Countless demonic arts drew power from human emotions—resentment, rage, battle fury. The agony and despair of dying soldiers. The suffocating aura of slaughter rising from a battlefield.
Such arts were terrifying: once unleashed, they summoned tens of thousands of war souls, killing intent sweeping like a storm, forming a domain just like the Exquisite Da Luo Heaven or the Nine-Palace Divine Form—an inescapable realm that crushed and tormented its victims to death.
Even Wan Luo's Seven Emotions Seal required him to roam the mortal world, harvesting joy, anger, sorrow, delight, fear, pain, and anxiety from the masses. When used in combat, those emotions surged like a flood, overwhelming even a Golden Core expert.
But Panwu's Titanforce Divine Ability followed a path all its own. It didn't refine murderous aura or despair into spells—it aimed to open a second mind-sea. A concept so audacious that even Yan, inheriting the entire legacy of the Yellow Springs Demon School, admired it to the point of prostration.
The mind-sea—also called the Sea of Consciousness or the Purple Palace—was the source of all divine abilities, the root of all power. Fang Han's own mind-sea, with the force of five hundred thousand galloping warhorses, had long reached its limit. Without advancing his realm and expanding the mind-sea itself, no amount of cultivation could increase his power.
But Panwu's art didn't expand the existing mind-sea.
It created a new one.
Human brains were delicate and sacred—tamper with them, and a single stray surge of qi could cause irreversible destruction. Any divine ability involving the brain was approached with utmost caution. Even Longevity-realm experts wouldn't risk experiments on their own minds.
Yet Panwu Immortal Venerable defied all taboos and created the method to open the Second Mind-Sea, charting its uses and techniques. No wonder his disciples had overwhelming force—so immense they could overpower enemies with raw spiritual might alone.
Which explained why Wan Luo, despite "only" being a Golden Core cultivator, possessed such terrifying force that neither the Blood-Sky Blade nor the Blood Night King could suppress him.
Below Fang Han, the border war raged like a burning world. Flames and battle qi roared skyward. Metal clashed, armies smashed against each other, blood and smoke rolling for miles.
Fang Han gathered his power and activated the Titanforce Divine Ability. His divine energy spun into a vortex, sucking in the battlefield's aura: slaughter-qi, souls, desolation, grief. All of it poured into his mind.
The instant that aura entered him, his mind erupted with the thunder of war drums. Countless soldiers clashed, blood splattering everywhere. It was as if a new battlefield had formed inside his consciousness, pulling him into its chaos.
Battlefield qi was not easily absorbed. Without the proper method, one's mind would be torn apart—light injuries meant madness, heavy ones meant total explosion of the mind-sea.
Even with Panwu's method at hand, Fang Han dared not be reckless.
He circulated his energy exactly as instructed, slowly suppressing and refining the incoming emotions. In the end, everything condensed into a tiny orb floating inside his mind—small as a grain, yet containing an entire battlefield within it, filled with faces, screams, drums, and killing intent swirling faintly inside.
He continued cultivating, drawing in more slaughter-qi through the night. Only when both armies withdrew and the battlefield cooled did he stop.
"A pity," he murmured. "Just a little more and it would have become a complete War-Soul Relic. According to Panwu's method, a battle this size should've produced enough qi to condense one. With a hundred and eight relics forming the Heaven-Earth cycle, and burning one's essence… the Second Mind-Sea could be born. But today's war aura feels lacking."
The orb inside his mind was incomplete. Something was wrong.
Yan snorted in his mind.
"Of course it's lacking. Someone else was harvesting the battlefield's qi. And here they come—to demand an explanation."
At that moment Fang Han noticed he was surrounded.
Seven figures circled him in midair, all wearing long robes embroidered with skulls. Ghostly aura wrapped them like coils of darkness. Each carried a black gourd engraved with a snarling skull—the very tool used to collect slaughter-qi.
Even the robes themselves were low-grade magical treasures, enabling them to fly despite none of them having reached the Divine Ability realm.
"So it's him? He dares steal the battlefield's aura from our Young Master? Kill him!"
One of the robed men jabbed a finger at Fang Han, sneering. With his Mirage Sea disguise, they couldn't possibly recognize him.
Fang Han sized them up at a glance.
All seven were at the peak of the Mortal Body tenth level—Spirit Transformation—but not yet in the Divine Ability realm. Their ability to fly came purely from their robes. Arrogant, undertrained, and clearly from a demonic sect.
And their gourds were indeed collecting battlefield qi.
Fang Han, as a righteous disciple of Yuhua Sect, was more than happy to eradicate them and seize their treasures.
Without a word, he reached out and unleashed a divine ability. Milky-white qi surged outward, forming a colossal white celestial lion in the air.
The lion roared.
Wind and clouds twisted violently. Air for dozens of miles collapsed inward, rushing toward its maw.
The seven black-robed men froze in terror. Struggling was useless—the lion's pull locked them in place, dragging them helplessly toward its mouth.
This was Fang Han's Celestial Lion Qi, inherited from the Firecloud Fairy and fused with the life-essence of three Taiyi Sect disciples. Its power was monstrous. While it couldn't swallow ten thousand troops in one breath, a thousand or more posed no problem.
These seven, who hadn't even reached the Divine Ability realm, never stood a chance.
"You dare swallow my men? You court death!"
A cold voice slashed through the air. A green blur streaked out, and a jade-green sword ripped toward the lion with enough force to split the clouds.
Fang Han's eyes narrowed.
This sword's aura… it rivaled the Blood-Sky Blade before its evolution.
A top-grade treasure.
Yan's voice hissed in his mind:
"That is the Jade-Blood Soul-Extinguishing Sword."
Fang Han's heart leapt with excitement.
Another treasure… and its owner isn't even a Golden Core expert.
He flicked his hand. A black storm erupted—his Black Sun Wind Disaster—catching the green sword midair and trapping it in a whirl of destructive force.
"Blood Night King!"
The blood-clad winged demon erupted from Fang Han's shadow, claws tearing through the air as he reached for the trapped sword.
"Die!"
The green blur resolved into a young man in emerald robes, his expression cold and venomous. His qi flickered like ghost-fire, sometimes forming skulls, sometimes demonic faces—a hallmark of the Fourfold Divine Ability Realm: Yin-Yang Transformation.
A terrifying realm to ordinary cultivators…
but insignificant before Fang Han.
Fang Han prepared to unleash the Great Sun Fire Disaster and incinerate him—
—but Yan's voice cut in sharply:
"Fang Han, stop! You cannot kill this one. And you cannot take his sword. Doing so will bring catastrophe—his backing is too strong."