The vortices of Hadean Reincarnation completely overwhelmed the Weeping Blood Myriad Slash as Xian Xian and Lan Huang had taken a few of the bloodmoon skyfiends that were using the technique out of the equation. They weren't able to weather Tianming's assault at all and were slashed to smithereens by Tianming's sword ki!

Two of the bloodmoon skyfiends blocked in front of Huiyue Jie. The next moment, the four cardinal godswords tore through the defenses of their eight arms and pierced straight through. Each bloodmoon skyfiend suffered a stab in their head and chest. While Ying Huo's Skyscorch Featherblast had easily pierced through them as well, it didn't do too much damage. But the four cardinal godswords were able to cut through the terra at the core of the totems, and even cause explosions by sending bane text into the bloodmoon skyfiends.

The bloodmoon skyfiends cried out in agony as if their core had been struck and immediately turned into a bloody mist. However, they were only heavily damaged and not actually destroyed; the only way to do that was to attack the bane-rings themselves. Even so, it would take at least two months for them to recover.

No longer having the protection of the bloodmoon skyfiends, Huiyue Jie was at the mercy of Tianming and Ying Huo. The Grand-Orient Swords came slashing down at Huiyue Jie's Voidmoon Demonblade once more. Being at the fifth level, Huiyue Jie had rather fierce endurance. Not only was Tianming unable to overwhelm him with both of his swords, he was even slowly being countered. Thus it was unfortunate for Huiyue Jie that Tianming had Ying Huo helping him, executing Hadean Reincarnation from behind whenever Huiyue Jie mounted the pressure.

"Fuck off!" Huiyue Jie turned around and slashed at Ying Huo's wing, only to hear a loud clang. He couldn't believe his eyes—was that really a lifebound beast? Its feathers even rivaled his blade in durability!

Ying Huo snickered when it blocked the move and caused the feathers on its head to separate. Three feathers infused with Blazebane, Cosmic Blade shot toward Huiyue Jie's body.

"Moonsoul Dracoarmor!" Huiyue Jie yelled, causing his clothes to turn into a set of armor that covered his entire body. Even so, Ying Huo's feathers pierced through them like a blade through tofu and emerged from the other side.

Huiyue Jie was greeted with searing pain in his lower and upper abdomen. Even though that wouldn't kill him, especially with his body filled with astral discs giving him impressive vitality. Ying Huo had no need to kill him at all, nor would Tianming be so foolish either. As Huiyue Jie cried in pain with a pale look, Tianming came attacking from behind once more. The black Grand-Orient Sword slapped him squarely on the face while the gold one pierced into the same hole Ying Huo had made on his body.

The patterns of Imperial Sword Prison flooded into his body and immediately vanished. Tianming had gained full mastery of the technique back at the Flameyellow Continent; it was like a bomb he could detonate whenever he pleased, much like Feiling's Latticeheart Curse. He had already done the same to Huiye Yin and could kill her at any moment too. Now, both siblings were at his mercy. As far as he was concerned, Huiyue Jie was as good as dead the moment he was struck by Imperial Sword Prison, but there was no way he would kill him in the public eye.

The debt must be paid, but it must be done intelligently. Huiyue Jie, when you die in the deep of the night, nobody will know that I was the one that killed you!

He drew out his sword, put away his totems, and gave him one final look. Even though the timing of the battle was not the best, Tianming was only there to fulfill his oath from earlier. Not to mention, he hadn't dealt any fatal or crippling damage to Huiyue Jie, at least on the surface, so it was more than within bounds of the Huiyue Clan's tolerance. No matter what, he was a member of their clan too. If the clan couldn't even tolerate some friendly competition, there would be no reason for Tianming to continue staying.

"Huiyue Jie, victory is decided. Can I leave with my weapon now?" Tianming said. Chaos was still breaking out in the distance, whereas the tens of Huiyue Clan members here were completely silent.

Huiyue Jie clutched his bloodied body with a pale look as his lips shuddered, looking blankly and wordlessly at Tianming. The other onlookers had even more interesting expressions. Huiye Yin had cried out loudly as she looked at Tianming with her mouth agape, rubbing her eyes a few times, only to still see the very same person that had defeated her a month ago. "Granny, he's only seventeen. Seventeen...."

A few other women were shivering with fear.

"He actually defeated Huiyue Jie! That's too far-fetched!"

Ever since Tianming had shown his totems, they already found it suffocating. Tianming turned out to be just as much of a miracle here as he had been on the Flameyellow Continent, capable of completely shaking their world. The members of the clan and Granny Yuehe watched silently for quite some time. Even Huiyue Jie was stumped. He had wanted to 'let' Tianming win against him a year later, but that turned out to be a joke. He had no right to be the one who let Tianming win.

Tianming had never known about all the machinations that had been going on in the background. With his Imperial Sword Prison, he controlled whether Huiyue Jie would live or die, so he put his sword away. He really didn't want to remain there any longer. "Granny, please understand. I only came here to take my sword back. I’m still loyal to the Huiyue Clan, and I believe I’ve already shown my deference through my actions today and hope that there will be no more trouble coming my way after this.

"Fortunately, the matter between me and Huiyue Jie is nothing but a misunderstanding that frustrated me greatly, causing me to have to act today right after breaking through. I hope you all believe me when I say that I hold no hard feelings for the Huiyue Clan at all. With this settled and the cruel killer still out there, I hope all of you leave swiftly so that the killer can’t find you."

This was the most appropriate response he could muster. With his talent, he believed that the Huiyue Clan wouldn't bother carelessly avenging Huiyue Jie and taking his life. As for whether Tianming considered the debt paid, he would see in the future. Feiling had suffered for an entire month, so a simple stab wouldn't be enough to set it straight.

With Tianming having spoken first, Yuehe was in a rather awkward position. She asked, "What about Shishi?"

"She already went into hiding," Tianming said.

Yuehe had wanted to seek Huiye Shi out to ask whether she would be able to keep Tianming on a leash, but given the current situation, there was nothing she could do about it. "Let's talk about it tomorrow. Come look for me first thing in the morning."

"Understood, Granny." Tianming could tell that she was trying to tie him down. It was one thing for a seventeen-year-old boy to defeat the third-level Huiye Yin, but a whole other thing to defeat one of the top three youths in the Divine Moon Realm—Huiyue Jie, a fifth-level ascendant. If it weren’t for the killer running rampant, this would have spread throughout the entire Divine Moon Realm, which was what Huiyue Jie, his father, and Granny Yuehe had wanted. But now, that timeline seemed to be a little skewed and Huiyue Jie had been defeated for real.

Right as Tianming was about to leave, Huiyue Jie's gaze turned cold and melancholic as he roared, "Halt! I haven't lost yet! You can't leave!"

He raised his blade and came charging toward Tianming, full of openings thanks to his injuries. Using a surprise attack despite being in such a state revealed a huge flaw in his character, especially after Tianming had settled things with Yuehe.

Tianming rapidly turned back with both swords drawn, slashing one towards the blade and thrusting the other towards Huiyue Jie. He had only wanted to force him back, but Huiyue Jie seemed to have lost his mind and took the thrust with his head. Tianming couldn't pull back in time. The tip of the sword pierced into one of his bane-rings, causing it to explode.

The explosion blasted away quite a lot of flesh and Huiyue Jie pitifully collapsed on the ground, crying out in pain.

"What?!"

The turn of events was far too shocking. Tianming took a few steps back. Seeing Huiyue Jie in such a state, he hurriedly said, "Granny, that was never my intent!"

He was casually countering the attack, only for such a result to come about. With one bane-ring lost, Huiyue Jie's talent was down to Huiye Yin's level. It was as good as a fatal wound.

"Brother!" Huiye Yin wasn't in on the plan and shrieked in horror. "Kill him!"

There was nothing more cruel to her than seeing the brother she had once envied collapse on the ground twitching with tears of blood streaming off his face. Tianming felt the onset of a headache. Though, no matter how smart he was, he couldn't know that there was someone in the Divine Moon Realm that even Huiyue Jie dreaded: Sovereign Xi. He was already panicking as many others surrounded him.

"Stay there!"