Fang Xingjian's Heart Sword Path began with electromagnetic waves and was presented as illusions to distort living creatures' emotions. It was an unrivaled demonic sword that used all sorts of desires as nourishment to toy with and manipulate people's hearts.
After coming to this universe and encountering the 13 armies' cultivation system of propelling different powers and abilities based on their characters. This gave Fang Xingjian a great reference and allowed his Heart Sword Path to reach another breakthrough.
Right now, he could condense sword seeds with his Heart Sword Path. The sword seeds would be almost traceless, making them hard to detect. They could root deeply into people's hearts, using their desires and emotions as nourishment to continuously get stronger. During this process, the sword sees could also slowly distort the individual's character. The entire process tended to be an unnoticeable infiltration—a process that happened unknowingly.
It was like how Ulpian's righteous heart had been broken. That was something which had slowly started changing from the moment the battle began.
Similarly, Grade had also unknowingly been planted with sword seed by Fang Xingjian. It used Grade's greed as nourishment and concurrently guided and stimulated him in the dark, causing him to sweep through Earth and engulf the warriors from the various armies.
However, at this moment, Fang Xingjian had awakened from the sword seed. It meant that the powers he had sent to fight against Ulpian had been completely depleted. There was only this little bit of Fang Xingjian's powers and martial will left behind in this sword seed.
Fang Xingjian had shattered his sword formation, swords, and Sword Realm, condensing his sword arts into a new Sword Realm. On the outside, he had the Sword Realm to use in battles, while on the inside, he had the Heart Sword Path to grasp the world.
He himself also had a martial will of over 8,000 points and could be said to be remarkably powerful.
However, he was now left with only the little bit of his powers in the sword seed. His powers had reached an all-time low since he came to this universe.
Therefore, after a series of observations, he started to gather information about the outside world.
'Mmmm... Is Grade's strength currently the strongest on Earth...?
'To think that he has managed to engulf so many warriors over the past few months and even managed to gain an absolute advantage.
'The black ring's energy and potential might not be that much lower than that of the silver ring.'
With Fang Xingjian's intelligence, after listening to the conversations and reports from some of the black warriors, he immediately understood the many events that had occurred on Earth during the past few months.
Then just as Fang Xingjian was sensing the situation in the outside world, Grade took the opportunity to lead the entire Black Army and charge into Central City while Fahui was still being reborn. Wherever the Black Army passed by, there would be a trail of broken arms and remains of bodies left behind. Black deathly light came gushing like a tsunami, crushing the various countries.
Be it machine guns, rocket missiles, tanks, or fighter aircrafts... none of them could deal with those black departed spirits effectively. On the contrary, the black energies released from the black rings tended to destroy everything in their paths. They could easily shatter steel and iron, as well as crush cement and steel reinforcing bars.
Watching as the Black Army kept on advancing, Edward and the others finally could not hold it in any further.
Four streams of light pillars soared into the sky, blocking the Black Army's path. A myriad of departed spirits were instantly torn apart, and the violent ring energies were like windstorms that raged through the universe. They radiated out in all directions, killing all of the departed spirits from the Black Army.
Encompassed by golden light, Edward let out a cold bellow, "Grade, are you crazy? You're wreaking such havoc in the world... Aren't you afraid that Ulpian will come back?"
"Hahahaha," Grade laughed loudly. He stood up fiercely from the whale throne. Then black Qis soared into the sky instantly. It was as if many huge heavenly demons had descended from the sky, gushing forth. The entire Central City seemed to be trembling from that.
"So what if Ulpian comes back? With my current strength, he can forget about taking me down even if he comes back." With that, Grade looked greedily at Edward and the others, "Moreover, after I've swallowed you guys, even Ulpian won't be my match."
As he spoke, Grade struck out his palm sending streams of black Qis circling together, turning into an enormous hand that struck out toward the four Commanders.
Edward and the others retaliated as well. Streams of light turned into huge cannons, mountain ranges, meteors, and blades that launched attacks toward Grade's huge hand.
However, Grade's palm trembled and emitted a chaotic array of colors. The huge palm seemed to have become 100 or 1,000 times heavier, emitting a series of explosive great powers.
Rumble! The atmosphere seethed, mountain ranges were torn apart and meteors were incinerated. Wherever the huge palm passed by, the attacks by Edward and the others were all shattered. A great air explosion surged into the sky, tearing through the clouds and crumbling countless towering buildings.
Edward and the others let out stifled grunts, and each of them retreated several thousand meters. To think that all of them had been injured by a single palm attack from Grade.
At the sight of this scene, Grade let out a cold laugh and shouted, "Are you still not going to surrender?"
A loud bellow that seemed to cause the world to tremble knocked out several ten thousand ordinary soldiers. When the departed spirits in the surroundings heard the bellow, they started to cry out loudly as well. Many voices merged into one until it seemed as if there was only one voice left in the world.
"Surrender!"
"Surrender!"
"Surrender!"
"Surrender!"
Sensing Grade's power, the countenances of Edward and the others became extremely grim. "To think that he can already utilize the powers of the other armies..."
Hui He's expression was extremely gloomy. "It's surprising that guy actually made use of the rings' energies from the other armies in that earlier attack. How did he do that? To think that the Black Army has such an ability?"
Priest Longmai and Akaryuu Juushirou were both quite shocked as well. Looking at the countless densely packed departed spirits above their heads, they felt that the future seemed ambiguous.
Just then, a beam of orange light pierced through the world. Reverend Fahui had resurrected and returned.
Watching Fahui return, Grade let out a cold laugh and once again returned to his seat. With a wave of his palm, he wanted to send out a myriad of departed spirits to continue besieging.
This was his strategy to besiege this city—using the great army of departed spirits to deplete the opponents' powers and forcing Fahui to self-detonate. After Fahui self-detonated, Grade would then personally make a move to wear down the rings' energies from Edward and the others.
With that, he did not have to personally receive Fahui's self-detonation attack head-on, yet he could still continue to deplete his opponents' powers.
'I'll wait till tonight to go all out, making a move before their rings' energies recover. I'll need to kill at least one of them.' Grade narrowed his eyes. The entire battlefield was within his control.
However, at the next moment, his gaze condensed slightly. As he watched the five Commanders before him, hints of insuppressible feelings of greed flashed through his mind.
These feelings of greed were like sparks that landed onto a stretch of dried grass, instantly burning up intensely.
'Hmph, I've been too careful. Even if I go all out right now, I still have 60% confidence of taking them all down. Why do I need to continue depleting their powers and wait for night to arrive?
'Moreover, Ulpian might really return. I should eat them up as soon as possible.'
Waves of desire rose uncontrollably in his heart. Grade did not seem to realize that he had started to find excuses to convince himself.