Nine-Sword Sword Formation, Nine-Disaster Sword Style

Gu Changyuan's voice was not loud; it could even be considered calm.

But among the nine giant swords suspended above, one sword—pitch-black and engraved with countless sealing runes—suddenly lit up.

"Hum—!"

An invisible ripple spread from the sword, instantly expanding to cover a radius of a hundred miles.

In an instant, everything within a hundred miles of Gu Changyuan was completely sealed off, turning into a forbidden zone of absolute dead silence.

Time froze, space stagnated, spiritual energy annihilated, and the laws of the world retreated.

The Five Elements ceased to exist, Yin and Yang vanished, karma detached, and fate could no longer descend.

The massive body of the strange beast was thus suspended in mid-air.

Its hundreds of tentacles still maintained their striking posture, reaching out wildly in all directions, yet unable to move a single inch.

Its eyes could not blink, and its tentacles could not curl.

Only those countless eyes could still pass visual information from the outside world into its still-functioning brain.

The Nine Tribulations Sword Array was never solely meant for slaying people.

That coercive pressure, those sword gleams, and those overwhelming attacks.

Those were merely the most basic applications of this sword array. Gu Changyuan previously disdained using the true moves of the Nine Tribulations Sword Array, because dealing with mere small fry didn't warrant it.

Nine Tribulations; there were nine tribulations in total.

Each tribulation represented Gu Changyuan's absolute pinnacle on a specific Great Dao.

In truth, he had other cultivation techniques that could replicate the effects of these nine tribulations.

But those substitutes were merely inferior alternatives, unable to reach the ultimate intensity of the Nine Tribulations.

Only these nine tribulations were his true limits on those respective paths.

Gu Changyuan walked up to the strange beast and looked up at the behemoth frozen in mid-air.

He spoke again:

"Fourth Tribulation—Heart-Devouring Bone."

Above, another sword lit up.

It was a pale white sword, its blade appearing as if countless bone spurs were squirming upon it.

A beam of sword light shot out from it, silently sinking into the beast's body.

The sword light left no wounds on its body, severed no tentacles, and caused no substantial physical damage.

But in that instant, the strange beast felt as though its entire body had changed.

Heart-Devouring Bone: the victim's pain receptors in both soul and body are magnified ten million times.

In reality, whenever any living creature moves—walking, breathing, the slight shifting of bones, the friction of skin—there is inherently a microscopic sensation of pain.

It is just that this pain is so incredibly minute that it cannot be perceived at all.

But the Heart-Devouring Bone could amplify that extremely minuscule pain ten million times over.

Ten million times.

Therefore, if Gu Changyuan used the Heart-Devouring Bone on a cultivator, even if he didn't strike again, that cultivator would feel endless agony crawling all over their body just by being alive.

Every breath, every heartbeat, every flow of blood would feel like death by a thousand cuts.

Gu Changyuan waved his right hand.

A long black sword appeared in his grasp.

The sword was pitch-black and slender, devoid of any patterns or decorations.

He gave it a gentle swing toward the beast.

A streak of sword light landed on the beast.

The moment the sword light touched the beast's body, it exploded, transforming into countless tiny sword gleams that densely covered every inch of the beast—

On every tentacle, at regular intervals, there was a sword gleam.

Around every eye, there was a ring of sword gleams.

Every joint, every fold, every scale had sword gleams attached.

Gu Changyuan gently snapped the fingers of his right hand.

"Snap."

The stagnation surrounding the strange beast loosened slightly.

It still could not move, but those sword gleams detonated all at once.

In that instant, the strange beast felt as if every inch of its skin was being flayed, every nerve ignited, and every bone crushed.

The agony did not come from the outside; it erupted simultaneously from the deepest parts of its body, from every single cell!

"Ahhhhhh—!!!"

That scream was more piercing, more tragic, and more bone-chilling than any it had let out before.

The sound pierced through the blockade of the Sealing Domain, traversed a hundred miles of the void, and reached Outland City.

With a single sword strike, the strange beast was instantly critically injured and on the verge of death.

Its massive body was covered in a dense network of wounds, and black blood gushed from every cut, pouring down like a waterfall.

But it wasn't dead yet.

Gu Changyuan waved his left hand at it.

A surge of spiritual energy instantly landed on the beast.

The healing power contained within that spiritual energy was several times stronger than the regenerative abilities of the Black Water Pool.

At a visible rate, it healed the wounds on the beast one by one, reattached the severed tentacles, and restored the shattered scales to their original state.

Within a few breaths, the strange beast had fully recovered.

Then, Gu Changyuan swung his sword again.

Endless agony once more.

"Ahhhhhh—!!!"

The beast screamed again.

Then it was healed again.

Another swing of the sword.

Another scream.

Another healing.

...

Outland City, on the city walls.

Mo Yingluo and Mo Yingyue had been standing there all along, gazing into the depths of the Outer Realm, waiting for their Master's return.

They saw a massive, blazing sun rise in the distance, illuminating the entire deep region.

Through that familiar aura, they instantly knew—it was their Master's aura.

Their Master had engaged the strange beast in battle.

And the scale of it was not small.

Then, one miserable scream after another echoed continuously from the depths.

Each cry was more piercing, more tragic, and more bone-chilling than the last.

The sound made all the cultivators in Outland City feel thoroughly uncomfortable, as if the pain were being inflicted upon their own bodies.

But what Mo Yingluo and Mo Yingyue noticed was not the screaming.

Rather, it was the Master's aura mixed within those cries.

That aura carried fury, ruthlessness, and a kind of... madness that they had never felt from their Master before.

The two women exchanged a glance.

Master was angry.

To be honest, having followed their Master for so long, they had seen him indifferent, overbearing, and lazy, but rarely had they ever seen him truly enraged.

The number of times could be counted on two hands.

Every single time, someone paid a tragic price.

This time... they silently cast a glance toward the depths of the Outer Realm.

That strange beast was probably going to regret ever being born into this world.

...

An incense stick's time later.

The screams finally stopped.

The depths of the Outer Realm returned to silence.

The cultivators of Outland City looked at each other in dismay, not knowing what had happened in the depths.

All they knew was that the scalp-numbing screams had finally ceased.

The lingering echoes still carried an undissipated shrillness that made their skin crawl.

Not long after, a figure flew back from the depths of the Outer Realm and landed in front of Mo Yingluo and Mo Yingyue.

"The matter is resolved."

Gu Changyuan spoke, a smile on his face.

"Go rest for now."

The coercive pressure around his body had long been retracted, and a faint smile even tugged at his face.

He tried to color his features with gentleness, but that smile didn't even reach his eyes; it was as stiff as if it had been painted on.