Chapter 116: What a Pity, We Met Too Soon

Gong Chenying froze for a moment, then quickly turned to look back, only to see Li Yan standing several hundred zhang away, his expression grave as he stared at Monk Zhi Zhong. Clearly, the first half of his sentence had been directed at her, while the latter half was for the monk.

As Li Yan's words fell, Monk Zhi Zhong was stunned. Then his expression suddenly changed drastically as he felt a sharp pain all over his body. On his already swollen form, a new layer of bulging lumps abruptly emerged.

With Li Yan’s single utterance “Explode!” those lumps burst as if struck by an invisible force. Pop pop pop… A series of muffled sounds rang out as blood mist bloomed from each rupture, punching bloody holes all across Zhi Zhong’s body.

His internal spiritual power seemed to have found an outlet, gushing out through the wounds. His swollen body quickly began to shrivel.

At the same time, it felt as though his internal organs had been set ablaze like oil-fed fire, burning ceaselessly, the pain driving him to wail in agony.

Everyone was stunned, staring at Li Yan who stood hundreds of zhang away, unable to understand how he had attacked.

Amidst the monk’s anguished cries, the sound of rupturing continued without pause. His life force was rapidly draining away. His body swayed, his eyes turned bloodshot, and then, he collapsed with a loud thud.

From the moment Li Yan spoke to the moment Zhi Zhong fell, less than two breaths had passed. The fallen monk’s entire body now oozed black blood, instantly dyeing the ground red.

His limbs twitched violently. The wooden fish he had carried had long since been cast aside. Hunched over, his body scraped along the ground for a few moments. Dark blood trickled endlessly from his mouth. His eyes were wide with rage, and a guttural rasp escaped his throat.

Yet his words could still just barely be made out.

“Wha… what a pity… we met too soon…”

Then he moved no more.

Though his voice was weak, cultivators had sharp hearing and heard every word clearly, yet no one could understand what he meant.

At the same time, Gong Chenying had already leapt toward the eighteen monks, her long halberd glowing with azure light, its radiance stretching over ten zhang.

She wasn’t confident she could kill them all in one blow. At this point, her spiritual energy was nearly depleted, barely even one-tenth of her usual strength.

In normal times, with just a breath or two, she could have set up a formation with a wave of her hand, trapping all eighteen within. Even if they self-detonated, with the strength of their Qi Condensation stage, she believed she could suppress it.

The other cultivators from the Wraith Sect, seeing this, panicked and unleashed their attacks toward the enemy in unison, hoping to take them down in one blow.

Gong Chenying’s halberd streaked through the sky like a meteor. Behind it followed a barrage of spiritual artifacts and treasures like a stampede. Li Yan watched anxiously, unsure whether his earlier strike had worked.

Normally, he was confident in the lethality of his fractured poison. He estimated it would take four to five breaths to take effect, but now, each moment dragged on unbearably. Was it possible that his earlier hypothesis had been wrong?

In an instant, Gong Chenying’s meteor-like strike was upon the eighteen monks. But just then one of them, a burly monk suddenly tensed, a fierce light flashing in his eyes. He growled deeply:

“Hum!”

Nine monks beside him moved in unison, as though their hearts were linked. They stepped forward in perfect synchronicity, placing themselves in front of the remaining eight. The spiritual power surging through them swelled even further.

Yet their bodies no longer expanded. Blood sprayed from their ears and nostrils. Unbothered, the ten roared in unison:

“Hum!”

Each raised one hand in a vertical palm before their chest. Their other palms slapped down onto the shoulder of the monk beside them.

With that slap, one monk’s ten fingers burst into a cloud of blood mist. Golden light flared blindingly from their bodies, making it unbearable to look directly at them. Meanwhile, the eight behind them expanded even further, swelling monstrously.

Just as the massive azure halberd came cleaving down, the ten monks simultaneously raised their palms whereupon a massive, radiant golden bell appeared in the air above them.

With a resonant WONG, the golden bell collided head-on with the gigantic azure halberd.

At the same time, the ten monks all kicked backward in unison. The eight behind them, now bloated like spheres, were kicked into the air, scattering in all directions.

This move made the Wraith Sect cultivators instantly realize the enemy’s intention: the ten in front were using a secret Buddhist technique, risking their lives to take on the attack of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, buying precious time for the other eight to self-detonate.

Just by looking at their current condition, it was obvious the price of this technique was extreme, with little hope of survival.

In the blink of an eye, Gong Chenying’s strike clashed with the golden bell. A deafening explosion roared through the air, shaking everyone to their core. The shockwave sent the cultivators flying backward uncontrollably.

As they were blown back, they could see that in the opposite direction, the eight monks who had been flung away, now each resembled a balloon, limbs shriveled, bodies grotesquely swollen. Horror filled their hearts. There was no way to organize another attack.

Gong Chenying’s body flickered amid the rising dust. She didn’t retreat. Channeling her remaining strength, she was about to give chase when suddenly, a stabbing pain shot through her dantian. Cold sweat instantly broke out on her smooth forehead.

Yet she still stomped the ground hard and, with another loud BOOM, relying purely on physical strength, launched herself toward one direction, the area where the monks were most concentrated.

Her determined pursuit, seen by the others flying back through the air, made their hearts heavy.

“What’s the point of catching them? That direction only has three people… What about the other five?”

Li Yan, still hurtling backward, had been silently counting the seconds. Now, his eyes narrowed.

"Five breaths!"

From the moment they launched a group assault on the eighteen monks, only five breaths had passed.

Yet within those fleeting five breaths, the cultivators’ attacks had transformed endlessly, so much so that to Li Yan, it felt like an eternity.

Just as Gong Chenying soared into the air, the eight monks who had scattered and flown out let out a chorus of anguished, furious roars. The spiritual light surging from their bodies now flew chaotically in all directions, a clear sign of imminent self-detonation.

Even Gong Chenying, midair, halted for a moment when she saw this.

"Too late!"

Aside from Gong Chenying and Li Yan, everyone else instantly roused their full spiritual power, summoning their most powerful protective shields. Some even slapped their waists, unfurling layers of talismans before their barriers in desperate defense.

As everyone flurried about in panic, the pained screams of the eight monks suddenly ceased, as if choked by invisible hands. At the same time, the rampaging spiritual energy on their bodies began to dissipate in strange, drifting streams.

From their ballooned forms seeped foul, dark blood. In the next instant, chunks of flesh began sloughing off their bodies, though calling it “flesh” was generous. The meat had turned a sickly green, and the blood was pitch black.

Fist-sized pieces peeled from them, still occasionally attached by tendons and ligaments that made them bounce grotesquely midair before finally slapping to the ground with a wet splat. Soon, a pool of dark sludge formed beneath them.

“Whew!”

Li Yan exhaled sharply, a long breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

Only now did he notice he was soaked in sweat.

He hurriedly scanned the area, sweeping his divine sense over every Wraith Sect cultivator. When he found none of them showing signs of poisoning like the monks, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

At the same time, all the cultivators including Gong Chenying watched the black, rain-like fall of flesh from above in stunned silence. When the chaotic spiritual energy finally ebbed from the eight corpses, they collectively relaxed a little.

But just a few breaths later, gasps swept through the group.

"What kind of poison is this? There wasn’t a single sign beforehand!"

The scene was nauseating, yet for Wraith Sect cultivators, it was hardly the worst they’d seen. What chilled them to the bone wasn’t the gore but that not a single person had noticed Li Yan’s method of poisoning.

For a poison cultivator, this was the most terrifying realization.

Soon, they deduced the likely moment he’d made his move was when he had ordered them to retract their spirit beasts and switch to ranged attacks. That must have been when he struck.

As many turned to look at Li Yan, their expressions suddenly shifted. They all raised their heads in unison.

A chilling sense of doom gripped them.

Above the place where they'd fought, a thick black shadow was pressing down from the dome, like heavy water about to burst through a membrane. It loomed so clearly, so heavily, it looked seconds from breaking in.

Elsewhere along the dome’s ceiling, the shadows were thinner but still seemed close to dripping down.

Gong Chenying shouted sharply:

“Find an exit! Quickly!”

She then darted forward at full speed. The Qi Condensation cultivators like Li Yan also scattered, rushing toward the dome’s edges. Some had been about to question Li Yan on how he'd poisoned them but now there was no time.

Within two or three breaths, a cultivator shouted:

“There’s a passage here!”

The others immediately rushed toward the voice. In their previous searches, they had already discovered a hopeless truth: the entrance they came through and the wall leading the Pure Land Sect, had both sealed shut, completely impassable.

While the group frantically searched, a faint purple glow suddenly lit up on one part of the dome wall. A nearby cultivator instantly thrust his long sword into it.

A soft "poh!" rang out as the blade sank halfway through. He withdrew it quickly, completely unharmed. Surprised, he turned and shouted.

Gong Chenying rushed over. Without a word, she thrust her long halberd into the glowing wall. After inspecting it, she stepped forward.

“Wait here.”

Her voice echoed behind her as she disappeared through the passage without looking back.

Li Yan had just arrived. Seeing this, he frowned.

“Why is Sixth Senior Sister scouting alone again? If something happens to her, how will we pass the next trial? We should’ve sent a Qi Condensation cultivator instead.”

He felt uneasy. If it were him in command, he would’ve chosen a less valuable pawn. After all, they only had one Foundation Establishment cultivator. If she died, it would be a disaster.

As he contemplated this, the dome wall rippled once more. Gong Chenying stepped back inside, her expression calm. No one could guess what she’d seen outside.

Upon returning, her first glance was toward the black shadow overhead. Though her exit and reentry had been swift, the darkness had already pressed down on the dome, bulging inward with a mass the size of a fist. Her mind raced.

“Everyone, sweep the battlefield! We leave in three breaths! Once outside, stay put. Do not move forward or touch anything!”

She issued orders quickly.

Three breaths later, she watched as the last Qi Condensation cultivator passed through the portal. Glancing once more at the nine corpses on the ground, her gaze flickered strangely before she vanished from the sphere.

Three more breaths passed.

From the bulge overhead, a drop the size of a fist finally broke through and slammed to the ground like a heavy stone. Immediately, it spread like black ink, staining the earth in a growing pool.

The fist-sized hole above rapidly widened.

More black ooze seeped in, but this time it did not fall. Instead, it crept along the inner dome like a spider’s web, rapidly covering the entire interior.

Within moments, the entire sphere was plunged into darkness.

The nine corpses on the ground had long since dissolved.

Not even the slightest trace of battle remained.

(Chapter End)