Legacy of Hatred

It shouldn’t have been possible, but Priest Blake couldn’t deny what he was seeing. Even as blood filled his vision, even as his consciousness faded, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that an attack had pierced the dome and compound shields.

Mere rank 3 martial arts wouldn’t have been able to achieve such a feat. Even spells would have failed to deal any meaningful damage to that defense. There was also the distance to consider, limiting the explanation to a weapon art that could condense immense amounts of Qi.

As much as the Church had learned, it didn’t know everything. It couldn’t. It was the norm for cultivators to keep secrets, but there was something Priest Blake was certain of.

That wasn’t the work of a single cultivator. Two or more had to have joined hands to aim such a powerfully piercing technique directly at the Priest. The black trail had cut through more bodies, but the hit had been too precise to have any other target.

But understanding what had happened couldn’t be Priest Blake’s priority. He was still awake and somewhat functioning despite the fist-sized hole in his head. His superior Qi was keeping him alive, but it was vanishing faster than ever.

"H-healing!" Priest Blake shouted, using his remaining energy to fuel that order, his awareness about to darken forever, when the formation acted.

Just like many squads, Priest Blake was also standing on one of the minor nodes made of intricate dark symbols, enabling peculiar abilities.

Over twenty foundation experts and ten rooting experts around Priest Blake saw their bodies dry on the spot, shriveling into bags of bones that crumbled into dust.

Meanwhile, an overwhelming tide of energy filled Priest Blake, flowing toward the hole on his head, which began to close. His very brain regrew, gradually restoring him to his peak state.

However, before Priest Blake could utter another order, an odd detail claimed his attention. A black patch had appeared above, on the dome isolating the area, and it was spreading, releasing yellow fumes.

The fumes felt dangerous, but they were in the sky, rising farther away from the arrangement on the ground. Still, Priest Blake wouldn’t leave anything to chance, not after what he had just suffered.

"Cleanse!" Priest Blake roared, and a humming shockwave blew from the dark symbols on the ground.

All the fumes spreading from the dark patch on the dome vanished, dispersing into nothingness, but not the patch itself. Actually, multiple dark dots appeared all around the compound shield, as if the strange infection had attempted to follow the shockwave to its source.

Each dot and the initial patch spread, with some even reaching the ground. They didn’t seem to cause any damage. The formation and any martial art they touched functioned as usual, but the yellow fumes they released were a different story.

"Cleanse! Cleanse!" Priest Blake shouted repeatedly, his still-unhealed head adding a sense of anxiety. Two humming shockwaves blew in a row, vanquishing the fumes, only for the situation to worsen terribly.

What had initially been disparate patches of blackness had now multiplied to the point where everything on that side of the encirclement was affected. The dome, the compound shield, the symbols on the ground, and the pillar had gained those expanding infections, and the yellow fumes they released began to show their effects.

Golden halos lit up everywhere as cultivators began to inhale or expose themselves to the fumes. Screams resounded as flesh melted and healed in a cycle of destruction and regeneration between the venom and the recovery provided by the formation.

Priest Blake couldn’t possibly know it, but the formation’s cleansing functions hadn’t worked because the infection was in the very Qi in the defensive martial arts and intricate symbols.

With knowledge and readiness, Priest Blake would have deactivated the dome, letting that infected Qi disperse before it spread to the compound shield and formation.

However, it was too late now. Priest Blake’s efforts to remove the infection had backfired, and the problems had only begun.

Something finally became visible in the distance, alongside earth-shattering battlecries. A group of over a hundred rooting experts was charging through the barren plain directly at the area affected by the fumes, spells and martial arts already in the making.

Two stronger figures were in the lead, two cultivators known to the Church. Red Boar and Black Hound were charging alongside the army, their advance far calmer, their unhurried steps clearing more ground than their running underlings.

Clearly, the clash would happen in the section managed by Priest Blake, but that theoretically wasn’t an issue. The formation was working, and the golden halos could heal the venom, or at least keep the troops alive until the purge was complete.

Nevertheless, the scene beyond the dome suddenly grew hazy, a white mist forming over the plain to hide the scene. The incoming army was still somewhat visible, but only through vague silhouettes.

That was a cloaking technique, one the Church knew where it came from. Whispering Wind, the branching expert the Church’s troops had driven into the encirclement, was trying to confuse the playing field, but Priest Blake wouldn’t let such tricks have any value.

"Warn for diversions!" Priest Blake ordered. "But be ready for a frontal cla-"

Priest Blake couldn’t finish his line since another black streak had pierced the dome and compound shield, hitting him straight in the chest, removing his heart. His skull had yet to finish healing, but another deadly injury had appeared.

Blood spurted from the hole and the Priest’s mouth. His Qi went into overdrive once again, but the halo was still around him. It didn’t have enough energy to heal him, but he could endure, and he had to.

A full recovery would demand more lives, especially a nigh-instantaneous one. With the fumes still increasing in quantity, Priest Blake preferred to endure and rely on the formation’s basic healing properties to retain manpower.

So, Priest Blake wiped his mouth, reading his next order, but failing to utter it. He actually couldn’t do anything at all since his consciousness finally went dark. He couldn’t see it, but a third black trail had appeared, piercing his brain once more, killing him beyond what the formation could heal.

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