Qiu Meng couldn't find the tiniest hint of hesitation in Zhiji Jing's words. At first, she might have taken the past into account. But now believing that Qiu Meng outright threatened Daji's life, Zhiji Jing lost her composure -- itching for a blood bath. Daji was the arms, the legs, the heart and soul of the Myriad Beast Gang. If Daji didn't have a future, the Eastern Continent's mysterious beasts all headed towards ruin, and their grand dream, the ambition powering their actions, all doomed to destruction. Zhiji Jing couldn't accept such words, not even from Qiu Meng to whom she owed her Holy Road.
'Fair enough. Splendor, I know that you will never sell my secret, which is why I have no problem revealing my identity to you. However...' As his words reached this point, Qiu Meng's tone took an abrupt shift. Maniacal rage and killing intent erupted in his eyes, and he raised one hand at the sky.
'You're still an ungrateful wretch. The boy Qiu Chen is correct. All of you faithless wretches must be punished for forgetting the debt of gratitude you owe to the Celestial Hall, and helping my enemies...stand against me!'
Following this bold statement, Qiu Meng snapped his fingers. A colossal misty-gray rune formed above the Nameless Sword Colossus, rippling with the infinite mysteries of the Time Dao. The time rune kept expanding, threatening to descend upon the Nameless Sword Mountain's trapped enemies.
"A Time Rune?! Impossible! How can a teenaged brat possibly master the forbidden way of time to this level?"
"Not just a Time Rune...but one that can eliminate all Beast Kings and below!" The Third Horde's leaders appraised Qiu Meng's move, and all were at a loss of words. For a junior to execute the time-related abilities that even the Gods of the Celestial Paradise dared not mess with was terrifying enough. But from Qiu Meng's rune, they could feel consummate mastery limited only by his current cultivation level.
Should that rune fall, it would wipe out the lifespans of all mysterious beasts at Beast King rank and below.
If the Third Horde's leaders were this impressed, one could imagine how the Nameless Sword Mountain disciples, who stood right underneath this phenomenal feat, felt. All gawked in disbelief, unable to comprehend how their prime disciple had achieved mastery over such legendary powers.
'Is it really Qiu Chen, or did his body get hijacked by some ancient expert?' The few disciples familiar with the Nameless Sword Mountain's original Qiu Chen, couldn't help but have this thought. Still, they held their tongue, aware that speaking such words aloud would get them beheaded faster than state rebel leaders on death row.
Only Zhiji Jing kept her cool, entirely undisturbed by Qiu Meng's display.
"It's a bluff. Time never accounts for friendly fire. If he lets that thing drop, from Bai Renyi to the weakest disciple of the Nameless Sword Mountain...they're all going to die," Zhiji Jing said, helping her subordinates see through Qiu Meng's plot.
Under the cover of that Time Rune, the reincarnated immortal was preparing something else. A move that'd enable him to threaten even the Third Horde.
But why would they give him the time to execute it?
"I will focus on locating the formation eye from a distance. The 24 junior horde leaders will feed me their energies to speed up the process. Then, we will rely on the Scattered Essence Fusion to launch a coordinated blast and destroy the eye in one go," Zhiji Jing said out loud, shocking the audience by screaming her faction's attack plan for all to hear.
It was as if she was telling the Nameless Sword Mountain, and Qiu Meng more specifically, that:
'Even if you know, you can't do anything about it. This...is our time.'
Qiu Meng heard the unspoken message, and his lips curled up.
"Ximei, our ability to achieve this will rely exclusively on you. Go ahead. You have all the data you need...to force this maze to shift." Following these words, Zhiji Jing closed her eyes, spreading her Holy Sense throughout the Nameless Sword Mountain.
The junior horde leaders followed the plan, feeding their leader all their energies. Here, Xiao Hu stopped playing the pipa and stepped forward, her green hair whirling at the tune of her rising Evil Qi as her scarlet eyes sought a specific block of the maze.
"Second sister, you didn't have to say this much to get me to work."
The pipa swordswoman's demonic vision saw past the stone walls, locating the maze block where Shui Haoyue currently led a group of Nameless Sword Mountain disciples to slay Myriad Beast Gang members.
Xiao Hu's lips curled up, and she stepped forward. Her form blurred across the scene, moving from one maze to the next with no hindrance.
Only experts at Void Trubulant tier or above got instantly kicked out of the maze. The weaker one's cultivation was, the lesser the strain that the maze would impose. Now at Pulse Condensation, Xiao didn't have much to fear.
Her opponents however...would soon find the winds of hell dropping on their necks.
The end of Xiao Hu's melody marked a drop in the Myriad Beast Gang forces' cultivations. But at the same time, this also meant that legions of beasts could pour into the mazes and, despite the suppression they suffered, overwhelm the Nameless Sword Mountain disciples with sheer numbers.
Led by Xiao Hu, the beast tide went unhinged, cramming maze block upon maze block as the green-haired pipa demoness hacked through the lives of Nameless Sword Mountain disciples.
"Resist her through our combined f--" Some disciples and elders tried to provide leadership, but it was all for naught. Though the maze enabled Nameless Sword Mountain disciples to make their strengths overlap, despite the formation level, they were far too few and weak for their strength boost to match Xiao Hu.
Invisible sword slashes rained across the maze blocks, beheading or bisecting disciple group upon disciple group till Xiao Hu landed right above Shui Haoyue!
"Gotcha!" Barely had Haoyue helped her fellow disciples repel a group of beasts, that Xiao Hu appeared, and without a word, lunged at Haoyue with her indexes raised. Invisible sword beams shot out of Xiao Hu indexes, raining on Haoyue and her fellow disciples as the numbing sound of a pipa stiffened their bodies.
Tapping into the full depth of her cultivation base, Haoyue managed to roll out of the way. The other disciples weren't as fortunate. The invisible sword beams pierced through their skulls, killing them all instantaneously.
Haoyue landed on the side but barely had she steadied herself that a kick came flying at her chest, laced in razor-sharp energies that could easily tear her into shreds. Instinctively, Haoyue reeled back. But the invisible sword force still got a piece of her, leaving a long bloody gash on her chest. Sent off balance, Haoyue spiraled in the air before slamming into a nearby wall.
The battle had just started, but the conclusion was evident. Before an Instrument Demon that cultivated the Heart Demon Scripture, Shui Haoyue was completely powerless. To say nothing of her, before the current Xiao Hu, all under Nascent Soul were just courting death.
"Weak...you are so weak," Shui Haoyue's body had not yet slid to the ground that Xiao Hu's right hand formed a claw, aiming to tear Haoyue's head off her neck. Seeing this from the distance, Qiu Meng turned towards Haoyue's maze block ready to activate the Eye to alter the maze's structure and save Haoyue from sure death.
But he wouldn't have to.
Wine-scented translucent liquid poured from the sky, forming a barrier that repelled Xiao Hu's claw.
"Careful, that's very dangerous. You could kill someone by mistake," Zi Zuixian said, appearing by Haoyue's side, and catching her before her body tumbled onto the ground.
As the two stood side by side, though of different colors, Xiao Hu couldn't help but think...that their eyes looked oddly alike.