The righteous army approached with alarming speed. Li An had just retracted her hand when the voice of the Major General thundered through the ranks of the soldiers.

"Prepare for battle!"

Li An could feel her heart pounding louder than ever, as though she had finally returned home after a long absence. This was her melody: the din of war and the symphony of chaos.

The Colonels issued commands to the Lieutenants, who in turn directed the squads beneath them. But on the left flank, their orders were drowned out by the frenzy of the aroused demons.

In the eyes of these soldiers, there was but one figure who commanded their attention. She was not the wisest, the oldest, or the strongest. She did not don extravagant robes or armor, nor did she ride a demonic steed. Hell, they did not even know her name.

Yet, she had achieved something far greater.

She took their fear away from them. Without fear, they were capable of anything!

The lieutenants and the colonel had finally woken up to reality, but it was already too late. They no longer held sway over the left flank.

"The left battalion is now mine." Li An grinned and readied her giant scythe.

It was time.

"CHARGEEEEEEE!"

Li An was the first to surge forward toward the enemy army, but she was far from alone. A massive wave of soldiers charged behind her, drawn by her promises of wealth and strength.

The Skyshadow disciples at the front line were paralyzed with fear, their eyes widening in terror at the sight of the demonic horde bearing down upon them.

One of the Corporals, bewildered, pointed towards the advancing enemy. "Am I dreaming? Why is there a girl wielding a giant scythe?"

The armies collided.

The Skyshadow soldiers with their spear line instantly at the ready skewered those of the demonic cult first to arrive.

They tried to use the fallen bodies as shields against the relentless swarm of demonic cultivators, and it worked in most areas of the battlefield.

However, on Li An's left flank, the situation was very different.

"Out of my way!" Li An glared at the spearmen and swung her scythe in a wide arc, breaking metal and flesh along the way. Five Skyshadow disciples fell, unable to offer any resistance.

They attempted to fill the gap with more soldiers, but before they could even push the demons back, Li An was there. Her scythe cleaved through bodies, weapons, and armor with ease, reducing them to mangled pieces.

From that hole in their defenses, the demonic horde poured in, spreading chaos and destruction without restraint. The Skyshadow soldiers were crushed, trampled and slaughtered, all without a chance to even scream.

There was no justice nor righteousness; merely swarms of beasts drunk on madness and seething with mindless desire to kill.

Li An stood at the forefront, her body soaked in blood. It was already hard to tell what was hers and what was from the enemies.

She waved at a few soldiers nearby. "WHY ARE YOU STRUGGLING AGAINST A BUNCH OF SHEEP?! FOLLOW BEHIND ME AND SLAUGHTER THEM ALL!"

As the veins in her arms bulged, Li An started swinging her green scythe, twice the size of a longsword. She cleared off enemies in her way as if they were flies. None could halt her advance.

"We shall kill as many of these righteous fools as we can. I will fight until I can fight no longer. Stay with me, my soldiers," Li An said to those following her.

They laughed together.

"Sergeant, thank you very much!"

"Save some of those pigs for us!"

"Keep charging! Follow the Sergeant!"

This wasn't a battlefield, just a simple hunting ground.

There was no accepting surrender. There was no need to listen to game begging for their lives.

Li An was acutely aware of the dangers of penetrating too deeply into enemy ranks, but she remained indifferent. While Core Formation cultivators could indeed defeat her, killing her outright would prove difficult due to the regeneration abilities of her body.

"However, I doubt they will make a move. The Cultivation World is woefully behind in the field of military tactics," Li An mused. It was absurd that the higher the rank of a soldier, the further they were from the frontlines.

Was it pride? Perhaps, but Li An didn't care. Their foolishness would come at a steep price.

She was approaching the backlines fast, leaving behind her an empty road of death and blood. The demons swarmed that road, devouring the enemy from within.

The Corporals and Sergeants in the rear had been alerted.

"Attention! Forward! Crescent Moon Formation!" the closest sergeant yelled.

Approximately thirty elite soldiers charged towards Li An on their Earth horses, forming a half-circle. These steeds, though not as wild as demonic horses, boasted granite-like skin that made them tougher than most mounts.

These enemies definitely had more training than the demonic soldiers behind her.

200 meters...

100 meters...

10 meters...

"Go to hell!"

With a powerful swing, Li An hurled her scythe as if it were a javelin. The weapon flew from her hands, shooting towards the enemy's formation.

The cavalrymen only had time to widen their eyes.

Bash!

Spilled blood, broken blades and limbs flew all over the place.

The horses that were known for their toughness had been sliced into clean halves, showering the frenzied demons in dark crimson liquid.

The enemy had not anticipated such a maneuver from Li An in the midst of battle. Her flying scythe had carved a bloody gap in the formation, revealing a path to the enemy's higher-ups.

Witnessing their short commander unleash havoc upon the panicking disciples of the Skyshadow Sect, the two hundred soldiers within enemy lines felt the blood in their bodies almost burning.

"Charge!"

"Charge!!!!!!"

The demons followed Li An, furiously forcing their way into the enemy formation.

For every demon that fell, at least three Skyshadow dogs were slaughtered.

Private Lu was one of the demonic soldiers right behind her. When a ninth-stage Foundation cultivator aimed a sword at his head, he tilted his body and let the blade go through his right shoulder easily.

The enemy smiled disdainfully. He was going to pull out the sword and end Private Lu's life.

However—

To his astonishment, the sword would not budge.

Blood spurted from Private Lu's mouth, but he began to laugh. A joyous, unrestrained laughter.

"All hail the Maiden of Death!"

The enemy soldier shivered and contemplated retreating. These demonic cultivators were truly a band of lunatics!

But there was no time for him to react.

Private Lu clutched the blade tightly with one hand, as if he didn't feel any pain, and slammed his fist against the soldier's chest. The enemy, caught off guard, doubled over with a groan.

"Curse you!"

He was furious, but he had no option but to let go of his sword.

Forced to abandon his cherished weapon by a low life much weaker than himself, the enemy's face flushed crimson, and spiritual energy surged from his body.

"Blarghhhh... Hahaha. I won this round, you son of a bitch!" Private Lu puked a mouth full of blood, but his laughter didn't stop.

"Shit! You low life slave! I swear I will kill every last demonic scum!"

The Skyshadow soldier snatched a sword from one of the corpses littering the ground and struck at Private Lu with all his might.

"Hahaha! Brother, can you see me? I have slayed many of the pigs who attacked our farm. I am coming to you, hahaha!" Private Lu was out of spiritual energy, and he was just a third-stage Foundation cultivator. There was a limit to his stamina.

Tink!

Sparks flashed.

Private Lu's laughter continued when he saw a long, curving and bloodstained blade intercept the enemy's sword from an impossible angle, striking it precisely at the tip.

His eyes burned with the same crazed, fanatic light as all the other wild beasts on the battlefield.

"Long live the Death Maiden!"

"Ho...How?" The enemy was stunned.

To strike the tip of his sword with a giant scythe while moving at such speed, the short girl must surely be a goddess of war. The man felt the hollow eyes of Death staring down at him.

He tried to back off.

Twang!

The sword couldn't hold up to the girl's power and snapped into pieces. The force of the scythe didn't stop there; the man's hand nearly exploded, its shape barely recognizable. The momentum continued traveling upwards, causing the veins in his right arm to bulge and his skin to rupture.

"STOP-"

There was no stopping that blade. It pierced through his chest and the head of a soldier behind him, skewering them both.

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Li An shook her scythe from side to side and the corpses were shred to pieces. The Skyshadow soldiers felt their knees tremble at the sight.

She smirked at Private Lu. "Did I allow you to die? As long as you draw breath, you continue to slay the enemy."

"I was born to follow you on the battlefield, Sergeant!"

Private Lu wrenched the sword from his shoulder and roared alongside his fellow demons. "Slay them all!"

Li An turned her attention back to the rear lines of the Skyshadow army. Her eyes narrowed as she spotted a middle-aged woman with long, dark brown hair charging towards her. "A sixth-stage Spirit cultivator? They think quite highly of me."

The woman wielded a giant double axe with one hand, suggesting that she possessed some level of body cultivation as well. The weapon certainly did not appear light.

Li An licked her lips. "Let's see if she can pose a challenge."

The Skyshadow soldiers cleared a path, and the enemy sergeant halted before Li An with a solemn expression.

"My name is Qing Long, demon. It is my honor to be the one to end your life," she declared seriously.

Li An grinned and dashed towards her, the bloodied scythe poised for a deadly swing. This was a battlefield, not a tea room. Words were unnecessary in the art of killing.

"Tch, animal." Qing Long lowered her waist and hacked her axe with every fiber of her being. The Skyshadow disciples found renewed hope as they witnessed her speed, which matched that of the demonic girl. Her strike was flawless, honed over years of wielding the double axe.

It had been a strike magnificent to that degree. Had been that is.

Li An abruptly accelerated beyond the speed she had shown until now, causing Qing Long to panic. She still tried to swing her axe, but the green scythe caught the weapon handle and cut it easily in half.

"Did she forget that I, too, have spiritual energy to enhance my speed? How naive."

The loud noise had disturbed everyone around their battleground. The demons stared at their leader with worship in their eyes.

"All hail the Death Maiden!"

The moniker had somehow spread among the soldiers on the left flank as a sign of respect for the sergeant who had stood alongside them on the frontlines and led them with unwavering resolve.

The huge scythe had turned into a blurry shadow in Li An's hand; it was moving so fast that Qing Long's eyes could barely follow its movements. She could feel she was in extreme danger without a weapon.

"Tch, I will retreat for now, but we will meet again, demo—"

Her voice faltered as she saw the scythe coming for her waist. The girl was trying to chop her in half with that horizontal strike!

"Shit!"

Qing Long was in utter dismay. She had suddenly found herself at a massive disadvantage, with the enemy granting no quarter for retreat.

She tapped her feet onto the ground and jumped up, trying to dodge that vicious attack. She shot up one and a half meters using her body strength.

But the scythe seemed to bend the rules of physics. It didn't follow through the horizontal trajectory that Qing Long had thought. Instead, it followed her straight up into the air.

This was the first appearance of the Black Eye Scythe Arts in the Cultivation World!

Qing Long was in mid-air, so there was nothing she could do to dodge or block this attack.

Swish!

It sounded like the tearing of a piece of paper.

The scythe went through Qing Long from the bottom of her crotch to the top of her head. Because it happened so fast, the woman was still in one piece when she landed on the ground.

After a brief moment.

Qing Long tried to reach out her hand. Her facial expression was ashen.

This small movement was like a call to the grim reaper. A thin, bloody seam appeared along her body.

She gazed down at her chest, not believing what was happening.

There wasn't time for a last wail. Blood erupted forth as her body was bisected from bottom to top. White intestines, chopped internal organs, and slimy fragments of her brain splattered onto the ground.

She couldn't be more dead.

· · ────── ·𖥸· ────── · ·

A few hundred meters away, forty-seven sergeants, eleven lieutenants, and one colonel were watching the battle from a distance, their brows locked in a frown.

"Do these demons have no sense of pride? How can they send a Spirit cultivator to deal with common soldiers on the frontlines? It is an unwritten rule to let cultivators of the same realm fight each other in wars," grumbled the sergeant wearing a white cat mask.

He was in a sour mood because they were the only front in the battle that was losing. If this continued, he feared the demons might breach their lines and assault the main army from behind.

Another sergeant sneered. "Fuck, this Qing Long is useless! How did she lose to that lass, who is just at the third stage of the Spirit realm?"

He was wearing dark brown robes, and his unkempt hair resembled a lion's golden mane.

"Then why don't you go fight her, Shiheng?" The white-masked man retorted coldly. "She was from the same subordinate sect as you. Don't you want to avenge her as a senior?"

Shiheng gritted his teeth. He wanted to go, but he had witnessed with his own eyes how Qing Long had been chopped in half by the girl even though she should have been much stronger in terms of cultivation.

He had no intention of becoming cannon fodder to test the demon's limits.

The white-masked man curled his lips. "That's what I thought. Do not speak ill of others if you lack the courage yourself."

The lieutenants remained silent, their gazes fixed on the long-faced woman clad in dark blue robes at the center of their group. The Colonel was the only one with enough authority to give them orders. She offered a deep sigh for the fallen souls and rubbed a hand on her temple.

"Shiheng, Zhang Yu, cease your bickering. The girl is not the only one advancing on the frontlines. Three lieutenants and twenty-nine sergeants followed her into battle. She is seizing the spotlight, allowing the other officers to massacre our soldiers unchecked," she explained.

Zhang Yu and Shiheng made a polite bow. "We apologise for causing a ruckus, Colonel Zhen."

She waved her hand indifferently. "Don't worry about it. You can prove how regretful you are on the battlefield."

The two sergeants stiffened. Although the colonel seemed kind, they knew she was actually a very vicious woman. Her words were an implicit threat: prove useful or be discarded.

"The key issue is that the scythe girl remains undefeated. We must force her to retreat." Colonel Zhen let out a small, gentle smile. "Since the demons have first broken the unwritten rules of war, they cannot fault me for responding in kind. Lieutenant Qiang, lead three more lieutenants and all the sergeants into battle."

Lieutenant Qiang, a muscular, tanned man with his upper half exposed, knelt on one knee. His aura, though not dense in spiritual energy, commanded respect. He was a rare middle Core Formation expert specializing in body cultivation.

"The goal?" he asked.

"Kill them all." Colonel Zhen's voice had a kind tone despite her harsh words. "Focus on the girl with the scythe."

Lieutenant Qiang nodded and moved towards the battlefield with the other officers.

The time had come for the righteous forces to mount their comeback.

· · ────── ·𖥸· ────── · ·

It was fitting to say that Li An was on a mad rampage, as if she were born on the battlefield. The flank of the Skyshadow army was completely crumbling under the assault of her soldiers.

Skyshadow disciples were impaled on her scythe like pieces of meat on a skewer. Their weapons were no different than paper, and their bodies were as fragile as porcelain before her blade.

Li An's cold gaze sent shivers through the enemy ranks. Many soldiers abandoned the fight, throwing away their weapons and fleeing with all their might. Others chose to ignore her, focusing instead on fighting other enemies from their defensive positions.

One of the Skyshadow outer disciples kneeled before her in desperation. His eyes were wide open as he looked at Li An, but her speed was too great for him to track her figure. All his comrades lay dead before him, but his gaze remained fixed on those pitch-black eyes, the cold-blooded pupils of Death.

"Am I dreaming?" He muttered weakly.

The abyss offered no answer, only stared back at him emotionlessly, drenched in the blood of his sworn brothers.

Li An's scythe slashed through the air, and his head fell shortly after.

A nauseating odor permeated the air from the corpses piling up around her. The intense sunlight heated her blade, intensifying her bloodlust. Yet, her mind remained cool and composed.

"The battle is getting easier; they are too afraid to fight me," Li An sneered in her thoughts. "I'm sure the enemy Colonel will not let the situation continue like this."

She suddenly sensed a dense mass of spiritual energy advancing from the rear lines of the Skyshadow army. "Speak of the devil."

The enemy forces cleared a path, revealing those dispatched to the battlefield. "Approximately fifty Spirit cultivators and four Core Formation cultivators."

Li An understood the Skyshadow Colonel's strategy. They intended to force her retreat, thereby isolating the lieutenants and sergeants who had dared to follow her into enemy territory. This would deal a significant blow to the Black Lotus Cult.

Even if Li An refused to retreat, they could always kill her and shatter the morale of the demonic troops. It was a win-win scenario for them.

Private Xia, Private Lu, and Lieutenant Fang approached her, cutting through the enemy. Lieutenant Fang was one of the officers who had been ensnared by Li An's words.

"Fall back, Sergeant Li! You are the hope of the Black Lotus Cult. I will sacrifice myself to hold them off for a few seconds," the stout woman shouted over the screams of the battlefield.

Li An's eyebrows arched upward just a touch. "If this were two months ago, I would have definitely retreated, but now..."

She bared her teeth in a bloodthirsty smile.

"Don't stand in my way."

Private Xia rolled her eyes at her answer. Facing Private Lu's and Lieutenant Fang's shocked gazes, Li An charged at the group of fifty elites alone with drops of scarlet blood dripping from her scythe.

Lieutenant Qiang was also about to give his orders. "Relay my orders: everyone prepare to..."

He suddenly stopped; he didn't have a chance to say the word 'fight'.

While staring at the invasive horde of demons within their ranks, he witnessed the girl say something to the soldiers behind her and then shoot towards them without any fear.

"This is..." Qiang was momentarily taken aback. His eyes then flickered with excitement. "Excellent, excellent. A worthy opponent indeed! It is unfortunate that we are on a battlefield and must prioritize the sect's interests."

His eyes turned steely. "Crush her."

The sergeants moved first, their long white lances extended. The Skyshadow Sect was renowned for their Spear Arts. Under the bright sun, the shiny, heavy lances resembled the teeth of a sneering Grim Reaper.

Li An glanced at the steel hedgehog formation and quickened her pace. The arc of her smile grew larger with every step.

No one made a noise on their battleground. The air also froze. Everyone watching could hear their own heartbeat.

Li An's ending was supposed to be obvious: skewered by the heavy metal lances after a couple easy thrusts and pulls.

A thunder-like roar erupted from her mouth.

"Scram!"

The air around her began to shimmer with an iridescent glow, as if the very atmosphere was bending to her will. This glow intensified, coalescing into a translucent, dome-like barrier that crackled with magnetic energy.

Within this dome, faint lines of blue and silver light traced the magnetic field lines, swirling and pulsing in harmony with the Li An's pure spiritual energy.

The sergeants' bodies stiffened, their eyes nearly bulging from their sockets.

The moment their blades entered the shimmering dome, they were met with an invisible force. The translucent barrier rippled like disturbed water, causing the metal spears to veer off course.

Most of them curved mid-thrust, some spun away, and a few were even knocked aside.

The sergeants could only watch in shock as their weapons were deflected to the ground without touching Li An.

"Allow me to remind you, I am still here." Her amused voice rang out beside the five nearest sergeants.

They looked up to find a giant, bloody scythe poised for the harvest. "Please have m-"

Like a razor tearing through delicate silk, and like a God's fist smashing a tree into splinters, the momentum of the scythe exploded and the five sergeants were blown away.

Unstoppable!

Absolutely unstoppable!

The huge scythe didn't feel like a scythe, but rather a punishment from the enraged Yama King of the Underworld.

Broken limbs and blood rained down from the sky and 'decorated' the frozen sergeants. A singular thought echoed in their minds: What were those lines rotating around the demon?

They attempted once more to thrust and slash their lances at her, but to no avail. After another four sergeants met their demise, they finally reached the conclusion that it was impossible to win without a weapon.

Terror gripped a few of them. Their minds couldn't take it and broke down. As if they had lost their souls, they screamed and tried to escape from the abomination in front of them.

Unfortunately, Lieutenant Qiang was right behind. He pulled out his crimson sword and struck down two of the fleeing sergeants. Those men didn't even have time to react before their heads flew off. The headless bodies continued the motion of running back for a couple steps before falling. The blood spewed out like a fountain.

"Hold formation! Reassemble at the rear! Anyone who backs off shall be executed! No exceptions!"

His sword was still dripping with blood as he barked his orders. Li An sensed a potent spiritual energy emanating from the blade, hinting at it being an artifact, likely of mortal grade.

Under the death threat, most of the sergeants were forced to calm down. Slowly, they regrouped behind Lieutenant Qiang, retreating without further loss.

However, their mistake had already cost them too much.

"What kind of monster is she? I have heard about prodigies surpassing their cultivation stages, but never of one fighting multiple opponents far beyond their level," Lieutenant Qiang cursed in his mind.

In just a few seconds, seventeen sergeants had turned into corpses.

Not only that, but the horde of demons had abandoned all reason, enraptured by their leader's incredible feats.

One man killed tens. The demons rejoiced; they laughed maniacally as they pulled out their spears, swords, and axes from freshly killed flesh.

The remaining cavalrymen of the Skyshadow army were dragged from their horses by a swarm of evil fiends, their limbs crucified as they cried out in pain.

Lieutenant Qiang was forced to acknowledge the harsh truth: whether he killed the demonic girl or not, this battle was already over. He turned to Zhang Yu, one of the strongest sergeants on their side.

"Retreat and tell the Colonel to inform the Major General about our defeat."

Zhang Yu needed no further urging. He dashed towards the rear lines as though his robes were aflame.

Qiang clenched his fists, watching as Li An heaved the scythe in her hand with vigorous force. The blade stuck into a pile of corpses ahead of her and cut the body of the soldier in its path in two, which started spasming and twitching as its entrails leaked out.

It was instant death.

While Lieutenant Qiang and the other officers stood in stunned silence, Li An trotted over to pick up her large scythe. She casually rested it on her shoulder, and her figure was one of utter, sincere happiness against the backdrop of the rising sun.

Her face was smeared with blood; her torn robes as well. Pieces of meat and viscera stuck to her scythe. It was a terrible spectacle that one couldn't look straight at.

"..."

"Monster."

Li An turned towards the enemy officers, a grin spreading across her face. "What's the matter? Your faces seem quite pale."

From the middle of the plains filled with the dense smell of blood, Death itself headed towards them. It was Li An's silhouette projected by the sun's rays peeking through the mountains of corpses.

As if clad in black, tattered robes, the monster of death was conjured into Lieutenant Qiang's vision. The sinister scythe swayed slowly from side to side. As if it were hunting its next prey.