Chapter 113: Gong Chenying’s Dominance
The gaunt monk’s gaze slowly swept across to the other side. A sharper glint flickered in his eyes and a deeper fury brewed in his heart.
“Why couldn’t we have run into Ten-Step Court or the Grand Profound Sect first? Why must it be the one group I least wanted to see, Wraith Sect or the band of beast cultivators? If it were one of the other two sects, this would’ve led straight into a frenzy of bloody vengeance.
“But now, it’s the Wraith Sect and they’ve had time to recover. Meanwhile, we’re operating on barely half our usual spiritual power. There’s no way they’ll give us the chance to rest. This battle… it’s likely a doomed one.”
Behind him, the eighteen monks stood with wooden expressions, yet a faint trace of resolution could be seen in their eyes. They understood their predicament well.
“Amitabha…”
A flash of cold clarity crossed the gaunt monk’s eyes. He only wished to stall for time with some pretext.
“Kill!”
A crisp voice echoed through the sphere. A streak of azure light shot like lightning toward the gaunt monk. Gong Chenying had given him not even a sliver of chance. In fact, she now regretted not acting even sooner.
The Wheel of Life and Death wasn’t like the secret realm harvest, where there were countless precedents to follow. If she’d struck the moment the first enemy appeared, that would’ve been the best timing.
With a cold shout, Gong Chenying’s figure was the first to erupt forward. A azure streak as sharp as lightning, slashed out.
The gaunt monk with Dharma name Zhi Zhong was furious and stunned. He hadn’t expected the other side to launch an attack so suddenly, after maintaining a calm façade. His plans were instantly disrupted.
Not only was his side heavily depleted of spiritual power, but they were also outnumbered. Though they had more cultivators at the tenth level of Qi Condensation, the situation hardly counted as an advantage now.
Zhi Zhong’s cultivation was at the late Foundation Establishment stage, a step away from Pseudo Core. His Buddhist arts were profound, ranking him among the top ten in the Pure Land Sect’s secret realm selection. He’d been chosen as team leader specifically because of a nearly demonic Buddhist cultivation art called Blood Seed Tuo.
This sinister technique, at its very first stage, required the blood essence of 108 virgins to refine. A strand of his pure Yang body would be converted into Yin Blood and Qi and those women, still conscious and aware would be tortured in agony as though plunged into the eighteenth level of hell.
Their fate was tragic, but in Zhi Zhong’s words:
“This person has karmic ties with the Buddha. They may yet be saved.”
After cultivating the technique, he wielded both Yin and Yang energies, able to suppress foul auras and resist demonic corruption. It was both sacred and profane, Buddha and Nirvana in one and this duality was exactly why he’d been selected to face the Wraith Sect.
Now, with azure light already at his brow, Zhi Zhong’s eyes flared with murderous light.
He flicked a finger, summoning a blood-red talisman marked with arcane script. It shimmered like plum blossoms soaked in virgin’s blood and flew to meet the azure light.
Boom!
An explosion burst mid-air between them, sending a shockwave rippling outward. The cultivators behind them staggered with dizziness and panic, immediately retreating from the epicenter.
The sphere had expanded again after the Pure Land cultivators entered, nearly twenty times its original size. The inner space now spanned at least seven or eight hundred zhang. Clearly, the arrival of the second group had triggered another restriction.
With the Qi Condensation disciples retreating, Gong Chenying and Zhi Zhong unleashed their attacks with even greater ferocity.
Gong Chenying lifted her hand and flung her verdant halberd into the air.
Soaring through the air, her hands formed a seal mid-flight. The halberd transformed into a fine needle-thin spear, emitting a piercing screech as it streaked toward the back of Zhi Zhong’s head with blinding blue light.
At the same time, she stepped mid-air as if upon solid ground, creating a rippling sound. Her figure instantly shifted to Zhi Zhong’s side.
Zhi Zhong’s divine sense locked onto her. Earlier, he had blocked her thunderous blow with nothing but a single talisman. Outwardly, it looked effortless but inwardly, he was shaken.
This tall, strikingly beautiful girl was only at mid Foundation Establishment. Her form was unlike any woman he had ever seen, seductive and wild, igniting a primal hunger deep within him. He longed to capture her and indulge in unspeakable cruelty.
Her body and beauty were unmatched. Just one glance and desire burned within him.
Though his cultivation surpassed hers, that first clash nearly disrupted his inner balance. His energy surged chaotically; it hadn’t been easy to withstand her force.
Only now did he realize, she was likely a body cultivator.
A female body cultivator… just imagining her hardened physique made his possessiveness deepen.
Still, he knew his own condition. With spiritual power down to sixty percent, even if he held the advantage, subduing her outright might not be so simple.
And yet, how formidable could a female body cultivator truly be? With his late Foundation Establishment, even if depleted, he would triumph in a prolonged clash. What he needed was distance. Close combat with a body cultivator was foolish.
But Gong Chenying’s combat instincts exceeded his expectations. After one failed strike, she immediately hurled her halberd behind him, sealing off his retreat. Zhi Zhong’s plan to kite her fell apart.
“Hmph!”
Zhi Zhong snorted coldly. His lips moved in rapid incantation. With a wave of his left hand, his yellow kasaya billowed outward, transforming into a cloud of golden light like a cloak caught in the wind.
The fluttering kasaya shielded his back, but even as it surged, his left hand curved into a claw, swiping at the air beside him.
At that very moment, space twisted with ripples and a long leg lashed out like lightning. A tall, lithe figure materialized beside him.
“Bang!”
The claw, dark and gaunt like tempered steel, slammed against her slender leg at the knee. A flash of cruel delight passed over Zhi Zhong’s sharp-featured face as he tightened his five fingers in a fierce grip, thinking this time he had seized Gong Chenying’s jade-like leg for certain.
Even if she slipped free, he would still shred her clothing, just enough exposure to humiliate this proud Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Yet, just as his fingers clenched, Gong Chenying’s originally forceful sweeping motion suddenly faltered. Her body twisted with uncanny fluidity and in an instant, she was face-to-face with Zhi Zhong.
This impossible contortion disrupted the rhythm of reality itself, giving off a jarring sense of dissonance. Her knee sank with a sudden drop, spirit light flashing wildly around her leg. With this sudden shift, she dissolved the force of Zhi Zhong’s grab and pull in a seamless flow.
As his grasp came up empty, Zhi Zhong instinctively cried out in alarm:
"Not good!"
Borrowing the force of that downward press, Gong Chenying's knee bent sharply and struck out with a fierce howl. The sheer speed of her movement tore through the air with a shrill sonic boom, smashing directly into Zhi Zhong’s now-extended fingers.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Amid a sharp scream, Zhi Zhong’s left hand was sent flying back, two fingers grotesquely twisted and broken.
Gong Chenying’s brutal, domineering style bore more than a passing resemblance to Zhao Min's, wild and overwhelming.
Her expression, however, remained cold and indifferent. Injuries like this, however gruesome, meant little to a Foundation Establishment cultivator. A simple circulation of spiritual power and they would soon be healed.
She gave him no time to recover.
Her figure lifted skyward once more. Looking up, she saw the fine azure spear had already struck the now-billowing yellow kasaya. The clash of blue and yellow sent light splashing through the air.
The needle-like spear embedded into the kasaya by an inch, but could go no further. Instead, it shrieked against the surface with a teeth-grinding screech.
With one hand, Gong Chenying seized the halbred's tail. Pouring her spiritual power into it, the weapon abruptly expanded again into its original massive form. Her body turned smoothly with the momentum, like a child swinging a spiked chain in wide circles.
Using herself as the axis, the giant halbred swept out in a blurring arc, bringing with it a crushing force, striking sideways toward Zhi Zhong.
Just as Gong Chenying had predicted, Zhi Zhong’s pain-numbed hand had already begun to regenerate. Spiritual power surged through his veins as he retreated in haste, restoring his fingers to normal with a grimace.
But then, a fresh wave of dread surged within him.
A massive azure halbred, heavy as a mountain, swept toward him like a battering ram. If that thing hit, even a graze from its crescent-shaped blade could cause injuries beyond the scope of simple spiritual energy healing.
Zhi Zhong dared not meet a weapon like that with his body. Mustering all his strength, he vanished sideways in a flicker of light. At the same time, he gestured behind him, summoning his kasaya, which twisted into a dragon-like stream of golden fabric, sweeping forward to intercept the azure halbred.
While the two were locked in this furious duel, several hundred feet away, the battlefield was even more chaotic. Not because the individual cultivators were more powerful but because of the sheer number of them.
With spells of all kinds flying in every direction, spiritual force clashed in roars and explosions, lighting up the spherical space like a festival of war.
From the beginning of the battle, the eighteen monks had not uttered a single word, not even a chant of Buddha’s name. Their silence was eerie.
Each one fought with clenched lips and ruthless precision, forming the Eighteen Arhats Formation. With swift, flowing movement, they clashed head-on with the Wraith Sect cultivators, throwing all caution aside, burning their spiritual power with suicidal abandon. Buddha light blazed through the chamber like a rising sun.
For a moment, they even forced the Wraith Sect to retreat step by step.
Among these eighteen monks, eleven were at great perfection Qi Condensation and the remaining seven were in the late tenth level, an overwhelmingly powerful lineup.
Li Yan’s group of thirty-six, by contrast, included only seven great perfection Qi Condensation cultivators and ten in the late tenth level. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t stand a chance. A single great perfection cultivator was not someone a group of ten lower-tier ones could easily defeat.
But the Wraith Sect cultivators had long seen through the monks’ tactic, a burst of explosive power built upon dwindling reserves. When the monks entered the sphere, they had already scanned their opponents' spiritual strength. Every one of the eighteen monks had less than half their usual reserves. They clearly intended to end the battle quickly.
So the Wraith Sect split into six squads of six, and each squad surrounded itself with a barrier, some smoky, some misty, some like rain or drifting sand.
Though the monks were expressionless, their minds were still clear. They attacked fiercely, yes, but in their eyes lingered traces of dread. They dared not approach those strange barriers lightly. Even their spells avoided deep penetration, often retreating the instant they met resistance.
This made their attacks increasingly ineffective.
In just a few breaths, they had shifted from assault to defense, now huddled together, striking only on occasion, relying instead on the mobility of their Arhat Formation to fend off the siege. It was obvious they meant to conserve what spiritual energy they could and strike only when opportunity truly arose.
Li Yan’s team had taken shelter behind the rain curtain he conjured. The five cultivators behind him, after witnessing the earlier barrage, couldn’t help sighing to themselves.
Three of them had activated defensive techniques, but the other two, upon seeing the strange rain curtain Li Yan summoned, had opted to merely assist defensively. Li Yan didn’t mind.
After a few waves of attacks, the five of them finally relaxed.
The other five squads had barriers too, mist, sand, smoke but none were as effective as Li Yan’s.
Li Yan had used his infamous “Bone-Clinging Maggot” technique alongside his Raincloud spell. Whether the monks launched spiritual attacks or unleashed spirit treasures, the moment they touched the rain, their momentum faltered.
Their weapons and spells crawled forward inch by inch, soon dimmed into gray smudges, and collapsed before they could reach their targets.
A dozen steps away, spirit treasures clattered lifelessly to the ground, stripped of all their spiritual aura.
Watching their enemies’ prized treasures turn into useless junk, the five behind the rain screen couldn’t help but feel their hearts lurch in silent horror.
(Chapter End)