Chapter 601 - 81: An Unexpected Enemy

The moment Hu Qianqian finished speaking, an angry shout echoed from the sky. "Yunque Temple has come to lend our Fellow Daoists from Guangshan Temple a hand!" The voice thundered across the heavens, perfectly clear. Then, another shout followed. "Shangshui Temple has come to lend our Fellow Daoists from Guangshan Temple a hand!"

After that, more voices from the sky continuously announced their affiliations. In the blink of an eye, the names of six Daoist Temples had been called out!

"This is so crude. Even I can see it’s fake!" the Ox Demon Niu Qi muttered, then looked at Hu Qianqian and asked, "What should we do?"

"Whether it’s fake doesn’t matter. What’s important is having a pretext to silence any dissenters," Hu Qianqian said, looking at Niu Qi and Wang Ben. She commanded, "Take these four back with you. You two shouldn’t get involved in what happens next."

"Be careful, then!" Wang Ben cupped his fists, used a special storage bag to collect the four people on the ground, and then shot a glance at Niu Qi.

Hu Qianqian paid them no more mind. She rose into the air on an auspicious cloud, the oiled-paper umbrella in her hand blossoming like a flower. She rested it gently on her shoulder, and as her azure eyes met the suddenly-appeared cultivators, they began to shine as brilliantly as stars.

The newcomers were all merely Entering Cultivators. Despite their numbers, they posed no threat to Hu Qianqian. Her own dozen or so Entering Cultivators, who had been investigating the ruins of Guangshan Temple, had already engaged them in combat. The aftershocks of their battle shattered the nearby county town’s Barrier Formation in an instant.

Suddenly, two Water Cultivators took advantage of the Water Spirit Qi generated by the battle, using Water Escape to charge toward Hu Qianqian. One of them quickly cast the ’Water Prison Technique’, causing walls of water to materialize out of thin air around her in an attempt to trap her.

Hu Qianqian gently spun the oiled-paper umbrella in her hand, twisting the space around her. Before the newly formed water walls could even converge, they were distorted and collapsed into a spray of water. But the scattered droplets immediately reformed into countless ’Water Swords’ aimed at all of Hu Qianqian’s vital points.

However, before the ’Water Swords’ could strike, Hu Qianqian’s free hand formed a Spell. A beam of starlight flashed from beneath the clouds, causing the surrounding space to dim. In an instant, the twinkling light converged and enveloped the two Water Cultivators. The next moment, like dry wood meeting a raging fire, they were reduced to cinders.

As a sea breeze blew past, a strange, scorched smell drifted through the air.

’Low cultivation, and their lifespans are nearly at an end. They’re the best and cheapest cannon fodder,’ Hu Qianqian muttered to herself, then turned her head to look north.

From that direction, the sound of figures tearing through the air made the heavens tremble, and the sky was covered in seven-colored streams of light. But her gaze was fixed on the golden identity tokens beneath the clouds.

BOOM!

A massive explosion thundered to the east of the nearby county town. A Water Cultivator had detonated the Spirit Vein within his body, causing Water Spirit Qi to briefly manifest as a gigantic vortex. It instantly sucked all the moisture from the surroundings. Nearby townspeople were turned directly into desiccated corpses, their skin seeping with dark purple bloodstains.

"Yunque Temple will not spare you!"

It was another shout like the ones before, and then the shouter detonated the Spirit Vein in their body.

Without any command from Hu Qianqian, the cultivators she had brought with her retreated from the battlefield on their own accord. As for the cultivators who had come to "reinforce" them, they announced their sect’s name one by one before self-destructing.

"May the Saints be merciful!"

One cultivator began to softly chant a Taoist scripture—not for the cultivators who had self-destructed, but for the innocent people in the nearby town.

Hu Qianqian turned to look toward the far horizon. There was no relief of vengeance in her eyes; instead, her expression grew even more solemn. ’I can’t understand why Master is involved in this. I just can’t see how this massacre benefits him at all.’

...

「Above the clouds.」

Wang Ping and his group had arrived at Guangshan Temple even before the Entering Cultivators who had left Qianmu Temple. He had taken in everything that had just transpired.

No one had sensed their arrival. They were like gods looking down from on high, watching the cultivators below self-destruct and watching the town be annihilated in the explosions.

"Did you orchestrate this?"

The question came from Yu Lian, and it was, of course, directed at Zi Luan.

Zi Luan smiled but said nothing.

The Fire Salamander Fire Swift on Ruan Chunzi’s shoulder spat out a puff of flame, then rolled its eyes to look at Yu Lian. In a muffled voice, it said, "This must be Daoist Zi Luan’s design. Are you still doubting him?"

"Hehehe..."

Mengxin let out a string of chuckles.

Her laughter was followed by silence. Zi Luan neither confirmed nor denied it.

Below, over a hundred Entry-level Disciples arrived at Guangshan Temple, followed by more than twenty Second Realm Cultivators. Under Hu Qianqian’s direction, they conferred for less than ten minutes, then she led the group of cultivators and flew toward Yunque Temple.

Wang Ping and his group did not follow, because they had received some ’guests’.

"One, two, three... seven, eight. A total of eight Third Realm Cultivators: four Water Cultivators from Lishui Prefecture, two Taiyan Cultivators, and two Artifact Cultivators." As Yu Lian spoke, she rose from Wang Ping’s shoulder on a cloud and circled around him. A cyan light pulsed from her Scale Armor, forming a profound and mysterious Water Spirit Formation.

Wang Ping stared at the two Taiyan Cultivators across from them. If Wenhai’s intelligence was correct, they were Chengxi and his Daoist partner, Quecai. Furthermore, the one leading the group this time was Chengxi himself, not the Water Cultivators from Lishui Prefecture.

Several kilometers away, Chengxi came to a halt and offered a very solemn, cupped-fist salute.

Wang Ping naturally returned the salute. He appeared calm and nonchalant, but inwardly he was baffled. ’I never expected the enemy to reveal themselves so easily. It almost feels unreal.’

"Be careful!"

It was Yuan Zheng’s voice. As he spoke, he subtly moved closer to Wang Ping’s side, as did Ruan Chunzi and Dongcan.

Just as Wang Ping finished returning the salute, a drop of water appeared before his eyes. As he looked at it, the droplet rapidly froze into an ice crystal. At the same instant, a pitch-black Ghost Head Saber slashed through the void, aimed right where Wang Ping stood.

CLANG!

Dongcan appeared in front of Wang Ping and blocked the attack. At the same time, tendrils of black mist materialized around him. A black lizard emerged from his chest and crawled onto his neck, manipulating overlapping formations of Magical Artifacts that made his body seem to mistify, giving him the appearance of a demon lord from old tales.

During this brief clash, the four enemy Water Cultivators formed a massive Array that seemed to pour down the waters of the galaxy itself, creating a boundless ocean above the clouds. Countless Water Spirit Techniques materialized within this ocean and surged toward Wang Ping and his companions.

To counter the Water Spirit Techniques, the two Earth Vein Cultivators, Wu Quan and Wu Bing, stepped forward from the group. They simultaneously formed Spells, and a dense Earth Vein aura surged forth, crushing the incoming water-based attacks. Immediately after, both men summoned their life-bound pagodas.

SCREEECH—

As the grating sound of scraping metal rang out, the two enemy Artifact Cultivators charged forward under the cover of several hundred Golden Armored Puppets. Seeing those familiar Golden Armor Soldiers, Wang Ping felt a strange sense of displacement, because in the past, he was the one who always used such tactics.