novelraw Chapter 135: Bloodbath at Heaven’s Draw Mountain
Chapter 135: Bloodbath at Heaven’s Draw Mountain
“We surrender! We surrender!”
The four Foundation Establishment cultivators of Heaven’s Draw Sect looked like ghosts already—faces ashen, shoulders slumped.
They threw open the mountain-protecting array and dropped to their knees at the forefront, postures screaming defeat.
“Looks like we’re just here to make up the numbers after all…”
Bai Muhan stared down at the kneeling crowd and let out a cold, bitter laugh.
Qi Xiu exhaled through his nose, a long, heavy sound.
A familiar pang twisted in his chest—something like pity for rabbits watching foxes bleed.
“None of us really has a choice in this life…”
Wei Xuan flicked his hand in satisfaction.
One beast ship peeled away from the formation and drifted toward the gate, Wei family cultivators leaping down to take possession.
“NOW!”
The shout ripped out from one of the kneeling Foundation Establishment cultivators.
The array snapped open again—blue-white lightning erupted in blinding sheets, tearing through the descending Wei boarding party like paper.
Thicker bolts—ten, twelve of them—lanced straight into several beast ships.
Explosions bloomed. Screams cut short.
“You dare—!”
Wei Xuan’s furious roar cracked across the sky, but no one on the Chu Qin ship had time to care.
Their own vessel shuddered violently.
A fist-sized hole punched clean through the great flying beast’s flank.
It gave one last mournful cry and nosedived.
Qi Xiu was hurled clear.
Wind screamed past his ears as he plummeted.
In that split second of freefall, his Mind’s Clarity gift flared to life.
He summoned the spirit boat beneath his feet, wrenching himself into a stable hover just as the ground rushed up.
“Minniang!”
His heart seized.
Wei Minniang—never blooded, never trained for this—had been on the open deck.
Debris, cultivators, whole sections of superstructure rained down like shrapnel.
Some reacted fast enough—snatching out flying swords, shields, carpets, anything that could float.
Others weren’t so lucky.
They hit the rocks and became red smears.
Qi Xiu spotted the familiar flash of crimson robes tumbling helplessly, eyes squeezed shut in terror.
He dove, arms outstretched, and snatched her out of the air barely ten feet from the ground.
“Husband!”
She collapsed against his chest, trembling, strength gone.
Color drained from her face.
“Muhan… the others…”
All around them: the shrieking of dying beasts, the thunderclap of Wei family counterattacks slamming into the array, the vicious crackle of lightning ripping through the air.
The sky itself seemed to darken, heavy with smoke and the smell of scorched flesh and ozone.
Qi Xiu cradled Wei Minniang and darted through the chaos, scanning for crimson robes.
One. Two. More.
Survivors gathered in ones and twos, clustering together like frightened animals finding a herd again.
The Wei Foundation Establishment leader of their ship?
Only the upper half remained, guts spilling across the dirt.
He was already drowning in his own blood.
No saving him.
“This is wrong,” Bai Muhan rasped when they finally found her.
She clung to the corpse of the flying beast with several others—lucky enough to land on the side facing skyward.
Her face was pale, ribs likely cracked from the impact.
“They’re not surrendering. They’re going to break out—”
She never finished.
Eyes rolled back.
She slumped.
“Array,” Qi Xiu said, voice low and urgent.
He set Wei Minniang down beside Muhan.
“Protect her.”
He spun on his heel.
Array disks flew from his sleeve in a practiced arc.
A small formation snapped into existence around them—Pseudo Four Symbols Illusion Array.
The same cheap, popular White Mountain design that had saved their skins in Nameless Valley.
He always carried two full sets.
Never thought he’d need them again so soon.
“Head Senior Brother!”
Mo grandfather and grandson hurried over, drawn by the glow of the formation.
Qi Xiu did a quick headcount.
Eleven.
Every single one still breathing.
A miracle.
A sick, bloody miracle.
Bai Muhan unconscious.
Ming Jiu and Yu Jing badly hurt.
Everyone else sporting cuts, burns, bruises.
They were alive, but barely combat-capable.
“They’re really throwing their lives away…”
Zhang Shishi’s voice shook.
He’d thought Heaven’s Draw was weak.
Now he realized weak didn’t mean harmless.
“They’re… good men, in their way.”
Mo Guining sighed, long and tired.
He’d known a few of them back when he scraped by in Artifact Talisman City.
Enemies now, sure.
But watching them choose death over kneeling?
Respect crept in despite himself.
The mountain array kept spitting lightning, forcing the Wei beast ships to hang back and bombard from range.
Wei Xuan’s face twisted with rage.
His flying sword chopped again and again at the barrier, each strike ringing like hammer on anvil.
Spiritual Qi in the air thinned to almost nothing.
Everyone on the ground started gasping, chests tight.
“We can’t stay here—”
Qi Xiu began.
A tremendous groan shuddered through the array.
It shattered.
“KILL THEM ALL! TAKE EVERYTHING!”
Wei Xuan dove first.
The remaining dozen-odd beast ships followed, hundreds of cultivators pouring toward the breach like floodwater.
“Move!”
The four Foundation Establishment cultivators of Heaven’s Draw shot off in four different directions.
The Weis weren’t about to let them escape.
Swarm after swarm closed in.
Then—four hands reached into robes at the same moment.
“Heavenly Thunder Pearls! Get back!”
Someone recognized the artifacts.
Too late.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
Four thunderclaps tore the sky apart.
The four Foundation Establishment cultivators detonated themselves, taking scores of surrounding Wei cultivators with them.
Limbs, torsos, heads spun through the air.
Chunks of meat splattered across the Pseudo Four Symbols barrier like obscene decorations.
A long loop of intestine dangled from one corner, swaying gently in the wind.
Wei Minniang retched violently and buried her face in Qi Xiu’s chest.
The rest of them stared, faces gray.
The shockwave kicked up a black fog that swallowed Heaven’s Draw Mountain whole.
For a moment the Wei assault faltered—blinded, disoriented.
Low-level Heaven’s Draw cultivators seized the chance.
They broke in every direction, frantic, feral.
Anyone who tried to stop them either got blown up or dragged into a mutual death embrace.
“Engage! Chu Qin must win!”
Qi Xiu saw a knot of thirty or forty charging straight at them.
He drew the second-grade flying sword Chu Youyan had once given him as thanks.
With a roar he met them head-on.
No more talking.
Only this.
“Chu Qin must win!”
Zhang Shishi and the others drew their own trump cards.
Even Wei Minniang summoned her Misty Silk Veil and threw it forward like a net.
“Die with me!”
“Mercy! Spare us!”
Some fought like demons.
Others dropped to their knees, kowtowing frantically.
Human nature laid bare in the space of heartbeats.
Qi Xiu had no time for pity.
His sword churned through the crowd—friend, foe, surrenderer, it no longer mattered.
Artifacts flashed.
Blood sprayed.
The area around the illusion array became a kaleidoscope of killing light, impacts ringing like war drums.
“Reinforcements!”
A Wei Foundation Establishment spotted their desperate stand and pointed.
A dozen Wei cultivators peeled off and rushed over.
“HOLD!”
The formation shattered again.
Qi Xiu barked the word and flung out another set of disks.
Zhang Shishi spun his heavy shields in the shield dance Bai Xiaosheng had taught him—blocking, deflecting, buying seconds.
The pressure eased as soon as help arrived.
The surviving Heaven’s Draw cultivators saw they couldn’t crack the Chu Qin position.
Most veered away—some climbing higher, some breaking sideways.
Only a handful, already lost to madness, kept hammering.
BANG!
BANG!
Two more detonations.
The array collapsed for good.
Zhang Shishi toppled backward, his fourth shield finally cracked in half.
No more barrier.
People dropped around him one after another.
Qi Xiu went berserk.
He didn’t even try to raise another array—just shielded Wei Minniang with his body and poured everything into the flying sword, slashing wildly.
A shuttle screamed toward his chest.
“Head Senior Brother, careful!”
Mo Jianxin bellowed.
His Illusory Moon Spirit Sword intercepted the shuttle in a blinding flash.
Both exploded.
Mo Jianxin coughed blood.
Behind him, a phantom moon rose.
Its cold light washed over the remaining attackers.
They slowed, movements sluggish.
Qi Xiu didn’t have time to thank him.
He whipped his sword through the slowest, cruelest ones, opening throats, bellies, chests.
Blood fountained.
“Die together!”
One last Heaven’s Draw cultivator pulled out a bead and lunged.
Wei Minniang screamed.
She flung the Misty Silk Veil in panic.
By sheer luck it tangled the man’s ankles.
He stumbled, pitched forward.
Qi Xiu’s sword flashed once.
Head rolled.
The last Heaven’s Draw cultivator fell to the Wei reinforcements.
Silence slammed down around the Chu Qin group—sudden, suffocating.
Mo Jianxin finally gave out.
He collapsed face-first.
Qi Xiu turned.
Only Wei Minniang and Qin Weiyu were still on their feet.
Everyone else lay sprawled across the blood-soaked ground—alive, dead, impossible to tell in the drifting smoke.