die as souls of the Liu Clan.