Chapter 254 - A Golden Core and a Devil
The formation surrounding Su Bai finished taking shape.
Thousands of demonic cultivators moved as one force rather than a disorderly mob.
Foundation Establishment cultivators anchored the outer formation while Golden Core cultivators gathered into smaller attack groups behind them. The Nascent Soul leaders remained farther back, controlling the larger flow of Qi and watching Su Bai for any reaction.
The pressure alone was considerable.
Demonic Qi gathered across the battlefield until the air itself seemed heavier. Dark currents rolled over one another, carrying traces of blood, cold Yin, corpse energy, and other strange attributes that Su Bai could not immediately identify.
An ordinary cultivator standing at the center of that formation might have struggled to breathe.
Su Bai merely watched.
He had no intention of holding back.
There were too many enemies.
Against one opponent, leaving something hidden could be useful. Against thousands, unnecessary restraint only created more chances for something unexpected to happen.
Especially when the people surrounding him had already received an order to kill.
Su Bai slowly flexed his fingers.
If anything, he preferred this to fighting Returnees.
Those things had possessed bodies that ignored common sense.
Humans were easier.
No matter how strange their cultivation method became, they still had meridians, Dantians, joints, organs, spell structures, circulation routes, and moments when one movement had to connect to the next.
Humans had flaws, and Su Bai liked flaws.
Across the battlefield, the first Nascent Soul cultivator raised his hand.
"Do not approach him directly."
The demonic cultivators obeyed.
Several formation flags rose into the air at once.
Dark-red light spread between them before condensing into a massive blood-colored seal overhead. Elsewhere, a group of Golden Core cultivators released streams of black mist that twisted into several enormous serpents.
Another formation activated beneath the ground.
Thin shadows moved through the cracks in the stone, approaching Su Bai from below while avoiding the artifact spirits floating around him.
None of the attacks were careless.
They came from different directions and at different heights, forcing a target to divide attention between the sky, ground, and surrounding spiritual pressure.
Hidden among the larger techniques were smaller things: black daggers, bone fragments carved with runes, and thin strands almost invisible to the naked eye.
Several talismans disappeared into the air entirely after activation.
Su Bai’s spiritual sense caught all of them.
The ancient saber suddenly laughed.
"They still fight like this after all these years?"
The hammer moved beside it.
"Some traditions refuse to die."
The bow gave a displeased hum.
"Demonic cultivators."
There was enough contempt in those two words to make Su Bai glance at them.
Just then, the massive blood seal above them descended.
The saber immediately turned.
"Leave these things to us."
Su Bai looked at the approaching techniques.
More than a dozen ancient weapons had already spread apart.
Some glowed. Others released faint killing intent. Several had waited countless years for an opportunity to leave the Sanctuary, and apparently their first experience outside was going to involve fighting demonic cultivators.
They did not seem disappointed.
Su Bai smiled.
"Fine."
The saber shot upward.
The blood seal descended at the same moment.
A brilliant saber light crossed the sky.
The enormous seal split through the center.
Before the fragments could explode, the hammer struck from below and shattered one half into scattered demonic Qi.
Three other ancient weapons moved simultaneously.
A narrow sword pierced through one of the black serpents, while a hooked weapon tore another apart from the side. The remaining techniques crashed against the ancient weapons gathering around Su Bai and burst apart before they could reach him.
The demonic cultivators immediately adjusted.
Nobody stood there shocked simply because the first attack failed.
"Artifact spirits are protecting him!"
"Shift the formation."
"Do not waste large techniques on the weapons. Attack through the gaps."
The Golden Core groups separated.
Their next attacks became smaller, faster, and more concentrated.
Su Bai watched all of it.
Meanwhile, the needle-shaped Qi within Su Bai’s body had already begun to stir.
More and more of it flowed through his ten Dantians, while the Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent Seed gradually spread its influence through the countless needles.
Su Bai did not release them yet.
He continued waiting as the demonic formation drew closer.
Their attacks became denser.
The Nascent Soul cultivators were still maintaining distance, but the Golden Core groups had already entered a range where Su Bai could see the flaws in their movement without effort.
Even the formations possessed weaknesses.
Qi flowed from one person to another.
A formation node depended on timing.
A technique had moments when its structure was stable and moments when it changed.
The more complicated something became, the more connections it possessed.
And every connection created another place where something could go wrong.
Su Bai’s smile faded.
’Close enough.’
The tenth Tribulation Mark within his Golden Core foundation stirred.
Su Bai released the Void Ring’s concealment completely.
The effect was immediate.
The battlefield changed.
A heavy pressure swept across the battlefield, causing the demonic cultivators nearest to Su Bai to stiffen.
What struck them first was not merely Golden Core pressure.
It was the accumulated weight behind it, a foundation so dense that it felt completely wrong for the realm it belonged to.
Several Foundation Establishment cultivators lost consciousness before understanding what had happened.
Their bodies collapsed inside the formation.
Others staggered as their Qi circulation broke rhythm.
Golden Core cultivators fared better, but many still paled when the pressure crashed into them without warning.
More importantly, the sudden disruption affected the formations.
A blood formation overhead flickered.
One of the black serpents lost half its body.
Several coordinated techniques shifted out of alignment.
The Nascent Soul leaders reacted almost immediately.
"Stabilize yourselves!"
"Do not resist the pressure directly!"
"Repair the third formation node!"
Their commands restored order quickly.
But Su Bai had never expected the pressure alone to defeat them.
He only needed an opening.
That was when his Qi needles emerged.
For an instant, the air around Su Bai seemed to glitter.
The demonic cultivators barely had time to understand what they were seeing before the needles vanished from sight.
They were too fast.
More importantly, none of them flew randomly.
Each needle had already been given a target.
A flaw.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator who had fainted felt nothing before a needle pierced the center of his brow.
Another passed through a weakened formation node before entering the throat of the cultivator behind it.
A Golden Core cultivator twisted away from one needle, only for it to curve in midair and change its angle.
His eyes widened.
The needle entered beneath his ribs.
Elsewhere, three needles converged on the same target from different directions.
The cultivator raised a defensive shield.
Two struck the barrier.
The third slipped through a damaged edge created by the first impact, and pierced directly through his shoulder into the meridian beneath it.
His circulating Qi collapsed.
The next needle finished the job.
Chaos spread through the demonic ranks.
"Those needles can turn!"
"Protect the formation nodes!"
"Do not dodge alone. Defend in groups!"
The surviving leaders adapted quickly.
Golden Core cultivators gathered into smaller defensive formations. Shields overlapped, while Yin barriers and blood-colored defensive talismans appeared around the strongest groups.
Several Nascent Soul cultivators acted personally.
One released a wave of dark Qi that erased dozens of approaching needles at once.
Another formed a massive skeletal hand and swept across the battlefield, crushing hundreds before they could reach their targets.
Su Bai’s eyes moved toward them.
They were fast.
Experienced too.
That was why they survived.
The others were less fortunate.
The first wave of Qi needles had already reached the cultivators whose concentration had broken under Su Bai’s released pressure.
The weaker Foundation Establishment ranks collapsed almost immediately.
Some died before regaining consciousness.
Others managed to activate defensive treasures only for the needles to strike flaws in the protections themselves.
Golden Core cultivators lasted longer.
Several destroyed the needles directly.
Others sacrificed talismans, weapons, or defensive artifacts to survive.
A few escaped through movement techniques.
But every time one of them exposed a weakness during the escape, another needle changed direction.
The battlefield became filled with thin streaks of Qi.
The demonic cultivators had expected spiritual techniques.
They had even prepared for the artifact spirits.
They had not expected thousands of attacks capable of adjusting their trajectories around individual flaws.
Su Bai remained at the center of it all.
His fingers barely moved.
His spiritual sense divided again and again, guiding groups of needles without trying to control every single one individually.
The Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent Seed did the rest.
A Nascent Soul cultivator suddenly noticed something.
"Guard your meridian pathways!"
The warning saved several people, but it’s not enough.
Another wave of needles entered the battlefield.
The ancient weapons were not idle either.
Whenever a large-scale spell approached Su Bai, they intercepted it.
Whenever demonic cultivators attempted to close the distance from a blind angle, an artifact spirit appeared in front of them.
The ancient saber seemed especially enthusiastic.
A Golden Core cultivator barely blocked one slash before the saber laughed.
"Still using blood mist to hide your movement? Your ancestors were doing that before your sect had a name!"
The cultivator’s expression changed.
The second slash broke through his defense.
The hammer passed nearby and gave the saber a dissatisfied hum.
"You talk too much."
"I have been trapped for countless years."
"That does not make this better."
Su Bai almost laughed.
He restrained himself.
The battlefield was changing too quickly.
Thousands had surrounded him, but that number was falling at a terrifying rate.
The Foundation Establishment lines broke first.
Without them, several support formations collapsed.
The surviving Golden Core cultivators were forced inward toward the Nascent Soul leaders, abandoning the original encirclement and concentrating their defenses instead.
The ground was littered with broken treasures, shattered talismans, and bodies.
Hundreds remained standing.
Some had survived through strength, some through experience, some because the Nascent Soul cultivators had protected them at the critical moment, and a few had simply been fortunate enough not to become the target of a needle before the defensive formations stabilized.
Whatever the reason, the survivors were no longer looking at Su Bai the same way.
They had expected an unknown cultivator.
Perhaps an old expert hiding his realm.
Perhaps someone relying on an ancient concealment treasure.
Now the Void Ring was no longer fully suppressing him.
They could finally sense his cultivation.
Several surviving Golden Core cultivators stared at him.
One of them seemed unable to accept what his spiritual sense was telling him.
"Golden Core..."
Someone beside him answered in disbelief.
"That is... impossible."
The Nascent Soul cultivator at the center of their formation said nothing.
His expression had become grim.
He could sense it too.
The young man who had just shattered most of their force really was a Golden Core cultivator.
The discovery should have made Su Bai less frightening.
Instead, it made everything worse.
A Golden Core cultivator was not supposed to release pressure capable of collapsing Foundation Establishment cultivators across a battlefield.
A Golden Core cultivator was certainly not supposed to slaughter through an organized force while several Nascent Soul cultivators were actively commanding it.
The surviving cultivators tightened their formation.
Nobody charged.
Nobody suggested that Su Bai was weak because of his realm.
They had already paid too much blood for that mistake.
One of the Nascent Soul cultivators looked toward the distant battlefield where their Void-Shattering senior was still being held back by Yue Cangyu.
Another stared at Su Bai.
"We cannot scatter."
"I know."
"If we separate, those needles will kill us individually."
The first cultivator nodded.
"Keep the formation closed. Force him to attack us together."
Their response was correct.
Su Bai could see that immediately.
The surviving group had sacrificed mobility for defense, layering their barriers so that no single weakness could easily expose everyone behind it.
The careless ones were dead.
What remained were the cultivators smart enough, strong enough, or fortunate enough to survive the first exchange.
Su Bai looked at them.
The demonic cultivators looked back.
His released aura still weighed across the battlefield.
No one moved for several breaths.
Su Bai eventually smiled at them.
The reaction was immediate.
Several Golden Core cultivators tightened their grip on their weapons.
One Nascent Soul cultivator’s eyelid twitched.
Su Bai noticed.
’Why are they looking at me like that?’
Behind him, the saber laughed.
"Young man, perhaps you should stop smiling."
Su Bai glanced toward it.
"Why?"
The hammer answered instead.
"Because you are standing in the middle of several thousand corpses."
Su Bai looked around.
He considered the situation.
His pale complexion probably was not helping either.
Across from him, one of the surviving demonic cultivators swallowed.
For the first time, Su Bai understood what they were seeing.
A sickly pale young man stood surrounded by ancient artifact spirits, his Golden Core aura pressing across the battlefield while thousands of their companions lay dead around him.
Su Bai slowly looked back at the survivors.
They called themselves demonic cultivators.
At the moment, however, the way they were staring at him suggested that they had reached a rather different conclusion about who the real devil was.