Chapter 125: He Is Actually a Late Nascent Soul Grand Cultivator!

"Eldest Senior Brother, given the situation, what do you think we should do?"

A Nascent Soul cultivator surnamed Yang cupped his hands to Zhou Xuanqing. His voice was steady, yet laced with extreme caution.

Zhou Xuanqing waved a hand and gave a slight shake of his head, maintaining an outward air of composure.

"The situation remains unclear, so there is no need to panic. Even if the newcomer is at the Peak Mid-Nascent Soul stage, our Yuqing Sect possesses seven Nascent Soul cultivators. Why should we fear a single man? Pass down the order: maintain all sect operations as usual."

Pausing briefly, he glanced sideways at the cultivator surnamed Yang beside him.

"Junior Brother Yang, Junior Brothers Yu and Zhao are still traveling in the Outer Sea. Send word to recall them immediately, just in case."

"Understood."

The Nascent Soul cultivator acknowledged the command and, with a flicker of movement, hurried away.

Zhou Xuanqing stood in place, watching him depart.

His right eyelid twitched uncontrollably. His gaze remained dead-set on the towering iceberg of flesh before the mountain gates, a strange, unspeakable unease and gloom gnawing at his heart.

Without delay, he directed his Divine Sense toward the sect's Second Elder, Zhou Xuanzhen, sending a quiet voice transmission while slipping an ancient jade plaque from his robes and tossing it through the air.

"Second Brother, take this jade plaque through the rear mountain's secret passage to the Teleportation Array and head to Spiritual Immortal Island to find Wei Tianhe. Our sect has offered them massive quantities of cultivation resources year after year. Faced with today's crisis, they cannot shirk their duty."

Zhou Xuanzhen caught the jade plaque securely. Harboring no doubt about his Eldest Senior Brother's decision, he wheeled around, turned into a streak of light, and bolted into the deepest reaches of the Yuqing Sect's secret grounds.

A moment later, a brilliant radiance broke through the clouds, disappearing at the edge of the sky in the blink of an eye.

Watching the light fade, Zhou Xuanqing felt the heavy pressure on his chest ease slightly. He turned his attention back to the Protective Mountain Array operating at full capacity, secretly turning over countermeasures in his mind.

Right then, the urgent shout of his son, Zhou Jin, rang out beside him.

"Father! There is someone on the iceberg!"

Zhou Xuanqing's heart instantly sank, and he jerked his head to look up.

Atop the hundred-zhang iceberg of flesh, a solitary, austere figure stood quietly, gazing down upon the entire Yuqing Sect.

He immediately projected his Divine Sense to investigate, taking in the stranger's full appearance.

The newcomer appeared remarkably young. His expression was dead still, his face smeared with mottled bloodstains. A blood-red robe billowed around him, its hem faintly shimmering with an eerie azure glow—a shocking sight that chilled the marrow.

He casually dangled several severed heads in one hand. An indifferent, obscure aura wrapped around him, completely obscuring the depth of his cultivation and making him impossible to read.

The moment Zhou Xuanqing's Divine Sense touched him, the blood-robed youth atop the iceberg abruptly turned his head.

Their gazes slammed together across the empty air.

Despite being a veteran Middle Nascent Soul expert, Zhou Xuanqing suddenly swayed violently. He stumbled back several paces as fine cold sweat instantly drenched his robes, leaving his back completely frozen.

"Father, what happened?"

Alarmed, Zhou Jin rushed forward to support him.

Panting heavily, Zhou Xuanqing forced his shaken stance steady. His brow furrowed tight, his voice thick with dread and wariness.

"Monstrous killing intent... That youth has slaughtered countless cultivators, and among them, there must be powerful Nascent Soul figures. Otherwise, he could never have condensed such a terrifying, frigid baleful aura."

Tumultuous waves churned within his heart.

Such a seemingly youthful cultivator possessed a bloody baleful aura potent enough to shake old Nascent Soul monsters. This person's origins were bizarre enough to make one's heart palpitate.

Beside him, Zhou Jin was even more terrified.

His father was a renowned Middle Nascent Soul powerhouse in the Heavenly Abyss Sea, a dominant figure whom few cultivators dared offend.

Yet now, a single shared glance with an unknown youth had destabilized his footing and severely shaken his mind.

Just how horrifying was the strength of this mysterious intruder atop the iceberg?

Zhou Jin stared hard at the blood-robed figure. A faint trace of familiarity stirred within his heart, yet no matter how hard he racked his memory, he could not place it.

Across the entire expanse of the Yuqing Sect, countless eyes crossed mountain ridges and palaces to focus upon the summit of the iceberg of flesh.

No one dared look down on the newcomer just because of his youth.

The ten-thousand-zhang iceberg of flesh beneath his feet stood as the starkest, most shocking proof of his slaughter.

This was a true god of carnage who had walked straight out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Under the watchful eyes of ten thousand cultivators, Jiuyou slowly raised his hand, resting his palm gently against the brilliantly luminous barrier of the Protective Mountain Array.

Every heart in the sect instantly leapt into their throats; no one dared breathe.

Yet the expected earth-shattering breakage never occurred.

He merely pressed lightly against the barrier's surface, sending fine ripples cascading through the crystalline shield, while the overall structure remained as rock-solid as before, without the slightest damage.

The crowd secretly breathed a long sigh of relief, and the tight strings in everyone's minds relaxed a fraction.

This Protective Mountain Array had been personally laid down by a previous Supreme Elder of the Yuqing Sect and reinforced over generations. An ordinary Middle Nascent Soul cultivator stood absolutely no chance of breaking it in a short time.

Only a top-tier Nascent Soul Late Stage expert could shake its foundation with a supreme divine ability.

"What is he trying to do?" someone in the crowd murmured in bewilderment.

Jiuyou's figure slowly rose into the air until he hovered ten thousand zhang high.

His face was impassive, the chill in his eyes piercing to the bone, devoid of any superfluous emotion.

As he slowly lifted a hand above his head, countless golden longswords abruptly surged into existence from the void.

Sword after golden sword tore through the air and took shape, wheeling into a disciplined sword array. Their thousands of tips locked directly onto the Protective Mountain Array below.

A chilling sword momentum hung high in the sky. Its sharp edge blanketed the heavens, and its oppressive weight swept over the entire Yuqing Sect.

Within the array, Zhou Xuanqing watched coldly. Though apprehensive, he forced an air of calm and sneered.

"Not measuring your own capacity. Once reinforcements arrive, I want to see how long you can remain so arrogant."

Having lived to the Middle Nascent Soul Stage and cultivated for a millennium, he had long understood the way of self-preservation.

Striking rashly before an opponent's trump cards were revealed was a major taboo.

Yet he dared not slacken in the slightest. Immediately sending a voice transmission with his Divine Sense, he urgently summoned the sect's remaining Nascent Soul cultivators to assist.

In the blink of an eye, the departed Nascent Soul cultivator surnamed Yang rushed back alongside another Nascent Soul elder, taking their stand beside Zhou Xuanqing.

Right then, thirty-two golden longswords high in the sky abruptly moved in unison.

The golden swords fused together, and their spiritual light skyrocketed as thousands of sword beams layered and converged into one.

In just a few breaths, a hundred-zhang giant sword took form. Completely cast in brilliant, radiant gold, it hung like a golden sun in the firmament. A heavy, terrifying pressure completely engulfed heaven and earth.

In the next second, the hundred-zhang golden sword plummeted with the force of a thunderbolt, crashing precisely onto the protective barrier.

A terrifying spiritual shockwave instantly blasted outward in all directions from the impact point.

The low-tier disciples near the array foundation could not withstand this terrifying aftershock. In an instant, their physical bodies dissolved into ash, and they were gone before a scream could even escape their lips.

Cultivators slightly farther away hastily brought out their defensive artifacts to block the blow, yet they were still violently thrown by the raging spiritual torrent, crashing to the ground with their survival unknown.

Inside the array, Zhou Xuanqing and the three Nascent Soul elders instantly turned completely pale, their hearts trembling violently.

"Nascent Soul Late Stage! This man is actually a Nascent Soul Late Stage Grand Cultivator!"

They cried out in alarm, their minds filled with disbelief.

One had to know, the territories of the Heavenly Abyss Sea and the Lingchuan Continent were vast, and their Nascent Soul cultivators numbered in the hundreds, yet there were only six top-tier experts at the Nascent Soul Late Stage.

As long as Deity Transformation experts did not appear, a Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivator was the absolute overlord of a region, commanding life and death with unshakeable authority.

Their Yuqing Sect had struggled desperately for so many years, handing over massive amounts of resources to Spiritual Immortal Island, just to barely establish a connection with a Nascent Soul Late Stage Grand Cultivator and use Wei Tianhe's name to develop in peace until now.

The sheer significance of a Nascent Soul Late Stage Grand Cultivator was evident.

Why would such a supreme figure suddenly descend upon the Yuqing Sect and arrive at their door to seek vengeance?

The four men had no time to ponder it; the crisis was already imminent.

The four poured their full cultivation into bolstering the array, yet where the giant sword struck, the incredibly resilient protective barrier had already begun to spiderweb with fine cracks.

The cracks spread rapidly, leaving the entire array tottering on the brink of collapse.

Just as the four gritted their teeth and desperately tried to stabilize the array foundation, another sharp ray of golden light flashed around Jiuyou high above.

That highly condensed beam of golden light sliced through the void, striking precisely atop the point of the golden sword's impact.

A dual eruption of terrifying power abruptly burst forth.

A deafening roar shook heaven and earth!

Powerless to resist this boundless, immense force, the four Nascent Soul cultivators were sent flying backward simultaneously. Tumbling through the air several times, they barely managed to steady their bodies, their blood churning as a sweet metallic taste welled up in their throats.

A crisp shattering sound rang through the mountains.

Dense cracks instantly spread across the entirety of the protective barrier.

'It's over.'

A bone-chilling dread instantly enveloped the hearts of the four Nascent Soul elders, leaving a single thought of pure despair firmly entrenched in their minds.