Chapter 214 - 210: Fellow Daoist Yu, Unleash That Sword Now

Suddenly, a short-range communication array next to Du Youqian began to glow with a faint blue light and hum.

This was one of the leading Core Formation Masters, using a short-range communication spiritual artifact on his person, attempting to communicate with Du Youqian.

Du Youqian immediately "answered" the communication.

A cacophony of sounds flooded in. Due to the intense Spiritual Qi fluctuations on the battlefield, the communication array was suffering from extreme interference.

Mixed in with the chaotic shouts, commands, screams, the THWACK, THWACK of impacts, and the various sounds of magic being cast, the slightly distorted voice of the Taihe Sect’s Master Wu Gong came through intermittently.

"...Fellow Daoist... time... come over... rendezvous... plan, strike..."

Even though he couldn’t hear the full message, Du Youqian knew what he was trying to say.

This was the very agreement they had all made.

If a powerful Tier Four Demon Zombie appeared and their attempts to stop it failed, then at the most critical moment, Du Youqian, the one who had mastered the Blood Sacrifice Sword Intent, was to abandon the Array Core, rush to the scene, and perform a Blood Sacrifice on all the Foundation Establishment Cultivators to deliver a single, ultimate sword strike and severely wound the Tier Four Demon Zombie.

According to Tongming Master’s calculations, the sword strike Du Youqian could unleash after performing a Blood Sacrifice on dozens of Foundation Establishment Cultivators would be the most powerful ace up their sleeves among the five of them.

This was a plan that would not be enacted unless it was the absolute last resort.

After all, a Blood Sacrifice of dozens of Foundation Establishment Cultivators... was too horrific!

And the repercussions would be endless.

"It hasn’t come to that!" Du Youqian instinctively refused. ’Fang Hua and Luo Jinyu are still out there!’

"...very strong! Must... devastation."

Er, Master Wu Gong probably meant that the Demon Zombie was too strong. If they couldn’t stop it here and allowed it to break into a densely populated area, it would cause utter devastation.

Du Youqian was not made of stone.

He certainly didn’t want to see hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people lose their lives to this Demon Zombie.

But if the people to be sacrificed included those close to him, he naturally couldn’t bring himself to do it.

As for sparing only Fang Hua and Luo Jinyu and sacrificing everyone else? Which Core Formation Master didn’t have beloved juniors?

Both Lin Sha and Tongming Master had brought their own trusted subordinates.

Should they spare all the Core Formation Masters’ trusted subordinates?

How would the other Foundation Establishment Cultivators feel about that!

"...Come quickly!" Master Wu Gong urged one last time before the communication cut out.

It was impossible to tell if he had cut it off himself or if it had been disrupted by the Demon Zombie.

Du Youqian locked onto the Demon Zombie with his Divine Sense again, unleashing a constant barrage from the Little Five Elements Divine Thunder.

The Demon Zombie might have already sensed the location of the Array Core and was now heading toward the temporary cave residence area—slowly, but resolutely.

Soon, the reserves of Spiritual Diamonds had dropped to one-sixth of their original amount.

Spiritual Diamonds were actually a renewable resource, unlike Spiritual Jade and common Spirit Stones.

As long as they were placed in an environment rich with Spiritual Qi for a few hundred or even a thousand years, these depleted Spiritual Diamonds could be replenished.

But in the short term, they could not be hastily refilled.

Du Youqian set the Grand Array to a "standby" mode and picked up a small Array Plate.

This object could be used to control the array, but its level of control couldn’t match the precision of the Array Core. However, if he were on-site, he could guide it with his Divine Sense, and the deviation wouldn’t be too great.

Holding the Array Plate, Du Youqian threw out a Flying Sword for transportation and swiftly flew toward the battlefield using Sword Control.

At this point, the Demon Zombie was only about five miles from the temporary cave residence.

A few moments later, Du Youqian was able to extend his Divine Sense to cover the battle zone.

Among the fifty-plus Foundation Establishment Cultivators, casualties weren’t too severe, as they all had Portable Arrays and were coordinating with one another.

Only six had lost their life signs.

Most of the rest were injured, a few of them severely.

There were still about thirty who could continue to fight.

This included Fang Hua and Luo Jinyu. Although their auras were a bit weak, they were clearly not seriously injured. They had likely only been caught by the aftershocks of the battle and still had the strength to fight.

This was especially true for Fang Hua. Her strength was not much different from Du Youqian’s when he wasn’t using his trump cards or his Outer Pill.

If Du Youqian’s strength was roughly equivalent to a Fake Pill Cultivator, then even when he unleashed his full power, he still couldn’t compare to Tongming Master, a Golden Core Middle Stage Sword Cultivator.

Therefore, Fang Hua’s strength should be far beyond that of an ordinary Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator, but not yet at the level of a Fake Pill Cultivator.

Even if she went all out, she could at most manage one or two strikes close to the power of a Fake Pill Cultivator before running out of steam.

But aside from the Core Formation Masters, she was the one who had inflicted the most damage on the Demon Zombie.

Fortunately, although the Demon Zombie had some Spiritual Wisdom, it was still focused on Tongming Master and Master Wu Gong as its main opponents, not paying much attention to Fang Hua.

Otherwise, with her small frame, she probably couldn’t have withstood even a casual strike from the Tier Four Demon Zombie.

’My mind is racing as I consider my options,’ Du Youqian thought. ’I could just abandon my reputation, protect Fang Hua and Luo Jinyu, and perform the Blood Sacrifice on the others.’

As he rushed forward at full speed, another few moments passed, and he arrived at the edge of the battlefield.

The few Core Formation Masters present had naturally noticed his approach long ago. Master Wu Gong’s face lit up with joy, and he yelled, "Unleash your sword!"

Lin Sha, who was also aware of the agreement, glanced at Fang Hua, her beautiful eyes devoid of any emotion.

Du Youqian did not immediately unleash his sword.

The sheer size of the Tier Four Demon Zombie left him dumbfounded.

Standing upright, it was about two hundred feet tall—at least as high as a building over twenty stories high.

Its appearance was vaguely that of a brown bear. Its empty eye sockets were large enough to fit a small car.

Tier Four Demons are also known as Transformed Demon Kings.

They can take human form, but it’s not just about taking human form.

After becoming a True Inheritor, Du Youqian had unlocked another batch of the Holy Blood Sect’s scriptures. He had read in one of them that a Tier Four Shapeshifting Demon King’s body could grow or shrink, and it could even alter its limbs and organs to adapt to combat in specific environments.

The most crucial part was... a Tier Four Shapeshifting Demon King’s body would not lose its strength or become clumsy even after growing tens or even hundreds of times larger.

It was completely unscientific; the law of conservation of mass was utterly ignored.

But it was a testament to just how formidable the body of a Tier Four Demon King was.

Add to that their Innate Divine Abilities... one could say that every Tier Four Shapeshifting Demon King was a combination of Body Refining and Magic Cultivator, a nightmare for the squishy Human Race Cultivators.

At the same minor realm, Human Race Cultivators were often no match for a Tier Four Demon King.

This massive brown bear before them was covered in old wounds, one of its forelegs was missing, and an aura of decay permeated its entire body.

It was a good thing this was only a zombie.

If it were at its peak, all the cultivators present would likely be nothing more than a snack to fill the gaps between its teeth, gone in a matter of breaths.

But precisely because it was a zombie, its body was even tougher, it had no fatal weaknesses, and most importantly, it was fearless in the face of death, which was a real headache.

The cultivators present were all in a sorry state. Not only were nearly all the Foundation Establishment Cultivators injured, but the Core Formation Masters weren’t faring much better.

Even Master Wan Shi and Lin Sha, who were usually so mindful of their appearances, had their hair in disarray and were drenched in sweat, their elegant images completely gone.

Du Youqian took in the entire situation with a single glance.

Without a word, he unsheathed his Jinhuan sword and slashed at the bear.

Against the bear’s colossal body, the Jinhuan sword looked like a tiny toothpick, completely non-threatening.

His Broken Water Sword Intent, with its unstoppable sharpness, did indeed penetrate the bear’s thick fur, but it couldn’t go any deeper.

Du Youqian guessed that this Bear Zombie probably possessed some kind of defensive Innate Divine Ability.

Otherwise, even though it was a Tier Four Demon King with a formidable body, it had been dead for ten thousand years. Even as a zombie, its physical strength shouldn’t be even a tenth of what it was at its peak. Logically, it shouldn’t have been able to completely nullify the Broken Water Sword Intent.

When his sword failed, Du Youqian activated his Outer Pill and blasted the bear with his Fire Element Divine Abilities.

As for Magic... Du Youqian wasn’t about to embarrass himself. Core Formation Cultivators could become Immune to All Techniques.

Any Magic below Tier Three could hardly affect a Core Formation Cultivator, and even Tier Three Magic would be greatly weakened. What’s more, this was the zombie of a Tier Four Demon King.

The Magic of a mere Foundation Establishment Cultivator like him wouldn’t even be enough to tickle the creature.

His Fire Element Divine Abilities, however, were still destructive.

Wherever the Fire Element Divine Abilities struck, the bear’s fur ignited, and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.

But again, it only scorched the surface and failed to burn through.

This was enough to show that the Fire Element Divine Abilities were somewhat effective against this Bear Zombie; unfortunately, Du Youqian, the one using them, lacked the raw power.

Although his two consecutive rounds of attacks failed to heavily injure the bear, they succeeded in drawing its attention.

Perhaps in its eyes, he was a threatening insect.

Its remaining foreleg swiped at him with incredible speed, completely belying its massive, clumsy-looking body.

Perhaps its claws were imbued with some Divine Ability, as they sliced through the air without making the slightest sound.

If that claw made contact, Du Youqian feared he’d end up as mangled as if he’d been run over by a dump truck; even a Defensive Spiritual Artifact wouldn’t save him.

Fortunately, he remained vigilant and instantly used the Thousand Miles in One Line Secret Technique to escape, regardless of the cost. Once the bear’s attention shifted to someone else, he snuck back in and hit it with another surprise combo.

"Fellow Daoist Du, this is useless! You can’t hurt this demon. Hurry up and unleash that sword strike!" Master Wu Gong’s voice was tinged with anxiety.

Du Youqian turned a deaf ear, simply slapping two Tier Three Talismans on himself and continuing to attack with his Jinhuan sword.

He wanted to keep trying first. The repercussions of performing a Blood Sacrifice on dozens of Foundation Establishment Late Stage and Perfection cultivators from various sects were too great.

Inside his Storage Treasure Pouch, the Stone Egg was practically buzzing with excitement, more active than usual.

’Is it craving the bear’s Essence Blood?’ he wondered.

The Bear Zombie seemed to sense something as well. Although its empty eye sockets couldn’t "see," it was clearly starting to avoid Du Youqian. A few times, when Du Youqian was the closest to it, it attacked someone farther away instead.

This was definitely not because Du Youqian posed no threat. In fact, the damage he was inflicting was no less than that of Master Wan Shi or Lin Sha.

Seeing it start to avoid him, Du Youqian’s attacks grew even more frequent.

Ignoring the fact that his Outer Pill was being overused and would be difficult to recover, he repeatedly attacked the bear, coordinating his Fire Element Divine Abilities with his Jinhuan sword.

With the addition of Du Youqian as fresh reinforcement, the battle temporarily fell into a stalemate.

After all, the Bear Zombie didn’t have much Spiritual Wisdom. It could have just ignored the cultivators’ attacks and charged south, but instead, it stayed and became mired in a bitter fight.

However, without the suppression from the powerful Little Five Elements Divine Thunder, the Bear Zombie’s aura was actually starting to recover slowly.