Chapter 143 - Siege of Iron Crag City
Deep within the subterranean darkness of the eighth stronghold, the stagnant air carried a certain scent of decay and death.
At the center of it all, Chen Wuhen sat cross-legged upon a stone platform. His preserved corpse body, refined through the Corpse Refining Demonic Technique, was draped in enchanted dark funeral robes. Across his lap lay the curved silhouette of the Blood Moon Sabre, a Quasi-Saint Grade artifact.
Suddenly, his blood-red eyes snapped open.
A violent tremor rippled through his sea of consciousness. Across the mental link of the Nine Seed Transference Art, one of his nine soul anchors had been severed.
The vessel within the Heavenly Phoenix Sect elite in Stronghold Three had been extinguished in a single breath.
"The Devil..." Chen Wuhen was shocked, "That Devil Jun Tianya has broken through my Nine Shadows Concealment Art!"
His voice, usually calm and collected, now carried a hint of panic. From the lingering spiritual trace, he recognized the merciless violet lightning of Jun Tianya.
Three hundred years ago, that very lightning had slaughtered thousands of demonic cultivators and bathed the continent in blood. He had never expected the Sect Master to breach the Nine Shadows Concealment Art so quickly. If Stronghold Three had fallen, the righteous sects likely already possessed the coordinates of the rest of the strongholds.
He had to take action. Now. He could not delay it further.
Connected by the shared soul network, all surviving vessels felt the loss simultaneously. Across their strongholds, each split soul acted in parallel, immediately instructing the demonic cultivators to prepare and accelerate the Blood Sea Transformation Ritual. They were to feed the blood altars with as much as they could.
***
Near Chen Wuhen, from the shadows, a woman in crimson silk appeared in soft footsteps. Her posture carried an intoxicating charm. She was Lady Tao, a popular courtesan from the Hundred Fragrances Pavilion in the neighboring Great Xia Kingdom, whose fame had been rising fast in recent years.
She had recently been approached by a stranger claiming to represent a reclusive force, offering her a rare chance of breakthrough to the Core Formation realm, something no ordinary courtesan could ever hope to achieve on her own.
Eager to seize a power she desperately needed to take her revenge, she accepted without hesitation.
The first pill went down easier than she expected, and her cultivation surged forward almost overnight. She did not notice at first, but her thoughts grew quieter between the doses. Her own will seemed to soften and recede. Each pill after that dissolved a little more of her, replacing it with something else, someone demonic.
By the time she broke through to Core Formation, the woman who had once been Lady Tao was barely her own person. After Elder Cang Yun’s death, Demonic Ancestor Mo slipped into her weakened body, claiming her as his newest vessel.
Her slender fingers stroked a bronze bell engraved with mystical runes. Dark Yin Qi coursed through her meridians, harmonizing her vessel with the Dark Desire Art.
"This vessel is perfect," she whispered, her voice exuding a faint seduction.
Chen Wuhen glanced at her indifferently. The remaining vessels also took action as their eyes burned with dark resolve.
"Let them come," Chen Wuhen said softly, his fingers tightening around the hilt of the Blood Moon Sabre. "Every vessel they destroy only strengthens my resolve."
***
High above the southern mountain ranges, the Dragon-Bone warship of the Heavenly Cloud Sect cut through storm clouds.
Su Ming stood on the deck, his long robe snapping in the wind. Beside him, Peak Master Lei Zhenwu stood like an iron tower with his massive Halberd resting on his back.
A sharp chime rang from the jade token at Lei Zhenwu’s waist.
Lei Zhenwu picked up the token and infused spiritual Qi into it. A wide grin spread across his face.
"The Sect Master has flattened the third Stronghold in Phoenix territory," Lei Zhenwu said. "The third vessel did not even leave a bone behind."
Su Ming looked toward the distant horizon where dark clouds gathered over Black Crow Ridge.
"So the attack has begun across all fronts," Su Ming said calmly. "The Demonic Ancestor Mo should already be aware of this. The remaining outposts will not wait to be slaughtered."
Lei Zhenwu chuckled, his knuckles crackling against his halberd.
"Let them struggle. Today, the Heavenly Cloud Sect digs out every root of the Nine Shadows Sect."
***
Sixty thousand li to the east, in the borderlands under the Heavenly Cloud Sect’s domain, Iron Crag City, the ancestral home of the Fang Clan, was enveloped in blood-red mist.
Nestled within the rugged peaks of the Iron Crag Mountains, the entire frontier city had been turned into a demonic slaughterhouse.
Alerted by sect movements, the Clan Patriarch, the Demonic Ancestor Mo’s second vessel, had activated the hidden blood formation. Thousands of mortal servants, clan guards, and captive cultivators were trapped within the plazas, their vitality being siphoned into the patriarch’s body to push his aura to cross into the Saint realm.
In the sky above, the warship broke through the heavy fog.
Leading the punitive vanguard was the Golden Qilin Peak’s First Elder Nie.
The elder hovered in the sky, his face stern, ready to serve justice to the demonic scourge of the city. Golden battle armor covered his broad shoulders, and across his back rested a massive, gold-plated executioner’s blade. Behind him, the rest of the elders formed a tight formation.
Elder Nie looked down at the screaming mortals trapped within the blood channels, his brow furrowing in cold disgust.
Renowned for strict enforcement of the sect laws, Elder Nie refused to bombard the estate and slaughter innocent mortals.
"The Sect Master has given the decree," Elder Nie spoke, his voice echoing like rolling thunder. "The demonic scourge shall be purged! The innocent shall be spared!"
Down in the courtyard, the possessed patriarch laughed wildly, black demonic veins pulsing across his face.
"Spared?! Hypocrites of the Heavenly Cloud Sect, die with them!"
The patriarch slammed his palms onto the stone altar. Demonic runes blazed with sickening brilliance across the blood channels, siphoning the sacrificial essence of hundreds of corrupted disciples directly into his flesh. His aura swelled violently, breaking past the peak of Avatar Formation and surpassing the threshold of the Saint Realm.