The onlookers only saw a flash of sword light like snow, and then two heads fell to the ground at the Yan King’s left side!

His cultivation was superior and his movements too swift, leaving these two without any chance to fight back.

The sudden change startled everyone. The New Xia cultivators shouted: “What are you doing!” Even the Yan people instinctively stepped back, distancing themselves from him.

Only Yan Kingdom cultivators would stand so close to their sovereign. Those killed by the Yan King were his most trusted subordinates!

He’s gone mad! A chill ran through everyone’s hearts. Outside the demon-repelling formation, chaos demons danced wildly, their lives already hanging by a thread, yet inside the formation, the Yan King had begun a killing spree!

Was he forcing everyone toward certain death?

“Stand in your original positions, don’t move! Stabilize the formation!” the Yan King shouted. “Since this thing is called an altar, it’s naturally meant for sacrifice! If you want to summon the Realm God, you must offer sacrifices!”

As he spoke, the muscles on his face twisted, truly contorting into a grotesque expression of excitement.

Restoring the altar and placing the stone heart—they hadn’t done anything wrong. They had only missed the final step to activate the altar!

The altar had been shattered for so long, slumbering for ages; reopening it naturally required sacrifices.

It must be this way!

Feng Miaojun was also startled by this sudden development and stopped in her tracks, her eyes contemplative.

Before the Yan King finished speaking, he swung his sword to split open the fallen heads, then reached in to search.

Those he killed were all demons—one a tiger demon, one a snake demon. Truthfully, humans killing demons wasn’t rare, but these two demons had submitted to Yan long ago and remained utterly loyal to the Zhao family. The Yan people present watched as their colleagues were beheaded, while their sovereign rummaged through their heads, leaving their hearts frozen.

Was loyalty to one’s king and country only to meet such an end?

The Yan King couldn’t care less about these concerns. In three quick movements, he extracted two pearls from the demons’ skulls, different in color and size, but both perfectly round with a faint mist surrounding them.

These were demon cores, formed naturally by demons who had reached a certain level, and the essence of their spiritual energy condensed.

Ignoring the red and white sticky substances still coating the pearls, he lifted the altar and threw them directly inside!

Though the onlookers trembled with criticism in their hearts, they all watched without blinking, hoping to see this outlandish attempt succeed.

After all, no one wanted to die!

Three breaths passed, five breaths passed…

The altar remained silent, just as before.

This sacrifice had no effect.

“I thought you might come up with something clever,” Feng Miaojun sneered, waving her hand. “Attack!”

The chaos demons behind her, as if hearing an imperial command, converged into black smoke and charged at the demon-repelling formation once more.

From a distance, the area looked like a black tornado had formed, with sand and stones flying, the world changing color.

“How can this be, how can this be! I understand now!” The Yan King muttered to himself, then suddenly raised his head. Others saw that his eyes had turned red, but his face showed sudden realization. “The sacrifice isn’t enough!”

The cultivators scattered with a collective gasp, not wanting to become the next sacrifice.

His trusted aide couldn’t help but advise: “Your Majesty, this method perhaps…”

Before he could finish, the Yan King had already swung his sword backward.

He moved too quickly. Even though the man had anticipated it and leaped away, he was still half a step too slow. Half his face was sliced off, losing both nose and lips, revealing a bloody mess.

As the man howled in pain, the Yan King unhesitatingly launched a second strike. By now, everyone understood clearly:

The Yan King had gone berserk!

Two other Yan Kingdom cultivators rushed forward to block his sword. However, his strength was astonishing and his divine powers formidable. With a mere gesture, he sent one flying and killed the other!

And with each person he killed, he remembered to carve out their demon core and place it on the altar.

Now he couldn’t hear or see anything; his mind held only one thought:

Offer enough sacrifices to summon the Realm God!

This behavior made everyone’s blood run cold, but it also slowed the Yan King’s killing speed. The New Xia cultivators gritted their teeth and said: “Kill him, or we’ll certainly all die!”

Though chaos demons lurked outside the demon-repelling formation, at least they hadn’t entered yet. Inside the formation, however, a murderous fiend ran rampant—what difference did it make whether they died by his hand or by the chaos demons?

In an instant, two more people fell to the Yan King’s blade.

In such a desperate situation, the Yan Kingdom cultivators had no time to hesitate before turning against him. If Nu Ba hadn’t been kept outside the formation, their forces would have been even stronger.

Cultivators were different from armies. They served their country and ruler only to obtain more elemental power to aid their cultivation—this was the unwritten agreement between cultivators and the state. Now that the Yan King was butchering them like pigs, how could the Yan Kingdom cultivators sit and wait for death?

In the blink of an eye, a battle erupted inside the demon-repelling formation. Though the Yan King was incredibly powerful, facing dozens of cultivators, he still found himself at a disadvantage.

However, everyone in the scene had forgotten one point:

The formation didn’t work solely through bronze talismans; it also required the vital energy of living people to suppress it. Originally, the cultivators had stood properly in place, which kept the formation stable.

Now, with the Yan King rampaging like a wild tiger, everyone was running about. How could they still supply the formation with what it needed?

Feng Miaojun smiled with satisfaction and placed her delicate white hand on the barrier.

Immediately, a layer of pearly white spread across the barrier’s surface, like frost flowers forming on a window during New Year, but growing increasingly thicker. In just a few breaths’ time, the people inside the formation could barely be seen.

Meanwhile, the chaos demons gathered again, this time transforming into a black-haired rhinoceros with a three-foot-long horn on its head.

It accelerated and, lowering its head, charged straight at the barrier.

With a crisp “crash,” the barrier shattered, like shards of crystal scattering across the ground. The giant rhinoceros charged through, transforming back into countless dancing demonic shadows.

The demon-repelling formation was broken!

Feng Miaojun’s eyes revealed faint contempt. Why did the Yan King choose a demon-repelling formation of all things? Three hundred years ago, Emperor Li Li had used this formation to block the chaos demons’ entry into the mortal world, and the demons had studied nothing more thoroughly than this formation. How could they be trapped by it now?

As the formation broke, the cultivators scattered in terror, fleeing in all directions. With chaos demons descending, the Yan King went mad, and the New Xia Queen transformed into a demon lord breaking the barrier, humanity’s last hope was lost. What reason was there to stay?

The chaos demons were excited, often with three or four black smoke tendrils entering a person’s nose and mouth at once. After ten or so breaths, the person would be controlled by the chaos demons and turn to attack their former comrades.

Feng Miaojun strode forward.

The divine powers she had just used consumed enormous energy, giving her face an abnormal flush that made her look enchantingly beautiful, though her eyes also showed faint traces of bloodshot. Watching her move like the wind with such vast divine powers, who could imagine that just dozens of breaths ago, she had been on the verge of death, without even the strength to stand?