Vernon and the other five were furious; they hadn’t expected a moment’s distraction would let this brat escape. The six of them forcefully urged their flying swords, and six beams of light accelerated toward Edward Lewis. Edward Lewis unleashed six “Heaven-Flipping Golden Seals” in succession, colliding with the six flying swords. Bursts of golden radiance exploded, scattering golden rain across the sky. The six flying swords were repelled, and he himself was sent flying backward by the tremendous force. Thanks to the powerful bodies of the blood clan and the zombie king, he was able to grit his teeth and endure the pain as he was blasted away, focusing his mind to cast the “Nine Heavens Thunderfire Incantation.” Six bolts of heavenly lightning crashed down from the sky, striking at Vernon and the others. The six easily dodged the lightning, but lost their chance to ruthlessly finish off Edward Lewis while he was down. Their anger only grew, and they no longer held back, unleashing their flying swords with full force. All sorts of magical treasures appeared in quick succession, leaving Edward Lewis with no chance to fight back. Fortunately, the battle was taking place high in the sky, and everyone involved was a master, able to control their attacks at will; otherwise, after such a fierce fight, not a single building on the ground would have remained intact, and who knows how many innocent people would have been killed or injured.

Edward Lewis was furious. Qingxun’s death was his own fault, but these old guys didn’t care about right or wrong and just attacked him. After fighting them for so long, shouldn’t they have vented their anger by now? Yet they were still so aggressive—truly infuriating. With a roar, he revealed his true form: purple bat wings appeared, inscribed with faint golden Five Elements Incantations, and his fangs turned pale gold; the “Armor of the Heart” now covered his entire right chest, forearm, and the outside of his thigh, the blood-red armor adorned with black totems; a row of bone spurs unique to the zombie king protruded from his spine, each one pointing skyward like an antenna. He floated silently in the night sky like a demon god. Vernon and the others were stunned by this sudden transformation, momentarily forgetting to attack.

Edward Lewis bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood, activating the “Blood Refining Grand Art” to perform a high-level Daoist technique recorded in the “True Explanation of the Great River”: “Sword of the Celestial Lord”! With the support of the “Blood Refining Grand Art,” the activation of the “Sword of the Celestial Lord” was twice as fast as usual. The energy of heaven and earth gathered madly. Normally, the “Sword of the Celestial Lord” would condense the energy of heaven and earth outside the body to form sword qi for attack, since an ordinary body couldn’t withstand such immense power. But Edward Lewis, relying on the powerful bodies of the blood clan and zombie king, forcibly drew the vast energy of heaven and earth into his body. After amplification by his bat wings and bone spurs, the attack power of the “Sword of the Celestial Lord” was tripled before being unleashed. A beam of golden light soared from Edward Lewis, gradually gathering in the sky into a massive sword of light nearly ten meters in diameter, then detached from Edward Lewis’s body, howling as it flew toward Vernon and the others.

The six were terrified. While sending out their flying swords and magical treasures to intercept the giant sword of light, they continuously set up layers of defensive formations in front of themselves. Dozens of flying swords and treasures struck the sword of light, erupting in bursts of golden light. With each collision, a layer was stripped from the giant sword. After dozens of treasures, the sword of light was much weakened, but still nearly five meters in diameter. With nothing left to stop it, the “Sword of the Celestial Lord” crashed fiercely into the first defensive formation, breaking through the thirteen layers set up by Vernon and the others like a hot knife through butter. The sword of light, now three meters in diameter, struck Vernon and the others directly. With only their protective true qi left, the six had no way to defend themselves. Five of them were instantly annihilated, body and soul, leaving only the most powerful, Victor, whose gravely injured nascent soul escaped toward Mount Emei in a streak of golden light.

Edward Lewis was stunned on the spot. He hadn’t expected that unleashing all four of his major techniques in a full-force attack would have such devastating power. He had only intended to defeat the six, never to kill them. Now, because of their deaths, the enmity between Edward Lewis and the Emei Sect was even more irreconcilable. He stood in a daze for a long time, until his chaotic mind finally sorted everything out. He twisted his body and descended to the ground, heading home.

Three months later, in the main hall of the Divine Sect headquarters. The sect leader, four generals, ten kings of the underworld, and seventeen elders each sat in their respective seats. On the table in the center of the hall, thirteen jade discs were neatly arranged—the mountain-visit jade tokens from the leaders of the thirteen righteous sects. Elder Great Slayer was the first to stand and speak: “What’s there to discuss? Of course we can’t hand over Young Edward as they demand. Young Edward is one of us—how can we just give him up because someone says so? No way, absolutely not.” Everyone fell silent. They all knew this was a matter of great importance, and no one dared to speak lightly. Samuel Grant’s gaze was grave as he stared at the thirteen jade discs, deep in thought. Edward Lewis walked in from outside. Everyone present was highly skilled, so they had known it was him before he even entered, but no one had time to care who let him in. He walked to the center of the hall, stopped, and looked at Samuel Grant seated at the center, and said loudly, “Brother Sam, let me go!”