Chapter 171 The Realm of Trials (Twenty-Two)
The city of Qisheng was bustling with activity, the streets were filled with traffic, and the city was bursting with blooming flowers and resounding with drums and music, as if celebrating some major festival.
The rich fragrance of flowers filled the air. Jiang Gu subconsciously held his breath, and then he noticed the fluctuations caused by the cultivator's primordial spirit using spiritual power.
Several tall spirit beasts pulled the flower-decorated cart into the city. Mortal spirits thronged around the cart, and the wind blew up the gauze curtains on the cart, revealing a somewhat familiar face.
It was Song Chongshi, who ranked first in the assessment competition.
"Let's go, let's go. The mortal spirits here are probably all Song Chongshi's. Let's hurry up and find a city." The cultivator next to him whispered to his companion.
His companion was visibly resentful, "We finally found a city with a lot of people, even though we were here first—"
"Alright, that's enough." The person next to him tugged at him, signaling him to shut up.
The two walked unhappily towards the city gate. Not long after, another seven or eight cultivators left. Some were still unwilling and wanted to stay and observe. After all, Qisheng City was one of the larger cities in the second realm, with a large number of mortal primordial spirits. Even if Song Chongshi wanted to take it all for himself, he might not be able to succeed. If he were to be devoured by the mortal primordial spirits, they could not only seize the opportunity to divide up this large city, but might also devour Song Chongshi's primordial spirit.
Jiang Gu mingled in the crowd and glanced inside the float as he passed it.
Amidst the commotion, he and Song Chongshi met eyes through the gauze curtain.
Song Chongshi was stunned for a moment, then remembered who Jiang Gu was, who had jumped to forty-seventh place. He didn't really believe that a cultivator from Pingze could kill Yan Huairan, but then there were the Eight Pavilions' obvious actions of protecting him, which made him think of the rumored "Jade Steps".
Jiang Gu's figure flashed past the float. Song Chongshi pondered for a moment, then released a small wisp of his divine sense to track him.
As expected, Jiang Gu received this divine consciousness.
He made a hand seal and pressed the divine sense into the magic array. Then Song Chongshi's killing move followed closely, aiming straight for Jiang Gu's vital point. Jiang Gu decisively fled into the ink jade bracelet space, leaving him empty-handed.
Song Chongshi, sitting in the float, frowned unhappily.
They actually managed to get away. But it doesn't matter, as long as Jiang Gu stays in Qisheng City, he'll take their life sooner or later.
Jiang Gu emerged from the black jade bracelet and, after many twists and turns, arrived at a narrow alley on the other side of Qisheng City.
Several unfamiliar yet powerful divine senses slowly surrounded him from all directions, and a figure appeared at the alley entrance, blocking his way.
Jiang Gu stopped in his tracks.
Luo Xiaoyuan held a snow-white spirit beast in her arms, her double pupils gleaming white in the morning light. Standing beside her was Lu Ziming, holding a sword with a gloomy expression.
Jiang Gu turned around and saw Lu Liyu, who had reverted to her beggar appearance. On the rooftops on both sides of the alley stood Bai Luan and several men in purple robes. Any one of them had a higher cultivation level than Jiang Gu. Judging from this, the Burning Platform Palace was determined to obtain the Jade Steps.
"Fellow Daoist Jiang." Luo Xiaoyuan's double pupils reflected his brilliant golden primordial spirit, and a hint of excitement flashed in her lifeless eyes. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I wonder if you would be interested in joining the Burning Platform Palace?"
Jiang Gu's eyebrows twitched slightly. "What are the benefits?"
"There are benefits, of course. You won't be enslaved by the Eight Pavilions, and you'll be free and have abundant resources." Luo Xiaoyuan patted the spirit beast's head and smiled slightly. "And—"
"Save us from this dire situation!"
Her eyes flashed with a sharp light, and before she could finish speaking, Lu Liyu, Bai Luanlu, Ziming, and the others leaped up, their hands forming hand seals so fast they left afterimages. Using each of them as a node, a massive array, resembling a giant cage, descended upon Jiang Gu from all directions, above and below. The magical artifacts that shackled his primordial spirit were arranged in eight directions, trapping Jiang Gu's primordial spirit completely.
The cage formed by spiritual energy suddenly shrank and tightened, but it did not trap people as they had expected. In the middle of the cage, Jiang Gu's primordial spirit transformed into a palm-sized wooden puppet, wrapped in a layer of his torn primordial spirit. Finally, unable to withstand the powerful magic, it suddenly shattered into powder.
Luo Xiaoyuan was the first to react, "He's still nearby, after him!"
Jiang Gu fled at lightning speed. Several times, Luo Xiaoyuan and the others had already caught up with him, but after they made their move, they discovered that he was just a puppet whose primordial spirit had been covered by a thin layer of Jiang Gu's soul. Luo Xiaoyuan was immediately furious, "Is this guy crazy?!"
They actually tore off his primordial spirit at will to use it as bait. Even if he manages to escape with his life, the size of the torn-off primordial spirit alone would be enough to severely damage his vital energy.
“Jiang Gu was extremely cunning back in Pingze Continent. In just over thirty years, he went from a hopeless cultivator with four spiritual roots to the main branch of the Jiang family, and even obtained a divine artifact amidst the scramble of several major clans. Many people with high cultivation levels have suffered greatly at his hands.” Lu Zhenyi spoke in Lu Ziming’s voice. “He likes to mislead his opponents into underestimating him, and he is adept at using their strength against them to achieve victory with the weak. We can’t completely trust what Luo Fan says. If we fall into Jiang Gu’s trap, it might not be so easy for us to escape.”
Luo Xiaoyuan, Bai Luan, and the others had long been accustomed to the simple and brutal assessment mode within the Eight Pavilions, firmly believing that all scheming was futile in the face of absolute strength. However, they did not know that scheming was also a part of strength, and if it was schemed to the extreme, it could also become an overwhelming advantage.
Lu Liyu's scarlet eyes darted around, deliberately landing at the very back of the line. She casually cast a divination in her palm and raised an eyebrow.
Very bad omen.
I wish I hadn't come.
"Split down and intercept him! If even the combined efforts of the few of us can't catch him, won't we be laughed at when we get back?" Bai Luan was equally furious at being tricked by Jiang Gu. This kind of anger was like knowing that the other party was just a weak ant that could be crushed with a flick of the wrist, yet they were completely outmaneuvered by this ant, losing face and dignity without gaining any benefit.
Luo Xiaoyuan frowned, "Split your forces to besiege the city separately, and annihilate all the primordial spirits within."
Bai Luan's face revealed a twisted, excited smile. "We should have done this a long time ago. Being suppressed by that brat surnamed Song, who are we trying to disgust?"
The group instantly dispersed, and the cage, which had shrunk to the size of a palm, suddenly expanded, enveloping the entire Qisheng City. Luo Xiaoyuan, Bai Luan, and the others summoned their respective Dharma forms, which stood in the eight directions of the cage. The hundred-zhang-tall Dharma forms looked down with overwhelming power, easily devouring the screaming and fleeing primordial spirits within the city. Whether they were mortals or trial cultivators, none of them survived once they were seen by the Dharma forms.
Jiang Gu hid under the eaves of a wall, in front of him was the divine sense that Song Chongshi had come to investigate, which he had just frozen. He mixed a bit of his own divine sense into it, and tore off a small piece of his primordial spirit from his heart and condensed it into spiritual power to draw a tracking talisman in that divine sense. With a flick of his hand, Song Chongshi's divine sense, carrying his divine sense and that piece of primordial spirit, suddenly returned to its place.
As Song Chongshi was cautiously hiding, his heart suddenly felt hot, and he immediately sensed an unfamiliar primordial spirit aura. He had a bad feeling and subconsciously tried to separate himself from it, but in the next instant, several terrifying pressures rushed towards him, and the house where he was hiding was directly blown to dust.
"Found it!" a bearded man shouted as he controlled his avatar.
A chill instantly ran from his head to his feet. Song Chongshi instinctively summoned all his magical treasures to protect himself. However, seven or eight enormous Dharma images all looked at him. Those Heaven-rank magical treasures couldn't withstand the chill and shattered in an instant. He gritted his teeth and used his only two divine artifacts. His primordial spirit disappeared from the spot.
Luo Xiaoyuan and Bai Luan, among others, naturally wouldn't let him off the hook, and they also brought out a special artifact used to find people.
"Found it." Luo Xiaoyuan's Dharma form smiled slightly, reached out into the void, and accurately grasped Song Chongshi's primordial spirit.
Song Chongshi struggled desperately, and Luo Xiaoyuan's expression suddenly changed. "Something's wrong, his aura is too faint."
As soon as she finished speaking, as if to confirm her guess, a streak of light blatantly escaped through the gap in the cage behind her.
Bai Luan was the first to react, immediately putting away his Dharma form and chasing after them. Luo Xiaoyuan, furious, threw away Song Chongshi's primordial spirit and also immediately chased after them.
Song Chongshi was thrown heavily to the ground. He opened his eyes with barely any breath, turned his head and tried his best to reach out and grab the artifact next to him, but his hand was stepped on by a badly worn boot.
Lu Liyu squatted down and picked up the artifact from the ground, smiling as she put it into her storage bag. She then reached out and grabbed a small piece of the golden primordial spirit from Jiang Gu's chest, which even contained Jiang Gu's essence blood. No wonder even Luo Xiaoyuan was fooled.
"So ruthless. Even if he escaped, he'd probably only have half a life left. Why would he do that?" Lu Liyu muttered to himself. The piece of primordial spirit in his hand slowly turned into dust and scattered in the air. He sighed and looked down at Song Chongshi. "You don't know either. What a pity."
After saying that, he decisively devoured Song Chongshi's primordial spirit, smacked his lips, and said with disdain, "It's really tasteless."
A drop of cold water hit his eyelid.
He looked up in confusion and saw a blood-red sky. Bright red, viscous blood rain fell in a drizzle, pelting the devastated city of Qisheng. In an instant, the rain intensified, like a waterfall of blood cascading down from the sky, blurring the surrounding scenery.
Not only Qisheng City, but from a high altitude, countless cities were instantly swallowed by the blood rain. This rain was sticky and pungent, indiscriminately corroding mountains, rivers, vegetation, cities, villages, and towns. Whether it was the primordial spirit of a mortal or a cultivator, once it touched them, it would leave deep, bone-revealing holes. People began to flee and seek refuge. The entire Second Realm was shrouded in a bloody shadow.
At the same time, outside the trial area, Wen Ziheng, who was guarding the entrance, suddenly opened his eyes.
In the main hall of the Eight Pavilions, thousands of water mirrors simultaneously plunged into darkness, and the Dharma images suspended in mid-air opened their eyes one by one. Chu Guanshan, at the head of the hall, gave a puzzled "hmm".
In the second realm of the Thousand-Year City, Xiao Qingyan was about to close the window and hide in his magic treasure to avoid the blood rain when suddenly a bloody, mangled hand blocked the window frame.
He was startled, and then, amidst the blood-red light, met Jiang Gu's clear eyes.
Jiang Gu was very tall, dressed in a white robe stained with stains. He held one hand against the window and the other gripped Xiao Qingyan's neck, standing in the blood mist and looking at him coldly, like a sharp and precipitous longsword emerging from a sea of blood and silt.
He greeted him politely, "Young Master Xiao, it's been a long time."
A thunderclap exploded in the crimson sky, as if it had been inexplicably enraged. A fierce wind howled and a torrential downpour began, with blood-red rain pouring down on Jiang Gu. The raindrops splattered onto the hand that was gripping Xiao Qingyan's neck, corroding the primordial spirit on it until the white bones were faintly visible.
However, Jiang Gu did not move his hand at all and continued to politely ask, "Is it convenient for me to go inside and take shelter from the rain?"
With his lifeline in his grasp, Xiao Qingyan moved his lips with difficulty: "...Convenient."
"Thank you." As soon as Jiang Gu finished speaking, the blood rain was swept in by a gale, so angry that it seemed to want to corrode and devour his entire primordial spirit.
Jiang Gu used his spiritual power to isolate himself, then glanced at the void. Blood-red raindrops slid down his nose, reflecting the coldness and impatience in his eyes.
The raging storm subsided instantly.
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