novelraw Chapter 224 : When Enemies Meet, Their Eyes Turn Especially Red
Chapter 224 : When Enemies Meet, Their Eyes Turn Especially Red
The tremendous commotion from the lightning pool area attracted the attention of almost everyone present.
Lightning clouds surged, the earth shook, and mountains trembled.
Centered on the lightning pool, the terrifying spiritual energy vortex that erupted was truly hair-raising, causing everyone to hold their breath and wonder what exactly was happening over there.
In the sky above, black clouds gathered. Endless surging lightning spiritual power roamed freely, as if piercing the entire heaven and earth into a sieve. Chu Sang and Mu Chihuai exchanged a glance before hurrying over to join the other Senior Brothers and Sisters. The commotion was caused by Big Senior Brother.
The young man sat upright and still in the lightning pool, his black hair scattered, spiritual energy surging around his body. His cultivation at Divine Transformation early stage rapidly rose to Divine Transformation mid-stage... no, it hadn't stopped!
Divine Transformation mid-stage early phase...
Divine Transformation mid-stage middle phase...
Divine Transformation mid-stage late phase...
Divine Transformation mid-stage peak!
The lightning pool's spiritual power rushed into his body in droves, continuously and endlessly. A golden light appeared, his aura greatly increasing, and he directly broke through to Divine Transformation late stage!
In just a few short days, relying on the lightning pool's spiritual power, he advanced from Divine Transformation early stage to Divine Transformation late stage in one go. All the disciples were shocked. This couldn't be described as a miracle; it was simply unbelievable!
The other Lingqing Sect members were both surprised and delighted. They believed Big Senior Brother could advance further with the lightning pool, but they never imagined he would be so impressive, advancing from Divine Transformation early stage to late stage in one go. This was a full two realms of advancement. A single minor realm in the Divine Transformation stage was several times more difficult to break through than advancing from Nascent Soul to Divine Transformation.
Chu Sang was surprised, but not shocked. She had anticipated that Gu Chang'an would break through in the lightning pool. After all, Big Senior Brother's strength and talent were evident, his foundation solid. His cultivation had appeared stagnant on the surface for a long time, simply because the spiritual energy in the cultivation world was insufficient. In fact, his strength had long since reached Divine Transformation late stage. Now that he had absorbed enough spiritual energy, his cultivation naturally fixed at the level he should have reached.
The commotion at the lightning pool had not completely ended when an even more dangerous pressure suddenly arrived!
Chu Sang, having prepared in advance, quickly gathered the disciples from other sects,
"The enemy has come."
The Lightning Beast King could no longer remain patient.
It had indeed wanted Gu Chang'an to absorb all the lightning pool's spiritual power and become stronger. This way, after eating this cultivator with an innate lightning spirit root, it would become even more powerful, obtaining purer and stronger lightning power... but it never imagined Gu Chang'an would break through to Divine Transformation late stage!
Lightning clouds in the sky were gradually gathering, becoming increasingly majestic. If this continued, if Gu Chang'an absorbed all the lightning pool's power, or even all the power in the entire area, he would no longer be an ant that it could manipulate at will. Instead, he might pose a great threat to it!
The Lightning Beast King naturally wouldn't be foolish enough to let this happen!
The moment the Beast King's terrifyingly powerful aura fully descended, Gu Chang'an in the lightning pool also opened his eyes, a fierce cold light bursting forth. His figure instantly disappeared, reappearing in the void.
He held his long sword, leaping to confront that powerful demonic energy, standing in front of everyone,
"You all leave, I'll handle this!"
Chu Sang wasn't worried about Big Senior Brother facing this head-on. At Divine Transformation late stage, he was fully capable of fighting the Lightning Beast King. Even if Big Senior Brother seemed slightly inferior now, it was only because he had just advanced to Divine Transformation late stage and couldn't fully utilize this power yet. It was a perfect opportunity to stabilize his newly advanced realm by confronting the Lightning Beast King.
Even if he couldn't win, it didn't matter. She had secretly given Big Senior Brother several life-saving talismans and teleportation talismans. When his life was in danger, he could directly tear a talisman and escape. There was nothing to worry about.
While Gu Chang'an held off the Lightning Beast King, the others didn't waste time, hurrying towards their next destination—
The Ice River Land.
Cold.
Extremely cold.
Bone-chilling cold...
Even with spiritual energy protecting their bodies, the cultivators could feel this unbearable, bone-piercing cold. Some lower-level cultivators had to use talismans, pills, and fire source pills to resist the cold air of this place just to barely move forward.
Probably the only ones unaffected in the entire group were Chu Sang and Mo Qingchen.
The former, with her extreme-grade fire spirit root, was completely ignored by the ice spiritual energy, which seemed to avoid her at all costs. Occasionally, some disobedient ice spiritual energy tried to approach and cause trouble, but the moment it got close to her, it was burned to nothingness by the purest fire spiritual power.
Wen Renyue and Si Kou Qiu were shivering from the cold, tightly hugging their Little Junior Sister on the left and right, using her as a heater for warmth.
The other unaffected one was Mo Qingchen. For him, the dense ice spiritual energy of this place not only didn't harm him but could be refined into his own spiritual power.
All along the way, he accepted it without reservation. His extreme-grade ice spirit root was like a bottomless pit. Mo Qingchen didn't even need to consciously absorb; the surrounding ice spiritual power would be absorbed by him automatically.
He methodically refined it, after all, it was rare to see such pure, extreme-grade ice spiritual power in the cultivation world.
As far as the eye could see, there were endless icy river surfaces. The river surfaces were all frozen solid into ice. Stepping on it was like walking on flat ground, with no risk of cracking.
Chu Sang surveyed this strange environment while asking Third Senior Sister, "Any news from the Beast Taming Sect? Are they still in the Ice River Land? Or have they reached the Light Domain?"
"Strange, I was in contact with the Beast Taming Sect just yesterday, but now no one is responding. Could they have encountered danger?" Wen Renyue withdrew her communication jade disk. "When I contacted them yesterday, they were still in the Ice River Land. That fellow Shen Rufei even told me some good news, saying they had already found the beast king's palace. By all rights, they should have left by now..."
But if they were safe, why was there no news?
"Don't worry, let's keep looking."
Chu Sang released Xiao Bai and Hong Niang.
She let Xiao Bai sniff around nearby to see if there were any other human cultivator scents.
Hong Niang was even more imposing. Her current strength was comparable to a great beast king. She simply gathered all the lower-level beast demons in the area, interrogating them one by one. Soon, she obtained relatively reliable information from them.
Some time ago, a group of human cultivators had indeed come to the Ice River Land. They even took advantage of the beast king's absence to use evil techniques to control beast demons and break into the palace. After being discovered by the guards, they were wanted throughout the entire Ice River Land.
The beast demons enthusiastically stated that although the exact whereabouts of those cultivators were still unknown, the Ice River Land was completely sealed off. Those human cultivators had no chance of escape!
When Chu Sang heard those small demons talking about evil techniques, she couldn't help but smile. The evil techniques they spoke of, which could control beast demons, were most likely the beast taming techniques of the Beast Taming Sect. It seemed they hadn't identified the wrong people.
Unexpectedly, the Beast Taming Sect's progress was quite fast, even faster than the Tianyan Sect and Ten Thousand Swords Sect, which Chu Sang had considered most promising.
Since the Beast Taming Sect disciples had obtained what they needed, they no longer needed to find the beast king's palace.
However, according to what those beast demons said, the beast king had urgently ordered the sealing off of the Ice River Land. The Beast Taming Sect disciples probably couldn't escape in the short term and were likely still in the area.
Before long, Xiao Bai sent news that he had found traces of the Beast Taming Sect disciples.
Hearing this, everyone hurried over.
A giant beast demon, similar to a prehistoric mammoth and covered in ice and snow, was chasing several isolated Beast Taming Sect disciples.
"Aaaah, save me!"
The chubby little girl who was running the slowest, crying for help most skillfully, and about to be caught was Ge Xiang, the Little Junior Sister of the Beast Taming Sect!
Shen Rufei and the other disciples were not there.
It seemed the Beast Taming Sect disciples had become separated.
Chu Sang quickly drew her sword and rushed forward to rescue her.
At the same time, Mo Qingchen also went forward to save the other stranded disciples.
The Long Yuan sword spirit materialized. The young sword spirit waved his hand, and thousands of sword intents transformed into ice, instantly turning the giant beast into a honeycomb, collapsing with a boom, all things returning to silence.
As the Long Yuan sword spirit withdrew his hand, his gaze suddenly sharpened, hastily dodging a sudden black energy attack.
"It's you, the leader of the evil swords. You actually have the guts to appear before me?"
He narrowed his eyes dangerously, coldly looking at the black-haired sword spirit with a pale face but lips as red as blood. The coldness on his handsome face became even colder, cold enough to make one shiver. He slowly enunciated,
"You are as detestable as ever."
"Heh, you're not much better. Back then, you and those old fellows used tricks to ambush me, sealing me in the sword tomb, imprisoning me for so many years... Thousands or tens of thousands of years of dark imprisonment, you surely haven't tasted that flavor, have you?" The Primordial Soul-Chaser raised a black energy in his palm, coldly curling his lips to say, "If you have the ability, fight me fair and square, you despicable and shameless scoundrel!"
"It seems you still haven't learned your lesson after these thousands of years."
An extremely cold sword intent also condensed in the Long Yuan sword spirit's palm, frost and snow swirling around, exuding an emotionless aura. "If that's the case, I don't mind letting you relive your miserable defeat from back then."
Thousand-year-old sworn enemies clashed again.
Sword lights intersected, heart-stopping.
Chu Sang couldn't even stop them. The Long Yuan sword spirit and the Primordial Soul-Chaser, sworn enemies, couldn't wait to see each other. Help, she had forgotten about this relationship!
She shouldn't have let the Primordial Soul-Chaser out when Mo Qingchen was present.
When this pair of thousand-year-old sworn enemies fought, it would be to the death.
Looking at the wildly slashing, indiscriminate sword intent, Chu Sang expressionlessly took a step back to prevent herself, the not-so-innocent sword master, from getting caught in the crossfire.
"Brother Long Yuan and Sister Soul-Chaser, please stop fighting! We should value harmony! We righteous sword spirits shouldn't fight among ourselves at such a crucial moment. The urgent matter is to jointly resist the demon race!" Mystic Spirit tried to hold back Long Yuan.
"Sister Soul, why should we noble and powerful evil swords bother with these self-righteous righteous swords? Killing without drawing blood, using others to do the dirty work, that's the top-notch killing move. Heh, when no one's around, I'll help you secretly..." Weeping Blood smiled sinisterly, making a throat-slitting gesture.
The Weeping Blood sword spirit and Mystic Spirit sword spirit were entrusted with the important task of mediating.
The two sides had different starting points for mediation, but fortunately, the fight was stopped.
"Hmph!"
The Long Yuan sword spirit coldly shook off Mystic Spirit, narrowing his eyes to look at the Primordial Soul-Chaser, saying coldly, "Since you're not convinced by the outcome from back then, let's have another match."
He pointed and said, "Using the beast demons in this area as the limit, let's see who can kill more. I'll make you lose fair and square!"
"......"
Wait, Chu Sang looked speechlessly at Mo Qingchen, who was covering his face and sighing. She twitched her lips and said, "Isn't your Long Yuan sword spirit supposed to be the number one righteous sword? Turns out he's so chuunibyou too?"
"Don't mind him, I can't stop him," Mo Qingchen said somewhat helplessly.
The Long Yuan sword spirit was proud and arrogant, on equal footing with his sword master. Even Mo Qingchen couldn't stop Long Yuan from doing what he wanted to do.
However... this was the first time Mo Qingchen had seen the usually steady and aloof Long Yuan sword spirit throw such a tantrum, so easily provoked by a few words from the black sword spirit. It was quite rare indeed.
Although the meeting between these thousand-year-old sworn enemies wasn't very friendly, at least they had turned from internal strife to external conflict. Only those beast demons would suffer now.
As they fought, the earth shook and mountains trembled. The nearby glaciers and rivers, even the ice river under their feet, began to crack and collapse on a large scale.
Everyone's expressions changed drastically. Damn, what was happening?!!
"Tell those two sword spirits to stop fighting quickly! Ah, what have they done? This place is about to collapse!!!"
It was too late. If they could have been recalled, they would have been recalled long ago. Chu Sang looked in horror at the source of the glacier's fracture. No, it wasn't the commotion caused by the Primordial Soul-Chaser and Long Yuan sword. She saw a beam of light suddenly fly out from the glacier...
She couldn't see clearly what that light was.
The glacier completely collapsed, and everyone seemed to enter another realm, with ice surfaces appearing in all directions.
There was a mirror in front of each person.
The ice surfaces were as smooth as mirrors, reflecting various silhouettes.
The next second, what was even more terrifying was that the reflection in each mirror walked out...
??!
This was even more horrifying than Sadako?!!!
Those reflections that walked out of the mirrors had the same faces, the same clothes as them, but their eyes were full of malice, blatant malice towards them.
That malice was the jealousy of the mirror reflections towards their originals, the frenzy and desire to replace them.
"Double-Faced Mirror..."
Chu Sang finally remembered what that light she had seen earlier was.
The legendary divine artifact, the Double-Faced Mirror.
She had seen this ice-attribute divine artifact in the texts of the collection pavilion before.
The Double-Faced Mirror could perfectly replicate any person or object in the mirror world. Only by defeating the mirror image could one break this realm.
In the few recorded instances of the Double-Faced Mirror manifesting in the world, no cultivator trapped in the mirror world had ever survived.
Without exception.
The Double-Faced Mirror could replicate everything about the original, not just the surface appearance, expression, and clothing, but even cultivation, techniques, and moves, all exactly the same as the original, like a mirror reflection. Who was real and who was fake?
In this world, who could defeat themselves?
The trapped cultivators simply couldn't kill "themselves". Some were killed by their mirror images, some were worn down bit by bit, losing patience and hope, dying in collapse, killing themselves in despair to end it all...
Everyone was separated into their own mirror image battlefield. Chu Sang couldn't go to other people's battlefields and could only be forced to confront the ice mirror before her.
From the mirror surface, a red-clothed young woman exactly like her slowly walked out, the corner of her mouth curling into a smile, her eyes full of disdain and provocation, "Without a doubt, you will die under my sword."
"You cannot defeat me!"
Arrogant, so arrogant.
Chu Sang didn't know she was originally this arrogant.
There wasn't much emotion in her eyes, just a faint smile, "Double-Faced Mirror, is this famous divine artifact really as miraculous as the legends say, able to perfectly replicate a person?"
"Seeing is believing. Today, I really want to experience it firsthand."