txolops Chapter 193 Spiritual Embryo's Reverse Nurturing, War Spreads Across the Plains
Chapter 193 Spiritual Embryo's Reverse Nurturing, War Spreads Across the Plains
A secret chamber beneath Changqing Peak.
Fine water droplets condensed on the wall.
The glow of the luminous pearl fell on Gu Yan's face, reflecting a bluish light.
He sat cross-legged on a white jade cushion, his eyes closed.
The earth vein spirit embryo, representing one of the foundations of the Cangxuan Sect, had already dissolved in his dantian.
A heavy, powerful, and vast earth-yellow primordial force, like a river bursting its banks, frantically washed over his meridians.
This force carries no bias in terms of attributes; it is the purest vitality of heaven and earth, so powerful that it can crush a mountain.
Gu Yan's bones crackled and popped.
The power that was not yet stable due to the breakthrough to the Nascent Soul stage was slowly smoothed out under the nourishment of this source of the earth.
His meridians were widened by a full two times, and a dark golden luster emanated from the depths of his bone marrow.
Deep within the Qi Sea, the three-inch-tall Divine Demon Nascent Soul opened its small mouth, like a whale sucking in water, swallowing all the earthy yellow vitality from the sky into its belly.
at the same time.
On the border of the Great Yan Kingdom, hundreds of thousands of miles away, on the meat grinder battlefield where 100,000 cultivators and a million demons were fighting, the resentment and blood of countless fallen warriors were continuously flowing across space through the earth's veins and nourishing Gu Yan's body.
Extreme vitality, and extreme destruction.
Two completely opposite forces converged within Gu Yan's body.
The earth's original yellowish-brown essence transformed into the most solid furnace, suppressing, purifying, and fusing the raging bloodthirsty energy.
Gu Yan's aura began to rise at an alarming rate.
Mid-stage Nascent Soul, minor achievement.
Mid-stage Nascent Soul Realm.
Until the peak of the mid-Nascent Soul stage.
With a thunderous roar emanating from within his body, Gu Yan suddenly opened his eyes.
His left eye shone with golden light, like a living Buddha who saves all living beings; his right eye was a churning sea of blood, like a demon who slaughters all living beings.
Two intense lights flickered in his eyes for a moment before disappearing into nothingness, returning to his warm and clear black eyes.
Gu Yan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, which transformed into a sharp short sword in mid-air of the secret chamber, striking the black iron stone door and leaving a white mark about an inch deep.
He stood up, feeling the terrifying power within his body that seemed capable of shattering the void with a single punch, and a satisfied sneer curled at the corner of his mouth.
The earth vein spirit embryo that Lu Zheng sent saved him at least ten years of arduous cultivation.
Now, even without using any formations or tricks, his divine and demonic body and his powerful cultivation at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm are enough for him to directly confront any late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator in the Eastern Continent.
Gu Yan straightened his loose white robe, pushed open the black iron door of the secret chamber, and slowly walked upstairs.
Outside, it was broad daylight.
……
The northern border of the Great Yan Kingdom, the Tianlang Pass defense line.
The gray-yellow plains were covered with endless corpses.
The frozen soil was soaked in dark red blood, and stepping on it produced a muddy, sticky sound.
The broken ritual implements were stuck in the pile of corpses, emitting a low, mournful sound as they faced the north wind.
The main camp of the allied army was set up on a solitary peak behind the city walls.
The atmosphere inside the enormous cowhide tent was extremely oppressive.
The Grand Elder of Cangxuan Sect, Zhou Chongyue, and the Grand Elder of Guixu Sect, Mo Tianwen, sat facing each other. In front of them, on the sand table, were small red and blue flags representing the forces of both sides.
"In yesterday's battle, our Eastern Continent Alliance lost another hundred Foundation Establishment disciples, and five Golden Core stage deacons also perished. Those Blood Fiend Puppets are simply endless; even when cut in two, they will still cling to the legs of our disciples and self-destruct."
Mo Tianwen rubbed his temples heavily. This peerless swordsman who had dominated the Eastern Continent for hundreds of years looked exhausted.
Zhou Chongyue's face was ashen as he looked at the jade slip that had just been presented to him.
"Those disciples who died on the border couldn't even escape with their souls. As soon as they landed, they would be sucked into the ground along with their blood... There's something strange about this battlefield."
Inside the tent stood a dozen or so core elders from the two sects, all of whom wore grave expressions upon hearing this.
An inner sect elder of the Cangxuan Sect couldn't help but step forward, cupping his hands in a gesture of complaint.
"Elder Zhou, it's not that we're afraid to fight, but the casualties at the front are so heavy, yet the supplies sent from the rear are always so meager. The other day, our sect's fire division disciples were exhausted and requested 100,000 Qi-restoring pills, but the supply depot only approved 30,000. Although Alliance Leader Gu is supposed to be selfless, such stinginess makes it impossible for the soldiers at the front to fight bravely."
Upon hearing this, a chorus of whispered agreement immediately filled the tent.
Many elders had long harbored resentment towards the Liuyun Sect for controlling the logistics lifeline.
Just then, the heavy curtain of the tent was suddenly flung open.
A biting cold wind, accompanied by the violent pressure of a Nascent Soul cultivator, swept in.
Lu Zheng, the Iron-Faced Judge and Deputy Head of the Enforcement Hall of the Cangxuan Sect, strode in.
His eyes were bloodshot, like an angry lion, his gaze fixed on the inner sect elder who had just complained.
"Lu Zheng, why aren't you monitoring supplies at the rear? What are you doing at the front lines?"
Zhou Chongyue frowned and placed his hands on the table.
Lu Zheng completely ignored Zhou Chongyue's question. He walked straight up to the inner sect elder, raised his hand, and slapped him across the face without warning.
A crisp snap.
The elder, who was in the late stage of the Golden Core realm, was spun around three times after being slapped. Half of his cheek was swollen high, and he spat out two bloody teeth, looking at Lu Zheng with disbelief.
"Master Lu, have you gone mad?!"
"I'm not crazy. What I think's crazy are you bunch of ignorant, narrow-minded fools!"
Lu Zheng roared angrily, the sound causing dust to fall from the top of the tent.
He turned around, facing all the Nascent Soul elders and Golden Core elders in the tent, his chest heaving violently.
"All you do is complain about the lack of supplies. Do you know what price Alliance Leader Gu paid in the rear to ensure that these 30,000 Qi-restoring Pills could be safely delivered to you?!"
In Lu Zheng's mind, the tragic image of that pale, weak young man vomiting blood tinged with golden primordial essence resurfaced once more.
His eyes instantly reddened, tears welling up, but he forcibly evaporated them with his spiritual power.
"There is no such thing as a peaceful and tranquil life in this world. The reason you can be issuing orders here so calmly is because Alliance Leader Gu is underground in the Flowing Cloud Sect, using his own lifespan and the little bit of foundation he has painstakingly repaired to fill the heaven-defying formation that conceals the secrets of heaven!"
Lu Zheng drew his longsword from his waist, the tip pointing directly at the ground. His voice was choked with emotion, yet it was filled with absolute fanaticism and killing intent.
"Alliance Leader Gu is risking his life for the sake of the entire Eastern Continent. Anyone who dares to utter a single word of criticism against him, or complain about logistical support, will have their sword, Lu Zheng's sword, disobey the sect!"
Inside the tent, Zhou Chongyue and Mo Tianwen exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock and horror in each other's eyes.
They knew Lu Zheng's character best: upright, incorruptible, and stubborn.
Even he said such things, and even beat up a fellow elder in public for Gu Changsheng's sake. The suffering that Gu Changsheng endured behind the scenes must have been beyond everyone's imagination.
Zhou Chongyue slowly stood up, walked to Lu Zheng, reached out and pressed his trembling shoulder, his tone becoming extremely solemn.
"Master Lu, please calm down. We have wronged Alliance Leader Gu. Since the Alliance Leader is facing such difficulties in the rear, we on the front lines must grit our teeth and never allow the demon army to cross Tianlang Pass."
"Issue my order: all elders cease complaining. From this moment forward, regardless of the quantity of supplies, no one may utter a single complaint. Those who disobey will be punished for treason!"
Mo Tianwen also took a deep breath and drew the ancient sword from behind him.
"The entire Guixu Sect respects this order. We respect the Alliance Leader's noble character and have no choice but to fight to the death to repay him."
A looming logistical crisis was thus forcibly suppressed by Lu Zheng, who had been brainwashed by Gu Yan, using the most fanatical methods.
The entire Eastern Continent Alliance leadership felt an almost blind admiration and guilt towards the white-robed youth who was far away at the Flowing Cloud Sect.
……
At the same moment, in the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom, beneath the imperial city.
Inside the vast underground cavern, the once-dried-up pool of blood is now filled once again with viscous blood.
However, this blood was no longer the dark red of mortals, but rather glowed with a faint light unique to cultivators, and was filled with violent spiritual power.
This is the culmination of the battle between 100,000 cultivators and a million demons at Tianlang Pass.
A huge blood-red lotus flower slowly rotates in the center of the pool.
The Blood Swordsman, dressed in a dark red robe, stood barefoot on the lotus platform.
His long, blood-red hair moved without wind, his pale, handsome face was expressionless, and his scarlet eyes pierced through layers of rock walls, gazing at the brutal battlefield on the northern border.
Hua Moyang, dressed in a wide, bright yellow dragon robe, obediently knelt on the bluestone slab at the edge of the blood pool.
Even though she is now an empress at the early stage of the Golden Core realm, she is still as humble as an ant when facing this man.
"Master, the battle situation at the border is going well, but those righteous sects have become smarter. They are using formations and long-range spells to wear down the puppets and no longer engage in melee combat easily. The essence blood of cultivators that are gathered every day is gradually decreasing."
Hua Moyang bowed her head and respectfully reported.
The Blood Swordsman raised his pale, slender right hand and lightly traced a line in the air with his fingertips.
A blood-red crack appeared out of nowhere, reflecting the scene on the walls of Tianlang Pass.
"The blood of low-level cultivators is ultimately just an appetizer. For this blood pool to transform, it needs higher-level nourishment."
The Blood Swordsman's hoarse, shrill voice echoed within the cave.
He lowered his head and looked down at Hua Moyang.
"Release all thirty-six Blood Fiend Generals at the Golden Core stage and tell them not to pay attention to those low-level ants. Their targets should be the Golden Core elders of the Cangxuan and Guixu sects."
Hua Moyang suddenly raised her head, a look of shock flashing in her eyes.
"Master, those thirty-six divine generals are the only remaining trump cards of our Great Yan Kingdom. If we send them all out, it will surely draw out the Nascent Soul stage monsters of the righteous path. Once they make their move, the divine generals will be completely annihilated..."
"That's exactly what I want—for them to take action."
The Blood Swordsman interrupted Hua Moyang, his tone icy cold.
"If war is painless, those Nascent Soul stage monsters will just stay in the background and watch the show. I want to force them to fight, to make them bleed. Go and do it quickly."
Hua Moyang trembled all over, dared not say another word, immediately kowtowed heavily, and stood up, transforming into a streak of blood light as she rushed out of the underground cave.
The Blood Swordsman gazed at the boiling blood pool, his eyes darting around.
……
Three days later.
The Tianlang Pass defense line.
The new wave of demonic army charges had just been repelled, and the Eastern Continent cultivators on the city wall were slumped on the ground, seizing the time to swallow Qi-restoring pills to recover their spiritual power.
Suddenly, thirty-six dark red beams of light shot into the sky from the horizon.
A terrifying pressure, far exceeding that of ordinary blood demon puppets, swept in like a tsunami.
The Golden Core elder of the Guixu Sect, who was stationed on the city wall, suddenly stood up, stared intently, and his face turned deathly pale.
On the gray-yellow plain, thirty-six monsters, each over ten feet tall, covered in thick, blood-red scales and wielding enormous bone weapons, were rushing toward the city wall at an incredible speed.
With each step they took, a huge crack would appear in the ground.
The aura emanating from them was clearly at the peak of the Golden Core stage.
"It's a high-ranking demon general! Activate the city's defensive formation immediately! Form the sword formation!"
The Golden Core Elder roared hoarsely.
However, it was too late.
The thirty-six Blood Fiend Generals completely ignored the divine crossbow bolts aimed at them.
Despite the arrows exploding into sparks on their scales, their speed did not decrease in the slightest.
The leading general leaped high into the air, his giant bone axe whistling as it tore through the void, and slammed into the defensive light barrier of Tianlang Pass.
"Boom!"
The light barrier, which was said to be able to withstand a hundred attacks from a Golden Core cultivator, shook violently under this powerful axe blow, becoming covered with spiderweb-like cracks.
Immediately afterwards, the remaining thirty-five divine generals leaped up at the same time, and thirty-five heavy weapons crashed down simultaneously.
The light curtain, like fragile glass, shattered into a shower of light.
The low-level cultivators on the city wall bled from all seven orifices under the terrifying recoil, and thousands of them died on the spot.
The Blood Demon General charged directly onto the city wall as if it were empty.
They ignored the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators and headed straight for the Golden Core elders at the various array points.
A mid-stage Golden Core steward of the Cangxuan Sect had just unleashed his natal magic weapon when a bone spur from a divine general pierced his chest.
The god opened his blood-red maw and bit off his head, then brutally split the headless corpse in two.
The scalding blood of the Golden Elixir was spilled all over the city wall, and then mysteriously seeped into the cracks of the obsidian.
In just half an hour, the twenty-odd Golden Core elders stationed on the defensive line were all slaughtered.
The entire Tianlang Pass defense line is facing a desperate situation of complete collapse.
The main tent is located on a solitary peak.
Zhou Chongyue and Mo Tianwen stared in horror at the horrific scene on the defensive line.
Those Golden Core elders were the future pillars of the sect, but now they are being slaughtered like chickens and dogs.
"This is outrageous! Do they really think there's no one in Dongzhou who can stand up to them?!"
Mo Tianwen was furious, and the ancient sword on his back let out a deafening dragon roar.
He could no longer suppress the killing intent in his heart, and his terrifying cultivation at the late Nascent Soul stage erupted without reservation.
"Today I will tear these demons to pieces!"
Mo Tianwen transformed into a dazzling sword light that pierced through the heavens and earth, directly charging into the Blood Fiend General's formation.
Zhou Chongyue, his beard and hair standing on end, formed a hand seal and led a dozen or so Nascent Soul stage monsters out in full force.
The fighting force of Dongzhou's top leadership was finally forced to withdraw from the battlefield.
All of this battle information was clearly transmitted back to the secret chamber of Changqing Peak in the Liuyun Sect through the Thousand-Mile Transmission Array.
Gu Yan watched as the Nascent Soul stage monsters fought fiercely above Tianlang Pass in the light screen, and watched as Mo Tianwen shattered a Blood Fiend General with a single sword strike, causing the heavens and earth to change color.
His face showed no concern for his fellow travelers; instead, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
Gu Yan's fingers tapped lightly on the white jade tabletop.
He took out a blank jade slip, probed it with his divine sense, and began to inscribe it rapidly.
He intended to leave behind a so-called "Demon-Slaying Array" inside. This array appeared to be incredibly powerful and fierce, specifically designed to suppress bloodlust, and possessed immense power.
In reality, Gu Yan had tampered with the core array patterns of this formation.
Its greatest function is not to kill enemies, but to silently extract the nascent soul essence from the person who set up the formation when the formation is operating at its maximum, and then pour it directly into the blood pool in the capital of the Great Yan Kingdom along the earth veins.
After Gu Yan finished carving, he put the jade slip away.
He made his face turn deathly pale again, clutched his chest, stumbled open the door to the secret room, and weakly called out to Shen Youwei, who was guarding outside the door.
"Senior Sister Shen, hurry... There will inevitably be casualties among the Nascent Soul cultivators at the front lines. Immediately send someone to Elder Zhou with this array diagram, telling him that this is a method to break the deadlock that I... extracted from my Nascent Soul master's inheritance at the cost of a hundred years of my lifespan. Tell them... they must form the array and kill the enemy..."
Before he could finish speaking, Gu Yan closed his eyes and "fainted".
Shen Youwei looked at the jade slip, then at Gu Yan lying on the ground, and tears welled up in her eyes.
She gripped the jade slip tightly, then immediately turned and transformed into a streak of light, rushing towards the sect's main hall.