Chapter 55: Surprise Attack on the Blood Fiend Sect (4)

Description

“Why did they put such an evil array inside their own stronghold too? Are they trying to make the most of everything, treating even their own people as consumables?”

Shucao had originally thought there would be an array here to centrally process and use the Blood Qi absorbed by the distant arrays, but she never expected they had also arranged one for absorbing Blood Qi.

“They probably want to refine the Blood Qi of the people who die here as well. A cultivator’s Blood Qi is likely much stronger than an ordinary person’s.”

Hearing An Qianhua’s guess, Shucao couldn’t help but show a trace of disgust.

She felt a strong aversion toward these demonic cultivators treating their companions as food as well.

Choosing not to dwell on it, Shucao looked again at the storage pouch she had taken from that ambushing demonic cultivator.

Some bottles and jars, some spirit stones flickering with faint light, and a few jade slips—that was the entirety of that person’s possessions.

As for the artifact he used during the ambush, it had probably been blown to fragments by the explosion.

At least Shucao didn’t even see a shadow of an artifact.

“How should I put it, they’re a bit poor.”

Seeing that there wasn’t much inside the storage pouch, Shucao said with some disappointment.

“These demonic cultivators burn, kill, and plunder, yet they only have this much?”

Recalling the harvests she had previously snatched from other cultivators, this demonic cultivator’s storage pouch was simply shabby beyond comparison.

“Maybe a lot of his cultivation resources were taken by higher-ranking cultivators. For demonic cultivators like this, it feels like you have to target the stronger ones to get more harvest.”

While listening to An Qianhua’s words, Shucao flipped through the things found in the storage pouch.

Before long, she discovered a somewhat wrinkled drawing among the layers of those jade slips.

The drawing depicted a pattern composed of several concentric circles, with a straight line connecting each circle at intervals, and each connection point labeled with its function.

“This is a map. It should be of this stronghold.”

Shucao looked at the drawing in her hand and said with some pleasant surprise.

She hadn’t expected that besides the jars filled with miscellaneous foul-smelling materials and unusable jade slips, there would actually be a harvest.

“These circular corridors, and the inscriptions above this room—could they form a gigantic array? Is this entire stronghold one enormous array?”

After thinking for a moment and connecting it to some array disks she had seen before and some array-related tools she had seen at Yu Qing’s place, Shucao said with some surprise.

“Precisely because the stronghold was built according to the array’s layout, it can precisely gather the Blood Qi absorbed by the other arrays. This speculation feels very reasonable. If that’s really the case, it seems the leader of this demonic sect has researched Blood Qi-related arrays very deeply.”

After hearing Shucao’s conjecture, An Qianhua also spoke.

“Is such a large array really only used to concentrate the gathered Blood Qi?”

“Maybe, like that demonic cultivator named Lin last time, they want to use a large amount of Blood Qi to help high-level cultivators break through. It’s possible this array also includes functions like amplification and attack.”

Shucao thought of the huge blood-colored shield that Bai Yumo had opened when attacking the stronghold earlier, and tacitly agreed with An Qianhua’s idea.

“Anyway, from this map, the center of this stronghold must be the core of this gigantic array. As long as we can get there and destroy it, this grand array should fail.”

After deciding on her target, Shucao walked up the stairs and left this room.

“Should we fly over following this map?”

Hearing An Qianhua’s words, Shucao touched the wall beside her and then answered.

“Following the map would still be a bit too long. Maybe we can just make a path out.”

Facing the wall, Shucao first picked a position on the path to the core that had no other rooms, then stepped back a few paces, gripped the Magic Wand with both hands, and aimed the pink gem at the tip toward the wall ahead.

She continuously drew Magic Power from the Heart Seed and concentrated it on the Magic Wand in her hands.

The light emitted by the gem grew increasingly dazzling.

The next instant, magic arrays of various sizes suddenly appeared one after another in front of the Magic Wand, lining up in a row, with powerful Magic Power continuously condensing within them.

Ding!

A solid pink sphere appeared at the tip of the Magic Wand, then transformed into a beam of light and shot forward.

Each time it passed through a magic array, the beam’s power, size, and even shape would change.

In the end, a pink light cannon flashing with different shades, in a spiral form and carrying terrifying power, shot toward the wall.

Rumble!

One loud rumble after another rang out.

The light cannon instantly smashed the wall in front of her, broke through the earth and stone underground, and directly pierced into the wall of another corridor.

Then it repeated the above process, blasting through corridor after corridor, before dissipating under Shucao’s control.

This cannon blast was an enhanced version Shucao had created by combining the light cannon skills she had used before.

Although it required some charging time and the Magic Power consumption was a bit high, the power was obviously very formidable at a glance.

At least Shucao herself was very satisfied with this move she had come up with.

Seeing Shucao do this, An Qianhua said a bit speechlessly.

“So ‘making a path out’ means directly blasting the walls open and bombarding a road to the core?”

“At least this way the efficiency is high, right?”

Speaking in a somewhat sly tone, Shucao stepped forward and walked toward the road she had blasted open.

“Looks like this strike wasn’t bad. It pretty much blasted all the way to the core area, and also avoided the positions with rooms. It shouldn’t accidentally injure those Qi Refining cultivators who came together with us.”

Moreover, the commotion was so loud that the basic qualities of a Qi Refining cultivator would be enough for them to dodge before being hit.

Walking through the blasted path, Shucao went directly to the gate of the core area and slowly opened it.

Pushing the door open, what met her eyes was a spacious space.

What was carved on the floor of the space were patterns somewhat similar to those Shucao had previously seen on those array disks.

In the exact center of the room, a black-robed man holding a pitch-black banner was staring in Shucao’s direction.

“Another Soul Banner? This demonic sect’s artifacts really lack creativity.”

Just as Shucao wanted to first respond to An Qianhua’s complaint, the man in the center spoke directly.

“To dare come here with only one person, this fellow Daoist really has guts.”

Before the man could continue speaking, Shucao immediately condensed several light bullets and shot them toward the man.

“Why bother with so much nonsense when we’re already about to fight.”

While speaking, Shucao used the light bullets as cover and flew toward the man.

If she let the opponent use the wronged souls in the Soul Banner, it would become very troublesome, so Shucao decided to suppress the enemy in front of her early.

“Ah?”

Noticing Shucao’s surprise attack, the man cried out in some surprise, then hurriedly raised the banner in his hand and formed a layer of spiritual energy shield in front of himself.

As the light bullets struck the shield, they scattered dazzling strong light, actually making the man unable to see the view in front for a moment.

Seizing this opportunity, Shucao also quickly circled to the man’s side.

The Magic Wand in her hand quickly condensed Magic Power, and a beam of light immediately attacked toward the man’s side.

Seeing this, the man hurriedly waved the Soul Banner and blocked it at his side to defend against this Magic Power beam.

However, what Shucao really wanted to attack was not the man himself, but that Soul Banner.

With a slight adjustment from Shucao, the shot beam traced a strange angle in the air, perfectly avoiding the incomplete spiritual energy defense the man had unfolded with the Soul Banner, and fiercely blasted onto the flagpole of that Soul Banner.

It seemed the material of the flagpole part of the Soul Banner the man had refined wasn’t very good.

Of course there was also the reason of Shucao’s high stats.

Under this attack, the flagpole actually snapped directly.

As the flagpole broke, the shield the man had unfolded with the Soul Banner also disappeared.

In the man’s astonished gaze, Shucao actually arrived in front of the man in an instant and smashed a punch carrying tremendous force toward the man’s head with her petite fist amplified by Magic Power.

Seeing this, the man directly raised his arms, crossed them in front of himself, and actually blocked Shucao’s punch directly.

Then he said to Shucao in a somewhat angry tone.

“To actually pull this kind of sneak attack, fellow Daoist, can you still be considered a righteous cultivator?”

“Do we need to talk about Jianghu righteousness when dealing with demonic cultivators?”

Shucao said casually, while also grumbling in her heart.

Besides, I’m not even a cultivator.

Seeing that one strike hadn’t succeeded, Shucao immediately stomped the ground, making herself jump backward, while also firing several light bullets in midair.

Several light bullets shot toward the man, making him unable to make other movements at this moment.

At the same time, the other few shots attacked the Soul Banner on the ground.

Although they couldn’t destroy it directly, they caused some damage while also blasting it away, making it so the Soul Banner couldn’t immediately return to the man’s hand.

Seeing that her first attack hadn’t been effective, Shucao muttered.

“That punch just now was actually blocked directly. This guy’s strength is quite a bit greater than I imagined.”

Because the man had suffered a big loss in this exchange, he didn’t dare have too much more nonsense.

He directly offered up a bright red crystal, and the spiritual energy around his body suddenly surged violently.

“A Spirit Item?!”

Although she couldn’t feel the change in the man’s spiritual energy, the shift in his aura allowed Shucao to guess some of what had happened.

So Shucao immediately blasted out several beams of light, wanting to stop the man’s movements.

Unfortunately, the instant the beams approached the man, a thick dark-red crystal wall suddenly rose from the ground and blocked this strike for the man.

“Hundred Beasts Blood Crystal. This is the name of my Spirit Item.”

After blocking the attack, the man spoke to Shucao.

“To avoid this fellow Daoist dying without knowing why, I’ll tell you in advance. My name is Liang Heng. Remember it well!”

As the man spoke, the patterns on the ground also emitted bright red light, and some dark-red liquid seeped out from those patterns.

Hearing the other party’s words, An Qianhua said.

“Little Shucao, be a bit careful. By the way, this guy even does commentary. Quite the sense of ceremony.”

Just as Shucao was responding to An Qianhua, with a flash of light from the crystal in the man’s hand, the dark-red wall suddenly shattered, and several large birds formed of crystal drilled out from it.

The large birds flapped their wings and then charged toward Shucao.

Shucao immediately leaped up, dodged the impacts of several birds, and then flew in midair.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

After the blood crystal birds failed to hit Shucao, they exploded on the ground, turning into some scattered dark-red crystals, and at the same time merged into the dark-red liquid on the ground.

This is made with that blood crystal?

And those dark-red liquids should be things formed from the Blood Qi attracted by the stronghold’s array.

The blood crystal wall just now also appeared from the ground that had liquid.

The array recycles the blood crystals while also providing materials for that person to generate blood crystals.

With this field here, it seems a bit troublesome.

Shucao thought this, then a trace of a smile appeared at the corners of her mouth.

But if I could only stay on the ground, I’d be the one at a disadvantage.

Magical girls can fly!

Seeing Shucao fly up, Liang Heng once again drove the blood crystal.

Spike after spike emerged from the liquid on the ground, constantly thrusting toward Shucao.

And after Shucao dodged, they shattered into a blood crystal beast and launched a second attack toward Shucao.

But the flying Shucao’s mobility far exceeded the man’s imagination.

He constantly generated various blood crystal beasts and blood spikes to attack, but all of them could be flexibly dodged by her in the air, and she could even seize opportunities to counterattack.

As several more blood crystal beasts were smashed by Shucao’s light bullets, some sweat beads appeared on the man’s head.

“Your Spirit Item is indeed not bad. Combined with the array on this field, it’s quite troublesome.”

Seeing the man’s movements start to become a bit slow, Shucao slowly spoke.

“It’s just a pity you ran into me.”

Facing the spikes constantly drilling out from the ground, she only needed to slightly shift her body to dodge.

Even if the spikes changed into various blood crystal beasts, under the condition that they could only launch one attack toward her, as long as she slightly dodged once more, she could dodge again.

Being able to fly is too cheap!

Not to mention in this room built so spacious, this allowed Shucao’s mobility to be brought into play to a great degree.

What’s the use of high power if you can’t hit?

“Don’t look down on me!”

Facing Shucao’s somewhat disdainful tone, Liang Heng roared in shame and anger, then suddenly poured spiritual energy into the blood crystal and used the blood crystal to construct about ten blood crystal demonic beasts, trying every means to constantly launch attacks toward Shucao.

“Even with the array’s blessing, as a Qi Refining cultivator, this should be his limit.”

Thinking of the several Qi Refining cultivators she had seen using Spirit Items before, Shucao concluded that the person in front of her was already at the end of his strength.

Just take him out with this move!

While constantly dodging and using a magic power barrier to block Liang Heng’s attacks, Shucao also completed the release of her own technique.

Pink clouds instantly filled the entire ceiling of the room.

The next instant, petal after petal fell, constantly bombarding the floor of the room.

“Falling Sakura Radiance!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Continuous explosions rang out.

Petals like rain accompanied the bombardment, washing over the floor of the core room.

The array patterns on the floor and the blood crystal beasts all melted away under the formidable attacks.

Of course, that also included the demonic cultivator named Liang Heng.