“How are you? What exactly is the situation inside?” Several leading sect masters hurried over to ask.
“Sect Master, it was Mo Xuanli and Gu Baiqing’s group who saved us.” Si Chun spoke to her own sect master, saying, “If not for them, we would already have been drained dry by the Six Elements Formation.”
As Si Chun spoke, she showed her injuries to the sect master.
Xie Qingrong also said to his own sect master, “It was the Demon Clan’s Saintess who kidnapped us, wanting to use our spirit roots to activate the Six Elements Formation. The Six Elements Formation can replace a Spirit-Gathering Array to trigger the Summoning Demon Array. It was indeed Gu Baiqing, Mo Xuanli, Li Xiuran, and Jingzhan, as well as Senior Half-Step Mad, who joined forces to fight the Demon Clan and saved us.”
After Xie Qingrong finished speaking, he looked toward the people who had hurried over not far away, among whom were also the heavily injured Sect Master Baili and Jingcheng.
“Where is Jingzhan?” Sect Master Baili questioned.
Xie Qingrong frowned and said, “There are still problems inside. He stayed behind to help Mo Xuanli and Li Xiuran.”
“What! He still wants to help that bunch of thieves?” Sect Master Baili’s face was full of vicious intent.
Xie Qingrong’s expression instantly sank. “Sect Master, didn’t you hear what I said? We were able to come out alive all because Mo Xuanli saved us.”
He Jingyuan was pulling his son over to check him. Hearing this, he immediately retorted, “You don’t know the situation. He…”
“We know. We know it very clearly.” Nan Zhi sneered, carrying the unconscious Lou Zixiao on her back, turned around, and flew toward the distant Zixiao Sect’s sphere of influence to report the situation. The current Zixiao Sect had not been targeted, but because of Mo Xuanli, it had already been excluded by the mainstream.
“Dad! We already know about Mo Xuanli being a mixed-blood, but you can’t deny that it was still him who came to save us right when you were about to hunt him down. Can you all be reasonable? You can’t repay kindness with enmity!” He Zixiao finally found a chance to speak. “With this effort, you should properly deal with the insidious Demon Clan instead of fighting among yourselves. Can you tell what the priority is? My heavens, you lecture me every day about putting the bigger picture first, yet the Demon Clan’s scheme is definitely not just this, there must still be problems. They took the risk to stay behind to handle it. If we don’t help, at least don’t add to the chaos. Jointly dealing with the Demon Clan, that’s what putting the bigger picture first means!”
He Zixiao looked utterly speechless as he stared at He Jingyuan. Every sentence was jumping on He Jingyuan’s sore spots, also slapping the faces of the others around, angering He Jingyuan greatly.
“What do you know? Don’t be fooled. The Demon Clan just wants to help Mo Xuanli become the Primordial Demon. He….”
“Does he want that?” He Zixiao said with a puzzled look. “He doesn’t want it, does he? He wants to resist the Demon Clan’s scheme, shouldn’t we help him then? Why must we insist on killing him? Is it because we can’t help? So we can only smash the pot and kill people to cover up our own incompetence?”
He Jingyuan immediately glared wide-eyed and slapped him.
He Zixuan stepped forward to support her younger brother, but she did not say a word of fairness. Instead, she asked, “Where is Li Xiuran? How is he?”
He Zixiao had actually long been used to being hit by his father. He only rubbed his face, sulking, and said, “He’s inside handling serious business! You’re unwilling to fight the Demon Clan, so they have no choice but to do it themselves. My cultivation isn’t good enough, I’m dragging them down, otherwise I definitely wouldn’t let that bunch of hateful demons off either. I wouldn’t be here doing muddleheaded things!” As He Zixiao spoke, he raised his fist.
He Zixuan frowned and turned to look at Ji Chuling.
Ji Chuling was anxiously blocking the Hidden Gods Clan members who wanted to enter Xianzao Village. At this time, the dense fog was gradually dispersing.
“Move aside, Chuling. You are the divine maiden, you should know your mission. How can you protect the heir of the Primordial Demon? Li Xiuran has also disgraced our teachings, actually associating with a mixed-blood. We should personally take action to clean this up!”
“Grandfather! Xuanli is a good person, you know that. He has a way to save himself.” Ji Chuling said. “Please, can you give him a bit more time?”
“No! Even if he is a good person, he must still be dealt with. Once he becomes the Primordial Demon, he will no longer be considered human, and we will all be unable to do anything about him. Before that, as long as we seal him, there is still a chance…” Clan Head Ji said anxiously.
“No, Grandfather. Don’t you think doing this is wrong? At first I also thought it was reasonable, but gradually I began to feel something was off. We are not the true divine race, if he has no intention of doing evil, what right do we have to decide his fate? That is too unfair to him.” Ji Chuling earnestly tried to persuade him, almost taking out every principle Li Xiuran had ever spoken and repeating them all.
But how could elders possibly have the patience to listen to a junior’s reasoning? They would only think the junior was being immature.
So, just like Ji Chuling, the others were almost all offering powerless arguments. Facing those who spoke well of Mo Xuanli, everyone didn’t easily change their minds.
Moreover, the current Demon Realm and Cultivation Realm have already gone to war. Fighting is happening everywhere. This situation is no longer something that can be easily resolved, the battles are fierce, and seizing the initiative is what matters most.
The demon clan is not as powerful as it was during the last great war. What can they rely on? Nothing more than the fact that Mo Xuanli may become the Primordial Demon, after all, the last great war was precisely because of him.
In order for the nightmare to not happen again, there is only one thing they can do: get ahead of the demon clan.
Just as everyone was harboring their own thoughts, suddenly the demon clan collectively rushed back into the area of Xianzao Village that had just been shrouded in dense fog.
Naturally, the cultivators shouted and chased after them, and the other sect masters also led their disciples forward one after another. With only a few of them, they were like small stones thrown into a flood, utterly incapable of stopping anything.
Seeing that the surrounding cultivators also ignored warnings and rushed in one after another, the few of them had no choice but to follow in as well, only able to block things at critical moments.
Only Zixiao Sect and Wuxiang Temple were a step slower.
And just as the abbot of Wuxiang Temple was about to step in, in that instant, a chill ran through his entire body, and an ominous feeling suddenly emerged.
……
“What exactly is it?” Li Xiuran frowned and said.
“I feel very uncomfortable,” Qian Yue spoke up.
“But I feel very comfortable,” the incubus retorted.
Ao Heng walked over. Looking at the ground they had split open, a faint aura wafted up.
Ao Heng closed his eyes to sense it for a moment, but the instant he opened them again, his pupils instantly shrank to needle points.
“Ao Heng?” Three Bean naturally sensed the dragon’s tense emotions, because they were now able to share some things through the dragon contract.
“There is an ancient aura, extremely dangerous.”
Li Xiuran’s expression immediately changed. “Could it be the legendary Summoning Demon Array? The Six Elements Formation was originally meant to trigger the Summoning Demon Array, but the array has already been broken by us.”
Jingzhan couldn’t sense anything, and only looked worriedly at the dense fog ahead. “Clearly the outside has almost dispersed, why is there still fog condensed together in front of us? These don’t seem to be affected by the outer barrier. There’s still some force inside pulling the fog. Is there still something inside?”
Li Xiuran turned and said, “The last fragment of the God-Slaying Sword is inside. Perhaps it’s also related to the array beneath our feet.”
Li Xiuran turned his head to look at Half-Step Mad for confirmation.
Half-Step Mad held the Ascending-Cloud Stork with a sorrowful expression. Seeing Li Xiuran looking at him, he also indicated his helplessness. After all, the plot had completely stopped following his script. When he wrote it, there wasn’t this much content. Every one of these characters was an independent individual, they would think of ways themselves. This was not something Half-Step Mad could control; it could be considered the world’s automatic completion. As for this, Half-Step Mad could only rely on experience with common tropes and say, “The most likely thing is the Summoning Demon Array.”
As he was speaking, suddenly, Half-Step Mad paused, he had received a task. He then decisively said, “It is the Summoning Demon Array.”
Half-Step Mad was just about to explain when suddenly a powerful fluctuation of spiritual power surged over, Mo Xuanli broke through.
And at the very instant Mo Xuanli broke through, the fog ahead began to churn strangely. Only Li Xiuran noticed it. Li Xiuran did not immediately go to check on Mo Xuanli, but instead came to the fog and stared at it solemnly. Suddenly, Li Xiuran had a gut feeling that something extremely bad was awakening.
……
The condition for activating the Summoning Demon Array is a Spirit-Gathering Array plus the complete God-Slaying Sword.
And now, the Six Elements Formation together with auxiliary arrays from various locations had replaced the Spirit-Gathering Array.
But where was the God-Slaying Sword? The demon clan should only have one fragment in their hands.
So where did the Summoning Demon Array come from? Gu Baiqing truly could not figure it out.
This task was, for Gu Baiqing, a kind of reminder, proving that there was still a Summoning Demon Array crisis. He had to hurry and inform everyone, just in case.
Actually, before he left earlier, he had already told Li Xiuran and the others that there was still an anomaly underground here.
It was just that time was urgent. Gu Baiqing only mentioned it briefly. They planned to investigate immediately, and he didn’t know what they had found afterward.
If the Summoning Demon Array were activated, Xuanli would definitely be the first to be affected.
The more Gu Baiqing thought about it, the more uneasy he became. He was flying at full speed when he soon saw a strange scene: after the dense fog dispersed, forests gradually appeared around, dilapidated villages, dried-up small rivers. But looking farther away, what should have been areas where people once lived in concentration, there was still a large area shrouded in dense fog.
And just as Gu Baiqing was puzzled, suddenly his entire body stiffened. From within the dense fog, a burst of evil power suddenly flashed out, sweeping over invisibly, carrying a terror that made one’s whole body tremble. It was as if an eerie wind passed through the body, then followed the spiritual energy through every corner of the body, probing for something, and then drilling out again.
That kind of power, no matter how strong one’s own spiritual power was, could not be resisted.
Because it gradually seemed to merge into the air itself, existing invisibly and formlessly between heaven and earth.
Gu Baiqing’s expression changed drastically, because Mo Xuanli’s demonic transformation value began to slowly increase.
It was the Summoning Demon Array!
The Summoning Demon Array had been activated.
Gu Baiqing could clearly feel that the demonic energy behind him was increasing.
Originally, behind him there should have been a group of demons and a group of cultivators, one could say that spiritual energy completely suppressed demonic energy. But now, demonic energy was showing a trend of gradually surpassing it.
Or rather, the entire heaven and earth should have been enveloped in spiritual energy, but now it almost felt like it was turning into the Demon Realm.
Gu Baiqing could even hear screams and roars.
Gu Baiqing flew higher and looked back, and saw many black dots charging over as if risking their lives.
Gu Baiqing ignored the situation behind him, almost turning into lightning as he hurried on. When he saw a giant dragon soar into the sky, it transformed into its original form, coiling in midair, golden light instantly enveloping the dense fog below.
That was Ao Heng… it was Ao Heng using his dragon breath to suppress the power of the Summoning Demon Array.
Because at the moment the golden light shone down, that feeling of being surrounded by eerie wind seemed to lessen a great deal, as if the power had been diluted.
The growth of demonic energy behind him slowed, and Mo Xuanli’s demonic transformation value also almost stopped moving.
After Gu Baiqing landed, he discovered that the place they were at was precisely the boundary line of the dense fog.
But Gu Baiqing did not see Mo Xuanli, he didn’t even see Li Xiuran. He only saw the others outside the dense fog, anxiously trying every possible way to attack it, as if the dense fog were blocking them and preventing them from entering.
“Where is Xuanli!” Gu Baiqing asked with a drastic change of expression.
Seeing Gu Baiqing return, the faces of those who had failed to keep watch over them turned ugly.
Half-Step Mad said, “Just now, little Xuanli successfully broke through, but then the Summoning Demon Array activated. Little Xuanli sensed that he might fall into demonic transformation. There was no time to think of anything else, so he could only rush in to destroy the Summoning Demon Array.”
“What?!”
“Because the array core of the Summoning Demon Array must be the final fragment,” Half-Step Mad explained.
Although it is not the complete God-Slaying Sword, nor a fully formed Spirit-Gathering Array composite formation, the power seems to have been scaled down proportionally. On top of that, the Six Elements Formation has already been destroyed, so this is a reduced version of the Summoning Demon Array, its power is limited, its duration is limited, its range is limited, and it cannot even radiate across the entire world. As long as this period can be endured, the Summoning Demon Array will fail. But this period is crucial for dealing with the current situation.
In order to avoid demonic transformation, Mo Xuanli could only rush in immediately to search for the God-Slaying Sword fragment.
Jingzhan said guiltily, “Originally, we wanted to go in together to investigate, but the moment Mo Xuanli went in, we were bounced back halfway through and could no longer enter. Only Li Xiuran, relying on the sword inlaid with a fragment of the God-Slaying Sword, split open a path and went in, but we still couldn’t follow him in, even their spirit beasts couldn’t. Then Ao Heng flew up and said he would buy time for Mo Xuanli.”
After Jingzhan finished speaking, he suddenly looked quite uncomfortable. Qian Yue immediately formed seals on him, letting Jingzhan enter meditation to stabilize his mind.
Because his cultivation process had not been entirely calm-minded, and he had once suffered qi deviation, he would still be affected somewhat by the Summoning Demon Array.
On the contrary, Qian Yue, who was beside him, had only been injured earlier and now remained unaffected.
And at this moment, after hearing everything, Gu Baiqing had already rushed toward the dense fog, Half-Step Mad couldn’t stop him at all.
Sure enough, Gu Baiqing was bounced back. After that, no matter what moves Gu Baiqing used against the dense fog, it was useless.
The dense fog was not aggressive, it simply did not allow people to enter.
Half-Step Mad pressed a hand on Gu Baiqing’s shoulder and said, “You should understand, we can’t get in. This is their trial.”
Gu Baiqing clenched his teeth. If everything was to be endured by Mo Xuanli alone, then what was he here for? How was he supposed to seize the opportunity to gamble one last time?
Gu Baiqing suddenly turned to look at Half-Step Mad and said, “The final task?”
Half-Step Mad hurriedly shook his head. “No, it’s the Summoning Demon Array.”
So it was the same as his own, sure enough, this world’s objectives overlapped on certain paths.
Gu Baiqing stopped trying to waste time and directly redeemed the strategy satchel.
Just as he was about to enter again, movement suddenly came from the distance.
This time, the demon clan was pursuing the cultivators. The cultivators fought while retreating, retreating all the way to here.
And among them, quite a few people were being supported by younger cultivators.
Looking closely, those cultivators being supported all had reddened eyes.
They had suffered qi deviation.
Gu Baiqing also saw familiar figures.
He Jingyuan, Sect Master Baili, one after another… At this moment, the Summoning Demon Array instead became a demon-revealing mirror, exposing one by one those whose hearts were even darker than the demon clan’s.
But they might not necessarily reflect on themselves, because when they saw Gu Baiqing’s group, their first reaction was to fight and kill, as if they believed it was something Gu Baiqing’s side had done wrong, or something they had failed to do in time, that caused the Summoning Demon Array to be activated and harmed them.
“Gu Baiqing, what is going on! How could the Summoning Demon Array possibly be activated! Did your disciple already defect to the demon clan!”
Gu Baiqing’s pair of black eyes swept mockingly over the other red-eyed people. He sneered and said, “You are demons now, should I eradicate demons and uphold the Dao?”
That single sentence instantly left many people ashamed to the point of having nowhere to hide. Some of the more extreme ones couldn’t even bear the humiliation and wished they could kill themselves.
“We haven’t fallen into demonhood. We were just affected by the Summoning Demon Array, it’s merely qi deviation!”
Gu Baiqing mocked, “Oh? Is that so? I’m not sure, because I’m fine, and my disciple is fine too. He went in to help you shut down the Summoning Demon Array. If you’re capable, try saving yourselves. Oh right, let me add one more thing, being able to hold on until you got in here to question me, instead of falling on the spot, is also thanks to my disciple’s spirit beast. Open your eyes and see clearly yourselves. Don’t pretend to be blind and shamelessly take advantage and still act aggrieved.” As he finished speaking, he pointed toward the giant dragon in the sky.
Those who knew the truth in their hearts were now even more choked up, unable to say a single word. Indeed, if not for the true dragon being here, they very likely would have entered a half-demonic state just now.
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