Chapter 54: Surprise Attack on the Blood Fiend Sect (3)

Description

On the other side, while Bai Yumo went to pursue the demonic sect’s Foundation Establishment cultivator, Shucao also led the group to the demonic sect stronghold where an entrance had been cleaved open.

Shucao looked back at the Qi Refining cultivators behind her and said to them.

“This stronghold looks quite large. Everyone, split into groups as much as possible and act separately.”

“Fellow Daoist Shucao, what about you?”

Seeing that although Shucao first had these Qi Refining cultivators split up, she showed no intention of joining them herself, one person in the crowd asked.

Shucao replied.

“Me? I plan to go straight to the core of the large array in this stronghold. The strongest person here is probably guarding that place, so I’ll deal with them. You all just clean up the other demonic cultivators in the stronghold.”

“Fellow Daoist, can you handle it alone? Although Senior Bai has guaranteed your strength, going alone still doesn’t seem very steady.”

Seeing that the cultivators lacked confidence in her, Shucao said a bit irritably.

“Look, the strongest Qi Refining cultivator in this stronghold right now is probably a peak Qi Refining who already possesses a Spirit Item. Even if they’re a bit weaker, with the amplification of this Blood Qi Grand Array they can reach that level. The strongest among you is only late-stage Qi Refining, and you don’t even have Spirit Items you can use. How are you supposed to fight demonic cultivators stronger than you? Even if we have numbers, if the other side uses their Spirit Item without regard for the cost, you have no chance of surviving under a Spirit Item.”

Having witnessed Xiao Simeng’s Spirit Item, Shucao naturally knew the power of Spirit Items, and she could see that in the Qi Refining stage, possessing a Foundation Establishment Spirit Item versus not possessing one was a world of difference.

If she let them go against a peak Qi Refining demonic cultivator, they definitely wouldn’t last long under the opponent’s Spirit Item, not to mention the grand array amplifying the demonic cultivators.

Therefore, rather than sending them to their deaths, it was better for her to deal with the strongest Qi Refining demonic cultivator herself.

After hearing Shucao’s words, the cultivators also understood their own lack of strength.

Led by several late-stage Qi Refining cultivators, they split into several groups and headed toward the various branching paths in the stronghold.

Seeing everyone else heading down different branching paths in the stronghold, Shucao also entered a passage that no one else had taken.

“Little Shucao, do you know how to navigate this stronghold?”

Hearing An Qianhua’s voice appear in her mind, Shucao answered.

“Not sure, but let’s just go first. This demonic sect stronghold looks pretty big. Who knows how long they’ve been operating it.”

“But such a large stronghold and we haven’t seen a single person. Feels a bit suspicious.”

“Maybe that Foundation Establishment cultivator ordered the people inside to guard the most important parts when he flew out. After all, Senior Bai Yumo’s previous sword strike looked terrifyingly powerful.”

Shucao continued weaving through the corridors of the stronghold while chatting back and forth with An Qianhua.

“By the way, isn’t this place a bit too big? There are clearly three strongholds, so what’s the point of making this single one so huge?”

Hearing An Qianhua’s words, Shucao suddenly also felt that this spacious corridor was unreasonably long.

Even for a cultivator stronghold, there was no need to build it this large.

After thinking for a moment, Shucao spoke.

“Indeed. As a cultivator stronghold, even if cultivators can use flying artifacts, this is way too inconvenient, unless building it this large has its own meaning.”

“Why don’t we memorize the path we took? After all, this place is so big, it would be bad if we got lost. And this way we might discover something.”

“Mm, I got it.”

Following An Qianhua’s suggestion, Shucao continued traveling through the enormous corridor while sketching the path she had taken in her mind.

After a while longer, Shucao noticed a door appearing to the side of the corridor.

“Finally another room. How long have we been flying already?”

Shucao grumbled internally as she arrived at the door, then recalled the route she had taken.

She was surprised to discover that the path she had walked this whole time actually formed an arc.

“If we keep going, won’t we end up circling a huge loop back to the exit? Who would build a stronghold into a super huge circle?”

So Shucao decided to check later whether it was really as she had just thought.

Right now she still wanted to see what was inside this room she had finally encountered after exploring for a while.

Entering, Shucao first saw a fairly large hall.

In the center of the hall was a staircase leading vertically downward.

The ceiling was carved with many runes Shucao couldn’t understand.

Looking down the stairs, she could see some doors connected by the stairs, inlaid into the rock wall.

“This place looks like a cultivation quiet room, and these inscriptions on the ceiling seem like I’ve seen them on those array disks.”

Could this place be related to that array?

Shucao thought this in her mind.

After all, this stronghold concentrated the Blood Qi absorbed by the surrounding arrays, so using some arrays here for centralized processing was quite reasonable.

“Looks like we’ll have to ask Yu Qing to take a look later.”

Shucao walked down the stairs and searched the closed stone rooms one by one, but found no useful clues.

“There’s actually not a single person. I was hoping I could find a map of this stronghold or ask someone for information.”

“Maybe they’re all concentrated in the more important rooms. Cultivation quiet rooms like this probably aren’t within the range they need to guard.”

Listening to An Qianhua’s words, Shucao also reached out and pushed open the door of the last room.

“Gaaah, die, invader!”

The instant Shucao opened the door, a black human figure charged at her from a corner of the stone room.

In the figure’s hand was a small knife flowing with bright red blood.

However, that person’s speed wasn’t so hard to react to in Shucao’s eyes.

The instant the figure reached her, her slender but not particularly long legs rotated with her body and kicked sideways with heavy force, directly hitting the figure’s side and sending them flying backward.

Boom!

With a loud sound, the figure slammed into the stone room’s wall behind them and was directly embedded in it.

“Whoa, what the heck? I just said everyone left, and now someone suddenly pops out? Isn’t this slapping my face hard?”

An Qianhua complained about the sudden appearance of this person.

Shucao also walked over and looked at the motionless man stuck in the hole smashed into the wall.

“Hiss, did I use a bit too much force?”

“No matter how you look at it, that’s too much force. The guy smashed into the wall!”

“This demonic cultivator’s physical quality definitely shouldn’t be that weak. Besides, he suddenly lunged at me just now and gave me a huge scare.”

Shucao chatted back and forth with An Qianhua while observing the struck man, wanting to see if he was still conscious.

No matter how she looked, the man didn’t look conscious at all.

“I was hoping I could get some information from this guy’s mouth. Looks like that’s impossible now.”

“Aiyaya, Little Shucao, look at it this way: you’ve successfully taken out a demonic cultivator now, haven’t you? And he’s so weak, he probably doesn’t know any important information anyway. Thinking of it more positively will make you feel better.”

So Shucao reached toward the storage pouch at the man’s waist, preparing to see if he was carrying a map of the stronghold or anything related to the Blood Fiend Sect.

Just as her hand was about to touch the storage pouch at the man’s waist, the man’s hand suddenly grabbed Shucao’s wrist forcefully from the side.

Then he raised his head, his scarlet-stained eyes staring fixedly at Shucao.

The spiritual energy fluctuations on his body seemed a bit chaotic.

But Shucao naturally couldn’t detect this.

Playing dead to trick me?

Shucao thought in surprise, while also trying to pull her hand back.

However, that man’s strength seemed quite a bit greater than she had imagined, and for a moment she actually couldn’t break free.

Just as Shucao failed to shake off the man’s hand, a human figure suddenly burst out from a shadow behind her, holding an awl radiating sinister energy, thrusting toward Shucao.

“Tsk.”

Sensing the situation behind her, Shucao let out a cold snort.

She actually grabbed the man’s wrist directly, then pulled him out of the wall with one hand and turned to block in front of herself.

Puchi.

The long awl pierced through that demonic cultivator’s body.

Instantly, the flow of spiritual energy in his body became chaotic.

In Shucao’s eyes, his body even showed a tendency to swell.

“Careful, it looks like he wants to self-destruct!”

Hearing An Qianhua’s reminder, Shucao didn’t dare hesitate in the slightest.

She immediately condensed a solid light bullet with the Magic Wand in her other hand, then blasted it toward the arm of the man grabbing her.

The power-controlled light bullet smashed the man’s arm amid his self-destruction.

The next instant, Shucao kicked out forcefully, once again sending the man and the ambusher behind him flying together.

At the same time, she also threw out the remaining half of the man’s arm in her hand.

Rumble!

Chaotic spiritual energy surged out from the man’s body.

Violent spiritual energy filled with destructive intent swept out from his flesh and blood in an instant.

The ambusher who had flown out together with him was directly caught in the explosion; half his body was immediately swallowed by the blast.

Flying flesh and blood stained the stone room’s floor a thick, fishy red.

When Shucao kicked the man away, she had already opened a magic power barrier, so the explosion just now didn’t cause her any harm.

“What the heck, this self-destruction momentum is so terrifying. Don’t tell me this guy’s specialty is self-destruction?”

After dodging the self-destruction, An Qianhua said a bit resentfully.

Shucao walked forward and picked up the storage pouch of the person who had been blown to only half a body remaining.

“The self-destructing guy’s storage pouch seems to have been blown to pieces. Luckily there’s still this one from the guy who suddenly appeared.”

Just as Shucao was about to look at the contents of the storage pouch, she suddenly discovered that the scattered flesh and blood were quickly seeping into the stone room’s floor.

Her gaze sharpened, and she immediately thought of the previous array.

“This is… the same effect as that array?”