Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 931
If the headquarters were indeed broken into, countless disciples of Roaring Tiger Hall slain, but no food was found, it would be a proof for Roaring Tiger Hall's claims that their barn had caught fire and all the assets had burnt to the ground. Then, what were the major sects going to do? Would they not be burglars who openly looted someone else's house?
Also, getting to the bottom of it, were they really qualified at all to attack the headquarters of Roaring Tiger Hall? Right now, the new monarch, Emperor Phoenix, had just assumed the throne. Nobody understood the personality and temper of the emperor yet. If they acted on their own without reporting the issue first, it would not be very appropriate, would it?
After a long discussion, they reached no conclusion. At this moment, a Cultivator in the crowd said loudly, "Fellow Cultivators, we have been talking about nonsense. Our attack may be unjustified, and the treasuries of Roaring Tiger Hall may take a while to be found out, but that is not important. The real critical problem is that the Tiger Apparitions Array and the hundred Crouching Tiger Cannons and Fiery Crow Ballista seem rather sophisticated. I fear that a real expert will be needed in order to break the array!"
Everybody looked at the source of the voice, only to discover that it was Bu Tiantong, a secondary leader of the Gold Armor Clan!
The muscles on his face twisting, Bu Tiantong declared angrily that the Cultivators should consider bullying the bullies and helping the weak as their responsibility, and trouble times were times when Cultivators should distinguish themselves! At such a critical moment, the ruthless and indifferent attitude of Roaring Tiger Hall was an insult to all Cultivators, which he found intolerable!
The so-called 'Tiger Apparitions Array' looked rather intimidating at first, but in his opinion, it might not necessarily be as tough as it appeared!
Were it not for the fact that he had been heavily wounded by Master Spiritual Vulture, known as a Grandmaster of Great Zhou, whose name resounded in the southeast, no, the entire Great Qian Dynasty three months ago during the Dragon Spring Meeting, and that he had not fully recovered yet after three months of treatment, he would have marched forward and broken the array for everyone instead of allowing the clowns of Roaring Tiger Hall to be so arrogant in front of Master Spiritual Vulture!
While saying that, Bu Tiantong, who seemed rather innocent and straightforward, glanced at Li Yao nonstop.
Chapter 1430: Array Breaker! |
Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!
Hundreds of eyes lunged toward Li Yao like stray dogs that had smelt the aroma of meat.
The leadership of all the Cultivation sects, the pretentious leaders and elders, all beamed with interest and put on a mysterious smile.
Some agreed with Bu Tiantong, saying that Master Spiritual Vulture was the most suitable one to break the array because he must know a lot about arrays based on his unparalleled knowledge in refining!
Some sneered and said that, after Master Spiritual Vulture rose to fame in the Dragon Spring Meeting, he had become one of the pillars of the Great Qian Dynasty. If he was sent out, there would be no fight at all. The gutless scoundrels in Roaring Tiger Hall would sh*t their pants and surrender when they heard the name 'Grandmaster of Great Zhou'!
Some others, however, argued solemnly that they were too unbelievable. Master Spiritual Vulture was indeed certainly among the top three experts in the world, but Roaring Tiger Hall was not made of dough. How could it surrender so easily?
Asking Master Spiritual Vulture to break the Tiger Apparitions Array on his own would be too much of a stretch for him despite his amazing capabilities!
However, in case everybody forgot, there was another super expert in the Purple Pole Sword Sect who was a contender for the title of 'best expert in the world'. It was 'Sword Maniac' Yan Liren!
Was Yan Liren's mysterious 'fourth sword' not said to be incomparably powerful, such that it could even slash apart the Heavenly Flipping Seal, the 'ultimate treasure of the Great Qian Dynasty'? The insignificant Tiger Apparitions Array was not a big deal for the Sword Maniac at all, who would shatter it into smithereens after a single attack!
If the Sword Maniac and Master Spiritual Vulture worked together, they would certainly break the array in no time!
Listening to the unbelievable adulations, and looking at the enthusiastic eyes, Li Yao felt that sweat the size of beans was popping up on his forehead nonstop.
Cursing loudly in his heart, he turned around and looked at Yan Liren before he said in a low voice, "Fellow Cultivator Yan…"
Yan Liren's eyes were half closed, and he was not disturbed at all. He observed his palm carefully, as if there were a flower in the middle of his palmprint. He casually replied, "I am a maniac, not a moron."
This was the time when the leader of the sect should step up.
Dan Fengzi cleared his throat and walked forward. He bowed to everyone at first before thanking all the fellow Cultivators for their praise and compliments to the two elders of the Purple Pole Sword Sect. Then, he stated that the Purple Pole Sword Sect found Roaring Tiger Hall's ruthlessness intolerable, too!
But it was a pity that the Purple Pole Sword Sect had been drained during the Dragon Spring Meeting three months prior. Yan Liren and Master Spiritual Vulture, the two elders with the highest Cultivation, had both suffered a lot of hidden injuries during the competitions. They were still in the middle of recuperating!
If the two elders went to fight despite their heavy wounds, the possible losses of the Purple Pole Sword Sect might not be important, but it would not be pretty if they failed and dishonored all the fellow Cultivators there, right? The scoundrels in Roaring Tiger Hall would also certainly grow even more arrogant.
After Dan Fengzi said that, all the other people were rendered speechless. They had no choice but to look at each other in bewilderment and begin praising their companions.
One praised the guy standing next to him, saying that his Infinite Cosmos Art was the best technique in the world and that he could blow the Tiger Apparitions Array into smithereens after one slap with only thirty percent of his full strength!
The guy hurried to reply that his Infinite Cosmos Art just looked fancy but was in fact a petty trick that was not worth mentioning at all. If anything, it was the first guy's Wave Sweeping Art that was the truly amazing technique.
All in all, they passed the duty between one another, claiming that they were mentally deranged or not recovered from previous wounds. After a long period of prevarication, there was still nobody willing to lead the charge.
Looking at the gracious, courteous leaders and elders turning so hesitant and cowardly, which was far from what he had expected, Li Yao found it hard to accept. He asked Dan Fengzi in a low voice, "Have the Cultivators in the central plateaus always been like this?"
"Not exactly," Dan Fengzi replied. "Before, there were some valiant and unwavering high-level Cultivators."
Li Yao asked, "What happened?'
"They all died."
"…" Li Yao.
Watching the leadership of the super sects arguing with each other, Qi Zhongdao was silent, and his face seemed to be covered in a black mist. There was no telling what his countenance was behind the black mist.
After a long silence, he shouted, his voice so pained that he seemed to be suffering from constipation, "Everybody, are you still doing this at such a time? We must bear the big picture in mind. The big picture!"
"Master Righteous One," an elder of the Thunderstorm Valley said solemnly, "it's not that we are not willing to consider the big picture, but we have come here in too much of a hurry this time. Right now, only the high-level Cultivators of the major sects are here, while the low-level Cultivators are still escorting the relief assets behind us!
"Asking the high-level Cultivators to attack a defense array that has been activated to the maximum and protected by hundreds of Crouching Tiger Cannons and Fiery Crow Ballista is no different from throwing jades at bricks, right?
"We must note that Roaring Tiger Hall has not been our primary target since the beginning. They are fellow Cultivators that we are going to meet again in future. The White Lotus Cult, on the other hand, is our mortal enemy that we must eliminate this time!
"Before we have even seen the shadow of Mother White Lotus, we will clash with Roaring Tiger City and bleed, and we may not necessarily find the food and assets needed for the disaster relief. Is it a truly wise decision? How are we going to deal with the White Lotus ghoul army in the middle of a civil war?
"Therefore, we must wait until the low-level disciples of the sects arrive and discuss later!"
"Exactly. Wait and discuss later. Wait and discuss later!"
The words of the elder of the Thunderstorm Valley won the agreement of the leadership of all the sects.
"Wait… and discuss later!"
Covering his chest, Qi Zhongdao was shaking slightly. He laughed drily for a moment, only to come up with nothing.
Master Bitter Cicada was still appeasing the deceased in midair. Other than appeasing the deceased, even the merciful monk seemed to be incapable of dealing with the mess now.
When all the magnificent high-level Cultivators were in a dilemma, something happened!
Boom!
A deafening explosion echoed from deep within Roaring Tiger City.
For a moment, the earth was shaking, and a sandstorm was rising. The entire Heavenly Tiger Mountain shivered briefly for a moment. After a few cracks, crevices as thick as boas appeared on the rocks!
All the high-level Cultivators were dumbfounded. They stared at Roaring Tiger City in confusion, only to discover that a colorful cloud was rising from the center of the city. Intense black smoke was spurting out from the core and gradually taking the form of a mushroom!
The explosion was so powerful that the center of Roaring Tiger City was collapsing in one piece. Cries and screams were echoing nonstop!
"Look!"
Elder Huang of the Grand Mystery Sect suddenly pointed and exclaimed, "The Tiger Apparitions Array is dimming!"
Everybody looked carefully. It was true that the golden souls in the Tiger Apparitions Array were turning lackluster and weak, and they disappeared into streaks of brightness in the end!
The unparalleled oppression that they had imposed on everyone soon vanished.
All the disciples on the towers in Roaring Tiger City were running in panic, their previous calmness replaced by anxiety.
"The pivot of the Tiger Apparitions Array has exploded!"
The high-level Cultivators were momentarily dazed. After thinking for a moment, they immediately realized what had happened and were overjoyed.
What a great opportunity they had been given!
Without the protection of the Tiger Apparitions Array, the two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators alone were nothing to be scared of!
But how did it happen exactly?
As the explosion happened, the sounds of fierce fights vaguely echoed inside Roaring Tiger City. Judging from the spiritual waves that were spreading out, it was obviously a competition among a few Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators and many Cultivators at the peak of the Core Formation Stage!
The sounds of fighting came closer from afar and gradually approached the towers of Roaring Tiger City.
Before those engaged in the fight were seen, another explosion took place on one of the towers, and a certain black object was shot from the smoke toward the flying boat in midair!
"Block him! Block him!"
The most desperate and panicked roars were echoing from Roaring Tiger City.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Dozens of chains dashed out of the smoke, trying to block the black object and snatch it back.
However, there were more than twenty Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators on the flying boat, and they certainly would not allow such a thing to happen. The next moment, dozens of blade auras spurted out and shattered the chains into pieces, before they picked up the black object, dragged it over, and tossed it to the deck!
The black object, however, turned out to be a human being.
He was tall and slender, his face was rather pale, and his lips were extremely thin, with a vague air of evilness and brutality. He was wearing the garment of the low-level disciples of Roaring Tiger Hall, but the joints all over his body had been crushed. Blood was leaking out of his clothes. All the veins and nerves in his body had been sealed, and he could not even move his finger. The only thing that he could do was stare at everyone with his eyes that were filled with hatred and desperation.
There was also a note painted on a scroll made of toilet paper on the man's waistband.
After the scroll was unfolded, it turned out to be a structural map of Roaring Tiger City. Most of the elements on the map were wry and of little value for reference, but the locations of a few underground treasuries had been marked. There was no telling if they were true!
"This is…"
The high-level Cultivators felt that the guy was familiar. Some of them changed their face color greatly after pondering for a moment!
"He is Zhou Wukun, the leader of the Mountain Ghost Branch of the Black Devil Cult!" somebody shrieked on the tower in Roaring Tiger City, which was still covered in smoke. "Why do you think Roaring Tiger Hall insisted on not opening the city gate? Because Roaring Tiger Hall is in the same gang with the Black Devil Cult. The Black Devil Cult is based in Roaring Tiger City. Qu Futong, the leader of the Black Devil Cult, was Duan Tiande's blood brother, Duan Xingyi, who died fifty years ago. Right now, he is right next to Duan Tiande, trying to kill this beggar!"
Chapter 1431: Reprehensible |
Hardly had the voice died down when a dirty person in ragged clothes popped up in the smoke on the tower of Roaring Tiger City.
Li Yao had never seen anyone so ugly before.
He was like the very opposite of the handsome Master Bitter Cicada. His hair was dry and yellow, his cheeks were pointy, and his limbs were short. His back was hunched, his legs were not parallel, and his shoulders were slanted. Even one of his arms was longer than the other. Ulcers large and small were all over his dirty body. He could not have looked filthier!
At first, the guy certainly looked like one of the poorest beggars. If he were placed in the middle of the thousands of disaster victims outside of the city, it would have been impossible to spot him quickly.
However, he could not have been tougher. Snatching the ankles of two disciples of Roaring Tiger Hall, he picked them up and waved them as if they were two enormous axes.
Dozens of disciples of Roaring Tiger Hall were around, but they did not dare to draw any closer in case they injured their companions!
"Surround him! Kill him!" An infuriated voice burst out from the smoke.
"Leader Duan!" The hideous beggar chuckled. "Are you not resting because you suffered heavy wounds and nearly got mentally deranged while resisting the natural disasters? What, you have perfectly recovered so quickly?"
After saying that, the beggar threw the two disciples of Roaring Tiger Hall off the tower. While it was a mess down there, he bent down and crawled into the smoke once more!
Inside the smoke, his words, each louder than the last, were echoing. "Duan Tiande, do you still dare to claim that the notorious Black Devil Cult has nothing to do with your Roaring Tiger Hall? Let me ask you!
"Is the Black Devil Cult not headquartered in the place deep inside Roaring Tiger City?
"Is Qu Futong, the leader of the Black Devil Cult, not your blood brother, Duan Xingyi, who should've died fifty years ago? Is he not glaring at this beggar right now next to you?
"The thirty years when the Black Devil Cult savaged the southeast were the thirty years when Roaring Tiger Hall thrived. How could you have established such a magnificent city as Roaring Tiger City and set up a defense array as enormous as the Tiger Apparitions Array after only decades with your farmlands and your transportation business alone? Where did you get the money to buy the cores and bones of so many lion-type and dragon-type demon beasts?
"It is needless to mention the seven treasuries that this beggar has discovered beneath Roaring Tiger City. Besides loads of crystals and Jade Crystal Pellets, there are also the pills, magical equipment, and Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that the Black Devil Cult has looted for decades. Tsk, tsk, tsk. The essence of the southeast has almost been entirely extorted!
"Haha. This beggar did not know until today that the sects whose wealth went missing during the riots of the White Lotus Cult were not destroyed by 'Mother White Lotus' Wan Mingzhu at all but by Roaring Tiger Hall and the Black Devil Cult under the cover of the White Lotus Cult. Otherwise, how could the whole warehouses of secret treasures have appeared beneath Roaring Tiger City?"
Every question that the ugly beggar raised was an attack toward the depths of the smoke. They were causing an earthquake inside the smoke as if they were a continuous meteor shower.
The guys inside were unable to argue at all. They were simply roaring in fury, "You—you—you are lying!"
"This beggar is lying?" The ugly weirdo burst into laughter. "I have followed the trail of the Black Devil Cult for an entire year. I also released false messages implying that I was active in East Peace County in order to ease your wariness. Then, using the chance offered by the natural disasters, I snuck into your nest. I have seen everything with my own eyes!
"Duan Tiande, Duan Xingyi, and Duan Yuanwu, you three inhuman b*stards, save your words for the fellow Cultivators outside!"
Hu!
A strong wind suddenly blew atop the tower, dispersing all the smoke and black mist.
As it turned out, on the top of the tower, surrounded by dozens of Crouching Tiger Cannons and Fiery Crow Ballista, except for the extremely hideous beggar and Duan Yuanwu who was wearing an armor with tiger stripes on it, there were two old men who were almost identical to Duan Yuanwu!
