Chapter 164 — The Forbidden Ground
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 2 of 5
A low, muffled sound seemed to burst forth from deep within the creature—faint at first, then in a heartbeat like the roar of a savage beast. The skeletal serpent froze in astonishment and halted its attack, lowering its head to look. There at its chest, on the bones near where Tianxuan had struck, faint cracks had suddenly appeared. They spread swiftly, and within moments came a crackling, bursting sound as the bone splintered and shattered outward.
The Divine Sword Tianxuan was a divine weapon of the nine heavens; even a monstrosity of this order had been wounded beneath its blade.
The skeletal serpent let out a world-shaking howl, and from the sunken sockets of its face two flames like ghost-fire blazed forth. It was plainly enraged beyond measure, and heedless now of all others, it swung its vast head and charged straight at Lu Xueling.
In that very instant Xiao Yichen, Zeng Shuyan, and the others arrived. With a united shout their enchanted weapons and immortal swords flew up together, joining Lu Xueling's Tianxuan to block the skeletal serpent's thunderous blow.
A tremendous crash resounded, light scattering in all directions. Xiao Yichen and the others were shaken to their core and nearly blasted out of the air; fortunately they were all among the finest of the younger generation, of no shallow attainment, and each steadied himself. Yet they exchanged looks of dismay—the beast's demonic power was truly beyond all expectation, and even joining forces they found the struggle desperately hard, to say nothing of the mysterious Beast Sovereign lurking behind it.
As for the skeletal serpent, though it had driven them all back, these were no common cultivators, and the treasures they bore were no ordinary artifacts. Several streaks of blue, white, and yellow radiance shot back at it, striking its skull heavily, and one of them split a small bone clean through. The serpent howled again in fury, the ghost-fire in its eyes burning brighter, and scarcely pausing to rest it attacked once more with mad ferocity—its hatred for these people was plainly beyond measure.
Xiao Yichen, Lu Xueling, Zeng Shuyan, and the rest took flight one after another. The skeletal serpent's charge was too fierce to be met head-on, and this time its gaping maw spewed thick black poison that made one retch from afar. Unable to do otherwise, they relied on their agility and circled the creature's vast body, harrying it from all sides.
On the field at that moment, the beast-demons counted six giant monstrosities in all. But after the first panic had passed, the elite disciples led by Xiao Yichen—a few here, a dozen there—had engaged these beasts. Hampered by the creatures' formidable demonic power, they could not prevail and for the most part struggled desperately; yet they had at last steadied the line. With the fighting strength of those giants tied down, the righteous disciples took heart against the ordinary beast-demons, and the chaotic scene slowly settled. The barrier of light began to firm once more.
Outside the Yuheng Hall, Dao Yan Zhenren and the others wore grave faces, brows tightly knit, watching the ferocious battle in which who could say how many lives were snuffed out in an instant amid the rain of blood and foul wind. Dao Yan Zhenren gazed at the fighting below the mountain. The black, seemingly inexhaustible horde of beast-demons in the crowd he could disregard; but the six giant beasts alone seemed to grow fiercer with every exchange, and even the outstanding disciples like Xiao Yichen, many against few, were slowly showing signs of faltering—it looked as though they could not hold much longer.
Dao Yan Zhenren's face was stern. He watched a while longer, then raised his eyes again to the sky. The endless black clouds across the firmament churned and surged, pressing lower and lower.
Yun Yifeng coughed beside him and said quietly, "Brother Dao Yan, in this situation, should we not..."