Seeking Truth with a Sword

Chapter 718 - 648 Pearl

The talisman crashed to the ground. The moment it touched the carpet of flesh, it shattered into pieces, turning into surging flames that engulfed the nearby houses.

However, this power was not enough to stop the enemy. Large numbers of demons left the Ministry of Supervision, passed through the wall of fire, and, carrying the remaining flames, chased after Song Shaoyuan, quickly disappearing into the blood mist. Soon after, intermittent explosions were heard.

There was no time to hesitate. Li Ang sprang from the shadows, bypassed the demons, and using telekinetically formed invisible steps, he ascended to the rooftop of the Sinong Temple, located on the west side of the Ministry of Supervision. Hidden by Mo Si, his figure merged with the background color of the surrounding blood mist.

Looking into the distance, he could see the ground of the Ministry of Supervision covered with thousands of blood vessels of different thicknesses, continuously wriggling.

The thicker vessels continuously drew turbid, filthy blood from the surrounding environment, while the thinner ones penetrated below the floor tiles, drawing Spiritual Energy from the deep-seated Imperial Palace Prohibition buried deep in the rock layers.

These two types of vessels converged at one point, intertwined with each other, forming a huge base resembling old tree roots.

The base, with a diameter of more than three meters, was indented in the middle, brimming with filthy blood. The dirty blood continuously evaporated, turning into a blood mist that spread and rose all around.

In the middle of this Blood Pool lay a strange spherical object.

Most of the sphere’s surface was covered with a layer of flesh and bone, with numerous tumorous faces resembling those of humans and beasts attached to it, silently shrieking. The small portion not covered by flesh and bone exhibited the translucent, moist luster of a pearl.

Like a lotus flower emerging from the mud, it was filthy yet pure, evil yet sacred, giving Li Ang an inexplicably familiar feeling.

CRACK, CRACK, CRACK.

A tumorous face attached to the sphere grew taller and higher, stretching out a neck, torso, and limbs before detaching from the sphere and falling to the ground, becoming a newly born demon.

...

Li Ang’s mind raced with speculation—the Daoists appearing in the Ministry of Supervision were extracting Spiritual Energy through an Array from the Imperial City Prohibition and supplying it to the pearl-like giant sphere.

The sphere then converted the dirty blood into a blood mist, cloaking the entire city, while simultaneously combining with Spiritual Energy to breed demons.

Questions finally found answers, but this only led to more queries.

According to his understanding, the Imperial City Prohibition, originating from Yu Chu, was designed to be extremely secretive and complex and had been modified over hundreds of years by successive generations.

There were probably no more than ten people in the entire Yu Country who could comprehend, master, and control it.

Who exactly had Taihao Mountain bribed to carry out this invasion so smoothly? And what was this sphere?

As he pondered these questions, he raised the Radiant Crossbow, aiming at the sphere at the center of the Array.

A thread of Mo Si emerged from his palm, hooking around both segments of the crossbow’s limb, winding tightly, and forming a bowstring.

The remaining threads surged into the bolt slot, solidifying into a sharp arrow, with a thread tied to its end.

SWOOSH—

The trigger was pulled. Driven by the Mo Si bowstring, the arrow shot out rapidly, piercing through the thick blood mist and heading for the sphere.

BANG!

The specially reinforced heavy Arrowhead, unstoppable in its momentum, penetrated a tumorous growth but fractured upon impacting the sphere’s surface.

The Arrowhead vibrated intensely, cracking in several places, failing to pierce through—the toughness of the sphere itself was even greater than that of an alloy forged from Mystic Iron.

Li Ang’s expression remained unchanged. His right hand grabbed the end of the thread, pouring Spiritual Power into it.

The omnipresent blood mist severely reduced the transmission efficiency of the Spiritual Power. Even using Mo Si as the medium, less than five percent of the Spiritual Power successfully reached the distant arrow.

However, this amount of Spiritual Power was enough for the segment of Mo Si on the arrow to receive the command, change its form, and split into several tendrils. These tendrils wrapped around the surface of the sphere, attempting to pull it off the base.

THUD!

The tree root-like base seemed to possess infinite suction power, firmly securing the sphere and preventing it from being dislodged.

Li Ang immediately pulled the thread again, causing the Mo Si to morph into a drill shape and begin rotating at high speed, drilling towards the sphere’s surface.

SQUEAK—

A sharp noise echoed through the courtyard. Under the rapid cutting of the drill, a large amount of powder was kicked up from the sphere.

The faces attached to the sphere screamed in agony as though struck by lightning, peeling off and withering one after another.

The surrounding blood mist also shook violently, turning into droplets that trickled down.

All the Daoists looked toward the courtyard simultaneously, seeing the drill and Li Ang, who was pulling the thread.

"Kill him!"

There was no need for the Daoists’ stern commands; all the demons stationed around the perimeter of the Ministry of Supervision had already leaped into action, each with an aura equivalent to a human Cultivator’s Rain Listening Realm to Cloud Patrol Realm.

CLICK.

Li Ang casually hung the Radiant Crossbow by his side. Mo Si billowed from his sleeves, covering his body. With a sweep of the Dragon Fall Spear in his hand, the spear blade slanted downward.

Then, he plunged into the encirclement.

「Only one more palace wall remained.」

Faith Cultivation Vice Envoy Gong Jinghao, looking at the red walls of the Great Ming Palace, unconsciously gripped his horsetail whisk tighter.

Standing next to him was Ji Xuezhen, the former temple master of the Haotian Taoist Temple in Chang’an City, with a group of Haotian believers radiating Light Dust behind them.

They had planned for tonight’s action for a very long time.

First, they dispersed into smaller groups, sending a small contingent of Haotian believers into the Ministry of Justice to self-destruct within the Imperial City. This created a blood mist to cloak the entire city and sever communications, while also creating demons to provide cover for their infiltration into the Great Ming Palace.

According to their insiders, the Crown Prince of Yu Country was currently in the Zichen Palace. Just over this palace wall, they could reach the Central Court and get "that thing."

STEP.

Gong Jinghao took a step forward. Suddenly, the low palace wall in front of him abruptly doubled in height and thickness.

After a second step, the wall unexpectedly grew another ten times taller and thicker; a hundred times after the third step; and a thousand times after the fourth step, until it towered like a mountain, piercing the clouds and blocking the sky.

Gong Jinghao silently stepped back a few paces. The palace wall in front of him rapidly shrank and thinned until it returned to its original size. "What’s happening?"

"The Imperial City Prohibition is a whole," Ji Xuezhen, his hair and beard entirely white, said solemnly. "There might be issues at the Ministry of Justice; a bit of Spiritual Energy has been transported here, causing the Heavenly Gate Prohibition to reactivate. Either use ’The Book of Changes’ to find the Array’s core, or risk our lives to break down the wall."

"Time is of the essence. The sooner, the better, of course."

Gong Jinghao took a deep breath and rolled up his sleeves. "I’ll break down the wall. Everyone stand back."

"No!"

A robust man stepped out from the crowd, exclaiming fervently, "At this moment of holy war, as the esteemed Faith Cultivation Vice Envoy, you shouldn’t frivolously risk your life. Let me do it."

With that, he faced west, bowed devoutly, then stood and resolutely charged toward the wall, exploding upon impact and scattering Light Dust everywhere.

Then came the second person, the third...

Azure Spring Water could stimulate one’s potential. Even ordinary people, if their will was strong enough and their faith devout enough, could obtain immense power by burning their Divine Soul, at the cost of never achieving transcendence for all eternity.

After one suicide attack after another, the red palace wall gradually became covered with spiderweb cracks. Gong Jinghao swept it with his horsetail whisk, and it collapsed with a thunderous crash.

Finally, they arrived at the Great Ming Palace.

Gong Jinghao crossed through the gap in the wall. Before he could scan the empty plaza, flying arrows shot towards him, which he knocked down with his horsetail whisk just before they could pierce his eyeballs.

Mystic Iron Arrowheads, Academic Palace make.

Gong Jinghao dropped an arrow, squinting as he looked ahead. He saw a group of Cultivators, including Ren Xin, already gathered in front of the Zichen Palace.

Crown Prince Li Si of Yu Country was under their heavy protection.