Chapter 543: The Grand Scene is Coming

Chapter 543 -512: The Grand Scene is Coming

Seeing the auras of over one hundred Golden Core Cultivators churning outside the city, the sprawling masses of Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment Cultivators could no longer restrain themselves.

THUD—

No one knew who it was, but someone took a single, soft step forward.

BOOM!

Like a bursting dam, the Cultivators swiftly unleashed the multicolored streams of True Essence from their bodies, each with a distinct aura. Their figures, like a plague of locusts, swarmed madly toward Primordial City.

“The first Cultivator to set foot in Primordial City will be given twenty percent of all the Primordial Sect’s resources!”

Jiang Shaotian raised a hand and announced calmly.

The moment he spoke.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH—

The sound of them tearing through the air was like ten thousand arrows loosed at once!

In an instant, the speed of everyone in Chen Che’s field of view exploded several-fold. The countless figures stretched to the horizon, a tide of people that threatened to submerge the heavens and the earth.

“HISS!”

Many Cultivators within the city turned deathly pale with fright.

Li Changqing’s hand, clutching a Talisman, was slick with sweat. Although Chen Che had promised him he wouldn’t have to fight, an order from the Primordial Sect was like an edict from the Celestial Emperor in the Sixteen States—he had no choice but to come.

Seeing such a massive battle for the first time, Li Changqing was so scared his legs began to tremble.

Liang Yuan gripped the large hammer he used for Artifact Casting, swallowing nervously. His master always used to say that after reaching Foundation Establishment, the world would be his to roam freely. Only now did he realize how insignificant a Foundation Establishment Cultivator truly was.

Even he himself probably wouldn’t last for the time it takes half an incense stick to burn in a battle like this.

…

Sensing the tension among the Jinyun Valley Cultivators, Chen Che’s eyes narrowed slightly.

He hadn’t expected this either—battles of this scale, with tens or even hundreds of thousands of Cultivators besieging a city at once, were rare. The famed battle between the two sects over the Black Tortoise Calm Sea was still talked about to this day.

But this made that battle pale in comparison.

Of course.

‘They wouldn’t even need to lift a finger against these people.’

On the city walls, countless triggers were pulled and rows of Crossbow Beds were drawn taut. There were even many strange cannons engraved with Magic Patterns, all aimed at the battlefield. In some ways, the scenes of war between mortals and Cultivators were quite similar.

The only difference was that mortals leaned more heavily on formation-based warfare, while Cultivators relied on their individual strength.

Chen Che frowned. ‘There’s no way to stop this many people.’

A distance of five hundred li was neither close nor far.

In just a few dozen breaths, they had already covered most of it. The figures of the Cultivators at the vanguard were becoming clearer now. They had chains on their ankles, their faces savage and their expressions twisted.

White mist plumed from their mouths with every breath.

Chen Che saw Xiao Chan frown.

“That’s the Chaos God Pill!”

“?”

The others glanced over at him.

Chen Che looked puzzled.

“It makes them like that…”

Xiao Chan gestured toward the chained Cultivators. “After taking a large dose, their Divine Souls are thrown into disarray and they lose control of their consciousness. They become weapons that feel no pain, know only slaughter, and fight purely on instinct.”

As he spoke, Xiao Chan’s gaze sharpened. “It seems Mist Rain Tower has a very formidable Pill Master…”

Clearly.

These chained Cultivators had once been under the Primordial Sect’s command but were now being forced to join the assault.

As the enemy drew closer, the features of these Cultivators became increasingly clear.

They snarled and clawed at the air, their faces covered in worm-like green veins, their expressions more beast than human. Seeing them close in so quickly, some Cultivators on the wall could no longer contain their terror and let loose their bowstrings.

SWOOSH—

The twang of the first bowstring was like a starting gun. Countless Crossbow Arrows erupted forth almost at once. With sharp whistles that tore through the air, they hurtled toward the overwhelming tide of Cultivators outside the walls.

These Bed Crossbows were all potent siege weapons. Each bolt was two zhang long and as thick as two people’s arms could encircle. To increase their lethality, the Primordial Sect had even deviously forged hundreds of barbs onto each shaft.

Normally, these barbs lay flat against the shaft, but once fired, they would fan out like an umbrella.

Empowered by Magic Patterns, each Crossbow Arrow became a giant rotary cutter. The suction from its spin could forcefully drag in and shred to pieces any Cultivator within a hundred-zhang radius.

ZZZING—

Every giant bolt that landed created a circular spray of crimson.

If this were a war between mortals, it would have essentially been over at this point.

Unfortunately, these were Cultivators…

Just as Chen Che had thought, they couldn’t be stopped. At that very moment, innumerable Cultivators shot into the air, with even some Demon Beasts mixed in, to hastily dodge the Crossbow Arrows.

Then, without losing any momentum, they continued to sweep toward Primordial City.

That seemingly ferocious storm of bolts hadn’t even inflicted five percent casualties…

Moreover.

A weapon of war like the Crossbow Bed was extremely slow to reload. It was at moments like this that one could see how impractical such devices were in a war between Cultivators; their value was more in deterrence than in actual lethality.

“Don’t be in a hurry to act yet.”

Chen Che held back the Jinyun Valley Cultivators, who were already taut with anxiety. “Conserve your strength as much as possible. Their core forces haven’t moved yet.”

‘The Foundation Establishment and Golden Core Cultivators are still in the rear.’

‘Most of those rushing up are just cannon fodder. In truth, even I don’t know how long this Mountain Protection Array can hold out. After all, they have nearly a hundred Golden Core Cultivators and hundreds of thousands of other Cultivators in total.’

‘Even the strongest Grand Array has a defensive threshold. Once saturated, it will shatter instantly.’

For a moment.

It wasn’t just the West City; the other two sectors also fell into a simultaneous lull in the fighting.

However, this lull did not last long.

Another dozen breaths passed.

In the blink of an eye, the enemy cultivators had reached a point thirty li from the city walls, led by the shackled ones who had consumed the Chaos God Pill. Although the defenders felt pity for them, they showed no mercy in their attacks—

since they were now the enemy, any mercy shown would be a cruelty to themselves. The second wave of loaded and drawn Crossbow Arrows was ready to be unleashed!

The opposing side thought the same.

As they charged, the enemy finally began their first counterattack.

A Cultivator who had never witnessed such a thing could never imagine the sheer, overwhelming scale of it all. It was no exaggeration to say that even the spectacle of a Golden Core Cultivator making a move was nothing compared to this…

In a single instant, tens of thousands of different kinds of Magic flew forth, accompanied by a drone like a swarm of locusts.

Chen Che looked up slightly.

‘With my Divine Sense, I can easily grasp the entire battle situation in the West City. Their formation is a classic wave assault.’

‘The first wave is cannon fodder, the second is Qi Refining, and the third is Foundation Establishment, like waves cresting one after another. This relentless method of attack can raise the offensive pressure to its absolute peak in an instant.’

‘At the same time, the constant barrage will prevent the Array’s energy from replenishing, which will eventually lead to it breaking.’

BAM!

These attacks struck the Grand Array like eggs smashing against a stone.

The moment they hit the Array, they dissipated on their own.

Of course, that was just the first wave.

Almost at the same time, the Magic from the second wave of Qi Refining Cultivators arrived. This assault was several times fiercer than the previous one, striking the Grand Array hard in the span of a finger-snap. Before Chen Che’s eyes, the Grand Array’s barrier rippled like the surface of a deep pond in a heavy downpour.

Before the ripples could settle,

the Foundation Establishment Cultivators who had been hiding in the crowd finally showed themselves. Without a word, they unleashed a variety of Magic. Though fewer in number, their attacks were even more ferocious.

In that instant, it was as if a handful of stones had been cast upon the water, causing the agitated Grand Array to tremble violently.

Chen Che narrowed his eyes. “Here comes the main event!”

As expected.

Before the words had left his mouth, the Golden Core Cultivators stationed outside the city abruptly stood up and began weaving Spells. As they completed their incantations, countless bridges of iridescent light, like great rainbows piercing the sun, arched across the sky and slammed into the Grand Array.

If the attacks from the Foundation Establishment Cultivators were like pebbles, then the attacks from the Golden Core Cultivators were like massive boulders, creating a tremendous upheaval in the Grand Array.

CRASH—

The barrier of the Grand Array shuddered without pause, looking exactly like the churning surface of a stormy sea.

“GULP…”

At the same time,

a collective gulping sound was heard throughout the city. The sheer force of the Golden Core Cultivators’ attacks was overwhelming. To the defenders, the entire Mountain Protection Array looked like a bubble in a hurricane, ready to burst at any second.

Aside from the North City—left open in a classic “surround three sides, leave one open” strategy—only the West City, where Chen Che was stationed, remained without a response. The other two walls were already embroiled in furious combat.

It wasn’t just the Primordial Sect; other Cultivators in the city had also spontaneously climbed the walls to cast Magic at the invaders.

For a time, waves of pained screams echoed from beyond the walls… This made the once-terrified defenders inside the city break into expressions of pleasant surprise. The enemy Cultivators seemed fierce, but they were actually quite vulnerable.

Chen Che still hadn’t acted, merely observing the battlefield in silence.

On another section of the wall, Ping Miaohan had been on the verge of intervening several times. But when she saw that Chen Che remained as still as a mountain, she surprisingly forced down her own urge to fight and also turned to silently observe the enemy cultivators—

‘In my opinion, this is just Mist Rain Tower’s initial probe.’

‘If we can’t even withstand an attack of this scale, we’re better off leaving now instead of staying to be buried alive. For now, at least, the enemy hasn’t shown the ability to break the Mountain Protection Array.’

‘We can just hide safely inside the Grand Array, watch these enemies exhaust themselves, and then leisurely come out to clean up.’

However, the Star-Picking Sect clearly wasn’t going to let that happen—

SHIIING!

Just as the Golden Core Cultivators outside the city attacked, a piercing sound suddenly erupted. Following it, a crimson streak of light, like a meteor, shot across the sky above Primordial City. Its crimson tail washed the entire city in a blood-red glow.

“What is that?”

Just as everyone looked up, staring at the rainbow of light in stunned silence, a disturbance from within the city answered their unspoken question.