Twenty-nine: Uncertainty of Life and Death, Part Two
The resounding chimes echoed across every inch of land in the southern part of Yishan City.
The shadows on the ground began to tilt.
There's movement to the north.
Directly opposite to Zhang Xu and the others, Ming Jin's ambush location was least affected by the bell's sound. Ji Zhen steadied himself, conjuring a longbow with his wood magic, followed by a wooden-colored feathered arrow with a dark, gleaming arrowhead that flew towards the massive bell.
The slightest movement in the air was enough for a thousand miles to perceive the changes in everything. The commotion they had just caused was sufficient, so they immediately withdrew, leaving the shattered clock to clean up the mess.
"Brother," Qianli said, pulling himself back towards the palace. Just then, Gongsha and Fengwu arrived one after the other, and the three of them gathered on a viewing platform in front of the palace. "Are you alright?"
Qianli shook his head: "There probably aren't many of those newcomers left. What about Ciyun?"
“She didn’t come,” Feng Wu said without turning his head. “She couldn’t possibly have missed the noise; she was probably called away by Master Gao.”
"What should we do now?" Gongsha asked anxiously.
“The bell just now was only meant to scare us,” Qianli signaled. “As long as the barrier remains unbroken, we can only stay here. Go and call your men over.”
"How could this happen?" Gong Sha was already distressed by the collapse of the barrier, and now this happened, he was even more distressed. But he still followed Qian Li's instructions and gave a signal to the newly emerged evil spirit, "Who are these people outside?"
“There are many possibilities,” Qianli said, looking around. “But judging from this large group, they’ve definitely come for revenge, and they’ve probably been watching us for a long time. I wonder how many of them are here. Take care. Scatter!”
As they spoke, a magic array suddenly unfolded in mid-air directly opposite them. The flowing lines of the array were unstable, gradually rippled, and at the moment of its unfolding, sharp points emerged from any point on the array's lines, attacking the three figures on the rooftop without hesitation. To minimize unnecessary head-on impact, the three avoided the possible paths of the water arrows, only to find that these troublesome things actually chased after them.
A small portion of the water arrows were taken by Qianli and Gongsha, while the majority followed Fengwu. Just as Fengwu was hesitating and deciding to counterattack, a sudden whirlwind swept all the water arrows together, instantly melting them into a long spear with fluttering tassels, shattering Fengwu's plan to retaliate. The flames were cleaved in two by the spear, and Fengwu, floating in mid-air, decisively pulled back, then brought his hands together to form a pillar of fire, merging with the relentlessly pursuing water spear.
The two dissipated, leaving only a burst of intense water vapor standing between the two forces.
He was often surprised by the incredible predictions. Just like now, looking at Ji Zhen and Mu Ning, Feng Wu felt that it was somewhat expected, but also somewhat boring.
“It’s time to send someone else,” Feng Wu said. “A move I haven’t seen before can hold me off for a while.”
He pulled his hand away and placed a vent in the steam, and a blast of hot air blew southward from Fengwu's row.
It shouldn't exist in winter.
However, there weren't many opportunities for Qianli to find a moment of respite. After being driven away by the roar, Zhang Xu had already returned, and a few steps in front of him was a sword formation crackling with lightning, with several strings of long and short swords flying towards Qianli's front and back.
"I should have sparred with Ciyun," Qianli couldn't help but sigh, "I should have switched with Fengwu instead."
The sword formation was directly blown away by the wind, but Qianli still couldn't relax.
“This isn’t right,” Qianli said with a wry smile as he looked at Zhuo Yong and Guo Hao who had suddenly appeared. “I never thought that someone as insignificant as me would warrant such a grand display.”
"The second most skilled under Master Gao," Guo Hao said with a smile, "if possible, we should actually call all the cultivators we know here."
"Oh, I am truly flattered."
He raised his hand from his sleeve, holding two reddish-black walnuts. Qianli casually twirled them a couple more times, then assessed his surroundings before tossing the walnuts into the air. As they floated, the two walnuts quickly formed a ring in the swirling wind. The next moment, the reddish-black circular shadows suddenly stopped, multiplied into three, and flew in the blink of an eye to Zhang Xu and the other two. Then came the powerful, piercing sound of the walnuts striking the sword blade.
The entire southern side of Yishan was filled with the scorching heat of Fengwu's fire technique, the howling winds that swept for miles, and the constant crushing and colliding.
On the ground, the demons lurking in the north emerged, observing from the high platform separating the palace from the south gate. The two sides had already fully engaged in battle, and those who remained were still awaiting Gongsha's orders.
Looking down, there were still quite a few evil spirits that had escaped the lightning strikes, but their numbers were gradually decreasing, and they were getting closer and closer to the platform under the relentless pressure from the remaining cultivators.
"Are these the only people left?" asked one of the ghosts standing at the highest point.
“I saw some take advantage of the chaos to escape to the outskirts of the city,” one replied. “Should we bring them back?”
“We don’t have time to deal with them,” Gongsha said, looking around. “I have a feeling they came prepared, but why do they know so much about Yishan? What’s even stranger is that Lord Gao has detained Zhegui, but the other side doesn’t seem to have the strength to deal with Zhegui. What’s going on…”
What should we do?
"With so many people causing trouble in the city, how could Lord Gao not be furious?"
“That makes sense,” Gong Sha thought carefully. “If they don’t win the championship, they will have a hard time falling into a slump. And they can still retreat, which is not possible for us.”
"Second brother, those people in white are chasing after us."
“Let’s go,” Gong Sha said, as he watched the number of cultivators increase from one to many. Several black orbs appeared around him, but then, as if remembering something, he reached out and blocked another ghost that was about to move forward. “Don’t use too much force. Let’s mix things up for a while first.”
High above, in mid-air, and on the city walls, explosions of fire and thunder echoed continuously, while cultivators and evil spirits scurried about on the ground and rooftops, each clutching their heads. The evil spirits seemed unable to scale the walls, forced to use the south gate, which would open briefly after the bell tolled. Therefore, aside from two people stationed near the gate to capture any fleeing spirits, the remaining disciples were tasked with sweeping away the lesser evil spirits within the city.
Big ghosts are hard to deal with, small ghosts are hard to catch.
The ghosts who escaped the initial thunderstorm due to their agility were mostly retreating guards, with a few being ordinary ghosts. They were all following the orders of Qianli's chief guard to counterattack the cultivators who had stormed into the city. However, aside from gatherings, they had no awareness of cooperating in combat, and their cultivation was not particularly high. Seeing the chaos around them and that many in front had already been killed, the remaining ghosts barely fought a couple of rounds before preparing to run out the door.
Then they fell right into the cultivators' encirclement and were easily captured.
But the number of evil spirits in the city does not seem to have decreased.
"What's going on?"
Zhou Wei and Ming Jin catching their breath under the eaves. They were still only using wood, wind, and water magic, so their disguises were still intact, and ordinary evil spirits couldn't detect them. Since splitting up with Ji Zhen, they had encountered many evil spirits along the way, exorcising them all without exception. But now, seeing this dark, shadowy figure, they felt a sense of unease.
"Are there so many evil spirits hiding in this city?" Mingjin also found it unbelievable.
Before they could exchange more than two words, a ghost darted away from them, only to be struck on the head by a vine that Zhou Wei casually tossed out. It then fell to its knees, its head flying off in the opposite direction.
His body disappeared first, and after his head flew horizontally in mid-air, his dejected eyes suddenly turned and looked in Zhou Wei's direction.
"Oh no."
Ming Jin was still calling for Ya Zai to check the situation in mid-air when he suddenly heard Zhou Wei's voice.
“We might have fallen into a trap,” Zhou Wei quickly took out a flower bullet and threw it into the air. Then a wisp of slightly irritating bluish-yellow smoke appeared, and a flock of orioles flew out of the smoke. The rest of his words were transmitted to the nearby cultivators through the orioles: “A large part of the evil spirits may be transformed from evil spirit magic. Killing them is pointless and will only allow them to discover us and expose our location.”
“You think you can just exhaust us here? That’s a really naive idea,” Mingjin said, pulling the tooth away. “We need to go up. There are a few evil spirits around near the high platform, and they look quite unusual.”
"Unusual attire?"
The two turned around and jumped onto the roof.
"Most of the evil spirits wear black, but the styles are not exactly the same. There are a few evil spirits over there dressed somewhere between long sleeves and short clothes, looking like warriors. They are probably with the two evil spirits that Jingxin encountered, and they may have some strength."
The two ran quickly across the rooftops, stepping over broken tiles to reach a desolate scene of scattered bricks and stones on one side of the platform. However, the houses of Yishan City were completely unconcerned about the situation outside. Just as Mingjin and Zhou Wei stopped to check the situation, a slight tremor suddenly occurred, followed by a pillar emerging from beneath Mingjin's feet. Subsequently, pillars also grew on both sides, and beams began to be produced.
Unfortunately, it was useless, because the two teams fighting back and forth on the rubble were losing their balance when the losing side was suddenly thrown out, breaking the pillar and causing the beam to collapse.
"It's Jing Xin."
After saying a few words, Zhou Wei and Ming Jin quickly went down from the roof and helped Jiang Chao up from the ground.
"Third brother, their men are here, I can't handle them."
Despite saying that, the evil spirit opposite them stood up straight and looked at the three of them with a smile on its face, showing no worry or fear whatsoever.
"Fourth son, why are you lowering your guard at the last minute?"
The third brother sat on the high platform, legs crossed, looking down with a smile.
"Even if they have one more person than us, can numbers really determine the outcome of a fight?"
Just as Zhou Wei was exchanging greetings with them, Jiang Chao, who had fully recovered from the healing spell, grabbed Ming Jin and Zhou Wei with both hands. Seeing the two evil spirits approaching, he quickly lowered his voice and said, "There's an evil spirit on the platform. I just saw it. The two of them have been protecting it and haven't left its side much. There's definitely something wrong with it."
“The two of us will deal with them. Tianguang, go check on the situation.”
"We should all be careful."
After speaking, the two evil spirits opposite them took over, assumed their stances, and charged straight at the three of them. Jiang Chao was not discouraged by his previous defeat, but the newly arrived evil spirit raised its fist, displaying an air of certainty. However, the next second, both of its forearms were knocked away.
"How dare you use a weapon!" The opponent's missing arms were instantly restored, and he questioned Zhou Wei, who was holding a long spear.
"What are you thinking? Do you think I'm just messing around with you? Trying to show off your skills? Prepare to die."
"Oh right, I have a weapon too." Jiang Chao, who had been momentarily intimidated by the other party's posture, quickly came to his senses and drew his sword.
"How can this be allowed to be unfair?"
After saying this, the two men opposite each other shook their arms, then quickly stretched them forward, as if several more joints had grown. Although they still retained their fists, the length was clearly comparable to that of a gun and a sword.
"So ugly." Looking at this strange appearance, Mingjin couldn't help but say it.
"What did you say! Take this!"
Having two arms seemed to give them the upper hand in wielding weapons, so they struck at Mingjin with one hand first. With their target clear, Mingjin had no intention of getting entangled with them. He used wind magic to leap out of the ground instantly, slashing down a wind blade from above, severing the opponent's long arm in half.
Looking up at the platform, one could vaguely see some dark shadows.
"Someone in white clothes passed by."
Someone shouted, and the black shadows suddenly began to tremble up, down, left, and right, then extended outwards, gradually growing larger. At first, the outer boundaries were soft but winding, then gradually became clearer, turning into a series of connected circles. Next, one by one, black spheres detached from them and rushed straight towards Ming Jin.
With the gun in hand, it swept away any black ball that lunged at Mingjin with a gust of wind, instantly obliterating it. But this evil spirit's attack was clearly designed. After the first strike, the opponent knew that Mingjin's first move would cut through the thickness and width of the black balls, and adjusted it accordingly, causing the black balls to line up, with the last few in each batch hiding at the back, thus surviving.
After several exchanges, several black spheres rapidly transformed, shedding their original forms and randomly splitting open somewhere in their front, from which something surged forth. These black spheres possessed limited offensive power, but their extremely high speed and sheer number of attacks could severely disrupt Ming Jin's concentration for a short period. Ming Jin felt his vision gradually darken, and this darkness was composed of countless black spheres pieced together.
A meticulously prepared black sphere, protected from all sides, finally had the opportunity to be born perfectly. Taking advantage of its increased speed in its complete form, it pierced through the front of the Mingjin.
It appeared to be humanoid, with only an upper body and the lower body being the sphere. A human face with a gaping mouth spewing saliva flew straight at Ming Jin, whose face contorted in pain.
"What disgusting thing."
Ming Jin gripped his spear tightly, using wind magic to sweep away the obstructing black orbs. He swung the spear with one arm, his hand never leaving the spear, and finally, grasping the butt of the spear, he plunged the entire spearhead into his upper body, right up to his heart.
The black sphere disappeared slightly, but Ming Jin's attack hadn't completely shattered the monster. After the gun was withdrawn, the monster, with a hole in its chest, suddenly stopped in place. The monster's lower body didn't change, but it glanced down at its wound, then raised its head.
He suddenly grinned at Mingjin.
Then, those cloudy black and white eyes suddenly began to tremble, and after a few irregular movements, the eyeballs suddenly began to rotate steadily in the horizontal direction.
A wave of intense discomfort spread throughout Mingjin's body.
"Heh, heh heh, heh heh," the monster hadn't managed to block the attack and was now beginning to dissipate from the edge, but it seemed to feel nothing. Its grinning mouth suddenly began to make a sound, "I remember you."
Having witnessed two comical scenes in a row, Mingjin felt a bit playful. However, upon seeing those eyes again, it was as if something crawled out of her bones, causing her pain all over her body.
“I remember you too,” Mingjin said through gritted teeth, her voice trembling slightly. “I’ve even seen what you looked like when you grew up.”
The monster vanished. Behind its original bizarre body lay rows and rows of thick black spheres.
It cracked open, and something was lurking there, trying to poke its head out.
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