1425 Chapter 1419: CKC, Evercrown (23)
"Come at me! Bastard!"
"Stay alert, behind you!"
"...!"
"DIE! DIE!! DIE!!!"
"Feed me, Mister. I'm so hungry…you look…DELICIOUS!!"
The whole world was engulfed in bloody violence and tension as lives were reaped; Ascendants, Chosen, and Evil Sentinels alike were clashing violently for survival or greed, dying the vast lands of the Evercrown Ceremony in the blood of unresolved grievance, unyielding will, and murderous intent.
The fourth alchemical radiance in the sky signified a great, indescribable change. The Evil Sentinels were unleashed without fetters, stronger and in greater numbers than earlier, and at their head was a controller of the most fearsome type—a Spiritual Cultivator.
The marble-skinned Evil Sentinel shrieked out soul-rending noises that disrupted the hearts and minds. Some Chosen went mad, fought against their allies, and others died helplessly as their Sea of Consciousness was ruthlessly invaded with their defenses crumbling at the seams, leaving them in a state similar to a dry fish on a cutting board—awaiting slaughter.
"Where is she?!" An Ascendant roared, their shark manifestation biting into the torso of an Evil Sentinel, occupying their focus as they assisted their allies.
"FIND HER!" Another Ascendant shouted clashing with another Ascendant. The latter was infected by a sound-based Ascension Spiritual Art that confused the mind and beguiled one's intent. They fought as if the other was their lifelong enemy.
"EITHER YOU DIE OR I WILL!!!" The Ascendant had lost their sense of reason, only exuding the purest form of killing intent, all targeted towards his enemy! If it wasn't for his cultivation base being an entire stage lower, the other Ascendant would have been left with little choice but to fight with his strongest means.
The Ascendants scoured the vast lands hectically trying to locate the marble-skinned Evil Sentinel. Unfortunately, they were all plagued by an issue: they are Mortals. Some of them had special sensory methods or tools, but the enemy wasn't an ordinary Ascendant, but one who grasped Mystic Heart Intent. This woman was no less inferior than Trueborn's leader!
Fearsome!
The Ascendants faced drastically disadvantageous situations, all developing due to a single entity. Moreover, she moved like a ghost, popping up sporadically to slay a few Ascendants and Chosen without warning. She was like a banshee of legends with her spiritual sound-type spells and arts, reaping lives and disrupting hearts.
Three lights landed together forming a trio of heart-stirring beauty. Wu Baozhai's valiant demeanor, Xue Yifei's charismatic presence, and Na Xinyi's ethereal elegance could shake the world, yet they all had heavy frowns on their darkened, stunning, and enviable faces.
27:21.
Only 39 seconds had passed since the second wave began, yet the situation had grown unpredictably.
"She's a smart one," Na Xinyi commented bitterly. She couldn't locate the marble-skinned Evil Sentinel. Additionally, she couldn't find the charcoal-skinned Evil Sentinel either. The woman had immediately gone into hiding and never resurfaced for longer than half a second. Whether she succeeded in claiming a life or not, she sunk back into hiding without hesitation.
"All my prepared spiritual and spatial means didn't work," Xue Yifei softly said, her eyes glistening with a demonically violet light. The target was a Spiritual Cultivator with an abnormally adeptness with Spiritual Arts, Spells, and Aura. Furthermore, she possessed Mystic Heart Intent and clearly grasped the Spirit-type and Spatial-type Mystic Runes; she was invisible to Ernu's powers as well.
Xue Yifei was helpless.
Wu Baozhai clenched her halberd's shaft tightly, her Imperial Heaven Aura seething. She had briefly clashed with the marble-skinned Evil Sentinel with her three World Heart Intents after seizing her location by chance. However, the woman burst with a surge of Mystic Heart Intent and fled instantly. She tried to launch her halberd at her, but by the time it arrived, she was gone.
Wu Baozhai felt stifled. Incredibly stifled. Evercrown Ceremony's platform was too vast in area, and their target was intelligent, cunning, and aware of their strength, refusing to fight directly. A proper strategic tactic of a Spiritual Cultivator, but annoying nonetheless.
However, she couldn't fault her. Whether it was her, Xue Yifei, Na Xinyi, or even Da Shan, they had all revealed their strengths at certain points, exposing their ability to deal with her directly, and her refusing to engage was expected. Knowing this did absolutely nothing to change how she felt though.
"..." Na Xinyi's pristinely white sword glistened with sword light at its tip, reflecting her own frustration. While she had refined a Spirit Core, and elevated her Spiritual Strength by several levels, she wasn't an adept Spiritual Cultivator, and only had access to her mortal means. It never dawned on her that an elite individual that could rival a figure that Wei Wuyin had described once, the Trueborn's leader, would act so cowardly with all their power.
"Any ideas?" Na Xinyi was one of the rare types that could accept her own inferiority when it came to schemes and intelligence, often being rather open with accepting Wu Baozhai as the smarter, more cunning of the two, and while she continuously strived to improve her mental state, intelligence, and schemes, she wasn't arrogant enough to never ask for others' thoughts and opinions, letting them take lead if need be.
"..." Yet the two princesses were completely silent.
Xue Yifei knew that Zuhei could find this marble-skinned Evil Sentinel. The man was a hunter in the most primal sense. Alas…
Who knew that Wei Wuyin would set such a terrifying obstacle in the path? This was definitely testing the limits of their abilities. Oddly enough, Xue Yifei felt invigorated and refreshed. She loved challenges. She loved puzzles even more.
Eventually, Xue Yifei could only say: "We gather; we need to reduce our rate of losses and at least, restrict the area she could hunt. She's avoiding us, so let her. We can properly plan after."
"Mn," Na Xinyi nodded acceptingly. It was a passive position, but they had no active moves in her mind. The possibility of the two Evil Sentinels joining forces wore heavy on all of their hearts. The duo wouldn't just be a typical nightmare.
"Sure—HMPH!! " Wu Baozhai agreed; however, she suddenly tossed her halberd as her aura erupted at the 2nd Grand Transformation! The halberd streaked across the sky with a tail of starry light. It blitzed tens of thousands of miles in a breath. The halberd released pulsing Imperial Heaven Force.
"You!" A marble-skinned woman was pushed out of fixed space, and her Environmental Integration concealment spell collapsed before the Imperial Heaven Aura. The woman's expression was a little shaken as she hurriedly gathered her Mystic Heart Intent into her Mystic Aura, establishing a defensive barrier of white creamy light. Within that creamy light was a tinge of violet.
BOOSH! The woman was violently pushed back after a breathy groan, deflecting the halberd with a shove. Her lips leaked a creamy sanguine liquid, clearly injured. She then vanished as if melting into space itself. A strand of violet was left there, dissipating slowly.
"Slut! You left something on me?! You conniving bitch!" These vicious words lingered as her aura completely disappeared, her existence like air—unseen.
Xue Yifei's brows furrowed deeply. "Likewise," she spat.
Wu Baozhai lightly grunted. The backlash of the woman's defense and her sudden actions caused her 2nd Grand Transformation to prematurely end. She had to take several deep breaths. "Sorry," she said. Xue Yifei had left her with a strand of demonic dragon aura. When she had clashed with the marble-skinned Evil Sentinel earlier, she had left it on her through the disguise of triple World Heart Intent. Unfortunately, she had failed despite the plan.
"Couldn't enter the 3rd Grand Transformation?" Xue Yifei wasn't that bothered, but she was taken aback that Wu Baozhai had only unleashed the 2nd Grand Transformation and not the 3rd, her strongest state. Out of the three of them, Wu Baozhai no doubt had the greatest long-range power, Na Xinyi was the best at mid-range, and she wouldn't lower herself and say she couldn't crush both of them in close range.
"I tried…" Wu Baozhai didn't try to hide it. Her body couldn't reliably enter the 3rd Grand Transformation, and her failure to do so had caused severe internal injuries. Even with the method modified, it wasn't so easy to unleash such power that made Wu Yu nigh-invincible in the Earthly Saint Phase.
"She won't fall for it again. Unfortunately," Xue Yifei remarked. She didn't directly try to console Wu Baozhai for her failure, but indirectly ignored her failure and did not harp on blame. They all knew there wouldn't be a second chance like that.
"Let's go gather the others," Na Xinyi didn't lay blame either. But she had to remind herself that these two had schemes, and she needed to be guarded against them despite their current alliance.
Whoosh! The three flew off! As they did, they slayed any Evil Sentinel they met along the way!
Meanwhile, as chaos reigned, there was a small location where violence was strangely absent.
"She saved your life! Are you just going to abandon her?!" Lin Ziyan angrily shouted.
Yi Yun was frowning while Yi Xuehan was cross-legged, her facial complexion was pale and almost bloodless. Her injuries earlier were not light. If not for that, she would have slapped this brash mortal woman to death for screaming incessantly in her ear. It was annoying, like a buzzing fly.
"Save who? The one who saved us was that white-haired woman that goes by the name San Yongli, not Xiao Yanyue." Yi Xuehan rolled her eyes, frustrated that she was being pestered when she needed to focus on recovering as much as she could.
"You know her?" Yi Yun was taken aback by Yi Xuehan's mention of the woman's name.
"I know of her. She's a renowned troublemaker in the Exalted Republic. She's been making too many waves recently, offending a lot of top-tier forces as a result. So many want her dead. Seems like they'll get their wish." Yi Xuehan scoffed at the irony of it all. These so-called great sky-reaching forces had genuine Worldly Saints and Heavenly Saints, yet they couldn't do what an Evil Sentinel could. He only had an Earthly Saint cultivation base and 'incomplete' Mystic Heart Intent.
"..." Lin Ziyan was at a loss. Indeed, San Yongli had saved them, and Xiao Yanyue had interfered later. She immediately realized that she arrived at her first obstacle: Convincing Yi Yun to help. She thought about using force, but if this woman resisted on Yi Yun's behalf and, by using her tools, she accidentally killed her, there was no way Yi Yun would assist. However, she weighed the possibility. She didn't have much time to be diplomatic here.
Suddenly, she received a Mental Transmission: "Act as if we're strangers." Lin Ziyan turned her head to see San Yongli and Wen Mingna arriving.
"Big Sis Yongli!" Yi Yun was ecstatic that San Yongli was alive and well. Yi Xuehan pouted her lips as she saw Yi Yun rush to excitedly greet San Yongli. She couldn't quite describe her feelings currently, but she didn't like it. She could only convince herself that it was the feelings of being saved by a mortal and feeling useless that caused it all.
San Yongli wasn't going to waste time. She looked at Lin Ziyan and knew who she was. Lin Ziyan was suspected of being one of Wei Wuyin's lovers. It wasn't exactly confirmed, but her gathering of intel on Wei Wuyin's past strongly suggested it. He had saved her life before after she was crippled to an appalling extent, birth her with new life and new purpose.
"Use this to find Xiao Yanyue," San Yongi brought out the pearl.
"...Eh?" Yi Yun was taken aback, but he didn't think too deeply about it. He sniffed the pearl, smelling its intense poisonous scent. Then, he softly sniffed at the air, pointing his nose in all eight directions with his eyes closed.
Wen Mingna, Lin Ziyan, and Yi Xuehan all observed Yi Yun intently at the moment. What type of ability did Yi Yun have? He didn't seem like he had any Canine lineage in his blood, and they had never heard of a cultivator that could rely on their mortal sense of smell to find things.
"Found the trail! I found her!" Yi Yun said after two seconds. All of their hearts shook slightly.
San Yongli was astonished. Was it that easy? Even she wasn't too familiar with Yi Yun's abnormal sense of smell.
"Let's go!" But she didn't dwell as she grabbed Yi Yun by the waist. "Where?" Yi Yun pointed in a direction, and San Yongli flew off!
"..." Wen Mingna glanced at the two women and followed after.
Lin Ziyan's eyes brightened. She didn't hesitate to give chase.
Yi Xuehan cursed after seeing how San Yongli held Yi Yun. Did she think he was hers to use and hold as she wanted? When her thoughts reached this point, her eyes widened as she realized her jealousy. Why was she jealous of two mortals? She clenched her teeth and expelled a breath of bloody air. As Yi Yun had saved her life, she couldn't just let him go into danger alone.
She followed and caught up rather easily. While she might be injured, she was still a Demi-Mortal Lord!
