Fireballs were the first to crash into the crowd.

They were no longer the fist-sized flames from the training grounds back then, but basin-sized, incandescent fireballs.

The fireballs dragged long tails of flame as they crashed into the ground where the Martial Artists had just landed, exploding with a roar, sending gravel and sparks flying in all directions.

Following closely was the Ice Spike Sorcery; hundreds of ice needles, as thin as cow hair, condensed in the air. Under the reflection of the rising morning sun, they gleamed with a piercing cold light, showering down like a torrential rain.

Next came the Vine Entanglement Sorcery; dozens of dark green vines, as thick as a child's arm, burst forth from the cracks in the ground.

The vines wrapped around the Martial Artists' ankles, calves, and waists, the dense barbs on the vines piercing their skin while tightening frantically.

There was also the Earth Wall Technique; the Black Armor Army did not use the Earth Wall for defense.

Instead, they raised the Earth Wall directly from beneath the Martial Artists' feet, lifting them into mid-air, causing them to lose their balance and exposing them to the fireballs and ice spikes of the comrades behind them.

Or, walls of earth appeared beneath their feet, hindering their movements.

The Blood Refining Realm Martial Artists were caught off guard by this combination of Sorcerys.

Although they had sent scouts to investigate the cultivation methods of the Sorcerys after returning from the valley, and had some understanding of them, they had spent far less time chanting scriptures compared to the Black Armor Army, who cultivated day after day, and their depth of mana was far inferior.

They tried to imitate the hand seals and cast spells, managing to conjure a few fireballs to fight back, but the volume and temperature of those fireballs were simply not in the same league as those shot by the Black Armor Army.

They could circulate their mana to lay a layer of protective spiritual light around their bodies, but that light shattered like soap bubbles after just a few breaths under the dense bombardment of Sorcerys.

At this point, these people had to rely on the pure strength of their Physical Body to endure.

When fireballs exploded on them, their robes instantly turned to ash, and their skin sizzled from the burns.

When ice spikes shot into their bodies, the cold air dissipated after piercing the muscles, leaving the area around the wounds purple and blue.

When vines wrapped around them, they could break a few with brute force, but they could not break the endless stream of more vines emerging from the ground.

One Martial Artist roared and leaped from the ground, vaulting over the shield wall, wanting to charge directly into the Marquis's residence to capture Empress Su Mingyue.

His movement Sorcery was extremely fast, so fast that he left only a blurred afterimage in mid-air.

But the moment he was about to cross the shield wall, he was slammed back by an invisible wall of Qi.

That was a spiritual energy shield cast jointly by dozens of Black Armor Army soldiers.

Faint light rippled like water across the surface of the shield; no matter how the Martial Artist smashed his fists against it, it only caused a few ripples before he was bounced back.

Before he could even flip and land, dozens of spears flashing with cold light thrust out from behind the shield wall in unison, instantly piercing him through.

The battle did not last long. The individual strength of these Blood Refining Realm Martial Artists far exceeded that of ordinary soldiers, but they were not facing ordinary soldiers.

Since Zhou Ming began teaching the Sorcerys, the Black Armor Army had been drilling them for a full half-year.

They were not fighting alone, but rather forming Formations according to the manual, with every attack carried out methodically.

The front row released Sorcerys, while the back row condensed mana; when the front row's mana was exhausted, they automatically retreated, and the back row seamlessly filled in, keeping the intensity of firepower and defense from waning.

More than thirty Martial Artists were like a group of tigers trapped in a cage when faced with such Sorcerys.

Each one, taken individually, was a king of beasts, but under the dense coverage of Sorcerys and the squeezing of layered shield walls,

their space for movement was compressed smaller and smaller, until they were squeezed into a cluster, with no room left to dodge or maneuver.

The last one to fall was the old man with grey hair and beard.

His knees were pierced by ice spikes, forcing him to kneel on the steps in front of the Marquis's residence; his chest had been blown open by a fireball, leaving a charred, gaping hole, and the blood overflowing from the corners of his mouth dripped down his grey beard.

He raised his head, staring fixedly at the figure in black armor and silver spear above the steps, his mouth opening as if he wanted to say something, but only a few confused, gurgling sounds emerged, and finally, he collapsed to the ground, silent forever.

The long street returned to silence. The bluestone road was covered in charred craters and water stains from melted ice spikes, and the air was filled with the stench of scorched flesh and the rust-like smell of blood.

Empress Su Mingyue slowly lowered the silver spear in her hand, her gaze sweeping over the corpses strewn across the steps.

More than thirty Blood Refining Realm Martial Artists, not a single survivor.

Empress Su Mingyue looked calmly at the corpses strewn across the steps below.

Her expression was exceptionally calm, as if the thirty-plus corpses of Blood Refining Realm Martial Artists beneath her feet were nothing more than a pile of crushed dead leaves.

She tilted her head slightly and said to Dongmei, who was also dressed in black armor beside her: "Go, leave none alive."

Dongmei clasped her hands in salute to receive the order and led a squad of the Black Armor Army away, heading towards the east of the city.

That was where the residences of these Martial Artists' Families were clustered.

Empress Su Mingyue turned around, handed the silver spear to Chunlan, and said to Old Marquis Su Yongning, who was standing dumbfounded behind her:

"Father, let's go inside and talk."

Old Marquis Su Yongning stood where he was, his lips twitching several times.

He had just rushed back from the northern border without stopping, and before he could even change out of his dust-covered cloak, he had witnessed this bloody scene.

He subconsciously opened his mouth, his gaze sweeping over the corpses covering the ground, over the charred craters and the fragments of unmelted ice spikes.

He swept his eyes over the blood-stained mud on the boots of the Black Armor Army soldiers, and finally landed on Empress Su Mingyue's face, which was calm to the point of near indifference.

He wanted to say something, but the words were swallowed back before they could leave his lips.

What could he say?

These people had come to trouble his daughter, and his daughter had simply acted first before they could.

He had emerged from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood; he was long accustomed to such bloody slaughter.

What left him dumbfounded was, when did Empress Su Mingyue's Black Armor Army become so powerful?

After a long silence, he finally let out a grunt and turned to walk into the Marquis's residence first.

Zhou Ming sat cross-legged in his Immortal Cave on the west mountain, taking in everything with his Divine Sense.

He was not surprised by Empress Su Mingyue's ruthlessness; this Young Miss had drawn her sword and charged into the fray in front of all the noble Young Masters of the city at the West Mountain Poetry Gathering.

She had ordered the use of corpses to burn a wall of fire at the foot of Qingyun Mountain, and watched Yuwen Shuo hanging from the rafters without changing her expression when Shunning City fell.

She had never been a soft-hearted person.

What truly surprised him were the Sorcerys displayed by the Black Armor Army.

The Fireball Technique had evolved from fist-sized flames into explosive fireballs capable of shattering bluestone.

The Ice Spike Sorcery had evolved from sparse ice needles into an area-of-effect attack pouring down like a torrential rain.

The coordination of the Vine Entanglement Sorcery and the Earth Wall Technique was precise down to the millimeter.

When he taught these Sorcerys to the soldiers, they were only the most basic, simplified versions.

Yet, in this half-year, the Black Armor Army had forcibly multiplied their power several times over.

This world had an extremely strong suppression on the Sorcerys of a Cultivator; as a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator, the power of the Sorcerys he cast in this world was still unsatisfactory.

Yet these soldiers who cultivated the Dushi Sutra were able to bring their Sorcerys to such power despite the suppression.

This could not help but surprise him.

It seemed that there was truly strength in numbers.

One thousand people studying the same set of Sorcerys simultaneously; each person would encounter different problems, generate different insights, and attempt different improvements during repeated practice.

The experience of one thousand people gathered together, and then screened and integrated by the instructors in the army, had formed a Sorcery manual that far exceeded the simplified version he had left behind.

He silently noted this discovery in his heart, withdrew his Divine Sense, closed his eyes again, and continued to contemplate the Formation Jade Slips in his Storage Ring that he had not yet fully digested.