CHAPTER 82: CHAPTER 81 BLOOD SACRIFICE

The mountain descending from the sky;

Intense collisions of Liu Guang;

Chaos within the dome-shaped military camp, incited by a single command;

The hidden multitudes of enemies behind the mountain...

In the disordered camp, Wu Wang was being dragged by Ji Mo as they sprinted, heading towards where Xu Mu had enveloped Lin Qi and Ling Xiaolan with immortal power.

Xu Mu’s orders were to protect the four of them at all costs and ensure their safe evacuation.

Images rapidly flickered through Wu Wang’s mind.

He was calculating, assessing the likelihood that the dome would not be crushed by the falling mountain. Thousands of cultivators, not yet Immortals, crowded at the edge of the formation, unable to escape its full activation. What if, at the moment the formation was shattered, the thousands fled in all directions? Such an escape was impossible; they would only be crushed by the aftermath of the collision between the mountain and the formation. The general who had just shouted "Retreat in all directions!" was either a spy from the opposition or as dumb as they come!

Suddenly, Wu Wang grasped that point of Spirit Light, seized Ji Mo’s arm with his other hand, and lunged forward. Ji Mo was yanked up like a kite.

"Brother Wuwang! I..."

"Brother Xu Mu!"

Wu Wang’s voice transmission reached Xu Mu directly, "Issue a military order! Everyone near the edge of the formation, channel your mana into it; those who can’t touch it, use your mana to protect the dome beneath your feet!"

A few moments of hesitation flashed in Xu Mu’s eyes.

Wu Wang’s voice came again, "With a True Immortal following four small soldiers, aren’t you just marking Lin Qi’s position for the enemy? I’ll protect the Yan Emperor Token for you!"

WHOOSH. Xu Mu shot from the edge into the air and turned to shout,

"All forces, heed my command!"

The cultivators looked towards Xu Mu. They saw the human wall with their backs to them, the mountain’s shadow that seemed to bring the heavens crashing down, and the colliding Liu Guang darting back and forth beneath that shadow.

Xu Mu, slightly out of breath, bellowed,

"Those close to the formation, channel your mana into the formation wall! Those who can’t touch it, immediately protect the dome beneath your feet with your mana!"

Half of the cultivators were stunned, while the other half were already reacting, rushing towards the nearest part of the formation wall like madmen. Some stomped on the ground, others levitated, their palms forward and mana surging!

Ji Mo, Ling Xiaolan, and Lin Qi were also among the cultivators, each of them reaching out to touch the formation, contributing their strength.

In an instant, the formation glowed with a dazzling spectrum of light, its thickness visibly increasing. Around the dome’s edge, within a narrow circle dozens of meters in diameter, streaks of Immortal Light surged from the ground, but it was not enough!

A rope flew from Wu Wang’s hand, entangling Ji Mo, Ling Xiaolan, Lin Qi, and a few cultivators with weaker cultivation nearby. Within his starry energy sea, several Stars ignited.

He felt no sense of powerlessness, for he had never believed himself capable of single-handedly turning the tide; to flee with his life and save those he could was all he could do.

The mountain, with an imposing force between heaven and earth, bore down with relentless tenacity!

The experts from the Benevolent Emperor Pavilion and the Ten Evils Hall, now engaged in combat, were forced to rapidly retreat in all directions, as seventy to eighty streams of Liu Guang exploded like fireworks scattering.

From atop the mountain, hundreds of black shadows were flung out, chaotically fluttering like a flock of crows.

Firelight encroached upon the dome’s formation!

In an instant, a powerful shockwave spread diagonally across the world, carrying boundless firelight and rolling up layers of flame!

The formation wall shattered immediately, but the mountain was also momentarily halted!

Dozens of falling Immortal figures, with Zhong Lin leading them, plummeted to the ground. Several Immortals’ bodies exploded. Zhong Lin, who had taken the brunt of the impact head-on, spat out a mouthful of blood, his arms unnaturally twisted to the sides.

Countless cracks appeared atop the dome, and the robust structure made by the Immortals held on for a fleeting moment longer.

Yet the dome suddenly began to sink. The towering mountain peak that supported the dome exploded thunderously, its structure like a shattered clay pot glued back together, covered in cracks and breaking into pieces!

「Right at that moment!」

Xu Mu’s figure suddenly burst out from behind the falling Zhong Lin, his three-foot green blade drawing a hundred-meter sword shadow, like a whip or club, smashing head-on towards the mountain that began to plummet once again!

Then a long howl resounded through heaven and earth, as several streaks of Liu Guang flew in from the north!

There were six Body Cultivators of the Heavenly Immortal Realm from the Benevolent Emperor Pavilion!

They shattered the waves of fire and stood against the impact, their robes tearing apart as they howled. They exerted their full strength and unleashed boundless blood energy, crashing into the narrowest northern side of the mountain!

Several large hands pushed forward, boundless Mana surged like waves!

The mountain, which had lost its downward momentum, was pushed south by the joint efforts of the six Heavenly Immortals!

The falling dome and the mountain that was thrown sideways appeared to lightly graze each other. Hundreds of Cultivators on the southern edge of the dome who were too late to retreat exploded along with the Wuchen Dome...

Xu Mu turned and roared, and Liu Guang filled the air above the falling dome.

Camps, dwellings, and the row of sky-conquering Magic Treasures that had been propped open before all fell in unison as the mountain crumbled.

Among the group of Cultivators managing to stay aloft, Wu Wang looked down upon this scene.

The mountain hit the ground with a muffled THUD, and boundless dust rolled in. The fragile earth cracked open in several places, and dozens of villages near the dome were struck by the tremors of the land.

The closest villages to the dome were inundated with dust, buried alive.

Wu Wang seemed stunned.

His released Spiritual Sense brought back the wailings of mortals. He saw the panicking crowds, their bodies shattered in the impact of the mountain’s fall; they were so fragile... For them, this must have been an undeserved disaster. Living their simple lives here, they had hoped for the protection of Immortals, only to be met with calamity.

"Wuwang, Wuwang?" Xu Mu’s voice transmission came from above.

Wu Wang closed his eyes, expelling those images from the depths of his heart. He took a light breath and retracted the Magic Treasure rope he was holding, his arrangements having gone unused.

Xu Mu transmitted, "Leave in the chaos later. We’ll handle the situation here."

"Mm," Wu Wang nodded lightly and looked up to the sky.

There, hundreds of black shadows hung suspended in the air, all appearing as half-human, half-beast creatures. Their bodies were wrapped in a fierce beast aura that frightened the soul, resembling hundreds of thousand-year or ten-thousand-year Ferocious Beasts.

Lin Qi cursed under his breath, "These scumbags from the Ten Evils Hall!"

"Stay calm," Wu Wang gestured for the three to gather close. Another dozen or so Ascending Immortal Realm Cultivators flew close by, subtly protecting them.

As the crowd of black shadows was about to dive, long howls resounded continuously through heaven and earth.

The masters from the Benevolent Emperor Pavilion, who had to avoid the ’mountain’s plummet’ earlier, now all flew back. Each elevated their aura to the extreme; more than thirty Heavenly Immortals and True Immortals stood proudly in the sky!

The diving motion of the black shadows instantly halted, and dozens of figures with the most intense beast aura flew out from amongst them.

Behold these Immortals of the Human race!

A Fairy Immortal in purple robes trailed light purple ribbons, her Longsword dripping with bright green Beast Blood.

A white-haired elder wielding a dragon-headed wooden staff stood atop bloody clouds beneath his feet.

There was an Immortal wielding a long brush, exuding the spirit of a scholar; another carried a broadsword, boasting that no Ferocious Beast could rival them.

Some Immortals appeared as merchants clutching scales and calculating beads; some bared their torsos and roared with a voice that could frighten a hundred beasts.

Xu Mu looked up, consuming two Elixirs, and stood with his sword midair, subtly guarding Wu Wang and the others behind him.

Zhong Lin, the already heavily wounded commander of the Wuchen Dome, leapt up from midair. His ash-gray hair was stained with fresh blood; his irregularly twisted arm returned to normal with a few soft POPS.

He grabbed a blood-veined saber, his nostrils flared slightly, his forehead beaded with cold sweat, his eyes nearly spouting flames!

"All forces heed my command, form battle formations to meet the enemy!"

The Cultivators almost subconsciously sprang into action. Four to five thousand people quickly gathered in the air into dozens of groups, their auras interconnected, manifesting the phantoms of long spears and giant swords. They shouted in unison, their voice shaking the heavens!

"TSK, TSK, TSK..."

Several cold chuckles echoed through the air as an old man, draped in green Scales with wings spread behind him, scanned the crowd below, searching for the person he aimed to capture.

"I am the Seventh Elder of the Ten Gods Hall. Hand over Lin Qi, and I will spare the lives of all below the Immortal Realm," he decreed.

"Kill!"

That was the response, the response of the Human Immortals!

With a loud roar from Commander Zhong Lin, dozens of battle formations soared into the air, and the thirty-odd experts of the Benevolent Emperor Pavilion charged into the sky!

The corner of the Ten Gods Hall Elder’s mouth twitched slightly, seemingly annoyed by the Human race’s ignorance of their own good. With a sweep of his large hand, the semi-human, semi-beast shadows behind him pounced downwards!

Wu Wang and his three companions were within one of the formations, clad in standardized light armor, each wielding Mana to compensate for what the battle formation lacked.

They were not the main characters of this battle; they could only endure, not reveal any anomalies. Reinforcements had already arrived from every direction. With the speed of the Heavenly Immortals’ flight, they only needed to endure for a moment, just a moment.

But as all eyes converged on the sky above...

「 」

Several figures in black robes emerged from the mountain that had crashed onto the earth, looking up at the chaotic battle in the sky.

"I can feel it. Lin Qi is still here, mingling among those cultivators."

"Begin the ritual, summon my father’s avatar. We only have half an incense stick’s time, and the accumulated residual souls here are sufficient."

"Yes!"

***

Is this the Ten Evils Hall’s plan?

Inside the battle formation, Wu Wang channeled Mana with his left hand to one side of the formation wall, while his right continuously fetched Elixirs to ingest, maintaining the fullness of his Mana.

This scene was prevalent everywhere; not a single cultivator dared to be stingy with their Elixirs at this moment, striving to employ their powers to 120 percent.

The so-called battle formation was entirely different from a Formation. A Formation was crafted from heaven-and-earth treasures, harnessing the power of the world, tapping into the force of the Earth’s veins, and gathering Spiritual Energy and Spiritual Power, achieving the effects of resisting, entrapping, and killing the enemy. By contrast, a battle formation was a combination of multiple cultivators, its efficacy lay in gathering the Mana of the cultivators to form an offensive surpassing the realm of the individuals involved.

The battle formation technique of the Human race was not only a way for lower and mid-tier cultivators to participate in higher-tier battles but also a powerful tool against giant Ferocious Beasts. Furthermore, if the attributes of their Cultivation Techniques were similar, a battle formation could also allow its cultivators to complement each other’s Mana, reducing loss and collectively bearing the brunt of the offensive. Thus, the Human race placed great emphasis on the technique of battle formations, strictly ordering its use only within the military.

Wu Wang had heard about the technique of battle formations before arriving in the Human Domain. Now that he was in the midst of one, he couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed. The battle formation wasn’t as magical as it was made out to be by outsiders. The side effect of harmonizing the Mana of all cultivators was that the battle formation itself moved slowly. Against a true expert, it was nothing but a sitting duck, and when facing giant Ferocious Beasts, the sacrifice of flexibility could easily result in significant combat losses. For instance, at this moment, the dozens of battle formations might have unleashed a powerful offensive, but the actual ’hits’ were few; they could only rely on the vast Mana of thousands to forcefully withstand the opposing force.

Indeed, these aggressive contenders from the Ten Evils Hall were held back by the Human race’s battle formations. The more formidable experts among the fiends were also barely restrained by several dozen Human race Heavenly Immortals and True Immortals. Although blood was shed time and again, and a number of the Human race’s battle formations were broken by the enemy, the Ten Evils Hall seemed to have the upper hand, yet the situation didn’t turn into a one-sided affair.

The battle had barely begun when Wu Wang couldn’t help but harbor such doubts. What was the Ten Evils Hall doing? Courting death? This was the Human Domain, the home field of the Human race. The initial assault of the Ten Evils Hall had been grand, directly shifting a mountain over here, but now it seemed as if they had lost their momentum. If they couldn’t quickly defeat the Human race’s power here, what was the point of this surprise attack? Human race experts from thousands of miles around were rushing here. Even if the Ten Evils Hall had the advantage and their side suffered more casualties, in a short while, the situation would reverse with the arrival of reinforcements.

This was not the domed shore of the East Sea—Beast Tides often appear in the north, west, and northeast of the Human Domain. The dome-shaped coastline of the East Sea essentially serves as a watchtower. The cultivator army stationed there is not strong, and high-level expert reinforcements can’t arrive on short notice. At this moment, countless Immortals were rushing to this place; the Ten Evils Hall experts who had shown themselves here were like turtles trapped in a jar. Are the planners of the Ten Evils Hall really this incompetent?

"Something’s not right," Wu Wang murmured softly. Ji Mo and Ling Xiaolan turned their heads to look at him.

Ji Mo asked, "What’s wrong?"

"There’s something off about the Ten Evils Hall," Wu Wang transmitted, "Brother Ji, cover for me with Mana. I need to search carefully."

"Alright."

Ji Mo raised both hands simultaneously, supplementing Wu Wang’s contribution to the battle formation’s Mana requirement.

Ling Xiaolan, who was nearby, also wore a thoughtful look, vaguely sensing that something was abnormal.

She turned to Lin Qi and whispered, "Indeed, something is amiss."

Lin Qi and Ji Mo exchanged glances, nearly driven mad with curiosity, and both asked Ling Xiaolan what was wrong.

Ling Xiaolan said,

"This is the third line of defense. On the outer perimeter, there is a large host of Human Domain forces, and on the inside, there are countless Human Domain Sects.

"If the Ten Evils Hall showed up here, and if their surprise attack had been successful earlier—shattering the dome and capturing Lin Qi—how would they plan to escape?"

Lin Qi, Ji Mo, and about a dozen cultivators nearby who heard Ling Xiaolan’s words were all slightly stunned.

With his eyes closed, Wu Wang perceived the situation for hundreds of miles around him in his mind’s core, searching back and forth for anything suspicious. The earth was marred with new Rift Valleys, and the death toll in the villages, towns, and cities was countless. This sight made Wu Wang somewhat irritable, an increasing anger building up inside him.

The fierce battle raged in the sky, and in the vicinity of hundreds of miles, there were no Ten Evils Hall troops lying in ambush. What exactly were they relying on to launch a raid here? They even grappled with the Benevolent Emperor Pavilion and might even have made the Northern Region launch the Beast Tide early to coordinate with their actions...

Now there were only two possibilities. First, the high-level leaders of the Ten Evils Hall had collectively been kicked in the head by a donkey. Second, their trump card had not yet been revealed.

Trump card?

Wu Wang inexplicably thought of Wang Lin’s death, which was a ’major excitement’ in his otherwise calm and dull life as Young Master in the Northern Wilderness. The drop of Evil God Essence Blood that fell to the ground and dissipated, the towering and echoing roar of Qiong Qi that frightened away the Ten-Thousand-Year Ferocious Beasts...

Evil God Essence Blood, the shadow of Qiong Qi. What was that?

His Spiritual Sense suddenly detected a slight anomaly, drawing Wu Wang’s ’gaze’ toward the mountain that had just smashed horizontally into the ground. Wu Wang suddenly saw, in the ruins on one side of the mountain, the remnants of souls and blood were continuously gathering.

Opening his eyes, Wu Wang stared at the ruins. He faintly saw the phantom of a great snake that was slowly becoming more solid.

Beneath this phantom, a few figures, tiny as sesame seeds, were incessantly bowing to a Blood Pool.

Evil God Essence Blood! This is their trump card! Xu Mu!

Wu Wang looked up at the sky, only to see battles intensifying everywhere. Their own Immortals were being suppressed across the board, and several True Immortals were struggling to hold on.

There was no time for hesitation, and Wu Wang didn’t hesitate at all.

"Flute!"

With a loud shout, Wu Wang’s figure plummeted from beneath the battle formation, unfurling a pair of faint Star Wings behind him!