Chapter 284: Another Hidden Force
The weather was originally quite clear and fine, yet all of a sudden, a vast blanket of dark clouds suddenly converged in the sky above the main island of the Holy Puppet Sect. The dark clouds stretched for thousands of kilometers, and they descended to such a low altitude that they had virtually come into contact with the sea down below.
All of a sudden, it was as if night had descended upon the island, and gusts of howling wind swept over the sea, raising massive waves.
Yun Ni's trio arrived on the plaza outside the secret chamber to find that the dark clouds up above were churning incessantly with lightning flashing within them, and there were several dozen massive golden and black spirit boats that were laden with people hanging in the sky, resembling a series of floating fortresses.
In contrast with normal flying spirit boats, every single one of these spirit boats was carrying a black platform that was over 100 feet tall, upon which were engraved all types of runes, giving them the appearance of altars.
Bai Fengyi's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and she swept a hand through the air to summon a stone slab array plate, then swiped a finger over it a few times as she instructed, "Activate all restrictions and prepare for battle!"
As soon as this instruction was issued, a sharp screeching sound rang out across the entire main island and the eight surrounding islands.
Immediately thereafter, the spirit patterns on all of the gray stone pillars on the island lit up, and all of the arrays engraved onto the ground and the buildings on the entire island were also activated.
Bursts of loud rumbling rang out as the entire main island began to tremble violently, and its terrain began to undergo drastic changes.
A dense cloud of smoke rose up from the peak of the tallest mountain on the island, and the entire mountain summit slowly descended into the belly of the mountain to reveal a massive hole. Hundreds of flying boats that were riddled with golden spirit patterns rose up out of the hole in unison, hovering in mid-air in anticipation for battle.
At the bend in the river, the flow of water was drawn below the island by a massive passageway that had suddenly appeared, and bursts of golden light emerged on the riverbed as a series of massive turtle-like puppets were revealed. The runes on the bodies of these puppets began to glow with dazzling radiance while releasing bursts of formidable water-attribute spiritual power fluctuations.
In the forest on the second level of the island, the sound of snapping trees rang out incessantly as a series of tiger and leopard-like puppets rushed out into the open. Every single one of these puppets was around 10 feet tall, and they assembled themselves on the edge of the second level of the island as they roared soundlessly up at the sky.
Several True Immortal Stage elders flew onto the plaza from all parts of the island, and each of them was followed by several dozen disciples and hundreds of humanoid puppets.
Some of the important areas on the island had also come under the protection of armies of disciples and puppets, led by more True Immortal Stage elders.
Within a span of no more than 10 seconds after the first sign of disturbance, all of the restrictions on the main island had been activated, and everyone was prepared for battle.
Meanwhile, the sea around the main island was churning violently while swirling around the eight smaller islands, forming a series of massive vortexes.
White light was glowing radiantly within the vortexes, and the white pagodas standing on those islands resembled beacons on the surface of the sea, releasing halos of dazzling light that illuminated the entire surrounding area.
Han Li and Qilin 9 had already returned to the plaza outside of the pagoda and were standing among the Holy Puppet Sect cultivators stationed on the island.
Blue light was flashing in Han Li's eyes as he looked up at the dark clouds in the sky, and he could clearly see some humanoid figures standing above the clouds.
These people all had pieces of black cloth concealing their faces, and they were dressed in black cloaks rather similar to the one that Qilin 9 was wearing. However, there was golden golden embroidery on the edges of their sleeves and collars, and there was a cross-shaped design emblazoned on each of their chests.
This design was not unfamiliar to Han Li as he had previously seen it on the Ubiquitous Pavilion badge that he had obtained from Ping Yaozi.
"I didn't think we'd be facing people from the Ubiquitous Pavilion," Han Li murmured to himself.
"Strictly speaking, they're not from the Ubiquitous Pavilion. Instead, they were merely assembled by the Ubiquitous Kill Order," Qilin 9 corrected.
"Oh? What do you mean by that, Fellow Daoist Qilin 9?" Han Li asked with a puzzled expression.
"As one of the most powerful hidden forces in the Northern Glacial Immortal Region, the Ubiquitous Pavilion is actually rather similar in nature to our Transient Guild, except they mostly focus on the fields of intelligence and assassination. Furthermore, the missions that they accept and release are open to everyone, not just members of the organization.
“In other words, anyone can release missions as long as they have enough money, and anyone can accept their missions as long as they're confident in their own powers. Anyone that releases or accepts a Ubiquitous Pavilion mission counts as an elementary member, so their organization isn't as strict and rigorous as our Transient Guild. As a result, its internal relations are far more complicated and convoluted," Qilin 9 explained.
"So you're saying that even Transient Guild members could release and accept Ubiquitous Pavilion missions, and that these people were assembled by something called a Ubiquitous Kill Order?" Han Li asked.
"That's right. The Ubiquitous Kill Order is an order that's issued to eradicate an entire sect or clan, and it's very expensive to release. It gathers power from an entire immortal region to target a sect or clan, and all those who participate in the mission will be able to keep all of the spoils that they reap during the eradication operation without any fear of repercussions," Qilin 9 explained.
Han Li was enlightened upon hearing this. The most fearsome thing about such an order was how much allure it posed to the enormous number of itinerant cultivators in an immortal region, particularly those who were at or below the Grand Ascension Stage and were stuck at bottlenecks, but were also lacking in cultivation resources. If they didn't do anything, their lifespans would eventually run out anyway, so it made sense for them to take risks and grasp onto any opportunities that they could.
Once people like them accepted a Ubiquitous Pavilion mission, their identities would be protected by the Ubiquitous Pavilion, and that allowed them to act without any inhibitions, so they were often far crueler and more brutal in their assault against the sect or clan that they were targeting, both to secure more cultivation resources and to vent the resentment and envy that they harbored toward these establishments.
Throughout its long history, the Holy Puppet Sect had accumulated an astronomical amount of wealth just from selling puppets alone, making it an extremely alluring target for these desperate cultivators.
While the two of them were speaking with one another, the ground beneath their feet suddenly began to tremble violently, and the troughs in the ground were quickly being filled with white light that was flowing like molten silver.
Bursts of rumbling rang out from beneath the entire island, and a circle of massive rifts began to appear on the ground surrounding the plaza, separating the area around the pagoda from the rest of the island.
Immediately thereafter, this isolated area was rapidly elevated by several thousand feet.
Han Li rose up into the air before casting his gaze toward the island to find that the entire central area of the island had risen up from the rest of the island, having transformed into a massive stone puppet.
The puppet resembled an enormous warrior that was constructed from a material that resembled white jade, but was as hard as steel, and it was wielding a giant silver saber that was several thousand feet in length and was riddled with spirit patterns that were giving off astonishing sharp fluctuations.
The same thing had taken place on all of the other array islands, and some of the giant puppets resembled primordial giant apes, some resembled giants clad in stone armor, and some were similar in appearance to massive wolves. In any case, all of them had different forms, and in addition to that, the colors and shapes of the spirit patterns on their bodies were also different.
Some were dark yellow and formed circles around the torso of the puppet, some were crimson and draped over the arms and body of the puppet like strips of red silk, and some were black and emblazoned on the chest of the puppet like tattoos.
At this moment, there were three figures standing side by side on an inky-black spirit boat high up in the sky within the dark clouds.
One of them had an extremely long and deep scar on their face, running across the left side of their forehead to their right eye, then down their cheek, where the rest of it was concealed by the black cloth covering their face.
To their right was a young man with a slender build and a sword strapped to his waist. Half of his face was also concealed behind a black cloth, but the skin on the exposed half of his face was as fair as jade, and beneath his bushy eyebrows was a pair of bright and piercing eyes.
Both of them possessed incredibly formidable auras that indicated that they were Golden Immortal cultivators.
The third figure was a burly man with a slightly yellow complexion. He was standing at close to 10 feet tall, and even though he was wearing a hooded cloak, a dark azure metallic gleam could be seen in front of his forehead, indicating that he was wearing some type of metallic headgear.
He was only at the pinnacle of the True Immortal Stage, yet he was able to stand alongside this pair of Golden Immortals, and that was a clear indication that he was no ordinary True Immortal.
"Are you satisfied with the arrangements made by our Ubiquitous Pavilion, Fellow Daoist Lu Ji?" the man with the scar on his face asked as he turned to the fair-skinned young man beside him.
"I paid such a heavy price to employ the services of your Ubiquitous Pavilion precisely because of your organization's vast influence, but I'm still quite surprised that you were able to gather so many people. Having said that, aren't the cultivation bases of these people a little too varied? How much power could such a ragtag bunch of cultivators possibly possess?" the young man by the name of Lu Ji replied.
While it was true that these spirit boats were carrying 2,000 to 3,000 cultivators, there were only fewer than 50 True Immortal cultivators among them, while the rest consisted of Grand Ascension cultivators and even quite a large number of Body Integration and Spatial Tempering cultivators, so it wasn't incorrect to refer to them as a ragtag bunch.
"These people are all itinerant cultivators, and all of them had to fight their way up the ranks to get to their current cultivation bases, so among those of the same cultivation base, there's no way they'd be inferior to these weaklings of the Holy Puppet Sect who only know how to make puppets," the man with the scar on his face replied with a smile.
"I don't believe this is the right time to be chatting among ourselves, fellow daoists. I've come to the Ancient Cloud Continent with a mission from my master, so let's finish things here as quickly as possible, Fellow Daoist Xue Han," the yellow-faced man suddenly said.
"There's no need to be in such a hurry, Fellow Daoist Zhong Luan. We've only done some light probing up to this point. Now that they've revealed all of their defenses and we can confirm that their defensive measures are identical to what's laid out in the intelligence that we've collected, we can proceed according to our original plan. However, don't forget what we agreed on earlier once we get into the Holy Puppet Sect," the scar-faced man by the name of Xue Han chuckled.
"Rest assured, Fellow Daoist," Zhong Luan replied in an indifferent voice.
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