Chapter 1839: Three-in-One

"I'm sorry, but your life ends here."

As he finished speaking, two razor-sharp daggers cut horizontally. One of Xu Yang's daggers sliced the blue mark of the Spirit Sacrifice Warrior into tiny pieces.

For a Spirit Sacrifice Warrior, the destruction of their mark signifies the end of their life. Conversely, if the mark remains intact, even if they are torn to shreds by their enemies, they can still reconstitute their lives within a certain period by relying on the sealed soul essence and life energy within the mark. This is precisely what makes them unique and powerful. However, it is also precisely why their weakness is so clear.

The entire process unfolded in an instant. Xu Yang had effortlessly eliminated two of the six Spirit Warriors who had targeted him. The remaining four were clearly at a loss, having almost given up any hope of defeating Xu Yang. Their main concern became how to preserve their own lives, but unfortunately, they no longer had the chance to escape.

With a gentle flick of his wrist, the Sky-Shattering Divine Artifact transformed once more. This time, it became a long whip, shimmering with dark golden light. In Xu Yang's hand, the whip seemed to pulse with a life of its own. Any location locked onto by Xu Yang's mental power could be reached effortlessly with a single strike of the whip. His attack range, originally limited to about one meter with a sword's edge, now extended to dozens of meters.

Empowered, Xu Yang began to laugh maniacally. Each swing of his dark golden whip unleashed incredibly powerful martial arts damage upon the remaining four Spirit Sacrifice Warriors. A casual lash sent one opponent's body flying hundreds of meters away, crashing heavily beneath the towering waterfall. As one Spirit Sacrifice Warrior after another was hurled into the ceaseless torrent of the waterfall, a cold killing intent finally flickered across Xu Yang's face.

Simultaneously, under Xu Yang's control, the other divine artifact, the Cold Spring, flew into the turbulent waterfall. Immensely powerful frost energy rapidly emanated from its surface. In just over ten seconds, the entire hundred-meter-tall cascading waterfall was completely frozen into a massive wall of ice. Naturally, the four Spirit Sacrifice Warriors who had been thrown into the waterfall were also trapped by the powerful frost energy.

"You naively believed that your marks would allow you to disregard elemental attacks," Xu Yang said, "but you didn't anticipate that I could indirectly restrict your movements completely by freezing this waterfall with external force. How about it? Do you still have the right to challenge me now?"

Xu Yang, now hovering mid-air above the frozen waterfall, conversed with the four dying Spirit Sacrifice Warriors from a position of superiority. The Cold Spring Divine Artifact, just over ten meters away, continued to release immensely powerful ice-sealing sword energy, slowly but surely completely sealing off the mark energy of the four individuals. Along with their mark energy, the freely flowing life force of the four was also completely frozen. The four Spirit Sacrifice Warriors gritted their teeth and struggled frantically, but it was futile. They quickly realized that as long as Xu Yang did not retract the Cold Spring Divine Artifact from above, they would never be able to break free from the frozen waterfall.

Faced with Xu Yang's cold gaze from above, the four Spirit Warriors seemed to offer him no further chance to judge them. Simultaneously, they burned the life force within their marks, and in an instant, the four once-whole bodies turned to ash before Xu Yang's eyes.

Xu Yang shook his head with a sigh. This kind of combat held little interest for him, as those who manipulated their internal energy through their marks had long since lost control over their own lives and deaths. Often, even if they did not wish to end their lives in such a way, they had no choice. This was because Spirit Sacrifice Warriors with blue marks were not highly valued by the mysterious organization behind them. Only the Ten Thousand Year Sons who became disciples, or even more powerful Martial God-level devotees, truly held the right to control their own lives and deaths, much like Dawn, who previously served the Heavenly Sect.

Meanwhile, although Xu Yang had dealt with the six Spirit Sacrifice Warriors confronting him relatively quickly, the situation on the sub-battlefields of Long Kun and the much stronger opponent, Dawn, was far from as easy as Xu Yang's. Long Kun, in particular, was being attacked by three Spirit Sacrificers, all of whom bore beast totems. One had an Ice Bird totem, another a Fire Serpent totem, and the third a Steel-Armored Ox totem. These three clearly formed a well-established combat team. Their combined assault included attacks, defenses, and elemental interference, posing an enormous threat to the solitary powerhouse, Long Kun.

Long Kun was forced to retreat repeatedly by the trio, constantly searching for an opportunity to suppress one of them first before dealing with the other two. However, he soon realized that the strategy of defeating them one by one seemed to have no significant effect against this particular trio.

"Damn it, these three have too much combat experience," Long Kun muttered. "They attack while simultaneously covering each other's defensive angles. It's almost like a continuous battle, with an endless switching of offensive and defensive tactics, leaving me no real chance to strike."

Gritting his teeth, Long Kun decisively began channeling the powerful stellar energy within him, intending to confront the trio head-on, having assessed that the situation was unfavorable for him. But just as he began to gather the essence of stellar energy in his palm, the three opponents, without any hesitation, simultaneously leaped into the air, merging the continuous stream of martial energy within their bodies into a single force.

"No good, these three intend to forcefully interrupt me!" Long Kun realized their intention, but it seemed too late to stop them. This was because the trio's internal martial energy flow, rhythm, and frequency were perfectly synchronized. If one person wished to strike, the other two could provide almost seamless support. In an instant, the core powers of the three individuals merged.

The wide-ranging martial force left Long Kun helpless. He had no clear way to evade it and could only grit his teeth, preparing to directly confront the combined martial power of the three. A thunderous roar erupted, and the sub-battlefield where they fought became a tempest of energy, echoing like thunder.