"But won't that expose us?! If we use it, it will be the same as admitting to the world we did those things they said we did.."
"Guo Mei, surely you of all people can't be naive to think that someone will step in to help us? even our dearest of allies, would not risk angering the Order by stepping into this quagmire. You heard them, if they get involved they will suffer the same fate as us, no one is that stupid.
"As things stand, using the emerald frost flow veiled array will do us no good. Those flames of his seem to suppress the very essence of our art. If we insist on keeping up the facade, then even with the array, we will all be burned down.
All that the emerald frost flow veiled array will do is give us a few more seconds before that eventuality. But with the sanguine doppelganger array, we can enhance one another while also getting support from the Wisteria and the lives we have fed it all these years.
Fu Ning and those two are barely hanging on, and the way things are going Zhilan isn't that far behind. If those four get eliminated then it will leave only you, me, and Liqiu fighting against him.
How long do we last then? Besides.....before the fight began, the founder said we need to be prepared to abandon the sect.. .....with things as they are, there's nothing much left for us anyway.
The sect is already gone, we might as well go all the way through if it means we get to live. Otherwise, why did we agree to all this, and do the things we did? Get ready, ill inform the rest.."
"Okay.."
On Yang Qing's end, even if he didn't know what the two were discussing, he did notice the sudden change in the demeanor of their sect master.
On the surface, she seemed to have gotten reckless as she madly charged to cover for her weaker sect mates, gaining more injuries, unlike before when her interference would be measured, only acting when the trade-off was small injuries while also creating room for a counter-attack by the other elders.
Yang Qing had to admit that her combat acumen was good, especially when it came to seizing or creating an opportunity from the slightest of chances. The other elders had held on, only thanks to her.
But now, she was jumping in with a hurried manner. Any time Yang Qing went close to Fu Ning who seemed to be barely hanging on or the other two, the sect master would immediately step in with no caution in mind which led her to gain more injuries and expending a lot of qi.
However, despite how she acted, Yang Qing could detect a calmness to her, something that was absent before, which made him think that something was up.
His guess was immediately confirmed when he noticed visible changes to the expressions of those elders, except Fu Ning who was a charred mess, that one could only tell what she was feeling through her eyes.
As for the elders, they all seemed to have one emotion in common, and that was relief.
"Seems, they're planning something..." muttered Yang Qing as his gaze narrowed to the tree below him.
If something was to change, it would come from there.
He quickly exchanged a look with the rest of the judges who had been closely monitoring any changes from the tree while Yu Gen and Xia Ting had been keeping an eye out for any outside interference.
They were not the only ones. All the judges present had brought in one of their inquisitors who were in the palace realm to keep an eye out on the surroundings in secret. All together counting Yu Gen and Xia Ting, there were five other palace realm experts hiding in the shadows.
"It's here," sect master Zhao Ju muttered as a crimson-colored rune flashed from the Wisteria tree and immediately split into nine droplets each targeting; Deng Yaozu, Luo Shan, Su Ju, Mo Xiang, Qin Zhilan, Xie Liqiu, Guo Mei and Zhao Ju.
The droplet immediately merged with their glabella, and a resonance seemed to have been created among the nine of them, with one anchor linking them, which was the Wisteria tree that was now letting out a blue, purple, and red pulsating glow.
A transformation started happening within the bodies of each of those members. Their hair which was pure white now had red mixed in with it, along with their pupils. Their skins got pale white, and the injuries they had suffered immediately started healing.
Fu Ning, charcoal-like look transformed and she started looking more human-like as her flesh and skin grew back.
The changes not only happened to her as Qin Zhilan's right hand started regrowing back, while the rest had the scorch marks heal and flesh regrowing along with replenishment of their qi.
"Now."
Just as the members of the Ice Emerald Sect were drowning in the ecstasy of being restored, four lights flashed past them headed toward the tree.
Sect master Zhao Ju and the rest warily looked below them in time to see four figures synchronize their attack on the tree. Different colored lights that carried power enough to raze the whole sect to the ground within an instant were instantly directed at the tree as it was pulsating.
A thunderous sound that made it seem like the earth was quaking resounded as those attacks clashed against a pink-red translucent barrier that appeared around the tree in time to block the four attacks.
The barrier rippled like the surface of water disturbed by a rock as it absorbed all four attacks.
Just like it seemed the barrier had successfully defended against the five attacks, an object was launched above it that looked like a cut-off fin of some fish.
The moment the fin appeared, an overbearing and ancient pressure was released. The temperature dropped and the area seemed to darken, as the sound of the clouds and the ocean were produced from it.
The four figures each settled down and surrounded the tree revealing their origin. It was the four judges; Dai Chen, Zhang Qingge, Wei Ying, and Mo Liwei.
Without pausing a step, they rapidly formed seals that joined together to form one giant seal that linked up with the fin above. Once it made contact with it, the fin produced a whalish roar that seemed to ignore space as it traveled everywhere.
A black light immediately shot out of the fin. The black light seemed to contain a galaxy of stars within it as it targeted the barrier around the Wisteria tree. The barrier's glow intensified as if in preparation for an attack from the black light.
However, the black-light upon making contact with the barrier, phased through completely ignoring it as it penetrated the tree.
A shriek of surprise could be heard coming from the tree, as this happened.
The eight elders along with sect master Zhao Ju were all shocked upon seeing this, as they turned to see a smug grin on Yang Qing's face.
"Now, none of you can escape. That tree, your founder, and this area has its space locked. Thank you for giving us the chance to anchor your founder's location.
That tree is truly wonderous, especially in isolating space, or is it being done by something else, I wonder..." Yang Qing casually touched his chin as if in deep wonder.
"But none of that matters. If it wasn't for your founder personally acting, it would have taken significant effort to isolate her from that space, but now thanks to her intervention, she exposed herself long enough to mark her and lock this area while we are at it.
So thank you all, and as a thank you, I'll now send you on your way. Your roles in this is done.. I was asked to strike terror after all, and this isn't nearly terrifying enough.."
Yang nova universal flame of desolation.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om