Should they not have been within the grand army, shielded by the familial array, and held in check by a powerhouse like Chongxuan Chuliang,

With merely this single charge, Yang Jiande would have siphoned the life force and vital blood from these ten thousand soldiers of the Autumn Kill Army, leaving them as husks!

Now, though only a slender aperture had been breached, the vital blood had already surged forth like a wolf-smoked beacon, revealing the formidable dominance of the Extinguish Emotion Absolute Desire Blood Demon Merit.

That vision of desolation and slaughter also trembled and rippled like water, just as Yang Jiande’s spear plunged forth!

This great battle had raged from sunrise until noon, and from noon until this very moment.

The horizon now glowed, the setting sun the color of blood.

And beneath that sanguine orb, Yang Jiande appeared as another wheel of blood-red sunset!

His light, his heat, the entirety of his life’s struggle and valor, all blazed forth at this instant, all burned at this moment.

His entire being was consumed by blood flame, as if he wore a robe of scarlet dragon scales. In his hand, that renowned divine weapon, the Fierce Sun War Spear, the front half of its tip a dazzling crimson, the latter half a resplendent gold.

Desolation and Slaughter hovered like a painting suspended in the air, upon which the vital blood billowed like smoke.

And Yang Jiande, like a savage beast intent on tearing apart this famed artwork, charged forth with a barbaric, unreasonable momentum.

“Let us decide death together!”

The entire battlefield froze, but all eyes were on Yang Jiande, challenging the array with a single spear.

One spear strike fell!

The vision representing Desolation and Slaughter shattered.

The killing intent surged for three or four *li*.

Before the Yang army, who had been observing this battle, could rejoice, or the Qi army could fear,

That surging killing intent instantly coalesced anew.

Yang Jiande’s Extinguish Emotion Absolute Desire Blood Demon Merit was indeed beyond expectation, yet had not Chongxuan Chuliang established his camps step by careful step precisely to cope with such unforeseen circumstances?

He had afforded Yang Jiande the greatest respect, and had made the most meticulous preparations.

Desolation had fallen, Desolation had ceased.

But Slaughter had not yet ended!

Autumn is the season of severe killing.

Even the pronouncement of death penalties, primarily carried out in autumn, was due to the heavy killing energy of this season.

Autumn possesses three slaughters: the Slaughter of Withering, the Slaughter of Cessation, and the Slaughter of Execution!

Chongxuan Chuliang’s voice, at this moment, possessed a sharpness that could cleave heaven and earth.

“Now I, on behalf of heaven, shall carry out punishment… Lord Yang, devoid of virtue, brought disaster upon the nation and harm to the people! First indulging the rat plague, then raising arms in provocation! He should be judged… and executed immediately!”

Just amidst that surging, boiling killing intent, a blade now emerged.

At first glance, one might mistake it for the world-renowned Life-Severing Blade, but upon closer inspection, it was not the Life-Severing Blade itself, but rather a blade forged with the Life-Severing Blade as its core and the killing intent of the Autumn Kill Army as its outer shell, a blade of extraordinary character.

The body of this blade was heavy, the handle carved with a ghost head, and along the spine was a circular opening. The ghost head was broad and square, thick at the back and wide in the face. Just by its shape, one knew its clumsy weight, suitable for chopping.

This blade was named… Ghost Head!

Most suitable for severing heads.

Executioners, when carrying out their duties, mostly used this very blade.

This single blade, clearly still far away,

And Yang Jiande, clearly having counter-attacked with his spear.

However, as the blade rose, the shattered killing intent re-coalesced.

As the blade fell, Yang Jiande’s head already soared into the air.

He was beheaded!

One moment he was still invincible in his valor, challenging the array with a single spear, his Extinguish Emotion Absolute Desire Blood Demon Merit overwhelmingly powerful.

Yet the next moment, his corpse was in two parts.

This was a blade so abrupt, yet so natural.

Just like a crime determined, the person led to the execution ground, the command arrow falls, the executioner swings his blade.

Everything irreversible!

Hand rises, blade falls, head flies!

Powerful individuals like Yang Jiande, at the peak of the God Arrival realm, possessed a golden body and jade marrow, their flesh impervious to decay, capable of being called immortal. Until their death, their cultivation would not recede.

This realm is called “Immortality Undestroyed, I Am Like God Arrival.”

In ancient times, it was even directly referred to as the Immortal Realm.

Ordinary means found it difficult to slay their physical body.

However, with this single stroke of the blade, he died so directly and cleanly!

In their confrontations in this life, Chongxuan Chuliang consistently held the advantage. Investigating the root cause, it seemed solely due to Qi’s strength and Yang’s weakness.

However, was not the ability to firmly grasp the advantage, to never give the opponent an opportunity to overturn the situation from beginning to end, not terrifying enough?

The moment Yang Jiande’s head flew up, time seemed to freeze.

Thirty years ago and thirty years later, connected by the arc of that flying head.

Within the grand army, Chongxuan Chuliang’s face was expressionless!

Those in high positions have no friends.

These were the words he had spoken to Chongxuan Sheng.

For the higher one ascended, the more involuntary one became. For many decisions could no longer be made according to one’s own wishes.

Who else knew that he, Chongxuan Chuliang, and Yang Jiande, were once each other’s only friends?

However, one was in Qi, one in Yang.

One was a renowned aristocratic family of the Qi nation, sharing its joys and sorrows. The other was even of the Yang royal family.

Neither side had the possibility of changing their position.

As early as thirty years ago in Slanting Moon Valley, they had already understood all this, foreseeing this very day.

After that parting, for thirty years, not a single letter, not a fragmented word!

In truth, when discussing a one-on-one fight, he, Chongxuan Chuliang, was confident he would not lose to Yang Jiande, even if the latter had cultivated the Extinguish Emotion Absolute Desire Blood Demon Merit. However, facing Yang Jiande, he still wanted to pour out all his advantages without hesitation.

Not only because even a lion or tiger fights a rabbit with full force, and individuals like Yang Jiande must absolutely not be given even half an opportunity.

More so because he wanted Yang Jiande to feel, from beginning to end, why he had lost, not because “I am not as good as him,” but originating from an innate disadvantage, a crime of heaven, not a defeat in battle!

Only in this way could his last shred of pride be preserved.

Thirty years vanished in a snap of the fingers, life and death like clouds and smoke.

How many past events, glories, prides, friendships, all covered by the river of time.

Individuals like Chongxuan Chuliang would not allow themselves to reminisce for too long.

Only a slight daze, then he flew out of the army array, reaching out to snatch Yang Jiande’s head as it flew high into the air. Grasping the hair with one hand, he raised his head high.

His voice transmitted across the battlefield.

The Qi army loudly repeated.

The Yang nation’s grand army instantly collapsed, no longer a single cohesive defense line across the entire battlefield.

The soldiers of the Autumn Kill Army then charged forth without restraint, killing people like cutting grass.

The largest scale of casualties and deaths on the battlefield usually occurs after the victory and defeat have been decided. The largest number of kills is typically generated during the pursuit.

Countless Yang army soldiers discarded their armor and weapons, kneeling on the ground and begging for surrender. Innumerable Yang army soldiers fled in panic, scattering in all directions.

After victory and defeat have been decided, allowing the soldiers to indulge in a period of killing is also an implicit rule in many wars.

After all, they had just faced life and death, countless comrades had died, and they themselves had been on the brink of death… hatred needed release, and pressure also needed release.

But usually, this period would not be too long.

After a large number of Yang nation soldiers threw down their helmets and armor, they would then tightly bury their heads in the ground, hoping to luckily pass through this short period of killing.

However, Chongxuan Chuliang, holding Yang Jiande’s head high, remained silent for a moment in the high sky, then said: “All who participated in this war, those who stood against my Great Qi’s heavenly army, regardless of surrender or not… shall be utterly executed!”

He actually directly issued a massacre order!

Some of the Yang army soldiers who had been kneeling on the ground rose in fear, and were immediately beheaded with a single stroke, falling back to the ground.

Some of the Yang army soldiers who had just put down their weapons, before they could react, had their throats cut by a sideways swing of a war knife.

Fearing, collapsing, and scattering, the Yang army soldiers were originally no match for the soldiers of the Autumn Kill Army, and at this moment, they were even more completely incapable of forming any effective resistance.

Killing people like cutting grass, they fell down in pieces and groups.

A carnival of killing thus began.

“Great Commander, it is not possible! Great Commander, absolutely not possible!”

From the edge of the battlefield, an elderly scholar soared forth, begging Chongxuan Chuliang from afar.

“The victory and defeat in this war have already been decided, why does the Great Commander bother to add to the killing, and merely increase your evil reputation?”

At this, a general nearby raised his knife to welcome him.

But Chongxuan Chuliang merely waved his hand: “Let him come!”