The entrance to the main valley of the Southern Jagged Peaks was like walking into the throat of a beast. The sky was already grey and overcast. It seemed to vanish entirely behind the high overarching spires of black rock. The wind here didn't just blow; it screamed, threading through the jagged formations with a sound that grated against the soul.

  Two thousand cultivators stood together as they waited for Li Yu to truly act. They were tense. Even with the promise of safety, the instinct of a cultivator in a danger zone was hard to suppress.

  At the front, Li Yu stopped once again. They had only walked for a little bit of time but there was already a decision that had to be made. He stood before a fork in the valley. Two massive arterial paths that wound deeper into the mountain range.

  Sect Master Zhou of the Iron Blood Sect raised a hand, halting the five hundred disciples behind him. "Hold. The Commander is planning something."

  "He can't take both paths," a Core Formation Elder whispered while eyeing the dark tunnels. "If he chooses left, the beasts from the right could flank us. If he chooses right, we get hit from the left."

  Li Yu didn't seem worried about flanking maneuvers. He already had the solution to this problem. He tapped his staff against the ground.

  Thrum.

  A pulse of dense and heavy Qi rippled outward. The cultivators in the front rows stepped back as the air around Li Yu began to warp. It wasn't a chaotic explosion of power. It was a controlled and terrifying coalescence.

  "Look at his shadow!" a disciple from the Violet Silk Pavilion shouted while pointing.

  Li Yu’s shadow didn't stretch along the ground. Instead, it looked like it peeled itself off the rock, rising up like a three-dimensional cut-out. It then gained color, texture and depth. Within the span of a single breath, a second Li Yu stood next to the first.

  The copy was identical in almost every way, save for a faint, ethereal shimmer around the edges and eyes that glowed with a cold blue luminescence. It held no staff, its hands empty but wreathed in frost.

  "A clone technique?" Matriarch Su whispered as her steel fan snapped shut. "No... look at the density. That’s not an illusion. That is an Avatar technique of sorts. He’s formed a second body entirely out of condensed Qi."

  "Maintaining a construct that complex requires massive mental strength and massive amounts of Qi," Commander Lei grunted. "He’s splitting his consciousness? How is he going to operate in two places at once in such a dangerous area? Usually these kinds of techniques are used to do more mundane things."

  Li Yu turned to the army. "Teams One and Two, follow me," he said as he was pointing to the left path with his staff. "Teams Three and Four, follow him," he pointed to the Sentry.

  Without another word, the Sentry turned and sprinted down the right path. It was moving with the silent and fluid grace of rushing water.

  "You heard the Commander!" Commander Lei bellowed, snapping his men out of their stupor. "Teams Three and Four, to the right! Teams One and Two, with the main body! Move!"

  On the left path, Chen ran near the front of the formation with his sword drawn. He was breathing hard, not from exertion but from the sheer suffocating pressure of the battle unfolding ahead of them.

  Li Yu was about two hundred meters ahead. He wasn't running; he was strolling but his stride covered the ground with unnatural speed. From the shadows of the cliffs, the horde of beasts broke.

  It started as a rumble, then a roar. Hundreds of Iron-Hide Gorillas, Razor-Scale Wolves and other types of beasts poured out of the caves lining the valley walls. These were beasts corrupted and mutated by a source still unknown to the humans. Their eyes were glowing red and their bodies covered in bone spurs. A wave of fur and killing intent crashed toward the lone figure in the simple robes.

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  "Prepare for impact!" Sect Master Zhou shouted with his own aura flaring red. He was getting ready for battle. He had seen what kind of damage these beasts could do and there were some really strong ones in the group.

  But the impact never reached them. Li Yu planted his feet and swung the staff in a massive overhead arc.

  "First Form," Li Yu’s voice drifted back to them, calm amidst the screaming beasts. "The Mountain Collapse."

  BOOM.

  It wasn't a sound; it was a physical sensation. The ground beneath the cultivators jumped a full foot into the air. Chen stumbled as he was watching in horror as the geography ahead of them simply... changed.

  The staff struck the rocky ground. The force didn't crack the earth; it pulverized it. A shockwave of force erupted forward in a cone and was tearing up the bedrock and turning it into a projectile weapon.

  The front line of the beast horde, easily three hundred strong, didn't just die. They were flattened. Gorillas the size of wagons were pressed into the stone like dried flowers in a book. The shockwave continued and was carving a deep trench straight through the horde.

  "By the Ancestors..." an Iron Blood disciple muttered. "He just terraformed the valley."

  "Focus!" Zhou roared back but his own voice shook slightly. "The stragglers are scattering! Clean them up as planned! If it's too strong for you, call for help. No need to be a hero. You will get your shares!"

  The shockwave had shattered the beast formation and momentum. The survivors, dazed and terrified, were scrambling up the cliff sides or trying to squeeze past the devastation. Li Yu focused on taking care of the stronger beasts and letting the weaker ones slip through to be cleaned up.

  He might have been able to kill them all but having spoken further with the commanders, it was also a good experience for their disciples. Once overall danger was removed, this became a great training ground for their people. However, they wouldn’t drop down their guard either.

  "Kill!"

  The cultivators surged forward. Swords flashed, fire techniques bloomed and Martial Spirits appeared. Spectral tigers, hawks and serpents manifested from the cultivators' bodies and lunged at the weakened prey.

  Chen found himself face-to-face with a Razor-Scale Wolf. The beast was limping, half its armor shattered by the aftershock of Li Yu’s blow. It snarled and then quickly lunged at him.

  Chen sidestepped, his sword coated in wind Qi. He struck the wolf’s exposed neck, severing the head in one clean motion. It was easy. Too easy. This was a Late Stage Foundation Establishment beast. Usually, it would take a squad of five to bring it down. Now, it was already half-dead before he even touched it.

  A massive Shadow-Leopard was diving from a ledge, aiming for Li Yu’s exposed back. Li Yu spun the staff behind his back, catching the leopard mid-air and then transitioned into a horizontal spin.

  "Second Form: The Sweeping Tsunami."

  The staff blurred. The force generated a visible ring of distorted air that expanded outward like a ripple in a pond. The leopard disintegrated on contact and became a mist or red rain. The ripple kept going. It slammed into the cavern walls on both sides of the valley, shattering the stone pillars where archer-beasts were hiding. The cultivators were back far enough that they didn’t have to deal with the effects of the attack.

  “So that is why he told us to stay far back and only engage beasts that came back here or were running away.” A cultivator thought to herself as she was fighting some of the weakened beasts.

  At the same time, Li Yu raised his left hand. The air around him darkened.

  "What is he doing now?" Elder Mo of the Iron Rock Clan wondered. "Look at the air!"

  Dozens... no, hundreds of black spheres materialized around Li Yu. They elongated, sharpening into wicked, obsidian spikes. They hummed with a sound that made Chen’s teeth ache. It was the sound of the Void.

  Thwip-thwip-thwip-thwip.

  The Abyssal Javelins launched. They didn't fly like arrows; they streaked like black lightning.

  A Stone-Skin Rhino, a beast known for defense that could withstand sect siege weapons was charging at Li Yu. Three black javelins struck it. There was no sound of impact, no blood splatter.

  Where the javelins hit, the rhino simply ceased to exist. Clean, spherical holes appeared in its body and went through the entire beast. Li Yu tried his best to avoid areas of value but still kill the beast. The beast collapsed and was dead before it hit the ground.

  "Those javelins..." Sect Master Zhou lowered his sword. He was too busy watching a volley of black spikes clear an entire ridge of ambushers. "They are Void Aspected. They don't pierce; they erase. I’ve never seen a technique so domineering and used on such a scale before."

  "Move up!" Zhou commanded, shaking off his awe. "Don't let the Commander do all the work! Collect the cores! Collect the other body parts that are of value. If a beast is breathing, stop it!"

  The army advanced over the broken ground. It felt less like a battle and more like following a natural disaster. In fact, many felt that avoiding the attacks from Li Yu that was traveling far back was the most dangerous thing in this valley.