novelraw Chapter 228: The Dungeon Games [12]
Chapter 228: The Dungeon Games [12]
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Elder Kai stood, stretched, and stepped onto a floating sword. He flew off his property and watched the disciples practicing swordsmanship, clashing mercilessly against one another.
How long had he felt this strange sense of déjà vu?
It was as if he had seen this exact scene before.
"I'm getting older."
He shook his head and sighed, then began instructing the young disciples.
"You are all the future of the Ki Sword Sect," he spoke gently. He was known as the kindest of the elders. "Though some of you may struggle, know that we will always be here to teach you whatever you need. The world is harsh, and some may tell you that kindness is unnecessary, but our sect would not exist without it. Protect those you care for with your blade. Use your Sword Heart to slay the wicked and preserve the sect's legacy."
"OOOHHHH!"
The disciples roared with inspiration. Though they were considered "young," most were already past thirty, and the youngest were over twenty-seven. No children had been born in the sect for over five decades. The only elderly members left were him and the other living elders.
"Elder Kai, as always, you are too soft with the disciples."
"Hm?"
A figure descended from the sky: a blue-haired old man with a short, pointed blue beard and sharp emerald eyes.
"Elder Yang, what a pleasure to see you again. Have you returned safely from secluded cultivation?"
"I have," Yang replied. "As you can see, I am only two steps away from the realm beyond Golden Core."
"Oooh?"
Kai was genuinely surprised by the surging aura around Yang. His Sword Intent had been refined through deep meditation and profound understanding of the Dao, not to mention the consumption of over a hundred pills.
"Who knows?" Yang smirked. "Maybe one day I might even contest the Sect Master!"
"Hahaha. I agree you are strong, but do not get too arrogant, Elder Yang. The Sect Master is truly formidable."
"Hmph. I know that very well. That is why I must continue growing…"
"Hah…"
Kai could never understand Yang's obsession with claiming the sect for himself or his relentless drive to usurp the current Sect Master.
It was almost as if his entire existence revolved around that single goal.
"Has Yuan returned yet, Elder Kai?"
A woman stepped out from a nearby building. She appeared far more youthful than the two old men, with long silver hair and sharp blue eyes, yet faint wrinkles marked her face. Combined with her beauty, those lines only made her more striking, even to the youngest disciples.
"Elder Ming, everything is fine," Kai assured her. "Yuan will return, surely. He and his juniors merely went to gather Spirit Herbs. They even took their tamed beasts."
"Hm… well, the ceremony will be held soon. I hope he makes it," Ming sighed as she turned to leave for her own disciples. "Ever since the sky stopped changing… some say creatures from the lower realms keep coming without end. The outside is no longer as safe as it once was…"
"I know…" Kai clicked his tongue as she departed and shook his head. "Damn vixen. Is she trying to scare me? I know she wanted her own disciple to become the next elder… Could she have set something up? But why go so far…? Tsk, tsk…"
As worry began to creep in, Kai noticed several shadows looming in the sky above.
"…?"
He looked up at the same moment every disciple did, shocked by what they saw.
The skies darkened as an army of beasts slowly descended.
Riding those beasts from hell…
"Invaders from the lower realms! They are coming directly from above! Everyone, prepare to engage! Reinforce the barrier!"
At his command, the barrier activated, stopping the invaders from breaching the heart of the sect and causing irreparable damage.
"Blastarudo baerha terioli yalasuak baraftahaga, huahahaha!"
Then came the wretched, demonic voice of the invaders, belonging to a strange white-haired man with reptilian yellow eyes, white scales, skeletal wings, and unnatural powers. A true monster from hell.
"What is he saying?! I don't understand!"
Before anyone could make sense of it…
BOOOMMM!!!
A massive explosion erupted from the golden spear he wielded. The barrier resisted with all its might, but countless cracks spread across it before it shattered under his overwhelming power.
Once the barrier fell, the disciples prepared to engage as an army of undead monsters descended alongside the wretched invaders riding them.
"Do not let them reach the Inner Garden!" Elder Kai roared, charging forward with his disciples. "Show these bastards why we are known as the most ferocious sect of the Immortal Mountains!"
"OOOOHHHHHH!"
The disciples of the Ki Sword Sect reacted with disciplined fury. Swords sang from their sheaths as qi surged like rivers of silver light. Outer disciples formed the front ranks while inner disciples took elevated positions on floating jade platforms, channeling sword formations that filled the air with countless gleaming blades.
"Outer court—Sword Rain Array! Inner court—Sun Blade Vortex! Protect the gates at all costs!" Elder Kai bellowed. His own sword, a slender blade named Autumn Water, hummed with restrained killing intent as he rose into the air on a disk of condensed sword qi.
From the invaders' side, Louis watched the response with clinical calm.
"Predictable," he muttered. "They are relying on numbers and formations. Zorba, send the vanguard. Mirai, Anastasia, flank left and right once the undead absorb the first volley. Agustina, keep reinforcing armor on cooldown. Timothy, Selene, Melisa, stay behind Zorba and provide support fire. No one plays hero."
"Got it!" the group roared in unison, their voices sharpened by tension and adrenaline.
Zorba raised both hands. Shadows boiled outward like spilled ink. Nearly a hundred undead—skeletal warriors, bone-armored Astral Wurms, and golden-statue cultivators—surged forward in a shambling, unstoppable tide.
The first clash happened in less than three seconds.
"SWORDS FALL!"
Hundreds of qi-forged blades rained from above. The Sword Rain Array was beautiful in its lethality, each sword trailing silver afterimages and exploding into qi shrapnel on impact.
The undead at the front simply disintegrated.
Bone shards and golden fragments sprayed outward. Yet for every ten that fell, twenty more pressed forward, driven by Louis's necromantic will and Zorba's unyielding control. The Astral Wurms coiled protectively around the living members, their bone-plated bodies absorbing the worst of the explosions.
"Again!" Elder Kai commanded.
Another wave of swords fell, this time infused with burning yang qi. The explosions were hotter, brighter, and more destructive.
Still the undead advanced.
Then Mirai and Anastasia moved.
Mirai exploded into motion, demonic wings unfurling as she became a streak of black-and-crimson flame. She crashed into the left flank of the outer disciples like a meteor, her katana spreading chaotic black fire. Wherever the blade passed, qi barriers twisted, shattered, and turned against their owners in bursts of chaotic flames.
Anastasia took the right flank more methodically. Ice flames wreathed her sword in a helix of frost and fire. Each swing released crescent waves of Ice Flame that froze cultivators solid before detonating them from within, leaving glittering statues of blood ice that crumbled into red snow. Many of the cultivators present stared in shocked awe.
The outer disciples buckled almost immediately.
"Fall back! Fall back to the inner formation!" one of the senior outer disciples screamed, his voice cracking with panic.
Too late.
Selene darted forward on all fours, her new red armor gleaming. She pounced onto a fleeing disciple, claws raking through qi-reinforced robes like paper. Melisa followed close behind, angelic wings now edged in crimson flame, raining explosive holy feathers that carpet-bombed a squad of sword-wielding juniors into smoking craters.
Timothy, still screaming incoherently, leaped from head to head like a demented acrobat. His shovel and scythe had fused with Agustina's armor into crimson-metal monstrosities wreathed in burning vines. Every swing sent arcs of flaming razor-leaves that reaped lives in sharp, brutal strikes.
Louis himself did not engage the front line.
He walked slowly and deliberately straight toward Elder Kai.
Gungnir rested casually over his shoulder. Behind him, the golden-statue zombies marched in eerie lockstep, pale sword qi flickering around their blank faces.
Elder Kai felt cold sweat bead on his back for the first time in decades. His three disciples had been turned into bizarre golden statues and were now obeying that man, lending him their sword qi to boost his power even further.
Such a terrifying, demonic act of degeneracy had never been seen before in the righteous Martial World!
"You…" he rasped, gripping Autumn Water tighter. "What are you?"
Louis stopped ten meters away, well within sword range, yet utterly unconcerned.
He tilted his head slightly.
"Why would you ask me something if you cannot understand what I say?" he asked softly, shaking his head.
Then he moved.
Not with demonic speed or blazing aura, just a single, relaxed step.
Space seemed to fold.
Gungnir flicked forward in a casual thrust.
Elder Kai reacted with pure instinct. Autumn Water blurred into a defensive sword curtain that should have deflected any blow.
The spear tip met the curtain…
…and passed straight through it.
Not because the defense was weak.
Because the thrust carried a faint silver intent that quietly rejected the very concept of "blocking."
SHUNK.
The spear emerged from Elder Kai's back, clean, bloodless, almost gentle.
The old man's eyes widened.
He looked down.
A thin line of silver sword qi extended from the wound, spreading outward in delicate, hair-thin threads.
Then those threads tightened.
CRACKLE—
"Ah…"
His body simply came apart.
Not in an explosion. Not shredded.
Neatly sectioned, like a fruit sliced by an invisible blade.
"I remember now…"
"I… was already dead…"
Blood misted the air in perfect geometric patterns before gravity remembered it existed.
"How long… have I been stuck in this nightmare…?"
The disciples nearest him froze in horror.
"ELDER KAI!"
"NOOOO!!!"
"AAAHHH!"
"THE… THE ELDER!!!"
Their elder, Core Formation peak and master of the sect's third strongest sword art, had just been disassembled in a single thrust.
Louis withdrew Gungnir with a flick that shook droplets of blood into scarlet arcs and looked at the rest with a sharp glare.
"Who's next?"
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