txolops Chapter 184 The Killing Scheme Takes Shape, and One Side Remains an Observer
Chapter 184 The Killing Scheme Takes Shape, and One Side Remains an Observer
Outside the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom, the autumn rain was pouring down.
Rainwater pounded into the mud puddles beside the official road, splashing up droplets of water.
In a dilapidated mountain god temple dozens of miles away.
Cold winds rushed in through the leaky doors and windows, causing the bonfire in the center of the temple to flicker.
In the open space outside the temple, more than a dozen corpses of refugees lay scattered about.
Inside the temple stood more than a hundred monks dressed in two-colored Taoist robes.
On the left is a sword cultivator led by the Guixu Sect, dressed in a light blue ink-wash robe, carrying a long sword on his back, with a grim expression.
On the right is a group of cultivators led by Cangxuan Sect, dressed in white Taiji Daoist robes, holding whisks or magical artifacts, their auras long and deep.
These two groups were the elite forces from two different sects who, after receiving Zhou Tianqi's message, rushed to the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom overnight through a secret teleportation array.
The team was led by Song Que, the sword-wielding elder of the Guixu Sect, and Lin Xuanji, the grandmaster of formations of the Cangxuan Sect.
Song Que sat cross-legged on a broken stone tablet, wiping a broad-bladed longsword that shimmered with a deep blue light with a white silk handkerchief.
"Old Ghost Lin, according to the intelligence provided by Young Master Zhou, there is a cross-realm array hidden within the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom that can summon demonic cultivators from the Central Plains. Has your Spirit-Seeking Compass detected any clues?"
Song Que asked in a rough voice.
Lin Xuanji stood under the eaves of the dilapidated temple, holding a palm-sized bronze compass engraved with ancient seal script in his hand.
The compass needle trembled slightly, pointing to the vast city shrouded in rain hundreds of miles away.
"There is a human aura looming over the capital, obscuring most of the heavenly secrets. However, my spirit-seeking compass still detected a faint blood-fiend fluctuation. That fluctuation is buried deep underground. If we did not know the information in advance, ordinary cultivators would only think it was the resentment of a mortal execution ground even if it flew by in the sky."
Lin Xuanji put away the compass, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his cloudy eyes.
"It seems that Gu Changsheng's divination was correct. The Central Plains Demonic Sect has indeed laid a net in this mortal world, intending to secretly carry out its plan."
Song Que sneered, sheathed his broadsword, which emitted a clear, ringing sound.
"To hell with their elaborate traps. No matter how far the Central Plains Demonic Sect extends, this is still Eastern Plains territory. What trouble can a few lurking demonic brats cause? Tonight at midnight, the rain will be heaviest, precisely when the demonic cultivators are most relaxed. Our two sects will join forces, storm the palace, destroy the great formation, and cut off the heads of those demonic cultivators, hanging them on this city gate tower. This will be avenging our fallen comrades from Eastern Plains."
Song Que's tone was filled with an arrogant and overbearing attitude.
In his view, given the secretive and underhanded tactics of that Central Plains force, its strength was certainly not great, and it was impossible for it to have a powerful demon in the late Nascent Soul stage in charge.
With him and Lin Xuanji, both at the mid-Nascent Soul stage, plus the hundreds of Golden Core stage core disciples behind them, they were more than capable of roaming freely in the Great Yan Kingdom.
Although Lin Xuanji was composed in his actions, he still possessed the pride of being the dominant sect in Dongzhou.
He nodded slightly, flicked his whisk, and that was his way of agreeing.
"As Elder Song said, we will slay the demon and eliminate the evil spirits at midnight tonight."
The hundred Golden Core disciples inside the dilapidated temple responded in unison, their killing intent surging within the confined space. Even the rainwater outside the temple was forced back by this invisible sword energy.
They were convinced this was a perfect opportunity for a one-sided massacre and to gain merit.
Little did they know that the place they were about to step into was a terrifying grinding mill of flesh and blood.
……
At the same time, in the Great Yan Imperial Palace, at the Plum Grove Garden.
Inside the damp and chilly dormitory, the pungent smell of burning cheap charcoal lingered in the air.
Hua Moyang huddled in the tattered quilt, her face pale and her forehead covered in a fine layer of cold sweat.
During the day, she withstood a casual blow from a Nascent Soul cultivator in the underground ancestral hall. Although the Blood Swordsman's Blood Demon essence protected her heart meridian, her broken ribs and damaged internal organs still caused her unbearable pain.
Just as she was clenching her teeth in pain.
A burning, stinging pain shot through the invisible crimson lotus mark deep between her brows.
Hua Moyang suddenly opened her eyes, swallowing her sobs to prevent herself from making a sound.
Images and a hoarse, cold voice flashed directly into her mind.
That was the divine imprint passed down from Master Blood Swordsman.
"Well done."
Upon hearing these four words, Hua Moyang's tense nerves relaxed slightly.
Immediately afterwards, the Blood Swordsman's cold voice continued.
"At midnight tonight, the Nascent Soul elders of the Cangxuan and Guixu sects will lead a hundred Golden Core disciples in a surprise attack on the imperial city. They will run head-on into the Nine Netherworld Immortal Trapping Formation of the Central Continent Demonic Sect."
Hua Moyang was startled.
The people from both sects arrived so quickly. Could it be that Master intends to join forces with the two sects to break that formation from within and without?
However, the Blood Swordsman's next words shattered her last unrealistic illusions about the world of cultivation.
"Your task is to remain in hiding, and not to make any rash moves or issue any warnings."
"Once the great formation is activated, the cultivators from both sects will surely die. I want you to take advantage of the chaos when the great formation is in operation, sneak into the edge of the underground ancestral hall, and use the Blood Shadow Escape technique that I taught you to absorb as much of the scattered blood essence of those high-level cultivators who died in battle as possible."
"Those who cultivate demonic arts should regard all things as straw dogs. The battle between the righteous path and the demonic path is, for us, merely a feast of reaping strength. When they have fought to the death and their formations are shaken, I will personally descend and take over this game."
"Remember, surviving and becoming stronger are the only things you need to do."
The imprint of consciousness gradually dissipated, and the burning sensation between the eyebrows also faded away.
Hua Moyang lay on the cold dormitory bed, listening to the even breathing of her companions around her, and felt a chill run through her body.
She finally understood what the demonic path was.
The master not only plots against the demonic sects of Zhongzhou, but also intends to sacrifice the elites of the righteous path of Dongzhou.
He was like a vulture circling high in the sky, coldly watching the beasts tearing at each other below, waiting for them to be exhausted before coming down to feast on them.
This indifference, which treats all living beings as pawns and human lives as worthless, instilled fear in Hua Moyang, while simultaneously igniting a fervor within her blood.
Since this world is inherently a dog-eat-dog world, and both the righteous and the demonic paths regard mortals as ants, why can't she become the one who holds the chessboard?
Hua Moyang slowly closed her eyes.
The physical pain was masked by this twisted frenzy.
She silently circulated her bloodline cultivation technique in the darkness, like a venomous snake lurking on the edge of an abyss, quietly waiting for midnight to arrive.
……
Thirty miles outside the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom, on a solitary, unnamed mountain peak.
The rain relentlessly washed away the withered, yellow trees covering the mountains and fields.
A dark red figure appeared on a boulder at the mountain peak.
The Blood Swordsman stood with his hands behind his back, letting the cold autumn rain pelt him.
There was an invisible force field around his body.
The rainwater slid off automatically half a foot away from him, without wetting a single corner of his clothes.
Those scarlet eyes, devoid of any whites, pierced through the heavy rain, looking down at the distant imperial city.
Under the Qi-observation technique of the Nascent Soul stage demonic cultivator, at this moment, thick, blood-red pillars of light, invisible to the naked eye, are rising from all directions of the Great Yan Imperial City, weaving into a huge blood-red net in the sky.
At the heart of the net was the ancestral temple beneath the palace.
"The Nine Netherworld Immortal-Trapping Array is an ancient, deadly formation that utilizes the yin energy of the earth's veins and the resentful blood of millions of mortals..."
The Blood Swordsman raised an eyebrow.
He realized that the formation was not yet fully activated and was in a state of concealment, waiting to be unleashed.
The Guardian of Darkness is like a patient hunter, with his jaws wide open, waiting for the prey of Dongzhou to jump in.
The Blood Swordsman sat cross-legged on the boulder, placing the Blood Sword without a guard across his knees. He closed his eyes, concealed his aura, and merged with the cold boulder.
The main body needs a lot of resources to form a Nascent Soul, and this clone also needs a massive amount of blood and energy to break through to the mid-Nascent Soul stage.
After tonight, this capital of the Great Yan Kingdom will become a rich source of resources for his path to immortality.
child time.
The night was as dark as ink, and a torrential downpour began.
Large raindrops pounded on the golden glazed tiles of the palace, making a dense, popping sound like popping beans.
A somber atmosphere pervaded the world.
Outside the Xihua Gate of the Imperial City, the Imperial Guards who had been patrolling the city walls collapsed silently to the ground like felled wheat.
In the darkness, over a hundred sword shadows and magical artifacts, their light suppressed, swept across the tens of feet high city walls like ghosts, easily infiltrating this heavily guarded mortal palace.
Song Que and Lin Xuanji walked at the front of the group.
Both of them used concealment techniques and, under the cover of the rainy night, quickly advanced deeper into the palace.
"It went too smoothly."
Lin Xuanji frowned as he looked at the gradually clearing blood-red light guiding the way on the Spirit-Seeking Disc.
"The grand interdimensional array set up by the Central Plains Demonic Sect is only guarded by these mortal soldiers on the outer perimeter, without even a proper warning formation. Elder Song, something is definitely amiss."
Song Que snorted coldly, twirled his longsword in his hand, and instantly evaporated the rain that was blowing in his face.
"What decent defenses could a mortal palace possibly have? Those demonic cultivators are probably all holed up underground maintaining their formations. Speed is of the essence; let's use swift and decisive action to blast open the underground entrance and storm in."
The procession passed through the Imperial Garden and went straight to the secluded back of the Plum Grove Garden.
Lin Xuanji's spirit-finding compass pointer began to spin wildly, eventually pointing to the dry well in the abandoned courtyard.
"This is it; the entrance is underground."
Lin Xuanji said in a deep voice.
Without saying a word, Song Que pointed his fingers like a sword and pointed at the huge stone slab pressing on the well opening.
A massive, azure sword aura roared out and slammed into the stone slab.
"Boom!"
The sealing stone slab, passed down through generations of the Great Yan royal family, shattered instantly like tofu when faced with the full force of a mid-stage Nascent Soul sword cultivator's attack.
Gravel mixed with rainwater splashed in all directions.
A bottomless black hole was exposed before everyone's eyes, and a strong smell of blood and a chilling demonic aura rose into the sky like a volcanic eruption.
"Such heavy demonic energy. Hmph, these demonic cultivators were indeed hiding here. Disciples, listen to my command! Follow me into the underground and kill them all."
Song Que laughed loudly and transformed into a streak of blue light, rushing directly into the dry well.
Lin Xuanji had doubts, but the die was cast, so he jumped down as well.
One hundred Golden Core disciples unleashed their protective qi and leaped into the dark well.
The moment the last disciple entered the dry well.
The originally pitch-black night sky suddenly turned into a dazzling scarlet red.
The torrential autumn rain transformed in an instant into a foul-smelling, bloody downpour.
The ground around the imperial city began to tremble violently, and eight black pillars of light, hundreds of feet high, burst forth from the ground in eight directions of the imperial city, piercing the sky.
A massive, blood-red, hemispherical light shield completely encased the entire palace upside down within it.
The Nine Netherworld Trapping Immortal Array has been activated.
Below the dry well, Song Que and Lin Xuanji, who had just landed and hadn't even had a chance to see the entire underground ancestral hall, suddenly changed their expressions.
They discovered that the surrounding space was sealed off and spiritual energy was suppressed.
The power that was originally flowing smoothly suddenly became severely stagnant when it came into contact with this cold and icy array power.
"Oh no, we've fallen for their trap, it's a snare."
Lin Xuanji was filled with shock and anger, and the Spirit-Seeking Disc in his hand shattered into pieces the moment the formation was activated.
"Hahaha, you hypocrites of the righteous path in Dongzhou, I've been waiting for you for a long time."
A piercing laugh, like that of a night owl, echoed from the vast underground cavern.
Around the underground ancestral hall, hundreds of caves simultaneously lit up with eerie green flames.
Hundreds of demonic cultivators from Zhongzhou stood up, their faces contorted with savage grins, looking down at the elite warriors from Dongzhou who had fallen into the trap.
Above the churning pool of blood.
The Guardian of the Darkness, clad in pale bone armor, sat on a chair made of countless skulls, slowly emerging from the darkness.
His terrifying pressure, stemming from his mid-Nascent Soul stage cultivation, combined with the power of the Nine Netherworld Immortal-Trapping Array, pressed down on the heads of the hundred Golden Core disciples like a mountain.
Several disciples at the early stage of the Golden Core realm, whose cultivation was slightly weaker, coughed up blood and knelt on the bluestone slab under this double pressure, their protective aura shattering inch by inch.
Song Que's eyes were bloodshot with rage. He knew he had underestimated his enemy and led the sect's elite into a cage where death was a near certainty.
"You charlatan, do you really think you can trap me with a broken formation?"
With a roar, Song Que's natal flying sword soared into the sky, transforming into a blue sword dragon a hundred feet long, carrying an indomitable sword intent as it headed straight for the Netherworld Protector in mid-air.
This is the ultimate technique of the Guixu Sect, the Raging Sea Sword Technique.
The power of this sword strike is enough to split a thousand-foot-high mountain in two.
The Dark Guardian sat on the bone chair, facing this powerful and fierce attack, he simply stretched out his withered right hand and pressed it down.
In the blood pool, the souls of tens of thousands of mortals were forcibly extracted by the great formation and gathered in mid-air to form a huge blood-red shield.
The blue sword dragon slammed violently into the blood-red shield.
Amidst the deafening roar, the sword energy raged wildly.
The blood-red shield, however, was indestructible.
Each slash of sword energy was accompanied by the agonizing screams and annihilation of hundreds or thousands of mortal souls.
The Guardian of the Underworld is using these innocent souls to counteract Song Que's attacks.
As the sword light dissipated, Song Que's natal flying sword flew back into his hand, its light dimming.
The blood-red shield was only thinned by a third, and new souls immediately replenished it in the pool, slowly restoring it to its original state.
"Your sword is too weak."
The Guardian of Darkness let out a disdainful sneer.
"Here, I am blessed by a million vengeful spirits and protected by the Nine Netherworld Formation. Even if the Grand Elders of your two sects were to come in person, they would perish on the spot."
The Guardian of the Darkness turned around, waved his sleeve, and said, "Kill them all, leave no one alive."
With a command from the Guardian of the Underworld.
The hundreds of demonic cultivators from the surrounding Central Continent, like wolves that have smelled blood, unleashed their strange magical treasures and insidious spells, rushing towards the center of the great formation below.
A fierce melee erupted instantly.
Sword light, magical artifacts, poisonous mist, and demonic energy clashed wildly within this underground ancestral hall.
The sounds of magical explosions and the screams of the cultivators mingled together, turning this place into a veritable hell.
Golden Core disciples were constantly being pierced through the chest by the demonic cultivators' poisonous claws.
Their warm blood spilled onto the bluestone slab and was instantly absorbed by the underground array patterns, turning into nutrients that flowed into the churning pool of blood.
With each drop of a powerful being's essence blood that merges into the pool, the void rift above the blood pool expands outward by one inch.
In a corner of the cave that no one noticed.
In a hidden ditch.
Hua Moyang was enveloped in a very faint blood-red light as she stared at the center of the battlefield.
Whenever a Golden Core disciple or demonic cultivator dies in battle, their severed limbs explode in mid-air.
She would secretly use the Blood Shadow Escape technique to draw in the purest essence of blood and qi that was scattered in the air, silently absorbing it into her body.
Soon, her cultivation level rose at an incredible speed during this massacre.
Meanwhile, the Blood Swordsman, who had been resting with his eyes closed on a solitary peak outside the city, slowly opened his scarlet eyes.
Blood Swordsman stood up and grabbed the Blood Sword without a hilt at his side.
The dark red figure, like a bolt of lightning piercing the night sky, silently merged into the blood-soaked storm, quietly approaching the Great Yan Imperial City.