Free Web NovelChapter 295: Chapter 24: Attack
「Changwen Prefecture City.」
The clamor on the main street came to an abrupt halt. In the same instant, people of all kinds collapsed to the ground. Then, from their very flesh, blood-red petals began to bloom.
The surface of each petal was covered in fine, blood-red threads. These threads, strange and terrifying, began to drain the spirituality from the people on the ground, converging to form an incredibly complex Array. But in the instant the Array took shape, a jet of flame shot down from the Daoist Scripture Hall, incinerating it completely.
It was a Second Realm Fire Cultivator!
A red ribbon floated around him, its surface covered in a dense pattern of Fire Spirit Runes. Everywhere it passed, it left a trail of fire, generating such intense heat that the eaves of the buildings on both sides of the street began to melt before one’s very eyes.
Simultaneously, a barrier erupted from the main tower of the Daoist Scripture Hall, rapidly expanding to envelop the surrounding buildings. Some of the quicker-witted townsfolk were already scrambling for safety inside the barrier, while the truly shrewd were making a break for the suburbs outside the city walls.
BOOM!
A deafening crash erupted from the direction of the West City Gate. An artificial Corpse Soldier, over five zhang tall and clad head-to-toe in black armor, plummeted from the sky. Beneath its plating, it resembled a massive hound. Rings of black Taiyin Array runes circled the sharp fangs within its gaping maw, promising a devastatingly corrosive bite.
The moment the Corpse Soldier landed, its limbs pistoned, propelling its enormous body in a charge toward the Daoist Scripture Hall. The Taiyin Qi stirred in its wake corroded the citizens in the surrounding districts, funneling all the spiritual essence they released into the soldier itself.
"Suppress!"
A golden pagoda descended from the sky, expanding rapidly to envelop the massive Corpse Soldier in the blink of an eye. CLANG! The charging soldier, however, struck first. Channeling the Taiyin Qi it had swept up from half the city, it rammed the golden pagoda from beneath.
The Corpse Soldier was thrown back to the city gate, while the pagoda flew back several zhang before shrinking and landing in the hand of an Earth Vein Cultivator. His expression was grim as he gazed at the Wood Spirit Qi spreading through the sky. He glanced at the six Second Realm Cultivators already gathered before him, his hand seals flashing through a complex Spell. Connecting the Spiritual Qi from his Qi Sea to the Daoist Scripture Hall’s Gathering Spirit Array, he roared from within the tower:
"Rise!"
Instantly, a solid wall over five zhang wide erupted from the earth along the boundary of the Daoist Scripture Hall’s barrier, completely enclosing the core district of the Prefecture City.
"Are you insane? Do you have any idea what you’re doing?"
A Star God, gathering a stream of gray energy in his left hand, roared at the sky. He then unleashed the energy, which formed a pitch-black beam of light that disintegrated all matter in its path.
This was the most common Star God ability, the ’Gravity Impact.’ It created a shockwave by compressing spatial gravity. This power stemmed from the core of the Outer Star God they had fused with; it could neither be improved nor altered, and at best, it was only effective against Second Realm Cultivators.
As he unleashed the energy beam, his entire arm seemed to turn ethereal. Beneath the translucent limb were innumerable, mysterious threads connecting to the fused core within his body.
Seeing the ’Gravity Impact’ hurtling toward them, the expressions of the opposing Second Realm Cultivators changed, and they hastily dodged the shockwave.
"Who dares to force their way into the Daoist Scripture Hall!"
Ren Kong’s voice boomed from within the Daoist Scripture Hall. The sky above the hall was instantly dyed crimson. At the heart of the inferno, Ren Kong summoned two longswords wreathed in flame. One blasted out a wave of intense heat that dispersed the encroaching Wood Spirit Qi, while the other circled protectively around him.
CLANG!
A greyish-black puppet intercepted the Flaming Longsword. The puppet reeked of rot, a clear sign that it was highly venomous.
"I am Guanmao, and I have come to take your life!"
The speaker was a man in a tattered, greyish-black Daoist robe. He was hunchbacked, with dry, wrinkled skin. From his seven facial orifices oozed what looked like dense Spirit Bodies from a Spirit Vein, a truly nauseating sight.
"Do you even know what you’re saying?" Ren Kong’s face was a mask of utter disbelief.
"Oh? You seem surprised? Hahahaha, hahahaha..."
A sultry female voice drifted from behind Guanmao. A woman in a floral gown emerged, floating out from the dense Wood Spirit Qi. She wore a half-mask, revealing one side of her face. The visible cheek was smooth and delicate, her rouged lips were crimson, and her eye was enchanting—by all appearances, a great beauty.
Except her neck and arms were like molten lava, lending her an air of mysterious and unsettling strangeness.
"Enough pointless chatter!"
A great demon with the head of a one-eyed snake materialized in a streak of light. He brandished a long halberd, wore a suit of armor, and carried a longbow at his waist.
"You..."
Fear bloomed in Ren Kong’s heart. ’I have to retreat,’ he thought instinctively. In that instant, the flames swirling around him diminished by more than half.
Just then, a blinding white streak of light shot from the direction of White Crane Mountain, followed by a deafening BOOM. As the wave of energy washed over the battlefield, his three opponents struck.
CLANG!
The Snake Demon was the first to reach him, parrying aside the two longswords at Ren Kong’s side.
Ren Kong’s fear scattered. ’My only chance of survival is to fight for my life,’ he realized. ’As for everything else—why I’m being attacked, why White Crane Mountain is under assault—I can worry about that after I escape.’
"Flame Transformation!"
With a furious roar, Ren Kong’s body merged with the surrounding fire, becoming an even denser, deep crimson flame that ignited the Spiritual Qi for dozens of li around him.
He attempted to escape using ’Flame Transformation,’ but in the next instant, a more ferocious flame surged into him. His Primordial Spirit shuddered. It had been flooded with a torrent of insane memories it couldn’t possibly process. His body could no longer maintain the ’Flame Transformation’ and solidified back into view.
Just as Ren Kong’s Spirit Body rematerialized, the venomous puppet was upon him. The flames around him instantly lashed out like whips to block it, but the toxic gas still coiled around his form. He felt a chilling sensation spread through his Spirit Body.
The next moment, he saw it in the Inspiration Realm: a ghoul-like Primordial Spirit, wielding a longsword, sweeping it horizontally toward his chest. Then, his consciousness faded to black.
"Got him, let’s go!"
It was the woman from before. She was clutching Ren Kong’s unconscious Primordial Spirit in her hand.
The Snake Demon collected Ren Kong’s Spirit Body, then glanced down at the flame-swept city below. "There must be some good loot in the Daoist Scripture Hall," he said. "It’d be a shame not to grab some, wouldn’t it?"
Guanmao made a quick series of gestures, pulling the three Second Realm Cultivators from below into his storage pouch. "Just taking him down took everything we had," he said urgently. "We need to go, now!"
The fight had looked simple, but all three of them had gone all out. They had even run simulations of the battle hundreds of times beforehand.
As he spoke, a powerful gale swept in from the direction of White Crane Mountain. Simultaneously, a cold, detached voice echoed from the void. "You have upset the balance. This event should not have occurred. And yet, why has it?"
As the voice faded, a pillar of milky-white light descended.
As the trio beat a hasty retreat, three ethereal figures materialized within the column of light. Then, innumerable Spiritual Creatures from the Inspiration Realm began to converge upon the white pillar. Soon, three twisted silhouettes emerged from the light, seemingly having torn through the Inspiration Realm to descend upon the material world.
"Go!"
Guanmao bellowed, rocketing up toward the clouds.
