139: Chapter 139 Tianxu Pass!

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"The five demonic sects of the Jin State are truly none to be trifled with."

Back in the military tent, the two men and the bear sat together. Perfected Qing Shan held a cup of spiritual tea, the rising steam obscuring the sharp glint in his eyes.

Shi Jian's massive frame occupied the main seat, his lightning power restrained like a dormant behemoth.

Daoist Yun Du sat to the side, his face pale with the lingering gray of a serious illness, occasionally letting out a suppressed cough...

Perfected Qing Shan took a sip of tea, cleared his throat, and continued:

"Among these five demonic sects, the Blood Bone Demon Sect is the leader. They primarily cultivate the Blood Dao, extracting bones and flaying skin; they most enjoy using the heart's blood of Human Race Cultivators to nourish demonic fetuses."

"As for the Wandu Sect, they deal in poisonous miasmas and Gu insects, leaving no blade of grass standing wherever they pass. The Hehuan Valley's dual cultivation techniques are extremely sinister; if they target you, even a Golden Core Master can be sucked dry into a withered husk."

"The Yin Corpse Sect digs up ancestral graves to refine copper and iron corpses. The Tiansha Sect draws Earthly Malice into their bodies; every one of them is a lunatic who disregards life and death."

Daoist Yun Du coughed again and frowned. "The four main passes, including Tianzhu and Yaoguang, directly face the main forces of the Jin State..."

"The Blood Bone Demon Sect and the Tiansha Sect will likely try to crack those hard nuts. Our Tianxu Pass is situated in a remote corner; the invaders are most likely to be the Yin Corpse Sect or the Wandu Sect."

"It doesn't matter who it is."

Shi Jian didn't even lift his eyelids, his claws fiddling with a piece of Thunder Jade gemstone, making crisp cracking sounds. "As long as they dare to come, they'll have to leave something behind."

"Fellow Daoist Qing Shan, enough small talk. Isn't it time to deliver the items you promised earlier?"

Hearing this, Perfected Qing Shan laughed heartily.

"Fellow Daoist Shi is a straightforward speaker. How could I be a man who breaks his word?"

He gave a large wave of his sleeve.

Three jade boxes, sealed with Spirit-Sealing Talismans, appeared out of thin air on the table.

Perfected Qing Shan tapped his finger, and the first jade box opened.

A vitality so dense it felt inseparable instantly filled the entire tent.

Inside the jade box lay two Medicinal Pills the size of longans. On the surface of the pills were three profound cloud patterns, slowly flowing as if they were alive.

"three-cycle longevity pills." Perfected Qing Shan stroked his beard. "One pill can extend one's Lifespan by sixty years. One for each of you; make sure to keep them safe."

Shi Jian was not polite at all; with a swipe of his large claw, he swallowed one directly into his belly.

To his Yao Race, this thing was also a Heaven-Defying treasure that could change one's fate. Keeping it to save his life or rewarding it to his subordinates were both excellent options.

Or, in the future when his Lifespan was nearing its end, using it to extend his life would also be a good thing.

Daoist Yun Du looked at the remaining pill, an irrepressible fervor flashing deep in his eyes as he carefully put it away.

Perfected Qing Shan then pushed the other two jade boxes toward Daoist Yun Du.

"Fellow Daoist Yun, I know you damaged your Origin in the North Sea."

Perfected Qing Shan spoke sincerely: "Of these two boxes, one contains 'Nine Heavens Cloud Marrow' and the other 'Spirit-Nurturing Wood'. Both are top-tier Cloud Dao materials that I went to great lengths to squeeze out from the Qingzhou County treasury."

"With these two, Fellow Daoist's injuries should be seventy to eighty percent recovered within half a month."

Daoist Yun Du took a deep breath, stood up, and solemnly cupped his hands toward Perfected Qing Shan.

"Fellow Daoist Qing Shan is truly noble. I will remember this favor. Great kindness needs no words of thanks; if there is any task in the future, White Cloud Temple will never refuse."

With these treasures, the heart that had been hanging in Daoist Yun Du's throat finally settled back into his stomach.

With the national war imminent, going into battle with a heavily injured body was no different from seeking death. Now that there was hope of repairing his Origin, his chances of surviving this meat grinder naturally increased greatly.

"We are simply in the same boat."

"I already owed you a favor from before; now I am merely paying it back. There is no need for you to owe me in return."

Perfected Qing Shan waved his hand and added, "To keep Tianxu Pass safe, we must rely on our two parties working together with one heart."

With that said...

The two men and the bear began to exchange pleasantries, sharing their insights on cultivation.

It was also a way to deepen their relationship and form a solid group.

...

Over the next three days, the atmosphere within Tianxu Pass became increasingly oppressive and suffocating.

Not a single person dared to be the least bit negligent.

The teams from White Cloud Temple and Qingguang Sect were unified into the left-wing defense line. Sun Mao and Zhao Yanshan each led their clan's elites, occupying a ten-mile stretch of the city wall.

On the wall, Formation Masters worked day and night to carve defensive Formation runes. Box after box of Spirit Stones were transported to the top of the wall and filled into the Formation hubs.

And in the unseen depths, hundreds of feet underground...

The rat demon army led by Elder Rat had already quietly taken their positions. A complex network of tunnels, like a spiderweb, extended from beneath Tianxu Pass to the plains dozens of miles outside the pass.

Shi Mo and Kuang Dou transformed into the size of ordinary beasts and suppressed all their Demonic Qi. Like two common mountain-guarding beasts, they lay in the shadows of the White Cloud Temple defense zone, coldly watching the area outside the pass.

Shi Jian stayed in his tent, breathing in the dense Spiritual Qi within Tianxu Pass to adjust his state to its Peak.

The silence before the storm was always brief.

Noon on the third day.

The sun was like fire, scorching the earth.

"Wooo—!"

A shrill and desolate horn blast suddenly tore through the silence over Tianxu Pass. The sound was extremely piercing, stabbing into everyone's eardrums.

"Enemy attack!"

"Enemy attack!"

"The demonic Cultivators are here!"

On the walls, the sentry Cultivators roared at the top of their lungs.

Tens of thousands of Cultivators stood up in unison, Magical Artifacts were unsheathed, and Formation runes lit up. Multicolored spiritual light instantly illuminated the entire Tianxu Pass as if it were broad daylight.

Shi Jian, Daoist Yun Du, and Perfected Qing Shan simultaneously rushed out of their tents, turning into three streaks of light that landed on the highest point of the city wall.

On the distant horizon, a thin black line appeared.

At first, the thin line was inconspicuous, but after only a few breaths, it rapidly thickened, turning into a black ocean that blotted out the sky and rolled toward Tianxu Pass.

It was a massive army of demonic Cultivators!

The sky was dyed dark red.

Intense blood-red baleful Qi, dark green poisonous miasma, and grayish-white corpse Qi intertwined to form a demonic cloud as heavy as lead.

The demonic cloud churned, obscuring the hot sun, and the area outside Tianxu Pass instantly fell into darkness.

Beneath the demonic cloud, tens of thousands of Jin State demonic Cultivators clad in black and gray robes were like a swarm of locusts, so dense that the end could not be seen.

In mid-air, dozens of giant bone flying boats shuttled through the clouds.

The hulls were built entirely from the bones of unknown giant beasts, and the masts were hung with human skulls. When the wind blew, they emitted shrill ghostly wails and howls that made one's hair stand on end...

On the ground, thousands of giant copper and iron corpses marched like an army.

These refined corpses were over ten feet tall, their bodies covered in green hair or copper rust. Each step they took made the earth tremble violently.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The unified footsteps converged into thunder, heavily striking the hearts of the Tianxu Pass defenders.

In the center of this vast demonic army, two terrifying Dharma Idol phantoms, hundreds of feet tall, towered and looked toward Tianxu Pass.

The one on the left was wrapped in grayish-white corpse Qi.

The Dharma Idol had a green face and fangs, eyes like two clusters of eerie green ghost fire, and held a massive white bone scythe.

Around the giant scythe circled countless wailing vengeful souls, looking like a judge who had just crawled out of the Nine Nether Underworld.

The one on the right was entirely dark green.

It was perched atop a giant poisonous python with nine heads.

The Dharma Idol's face was blurred, with only a pair of vertical pupils radiating icy killing intent. The poisonous python exhaled green toxic mist; wherever the poison went, the Void Realm was corroded, making a piercing 'sizzling' sound.

Two Nascent Soul Demonic Lords!

Their terrifying pressure was like a physical mountain, crossing a hundred miles to crash heavily onto the city-protecting Formation of Tianxu Pass.

"Crack—"

The light barrier of the fourth-grade city-protecting Formation suddenly shook violently, oscillating with layers of ripples and letting out a tooth-gritting groan.

Inside the pass, Cultivators at the Qi Refinement Stage turned as pale as paper under this pressure.

Some people's legs went weak, and they collapsed directly to the ground, unable to even hold their Magical Artifacts; others felt as if their chests had been struck by a heavy blow, and blood seeped from the corners of their mouths.

"Yin Corpse Sect, Heavenly Corpse Old Demon!"

"Wandu Sect, Nine-Headed Poison Lord!"

True Monarch Fang Yi of the Shangqing Sect appeared by the Formation hub at the highest point of the wall.

His white robes fluttered despite the lack of wind, and his face was grim and dark. Facing two Nascent Soul True Monarchs, his pressure was naturally not small.

The two Nascent Soul Demonic Lords, leading tens of thousands of demonic Cultivators,

Slowly came to a halt on the plain a hundred miles away from Tianxu Pass.

They did not attack the city immediately but instead set up camp on the spot.

Tents emitting Devilish Qi rose from the ground, bone flying boats hovered in mid-air, and the copper and iron corpses lined up in Formation.

The Devilish Qi was overwhelming, blotting out the clouds and the sun.

The entire Tianxu Pass seemed to be completely shrouded in a shadow of death. Before this war even began, it was destined to be a bloodbath.

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