Mortal: My name is Ma Liang, and I also possess a magic brush.

The disciples of Huadaowu, wielding serrated longswords, engaged in close combat with the cultivators of the Giant Sword Sect. Their swords clashed and blocked, the crisp sound of metal striking metal ringing out continuously. Both were relying entirely on their physical strength.

On the other side, two cultivators from Tianque Fortress wielded chain hammers and joined forces to besiege the cultivators from Qingxu Sect.

The Taoist priest swept his whisk swiftly, and the needle-like dust threads blocked the hammer chain. Occasionally, he would throw out a blue magic blade to counterattack, and the three of them were locked in a fierce and evenly matched battle.

The remaining two cultivators from Yellow Maple Valley were locked in combat with two cultivators from Spirit Beast Mountain.

The two from Spirit Beast Mountain did not use beast-taming techniques; instead, their methods were sinister and poisonous.

Ma Liang frowned slightly as he watched, and just as he was about to make a move, he saw a cultivator from Spirit Beast Mountain dodge the flying sword to the side and throw out a purple poison ball.

The poison ball struck the disciple of Huangfeng Valley and exploded with a bang. The man's body instantly turned blackish-purple, and he screamed as he fell to the ground, dead.

Another cultivator from Huangfeng Valley was terrified. Seeing Ma Liang out of the corner of his eye, he screamed, "Senior brother! Save me!"

Before the shout had even finished, another cultivator from Spirit Beast Mountain had already closed in, his short dagger flashing coldly as he slashed towards the man's neck.

The monk only had time to open his mouth wide before he collapsed to the ground, unable to utter a sound.

After the two cultivators from Spirit Beast Mountain finished dealing with their target, they turned around and looked at Ma Liang with a mocking expression.

At first, the two thought it was just another suicide mission, but upon closer inspection, their expressions changed drastically.

Ma Liang was riding a gray wolf, with a black bear standing beside him, and a flying monster on his head.

"W-what's going on?" someone exclaimed in a low voice. "Are these people from Spirit Beast Mountain?"

Another person hissed, "Idiot! We're from Spirit Beast Mountain now!"

The two then came to their senses, but the person in front of them was clearly wearing the robes of Huangfeng Valley, yet his ability to control demonic beasts was even stronger than that of a genuine disciple of Ling Shou Shan. The pressure from the three peak first-tier demonic beasts was so intense that they could hardly breathe.

The two dared not linger in the fight and turned to summon their flying swords, intending to flee.

How could Ma Liang let them escape? He leaped off the wolf's back and shouted coldly, "Go!"

The three-headed demon beast responded to the call and formed a triangle, rushing straight at the two fleeing individuals.

At the same time, Ma Liang pulled out the scroll behind him with his back hand and swung it sharply.

The scroll unfurled in mid-air, and a dozen fireball talismans shot out, their crimson flames instantly illuminating half the sky.

The two had just stepped onto the flying sword and hadn't even flown very high off the ground when they heard a sharp screech overhead.

The whistling falcon flashed like a cold light, its iron-hook-like talons clawing at the backs of the two men, who screamed and fell to the ground.

Almost simultaneously, more than a dozen fireballs crashed down, and the booming explosions echoed across the wilderness.

The fighting between the people not far away stopped abruptly, and they looked over in alarm, no longer daring to continue the battle.

They abandoned their opponents and fled in panic towards the distance.

"Do you think you can escape? Stay here, all of you!"

Ma Liang gave a cold shout and flicked his finger again, sending ten wind blade talismans flying out and heading straight for the backs of the five people.

"Run separately!" the Qingxu Sect disciples shouted hoarsely.

As soon as he finished speaking, the five of them scattered and fled, summoning their flying artifacts as they each sought a way to survive.

Ma Liang immediately spurred the whistling falcon above his head to swoop down, its sharp talons striking the last cultivator.

However, those wind blade talismans were blocked by the protective spiritual light that the group hastily summoned.

Taking advantage of this obstruction, Canglang also caught up with a cultivator.

Seeing that the other three were about to escape, Ma Liang waved his finger again, and more than ten golden sword talismans shot out from the scroll, flashing with golden light, and their speed was several times faster than the previous wind blade talismans.

Forced to turn around and defend, the three cultivators from Huadaowu first summoned a shield-shaped magic weapon to protect themselves. The golden sword talisman struck the shield, making a series of crisp clanging sounds. The enormous impact even caused the flying magic weapon under his feet to shake, and he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

The other two hurriedly took out defensive magical artifacts to protect themselves. Although they managed to block the attack of the golden sword talisman, they were also slowed down in place by the force.

These five men ultimately could not withstand Ma Liang's relentless attacks, and within moments they all perished on the spot.

The wolf had already pounced on and torn the cultivator who had caught up with it, leaving him lifeless.

The cultivator from Huadaowu, who had been knocked down by the golden sword talisman, hadn't even had time to get up when the mountain-splitting bear smashed his head with a single claw as it rushed over.

The remaining three were restrained by the sharp claws of the screeching falcon, and their protective spiritual light was shattered by the successive attacks of talismans. In just a few breaths, they died and their souls vanished.

Looking at the fallen cultivators' corpses, Ma Liang breathed a sigh of relief. "Just as I thought, you can overwhelm Qi Refining stage cultivators with sheer numbers."

Looking at the magical artifacts scattered all over the ground, Ma Liang thought, "Time to collect the spoils!"

He summoned his magical artifact, flew low to the ground, and searched for the scattered storage bags and various magical artifacts.

The battlefield was littered with blood and limbs, and anyone else would have felt nauseous, but he felt no discomfort whatsoever.

At first, he wondered how he could remain so calm when he had never seen such a horrific scene before.

But then I thought, who cares?

With his mind at ease, Ma Liang immediately quickened his pace, collecting each item into his possession.

After collecting all the spoils, Ma Liang summoned the three demonic beasts and had them surround him to check on their condition.

The battle just now looked swift and decisive, but all three demonic beasts had several wounds of varying depths on their bodies.

However, no blood seeped from these wounds, which did not surprise Ma Liang.

What reassured him even more was that the wound was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He casually unrolled the scroll and quickly scanned the amount of talismans stored inside.

It would have been better if he hadn't looked; once he did, Ma Liang couldn't help but curse under his breath.

This battle consumed nearly a third of his talisman reserves!

His head started to ache again. These talismans didn't come out of thin air; he had drawn them over eight consecutive days, while taking medicine and working without sleep. The experience was excruciating.

Ma Liang rubbed the storage bag in his hand, calculating the gains from this battle.

These guys looked fierce, but they were actually just ordinary disciples from the sect, dirt poor.

He weighed the storage bag in his hand, estimating that the spirit stones and miscellaneous items inside amounted to at most five or six thousand spirit stones.

"Tsk, a bunch of penniless bums."

Ma Liang mounted the Azure Wolf once more, and with a wave of his hand, he commanded the three demonic beasts to step through the gate to the central area.

At this time, in the Bloodstained Forbidden Land, although there was no fierce melee like in Ma Liang's area, the other areas still suffered heavy casualties.

Ma Liang arrived at the central area in less than half a day. Just as he was about to head straight for the second floor, he suddenly saw a figure flying towards the second floor from the side.

Upon recognizing the man, he immediately raised his hand and shouted, "Senior! This way!"

Xiang Zhili looked in the air toward the source of the sound, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes: How come this kid arrived so quickly?

At this moment, Xiang Zhili had suppressed his cultivation level, and what was revealed was only the late stage of Qi Refining.

Ma Liang pulled out the scroll behind him, unrolled it, and then put all three demonic beasts back into the scroll.

After doing all this, he stepped onto the flying artifact and flew towards Xiang Zhili.

Upon approaching, Ma Liang bowed respectfully, saying, "I never expected to meet you here, senior. We are truly destined to meet."

Xiang Zhili's gaze swept over the scroll behind Ma Liang.

He had traveled the cultivation world for many years and was used to seeing how beast-taming cultivators would put their spirit beasts into their spirit beast bags, but he had never seen anyone seal a demon beast into a scroll.

But then he remembered Ma Liang's earlier vague remark about being "not from this world," and the various unusual secrets about this kid, so he suppressed his curiosity and stroked his short beard.

"How did you get here so fast, kid? The fog on the second level of the central area hasn't even lifted yet."