"Where did you get this technique?" Qingyi asked, his voice cold.

Unorthodox techniques, depending on their use, might even be tolerated.

But demonic techniques?

Immediate execution was the standard rule throughout the orthodox world.

A cultivator who succumbed to demonic techniques deserved no mercy.

"A dead man needs know nothing!" The man, or to be more specific, the now-female leader of Tianhao's henchmen, roared with rage.

"Hm... it's good that you know that."

Qingyi's lips curled, and he executed the Heaven-Shattering Divine Slash around himself, his blade slicing through the air in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree arc.

"Release!" A roar echoed, and the ten demonic auras descended upon him at once, colliding with the Heaven-Shattering Divine Slash as if they were arrows fired from a single bow.

"Ugh... it's a bit stronger than I expected."

Qingyi growled through clenched teeth, his eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

With a roar full of rage, the handsome young dragon let it all out.

His black wings spread wide, the Qi slash around him strengthening even further and overcoming the pressure of the ten cultivators for a brief moment.

That brief moment was all he needed.

With his draconic eyes active, time around him seemed to slow down

as he analyzed the formation surrounding him.

It took him only an instant to identify over a hundred weak points.

Keeping his right hand on the Heaven-Defying Thunder Sword, he extended his left hand.

Between his strong fingers, over a hundred silver needles appeared, small and sharp as serpent fangs.

Those needles were gifts from Biyue to him, each carrying poison more than capable of killing a cultivator in the Celestial Ascension realm.

Qingyi didn't like using poison, but Biyue had worked so hard to craft those needles.

It was hard to see her as excited as she was when she handed them to him, so how could he not use them?

Infusing the needles with Qi, he launched them, each targeting a different flaw in the formation.

The eyes of the henchmen, which had taken on a fierce gleam upon sensing Qingyi's attack falter, quickly filled with shock.

"What are you doing?" the group's leader roared.

Before his voice had even faded, the needles had already been launched, tearing through the air at the speed of sound.

It took only a fraction of a second for them to realize what those needles were and to sense the terrible poison they exuded.

If that poison infiltrated the formation and reached them...

They would be dead. Dead for certain.

The leader clenched his teeth and, after long seconds of hesitation, broke the formation.

The ten scattered with a burst, immediately throwing themselves to the ground.

The Heaven-Shattering Divine Slash passed mere inches from their heads, tearing out hair and causing minor injuries even to those who managed to dodge in time, the wind from the blade slicing through their skin like paper.

Qingyi retrieved the needles and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

He had sustained some internal injuries, but nothing serious enough

to worry him.

With a cruel smile, his body vanished.

"Shit!" The group's leader roared with rage, pounding the ground hard enough to crack the stone.

He tried to get up and use his last trump card, but it was already too late.

The moment he pulled a small red talisman from his spirit ring, a powerful boot came crashing down on his arm with a sharp crack.

His hand was flung into the air, the bones reduced to dust.

In that moment, he realized.

In just a second, all his companions had been killed.

Bodies torn apart, throats ripped open, heads torn off with nothing

but sheer brute force.

Peng Tao, who had watched the fight in shock, couldn't help but

shudder.

Qingyi was too brutal.

In his entire life, he had never seen such a violent fighting style, especially not among orthodox cultivators.

It was like a beast fighting, like a...

Well. Qingyi was a black dragon. It was obvious he fought like one.

"Why?..." The leader of the henchmen asked, his eyes red with rage.

"Why didn't you even give them the respect of letting them die by the sword?"

"And you think they deserve that respect?" Qingyi replied, his voice carrying the same weight as someone discussing the weather. "You are not worthy of having your blood stain my blade."

He kicked hard, controlling the power of the impact just enough not to prevent the man from speaking.

The head of the last living henchman was flung backward with a thud.

"If you tell me exactly where you got this technique, I might consider giving you a quick death." Qingyi smiled, crouching down to the level of his face.

The dying man tried to spit on him, but the bloody saliva evaporated in the air before it got close, consumed by the heat of Qingyi's flame

Qi.

"You know, I have a very beautiful wife who's very good with healing pills. She made some truly miraculous ones recently.

They can keep you alive for weeks, even with your body constantly

being destroyed."

Qingyi didn't want to waste Feiyan's precious pills like that, but

finding out where that demonic Qi formation had come from was also

important.

He highly doubted it originated from the Heavenly Demon, but it

could have come from some other demon that led back to him.

Obviously, he wouldn't throw himself like an idiot against something like that, but knowing its movements would still be valuable. "F-fuck you, you..." A punch silenced the leader of the henchmen, violently flinging his head to the side.

"If you don't talk soon, you'll end up toothless. I'm not afraid to be cruel." Qingyi pointed a single finger toward the henchman's foot.

A roar of pain followed, the lightning Qi tearing through flesh and skin, destroying even the meridians, the smell of burnt flesh rising into the air.

And so, under the man's terrified gaze, Qingyi began his torture.

First, he destroyed each of the henchman's toes, and when the pills had lost their healing effect, he began to move slowly upward, destroying a portion of the legs and arms at a time, without haste. It was only when Qingyi reached the knees and elbows that the henchman began to beg for death.