Judging by the Heaven Merit Ranking, Wei Yuan realized he had been right: the plain-clothed swordsman was indeed more powerful than a peak immortal foundation Avatar, and the source of his strength came from the broken half of the Myriad Vicissitudes Sword.
The thought that he too possessed half of the sword canon made Wei Yuan’s heart race with excitement. However, he quickly recalled the terrifying amount of spirit qi required for his advancement; something that couldn’t be obtained through cultivation alone. In the end, he would still have to farm.
Upon seeing the amount of Heaven Merits, both Zhang Sheng and Ji Liuli wore solemn expressions, realizing that their enemy was unprecedentedly powerful. Thus, they held nothing back and began working together to break the array. With all three of them working together, their destructive power could only be described as staggering. On average, they spent only a teatime to break through a miniature world.
Two hours later, the great array was officially shattered.
As the landscape shifted, Wei Yuan found himself standing on the back mountain, whereas the cultivators who had come to explore were scattered across its vast expanse. At the center of the back mountain lay a white jade square, now largely in ruins.
That was the heart of the miniature world where Wei Yuan had encountered the plain-clothed swordsman; a place that had nearly become his grave. Of the hundred Dao Foundation stage cultivators who were participating in the exploration, over twenty had perished.
In a corner of the back mountain, a heap of flesh and blood formed from scattered limbs and remains had appeared. Wei Yuan went to investigate and confirmed that the remains of the missing cultivators were all gathered there. It seemed that the shadow monster had used it like a storage room, discarding whatever it hadn’t eaten there.
Among the missing cultivators was one of Yu Zhizhuo’s junior brothers. Another one had been struck by a blast of the monster’s poison, sustaining severe injuries and remaining unconscious until now. Had Sun Yu not happened to breach his miniature world and provide timely medical care, the Mastercraft Hall disciple would have been dead as well.
Even so, the damage sustained by his primordial spirit and sea of consciousness were severe. Best case scenario, his path to immortality was severed, and he would never take another step forward for the rest of his life. Worst case scenario, his Dao Foundation would collapse completely, and his cultivation would regress back to the Body-tempering stage.
Wei Yuan’s heart was heavy. Ordinary cultivators had almost no defense against the monster’s poison. Had he not baited out the monster’s full-power spray three times, the casualties among his cultivators would likely have exceeded half.
The average Dao Foundation stage cultivator basically had no hope of going up against such a monster. It could basically kill as many as it wished. As for the plain-clothed swordsman, even several Avatars would not be able to survive the battle unscathed.
That was the reality of their situation: There could have several Avatar Truemen in his exploration team, and he wouldn’t be surprised if half or more of them were killed in action. How could two such beings be confined within a single grotto-heaven fragment?
Wei Yuan rounded up the surviving cultivators, allowed them a small break, then reorganized them into a military formation. They began marching toward the palace complex once more.
On a related note, Sun Yu had also clashed with the monster. He was able to flick a bit of medicine[1] onto its body, which reportedly corroded a large portion of its flesh[2]. Guided by the lingering scent of the medicine, Sun Yu discovered the monster’s trail and chased it straight for the central palace.
The central palace was 30 zhang tall and 100 zhang wide. It was extremely impressive and only slightly smaller than the Son of Heaven of Tang’s palace. It was built to the same specifications as that of a feudal lord. However, the similarity only applied to size. In terms of design and decoration, it was identical to the emperor’s palace[3].
The grotto-heaven had been shattered for years, and the palace’s mystic arrays were no exception. The interior was pitch-black and so dark that one could scarcely see their hand before their face.
Several cultivators shot out orbs of light, which scattered in various directions and illuminated the entire hall.
The hall was in utter disarray, with objects strewn everywhere. In the center stood a tall platform, upon which a dragon throne was placed[4]. However, it had been split into two. Judging from the traces, it appeared to have been severed by someone.
The tall platform had once been surrounded by red jade railings, with a ring of flowing water channels on the outer perimeter. Now, fragments of the railings lay scattered everywhere, and the channels were empty of water, containing only vast patches of dried bloodstains.
The main hall was littered with signs of a fierce battle. It looked like quite a few cultivators had engaged in a desperate life-or-death struggle here. Judging by the vast pools of blood and the overwhelmingly dense aura of yin qi and resentment in the air, their fate was likely grim.
Ji Liuli remarked, “The traces of the battle are confined strictly to the interior of the hall, leading all the way back toward the entrance. However, they never made it out the door. I believe these people were suddenly ambushed inside the hall and tried to escape, but failed.”
Yu Zhizhuo picked up a broken sword fragment from the ground, examined its design and fracture carefully, and said, “It’s a standard-issue sword of the Xu Clan; a high-grade mystic artifact. These cultivators were probably elites in the late-stage of the Dao Foundation stage.”
Zhang Sheng added, “Some of these traces are fresh, while others are old. The sword qi in the fresh traces are clearly stronger as well. It looks like the Xu Clan had sent people to explore this place afterward—and not just one group—but none of them returned. Well, maybe. It’s possible that some of them were able to slip through the net.”
Wei Yuan said with a grim expression, “It looks like the Xu Clan knew about the dangers within this grotto-heaven fragment long ago. They were deliberately luring us into it.”
Had he known this, he would have ordered the men to fire two more bolts at the Xu Clan elder. He might have been able to kill him then and there.
Wei Yuan pondered for a moment. For now, it seemed that the only enemy left was that man-eating monster. So, he divided the group into two teams. Wei Yuan, Zhang Sheng, Ji Liuli, Sun Yu, and Feng Tingyu formed one group, and their task was to hunt down the monster. The rest of the cultivators formed the other group, relying on the military formation to suppress and defend themselves against the monster as they cleared the halls. Their objective was to locate the monster’s lair or uncover the secrets of this place.
The Xu Clan had sent people into this grotto-heaven fragment repeatedly without regard for the casualties. There must be a major secret here.
Sun Yu followed the lingering scent of medicine through a series of palaces, large and small. Over time, their surroundings grew increasingly desolate. They eventually arrived at a zone where the buildings were low, cramped, and mostly in a state of disrepair. There were even makeshift huts constructed from branches and thatch. The ground was littered with the filth of daily life—a stark contrast to the grand majestic palaces further ahead.
It would seem that this area was where the palace servants and lower-ranking staff resided. However, the living quarters for servants in the feudal lords’ palaces were far superior to this.
It was as if the slums of Willow Ash Town had been torn down and grafted onto the palace complex—the incongruity was hard to put into words.
The group moved through the buildings in full alert. Suddenly, a shadow drifted out from an earthen hut nearby, and a torrent of black water rained down from above!
But the Devil Suppressing Nine Level Pagoda solidified, slowing down both the shadow and the spray of black water. At the same time, Wei Yuan swept away all the black water with a wave of his hand, and Sun Yu blew a wisp of pill fire at the shadow. As soon as the fire touched it, it spread rapidly across its body and elicited a piercing scream.
Four immortal swords slowly descended from all sides, poised to deliver the killing blow.
The monster let out a shriek and turned to flee, appearing dozens of zhang away in an instant. However, a winding blade of light suddenly flashed across its body and caused a splash of black water—Feng Tingyu had scored a blow.
The monster shrieked again before vanishing instantly.
The group’s coordination was flawless. The actual killing move came from Sun Yu and Feng Tingyu; Zhang Sheng’s release of his four swords was merely a feint, intending to scare the monster into fleeing and create an opening for Feng Tingyu to land the final blow.
The Bright King Hall’s Dao of slaughter was annihilation. It didn’t matter if the saber technique was fierce or gentle, the enemy would be annihilated just the same. It was the same for the shadow monster. Illusory or real, any damage it took from Feng Tingyu was true damage. It was just that brutal, simple, and unfair.
The monster might have escaped again, but it had suffered multiple severe injuries. This time, Sun Yu managed to strike it with his pill fire as well. There was no way it could escape pursuit. Thus, the group didn’t hurry to give chase; they couldn’t catch up to it anyway. Its lair was likely nearby, and the grotto-heaven fragment was an enclosed space. Thus, they could afford to search at their own pace.
Besides, every single one of them was skilled in combat. As long as they kept at this steadily and methodically, it was just a matter of how many wounds until the monster perished.
Wei Yuan took a look inside the earthen hut where the monster had appeared. Suddenly, he exclaimed in surprise, “Someone still lives here!”
1. “Medicine” ☜
2. Hidden MC here LOL. How did he even manage to hit something that dodged a shotgun to the face while it was 30% slower? ☜
3. This should tell you how powerful the clans are at the moment. ☜
4. This should REALLY tell you how big of a head the Xu Clan has. ☜
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