The Ancestor saw a change in Lin Mu.

"Another sword? No... five swords?" the Ancestor blurted out, his many eyes widening in confusion as Lin Mu's silhouette blurred.

It looked as though five additional arms had sprouted from Lin Mu's right shoulder, each one holding a copy of his sword.

'Spectral Phantasm Strike!' Lin Mu chanted internally, his gaze sharp as lightning.

He had been saving this illusory move for a long time, and now the moment had finally arrived to use it.

SHING!

All five swords struck at once, their movements overlapping in a blur of phantasmal light.

Only one of them was real, but the Ancestor could not tell which. The real sword passed through the back of his beetle-like head, facing a moment of resistance before the Sword Intent annihilated it completely, slicing through with ease.

SHUA!

The Ancestor's head flew into the air, the stag beetle form shattering mid-flight. His many eyes glowed with disbelief and rage as his body staggered backward.

Even without his head, the Ancestor was not truly dead. The connection between his body and his head was severed, but his corrupted vitality still persisted. Given enough time, he could regenerate and reattach them.

But Lin Mu had already anticipated that.

"Dominating Gravity Dao Embryo!" Lin Mu called out, his voice resonating like thunder.

A strange silvery sphere surrounded in intricate runes appeared beside him, revolving slowly as it exerted its immense power. Gravity distorted around the battlefield, pressing down on everything within range.

The Ancestor's head and body were dragged downward, crashing into the earth below as though mountains had been dropped upon them.

"True Earth Heart! Aspect of Heaviness!" Lin Mu followed up immediately, layering another Dao Skill over the first.

The Ancestor's body suddenly became ten times heavier, and when combined with the Dominating Gravity Dao Embryo, the total weight increased to more than a hundred times its normal mass.

"ARGH!!!" the Ancestor screamed, his voice echoing through the battlefield.

His limbs cracked and shattered under the immense pressure, his flesh splitting open as the earth beneath him caved in.

SMASH!

Half of his body was crushed into a grotesque pulp, while his cracked skull oozed Baleful liquid like molten tar.

"YOU!!!!" he screamed, his voice trembling between fury and despair.

"You're done," Lin Mu said coldly, his voice calm and final.

He drew his fist back, channeling power into it until the air around his arm shimmered with destructive energy.

"Mountain Collapsing Fist: Third Form-Flaming Devastator!" Lin Mu roared.

His punch came down like divine judgment, a fiery helix of pure force spiraling around it.

When it struck, it tore through the Ancestor's body and head in one continuous motion, disintegrating them completely. Flesh, bone, and Baleful Energy alike were liquefied, then reduced to mist, before being utterly incinerated by the intense heat.

BOOOOOOOM!

The explosion that followed was deafening.

The helix of energy drilled deep into the earth, carving a molten tunnel that seemed to stretch endlessly downward. The ground shook violently, and waves of heat rippled outward.

RUMBLE!

SHUA!

Lin Mu's Sword Heart suddenly flared, alerting him to a lingering presence.

"So, the soul still survived..." Lin Mu muttered, narrowing his eyes. "I guess that's another benefit of becoming an Ephemerach."

He extended his senses, locating the faint, invisible soul that was trying to flee the battlefield.

"Xiao Yin," Lin Mu called softly.

From his sleeve, a black serpent shot out, her eyes glowing faintly.

HISS!

Xiao Yin darted through the air and caught the fleeing soul effortlessly,

devouring it in a single gulp.

"Mm... tastes nice. A lot of energy, though still a bit bitter," Xiao Yin said with a satisfied hum before coiling back into Lin Mu's sleeve.

Lin Mu exhaled slowly as his Sword Heart calmed down, its resonance fading back into stillness. The silence that followed was almost serene.

He knew then that the Hidden Cave Sect Ancestor was truly dead.

While Lin Mu was fighting against the Hidden Cave Sect Ancestor, the Transcendents and the Army too were engaged in a battle for their lives.

Tens of cultivators within the army had already perished, unable to withstand the relentless sneak attacks of the Shades. They were creatures that could appear from anywhere.

Many of these abominations would suddenly rise from beneath the ground, darting up through the legs of unsuspecting soldiers and ripping their bodies apart from within. When combined with the relentless onslaught of the Hollows, the Shades' attacks became even harder to detect or counter in time.

And although the chants of the monks were keeping the fiends at bay, the chaotic nature of the battlefield meant there were always small pockets where the protective barrier did not fully reach.

Still, this did not dull the army's morale in any way. Every soldier had come prepared to die, and none intended to retreat. The clash between the army and the swarm of Hollows and Shades had reached a strange equilibrium, neither side yielding an inch.

Even though the enemy numbers were vast, the presence of so many powerful experts, even excluding the Transcendents and Lin Mu was enough to hold the line.

Cattaleya in particular, was one of the largest contributors to this balance.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH! DIE!" Cattaleya roared, swinging her great sword in a wide arc that tore through a thousand Hollows, shredding them into pieces that dissolved into motes of light.

REEEEEEEEE!

Several Shades tried to pounce on her, some even attempting to burrow beneath the ground to strike from below.

HISSS!

Yet the moment they touched her, they were burned to ash.

As a body cultivator at the peak of the Immortal Realm, Cattaleya's sheer vitality radiated outward like a blazing sun. Combined with her Immortal Sense, her body exuded such powerful life force that any Shade approaching her was instantly repelled or incinerated.

With no need to defend herself, she could focus entirely on offense, and she did so with terrifying ferocity.

Her eyes gleamed with a wild, almost manic light as she rampaged through hordes of enemies, her laughter mingling with the screams of the dying.