Chapter 360: Getting Antsy, Are We?
"Exile Yun," Mo Jianzhi's pale face gradually broke into a grin, his eyebrows arching with a spectral lightness. "I've no doubts you're a reincarnated true Immortal. But, I'm sad to say you've really come at a bad time."
The crowd went still, trying to wrap their heads around his cryptic words.
"And why's that?" Yun Xiao had a hunch this trip to the Immortal Asylum wouldn't be the walk in the park he'd hoped for
"Because..." Shen Xiaochan's voice floated like a ghostly melody, "It got locked up here for gobbling up too many Immortals... and, heh, it's been hankering for a taste of the good old days."
"It?" The faces of the Phoenix Empress, Mu Tianjian, and others shifted slightly. Initially, they were as clueless as to who it might be referring to.
But the tremors and roars from the Immortal Asylum sent a shiver down their spines, a prelude to an ill omen.
"It's here," Yun Xiao declared, casting a glance over his shoulder. No sooner had he spoken than a chorus of eerie laughter, grating like old tree bark rubbing together, filled the air, setting their skins crawling.
From the shadows crept figures, hunched and ancient, moving with the grotesque grace of nightmares. At a distance, they might be mistaken for a swarm of white roaches, but up close, they revealed themselves as decrepit old men, each a mirror image of the next, with half their teeth missing, hair in disarray, eyes bulging with a sickening excitement, and grins that would make a vulture gag.
"Old Immortals."
Recognition dawned on many, though none could have fathomed a thousand of them emerging from the Immortal Asylum.
"What the hell?"
"What's the Immortal Asylum playing at?"
Confusion reigned among the thousands of spectators outside, a foreboding chill settling in their hearts.
Then, like a bolt from the blue, Yun Xiao's icy inquiry cut through the confusion, "Nian, you moved forward the Nine Hells Conquest Clash, baiting us into a fratricidal frenzy, all to devour us at your peak, to finally break free from your chains?"
The competition starting ahead of schedule, the Primordial Ruins arriving early? All lies! The bitter truth lay bare; the Nian's gambit was a desperate roll of the dice, a now-or-never plunge at freedom!
As for the excuse about how all the sect members of the Immortal Asylum had gone away to view the Primordial Ruins, Yun Xiao knew those poor saps had long been turned into meatballs by now.
In other words, there wasn't a jailer in sight in the Immortal Asylum, just a beast with half its body squirming out of the slammer!
As for Mo Jianzhi and the other three, they were likely puppets on strings.
"Old Immortal is the Nian?!" The Phoenix Empress gasped, her realization sending a chill down the spines of the gathered thousands.
The Nian had never shown signs of breaking free before. How did such a thing become reality?
Panic set in as many frightened gazes met the swarm of Old Immortals crawling out of the Immortal Asylum.
"Well, since we're all here, hehe," the eerie chorus of identical old timers cackled, their yellowed teeth dripping with spittle as they scrambled towards the crowd like a troop of crazed monkeys.
In a blink, the deluge of Old Immortals plunged into the masses, their frail bodies hiding monstrous strength. Yun Xiao watched in horror as one crushed a tiger demon's skull with a slap and slurped up its brain like noodle soup!
The onslaught of Old Immortals carved a bloody path through the crowd, turning the scene into a grisly rodeo.
"Fight for your lives!" The cry went up as the spectators snapped out of their daze.
Sword Cultivator or Inscription Cultivator, Yin Devil or Yang Devil, land demon or sea demon Everyone felt a chill of terror at the advance of the Old Immortals. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, they quickly banded together, lest they be overrun by their foe.
"Hold your ground! Don't panic!"
"There's gotta be a catch to its strength; it wouldn't wait for us to duke it out otherwise!"
Despite the sudden and ghastly twist, most managed to shake off their initial shock, setting aside their grudges in a bid to survive.
But it was clear as day!
These seemingly frail Old Immortals, monstrous in strength and possibly versed in dark arts, left a trail of blood and corpses in their wake. Their ferocious onslaught sent hearts racing across the audience.
"We're in deep water!"
"We might not make it."
"If we all bite the dust here, and the Nian breaks free using our carcasses, heaven knows the havoc it'll wreak on the outside world..."
The mere thought was enough to paint a bleak picture: the beast's escape would be nothing short of a nightmare for all living beings.
In the thick of the fray, with Old Immortals turning the Nine Hells Conquest Clash into a butcher's playground, every soul pinned their last sliver of hope on Yun Xiao. He stood witness to the carnage, the air thick with the iron scent of blood.
"If we don't break free, it'll slaughter those outside first, digest them at leisure, then come for us, and finally, make its grand escape..." Yun Xiao's brows knitted together as he surveyed the grim scene.
"We're rats in a trap with this formation. Divided and conquered, what's our play?" The Phoenix Empress was beside herself, her demon troops bearing the brunt of the onslaught, falling like flies.
The formation, meant to ensure fairness, now served as their prison. The Immortal Asylum was the larger cage, the Eight Trigrams formation, the smaller.
Without breaking the cage, they were on a one-way street to oblivion.
"Mo Jianzhi and his group can manipulate the Eight Trigrams formation and the gates of the Immortal Asylum, which means part of them still plays the jailer. Bluey, break me out; our breach lies with them," Yun Xiao's voice cut through the chaos, a beacon of cold logic.
"Hold on," Blue Star interjected suddenly.
"For what?"
"Your little fangirl's about to make the ultimate sacrifice," Blue Star said, gesturing in a different direction.
Yun Xiao's gaze followed, and in the blink of an eye, Pale Revenant emerged from nowhere, a silent figure of resolve charging at the Eight Trigrams formation with a do-or-die fervor.
"What's she up to?" No sooner had Yun Xiao spoken than Pale Revenant's form swelled alarmingly.
BOOM! She transformed into a colossal sphere of flesh, a sight that brought to Yun Xiao's mind the grotesque form of Forbidden Fate, albeit Pale Revenant's version was slightly less nauseating, more a seafood medley than a mass of decay, likely thanks to Yun Xiao's purifying touch.
With a thunderous impact, she hurled herself against the formation's barrier.
"Suicidal," Shen Xiaochan scoffed with a cold smirk.
SIZZLE! SIZZLE! SIZZLE! The black and white flames of the formation latched onto Pale Revenant, consuming her in a blaze that reduced her to ashes amidst her agonized screams.
Being scorched like this would be a torturous ordeal for anyone, but she seemed to be holding her own against it!
On the one hand, she had flesh to spare; those black and white flames started nibbling at the edges, but fully consuming her was going to take a hot minute.
On the other hand, her ability to regenerate was nothing short of miraculous. The charred bits were sprouting fresh flesh at a rate visible to the naked eye, almost like she was outpacing the flames in a fleshly footrace.
And then, in the midst of this fiery standoff, a crack split through the center of her fleshy bulwark, cleaving a path straight out of the formation.
"Immortal Yun, make your break for it!" Pale Revenant's voice trembled with the agony of the flames, yet it was laced with a steely resolve.
Yun Xiao, only pausing for the briefest of moments, roared back, "Follow me out!"
Pale Revenant, tanking the Eight Trigrams formation with nothing but her flesh and blood, tore open a gateway of gore that left the onlookers dumbfounded.
Legend had it, the sea corpse demon was a symbol of unbridled savagery. Yet here she was, making the ultimate sacrifice for Yun Xiao. In that moment, she was nothing short of a hero in the Nine Hells.
Any hesitation now would be an insult to the pain she endured for them!
With a burst of his Sovereign Sword underfoot, Yun Xiao surged through the fleshly fissure and out of the formation in a heartbeat!
The Phoenix Empress, Sword Warden, and others, their jaws practically on the floor, quickly snapped to their senses, shouting, "Get out, everyone!"
Staying in the formation meant being picked off by the calamitous beast, one by one. Pale Revenant had just handed them their ticket out.
"Sea corpse demon!"
The moment Yun Xiao broke free, Mo Jianzhi and the others let out a roar of rage.
Clearly, Pale Revenant had thrown a wrench in their master plan.
With a swift stroke of his blade, Yun Xiao parried a Flying Sword aimed straight for Pale Revenant. He was stronger now than when he faced off against the Talisman Emperor, but this counterstrike still sent a shiver down his arm, a testament to the ferocity behind the attack.
"Getting antsy, are we?" Yun Xiao shot back, as Mo Jianzhi, Shen Xiaochan, the Dream Demon, and Kun Jiang, a motley crew of Sword Cultivators, Inscription Cultivators, demons, and devils, lined up before him, ready for the showdown.
Each of the four delegates' eyes was a void of white, pupil-less, mirroring the lifeless gaze of a dead fish, with only a boundless intent to kill swirling within.
"Exile Yun!" The top powerhouses in the Heaven Sanctuary Realm were swift to react, rallying behind Yun Xiao in no time.
"Go, aid the others," Yun Xiao commanded, his voice cutting through the tumult.
Those Old Immortals, mere extensions of the Year Beast's will, required the concerted effort of the Fate Ocean Realm's finest to stem the tide of carnage and minimize the fallout.
"Understood!"
With a final, piercing glance at Mo Jianzhi and his ilk, they plunged into the fray.
In that moment, the mass of flesh, devoured by the black and white flames, collapsed, leaving behind a small, unscathed fragment that, by Yun Xiao's side, coalesced into the form of Pale Revenant.
She was a shadow of her former self, frail and pallid, her eyes dimmed, lips bloodless, her breath as faint as a whisper...
Yet, when her gaze met Yun Xiao's, it was filled with undying devotion.
"Immortal Yun..." Her voice trembled.
Yun Xiao folded her in his arms, her form as light as parchment.
"You've done well," he said, his voice steady, though his eyes betrayed a hint of moisture. Only he knew the depths of suffering Pale Revenant endured to shatter the Nian's scheme.
"It was nothing," Pale Revenant managed a weak smile. "To ease your burden is my reason to be."
Yun Xiao took a deep breath, then gently said, "Rest now." He entrusted Pale Revenant to Mu Dalong's care, adding another to his list of charges.
With the arrival of the Heaven Sanctuary Realm stalwarts, the tide of battle below began to turn.
Yun Xiao's gaze then lifted to meet the four ghastly figures, their eyes void white, as his own eyes blazed with a determination to end this.
"They alone can unlock the gates of the Immortal Asylum!" Uncertain of how far the Nian's breakout had progressed, his immediate concern was safeguarding those who stood by him...
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HIDDEN FINAL BOSS!
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