Chapter 197: Chapter 195: Each Using Their Own Methods
Amidst the vast, misty waves, within layers of watery curtains.
A clear Sword Light shot out of the Grand Array, flying toward the depths of Black Mountain at lightning speed.
The water mist rose, swirling into a rosy haze.
The deep trail left by the Sword Light as it streaked across the sky was veiled by the mist, concealing its path.
One hour later, three Escape Lights arrived, radiating a tyrannical might.
The leader looked like a walking skeleton, so frail a gust of wind could topple him. His hands were made of stark white bone that gleamed with a ghostly light.
On his left was a glamorous and incomparably charming woman. She had an oval face, peachy cheeks, and eyes like autumn pools; her gaze seemed to brim with affection for whomever she looked upon.
On his right was a middle-aged man with graying temples and an ethereal air. He somehow projected two conflicting impressions at once: one of youth, the other of world-weary age.
"Junior Sister, Fellow Daoist Jiang, this is an estate of the Qingfeng Sect, likewise protected by a Tier Three Grand Array..."
White Bone True Man’s voice was grating and harsh, like the sound of two bones scraping together.
"Why don’t we have a little competition? We’ll see who can be the first to breach a corner of the Array."
"Hee hee, Senior Brother, your Cultivation is a cut above ours, and Fellow Daoist Jiang’s Divine Techniques are astonishing. How could I possibly be a match for you two? I’m sure to come in last."
Fairy Taohua’s voice was sweet, and her large, glistening eyes fluttered, inspiring an unconscious sense of pity.
"Haha, Junior Sister, there’s no need to be so modest. I know you’ve already refined your Peach Blossom Five Poison Miasma Treasure. It has a wondrous effect against these cloud-and-mist type Arrays..."
A black Spirit Grass, emitting a mysterious and profound aura, appeared in White Bone True Man’s five long, sharp, bony claws.
"Based on the Array’s operations, there’s at most a single Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator presiding over it. We just need to maintain a slight guard, and we can focus the majority of our efforts on breaking the Array without having to worry about a counterattack."
"I’ll offer up this thousand-year-old Profound Yin Grass as a prize... Whoever breaks the Array first, Fellow Daoist Jiang or Junior Sister, gets to keep it."
"A magnanimous gesture, True Man. Worthy of a regional leader."
Jiang Yuhua wore a plain Daoist Robe, his bearing casual and free-spirited. Combined with his conflicting air of youth and world-weariness, he possessed a unique sort of charm.
"The scenery here at Feiyue Lake is quite unique. I have drifted my entire life without a place to call home... I would like to be so bold as to ask the True Man for this place to establish a sanctuary for my people."
White Bone True Man was momentarily stunned. Thoughts raced through his mind, but his withered, skeletal face betrayed no change in expression.
"Since Fellow Daoist Jiang has taken a fancy to this place, I shall naturally part with it..."
He did not hesitate for long before nodding in agreement.
This Tier Three Spirit Vein was indeed tempting, but the Ghost Spirit Sect’s goal in this war was simply to inflict maximum casualties on the Qingfeng Sect’s disciples and cut off their supply of new blood for the next generation.
After this, the Qingfeng Sect would be left with only Ge Cang, who would be hard-pressed to turn the tide alone.
It would be for the best if Ge Cang never left to travel, seek opportunities, or comprehend the Great Dao again, focusing solely on protecting the Sect.
No one had ever heard of a Cultivator successfully reaching the Nascent Soul Realm by reinventing the wheel, sitting in seclusion for a hundred years.
This was especially true for a Sect like Qingfeng, whose founding ancestor was only at Core Formation Perfection and had never produced a Nascent Soul True Monarch.
The lack of experience in ascending to the Nascent Soul Realm, along with the several essential Spirit Pills required to attempt it, would be enough to stop him.
Furthermore, without a true Tier Four Spirit Land, the difficulty of passing the Thunder Tribulation required to reach the Nascent Soul Realm would increase several times over.
If Ge Cang couldn’t bear to abandon the Great Dao, then the moment he left Black Mountain, the Ghost Spirit Sect could simply repeat today’s actions.
Of course, it would be even better if Blood God True Man could spare the time to personally destroy the Qingfeng Sect, or if he achieved another breakthrough himself.
Then there would be no need for this long-term waiting game.
The last time they had joined forces, White Bone True Man had witnessed Jiang Yuhua’s profound Demon Skill. It seemed to have integrated other Cultivation Techniques, granting it extraordinary power. His combat prowess could not be judged by his apparent Realm.
Whether this desire to claim Feiyue Lake as a sanctuary was the will of Blood God True Man or Jiang Yuhua’s own idea, White Bone True Man was happy to see it come to fruition.
"Excellent. You are a man of your word, True Man. As for wiping out the Qingfeng Sect, I will certainly lend you my aid!"
Jiang Yuhua smiled faintly. He opened his mouth and exhaled, and white lotus flowers rose up to encircle him.
As the white lotuses multiplied, his aura steadily climbed, eventually lifting him high into the air.
Jiang Yuhua flicked his fingers, and petals from the white lotuses flew out, forming a rain of flowers that descended upon the Grand Array.
The layers of watery curtains were continuous and seemingly endless.
Yet wherever a white lotus touched them, several layers vanished in an instant.
As the tide of white lotuses surged forward, the Array before them roiled and transformed, hundreds of watery curtains linking together to block the floral assault.
"Senior Brother, this man’s Cultivation Technique is so natural and peaceful, with no trace of Demonic Qi. Is he really from a Demon Sect? Could he have originally come from the Righteous Dao, only turning to the Blood Demon Sect after committing some unforgivable sin...?"
Fairy Taohua’s face was filled with shock and suspicion as she covertly sent the Sound Transmission.
"Look at the heart of his lotuses. A speck of black light is gathering there; the Demonic Qi is hidden deep... Previously, when he fought the cultivators from the Five Elements Sect, he went all out. Black lotuses bloomed, and an extremely pure and evil Demonic Qi surged forth, capable of draining a person’s Magical Power."
White Bone True Man warned Fairy Taohua via Sound Transmission, his tone laced with a hint of fear.
"This man’s Cultivation Technique is of an extremely high grade, likely superior to any of our Sect’s Demon Skills. It’s on par with the Hundred Demons Blood Sea Technique..."
As he spoke, a pair of Bone Hammers appeared in White Bone True Man’s hands. They were assembled from countless bones: the skulls of Core Formation Cultivators, the spines of Tier Three Demon Beasts, and mysterious leg bones excavated from millennia-old tombs. Specks of emerald flame burned between the bones, radiating a sinister chill. This was his Lifebound Magical Treasure, the White Bone Poison Fire Hammer.
After a century of his refinement and being nurtured day and night, with countless powerful bones added to them, this pair of White Bone Poison Fire Hammers had finally been upgraded into a Mid-Grade Magical Treasure.
He smashed them together in mid-air. The emerald flames flared, and the two Bone Hammers swelled to the size of rooms before whistling down.
The Grand Array took the blow. CRASH! Dozens of watery curtains shattered, and the mist roiled violently, like a pot of boiling water.
Fairy Taohua was the most junior of the three and knew she couldn’t possibly compare to the other two in terms of the depth of her True Essence.
Besides, this Array was bizarre; no matter how many layers of watery curtains one shattered, most of them would regenerate in the blink of an eye.
She flipped her snow-white wrist, and a ball of pink miasma, emitting a pleasant, sweet fragrance, settled into her palm.
This Magical Treasure came from her travels after she reached the Core Formation Realm. In the Nan Chu Country, she had seen a peach grove growing at the foot of a volcano.
According to the local villagers, the volcano had been erupting continuously for a thousand years, and the peach grove appeared to have been planted around the same time.
They were all Tier One Top-Grade Spirit Peaches containing Fire Element Spiritual Power, but because of the volcano’s toxic flames, no one had ever dared to harvest them.
Over hundreds of years, the Spirit Peaches rotted. The volcano erupted, bringing up Earth Core Poison Flames that burned without end. The terrain of the peach grove was unique, and when the sunlight hit it, a miasma had formed.
This thousand-year-old toxic miasma grew ever thicker, turning the area around the volcano into a veritable dead zone. All towns and villages within a hundred-li radius had long since been abandoned.
Upon seeing this, Fairy Taohua had been overjoyed, feeling that this place was bound to her by fate.
She couldn’t understand why no other Cultivator had discovered the miasma’s properties, but it was perfectly suited as the primary material for one of the Ghost Spirit Sect’s famous Magical Treasures.
After collecting the Peach Blossom Miasma, Fairy Taohua traded for several other poisons and commissioned someone to refine the prototype of the Magical Treasure.
After another ten years of her own Refinement, she finally had a Magical Treasure to call her own.
Now, as she deployed the Five Poison Peach Blossom Miasma, the ball of pink miasma in her palm instantly expanded to cover dozens of acres, dyeing a corner of the Three Thousand Six Hundred Rings Water Smoke Array a deep crimson.
Although Fairy Taohua’s attack lacked the sheer destructive power of the other two, the threat it posed to the Grand Array was actually even greater.
Within Feiyue Lake.
Su Li and several Elders were each responsible for one of the Array’s nodes, pouring their Magical Power into it.
But they all knew in their hearts that it was a futile effort, a mere drop in the bucket.
The Three Thousand Six Hundred Rings Water Smoke Array was rooted in the Spirit Vein and connected to the Earth Veins of the entire lake. The amount of Spiritual Qi it could command was terrifying.
It would take dozens, perhaps even a hundred, Foundation Establishment Cultivators to provide any noticeable reinforcement to the Array.
The key to whether the Array could hold rested with Zhou Suqing on Lake Heart Island.
At that moment, Zhou Suqing’s eyes saw only the Array Plate. Her mind was clear of all else. With a look of pious devotion, she pushed her knowledge of Array Formations to its absolute limit.
’Thankfully, when we first set up the Array Formation, we chose the Three Thousand Six Hundred Rings Water Smoke Array instead of some other Tier Three Array... This Array has no offensive capabilities to harm its attackers, only the ability to obscure vision and block Divine Sense. But its defensive power is pushed to the absolute limit. The watery curtains are self-regenerating and endless.’
As long as an attacker couldn’t shatter all three thousand six hundred watery curtains at once, the Array could recover within a few breaths.
But with three Core Formation Cultivators attacking simultaneously, Zhou Suqing immediately felt immense pressure.
The shifting of the Array, the mobilization of Spiritual Power—it all required her to react and respond.
Before her sat a box containing exactly thirty Top-Grade Spirit Stones, left behind by Ancestor Yangg before his departure to maintain the Array.
Whenever she felt the Array was in peril, Zhou Suqing would unhesitatingly toss several Top-Grade Spirit Stones into its central hub, where they would transform into pure Spiritual Power to immediately patch the deficit.
’If the attacks stay at this level, I should be able to hold out for three days...’
Zhou Suqing’s hair was completely silver, and some of the roots had already withered and died, falling out at the slightest touch.
A Tier Three Grand Array was meant to be perfectly controlled by a Tier Three Array Master or a Core Formation True Man.
For a Tier Two Top-Grade Array Master to forcibly control it, the drain on her Heart Power was immense.
...
「Hundreds of thousands of li away, at the headquarters of the Righteous Alliance.」
In a majestic grand hall, four Cultivators were seated, discussing official business.
"Fellow Daoists, what have you decided regarding the Ghost Spirit Sect’s massive invasion of the Qingfeng Sect? Should we dispatch a Core Formation Elder to provide aid?"
Master Zhu of the Danxia Sect was the current rotating Elder of the Righteous Alliance. With the Alliance Leader, Nine Unions Daoist, having relocated to the front lines to confront Blood God True Man, all matters of the Righteous Alliance, large and small, were now reported to him.
"This humble Daoist feels we should wait and see how things develop... Who knows if this isn’t some Demon Path conspiracy, a trap set to ambush and kill another one of our Core Formation Elders."
So said a cultivator in a Daoist Robe. He had a ruddy complexion and a long white beard, and he spoke with an air of detached indifference.
"Amitabha Buddha... This old monk concurs."
Ruyi Monk, the Core Formation abbot of Liang Country’s only Buddhist Family Sect, put his palms together. His face was kind and his expression benevolent.
"Besides, the Qingfeng Sect is not a member of our Righteous Alliance. It’s entirely unnecessary to take such a risk to rescue them."
"Brother Ke, what are your thoughts?"
Master Zhu turned his gaze to the last person in the hall. The man was exceedingly ugly and had kept his eyes closed in meditation since the meeting began, not uttering a single word.
"To rescue them or not, decide for yourselves... I am returning to seclusion. Do not disturb me unless it is for some other matter."
The cultivator surnamed Ke had a sharp, shrill voice. After speaking, he strode out of the great hall.
"Sigh..."
Master Zhu watched the three Righteous Alliance Elders bow and take their leave, the thousand words in his heart turning into a single, long sigh.
The Righteous Alliance was, at its core, a coalition of several Sects, held together only by the formidable power of Nine Unions Daoist.
It was less an alliance of Righteous Dao Cultivators, hearts filled with justice and indignation at the evil deeds of the Demon Path, and more of a loose organization of groups with major conflicts of interest with the Demon Path Sects, huddling together for warmth.
Aside from the Righteous Sect and the Danxia Sect, which had better reputations and disciples who acted with a certain chivalry and righteousness, the other member Sects had unorthodox origins themselves. Their actions were only marginally better than those of the Demon Sects, just enough to maintain a veneer of respectability.
Getting people like that to take risks to support some remote, completely unrelated Sect was a hopeless endeavor. No one would be interested.
