“Again!” Prince Tian shouted.
“Hold your fire,” a voice boomed. Three red-cloaked figures appeared in the skies above them. Their peak-core-formation cultivation thoroughly supressed the entire crowd. “We didn’t act against you personally as you are the king’s son, but that doesn’t mean we’ll stand by as you attack the very building he rests in. I suggest you retreat immediately. Once the king passes away, we’ll not care about this petty struggle for power.”
“I’m sorry, uncles, but I can only press onward for the sake of the kingdom,” Prince Tian said. “Men, direct your attacks to the royal uncles. Since they choose to interfere, we will fight against them for the sake of the kingdom.”
Many murmurs of dissent ran through the troops. The generals, seeing their morale plummeting, grasped their wild qi and subdued it like a wild horse.
The three red-cloaked men’s eyes narrowed. “Now that you’ve revealed your true colors, we’ll teach you a lesson you won’t forget,” their leader said. Boundless qi surged forth from the three apex cultivators. As Prince Tian’s nine flood dragons joined together into the Nine Dragons Battle Formation, which could only be controlled by a marshal, the three uncles summoned three bloody spears. The spears and dragons collided, throwing clouds of dust into the air in the process. The dust slowly settled, revealing thousands of men kneeling with blood trickling from their mouths.
“You’re still too young to face off against these uncles,” their leader said. “It’s time to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.”
Suddenly, three clicks sounded from different directions. The three men simultaneously threw up barriers to deflect three ominous black crossbow bolts. To their surprise, however, they continued unimpeded. “Core-breaking crossbows?” The three men gasped.
The three bolts pierced into each of the men. If one observed closely, they would have seen that the bolts were covered in a purple sheen. The three men fell like flies and were rescued by Prince Lei’s men just moments before they hit the ground.
“Men,” Prince Tian yelled. “Today is our moment of triumph. To victory!”
Just outside Songjing, four men were fighting intensely. Two of them were poisoned while a fourth man was bleeding. The bleeding man had a young face and black and white hair.
“Your poison has improved, Zhou Bei,” the unwounded man said. “It’s a pity you betrayed the family. You would have been a great asset.”
“And sell out my country to the southern devils?” Zhou Bei spat. “Not a hope in hell. You and your cronies chose poorly, and you’ll get what’s coming to you in the end.”
“It’s your life.” The man shrugged before continuing their intense struggle.
Hong Chen let out a puff of smoke as he faced off against his fellow guards. “What’s gotten into you all?” he asked.
“We’ve had enough of your bullshit,” one of the guards said. “You’re too by-the-book, and it’s time for a change. We need a new guard captain.”
They rushed toward him with pathetic qi techniques. Hong Chen summoned smoke around him as he struck one man after another with a thin wooden stick. They slumped to the floor, unconscious. He tied them up and locked them inside the guard shack.
What in the world is going on? he thought as he made his way back home. The entire city was going mad—the only thing he could do now was keep his family safe as best he could.
In Green Leaf City, the normally peaceful academy was abuzz with activity. Elder Chen, one of Green Leaf Academy’s teachers, was rapidly being overwhelmed by a crowd of angry students. They had lost their sanity after a student was accidentally killed in a teaching match. He wasn’t the only one in such a pitiful situation.
A few hundred feet away, a similar situation was occurring. A student had killed a teacher in a fit of rage, causing a half dozen teachers to band together to pacify the students. A female teacher unleashed an icy prison to restrain the students. Unfortunately, their response defied all common sense. They rushed toward their teachers with utter disregard for their lives. Dozens of students perished as the teachers watched on mournfully.
“What’s come over them?” a young female teacher asked.
In Green Leaf City, cultivators fought with cultivators in the streets while mortals fought mortals. Even domesticated animals fought each other as Green Leaf City descended into madness. Unbeknownst to them, this resentment was rapidly being syphoned away and fed to a crimson formation out in the distance. In turn, it intensified their irrational behavior.
“What the hell is going on?” the owner of the auction house mumbled as he surveyed Fairweather from his balcony. The modicum of peace that had returned to their daily lives had disappeared, and people were now fighting in the streets.
He could only sigh and send out his flying sword to incapacitate a random civilian who was inches away from ending another’s life. As a foundation-establishment cultivator, he could only do so much. It wouldn’t be long before blood filled the city’s streets.
“What a disaster,” Deputy Marshal Qin muttered as he reviewed the battle reports. Despite his external appearance, he was far more intelligent than he let on. He always reviewed briefings and incorporated them into his brave but reasonable actions.
“Deputy Marshal, something’s happened,” a soldier suddenly said. “The whole fortress is rioting. Something about pensions and salaries being insufficient. At first they were just arguing, but now they’ve taken out their swords!”
Deputy Marshal Qin frowned. “Order everyone to stand down. And get me the biggest piece of soft wood you can find.
“What for?” the soldier asked.
“Well, I can’t be out clubbing people with my greatsword, can I?” Deputy Marshal Qin said.
If brute force wasn’t solving all your problems, you just weren’t using enough of it.
Wang Jun calmly noted the thousands of alerts as they appeared on his core-transmission jade. Chaos had erupted throughout the kingdom for no apparent reason. Unfortunately, he couldn’t pay attention to such things. He had a deal to secure.
He paced about the chamber nervously, inspecting every nook and cranny to ensure that the necessary precautions were in place.
“Elder Bai?” Wang Jun said. “Bring me Li Ming. I’d like to have a word with him.”
Feng Ming flew as quickly as he could. His spear cut through the air but not as much as he’d have liked—his lucky spear was never recovered from the battlefield. He was now using a shabby magic-grade substitute. As for the black spear, the enemy troops had taken it with them when they’d left. It was a shame, really—the spear would get to have fun in the south without him.
“Those guys are crazy if they think my spear will cooperate with them,” he muttered.
Songjing was growing in the distance, and above it, a gray cloud was forming. Smoke, Feng Ming realized.
Songjing was burning.
Chapter 36: The Truth
Cha Ming felt himself weakening. Every slash of Zhou Li’s sword chipped away at his abundant vitality while leaving an ominous black mark on his body. Each one slowed his movements and ate away at his qi. He had long since banished his combat formations, keeping only a healing formation to sustain him as he looked for an opportunity.
Huxian wasn’t faring any better. The many-tailed fox’s black-and-white fur was covered in slick blood from heaven knew how many wounds. They knew that if the fox died, Cha Ming would as well. By then, the battle would be sealed. To make matters worse, both Silverwing and Lei Jiang had been hit by weaker curses as well. Their previously dominating performance was being repelled by the devilish generals and their minions. Without Huxian’s support, the Alabaster Group’s forces had also fallen into a disadvantaged position.
“You might as well just give up,” Zhou Li said as he took another vicious hack at him. “How many breaths do you have left in you? Is it worth it to go through all that pain and suffering, only to die in the end?”
As Zhou Li spoke,
Cha Ming had his sights set elsewhere; he was focused on the black threads that bound him and Huxian to Zhou Li.
Those string are immune to whatever I’ve thrown at them, Cha Ming thought. Even Lei Jiang’s lightning and Huxian’s purification are ineffective. It’s like they operate on an entirely different plane of existence. The five elements and wind, lightning, light, and shadow couldn’t damage them in the slightest.
Cha Ming knew that nothing in the universe was without weakness. In fact, he had already determined a likely weakness of fate qi, but using it would likely put him out of commission for the remainder of the battle, and he wasn’t keen on reliving the unpleasant experience.
It’s now or never, Cha Ming thought. He quickly withdrew a hard talisman, which he slapped on his chest while simultaneously directing his qi into sixty sigils. A blade hacked into his shoulder as he formed a fire formation and into his thigh when he formed a gold formation. The pace of Zhou Li’s attacks had increased since he’d begun laying out the formations. He also noticed another peculiarity—Zhou Li wasn’t talking.
Cha Ming blocked with his body as Zhou Li tried to interrupt the next combat formation as it was being formed. After the wood formation came the earth formation.
Zhou Li sent out sword strikes and flaming black dragons of qi but to no avail. “Stop him!” he yelled anxiously. Protector Song, who had been fighting against Huxian, rapidly darted toward Cha Ming.
“Too late,” Cha Ming whispered. As the water formation formed, he channeled the destruction qi through his qi pathways. They burned as black qi poured into a black star, which shielded him from Protector Song’s attack.
He increased the flow, forming a thin blade of destruction qi that struck out toward the black threads in the air. They disintegrated as the blade passed through them, instantly relieving their hold on Cha Ming and Huxian. Seeing that it was effective, Cha Ming rushed out and severed more black threads that led to Silverwing and Lei Jiang.
Having been freed from the curse, Huxian instantly grew to 160 feet in length and released his five auras simultaneously. Cha Ming’s Devil-Sealing Intent suffused the battlefield and killed one devil after another. With every devil that fell, the suppression against them grew. This granted respite to Luo Xuehua and the Alabaster Group, who continued their struggle against the mass of lesser devils.
Cha Ming’s formation, although effective against the fate qi, shattered under Protector Song and Zhou Li’s combined attacks. He was thrown back as the five formations exploded. As he picked himself up, he realized that the debilitating pain that usually followed the use of destruction qi wasn’t as bad as usual. In fact, the damage to his meridians was very light. His body had become strong enough to bear it, and entering the marrow-refining realm had increased his regenerative capabilities enough to keep up with the destruction qi’s light damage to his body.
“Yes!” Cha Ming yelled. The Clear Sky Pillar shrank down into its staff form. Then Cha Ming poured his remaining destruction qi into the Clear Sky Staff, which glowed with a frightening black color. Meanwhile, Zhou Li had just finished casting a second curse on Huxian. Cha Ming summoned his Stormwalker Formation and destroyed the black threads before they had a chance to affect the three-tailed fox. Zhou Li paled as the curse was destroyed.
Cha Ming took advantage of his momentum and smashed into Protector Song, whose shield of qi disintegrated under the assault of his heavy destruction-laced staff. It tore through the man’s armored body. Protector Song burst into flames as his life left him.
Following the death of Protector Song, the tides of battle shifted. Huxian’s aura grew more and more powerful as he swallowed and burned lesser devil souls one after another. Silverwing flicked around the room and lopped off one head after another—his victims were unable to resist his attacks because they were restrained by Huxian’s five auras.
Meanwhile, Lei Jiang bounced from target to target as a ball of iridescent lightning. They couldn’t keep up with his swift movements and couldn’t target his tiny body.
“Look, we can talk,” Zhou Li said.
Cha Ming ignored him as he had all battle. Cha Ming rushed at Zhou Li with all the speed he could muster and struck him with the Clear Sky Staff. It sheared through Zhou Li’s qi shield and amputated the pale man’s right arm.
“Save me!” Zhou Li shrieked.
Cha Ming’s eyes narrowed as an ominous chill ran through his spine. He struck out at the defenseless Zhou Li, but his staff struck an invisible wall. A man in a dark cloak suddenly appeared among them. Lightning crackled in the skies as the plane fought to supress him.
The man was a transcendent.
The battlefield fell silent, as everyone couldn’t help but tremble under his imposing presence.
“Kill him!” Zhou Li yelled. “It’s worth it!”
The black-robed man glanced at Cha Ming, his eyes boring into his very soul. “Soul-bound treasure?” the man whispered. “You’re right. It is worth it.” The man raised his hand slightly, and the void began to shatter around Cha Ming. One lightning bolt after another struck the robed man while Cha Ming felt one piercing pain after another. Countless shards of shattered space sliced through his muscles and bones alike.
“That’s enough!” a voice said from up above.
A figure in white robes and jade wings flew down from the skies. It was none other than Lu Tianhao. The space around Cha Ming stopped shattering and returned to its normal state. Meanwhile, lightning crackled in the skies as the heavens roared in anger. Bolt after bolt of lightning struck down on the two men, who didn’t dare resist.
“I can’t kill him,” the black-robed man said. “The plane would destroy us both, and I’m still needed for the final plan.”
Zhou Li shook his head in disappointment. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. His cultivation path has been crippled. He’ll be no threat to the upper realms, which have promised us a great reward for this good deed.”
The black-robed man nodded. Then a gray fluctuation enveloped them. Before Cha Ming knew it, Zhou Li and the black-robed man had disappeared.
The battle with the remaining devils was finished without any suspense.
The golden barrier surrounding Gong Lan and the jade seal dimmed as one of the monks’ energy ran out and his life left him. This was the second one in a single incense time. With his demise, the corruption rate of the seal increased. It wouldn’t be long before it overtook the seal completely.
“To set up such an elaborate trap to lure in a plane guardian,” Lu Tianhao muttered as he inspected the formation. He moved his hands along the pagoda’s barrier as he sought for a way to supplement it.
“Can I do anything to help?” Luo Xuehua asked.
“Not yet,” Lu Tianhao muttered. “I can’t do anything directly, but I may be able to set the stage for you all to contribute. If only we had a Buddhist monk. That way we could delay the corruption for a little while longer. The one in there won’t last more than ten breaths.” Then he looked at Huxian. “Little pup, come over here and help me out.”
Huxian leaped over obediently. Demon beasts respected power, and that man was someone who could tear him apart with a mere thought.
Lu Tianhao worked feverishly as he laid down hundreds of formation flags. As soon as the last flag dropped into place, the formation thrummed to life and yet another bolt of lightning struck down on him.
“The punishment of the plane is difficult to resist,” he explained. “It despises the actions of transcendents and attacks our very souls. I can only do so much to help you.” He swished his sleeve, sweeping Huxian onto the formation he’d just installed. The demonic-light qi within Huxian began to circulate automatically, and the formation converted it into a purer golden light that resembled the light inside the dome. To Cha Ming’s surprise, the energy Huxian supplemented was more effective than the three monks combined.
“That’s the first step,” Lu Tianhao said. “I now need all who are willing to enter the pagoda. I’ll use my lim
ited knowledge to allocate corruption equal to your capacity so that you might support her. I’ll warn you, however, that you will all die if she fails.”
Those from the Alabaster Group immediately stepped up to the barrier.
“How confident are you in this method?” Cha Ming asked.
“Without you?” Lu Tianhao asked. “Five percent. With you and your soul-bound treasure, as much as fifty percent.”
“It’s very important that she succeeds,” a small voice piped up.
To Cha Ming’s surprise, it was the small seed that always danced around Gong Lan.
“I can consume this avatar’s life force to increase your chances to sixty percent.”
“How generous of you, Lord World Tree,” Lu Tianhao said subserviently.
“Huxian,” Cha Ming said. “I want to try.” He had to ask—it wasn’t only his life.
“Let’s save Sister Gong Lan,” Huxian yipped.
Cha Ming, Lei Jiang, and Silverwing all walked up to the barrier. Then Lu Tianhao tore a hole in the golden shell surrounding the seal. The four individuals sat cross-legged while the beasts lay down.
“Sit down and relax,” Lu Tianhao said. “Close your eyes. In a moment, you’ll sink into a dream. You’ll experience many people’s lives—both their joys and sorrows. Attachment to the world is what creates an evil spirit. Only by experiencing it and remembering your own lives in the current moment can you unfetter it.”
After this brief instruction, Lu Tianhao waved his sleeve. Six thin lines of crimson corruption left the seal and entered the four cultivators and two demon beasts. A seventh, thicker line of karma attached itself to Lu Tianhao, who was immediately assaulted by multiple strokes of lightning.
Finally, a thick line of karma left the seal and attached itself to Cha Ming. He screamed in pain as he was suddenly thrust into a dying man’s worst memories.
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