A World Worth Protecting

“What was that!” Wang Baole muttered to himself as everyone around him gasped. Feng Qiuran was shaken as well. The power that had emanated from the beast had been overwhelming and had blanketed the entire world.

What had been incredible was how such a powerful beast had been chained up like a slave and made to serve as a mule, dragging the log forward!

The sight had shaken everyone to the core. They stared at the other end of the log, which stretched into the horizon without an end in sight. They couldn’t help but guess where it led to.

“The other end of the log must lead to… the minor sacrificial altar of this world!” Feng Qiuran said suddenly. The look on her face changed immediately. Everyone grew solemn then as well.

What made their expressions darken was what they had seen as the gigantic beast trudged past them. Its heavy steps had shaken the earth. The red flowers that were not yet in bloom had trembled. As they continued to shake, some of these flowers had begun to show signs of blossoming!

The sight of that had alarmed everyone. One could easily imagine the hordes of corpses that would rise from the ground with such a great number of Demonic Green Poria Flowers suddenly blossoming!

“We have to go now!” Alarm flashed across Feng Qiuran’s face as she lifted her right hand and waved. A sudden surge of power lifted everyone off the ground and began to push them away.

There was no need for her warning. The Nascent Soul realm cultivators around her had all begun to panic and dash off. Wang Baole did the same. He made use of the push from Feng Qiuran and dragged Zhao Yameng and Kong Dao along as he dashed off.

It was still too late!

Perhaps it might be more accurate to say that they had lost their window of opportunity of leaving this place the moment the beast had appeared. The land had stopped quaking, but loud bangs began to ring out incessantly in the air!

Each bang was the sound of a Demonic Green Poria Flower bursting into full bloom. Each flower bud was the size of a fist, and they were exploding from a fist into an outstretched palm. It was a shocking sight. From afar, it looked as if countless palms were waving at them in the distance!

All of the demonic flowers that were in their line of vision bloomed in that instant. Vast clouds of pollen spewed into the air, forming crimson mists that gathered and then… blanketed the skies!

All around them—to their left and their right, before and behind them, in the distance—they were surrounded by a sea of flowers and crimson mists!

The corpses that were caught in the radius of the crimson mist began to twitch. Furious howls rang out in the air as the dead bodies began to crawl to their feet. Their eyes were burning with red flames as they roared and charged at the cultivators!

Amongst the horde were beasts missing half their bodies and humans missing limbs. There were skeletons bare of flesh and blood. There were also those whose bodies looked seemingly intact and gave off an evil, black aura!

There were even many man-sized bugs gathered in dark masses, charging towards them as they roared!

The stench of death hovered in the air and blanketed the area. It was like death’s cape, sweeping the air and covering everything as it harvested the blood and flesh of the living!

Feng Qiuran might be at the Soul Conduit realm, but if she were to be trapped within the attacking hordes of these living dead, she would soon exhaust herself trying to fight her way out and eventually perish!

She was still a living, breathing being. These corpses, on the other hand, were dead. Their howls resonated in the air as crimson mist enveloped the sky and furious roars thundered. There was no time for anyone to think, as the nearest corpse had already lunged at them.

The sounds of battling immediately rang out. Feng Qiuran formed a rapid series of hand seals, summoning a tornado that surged outwards. The rest realized the danger they were in and gathered together. With Feng Qiuran in the lead, they unleashed their attacks while charging ahead!

Wang Baole flanked the team on the right, and behind him were Zhao Yameng and Kong Dao. The latter needed no protection from Wang Baole. Zhao Yameng, especially, was in her element as her array formations found their use in large-scale battles. With a series of hand seals, she unleashed wave after wave of array formations. With every ninth array formation, the accumulated array formations would trigger an explosive attack, wiping out vast legions of corpses and creating a backlash that damaged numerous other enemies.

Kong Dao was equally lethal. His beast-like instincts were fully unleashed in battle. The violent streak hidden deep inside him revealed itself as he deftly avoided lethal blows and retaliated viciously in kind.

Wang Baole, having witnessed his friends holding their own in the fight, stopped worrying. With a series of hand seals, he summoned a sea of lightning bolts, an explosion of electricity that generated wave upon wave of electricity that then surged outwards and wiped out hordes of corpses.

His Flame Snatch Thearch Armor was a weapon more suitable for a one-on-one battle. In the face of the mass of enemies, the first thing Wang Baole thought of using was the Dark Art. However, he soon realized that the Dark Art was useless in such a battle. They had no souls. In fact, the corpses had been transformed into some kind of flesh-and-blood puppets!

His lightning bolts had become the most effective weapon he possessed. He also unleashed armies of flying swords, which shot out from his storage bracelet and dashed about in the air. It was literally raining swords.

The rest had also unleashed their own powerful spells and techniques. Feng Qiuran continued to forge a path open for them, charging ahead amidst the battle. However, there were simply too many beasts and too many corpses. They surged forward, no end in sight. Flying beasts appeared in the skies, and in the distance, they could see zombies in black robes!

One might say there weren’t many of these black-robed zombies, but there were still hundreds of them! Every one of them was cloaked in a black fog that shone with lethal-looking runes. The fog shot towards the cultivators, roaring!

Each blow landed with an explosion. Its power was so great that it was as if they were receiving a blow from a Nascent Soul realm cultivator!

They weren’t the most dangerous thing the cultivators faced. The greatest danger was being trapped in a fight without an escape. As the pollen continued to spread further, it might awaken more dangerous corpses or draw more corpses to them!

Feng Qiuran began to panic. She pulled out a ruler and waved it in the air as her voice rang out.

“A thousand feet!”

As soon as she said that, the land within a thousand feet from her began to shake. An invisible power seemed to have gathered itself out of nowhere and crushed all corpses within the thousand-foot radius. They instantly turned to dust!

The attack was incredibly powerful but of little help. There were simply too many corpses. The thousand feet of space cleared was flooded instantly with new corpses. Black fog began crowding in menacingly.

Chi Lin and the others attacked as well, and their attacks gave Feng Qiuran time to prepare her next round of attack. After a few moments, an icy glint flickered in Feng Qiuran’s eyes as she roared.

“Ten thousand feet!”

Zhao Yameng’s eyes flashed as soon as Feng Qiuran unleashed her attack. With a series of hand seals, she unleashed ninety-nine array runes, creating an array formation that spanned ten thousand feet in all directions!

The attack from Feng Qiuran’s ruler exploded the exact moment the array formation appeared!

Boom, boom, boom!

The lands shook, and the heavens seemed drained of all color as everything within ten thousand feet turned to dust. The power within the ruler seemed to have been augmented by some other source of power. It surged outwards, sending aftershocks of the attack another twenty thousand feet into the distance!

The aftershocks might not have been as powerful as the original attack, growing weaker the further it went, but they were sufficient in wiping out the corpses!

The battlefield was instantly cleared of all enemies. However, they didn’t have to go far before another army of corpses appeared on the horizon!

Because of the earlier battle, everyone had come to realize the power of Zhao Yameng’s array formations. Wang Baole had been surprised as well. He had known all along how incredible Zhao Yameng’s array formations were, but he had no idea that they could augment the power of a Soul Conduit realm cultivator!

Amidst her panic, Feng Qiuran realized the power of Zhao Yameng’s array formations. Her eyes flashed. She appeared next to Zhao Yameng in the next moment, having the intention of keeping her by her side. Wang Baole appeared next to Zhao Yameng at the same time. He stood next to her and stared at Feng Qiuran.

“Baole, I will ensure Zhao Yameng’s safety. I swear it on my life!”

She spoke bluntly without mincing her words. Wang Baole stared at Zhao Yameng silently. He wasn’t in the position to make a decision for her. Zhao Yameng only considered it for a few moments before smiling gently at Wang Baole. Then, she nodded and followed Feng Qiuran. They rose to the skies with the intention of replicating the earlier attack in the air.

A sudden, indescribable worry unfurled inside Wang Baole as he watched the two rise to the skies. He was about to say something when… suddenly, the ground began to shake violently!

The land before them caved in, and a hundred-foot long, partially-rotting python emerged from the ground and charged out, flinging mud and shattered rock into the sky as it collided with the group of cultivators!

Wang Baole had no time to consider the worry he had felt earlier amidst the deafening sounds of battle. He sped away with the rest to avoid the attack. Behind them, the ground collapsed once again as another giant python flew out!

Patches of land around them began to cave in, one after another. A third, fourth, and fifth python emerged… More than forty giant pythons charged out, roaring, at the group of cultivators. Black fire spewed out from their gaping maws!