txolops Chapter 160 Heroes Gather, Immortality Returns
Chapter 160 Heroes Gather, Immortality Returns
The desolate wasteland was stained dark red by the intense smell of blood.
On the parched and cracked earth, countless broken magical artifacts and severed limbs were scattered among the yellow sand.
The wind blew, stirring up foul-smelling blood foam that slapped against the edge of the skull-shaped boulder.
On the boulder, three figures stood like an insurmountable wall of sighs.
The white-robed attendant with a paper sword was surrounded by a pure and holy white light, and compassionate chanting echoed around him.
Any cultivator who rushed within ten feet of him didn't even have time to scream before his protective aura was pierced by the fine white sword energy. His flesh and blood melted away, his bones turned to ash, leaving only a holy halo that dissipated into the world.
The black-robed paper sword attendant stood silently, like the embodiment of the abyss, with the dark demonic mist beneath his feet spreading outwards like a rising tide.
The magical artifacts touched by the demonic mist lost their spiritual power and turned into ordinary iron, falling to the ground.
Once cultivators blinded by greed inhale the black mist, their dantian will slowly rot, and their entire body will turn into a pool of black water bubbling with a foul stench.
Right in the center of the two paper sword attendants, the Blood Swordsman stood on a throne of white bones, and with each swing of his dark red longsword, a blood-red sword river a hundred feet long would appear.
The Sword River cleaved through the earth, creating several ravines of varying depths, and dozens of Foundation Establishment cultivators evaporated in the river.
While the cultivators were filled with fear, they were even more convinced that this place must hold an immense opportunity.
After all, if that weren't the case, why didn't the Blood Swordsman and the Black and White Paper Sword Servant take the initiative to attack, but instead stayed near the skull?
Everyone filled in their own imaginations about the reasons behind it.
As time went on, more and more streaks of light appeared on the distant horizon.
A thunderous roar echoed from the east as a massive shuttle, crafted entirely from red bronze, pierced through the clouds.
The elite disciples of Thunderfire Valley, shirtless and muscular, gripped thunderbolts the size of watermelons and furiously hurled them at the skull-shaped boulder.
The violent explosion kicked up a cloud of yellow sand, but it couldn't even budge the black-robed paper sword servant's magic mist defense.
In the west, a strange bell sound drifted on the wind.
The female cultivators of the Illusionary Sound Sect danced in the air on colorful ribbons, their eyes sparkling as they tried to use enchanting illusions to disturb the minds of the three killing gods.
But the white-robed paper sword attendant, seeing this scene, simply disdained to look up, and his chanting suddenly rose in pitch.
The dozen or so female cultivators from the Illusionary Sound Sect were struck as if by lightning, spitting out a mouthful of blood and falling to the mortal world like kites with broken strings.
Immediately afterwards, the body cultivators of Ironbone Mountain, like a group of tireless prehistoric beasts, charged into the battlefield with heavy steps.
Their bodies radiated a cold, metallic sheen as they tried to force their way through the defenses with their bare hands, only to be beheaded by the Blood Swordsman with a single stroke, his iron bones sliced open as easily as tofu.
The various sects fought independently, like a pile of loose sand. Faced with three monsters that cooperated flawlessly, they could not get even half a step closer to the boulder, leaving behind only a pile of corpses.
A sense of despair began to spread among the crowd.
"Demons! They're not human; they're monsters born from this secret realm!"
"Run! The Taixu Demon-Suppressing Tower is a scam; there's no way out here!"
It is unknown who uttered the first cry of despair, but the once-mighty punitive army finally suffered a crushing defeat.
Countless cultivators abandoned their armor and weapons, desperately fleeing towards the outer perimeter in their escape lights.
Just then, a heavy snow began to fall from the southern sky.
The once barren wasteland, filled with blood and scorching heat, suddenly experienced a drop in temperature.
The blood on the ground froze into ice, and the howling wind was frozen in mid-air.
A flying sword forged from millennia-old black ice cleaved through the dark red sky.
On the flying sword stood a woman dressed in a light blue flowing cloud dress.
She possessed unparalleled beauty and a cool, aloof demeanor. Her long hair was casually tied up with a jade hairpin, and her eyes and brows exuded an air of aloofness that kept people at a distance.
The overwhelming pressure from the late-stage Golden Core cultivator, along with the falling snowflakes, gave everyone present a glimmer of hope for victory.
"That's... Li Qingge from the Cangxuan Sect!"
"Great! It's Senior Sister! We're saved!"
Some sharp-eyed monks exclaimed in surprise, while others, dejected and wounded, cried out.
With Li Qingge's appearance, the cultivators of the various sects seemed to have found their backbone, and their previously routing formations finally stabilized.
Li Qingge hovered in mid-air, riding a flying sword, her cold eyes fixed on the giant skull rock below.
Instead of blindly charging forward like the others, she raised her slender finger and gently tapped.
A blue aura emanated from her, blocking several Cangxuan Sect disciples who wanted to continue forward.
Li Qingge's voice was like a cold spring striking a rock, "These three demons are using your lives to nourish their swords. Go, get away from here."
These words caused an uproar in the room.
Is it possible that even Li Qingge is helpless against those three devils?
Tuoba Ye rode on the back of the two-winged bone dragon, his face ashen.
The Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain suffered the most severe losses. Upon hearing Li Qingge's words, his anger and resentment surged violently, yet he was helpless.
Just as everyone was caught in a stalemate, behind a pile of rubble at the edge of the battlefield, space suddenly began to distort irregularly.
Nangong Yue and her two companions from the Liuyun Sect were hiding behind this pile of rocks, holding their breath, when they suddenly sensed something unusual behind them.
"alert!"
Nangong Yue shouted sharply, turned around abruptly, drew her longsword, and faced a formidable enemy, her purple-gold sword energy poised to be unleashed.
Shen Youwei and Su Hongxiu immediately mobilized all their spiritual power, focusing their attention on the unusual location.
Suddenly, a three-foot-long crack appeared in mid-air.
Immediately afterwards, a figure covered in dust and wearing tattered Taoist robes, accompanied by a pile of chaotic spatial energy, rolled out of the crack with a thud and landed solidly on the yellow sand.
"Ouch, that hurts so much!"
The familiar voice, the familiar tattered folding fan, and that somewhat honest face smeared with mud and ash.
Nangong Yue was stunned, her long sword hovering in mid-air, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets.
Su Hongxiu rubbed her eyes, opened her mouth wide, and the long knife in her hand clattered to the ground.
Shen Youwei trembled, her eyes welled up with tears, and then turned into undisguised ecstasy.
"Gu Changsheng, is that you?"
Nangong Yue cried out in surprise.
"Didn't you fall into a spatial cave? That's a death trap, how could you still be alive?"
Gu Yan got up from the ground, limped to his feet, and looked up, meeting three pairs of eyes staring straight at him.
"Senior Sister Nangong, Senior Sister Su, Senior Sister Shen, it's so good to see that you're all alright."
As Gu Yan spoke, he pulled out a jade pendant that had been broken in two from his pocket and patted his chest with lingering fear.
"Junior brother, I'm lucky to be alive. When I fell into that spatial rift, I thought I was going to die. That old demon Blood Swordsman's sword energy was almost hitting my head. Thankfully, before I left, my master gave me a jade talisman to take my place."
As Gu Yan spoke, he gestured to the names, giving a vivid and expressive performance.
"The jade talisman exploded at the crucial moment, turning into a spatial bubble that enveloped me. I drifted and drifted in the spatial turbulence, until I got dizzy. Just now, the bubble ran out of spiritual energy and spat me out. I didn't expect to see my senior sisters again when I opened my eyes. This must be fate."
This explanation is flawless.
After all, in the minds of everyone in the Liuyun Sect, Gu Changsheng was backed by a powerful Nascent Soul cultivator with extraordinary abilities.
It's perfectly reasonable for a Nascent Soul cultivator to leave a life-saving spatial artifact for their precious disciple.
Shen Youwei quickly stepped forward and carefully examined Gu Yan from head to toe. Only after confirming that he had only suffered some superficial injuries and that his condition had not been compromised did she breathe a long sigh of relief.
"It's good that you're alive."
With a sob in her voice, Shen Youwei walked to Gu Yan's side, reached out her fair hand, and patted the dust off his shoulder.
"With your luck, are you perhaps the favored son of Heaven?"
Su Hongxiu stepped forward, bent down to pick up the piece of discarded jade that Gu Yan had thrown away, glanced at it, and after confirming that it had once contained extremely high spiritual power, she said sourly.
Anyone could tell that her envy of Gu Yan for having a Nascent Soul Master had reached the point of jealousy.
"Since you've survived, you'd better hide."
Nangong Yue pointed to the skull-shaped rock in the distance and coldly reminded, "Those three demons are now wreaking havoc, causing heavy casualties among the major sects. We can only wait."
Hiding behind Shen Youwei, Gu Yan used his seemingly frightened eyes to look at his three imposing clones in the distance, quickly calculating the current situation.
He has now broken through to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, and the fragments of the Great Void have also been fused together.
But the points on Mo Lao Er's pseudonym token are just too many.
With a total of 36,000 points, he firmly holds the top spot.
If Mo Lao Er's name is still on the list when the competition ends, how can he accept the award as Mo Lao Er?
Once outside, under the watchful eyes of those Nascent Soul stage monsters, the paper doll would definitely be exposed.
Therefore, Mo Lao Er must die here.
And he, a professional novel website offering the most comfortable reading experience, will rightfully become the hero who kills Mo Lao Er.
Let this huge amount of points be transferred to Gu Changsheng, who has a Nascent Soul master as his backer.
Only in this way will the major sects have some reservations and reluctantly accept this outcome.
Having figured this out, a madness and cunning flashed in Gu Yan's eyes.
He dropped his playful grin, exuding an unprecedented seriousness and awe. He walked past the three members of the Flowing Cloud Sect, stepped out of the pile of rocks, and stood in everyone's sight.
Nangong Yue's expression changed drastically, and she shouted, "Gu Changsheng, are you crazy? Come back here!"
"Fellow Daoists, please hear me out!"
This sudden shout drew the attention of everyone on the battlefield.
Li Qingge, suspended in mid-air, lowered her eyes and looked at the young man in the black Taoist robe.
Tuoba Ye, Zhao Wujiu, and the others also turned their heads to look. Everyone was curious as to how a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator dared to make himself the target of everyone's criticism.
Someone sneered, "Who do you think you are? You dare waste my time here!"
"I am Gu Changsheng, an inner disciple of the Liuyun Sect."
Gu Yan clasped his hands in a respectful but not arrogant manner, and added naturally, "I cannot reveal my master's name, but he is a Nascent Soul cultivator."
Upon hearing this, the crowd, who had initially been somewhat dismissive, immediately became serious.
The rumors about Gu Changsheng of the Liuyun Sect having a Nascent Soul stage expert backing him had already spread throughout Dongzhou, so there was little doubt about it.
Gu Yan raised his head, his face, covered in mud and ash, was filled with righteous indignation and deep sorrow.
"My master once taught me that eliminating demons and protecting the righteous path is the duty of us cultivators. Now these three demons are spreading a colossal lie in the desolate wasteland, luring our fellow cultivators from the Eastern Continent to shed blood here for no reason. Such evil deeds are outrageous."
Gu Yan stretched out his hand, pointed his folding fan directly at the Blood Swordsman on the skull, and began to fabricate nonsense with a straight face, speaking at an extremely fast pace.
"Fairy Li, and fellow Daoists, I just caught a glimpse of the scene within the underground ruins below through a spatial rift."
"These three people weren't protecting the Taixu Demon Suppression Tower at all. That rogue cultivator named Mo Lao Er is the one manipulating these two faceless men."
"Mo Lao Er is forcibly refining the Tai Xu fragments deep underground. He can't refine them by himself, so he colluded with the Blood Swordsman and deliberately spread the news to lure us all here."
"The more people they kill, the more life force and resentment they absorb, and the more they can help Mo Lao Er break through the seal."
Gu Yan's voice was highly persuasive, and coupled with his grief-stricken expression, it resonated with many cultivators.
Tuoba Ye's face turned ashen. He had already suspected something was amiss, and now that Gu Yan had pointed it out, it only confirmed his suspicions.
The chill in Li Qingge's eyes intensified as she coldly stared at the three people on the boulder.
No wonder these three monsters are guarding this place without taking the initiative to attack; they're just stalling for time.
On the boulder, the Blood Swordsman let out a roar in perfect unison.
The river of blood beneath his feet suddenly swelled, and a blood-red sword aura as thick as a water vat slashed directly towards Gu Yan.
The sword energy was incredibly powerful, threatening to cleave Gu Yan and the Flowing Cloud Sect members behind him in two.
"careful."
Li Qingge frowned, about to step in to help.
However, Gu Yan stood still, not only without dodging, but also with a bright smile on his face.
He suddenly squeezed his sleeve.
"boom."
A vast golden light, carrying the aura of a Nascent Soul cultivator, erupted from Gu Yan's body.
The golden light transformed into an ancient-looking shield, steadily blocking Gu Yan's path.
The crimson sword energy struck the light shield with a deafening roar, then dissipated into a rain of blood.
The light shield remained undamaged, only experiencing a ripple.
This was certainly not some hidden trump card for Nascent Soul cultivators, but rather a defensive technique that Gu Yan simulated using the remaining Nascent Soul power in his Golden Core, combined with incense offerings from the divine path.
But to outsiders, this is a top-grade life-saving magic weapon bestowed by a powerful being who has reached the Nascent Soul stage.
"Hiss~"
Many of the cultivators present gasped in shock.
They marveled at the terrifying power of this Nascent Soul cultivator, whose abilities were indeed so formidable that even the extremely powerful Blood Swordsman could not harm him in the slightest.
After blocking the attack, Gu Yan deliberately pretended to be exhausted by the loss of spiritual energy. His face turned pale, and his body swayed. He then turned to Li Qingge and Tuoba Ye and shouted loudly:
"Fellow Daoists, Mo Lao Er's grand formation is about to be completed. Once he refines the Tai Xu Fragment, none of us will be able to leave alive."
Everyone fell silent, unable to find fault with Gu Yan's words for a moment.
"Easy for you to say."
As Zhao Wujiu crawled out of the yellow sand, he clutched his chest and shouted through gritted teeth:
"So what if he's a disciple of a Nascent Soul cultivator? Those three monsters inside are impossible to kill."
Gu Yan removed the shield, a smile playing on his lips; he had been waiting for these words.
"A single chopstick is easy to break, but a bundle of chopsticks is indestructible."
He walked to a high rock and said loudly:
"The reason we suffered such heavy casualties was because we fought separately and became a disorganized mess."
Gu Yan met Li Qingge's gaze in the sky and bowed slightly.
"Fairy Li, Brother Tuoba, Brother Zhao, I dare to propose that our Flowing Cloud Sect, Cangxuan Sect, Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, and all the sects present take the lead in forming an ancient demon-slaying formation. Let us gather the power of tens of thousands of fellow cultivators present and concentrate it into a single strike. I refuse to believe that these three demons, no matter how strong, can withstand the combined attack of a thousand, or even ten thousand of us!"
These words struck everyone like a thunderbolt.
A strange light flashed in Li Qingge's eyes.
She had to admit that although this disciple of the Flowing Cloud Sect seemed ordinary, his courage and vision in taking overall control in a desperate situation were truly extraordinary.
These words struck everyone like a thunderbolt.
A strange light flashed in Li Qingge's eyes.
She had to admit that although this disciple of the Flowing Cloud Sect seemed ordinary, his courage and vision in taking overall control in a desperate situation were truly extraordinary.
Tuoba Ye slapped his thigh and laughed wildly, "What a brilliant move to gather the strength of everyone! My Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain agrees. Today, if I don't crush these three demons into mincemeat, I, Tuoba Ye, swear I am not human!"
Driven by a desire for revenge, Zhao Wujiu gripped his broken sword tightly: "Azure Dragon Sect, I second that proposal!"
Zhou Tianqi of the Guixu Sect emerged from behind the sand dunes in the distance and nodded to Gu Yan from afar: "The Guixu Sect is willing to lend a helping hand."
Gu Yan struck while the iron was hot, issuing orders with great enthusiasm:
"Today, we disregard one another, our sects, and fight only for the glory of the Eastern Continent's cultivation world! Fellow Daoists of the Guixu Sect, please take control of the left flank and use the Heavy Water Formation to suppress the white-robed puppet!"
"Fellow disciples of the Cangxuan Sect, please deploy the Zhou Tian Star Array to seal off the sky and block the crimson sword energy!"
"Comrades from the Azure Dragon Sect and the Heavenly Sound Pavilion, you are in charge of the right flank. Use sound waves and wood-based magic to restrain the black mist!"
"Heroes of Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, follow me in the center of the charge, and seize the boulder's position!"
In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, a gigantic phantom of a blue dragon, a vast water curtain, a sharp sword formation, and a raging beast soul appeared.
Driven by extreme hatred and a thirst for opportunity, tens of thousands of cultivators set aside their past grievances and united as never before.
Everyone quickly dispersed in the directions indicated by Gu Yan.
Li Qingge stood on an ice lotus, her long sword pointing directly at the skull boulder.
Tuoba Ye blew his bone flute, and the beast tide roared deafeningly.
Zhou Tianqi of the Guixu Sect no longer concealed himself and led a large number of elite sword cultivators into the battlefield like a rainbow.
The countless flying swords emitted a deafening hum, converging into a massive torrent of steel capable of destroying the heavens and the earth.
Ancient banners were cast into the yellow sand, and all the magical artifacts lit up at the same time. Multicolored pillars of spiritual energy shot into the sky from all directions, like rivers flowing into the sea, illuminating the sky above the barren wasteland as a dazzling galaxy.
Nangong Yue, Shen Youwei, and Su Hongxiu stood behind Gu Yan, their eyes filled with awe as they watched the imposing figure commanding the enemy forces.
Is this still the same useless junior brother who loafed around in Changning County, only ever hiding behind women when in danger?
Gu Yan slowly hovered in the air, standing with his hands behind his back, his clothes fluttering.
Deep within his consciousness, the command was silently issued to the three clones on the boulder: Release the sea, create the greatest possible commotion, and then feign death.
On the giant skull rock, the Blood Swordsman let out a roar that shook the heavens and the earth.
The dark red longsword frantically absorbed the surrounding blood energy, and a hundred-foot-tall Asura dharma image rose from the ground behind him.
The two paper sword servants, one black and one white, simultaneously formed hand seals, their divine and demonic powers intertwining to create a massive black and white barrier that enveloped the entire boulder.
The atmosphere of the final battle was so intense that even the heavens trembled.
Standing before a vast army, Gu Yan slowly drew the folding fan from his waist.
He looked at the light sword in the sky, which was formed by the spiritual power of tens of thousands of people and was thousands of feet long, and took a deep breath.
Today is the day when I, Gu Changsheng, will become famous throughout Dongzhou.
Gu Yan suddenly swung down the folding fan in his hand.
"Slay the demons! Kill!"
As the sandstorm raged once more, an absurd battle erupted, in which the main body led all the cultivators of the Eastern Continent to attack the alternate account he had created.