Within a cramped, damp and dark place a single beacon of light illuminated the surroundings.

Shadowy, undefined amalgamations of shapes, manifestations of darkness, rushed forth to extinguish the light, their forms contorting and shifting.

As they charged towards the source, Aaron's voice broke the silence, a solemn mumble carrying a tinge of disgust.

"Such taint..."

His sword flashed with precision, cutting through the shadows like a hot blade through butter.

"I didn’t expect them to be born from a greater one."

He too had been suppressed, but instead of Qi condensation he had fallen to the Ethereal Core realm.

Aaron found himself surrounded by layers of solid rock, his surroundings a deep, suffocating tomb beneath the earth.

With every swing of his golden blade, loose rocks and clumps of dirt fell around and onto him, a grim reminder of his subterranean exile

The dark creatures that plagued him were seemingly impossible to kill, their forms were a blur of shadow and ambiguity, re-materializing and surging forward constantly.

No matter how many shapes he cut down, they seemed to be endless, holding immense regenerative prowess, relentless in their assault.

He had to deal with the root cause.

As he shut his eyes his hand firmly but gently gripped the sigil that hung on his neck.

“Bestow me with your favor, my beloved Maiden Everbright.”

As he uttered those soft spoken words he was encompassed by a golden aura radiating divine brilliance.

He felt his power surge endlessly, this sort of strength, it was beyond just cultivation.

“Witness the power of divinity…. You mindless spawn of the abyss.”

His sword also surrounded by the bright golden light began to pulsate.

From the tip of his blade, a radiant ray of light erupted, piercing the darkness like an emissary of heavenly wrath.

The moment the beam of golden luminosity touched the abyssal creatures, they were annihilated, their dark forms disintegrating into nothingness.

The pieces of the darkness that remained retreated from Aaron.

Even the mindless spawn of the abyss held an instinctive fear of the divine light.

With the dark creatures dealt with, the path lay unblocked before him.

Aaron stepped forward, his strides powerful and unyielding.

As he traversed through the earthen tunnel, slowly approaching the surface, his voice broke the silence, almost a whisper of divine decree.

"You may run from me..."

With each step, his footsteps echoed with the certainty of retribution.

"Yet her judgment will be carried out all the same."

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The power bestowed unto him by the Everbright Maiden was indisputable in his mind, and thus he became a force of nature, exclusively unleashed to exterminate taint.

"Such is the power of her command..."

…

At a forest where trees rose far far higher into the sky than the ones that the disciples were in, four elders were grouped together and fighting for their lives.

An ape reaching nearly fifty meters in height stood before Grand Elder Claris, its eyes filled with rage.

The fur that covered its body was coated with a mineral like material, a shimmering silver that resonated with the moonlight. As it brushed against the surroundings the fur did not bend nor turn, rather whatever touched the fur was pierced as if the beast had swords sticking from its skin.

It was a fourth order demon beast and had manifested intelligence, its species was referred to as the Silver Blooded Iron Ape.

“If I kill you! If I kill you I can return!” It screamed as it attempted to pummel him into the ground.

The elder took its blows head on and was smashed into the ground.

However to the ape’s dismay he walked out from the rubble nearly unharmed. He didn’t have many fancy techniques nor did he have a celestial or demonic phenomena.

But he did have a body stronger than his peers, forged from bathing in molten lava manifested by a Dao Lord, the type of cultivation only practiced by his clan.

The Claris Clan, partners of the Dual Divine Demon Sect, much like how the Heavenly Divine Demon Sect was allied with the Zhuge Clan. His origins on the dark side of the Etheria continent are why Elder Pyari referred to him as a traitor.

As he extended his hand a barely translucent manifestation of a Great Hammer appeared in his grasp.

It was vermilion in color and its head was shaped like a jagged rock, the handle he held it by built in the image of a narrow tree trunk. An intimidating instrument of destruction.

“A shell of its former self.” he frowned as he saw the soul manifestation in his hand, a hallmark of the Heavenly Eye Realm.

It was true he was in the Ethereal Core realm at the moment, but the one thing he hadn’t lost was his soul manifestation, this was true of all the Heavenly Eye cultivators here.

He pushed his foot into the ground and leaped into the air, the ape was left speechless as it couldn’t even track his movements.

Grand Elder Claris brought down the Great hammer atop the beast as he destroyed its body along with its soul in one fell swoop.

As the weapon slowly vanished from his hand he looked to the sky.

“Sect master, why the hell did you put me into such a bizarre situation, this is too much for an old man.” he spoke in an exhausted tone to himself as he sat atop a pile of dead demon beasts.

“Pull your weight Pyari, we’re not your personal guards!” Madam Hua yelled out in annoyance as the corpse of a Fourth Order demon beast fell before her once more, its eardrums torn and soul dissipated.

She was clearly worn out from battle, her hair messy and unkempt, her normally pristine dress plastered with the blood of beasts.

Elder Pyari sneered at her before closing her eyes again, she looked the same as she had before being pulled into the Heart. Casually laying atop a rock like she was here on a vacation.

Madam Hua was about to direct her fury at the indifferent woman before she was interrupted.

“Leave her, she's not the crux of our problems.” Elder Musan wanted to prevent any infighting at the moment.

Behind him there was also a pile of demon beasts, their corpses lined with a nearly uncountable amount of cuts.

They began to relax for the first time in a long time, as their surroundings cleared of opponents.

“Don’t breathe a sigh of relief yet, We have a greater issue.” Elder Pyari spoke, still reclining horizontally on the rock.

The three looked at her with a questioning gaze, awaiting further explanation.

“The insufferable white coat.” She brought up the one common enemy between the four of them, immediately pulling their attention in.

“What about him?” Grand Elder Claris asked as he absorbed the Core of a Demon Beast before crushing it in his hand.

This wasn’t an act of cultivation that required slowly intaking Qi. It was just a quick way to recover Qi, normally he wouldn’t need it but after being in a state of battle for several days even he began to feel exhausted. Not to mention the fact that the battle was against several opponents in a higher realm than him.

“Don’t play coy, you were part of the demonic faction once. Surely you can tell my intentions by reading between the lines.” She said as she rolled her eyes.

Madam Hua looked at her as if she was crazy.

“You don’t mean.”

Elder Musan thought about what to say but he couldn’t find the words, even imagining such a thing seemed asinine to him.

The next words that came out of Elder Pyari’s mouth were ones none of them would have dared to utter outside of this freakish situation.

“I mean exactly that, let’s kill him, extinguish the golden boy.”