189: Chapter 189 A Series of Intricate Schemes Within a Scheme

She raised the wine cup in her hand high, her voice suddenly sharpening.

"Today we offer sacrifices to Heaven, and I have come specifically for you..."

"To see you off!"

Before her words had even finished, she suddenly shoved the wine cup toward Su Chen's lips.

Her other hand, which had been hanging inside her sleeve all along, shot out instantly.

Between her crimson-lacquered fingers was a slender poison needle about three inches long, aimed directly at Su Chen's heart.

"This is Gut-Wrenching Poison Wine and Bone-Eroding Poison Needle."

"Su Chen, you faint-hearted tyrant! Today you deserve to die here to appease the world!"

Su Daji shrieked, looking as if she had gone mad.

Everything happened too fast, too unexpectedly.

From the moment Su Daji stepped onto the altar to her sudden attack, it was but a flash of lightning.

Most of the guards below had yet to react, and the officials in the front row were even more stunned, standing like wooden chickens.

However, someone reacted even faster.

Almost at the very moment Su Daji's poison needle was released, a hunched old woman in the front row of the spectators, who had been keeping her head down, suddenly looked up.

From that wrinkled face, a pair of eyes burst with sharp light.

Where was there even a trace of the cloudiness of old age?

"Wretched disciple, well done!"

"As expected, I didn't trust you in vain; you still have the Hehuan Sect in your heart!"

A joyful shout rang out.

The old woman's figure lunged forward like a phantom.

Without any visible movement, she transformed into a blurred grey shadow.

She crossed dozens of yards at an incredible speed, pouncing onto the high Altar of Heaven in an instant.

While mid-air, her tattered grey cloth clothes shattered into pieces, revealing a seductive purple-red palace dress underneath.

The wrinkles on her face vanished, replaced by the face of a middle-aged woman who still retained her charm.

It was indeed the Sect Leader of the Hehuan Sect, Xu Xinlei.

While in the air, her hands had already formed a strange hand seal.

Dense purple spiritual light surged from her palms, transforming into two giant ghostly claws.

One after the other, they clawed toward Su Chen and Demon Concubine Su Daji, who were tangled together.

One should know that if those two ghostly claws struck down like this, Su Daji would not have time to escape.

There was a high probability she would be severely injured along with Su Chen.

This Sect Leader of the Hehuan Sect was truly ruthless.

She completely disregarded the life or death of her "own person," Su Daji.

However, at the very moment her incomparably sharp ghostly claws were about to touch the backs of Su Chen and Su Daji.

Su Daji, who had seemingly noticed nothing and was even still thrusting the needle toward Su Chen, let a cold sneer flash across her pretty face.

She actually ignored the fatal blow coming from behind.

The wrist holding the poison needle suddenly flipped; the needle did not stab Su Chen, but instead, with even greater speed, it plunged into the gilded wine cup in her other hand.

"Bang—!"

With a muffled thud, the wine cup exploded the moment the poison needle touched it.

A cloud of seven-colored smoke burst forth.

The smoke instantly enveloped all three of them.

"Seven-Colored Spirit-Confusing Smoke?!"

A shriek of combined shock and fury from Xu Xinlei came from within the smoke.

"Su Daji, you bitch! You really weren't up to any good!"

"You dare use the 'phantom mirage pearl' bestowed by the sect for your protection to plot against your master?"

This "phantom mirage pearl" was an extremely powerful one-time-use illusory treasure of the Hehuan Sect. It was incredibly potent and could ignore most protective spiritual lights to directly invade the soul.

It had originally been given to Su Daji by Xu Xinlei for escaping or ambushing others in critical moments, but now it was a case of shooting oneself in the foot, as it was being used against her.

Xu Xinlei was caught off guard.

Despite her profound cultivation, being sprayed directly by the smoke of her own sect's treasure at such close range caused her soul to tremble violently, and illusions began to swarm before her eyes.

The flow of spiritual energy in her body instantly became sluggish, and those two claws, which were meant to be a sure kill, involuntarily veered off slightly, their power greatly reduced.

In that split second.

Within the seven-colored smoke, a golden sword light suddenly flared up.

Su Chen moved.

His eyes were even more bloodshot than before.

"Su Daji..."

"Taking matters into your own hands again!"

"Once I kill this old hag, I'll settle the score with you properly!"

In this moment when Xu Xinlei was confused by the smoke and her attack was hindered.

In his hand, the decorative sacrificial ceremonial sword had already been infused with the vast and majestic national fortune of the Yin Shang Dynasty, transforming into the radiantly brilliant "Human Emperor Sword."

This strike concentrated all the power of the national fortune he could mobilize here as the Lord of the Yin Shang Dynasty.

The sword light, like a dragon, pierced directly toward the fleeting opening Xu Xinlei had exposed.

"Puchi—!"

The muffled sound of a sharp blade entering flesh rang out.

Chaoge was originally the capital of the Yin Dynasty, the place where Su Chen's national fortune power was strongest.

Not to mention at this moment.

Below the Altar of Heaven stood countless citizens of the Yin Shang Dynasty.

Xu Xinlei, after all, had not yet transcended the human realm; her protective spiritual light lasted less than a breath before the "Human Emperor Sword" before it shattered.

The sword tip pierced into her body without any resistance, passing through her back.

"Ugh... ho-ho..."

Xu Xinlei's eyes bulged, her face filled with horror and pain.

"Su Daji, if you conspired with that tyrant to deceive me..."

"...then you can forget about ever knowing the method for the final step of the Supreme Forgetting Joy and Union Canon's mastery."

"Furthermore... don't think you can save your life this way."

"There is no one behind you, but behind me stand the gods and Buddhas of the heavens!"

Unfortunately, Su Daji, for reasons unknown, did not respond to her words.

Xu Xinlei wanted to say more, but her lungs had been shredded by the sword tip, and she could only make a raspy sound like a broken bellows.

The majestic power of the national fortune surged frantically into her body through the sword, instantly destroying her meridians and internal organs.

Everything described sounds long.

In reality, from Su Daji detonating the phantom mirage pearl to Su Chen thrusting his sword through Xu Xinlei, it was all within a single breath.

The guards below finally reacted and surged toward the altar like a tide.

But they were, after all, ordinary mortals.

The yet-to-dissipate seven-colored smoke and the violent spiritual energy turbulence on the altar were enough to keep them outside the Altar of Heaven, not daring to take a single step closer.

Having succeeded with one strike, Su Chen did not linger and quickly withdrew his sword and retreated.

Xu Xinlei's body swayed and fell forward, her blood quickly spreading into a large dark red stain on the white jade altar.

However, at this moment, Su Chen was in no mood to deal with Xu Xinlei.

"Demon Concubine Su Daji!"

He turned his head sharply, looking toward the other side of the smoke.

According to the original plan, when Xu Xinlei attacked, Su Daji, who was not the primary target, was supposed to withdraw first and pretend to join forces with Xu Xinlei to attack Su Chen.

After Su Chen took a hit, she would play the role of the oriole behind the mantis.

But Su Daji took it upon herself to reduce the risk to Su Chen.

She chose to detonate the "phantom mirage pearl" directly when Xu Xinlei arrived.

This plan resulted in Su Chen suffering almost no injury.

But the detonation point was too close.

Although the demoness was confused by the phantom mirage pearl and her attack was skewed and weakened, part of the aftershock from her furious strike still hit Su Daji's back squarely.

At this moment, Su Daji's delicate body was leaning limply against the railing at the edge of the altar, her face pale.

(Third update progress 1/3)

(So far, the traffic from Fanqie still hasn't improved, but has been dropping... everyone's reminders, follows, and free gifts are very crucial, please!)"}],"new_glossary_terms":[{"zh":" Poisonous Wine That Pierces the Intestines","en":"Gut-Wrenching Poison Wine","entity_type":"item","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Bone-corroding poison needle","en":"Bone-Eroding Poison Needle","entity_type":"item","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Mirage Pearl","en":"phantom mirage pearl","entity_type":"item","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Seven-Colored Bewitching Smoke","en":"Seven-Colored Spirit-Confusing Smoke","entity_type":"technique","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" Chaoge","en":"Chaoge","entity_type":"location","gender":"neutral"},{"zh":" The fate of the Shang Dynasty","en":"Shang Dynasty National Fortune","entity_type":"other","gender":"neutral"}]}