Guardians of Mountain and Sea - Chapter 14

They had only just entered the city when Wuyanzi prepared to lead the way directly toward the teleportation arrays in the city center. However, Lin Pu grabbed her sleeve and pulled her in the opposite direction, heading into a nearby tavern.

After ordering a table of food, Lin Pu dismissed the attendants, closed the door, and walked back to the window.

“Young Superior, is something wrong?”

Even though Lin Pu had asked her not to many times, Wuyanzi insisted on maintaining the distinction between master and servant in private. Lin Pu stopped arguing and simply asked with a frown, “Did you feel anything strange about that old Daoist?”

It was like a surge of loathing rising from the depths of her heart, an instinctive repulsion the moment she met the man. This was why Lin Pu had stepped back, letting Wuyanzi handle the pleasantries while she observed from the side.

Wuyanzi thought back carefully for a moment. “I didn’t sense anything wrong. Perhaps your Jade Bones are unique, allowing you to sense things ordinary people cannot?”

Lin Pu looked back toward the city gate. The Daoist stood there, still inspecting and registering travelers, while his shadow avatar diligently held the ledger and recorded information.

“It is more than that.”

“Those who practice the bow must hone their eyesight. When that shadow was recording earlier, it heard I practiced archery and crossed out what it had written previously. The brush and the book were both black, so it was hard to see, but I clearly saw that when it ‘wrote’ again, the brush tip stayed in the air. It wrote nothing at all.”

“They are only keeping track of those who wield blades and swords.”

As she spoke, the old Daoist outside followed a saber cultivator into the city. Seeing this, Wuyanzi also walked suspiciously to the window.

In the East, only this great city possessed eighteen teleportation arrays of varying sizes, and it saw a constant flow of cultivators. Several others had entered since they arrived, so why was a common saber cultivator worth the old Daoist’s personal greeting?

At that moment, the old Daoist looked up toward them from a distance. He opened his mouth and laughed, “Because everyone is here. We were only missing this last one.”

How could an Earth-rank Creation Realm practitioner have such perception!

Wuyanzi immediately shielded Lin Pu and retreated violently. The tavern exploded in a shower of wood splinters.

The saber cultivator grew alert and raised his blade to block, reacting with extreme speed. But the old Daoist thrust out a hand that transformed into a black claw, snapping the blade instantly and piercing the man’s abdomen!

The old Daoist turned into a mass of rolling black sludge, like a living thing, sending out thousands of meridians from the black claw to entwine the saber cultivator.

The man screamed as his natal blade shattered. His flesh and blood transformed into a beam of red light that connected the blue sky and the earth, shooting straight into the clouds.

Simultaneously, similar red beams appeared in various parts of the city, some thick and some thin, all piercing toward the firmament.

“What is that?”

Numerous figures leaped to high vantage points. The cultivators all frowned in alarm.

The City Lord of this place was at the sixth realm, Earth-rank Fallen Realm. He led a group of Huangdao Alliance cultivators into the air, but before he could speak, he was ambushed and wounded from behind by two of his own sect disciples.

The City Lord struck back with a palm, repelling the traitors.

Seeing her husband attacked, the City Lord’s wife hurriedly chanted an incantation. Two bone-white chains manifested in the air, dragging the rebels to the ground and binding them.

The chains hissed as they bit into flesh and bone, the heat making the two scream in agony. The woman stepped forward to inspect them and looked at her husband in horror. “Black bones… they are demon ghosts from the Chaos Sea!”

The crowd erupted in an uproar, but the City Lord’s face paled. “Wife, watch out!”

The bodies of the two bound men had begun to melt and dissolve. The black bones of one of them snapped and shifted, shrinking into a bolt of black light that shot outward.

The woman was struck and spat blood. The City Lord pinned the demon ghost down with a burst of sword energy, killing it, and lunged behind his wife to catch her.

“Let go of her quickly!”

Not far away, a woman crouched on the back of a tiger, leaping across the rooftops toward the city center.

Lin Pu shouted anxiously, “When that demon ghost hit her, a sliver of dark light hid itself inside her body!”

The pain on the woman’s face did not change, but her ten fingers suddenly grew ten inches long, turning into sharp, skeletal talons. Before her husband could react, she drove them straight into his body!

Dust flew and a gale roared. The woman collapsed screaming as the other demon ghost bound by the chains seized the opportunity to break free and dove into the City Lord’s Dantian.

The City Lord stood up. After a few staggering steps, the whites of his eyes turned black. His Primordial Spirit tried to flee from his crown but was instantly dragged back into his body by a black hand.

With a mournful cry, the City Lord exploded into a mist of blood, which then transformed into a red beam several yards wide, piercing the clouds.

In an instant, black clouds gathered overhead, blotting out the sun. Mysterious patterns appeared on the city ground. Those standing on the earth, whether mortal or cultivator, dissolved into flesh and blood that flowed into the patterns.

The eighteen teleportation arrays in the city center exploded and were destroyed one by one. A massive vine arched out from the ground, absorbing the blood and flesh fed to it by the patterns. As it rolled and surged from the earth, it revealed itself to be the root system of a gargantuan plant.

The black roots twisted and rolled as if summoning something. The red light pillars throughout the city began moving toward the center, plowing deep, horrific trenches in the earth.

The surviving cultivators hurriedly joined forces, using flying artifacts to rush to buildings in the path of the light beams to rescue the trapped commoners. Even the giant tiger reluctantly returned to its original form, using its demonic strength to leap across rooftops and help carry people.

The red beams converged on the writhing roots at the city center. This sinister plant grew rapidly as if nourished, quickly budding into an inky-black flower.

Though they did not know what it was, every cultivator present felt a chill. Their spiritual senses warned them: That flower must not be allowed to bloom!

Countless brilliant spells thundered against it, but they could not nudge it in the least.

As the flower prepared to open, a bolt of lightning suddenly exploded from within the Huangdao Alliance cultivators. A scream rang out, and the sinister plant stopped growing.

A woman in a silk dress stood atop the spire of the tavern. She drew her bow once more, the arrow pointing directly at a screaming cultivator. Her eyes were cold as she asked sharply, “What incantation were you just chanting?”

As she spoke, the crest of the strange bird on her shoulder lit up, imbuing the arrow with eye-piercing lightning.

The Huangdao Alliance cultivators surrounding the man immediately scattered, turning their swords toward him in suspicion.

“Vice City Lord?”

A gurgling sound came from the throat of the Vice City Lord, who was in the True Immortal Realm. Another teleportation array exploded, and the plant began to move again.

Lin Pu was quick. She loosed a lightning arrow that struck first, instantly triggering a barrage of attacks from the crowd. After the explosion of light, only a mangled, bloody corpse remained.

The plant stopped growing again. The demon ghost inside did not seem to care as he tore through the tattered, bloody human skin, emerging completely unharmed. He had two-toed feet, a nose ring like a calf, and parched, charred flesh. He gave a sinister smile.

“I didn’t expect a little brat with a bone age of only twenty-four to call out my identity.”

“Though things have deviated slightly from the plan, the result is much the same.”

He looked around, his bright red tongue licking his parched lips as he narrowed his eyes.

“Every cultivator in Fan City above the fifth realm has been removed. Even together, you cannot harm me. We spent a great deal of effort to find an anchor point in the Eastern world. Though we wasted many people, the plan is finally complete.”

He looked up at the heights. “Little girl, you have the eyes to recognize me. Can you recognize the others who are hidden?”

There were still hidden demon ghosts!

Before the cultivators could panic, Lin Pu aimed her bow at the sky and fired. The lightning arrow exploded into a dozen clusters of thunder-fire, which then scattered and struck their targets.

In every direction, a dozen cultivators had their skins burned away by the fire. The lightning revealed their true forms: ink-colored bones.

This woman truly could identify demon ghosts!

The cultivators immediately divided themselves. One group protected Lin Pu while the others glared at the demon ghosts. As long as they weren’t being stabbed in the back like the City Lord, their cultivation levels were similar—they weren’t afraid of a fight!

The lead demon ghost tilted his head, his eyes showing surprise. “Only cultivators with eighteen open orifices can identify Chaos Ink Bones. I didn’t expect to encounter someone with a peerless skeletal structure in this remote Eastern land. This trip was worth it.”

“Since you have such a structure, you cannot be allowed to live.”

He stepped back as a dozen demon ghosts lunged forward.

The other cultivators intercepted the lackeys. The ox-nosed demon ghost stepped back and began chanting. The sinister flower on the plant swayed, its bud half-opening to slowly disgorge a black coffin.

Below, the cultivators clashed with the demon ghosts. These monsters had rigid bones and recovered at incredible speeds; blades and axes left only faint marks that healed in an instant.

As the black coffin emerged, the sky grew even darker. The sounds of ghostly wailing rose from all sides, and a cold, thick mist drifted in. As the battle reached a stalemate, a cultivator shouted anxiously, “Daoist, that coffin is ill-omened! We must break the demon ghost’s incantation!”

Lin Pu replied clearly, “I have a technique to seal his throat with thunder, but I need you all to help me take the high ground!”

This was easy enough. Several rogue cultivators who knew each other retreated, forming a killing array to hold off the ghosts. Then, several practitioners in the fourth realm, Creation Realm, stepped forward. One threw a flying fan artifact to serve as a platform for Lin Pu, while the others joined forces to cast a spell. The fan roared, carrying the woman into the sky!

Lin Pu leaped high, turned mid-air, and drew her bow to full strength. Wanxiang fluttered its wings, circling its master before shedding two golden tail feathers that attached themselves to the arrow. The arrow tip crackled with jumping electricity.

The ox-nosed demon ghost, locked on by the bow, felt an instinctive unease. He narrowed his eyes and, without stopping his chant, teleported instantly behind Lin Pu.

“Your archery is indeed remarkable to actually make me feel threatened. Since that is the case, I will first—”

“Caught you.” Lin Pu’s lips curled. She turned her hand and drove the arrow backward into the demon ghost’s body, then let go and fell rapidly, caught in mid-air by the giant tiger.

The demon ghost realized he had been tricked, but as he tried to pull the arrow out, the golden feathered arrow melted and fused to his flesh. The tip slithered like a spirit snake to his throat and exploded. Lightning and fire burned away his tongue, while the shaft melted into golden threads that formed a spherical cage, imprisoning him.

The golden cage fell from the sky. The other demon ghosts immediately abandoned the cultivators and pounced forward, turning into masses of black flesh to fill the gaps in the cage.

The lead demon ghost narrowed his eyes, absorbing his companions one by one as his tongue and throat slowly regenerated. He glared at Lin Pu with icy eyes.

By now, the sinister black coffin had been mostly vomited out by the ink-black flower.

The crowd was desperate, but at that moment, the woman put away her bow.

“You specifically targeted sword and saber practitioners because all you sought was the sharp Geng-Gold energy.”

Coincidentally, Lin Pu practiced the purest Geng-Gold path, and the foundation of the Starry Sea Arrow Art’s five-element intent was also Gold. She had emerged from the pocket realm having mastered the Gold intent, but she had yet to practice the other four elements. Facing those who sought Gold energy, she was truly restricted.

Therefore, in this fight, she only dared to use the thunder-feathered arrows modeled after Wanxiang’s tribulation, fearing the demon ghosts would steal her Gold energy and cause even greater disaster. But the golden arrow-cage was a non-offensive defensive technique; the demon ghosts could not steal Geng-Gold sharpness from it.

Seeing the demon ghost’s jaw in the cage slowly recover and his tongue flicker to restart the incantation, Lin Pu sighed as the sinister plant roots began to tremble again.

“My cultivation is shallow, and I am unlucky; the first enemy I meet on my path leaves me restricted. I cannot harm you, so I will simply imprison you and let someone who can harm you help.”

As her voice fell, a bronze-colored flame suddenly erupted within the golden cage.

The flame was only a small flicker, yet it appeared heavy and dense, like a glob of concentrated molten sludge. It scorched the demon ghost, making him let out a shrill, piteous howl.

The crowd looked up to see a man in red standing in the shadows of the ruins. He had been hiding his presence while creeping to this spot, his hands forming seals as he chanted with closed eyes.

The Bronze Sparrow Terrace excelled in forging and practiced Fire-element techniques. The “Forging Fire” researched by their disciples could refine all things, let alone the flesh and ink-bones of demon ghosts. Their sect treasure, the Tripod of the Station, had been stolen, and the Forging Fire within the tripod was lost with it. However, as a personal disciple of the Sect Master, Wuyanzi still possessed a sliver of the fire seed within her body.

But Forging Fire was meant for refining tools; it was not as nimble as other flames. To leave the body and attack an enemy, one had to get close.

The demon ghost rolled in agony as his skin and flesh gradually melted and steamed. After a moment, he fell to the ground, his body twitching as he glared with eyes full of venom.

“Forging Fire! Curse it, there is still a survivor of the Bronze Sparrow Terrace.”

Wuyanzi snapped her eyes open at his words, but it was too late.

The Forging Fire died out, the mysterious patterns on the ground faded and vanished, and the demon ghost turned to ash.

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