Chapter 292: Chapter 290: Absolute Strength Breaks the Impasse
The two Ghost Spirit Sect disciples were drenched in sweat, their bodies convulsing. Moments later, they stopped breathing.
The Soul Searching Technique was already incredibly damaging to the Sea of Consciousness, and Bai Zichen had shown no mercy to the Ghost Spirit Sect disciples.
’There are eight mysterious experts who only joined the army right before they set out... White Bone True Man received them personally, placing them in the center of the formation where no one else could approach.’
Of the images Bai Zichen had pulled from the two Ghost Spirit Sect disciples’ minds, ninety-nine percent were useless—experiences of bitter cultivation within the sect and life-or-death struggles.
Only the most recent scenes caught Bai Zichen’s attention.
Six of them wore attire clearly different from that of Northern Domain cultivators, their style uniform, indicating they were from the same sect.
The other two were cloaked in dark cyan robes and hoods that concealed their entire bodies.
"Eight Core Formation True Men!"
Bai Zichen exclaimed in shock. The two Qi Refining Disciples had limited perception and couldn’t discern the cultivation of the eight mysterious figures.
But based on White Bone True Man’s attitude and the auras revealed in the images alone, he could determine that all eight were Core Formation True Men.
However, he couldn’t determine their specific stage within the Core Formation Realm from the Soul Searched images.
Furthermore, one of the Ghost Spirit Sect disciples had an acquaintance, a Foundation Establishment Elder, who had explicitly told him that White Bone True Man’s cultivation had skyrocketed after he came out of seclusion.
The man had been mumbling about how this expedition to Black Mountain was to make up for all their previous losses.
’No wonder he’s so confident about charging into Black Mountain. A lineup like this is almost comparable to the original Demon Path Alliance Army...’
In the images, on a Banner Flag atop Xiaoluo Mountain, a hideous Evil Ghost was about to crawl out from the flag’s surface and roar at the sky.
Even from such a distance, Bai Zichen could feel a pure, malevolent will—a convergence of countless negative emotions, coalesced from the densest Yin Qi.
Once that Evil Ghost fully formed, it would surely be at the Perfect Core Formation Realm, perhaps even a powerful Ghost King capable of wielding some Tier Four Divine Powers.
If he were only facing the newly empowered White Bone True Man and the Evil Ghost—which had clearly been summoned by the Ghost Spirit Sect through some extremely costly means—he would have been confident enough to engage them.
But with the sudden addition of eight mysterious Core Formation True Men, he naturally couldn’t rush in recklessly.
In any case, the Ghost Spirit Sect had set this place up as a temporary base. They were confidently waiting for the Qingfeng Sect to come to them, showing no intention of hunting down and slaughtering cultivators in the area.
’I’ll just wait it out. I’ll decide what to do after Brother Ge replies and we meet up.’
’Don’t be hasty. Your time to slay enemies will come...’
Bai Zichen gently soothed his Moon Xuan Sword with his Divine Sense, calming the weapon as it eagerly tried to fly out of its Sword Box.
He simply closed his eyes to rest in the cave, using only his Divine Sense to monitor the changes on Xiaoluo Mountain from afar.
「A day later.」
He felt his Sect Token grow warm as text materialized on its surface.
He sent his location, put the Token away, and remained where he was, making no other changes.
「The next day.」
As the morning sun rose, Purple Qi surged forth.
Bai Zichen’s eyes snapped open and he looked toward the cave entrance. "Brother Ge, you’re here."
"I went too deep into Black Mountain this time. I never expected something like this to happen in just a few days... Junior Brother, did you find out if the Holy Lotus Sect has a hand in this?"
A travel-worn figure walked into the cave. Master Ge Cang’s face betrayed no emotion as he asked calmly.
"I only know that the Ghost Spirit Sect has eight Core Formation True Man helpers. Also, White Bone True Man’s cultivation seems to have greatly improved, and he has several trump cards at his disposal."
Bai Zichen relayed all the information he knew. At the same time, he swiped his hand, using the Water Mirror Technique to recreate the images of the eight mysterious cultivators he had seen through the Soul Search.
"Daoist Mu. Excellent!"
Master Ge Cang’s gaze turned cold, landing on one of the cultivators concealed by a robe and hood. He recognized the man’s identity at a glance.
"This man is an elder from a branch of the Holy Lotus Sect, a veteran Core Formation True Man. I fought him once a hundred years ago... His left hand is shrunken, with obvious cracked marks. That’s the wound left by my Divine Thunder back then!"
"Since he is here, the one next to him must also be a Core Formation True Man from the Holy Lotus Sect... As for the other six, they look like Confucian Family cultivators from the Central Domain. I don’t know why they’d get mixed up with the Holy Lotus Sect and the Ghost Spirit Sect."
Bai Zichen looked at Daoist Mu’s left hand in the Water Mirror. As the figure moved, his palm was occasionally visible, and it was indeed smaller than his right.
Moreover, the skin looked like a dry, parched land, riddled with countless fissures. The deepest cracks nearly pierced through his palm.
For a Core Formation True Man to be unable to heal such a superficial wound could only mean that Master Ge Cang’s Divine Thunder had damaged Daoist Mu’s foundation.
"Regardless of how these Central Domain cultivators got here, their appearance alongside the Holy Lotus Sect in the Ghost Spirit Sect’s army makes their intentions quite clear... To think, we were waiting for Blood God True Man, but the Holy Lotus Sect couldn’t wait to make a move against us first."
After a brief silence, Bai Zichen spoke grimly. The Holy Lotus Sect’s direct involvement was beyond any of their expectations.
"Could these Central Domain cultivators have some past connection with True Monarch Jiulian? Did they come seeking refuge and then set their sights on the Black Mountain Range?"
Bai Zichen was just guessing casually, but he was unexpectedly close to the truth.
The original reason they believed the Holy Lotus Sect wouldn’t act was, firstly, that even with True Monarch Jiulian’s passing, the Qingfeng Sect posed no threat to the Holy Lotus Sect’s power.
Secondly, once True Monarch Jiulian passed away, the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons would surely smell blood and come rushing in, not letting the opportunity slip by.
At a time like that, they would have to distinguish between primary and secondary conflicts and see clearly who their potential allies were.
But if an external force joined them, one that could completely replace the Qingfeng Sect and follow the Holy Lotus Sect’s lead in the future...
All the Holy Lotus Sect would need to do is connect this external force with the Ghost Spirit Sect. They wouldn’t have to pay a high price, nor would they trigger a backlash from other Core Formation Level Sects.
It was hard to say what variables might arise in that scenario.
"Regardless of the inside story, from this day forward, we just need to consider the Holy Lotus Sect an enemy... And don’t worry about True Monarch Jiulian. He has to pay a steep price every time he leaves Qi Mountain. With his limited lifespan, he won’t make a move easily."
Master Ge Cang clearly knew some secrets unknown to outsiders, which had also led to their misjudgment during the last discussion.
"Junior Brother Bai, are you interested in charging up Xiaoluo Mountain with me and sending these people back in defeat? Let’s show them that all their alliances, schemes, and ambushes are nothing but cheap tricks, utterly useless in the face of absolute power!"
"Excellent!"
The proposal was very much to Bai Zichen’s liking. With the two of them working together, there was nowhere in the world they couldn’t go.
From what Master Ge Cang had said that day, Bai Zichen knew he was confident he could make even a Nascent Soul True Monarch pay a memorable price in a life-or-death battle.
With his fourth-level Five Crystal Glaze Body, his physical toughness was unquestionable, and his ability to survive was definitely top-tier among all Core Formation True Men.
"However, since White Bone True Man dares to come, besides what’s been revealed, I’m afraid he has some Secret Treasures hidden away specifically to counter us."
Compared to Master Ge Cang, Bai Zichen still had plenty of his own trump cards hidden.
If the enemy had prepared based on his performance when he killed Granny Ghost, they were in for a big surprise.
"I have already refined this staff into my Lifebound Magical Treasure. I also fused the True Feather from the Golden-Winged Thunder Roc Demon King into it, allowing me to use Thunder Escape... Combined with ’Close as the Palm of Your Hand, Far as the Ends of the Earth,’ who in the world can stop me?"
Master Ge Cang held a three-foot-long staff. It was a Top-Grade Magical Treasure refined from the Tier Four Low Grade Thunderstruck Wood Heart he had acquired from Fang Tiancheng, combined with several other precious Spiritual Materials.
At the same time, using the profundities of the Daoist Classic Cantongqi, he had fused his Divine Sense with it in less than thirty years, making it his Lifebound Magical Treasure.
"In a moment, I will strike first to draw their attention and look for an opportunity to take out White Bone True Man... You stay on the periphery, look for a chance to kill with a single blow, and reduce their numbers as much as possible. We must not get bogged down in a prolonged battle. If there’s any sign of us being surrounded, we retreat!"
The two of them quickly divided the labor. Master Ge Cang’s Divine Thunder was a powerful counter to White Bone True Man.
Even with his great increase in cultivation, he was no match for Master Ge Cang.
Better to cut off one finger than to injure all ten.
Besides driving the Ghost Spirit Sect’s army out of Black Mountain, their main goal was to reduce the number of enemy Core Formation True Men.
For instance, if they could eliminate White Bone True Man, the Ghost Spirit Sect would never again be able to organize a sect war of this scale, and the threat to the Qingfeng Sect would immediately drop to zero.
With a deep look toward Xiaoluo Mountain, Master Ge Cang took a single step and appeared several miles away.
With each step he took, the sky grew a shade darker as Fierce Thunder Force gathered.
After a few more steps, he arrived before Xiaoluo Mountain. Above his head, a Thunderbolt Ocean had already formed, with endless lightning roaring within.
"White Bone! You dare invade my Black Mountain? Who gave you the nerve? ... It seems the lessons from the last two times weren’t deep enough, letting you harbor ideas you shouldn’t have!"
Master Ge Cang’s voice was like rolling thunder, accompanied by crackling thunderbolts that exploded in the air.
Like a god of heavenly thunder descending upon the world, Thunder Juice roiled and flowed as tens of millions of Divine Thunder bolts rained down on Xiaoluo Mountain’s peak.
Each ball of Divine Thunder transformed in mid-air, unleashing thousands of lightning bolts. Any Ghost Spirit Sect cultivator who was so much as grazed by one died instantly; those who were touched directly were annihilated.
When the Demon Path Techniques met the Divine Thunder, it was like pouring oil on a fire, only adding more fuel.
In a single exchange, one-third of the Ghost Spirit Sect’s disciples were gone—gone in the truest sense of the word.
Those grazed by the Divine Thunder either erupted into fireballs and were burned to charcoal or were instantly turned to ash.
Moreover, the Thunderbolt Ocean formed by the Divine Thunder Net was self-sustaining, showing no signs of diminishing.
It contained a trace of heavenly might. The Arrays set up on Xiaoluo Mountain were completely ineffective; lightning danced on all the Array Banners, which began to burn fiercely from their bases.
"Just like your personality, always charging into the dragon’s pool and the tiger’s den... Ge Cang, today you will be buried here!"
Seeing this scene, White Bone True Man was enraged.
The memory of being defeated twice by Master Ge Cang without being able to fight back filled him with rage. He held nothing back, unleashing his strongest technique right from the start.
With a fierce roar, a wisp of Nether Qi flew out from his chest. It was extremely faint, yet it seemed to connect directly to the Underworld, causing the space within several dozen feet to warp and layer.
The Nether Qi swirled twice like a small snake, then split into two and plunged into White Bone True Man’s eye sockets, where two points of ghostly fire exploded.
His grim white bones suddenly expanded. In an instant, White Bone True Man grew to a height of a hundred feet, sprouting bone wings from his back and bone spurs from his arms.
"Ge Cang, let me show you the White Bone True Demon Body, a True Inheritance from the Demon Realm!"
White Bone cackled sinisterly. He ripped two bone spurs from his own body and hurled them forward with all his might.