Chapter 226: Zhao Tianheng Goes Mad
Zhao Tianheng's crimes were numerous, and he had admitted to them all. He would never be allowed to remain a division leader of the sect.
Many among the dozens of elders were close acquaintances of his, but none dared to speak up for him in the light of these revelations.
"Xiao Nanfeng, Zhao Yuanjiao, you laid a trap for me!" Zhao Tianheng cursed.
"You were the one who did these deeds. No one maligned you. Await sect adjudication, Uncle," Zhao Yuanjiao spat out.
"Elders, to avoid Zhao Tianheng's continued resistance, I intend on deeply wounding his spiritual avatar to render him unconscious before judgment can be passed on him back in the sect. Would that be appropriate?" Xiao Nanfeng looked toward the gathered elders, all of whom remained silent. No one spoke up for Zhao Tianheng; all tacitly agreed with Xiao Nanfeng's judgment.
Xiao Nanfeng stepped toward Zhao Tianheng and made to strike at him, but Zhao Tianheng smiled bitterly. "I've treated many of you well in the past. Now that I'm in trouble, are none of you going to stand up for me? Very well, very well. Remember that you forced me to do this!"
"Forced you to do what? Do you expect the elders to be in cahoots with you in your depravity? Blame yourself!" Xiao Nanfeng slammed his palm down.
"Explode!" Zhao Tianheng shouted.
"Be careful!" Zhao Yuanjiao cried out. "He's going to self-destruct!"
Xiao Nanfeng's eyes widened as he hurriedly made a defensive stance.
The explosions from Zhao Tianheng's self-destruction sent the elders flying. They were badly injured, to the point of vomiting out blood. The illusion cracked and collapsed under the force of the explosion, then shattered.
Everyone woke up in reality.
As Xiao Nanfeng awoke, he saw that the red pillar trapping Zhao Yuanjiao had cracked, and the red light that the pillar had emitted had now vanished. He immediately helped unbind Zhao Yuanjiao from the pillar before looking toward his surroundings. The elders were all dizzy and disoriented, having incurred some spiritual damage from Zhao Tianheng's explosion.
They forced themselves to remain alert as they scanned their surroundings for Zhao Tianheng, who had escaped toward the altar.
Because Zhao Tianheng had destroyed his own spiritual avatar, he had suffered the worst of the spiritual damage. Under ordinary circumstances, he should have become unconscious, but he somehow still seemed to have access to a minor portion of his spiritual power. Even so, he was clearly dazed. His eyes were puffy and closed, as though his mental state had deteriorated to the point where he couldn't keep them open.
He forcibly extracted a burst of ethereal blue energy from the altar and infused it within his body. Shaking, he suddenly regained some energy.
"Zhao Tianheng, are you crazy? Those souls aren't pure spiritual power—they're fragments left behind from countless cultivators, filled with grudges and vengeance! You're going to go crazy!" an elder shouted.
"I cultivate The Lacking Taiqing, which allows me to nullify all manner of grudges. These soul fragments aren't enough to render me mad." Zhao Tianheng's eyes shone with a tinge of madness.
"Even if you cultivate The Lacking Taiqing, even if you aren't going to go crazy, so many grudges all at once will leave you insensate. If you lose yourself in those emotions, you'll transform into a demon!"
"As long as I don't lose my position as division leader, so what if I become a demon?" Zhao Tianheng's mouth twisted into a rictus.
"What?" an elder gasped.
"If you're all dead, no one would be able to report back to the sect. I'd still be the Ascended division leader, then," Zhao Tianheng replied.
"You want to kill us all? Are you crazy?!" the elder shouted.
"I'll start with you!" He shot over.
"No!" The elder tried to defend himself with his sword, aided by the help of those elders around him,
but Zhao Tianheng was a Wingform-realm cultivator, beyond what Spiritsong-realm elders like them could handle. A large group of elders were sent flying, whereas the elder that had been trying to dissuade Zhao Tianheng was beheaded with a swing of his sword.
"Zhao Tianheng's gone crazy!"
"Everyone, charge at him together!"
"The Taiqing sword array!"
The elders rallied as they charged toward Zhao Tianheng, but a number of elders turned tail and ran off toward the fog. They had no intention of trying to beat a Wingform-realm cultivator.
A group of elders were sent flying amidst frenzied shouts. They were bloody all over. Another elder was cleaved in twain, sending blood and flesh flying in a gruesome sight.
"Zhao Tianheng's turned into a demon!" the elders cried out.
"We can't escape. Zhao Tianheng's done something to the formation around the altar. He's sealed us all in with him!" The elders who had tried to escape likewise found themselves trapped.
Zhao Tianheng looked around with a murderous glint in his eyes. He suddenly saw Xiao Nanfeng and Zhao Yuanjiao retreating into the distance.
"You won't be able to get away, Xiao Nanfeng!" Zhao Tianheng chased after him.
Xiao Nanfeng turned back and sent a long, glowing blade shooting straight at him.
"An Immortal relic? A corroded relic won't be able to stop me. Die!" Zhao Tianheng slashed at the relic.
Just then, the relic suddenly exploded.
A burst of fire flared up as the resulting shockwave sent Xiao Nanfeng flying. He struck the ground heavily. Zhao Tianheng, who had been charging toward him, was flung back a significant distance. He too smashed into the ground, bloodied and bruised.
"The Taiqing formation, now!" A group of elders launched a combined attack at Zhao Tianheng, who roared in outrage.
The elders were sent flying. One elder's head exploded as she died on the spot, but the sacrifice had allowed them to chop off one of Zhao Tianheng's arms.
Zhao Tianheng clutched the stump of his arm as he spat out blood and retreated to the altar.
"Xiao Nanfeng, you deliberately destroyed your Immortal relic?!" Zhao Tianheng cursed.
Xiao Nanfeng frowned. "Are all Wingform-realm cultivators this hard to kill?"
"We have to strike at once. Zhao Tianheng's gone crazy, and he's sealed us all in here with him. Either we strike now, or we die!"
"He's been wounded. We can take him down. The Taiqing sword formation, now!"
"Kill!" A group of elders charged forward.
Just then, brilliant light fell from the skies. Some elders were struck by the light and sent flying, while others' bodies simply exploded in mid-air in a shower of blood.
The light rained down on Xiao Nanfeng and Zhao Yuanjiao. Even though Zhao Yuanjiao blocked the majority of the light, both disciples were seriously injured by the attack. They fell to the ground.
The source of the light was ten glowing Immortal swords, each slightly corroded but still bearing overwhelming power. One blow was sufficient to grievously injure everyone.
"An Immortal sword!" the elders cried out.
"No—they're all around us!" another elder exclaimed.
Thirty Immortal relics floated around the altar, forming a cordon that prevented any escape.
Ten of the relics hovered around the elders. They were the ones that had struck the elders down.
"These are the Immortal relics that we've obtained over the last few days. Zhao Tianheng's controlling them all with the formation! He's trying to kill us!"
"Zhao Tianheng, do you really intend to kill us all?!"
Zhao Tianheng let out a sinister smile. "I'm a man of my word, after all. Kill!"
On his command, the ten Immortal swords shot toward the elders. Everyone despaired. Each attack from an Immortal sword had the strength of a Wingform-realm cultivator. How were they supposed to defend against such an onslaught?
"No!" the elders cried out.
Xiao Nanfeng retrieved an Immortal relic, prepared to destroy it to deflect the attacks.
Just then, a guqin rang out from the distance.
Ten ethereal blue glows shot toward the ten Immortal relics in a burst of energy.
The ten Immortal swords were sent flying back. The elders gasped in relief, overjoyed at having survived imminent death.
"The guqin? It must be Elder Ku!"
"Elder Ku, save us! Zhao Tianheng's gone crazy!"
"Elder Ku!"
All the elders rushed toward Elder Ku, who was slowly approaching from one side of the barrier.
"Master!" Xiao Nanfeng and Zhao Yuanjiao ran forward to greet Elder Ku.
"Zhao Tianheng, I knew you were greedy for strength and power, but never did I imagine that you would have grown so corrupt. Are you willing to kill your kin just to preserve your power? You're no different from a demon," Ku Jiang execrated.
"Ku Jiang, haven't you died yet?" Zhao Tianheng exclaimed.
"Thanks to you, I've been trapped within this formation for days—but I was freed when you manipulated the formation to serve your own ends. Zhao Tianheng, with the power vested in me by the sect master's token, I strip you of your authority as Ascended division leader. You shall be apprehended and taken back to the sect with me, further judgment pending," Elder Ku informed him coldly.
The majority of the elders rushed toward Ku Jiang, glancing at the Immortal relics surrounding them warily. Elder Ku was the strongest among them, and being around him produced no small sense of safety. At the same time, they shot looks of hatred at Zhao Tianheng. His actions and clear willingness to kill other Taiqing cultivators weren't something that could be resolved just by stripping his status as division leader.
"Surrender? Await sect judgment? Ku Jiang, what kind of person do you take me for? Since you haven't been killed by the formation, I'll kill you now!" Zhao Tianheng shouted.
Ten Immortal swords shot straight at Ku Jiang.
Ku Jiang sat cross-legged as he began to play his guqin. Sword slashes shot out from him in a steady stream, taking down the Immortal swords. The confrontation between the two cultivators loosed shockwaves throughout the formation. Two sword slashes managed to skirt by the Immortal swords and headed straight toward Zhao Tianheng.
Zhao Tianheng's eyes widened as he activated the formation and brought more Immortal relics into orbit around him, blocking Ku Jiang's spiritual attack.
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