Chapter 161: Chapter 161: Preparing to Escape
A moment ago.
Jiang Xu had watched as the Netherworld Stone Marrow before him floated up, connecting one by one to form an array. Then, it began to compete for starlight with the Grand Array that had appeared outside the Marketplace.
At first, Jiang Xu had been anxious.
’I modified it so much, so how did the array still activate so smoothly?’
’Could it be that I didn’t alter the right spots?’
Just when Jiang Xu felt the heavens were conspiring against him, the array suddenly began to shake violently for some unknown reason. It immediately looked extremely unstable, as if it would collapse at any moment.
And then, the next moment, it really did collapse.
After a loud explosion, the few pieces of Netherworld Stone Marrow that Jiang Xu had modified were all ejected, no longer floating in the air.
Several phantoms Jiang Xu didn’t recognize also appeared. They looked exceptionally evil and were shrouded in dense Demonic Qi—clearly items of the Demon Dao.
Jiang Xu understood. This was Elder Demon Su’s countermeasure against his modifications.
Although Jiang Xu still didn’t know how the other party had done it, it was obviously just a hasty response.
He could tell that the other party hadn’t truly finished repairing the array, and its effectiveness was not what it had been before.
This meant that the Marketplace’s Grand Array could probably hold on for a while longer.
This made Jiang Xu feel both excited and miserable.
He was excited because he understood that his life wasn’t in immediate danger.
He was miserable because he hadn’t destroyed the opponent’s Counter-Array, meaning he was still in peril and hadn’t truly escaped the crisis.
Just then, Jiang Xu happened to glance up and was stunned to see that the Demon Array that had originally enveloped the Marketplace was gone!
"This is...?"
Jiang Xu looked again at the phantoms of the Demon Dao items on the Counter-Array in the sky.
’Is he robbing Peter to pay Paul?’
This time, Jiang Xu truly couldn’t sit still.
The Demon Array outside had vanished, and Elder Demon Su was currently presiding over the array-breaking efforts.
Wasn’t this a golden opportunity to escape?!
If not now, when!
Was he supposed to wait for Elder Demon Su to succeed in breaking the Marketplace’s array, free up his hands, and personally come down to slaughter everyone?!
Jiang Xu’s heart pounded wildly. He wished he could just sprint out of the city right now and flee without a single look back.
But the moment he actually took a step, he sensed that something was wrong.
Using his Spiritual Eye Technique to gaze into the distance, he was shocked to see several demonic figures at the city gate.
’That despicable old scoundrel! He actually arranged for Demon Cultivators at the gate to give me a welcome party!’
Jiang Xu gritted his teeth in hatred.
As expected. After all this trouble, that old Demon was truly unwilling to let anyone leave easily.
Although Jiang Xu had confidence in his Concealing Breath Spell, he was up against the subordinates of a Golden Core Realm Demon Cultivator. If they had some special Magical Artifact or Magical Treasure, he’d be finished.
In a situation like this, the more people who were trying to escape, the safer he would be.
And so, a brilliant idea suddenly struck Jiang Xu.
...
WHOOSH—!
Streaks of Escape Light flashed by as dozens of Cultivators flew toward the North Gate.
Some of the clueless Cultivators, just following the crowd, went up to ask:
"Fellow Daoist, there’s a Golden Core Cultivator attacking the Marketplace. Where are you all going?"
The Cultivator who was asked shot him a disdainful look:
"Seriously? You don’t even know this?"
"I really don’t. Please, Fellow Daoist, enlighten me." The man was completely bewildered.
The Cultivator he’d asked rubbed his thumb and forefinger together in a universal gesture.
"Oh!"
The enlightened man quickly took out three or four Spirit Stones.
"My pockets are a bit light. This is all I have."
The other Cultivator nodded, giving him a look that said, ’At least you get it.’
Then, he leaned in and whispered conspiratorially:
"Alright, I’ll tell you the truth. According to inside sources, a large group of Stewards and Elders have gathered at the North Gate, ready to escape. A lot of the shop Stewards are leaving with them too."
"You have to understand, these people are extremely well-informed. If there wasn’t a good escape route, why do you think they’d all gather at the North Gate together?"
"And if you ask them, they all claim they don’t know why they’re at the North Gate."
"What a joke! These people are usually as shrewd as they come. Do you think they’d be wandering around aimlessly in such a dangerous situation if there wasn’t some special advantage in it for them?"
"They clearly can’t even be bothered to come up with an excuse or a disguise. They’re obviously just trying to brush us off so we don’t follow them when they escape."
The man’s face lit up with understanding, which was then replaced by righteous indignation:
"At a critical time like this, there are still such cold-hearted people! What kind of Righteous Dao is that!"
The other Cultivator clapped his hands in agreement.
"Exactly! It’s truly disheartening!"
"People like you and me, who hold the Righteous Dao in our hearts, can’t behave like them, hoarding a chance to escape. We should do as I do and share this path to survival with every single Cultivator!"
The man agreed wholeheartedly. After bidding farewell, he hurried away. It seemed he had truly understood the lesson, for shortly after leaving, he began actively seeking out others to impart this life-saving knowledge.
And, incidentally, to earn back the three or four Spirit Stones he had just given to Jiang Xu.
Jiang Xu looked to the sky, watching more and more Cultivators head for the North Gate, and a sense of security and accomplishment filled his heart.
Thanks to Jiang Xu’s swindling—no, his *guidance*—about a hundred Cultivators had already gathered at the North Gate.
Dozens more were now on their way, and the number was constantly growing.
What Jiang Xu had just told the man wasn’t entirely a lie.
Among the group at the North Gate, a good number were indeed mid- to high-ranking Cultivators from the Purple Profound Celestial Marketplace.
As for how these people ended up at the North Gate...
...it was because Jiang Xu had conned them first.
He had used the same story, just with a slight variation.
He told them his eyes had seen the Demon Array outside the North Gate disappear, and that the other mid- and high-ranking Cultivators were all heading there too.
These people were all aware of what had happened at the city gate. They knew that some people had inexplicably gained the ability to see things that were normally invisible. At the time, they had used this to spot some monsters and the Demon Array surrounding the city.
But later, for some unknown reason, these people’s eyes could no longer see those things and had returned to normal.
So, they all assumed that Jiang Xu’s eyes had also undergone a strange transformation. By the time they thought to ask him more, Jiang Xu had already used his Concealing Breath Spell to slip away.
And so, everyone had gathered dazedly at the North Gate, none of them knowing what was really happening or how they were supposed to get out.
’Wait. I have to keep waiting. When there are three or four hundred people, that’s when it’s time to make a run for it all at once.’
Jiang Xu had considered using the crowd at the North Gate as a distraction while he escaped from another gate.
But that would be too conspicuous; this current plan was safer.
But just then, Jiang Xu saw something strange happening up ahead at the North Gate!
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