Chapter 378: A Complete ss (3)
The Blood Cult.
Under the strict orders of the Blood Cult Leader, they had sward into Gansu, waiting to exploit the war between the Orthodox Faction and the Demonic Cult. But because the Demonic Cult abruptly retreated, they were left stranded in an awkward limbo, unable to make a single move.
Then ca an opening. When the Mount Hua and Zhongnan Sects started running wild and pillaging civilians, the Blood Cult Leader saw his chance.
They began tailing the Zhongnan Sect, and whenever the Zhongnan Taoist priests tortured and killed civilians before moving on, the Blood Cult would move into those counties and use the corpses and blood left behind to absorb Blood Qi. Taking it a step further, they ambushed isolated groups of Zhongnan Taoists in a few counties and stole their identities. They crafted human skin masks from the faces of the murdered Taoists, and since the Blood Cult's sorceries allowed them to read the mories of vengeful souls, impersonating them was child's play.
They had been waiting for the right mont, when the Zhongnan Sect abruptly made for Qinghai. Seeing that, the Blood Cult Leader felt a sudden certainty settle in his chest.
'This definitely has sothing to do with those Demonic Cult bastards!'
And sure enough, he was right.
A battle between the Demonic Cult and the Orthodox Faction was already unfolding in Qinghai.
He had been watching and waiting, hoping for even more blood to flow and gauging the best mont to crash in when an unexpected shout froze him cold.
"Stop!! The Blood Cult is here!!"
It was Il-mok's cry.
Shortly after, Qingcheng Sect’s Taoists appeared and the fighting began to stall, and the Blood Cult Leader made his decision.
'It's now or never!'
With a gesture from the Blood Cult Leader, the sorcerers who had been standing by began casting their spells. The concealnt enchantnt shattered, and the Blood Cult's presence was laid bare for all to see.
Squelch!
All across the battlefield, Blood Cult fighters who had been disguised as Zhongnan Taoist priests answered the call.
As their daggers soaked in the blood of the Zhongnan’s Taoists, the Inverted Heaven Blood Dream Formation descended on the battlefield.
***
Vwoom.
As the Ascension Sword let out a resonating hum against the Formation blanketing the field, Il-mok swallowed a curse. Because Il-mok had already reached a high martial realm, simply using his Qi to repel the Formation's influence wasn't all that difficult for him. But even though he wasn't trapped in the illusion, witnessing the aftermath did nothing to make the situation any less grim.
"Die!!"
All around him, warriors who had succumbed to the Formation's mind-warping effects were shrieking at the top of their lungs, blindly swinging their weapons at anything that moved.
Each of them was trapped in their own worst nightmare.
"No!! Please, not my daughter!!"
"Darling!! Wake up, please!!"
And the ones hit hardest by the formation were none other than the Demonic Cultists.
"Why is the world so filthy!! It all has to be washed away!!"
"Aaaaargh!! I'll kill every last one of you!!"
"Right. What could a piece of trash like do?"
The Demonic Cultists were already prone to madness to begin with, and now that the Formation that brought down their worst nightmare was activated, they quickly descended into unescapable madness.
"Head of the Namgung Family, get the Namgung fighters sorted first!!"
After barking that order at Namgung Jin, Il-mok imdiately launched himself toward the Demonic Cult warriors.
Out of everyone, the one he made a beeline for first was Baek Cheon.
"Why?! Why won't anyone look at ?! Look at my dance, I said!!"
Baek Cheon already reached the Extremity of his Demonic Art, so he was one of the people who got hit harder than the rest. And on top of that, the martial art he'd trained in happened to be a hidden weapons technique.
"Look at eee!!"
The madman was actually about to start chucking every last hidden weapon he had left onto every single thing that moved.
BOOM!!
Il-mok sharpened his will to its absolute limit and stamped the ground hard.
"Ugh..."
Instantly, a crushing wave of pressure slamd down on Baek Cheon right as he was about to go on a throwing rampage. After using the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride to suppress Baek Cheon, he then sprinted over to strike his paralyzing acupoint.
"Subdue everyone who's been caught in the Formation first!!!"
Yangmuja pointed his sword straight at the cluster of Blood Cultists.
"Idiot!! Those bastards are working a spell over there!"
The area Yangmuja pointed at was littered with hundreds of corpses. Not only that, a massive vortex of Blood Qi was rapidly forming and the blood within those corpses was rapidly assimilated into that massive vortex.
And it wasn't just the corpses.
Even the blood of every living person with injuries within the battlefield was wrung from their body and then sucked into that massive vortex.
To stop this, Il-mok had to do more than just subdue the Demonic Cult fighters. He had to seal the acupoints around their wounds one by one to staunch the bleeding.
Whatever they were building was clearly going to be terrible, so Yangmuja bellowed and pointed at the sorcerers again.
"We have to slaughter those bastards right now!!"
The handful of masters who hadn't been caught in the Formation were still weighing their options when Taoist Master Cheongmok's shout cut through everything.
"Shut your fucking mouth!!"
Taoist Master Cheongmok's face had gone red with rage, making him look less like a Taoist and more like a vengeful demon.
"What did you just say!?"
Yangmuja shot back furiously, but Cheongmok was already far past the point of caring about respect.
"Unless you want to endure the living hell of watching your own disciples slaughter each other as my Qingcheng Sect did, subdue your people right now!!"
Despite his rage-filled expression, Taoist Master Cheongmok was actively turning his martial arts on his own Qingcheng disciples, completely ignoring the Blood Cult. His strikes weren't lethal and were aid to subdue the Qingcheng Taoists as fast as possible.
Finally grasping the gravity of the situation, the Beggar King and the Supre Ultimate Sword Immortal also quickly move to subdue the affected people.
"This is horrific..."
"Amitabha."
Even without Cheongmok's cry to prompt them, the disciples caught in the Formation had already started attacking each other.
Following that, the Buddha Venerable, Hwangbo Ak, and several other Orthodox masters launched themselves toward their own allies.
"Damn it."
"..."
Only then Yangmuja and Namgung Jin finally relent, leaping toward the Mount Heng Taoists and Namgung swordsn respectively.
But the Blood Cult wasn't just going to stand there and watch.
"For Blood Cult supremacy!!"
The Blood Cult warriors guarding the sorcerers drew their blades and charged straight at the Orthodox masters.
They weren't targeting those who had freed themselves from the Formation since anyone who could shake off the Formation that quickly was bound to be a master well beyond their reach.
Slash.
Instead, they aid for the helpless victims who were completely spaced out or swinging their weapons at phantoms.
"You motherless bastards!!"
Seeing that, Il-mok roared with bloodshot eyes.
Should he prioritize subduing his own people first, or should he drop everything to slaughter the incoming Blood Cultists?
While he was wrestling with his dilemma, he felt a fierce surge of cold Yin Qi erupting from sowhere and a wall of ice sprang up to block the path of the Blood Cultists.
"Miss Jin!!"
"Forgive for being late, Young Master."
This tily defense was all the handiwork of Jin Hayeon, who had seamlessly broken free from the Formation's influence.
"I'll hold them here."
Reassured by her steadfast words, Il-mok gave a firm nod and imdiately dove back into the chaotic crowd of Demonic Cultists.
While Jin Hayeon engaged the Blood Cult fighters who had charged at the Demonic Cult's side, voices rang out across the field.
"Junior Brother! Take over here!!"
"Elder!!"
Over on the Orthodox Faction's side, masters who had managed to snap out of the array's spell were also erging one by one.
Seeing that, Il-mok quietly swallowed a sigh.
He was fifty percent relieved and fifty percent frustrated.
'As expected, Demonic Arts and Blood Cult Formations are a terrible matchup.'
With the sole exception of Jin Hayeon, who is close to achieving Transcendence, not a single Demonic Cult fighter had broken free from the formation yet.
With the Blood Cult's sudden entry and the Formation thrown into the mix, the shape of the battle had taken a strange and twisted turn.
The masters who had freed themselves from the Formation were scrambling to protect those tied to them.
They prioritized taking care of their own people first. As a result, the martial artists of the Martial Alliance who had survived until now and the martial artists from small and dium-sized sects were being left to fend for themselves and dropping dead one after another.
"Wake up, all of you!!"
Fortunately, Hwangbo Ak didn’t bring his own people into this conflict, so he was busy sprinting all over the battlefield trying his best to shield the neglected people.
But because the warriors from every faction were completely scattered throughout the chaotic lee, it was virtually impossible for a handful of sane masters to protect everyone.
Jin Hayeon was in the sa bind.
"You little bitch!!"
Jin Hayeon gritted her teeth as she batted aside the blade from an old Blood Cultist with her twin palms.
Clack.
The man was one of the Blood Cult's Elders, but Jin Hayeon was able to take him with ease. He was about two levels below her, so she could handle him if given enough exchanges.
The problem was sothing else entirely.
"Haaaah!"
While she was tied up with this elder, so of the Blood Cult fighters were making a run for the Demonic Cult fighters further away.
Il-mok was already stretched from going above in his effort, so expecting him to fend off those incoming Blood Cultists at the sa ti was not possible.
‘I have to keep the promise I made to Young Master.’
Jin Hayeon steeled herself for the possibility of taking a cut from the elder's blade in exchange for keeping her people safe, but just before she was able to make a drastic move, a savage burst of wind split the air, and the Blood Cult fighters collapsed one after another.
TWANG!
It was Jeong Hyeon's handiwork.
It had taken her a bit longer, but she had finally managed to shatter the Formation's psychological hold over her.
"Phew."
Jin Hayeon quietly exhaled in relief and turned a cold gaze on the elder.
"Damn it."
As the elder spat out a curse, Jin Hayeon unleashed her Yin Qi on him.
While she drove the Blood Cult elder into a corner, more people were coming to their senses across the battlefield.
Among them were Hyeokryeon Seon-ah and Ouyang Mun.
Between the two of them and Jeong Hyeon, all three had not only broken free from the Extremity stage but had already experienced this Formation once before, which was why they had managed to break free, even if they were late to the party.
On the flip side, they were the last of the Demonic Cult fighters to do so.
Counting Il-mok and Jin Hayeon, only five in total had broken free with their own effort. Everyone else had either killed each other while still trapped in the Formation or had been knocked out by Il-mok and was lying on the ground.
Thud.
After successfully knocking out the last Demonic Cult fighter, Il-mok let out a faint breath and turned his head.
Smack!
At that mont, Jin Hayeon was driving both palms into the Blood Cult elder's gut.
"Urk..."
With the freezing Qi of her Ice Arts rapidly invading his internal organs, the old man practically froze to death while still standing on his feet.
The rest of the field was following the sa pattern.
A few more Orthodox masters had broken free from the Formation, and most of the Blood Cult fighters were being cleaned up. The fighters still caught in the formation had either been subdued or were already corpses lying flat on the ground.
The battle that had tangled so many factions together in a chaotic lee had left barely thirty people still standing on their own two feet.
And then, “By the power of the laws!”
With the last cry from the Blood Cult sorcerers, the crimson streams of blood that had been flowing toward the Blood Cult across the battlefield ca to a stop.
"Awaken!"
By that command, the entity that had absorbed an enormous amount of blood from across the battlefield rose to its feet.
It was a presence Il-mok recognized.
He had seen it with his own eyes once before, and had gone over its description many tis as well.
But even so, its sheer presence was not sothing a person could just get used to.
"You've got to be fucking kidding ..."
Even though Il-mok had grown exponentially stronger since the Sichuan massacre, goosebumps were crawling up every inch of his skin.
Centered around the existence that had raised its body, a blood-curdling Qi descended on the battlefield.
In terms of sheer Qi volu alone, it could match that of the recently ascended Heavenly Demon.
While everyone was looking at the Jiangshi with faces full of tension due to that terrible presence, the old man who had awakened the creature finally spoke
"Heavenly Blood Jiangshi, exterminate these pathetic insects."
The mont the elder finished speaking—
Flash.
The Jiangshi standing at the center of the Blood Cult’s sorcerers vanished.
SPLAT!
And a heartbeat later, the head of a Mount Heng Taoist exploded.
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