Chapter 193: Insect Swarm Revolution, Slaying the Evil Demon

The battle plan was generated and synchronized with all combat units via the Mind Network.

“Thunder Roc clusters, assemble. Mountain-Splitting Thunder Beasts, prepare for assault. Infiltration units, prepare to secure the area. Prioritize rescuing survivors…”

The commands were issued in quick succession. Far away in the County City, Qin Yu’s eyes were tightly shut, his consciousness blanketing the sky above the canyon.

…

Deep within the canyon, inside a cavern shrouded by an array.

“Kill me.”

“No! I’ll haunt you even as a ghost!”

“My child!”

“I curse you! You’ll all die a horrible death!”

Shrill, agonizing wails echoed one after another. The caverns were filled with abducted villagers, imprisoned only to be brutally humiliated and slaughtered.

The black-robed Martial Artists seemed to be torturing them intentionally, ensuring they died in the depths of despair.

To achieve this, they deliberately slaughtered children in front of their parents and murdered kin right before their very eyes.

The people in the caves either hurled hateful curses, begged frantically, or wept in despair.

However, it was all for naught.

The black-robed Martial Artists were intentionally humiliating them. The prisoners, men and women alike, were bound and subjected to the most horrifying tortures—branding, being cut in half at the waist, having their hearts gouged out, and worse.

Meanwhile, deep within the cavern, a dwarf with an ugly face covered in venomous sores sat cross-legged on a smooth black stone. His short frame was a sickly, bluish-pale. Before him, a Blood Pool bubbled ominously.

A foul stench wafted from it, yet the dwarf seemed to relish it, his gaze fixed greedily on a ten-foot-tall, pitch-black banner planted in the middle of the Blood Pool.

The Black Banner fluttered though there was no wind, and the faint, shrill wails of countless tormented souls seemed to emanate from it, casting a sinister and eerie pall over the entire cavern.

Suddenly, in a distant part of the cavern, a middle-aged man let out a shrill scream, bloody tears streaming from his eyes. He had been tied to a bronze pillar, forced to watch as his wife and daughter were tortured to death, and then was scalded alive himself.

WHOOSH!

A blurry, ferocious phantom flew out of his corpse. It let out a piercing shriek and lunged at the black-robed man who had tortured his family.

Terror flashed across the black-robed Martial Artist’s face. ‘It’s a Fierce Ghost!’

Through torture with a Secret Technique, combined with this place’s unique environment and the Grand Array they had laid, they had finally managed to create another Fierce Ghost. And only something as potent as a Fierce Ghost was visible to ordinary Martial Artists like them.

“Another Fierce Ghost!”

Another black-robed Martial Artist also looked terrified.

Clearly, it wasn’t the Fierce Ghost itself they feared. The moment it appeared, it was trapped by the array inside the cavern.

Then, an unseen force began to pull it down into the earth, dragging it toward the dwarf’s chamber. It was absorbed into the Black Banner, its wails joining the chorus of other tormented souls.

‘Almost there! The Resentful Ghost Banner is almost complete. Just three more Fierce Ghosts, and I can form the Hundred Ghosts Array. Then, I won’t even have to fear a Late Stage Primordial Mansion Realm expert!’

A triumphant look spread across the Hundred Poison Child’s face.

The few Qi Sea Realm disciples standing behind him, their eyes vacant and their auras chilling, hurriedly offered their congratulations.

“Congratulations, Old Ancestor!!”

“Old Ancestor, your divine art has reached Great Success! You will be peerless in Yunlong County!”

“Hahaha! Well said!”

The Hundred Poison Child cackled, his voice sharp and piercing. “Once I, your Old Ancestor, complete the Resentful Ghost Banner, it will be time to leave this godforsaken backwater and enjoy myself in the wider world!

You’ve all followed me for many years. When that time comes, you’ll be well rewarded!”

“We thank you for your grace, Old Ancestor!”

The disciples hurriedly kowtowed, but an unspeakable fear was hidden in their eyes.

They knew better than anyone how cruel and fickle this Old Ancestor was. More than a dozen of the disciples who came before them had been turned into the tormented souls now trapped within that Black Banner.

If he weren’t controlling them with Poison Pills, they would have fled for their lives long ago.

“Hm?”

Suddenly, the smile on the Hundred Poison Child’s face froze.

Through his Hundred Poison Demon Sound Array, he sensed a vast number of powerful life auras appearing in the distance. He had been hunted by the Demon Suppression Bureau for years; if he wasn’t perpetually vigilant, he would have died countless times by now.

‘Who is it?’

The Hundred Poison Child’s heart skipped a beat, and his Divine Thought instantly spread out like a tidal wave.

But it was too late.

BOOM—!!!

Peals of thunder that seemed to shake the heavens and the earth rang out.

Immediately after, the thick, gray-green layer of poisonous miasma that perpetually shrouded the canyon was violently torn asunder, as if by a pair of invisible, giant hands!

Above the clouds, one thousand Thunder Rocs hovered in an abstruse formation. Their wings were fully spread, and their bodies were wreathed in writhing, blue-white serpents of electricity.

Incredibly violent bolts of Thunderbolt spewed from their mouths.

In an instant.

All the Thunderbolts struck a single, precise point above the array, merging into a colossal bolt over a hundred feet wide that slammed down upon the formation.

“Who is it?!!!”

The Hundred Poison Child shrieked, his eyes nearly bursting from their sockets with rage. He frantically channeled the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi, trying to manipulate the Hundred Poison Demon Sound Formation to block the attack.

BOOM!

However, the attack, concentrating the combined power of a thousand Thunder Rocs, pierced through the formation in an instant. A blinding flash of lightning burst forth, illuminating the entire canyon.

“Who launched this sneak attack?!”

The Hundred Poison Child’s eyes flew open, his face a mask of utter horror.

Not only did the power of that strike surpass the Late Stage Primordial Mansion Realm, but it also struck a crucial node in his array, instantly weakening his connection to it by more than half.

The backlash sent a sweet, coppery taste to the back of his throat.

‘How is this possible?’

‘My Hundred Poison Demon Sound Array is exceptionally well-hidden, cloaked by natural poisonous miasma and erratic winds. Even a Late Stage Primordial Mansion Realm expert would find it impossible to locate and strike a node with such precision and speed!’

Before he could react, an even more terrifying tremor shook the ground beneath him!

RUMBLE—!!!

It was as if the very earth were turning over!

Three Tunneling Worms burst from the ground. From their massive maws, each fifty meters in diameter, they spewed a sky-filling Insect Swarm that shrieked as it descended upon the array.