Chapter 660: Five Emperors Golden Light Talisman

"Junior Brother!" Wei Wenming shouted. Despite his frequent reprimands, he genuinely cared for his mischievous youngest martial brother.

Talisman in hand, he tried to rush over, but Xu Yan, standing at the very front, immediately waved him off. "Step back!"

With a sweep of his Daoist robe, Xu Yan shielded Wei Jianming behind him. His feet skimmed the floor like a dragonfly over water; without appearing to move much at all, he pulled them both back to a safe distance from the security doors.

Hiding around the corner, I watched the sect cultivators retreat and turned to leave without a second thought. I sprinted a good dozen meters before realizing they weren't chasing me. Only then did I stop and activate my Judging Eye to keep watching.

Xu Yan moved with the fluid agility of a Tai Chi grandmaster, guiding Wei Jianming out of the humanoid monster's sudden attack.

"Don't panic!" Lu Jingxiu, who had been holding the rear, didn't flinch. He flicked out several talismans—each a size smaller than standard ones—scattering them with a wave of his hand like a flurry of stars.

The moment the talismans left his hand, they arranged themselves into a formation. As the humanoid monsters charged through, their movements slowed to a crawl, and thick black mist radiated from their deformed bodies.

The talisman art carried the mighty power of the stars, suppressing all yin, evil, and corpse energy.

If there had only been a few humanoid monsters, Lu Jingxiu's casually deployed formation would have eradicated them. Unfortunately, Mr. Paper was clearly prepared. He had bided his time, waiting for exactly this opportunity.

The horde of corpses surged forward in overwhelming numbers. The moment the monsters in the lead slowed down, the ones behind violently shoved them aside. These terrifying creatures literally paved a road with their own bodies, bulldozing straight through Lu Jingxiu's formation.

Low, guttural roars echoed endlessly as the corpse horde went completely berserk, making the entire passage tremble!

Lu Jingxiu took a deep breath. Chanting an incantation and forming hand seals, he precisely fed more talismans into the star formation, trying to reconstruct it.

"Daoist Brother, let me." Xu Yan pushed a pale Wei Jianming to the side. He and Lu Jingxiu stood their ground, neither dodging nor retreating as the humanoid monsters stampeded toward them.

Before Lu Jingxiu could reply, Wei Wenming spoke up from behind them. "Celestial Masters, my youngest martial brother caused this trouble. It is only right that our Jinshan Sect cleans it up."

Wei Wenming was the senior disciple of the Jinshan Sect. Although he could be annoying, compared to his younger martial brothers, he at least understood the bigger picture and had a sense of scope.

So I never expected him to say something so reckless and emotional at such a dangerous time.

Even more shockingly, Xu Yan actually nodded in agreement. With one hand tucked inside his robes, seemingly gripping something, he said calmly, "Very well. Consider it a trial. Go, I will hold the line for you."

"Don't force yourselves. If you can't hold them, fall back. We two old bones are still here." Lu Jingxiu tossed out his final talisman and pulled back. He and Xu Yan took up positions on the left and right, guarding the four Jinshan Sect disciples.

With the formation gone, the humanoid monsters' speed skyrocketed. Scrambling on all fours, they dragged their deformed bodies forward. Their torn mouths and twisted faces were a portrait of terrifying savagery.

"Jinshan Sect disciples, heed my command!" Facing a corpse horde for the first time, Wei Wenming was a little tense, but as he cycled his cultivation mantra, he quickly calmed down. With a solemn expression, he shouted, "Form the Five Emperors Golden Light Formation!"

At their senior brother's command, the reticent second brother, Wei Liangming, and the third brother, Wei Gongming, abruptly shifted their footwork. Their steps became profound, resonating with a supreme truth between heaven and earth, as they took up the Qian and Kun positions flanking Wei Wenming.

"Jianming! Take your position, now!" Wei Wenming's voice had an entirely different resonance than before. It was deafening, striking Wei Jianming like a physical blow and snapping him out of his daze.

A sliver of color returned to his deathly pale face. He scrambled up from the floor and hurried to the Chen position.

The four disciples formed a quadrangle, each weaving a different set of hand seals.

The humanoid monsters were right in front of them; in another two or three seconds, they would clash. Those abominable faces squeezed through the passage. The air was somewhat damp, diffusing the stench of either chemical fluids or rotting blood.

When the leading monster charged to within two meters of Wei Wenming, he slipped the Divine Talisman he had long prepared in his palm between his fingers.

"Activate the formation!"

Bearing the brunt of the charge, Wei Wenming's robes snapped fiercely in the wind kicked up by the horde. He didn't yield half a step. Veins bulged on his forehead as he chanted, "Profound Ancestors of Heaven and Earth, Root of the Myriad Qi! Cultivating through a hundred million tribulations, manifest my divine power!"

Faint golden light pulsed from the talisman—a truly extraordinary sight.

Instead of unleashing the Divine Talisman, he held it over his heart and rapidly shifted his position.

Wei Liangming took his place. Slapping his belt, he unspooled a string of copper coins that glowed with the same brilliant gold: "Within and without the Three Realms, the Dao alone reigns supreme! Golden light swathes my form, shielding my body!"

As the chant ended, the copper coins formed a sword that hovered over his hand. The collective aura of the four disciples multiplied exponentially.

Shifting positions again, the third brother, Wei Gongming, stepped slowly forward. Reaching into his sleeve, he actually produced a Daoist scripture bound in gold thread: "Unseen by the eye, unheard by the ear! Encompassing heaven and earth, nurturing all living things!"

As the trio moved and the formation shifted, Wei Jianming, who had originally been in the rear, appeared at the very front. The corpse horde was about to crash into him, their terrifying faces enlarging rapidly in his vision.

Facing a true crisis was completely different from practicing back at the sect gates. Wei Jianming's calves turned to jelly. His face was ashen, and the last sliver of color he had regained vanished without a trace.

He ripped a nine-dragon carved jade pendant from his neck and pressed it desperately over his heart. He had been backed into a corner. Compared to his senior brothers, his state was truly awful; his face lacked any of a cultivator's detached calm and steadiness, leaving only panic and a trace of fear. He practically shrieked his section of the incantation.

"Praising the Heavenly Court, my body radiates light!"

The talisman completed and the formation set, golden light erupted as the four shifted positions once more. Wei Jianming had delayed for too long; by the time Wei Wenming rotated back to his position, a humanoid monster had already opened its massive jaws toward his neck.

Sweeping his sleeve, Wei Wenming hastily unleashed the golden talisman straight at the humanoid monster: "Guards of the Three Realms, heralds of the Five Emperors!"

The talisman in his hand was at least an Upper Vehicle Talisman. Its might was vast, its golden light dazzling, and it was utterly tyrannical.

Once unleashed, the talisman struck like the Jade Emperor's imperial decree. The faint projections of the Five Emperors flickered above it, pressing down so hard the corpses couldn't raise their heads. The monster at the very front had no time to dodge and was directly struck by the golden light.

Black mist boiled off its body as foul, dark liquid seeped out. It didn't even have time to make a sound before it collapsed to the floor, its face still frozen in its previous expression.

Bathed in the talisman's light, the humanoid monsters reacted as if they had encountered their most terrifying nightmare, scrambling madly to escape. But the passage was only so large—where could they possibly run?

The monsters in the rear were still squeezing forward. Corpses blanketed the passage like fallen autumn leaves. The entire process lasted for twelve breaths. By the time the golden talisman faded, the area around the security doors had been entirely cleared. Only a straggling handful of humanoid monsters managed to escape.

Retracting the golden talisman, Wei Wenming stumbled and nearly fell, but Xu Yan supported him just in time.

"The Five Emperors Golden Light Talisman is one of your Jinshan Sect's supreme heirlooms. With such a heritage, Daoist Brother Yinglong was actually willing to give it to you for self-defense?" A hint of astonishment flickered in Xu Yan's eyes as he looked at the cleared passage.

"Daoist Master, you know our teacher? It shames me to say it, but we have embarrassed him today. This talisman's power is too immense; it took all four of us combining our strength just to barely activate it once." He glanced back. Wei Liangming and Wei Gongming were fine, though their footsteps were unsteady and their faces the color of gold paper. Wei Jianming's state, however, was much worse. He was sitting directly on the ground, still in shock, his robes stained with dust and his dao crown knocked askew.

"Jianming, are you alright?" Wei Wenming tried to go help Wei Jianming up, but he was still relying on Daoist Master Xu Yan's support just to stand firm, leaving him with no ability to look after others.

"I might be old, but my eyes haven't failed me. If your youngest martial brother hadn't been a step slow just now, causing the formation to stall, the three of you wouldn't have been dragged down with him." Xu Yan shook his head and had Lu Chen go help Wei Jianming up. "Leave the rest to us two old bones. This place is far too dangerous for you all; it has already exceeded the scope of a trial."

The sect cultivators rested for a few moments before pressing forward, stepping through the security doors leading to the eighth underground floor.

I waited until I was certain they had gone far ahead before I dared to step out from the corner. Looking at the floor blanketed in corpses, my eyelids twitched wildly.

No wonder Wei Jianming was still arrogant even after learning I could control the Five Directions Plague Ghosts. He actually had the capital to be arrogant.

'Bringing out their supreme heirloom talisman just to eliminate the Ghost Mother... did they really need to mobilize such a massive force?' I felt I had somewhat underestimated the sect cultivators' determination to eradicate the Ghost Mother. If the trump cards on a few junior Jinshan Sect disciples were this shocking, just how terrifying must Xu Yan and Lu Jingxiu be?

'The world has been peaceful for a long time, so there are fewer avenues to earn merit. Perhaps they're coveting the merit from killing the Ghost Mother.' I dispelled these thoughts, picked my way across the floor of "corpses," and followed them through the security doors.

The eighth underground floor was completely empty. The walls on both sides were covered in scratch marks and bite indentations. Having lost the grand formation's control, these humanoid monsters acted on instinct, and their destructive power was staggering.

'Thank goodness these things weren't let out, or Jiangcheng would suffer a disaster.'

The vast majority of the humanoid monsters that had broken out of the water tanks had crowded into the security passage, ironically making this floor the safest one at the moment.

The sect cultivators disappeared from sight in a moment. I didn't dare pursue them too hastily, advancing slowly while sensing the wisp of yin energy I had driven into Wang Shi's body.

As I continuously ventured deeper underground, I could perceive the wisp of yin energy on Wang Shi more and more clearly. The distance between us was constantly shrinking.

After walking for about five minutes, I stopped at the intersection leading to the Underground Ninth Level. According to my perception, Wang Shi was currently stopped on the other side of the passage.

'That's impossible. The sect cultivators should be in that exact same spot right now. Could they have run into each other?'

I stepped out of the passage and slipped into the Underground Ninth Level. Before I could even use my Judging Eye to look around, my ears twitched as I heard a cold, unfamiliar voice.

"This path is blocked. The living go no further!"