The gaunt Chan Monk's gaze slowly swept over to the other side, the cold light in his eyes intensifying. He felt even more resentful. 'Why can't plans keep up with changes? The first ones we meet aren't from the Ten-Pace Courtyard or the Supreme Mystery Teachings, but the ones we least wanted to see—the Malevolent Spirit Sect and a group of demonic cultivators. If it were the other two sects, the next stage would have been a climactic slaughter of revenge. Now, they've actually run into Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivators, and ones who have rested and reorganized at that. Their own side has at most fifty percent of their strength left. How could the other side give them time to recover? This battle looks to be more loss than gain.'
The eighteen monks behind him had a hint of grim determination in their numb expressions. They understood their predicament.
"Amitabha..." A sharp glint flashed in the gaunt Chan Monk's eyes. Just as he was about to find an excuse to stall for some time...
"Kill!" A crisp voice rang out within the sphere. A streak of green light had already shot towards the gaunt Chan Monk like lightning. Gong Chenying didn't give her opponent a single chance. In fact, she regretted her own delayed attack. The Wheel of Life and Death was not the Secret Realm Harvesting, after all. There were plenty of experiences to draw from for the latter, but for this, there were only some records from ancient times. If they had attacked the moment the first person appeared, it would have been the perfect opportunity.
With a cold shout, Gong Chenying was the first to leap into the air, a streak of green light hacking down like a bolt of lightning.
The gaunt Chan Monk was both shocked and enraged. He hadn't expected the other party, who had seemed so calm just a moment ago, to suddenly attack without a single word. His own plans were now in disarray. Not only was his side severely depleted of magical power, but they were also outnumbered by half. Although they had far more Perfected Qi Condensation masters than the other side, they had no advantage to speak of now.
The gaunt Chan Monk's Dharma name was Zhizhong. His Buddhist arts were extremely profound, and in this Secret Realm Harvesting, he could rank in the top ten of the Pure Land Sect. He had been pre-selected as a team leader for the Wheel of Life and Death. His cultivation had already reached the Perfected late-stage of Foundation Establishment, just one step away from the Pseudo-Core Realm. During the harvesting trial, as Li Wuyi and the others had guessed, he had found a place to cultivate after entering and did not participate in the life-and-death battles. The reason he was chosen as a team leader was that the Buddhist art he cultivated was a nearly demonic art called "Blood Son Art." This art was extremely vicious. Just for the first level of Qi gathering in the Qi Condensation Realm, it required the sacrificial refining of the yin blood of one hundred and eight virgins, completely melting a trace of his pure yang body into yin blood to transform into qi. During the refining, the hundred and eight virgins suffered a fate worse than the eighteen levels of Asura hell, a pain as sharp as having their bones stripped and tendons pulled, yet their souls and consciousness remained intact, constantly tormented by every shred of pain.
For every major realm advancement in the future, this art required three times the previous amount of virgin yin blood for refining. This meant that when Zhizhong was at Foundation Establishment, he had sacrificed another three hundred and twenty-four young virgins. In his words, "These people have an affinity with my Buddha and can be delivered." After cultivating this art, he possessed a power that was half yin-netherworld and half pure-yang. It could suppress all yin and filthy things and could also resist yin-poison evil cultivators. It was both righteous and evil, both Buddha and nirvana. This was precisely why he was chosen to deal with the Malevolent Spirit Sect.
Seeing the green light already before him, a fierce look flashed on Zhizhong's gaunt face, and a murderous glint appeared in his eyes. He flicked a finger of one hand. A strange, crimson sutra text, glowing with a demonic red light as vibrant as a bloody plum blossom, met the green light. With a loud "boom," a wave of air exploded in mid-air between the two of them, shaking the cultivators behind them and making them dizzy. Horrified, the crowd moved away from the two. After the Pure Land Sect cultivators entered, the sphere had expanded to about twenty times its original size, now appearing to be at least seven or eight hundred zhang. It seemed that the arrival of the second group of cultivators was the trigger for the restriction.
Seeing the Qi Condensation disciples move away from them, the two of them became even more ferocious in their attacks. Gong Chenying threw up her green poleaxe, which instantly grew several times larger. She flew into the air, formed a hand seal, and the giant green poleaxe transformed into an extremely thin, sharp spike. With a piercing "xiu" sound, it shot towards the back of Chan Monk Zhizhong's head with a dazzling green light, shaking the heavens and the earth. At the same time, Gong Chenying stepped on the air as if on solid ground. With a "bo" sound, her figure had appeared at Chan Monk Zhizhong's side.
Zhizhong's face was dark. He had seemed to have easily blocked Gong Chenying's first attack with just a single sutra text, but deep down, he was already quite surprised. He could see that this beautiful and tall young woman's cultivation was only at the peak of the mid-stage Foundation Establishment. Her figure was the most exquisite he had ever seen. Although it was just a fleeting glance, Zhizhong's heart was already burning with lust, wishing he could capture this young woman right away and torture her to his heart's content. This young woman, both in figure and appearance, was completely different from all the women he had seen before, full of wildness, which gave him a desire to conquer.
With his skills, he thought it wouldn't be too difficult to defeat her. But upon contact, he had almost failed to break her attack's momentum with a single blow. It made his vital energy and spiritual energy churn uncomfortably. Only then did he realize that the other party might be a strength-type body cultivator. The thought of a female body cultivator's tough flesh made his desire for possession even stronger. But he knew that at this moment, his spiritual energy was only at about sixty percent of its usual level. It might be unrealistic to subdue her smoothly. But how strong could a female cultivator's body be? With his Perfected late-stage Foundation Establishment realm, even with nearly half his spiritual energy depleted, he would still have the upper hand in terms of stamina if they were to get into a prolonged fight. For now, he needed to find a way to create distance. Close combat with a body cultivator was a poor strategy.
But he didn't expect Gong Chenying to be so experienced in combat. After her first attack failed, she had thrown her giant poleaxe to sneak-attack him from behind, blocking his retreat and foiling his plan for a ranged battle. With a cold "hmph," he silently recited a mantra and waved his left hand. His yellow kasaya transformed into a cloud of rosy light, instantly expanding and billowing up like a cape fanned by the wind, shielding his back. He reacted extremely quickly. At the same time as the yellow kasaya billowed out, his left hand formed a claw and grabbed at the space to his left. Just as his claw struck out, the space there distorted, and a long leg whipped out like lightning. A tall figure appeared there. With a "pa" sound, the gaunt, steel-like claw had grabbed the knee joint of the long leg. A savage grin flashed across Zhizhong's gaunt face, and he clenched his five fingers downwards. He thought he had a firm grip on Gong Chenying's jade leg. Even if she dodged, he could still rip the clothes on her leg. The exposure would humiliate this Foundation Establishment female cultivator.
Just as he clenched his five fingers, Gong Chenying's leg, which had been swinging horizontally, seemed to lose its force. With extreme speed, she twisted her body strangely, turning to face him directly. The sudden change of angle was impossibly jarring. Her knee instantly sank, and spiritual light flashed wildly on her leg. Using the momentum of the sinking motion, her leg had neutralized Zhizhong's clenching and tearing force. Just as Zhizhong felt the force of his grip vanish and his fingers lose their target, he thought, 'Not good!' The young woman had used the sinking momentum to bend her knee into a strike. With a sharp "wu" sound, the impact of her strike created a sonic boom from the friction with the air as it slammed into Zhizhong's five fingers, which had already lost their momentum. A series of crisp "kacha, kacha" sounds were heard. With a strange cry from Chan Monk Zhizhong, his left hand was knocked high into the air, two of his fingers twisted and deformed, clearly seriously injured. Her fighting style was quite similar to Zhao Min's.
Seeing this, Gong Chenying's face showed no surprise or joy. This kind of injury looked scary, but for a Foundation Establishment cultivator, it could be repaired quickly with the circulation of spiritual energy. She gave her opponent no chance to breathe. Her figure shot up again, flying into mid-air. Looking up, the thin green spike had pierced the yellow kasaya, which had billowed up like a wall. Green and yellow light burst forth. The green spike extended an inch into the kasaya before it could go no further, only emitting a teeth-grinding sound. She reached out her right hand and grabbed the tail of the spike. Amidst a flash of spiritual energy, the spike instantly turned back into a giant green poleaxe. She then spun her body, like a child swinging a flail, with her as the center. The giant poleaxe suddenly swung in a circle, carrying the force of a thousand jun (TN: ancient unit of weight) as it smashed towards Zhizhong's waist.
As Gong Chenying had guessed, after his left hand was injured and deformed, Zhizhong had quickly retreated with the force of the impact. As he retreated, spiritual energy poured into his left hand, and the two twisted fingers returned to normal. But the next moment, a danger that made his heart pound appeared. He saw a giant poleaxe, like a massive club, smashing towards his waist. If it hit, or if the crescent-shaped blade of the poleaxe head struck him, it wouldn't be something that could be repaired with just spiritual energy. His physical body would be turned to dust. He quickly gathered his spiritual energy and moved sideways, disappearing without a trace. At the same time, he beckoned with his hand behind him, and the yellow kasaya coiled into a long dragon, sweeping horizontally towards the incoming giant poleaxe.
While the two of them were locked in a fierce battle, hundreds of zhang away, the fighting was even more intense. It wasn't that the cultivators here were more powerful than the other two, but there were many of them, and all sorts of spiritual energy were being unleashed at once. For a time, the space within the sphere was filled with crisscrossing spiritual energy and constant explosions. It was a lively scene.
Since the beginning of the battle, the eighteen monks had not said a word, nor had they chanted a single Buddhist mantra. It was eerily quiet. Their lips were sealed tight, and their attacks were ruthless. The eighteen of them formed the Eighteen Arhats Formation, using only their movements to resist attacks, completely disregarding their own lives. They all unleashed their full spiritual power, and the Buddhist golden light shone brightly in the space. For a time, they actually pushed back the Malevolent Spirit Sect cultivators. Among these eighteen people, there were eleven at the Perfected Qi Condensation realm and seven at the late-stage tenth level of Qi Condensation. This strength was truly terrifying. On Li Yan's side, among the thirty-six people, there were only seven at the Perfected Qi Condensation realm and ten at the late-stage tenth level. Normally, Li Yan's side would definitely not have the upper hand. A Perfected Qi Condensation cultivator could not be defeated by just ten tenth-level Qi Condensation cultivators.
But the cultivators of the Malevolent Spirit Sect could also see that the other side was just putting on a show of strength for a moment. They had scanned the eighteen people with their divine sense when they entered the sphere. Each of them had only about half of their magical power left. They had naturally adopted a strategy of a quick battle.
The thirty-six people from the Malevolent Spirit Sect were now divided into six teams, each forming a small circle. Outside each team was a layer of something, either smoke, mist, rain, or sand. Although the eighteen monks looked numb, their minds were clearly very sharp. Although their attacks were fierce, their eyes were either grave or showed a hint of fear. They clearly did not dare to get close to the layer of mist, rain, or sand outside the six teams. They didn't even dare to let their attacking spiritual energy penetrate too deeply. Often, after an unsuccessful attack, they would withdraw immediately upon contact. This made their attacks extremely difficult, and their spiritual energy consumption was also extremely fast. After a dozen or so breaths, after a round of fierce attacks, they had switched to a defensive posture. They huddled together, attacking only occasionally, most of them constantly moving using the Eighteen Arhats Formation, clearly trying to conserve their spiritual energy and wait for an opportunity to strike a fatal blow.
Li Yan's team was blocked by the rain screen he had created. The other five people were behind the rain screen. After the recent fierce attack, the five of them couldn't help but sigh inwardly. When they saw the other side attacking, three of them had released defensive arts. But the other two, seeing the strange rain screen Li Yan had released, simply provided auxiliary defense. Li Yan didn't mind. After a few attacks from the monks, the five of them were even more at ease. Although the other five teams also had mist, sand, and the like, their blocking effect was clearly not as good as Li Yan's infamous "Maggot on the Bone" combined with the Cloud and Rain Art. Whether it was the other side's spiritual energy manifestation or their spirit artifacts and spirit treasures, as soon as they entered the rain screen, they would find it extremely difficult to advance, slowly turning into a grey, murky substance. Often, they would fall heavily to the ground when they were still more than ten meters away. Looking at the few spirit artifacts on the ground that had lost their spirituality, the five of them couldn't help but feel a pang in their hearts.