61 – The Killing Field

Elder Guyue slammed her fist on the armrest, shaking the entire hall and unleashing a terrifying wave of Ice Qi that enveloped the room in frost. She turned sharply toward Luochen.

“You snake! You put my disciple in mortal danger!” she shrieked in rage.

Meanwhile, Luochen simply raised his eyebrows in mild apprehension. “What did I do?” he asked innocently. Even he had not predicted how reckless a certain cultivator could be, offering their Nascent Soul inheritance as a reward to kill his adopted son. Not even two months after the last attempt on his son’s life. In fact, he should have been the one livid here.

But it was clear that Guyue’s direct disciple Ningguang held a special place in her heart. To the point of being irrational and blaming the closest person related to her disciple’s harm.

“Guyue…” Came the sect leader’s calm voice. “Calm down.”

“Calm down!? How can I calm down when my d…” But her voice halted as the sect leader barely opened his left eye. Gritting her teeth as she forced herself to calm down.

Then the Sect Leader clapped his hands, both eyes remaining closed. “Now that we are all calm, let’s review the plenty and many issues at hand. How’s the survey?” the Sect Leader began in a cheerful manner.

“It is still in the early phase,” Tianjiao began. He had been chosen to oversee the survey. “But one is already confirmed in Nantao.”

All eyes converged on Tianjiao. There was a reason the information blackout from the north had only been confirmed now. This survey had to be conducted in utmost secrecy. The fact that another one had been found in Nantao could be considered extremely significant. It meant that the Sect Founder’s efforts in the past had not been only a half success.

“Wonderful. I expect everyone to know what it means.” The sect leader said joyfully. All the elders nodded.

“Now then, back to the issue at hand.” He then glanced towards Guyue and Luochen. “How must we pay this hostility in return?” The sect leader emphasized each word.

“We cannot.” Elder Duanhun replied directly.

“Correct! We cannot. Not yet, anyway,” the Sect Leader agreed. “But we cannot exactly do nothing.”

“My son is an idiot,” Luochen said. “But meeting my son in battle should be a punishment in itself.”

“That is for the one participating in an attempt to kill your son, yes. But not the one that started this debacle in motion,” the Sect Leader replied in the same cheerful manner. Which practically unnerved the other elders. The Sect Leader was never this talkative, and he had spoken more than in the last five years combined.

“Before, I could not exactly intervene as it was a… personal grudge. But now,” the Sect Leader grinned. “They have also targeted the other disciples. Which means this is an act of hostility to our sect.”

“Well, since this involves my son.” Luochen began to stand before the Sect Leader stopped him, gesturing for him to sit back down.

“Like I said, this is not a personal grudge anymore. We need to show some unity. And, as the one that started this is a Nascent Soul cultivator,” the Sect Leader’s gaze bored into Elder Chizeng for a few seconds before moving toward Tianjiao.

“Elder Tianjiao. Would you mind asking him to rescind his little assassination request against Luochen’s son?”

“I don’t see why not. Hopefully I am not rusty.” Tianjiao stood and stretched.

“Go beat that son of a bitch to death.” the Sect Leader then said. His tone remained cheerful but was laced with killing intent. It was clear that he was absolutely furious at this development, and his cheerfulness was his excitement for the retribution to come.

Tianjiao nodded, then left the hall first.

“Suppose that is the most urgent matter at the moment and there’s nothing new to report?” The other elders remained quiet. “So this meeting is adjourned. I’m sure everyone is too busy for this kind of meeting.”

“Chizeng, Baiduan, can both of you stay a while?” the Sect Leader called out as the elders were leaving the hall.

—

Back within the Southern Mountain range, on top of one of the many peaks.

Gu Linghua sat elegantly on a complete outdoor set. Chairs, table, and an umbrella on top. All are high quality furniture, made with spiritual wood. She sipped her tea, flexing her wealth as she watched the Demon Hunting Heaven and Earth Net in action. But most importantly… Jianxing and Zhaoge, the two at the top ten of popularity lists were here!

The former was a handsome, free-spirited sword cultivator. Kind, generous, humble, and loyal. He was the typical perfect husband material. The main heroine’s main sword teacher if she decided to learn the sword. But of course this was not a formal teacher-disciple relationship. Which, of course, was how the relationship would develop.

The latter, however, was a great strategist in the future. Petty, abrasive, and jealous. But despite all those bad traits, he always kept his principles and integrity. The typical target for the ‘I can fix him’ meme. He was one of the options for the main heroine’s teacher in all manner of culture, literature, poetry, music, and such.

Gu Linghua would have loved to help in this mission to score affection points, but there were two reasons she decided against it. One was that she wanted to know if this Xuan Danxing was one of the few hidden characters she had never encountered in the game. The adopted son of a raid boss? How could she not be interested? The other reason was the elder of the Gu family beside her. The one her father had assigned as her guardian, who had explicitly forbidden her and made her promise not to intervene.

Her guardian, however, was at least somewhat relieved. These past months or so, the young lady had changed. Becoming kinder and generally out of character. Quoting books she was supposed to have no inclination to read before. Her father was too overjoyed for his daughter to finally mature, while the elders were somewhat concerned that something had possessed her. But then she started sending men to scout out certain people from all over Xian. Fortunately it had become known that she was sending men to scout some handsome men, so at least this part didn’t really change. Leaving the elders relieved.

So she just watched with rapt attention. Gazing longingly at Zhaoge, who was still young and yet to become the petty and jealous strategist of the future.

As for Zhaoge, he watched and calculated. His full attention was on the Demon Hunting Heaven and Earth Net array formation and the eighty life tablets hovering above it. All eighty cultivators from various backgrounds had gathered in the Southern Mountain Range, united in one mission to kill Xuan Danxing. It had taken plenty of hard convincing to make everyone work together. Especially when there was only one Nascent Soul Inheritance as a reward. In fact, as soon as anyone killed the Xuan, that person would immediately run away and bring the proof with them. Leading to a second bloodbath where only one would survive and claim the inheritance.

did not exactly care. When news came that Gongsun Fendao had died, he felt over the moon. That wretch who tarnished the auspicious title of a strategist had gotten himself killed. He was thankful to this Xuan Danxing for ridding him from the world. So now here he was, leading a formation and cultivators to hunt and kill the very same person. He was thankful, this much was true. But he would be so much more thankful when he earned the title of the strategist who led and killed a Xuan. He had no talent with the sword, so the inheritance did not matter much to him. Only the title and recognition afterward.

The fact that the five cultivators from the Wanshou Sect failed to kill him and his group was within expectation. After all, it would be very disappointing if the hunt ended instantly.

But then three life tablets from the Bihai Sect cultivators were destroyed. So he adjusted the array and positioning accordingly. Only for things to quickly go downhill from there.

—

The Demon Hunting Heaven and Earth Net tightened, but Danxing and his group struck first. For the eight cultivators of the Wuqing Sect, it was over in an instant. A silent, high-velocity railgun shot tore through the fog, instantly killing anyone without a soul-saving talisman or artifact. The survivors, protected by their treasures, barely had time to react before Ningguang and Wendao descended upon them. Ningguang’s ice spikes froze their movements while Wendao’s sword flashed with lethal precision, cutting them down one by one in a blur of cold steel and ice spells.

The second group from the Bihai Sect, three cultivators positioned in a different location, fared no better. Danxing’s double railguns silently came from the fog. Destroying their life saving talisman at the first shot and the second shot came after, instantly killing them.

A group of five rogue cultivators took the bait and managed to dispel the weaker part of the fog, revealing their own position. They charged forward with desperate, coordinated attacks, hoping to break through. A silent railgun fire to their heads is their answer. Two of them are instantly killed. The rest immediately dispersed. Using creative life saving techniques not usually seen in sects. One turned and blended into the mist to flee. Only to be flash frozen by Ningguang then shattered. Another turned into a swarm of insects, burned by Wanxia. The last one, split into five and went to separate directions, all intercepted by Wendao. Then the fog closed in. All their bodies disappeared.

The group returned back to their formation. Huiran and Danxing in the middle, sitting at Huiran’s flying gourd. Wendao took the front, while Ningguang and Wanxia positioned themselves on the left and right A white clock circle, showcasing twelve directions, encompassed the group. The number twelve was always directly in front of Danxing, who closed all his eyes with his hands. A compensation as he cannot differentiate the four cardinal directions.

“Next group at 4.” Huiran calculated and relayed. The formation moved accordingly. The two layers of Divine Fog and lesser fog followed them. The former showed how far everyone could go unnoticed, while the latter showed how far the Divine Fog could extend. Both illusions blended perfectly with the mountain’s mist.

“Seven.” Danxing announced. 

Wendao and Wanxia immediately moved to the edge of the Divine Fog as Danxing projected the same number of railguns. All were manually aimed by Danxing using the scope. An advice from Wendao. Aiming targets using his Divine Sense, while accurate, would reveal his location and direction of attack. Giving an opportunity for the target to defend if quick enough. Precisely how Wendao had defended so well during their last spar.

“Ready.” Wendao and Wanxia report.

Seven silent railguns fired at the targets. Some destroyed life-saving talismans, while others killed instantly. Wendao and Wanxia immediately attacked the survivors, finishing another group in less than ten seconds. Both returned as Huiran whipped his chain, fetching the corpses like fishing, storing the bodies in his storage ring. The formation continued through the mountain range.

Danxing and Wendao each popped another Qi Recovery pill. The third one in this manner of repeated engagements. Both were the primary attackers. Danxing shot double to instantly kill groups of less than five or fired once to break their talismans to conserve Qi. Then Wendao finished the survivors. Wanxia and Ningguang took turns supporting Wendao. Huiran calculated using calculation arts and moved the group accordingly in response.

This was their advantage. The Killing Field formation. Created by Danxing but perfected by Huiran. It countered the Demon Hunting Heaven and Earth Net. Turning the hunters into the prey. It was not that the Demon Hunting Heaven and Earth Net was a bad formation. But it was currently applied in a horrible manner.

The Net was supposed to be deployed and led in a unified manner. Not made of groups isolated and independent of each other like this. If one group vanished, the other groups would panic or hesitate. Leading to inefficiency, tardiness, and opportunities for the group to catch their breath between engagements. With each sect and each close circle creating their own groups, most would think and let the other group exhaust their targets first. Not expecting that the other targets were all dispatched in less than a minute.

The factional differences and the communication jade implied that there was no powerful Golden Core acting as a central figure leading this operation. Which the group was entirely banking on. These were the downfall of their enemies.

The Demon Hunting Heaven and Earth Net had been turned against its creators.

~ Valarion