by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“If my guess is right, the Elders and senior apprentice-brothers are already being held in check by the experts of the Corrupt path. Right now, we can only rely on ourselves.
“These were only the advance troops of the Corrupt path. There will be many more of them who will be even stronger rushing over.
“Our monastery was extremely close to the battlefields. There are negatives about that, but there are also positives. The negative is that the other Righteous path disciples who are supposed to assist us are still en route.
“But there’s also a good thing! Hehe, right now, there’s nobody fighting with us over heads. You guys should understand.”
Seeing Long Chen had finally calmed down and smiled, everyone’s excitement once more ignited.
“A couple of you, come over and cut off those heads that are still intact. Those are all free points.”
Suddenly, Long Chen turned to Wilde. “Wilde, can’t you pay more attention and be a bit more gentle? With just one smash of your club, two hundred thousand points have disappeared.”
Everyone felt some pain when they heard that.
“It was all because he was glaring at me.” Wilde swung his club around, speaking very righteously.
“Ok, well just pay more attention to your strength in the future. And if we run into anyone strong, try to just smash their lower body and leave their head intact.” Long Chen could only helplessly sigh. Although he knew Wilde’s memory wasn’t so good, it was at least better to explain it to him than not.
“Are there any cities near here?” Long Chen asked those regular soldiers.
“Reporting to great lord, four hundred miles south is Nanli City. That city is over ten times larger than ours. We don’t know whether it has received an attack or not,” reported one of them respectfully.
Long Chen nodded and gave them a thumbs-up. “To use your own lives to protect the commoners inside your city, you’re all true warriors.”
Long Chen brought everyone rushing southwards. Other people from the monastery would quickly go to bring those people to withdraw, so they didn’t need to worry about it.
Their task was to kill those Corrupt disciples who were part of the advance squads to invade their territory. They had to reduce the civilian casualty count as much as possible.
These advance squads might be extremely despicable, but they weren’t actually the main disciples of the Corrupt path. They only came from some second-rate powers. The main army was still behind them.
These advance squads were simply closer to the frontlines. After having been given the order to attack, they were the first to start killing.
They were like a pack of wolves unleashed on the commoners. They crazily slaughtered them to temper their weapons and spirits, as well as making progress with their cultivation techniques.
The souls of commoners weren’t as powerful as disciples of the Righteous path, but if the quality was lacking, they could make it up in terms of numbers.
These early Corrupt disciples all came from weak powers inferior to the Xuantian Monastery. When the real battle began, they probably wouldn’t be able to gain anything, and so they were hoping to use the advantage of their position to quickly get some benefit before retreating to the back.
But they hadn’t expected the place they had chosen to be so close to the Xuantian Monastery. They had only just arrived when Long Chen and the others caught them head-on. Since they hadn’t had enough time, they hadn’t gained much before they were destroyed.
As Long Chen brought everyone rushing south, they suddenly saw a huge city in the distance. There were over a thousand Corrupt disciples savagely charging forward in front of the city gates. They were only a dozen miles from entering the city gates.
“Crap, the Corrupt disciples are about to enter the city!”
Everyone was worried. If they entered the city, many soldiers and civilians would be killed. They all quickened their footsteps, hoping to arrive there as soon as possible.
But suddenly Long Chen’s pupils shrank. Atop the city gates, a cloaked and hooded man appeared. Only the lower half of his face could be seen.
When he saw those Corrupt disciples were about to reach the city, an ancient and multi-colored bow appeared in his hands.
His right hand lightly pulled back the bowstring. A golden arrow appeared on the bow.
“Cloudbreaking Arrow!” A cold and grave shout rang out. Although that voice wasn’t loud, everyone hundreds of miles around could somehow hear it.
A golden arrow of light shot over toward the Corrupt disciples.
Chapter 240 Mo Nian
A golden arrow of light shot out. It seemed to split apart space and was like a shooting star as it rushed towards the Corrupt disciples.
In the beginning, the light-arrow was only the size of a regular arrow. But as it flew, it grew larger and its aura became incredibly terrifying. All of heaven and earth shook because of it.
By the time the arrow was ten miles away from the Corrupt disciples, it had grown over thirty meters wide.
BOOM!
The heavens shook and the land trembled. Terrifying energy exploded out in every direction. A huge ditch had been dug into the ground. It was impossible to see the bottom.
Anyone hit by that light-arrow had all exploded. Blood filled the sky. Over half of the thousand Corrupt disciples had been killed by that single arrow.
As for the ones who had survived due to luck, they were shaken by just the shockwave of the arrow. They were vomiting blood as they tumbled through the air.
That one arrow’s might shook heaven and earth. The most shocking thing about it was that it had possessed an overflowing will within that instinctively led to subservience.
“How… how terrifying!” Song Mingyuan and the others were absolutely dumbstruck.
There had been over a thousand Corrupt disciples there. And that wasn’t much less than how many monastery disciples they had here.
There had also been at least eight core disciples. But that one attack had included all eight of them. That was practically the ability of a supernatural being.
Of those eight core disciples, only one had reacted quick enough and brought out an odd pagoda shield to block it. But the pagoda shield immediately burst apart after that attack.
The other core disciples had all died. Of the ordinary disciples, only four hundred had managed to survive luckily because they hadn’t been within the range of the arrow. But even still, over half of them were heavily injured.
They had all seen ruthless and fierce scenes, but they had never seen something this fierce. Long Chen’s heart was also pounding.
He wasn’t shocked about how powerful that arrow was. He was shocked because of the will that had been contained in that arrow. That was the first time he had seen an attack containing the power of will.
Of everyone present, only Long Chen could sense it. That was because Long Chen’s attacks also contained will.
The two of their wills were not entirely identical. But there was one part that was the same. Both their wills’ contained a kind of belief in being unrivaled. In front of that will, the confidence of those enemies hadn’t been able to endure a single blow.
Those core disciples had been suppressed by that will. In front of that will, they felt despair, as if they were completely insignificant and were unable to bring forth any effective resistance.
Although that will could only suppress them for a split second, that second was enough.
“Run!”
No one knew who had shouted that amongst the Corrupt disciples, but they all began to flee.
“We can’t let them flee! Let’s stop them!”
Seeing the Corrupt disciples were routed, the monastery’s disciples definitely couldn’t let go of such a good opportunity.
“No need.” Long Chen shook his head, stopping everyone.
He had only just stopped them when that man atop the city gates smiled icily. He raised his bow slowly, his right h
and pulling the bowstring.
This time, all of Long Chen’s focus was on his movements, and he could see that the instant he pulled back the string, countless, tiny runes lit up slightly on top of his bow.
Suddenly, all the energy of heaven and earth was absorbed, and a single arrow appeared on his bow.
“What a powerful weapon. It can actually absorb heaven and earth’s energy.” Long Chen was shocked. That was the first time he had heard of such a weapon.
“Thousand Arrows!”
A single arrow shot out. But en route, it split apart into a thousand rays of light.
In front of their shocked eyes, the Corrupt disciples were all cut down by those light-arrows.
Only that core disciple that had survived was able to resist with his powerful cultivation base. Raising his sword, sword-images appeared in the sky, cutting apart dozens of light-arrows.
But with the previous attack and this one, his body was already on the verge of breaking down. Blocking that blow caused him to vomit up blood.
Most terrifying of all, after those two attacks, his courage had been completely broken. He couldn’t bring himself to even think about fighting. All he could think was to run.
In just a couple of breaths, over a thousand Corrupt disciples had died, leaving behind only this one, heavily injured core disciple fleeing for his life.
That man smiled slightly as he saw that core disciple fleeing. He pulled back his bowstring.
A light sound rang out. For some reason, that light sound caused everyone’s hearts to tremble.
That core disciple suddenly stiffened, his body no longer moving.
He then vomited blood. Within that blood were pieces of his broken organs. After that, he collapsed to the ground, his eyes filled with terror.
“A bird frightened by the mere twang of a bow…”[1]
All the monastery disciples thought of that expression. The scene before them was exactly the same as that story.
Long Chen took a deep breath. That person was incomparably profound. Not only was his combat ability incredibly powerful, but his smarts were also amazing.
Those two attacks had completely broken that core disciple’s confidence. After doing that, just a simple arrow containing his will and Spiritual Strength was able to kill a powerful core disciple.
It went without saying that this person’s strength and wisdom were extremely high.
That person put away his bow when he suddenly turned to look at Long Chen. The instant his eyes met Long Chen’s, he shook slightly.
Long Chen was also looking into his eyes. He could feel his blood flowing faster the instant their eyes met. A huge amount of battle intent soared from within him, giving him a fright. He hastily suppressed that intent.
He had actually felt an urge to fight with this terrifying fellow. That was a mysterious feeling.
That person was also affected by Long Chen. His cloak fluttered without any wind. He hastily suppressed his own aura.
He pulled back his hood and revealed his handsome face. His gaze was electric, and his sword-like eyebrows pointed up. But his chin was slightly wider, showing he wasn’t completely grown up yet.
His eyes were extremely profound, but deep within there was some kind of indescribable feeling.
After revealing his face, he stood with his arms clasped behind his back, glancing up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, his expression lonely as he said:
“Ten years I wandered with my bow, my arrows causing heaven and earth to shake. The nine heavens, ten lands, and all the universe will revolve around me. Only I, Mo Nian, will rise to glory.”
His voice was extremely somber, and the cadence that he spoke it with made it seem like he was a true expert, an expert so powerful that it was sad. Combined with his expression and the corpses littering the ground, he seemed just like a lonely expert standing at the peak of the world.
That person then jumped off the city wall and began walking into the distance. People were shocked to see that with each step he took, he crossed several miles.
He looked as if he were just strolling confidently and at ease. In an instant, he was already fifty miles away, disappearing from everyone’s line of sight.
After that person disappeared, the city gates slowly opened. A squad of soldiers walked out to probe the situation. They all began to cheer when they saw the corpses on the ground.
“How domineering. But he really has the qualifications to be domineering. He was absolutely terrifying.” Gu Yang was still looking in the direction that man had disappeared in. He was completely shocked still. Just that one man with one bow had managed to exterminate over a thousand Corrupt disciples.
Those incomparably cruel and savage Corrupt disciples were killed as easily as chickens by him.
“Who was that person, Long Chen?” asked Tang Wan-er. They had all seen him look at Long Chen right before leaving.
Furthermore, he had only revealed his face after he had seen Long Chen. None of them knew the reason why.
Long Chen shook his head. He was also shocked. He didn’t know why, but he sensed a familiarity with that person. It was likely that the two of them possessed something similar for him to have felt such a feeling.
“No matter who he is, at least he isn’t an enemy.” Long Chen smiled slightly, suppressing his shock.
The others all nodded, rejoicing inside. If such a terrifying fellow was an enemy, that would be an absolute nightmare.
“We don’t even know what sect he’s from. His cultivation base isn’t that different from our’s, but his combat ability is so frightening.”
That person had released some of his aura back while attacking, and he should still be in the early Tendon Transformation realm.
That was the same level as everyone else’s cultivation bases. But his strength was practically horrifying, causing their hearts to tremble.
“Don’t think too much about it. A couple of you go over and collect any of the intact heads. We got a pretty good profit because of him,” smiled Long Chen.
Everyone shook; was Long Chen saying that the person who had called himself Mo Nian wasn’t a Righteous path disciple, but a rogue knight? Otherwise, why wouldn’t he want those disciples’ heads? Those heads could be exchanged for a bounty of points.
He was both powerful and mysterious. Long Chen wasn’t able to stop his own blood from heating up.
Within the same realm, he had never met someone who was a match for him yet.
But once he had seen this Mo Nian fellow, his blood had begun to boil with anticipation. With people like him existing, he wouldn’t be so lonely in the future.
The battlefield was quickly cleaned up. They found over seven hundred intact heads, and three of them were core disciples. The rest had all been broken to pieces.
There were also some people who had gone into the city to investigate, but all they learned was that Mo Nian had appeared mysteriously out of nowhere.
When he had arrived, he had told all the soldiers to close the gates and not to leave the city. As for what had happened afterward, they had all seen it.
Long Chen closely examined the map. This place was called the Nanli City, and it was the region they were supposed to protect.
They were essentially the vanguard, and their main task was only to guard this place. They would have to wait for further support here.
“A portion of you guys, go help everyone in the city withdraw from here.” There was a brief window now before more Corrupt disciples invaded. They needed all the commoners to withdraw.
Once more Corrupt disciples came, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to protect the entire city. The commoners would definitely end up slaughtered.
And by the time further support came, this place would have already become a battlefield. It was necessary for the commoners to leave for now.
As the commoners slowly withdrew, the jade plate on Long Chen’s waist suddenly warmed.
He quickly went to check it, but his e
xpression suddenly changed when he read the new information on it.
[1] This is a Chinese idiom. The meaning is that someone who has experienced something terrifying will end up being terrified more easily by that thing. Here’s a link I found to the full story: http://www.chinesetimeschool.com/en-us/articles/learn-chinese-idiom-story-jing-gong-zhi-niao/
Chapter 241 Treacherous Bloodnet Sect
“What’s going on Long Chen?”
Tang Wan-er was the first to notice Long Chen’s change in expression.
Long Chen didn’t reply. He took out a map and followed along a certain path, finding a familiar name: Phoenix Cry.
“Wan-er, I have to leave for a while. I’m putting you in charge temporarily.” Long Chen put away the map and gave Tang Wan-er the jade tile.
That jade tile was called a transmission tile, and it was used to pass along information. The runes inside were able to transmit information through spiritual fluctuations.
Long Chen had just seen that the diagram of which large sects were protecting which areas had come out. He had seen the Bloodnet Sect’s name.
He remembered that name. The Bloodnet Sect had tried to devour the spirit stone mine underneath the Phoenix Cry capital all for themselves. But in the end, they had failed.
From the diagram, he had seen that the Bloodnet Sect was in charge of defending the Luo Mountain Range, a perimeter of four hundred miles.
That was only three thousand miles from the capital and was considered the border of the Phoenix Cry Empire. If the Corrupt path invaded but the Bloodnet Sect acted as if they couldn’t stop them and let them through, then those Corrupt disciples would unleash a calamity on the capital.
Back then, all the powerful sects had split the spirit stone mine up. Only the Bloodnet Sect had been kicked out.
An Elder from the Bloodnet Sect called Zhao Changxing had even wanted to humiliate Long Chen, only to be driven away by Tu Fang.
Now that they were in charge of guarding the area ahead of Phoenix Cry, then with their hatred from that matter, it was very likely for them to do something sinister.