Plundering the Heavens - Chapter 353

Two cultivators in the Golden Core Stage had been ground to death in such a short moment?

The Huangfu cultivators instantly felt an unspoken sense of fear and panic. Not only had they been born with silver spoons in their mouths, their battle prowess was also extremely powerful and they’d lived their lives with only the rare instance meeting anyone or anything within Jambu that could threaten them. To them, capturing the little demon Fang Xing wasn’t a huge problem—they’d only seen him as loathsome, not frightening—yet two Golden Cores had been turned into human mince in such a short moment an even their spirit souls were likely ground up by that terrifying formation. The shock and horror this caused was beyond words, leaving the survivors completely caught off guard to the point they forgot how to speak.

Before many of the cultivators had managed to come to their senses, a few female ghosts flew closer. These cultivators were in the Golden Core Stage and weren’t afraid of such spiritual beings as simple as “female ghosts”, and so one of the cultivators immediately slapped a ghost before shouting, “Get lost!” The original intent had been for the slap to tear the ghost to shreds, yet that “female ghost” wasn’t actually affected at all and continued floating directly towards him….

Tchh ….

One of the ghosts grabbed onto the cultivator’s arm, and a terrifying white smoke immediately began to rise from the point of contact.

“No, this is no ordinary spiritual being! Be careful!” Huangfu Qielan immediately shouted when he saw the ghost, but it was too late; the body of the Golden Core cultivator who’d been grabbed continued releasing white smoke as he was turned into a dried-up husk. When it looked as though all of the water had been sucked right out, a pale blue frost began to cover the corpse, leaving it straight and hard without any signs of life.

A Golden Core Stage cultivator had been killed by this female ghost in the blink of an eye. Even his golden core had been completely destroyed.

A chill went down the spines of the remaining Golden Cores; they didn’t need any more warnings than this. Forming a golden core required all sorts of ups and downs, so these people were knowledgeable and quick on their feet. Although they didn’t know precisely what this female ghost was, they began to theorize this female-shaped spiritual being had to be the result of some strange and dark spell—a terrifying existence.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh ….

In moments, no one could afford to pay Fang Xing any more attention. The Golden Cores all shouted and moved back to try to flee through the original path, but they’d realized by now that retreat was no longer so simple an option.

A Golden Core cultivator would typically master the spell of teleportation so they could move thousand of miles in a flash, but it consumed an extremely large amount of Qi and the harm it could cause to the body was also considerable. A cultivator would only use such a spell when the rules of the realm were stable, and they’d noticed by now that within this cave with ghosts and a moving formation, even teleportation was a very difficult matter. A teleportation formation would’ve proven much more useful in a place like this; although it was incredibly convenient for a cultivator to cast the spell personally, formations and tools could allow forceful teleportations and any harm would fall upon the formation or tools instead of the cultivator themself.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh ….

……

While the Golden Cores continued to panic, a countless number of ghostly shadows appeared nearby one after another. They were all Yin Ghost Thralls, and it seemed as though the cultivators had already been completely surrounded.

“This bunch of monsters cannot be controlled by spells, cannot be harmed, and cannot be evaded!” Even the Golden Cores couldn’t help but to begin shouting in panic. “What should we do?”

Huangfu Qielan squeezed a response through clenched teeth. “Form a circle. Escape to the outside….”

By now, continuing the chase for Fang Xing wasn’t an option anymore. These ghosts and the formation were simply too powerful for even him to easily defend against completely, so the only thing he could do was order them to leave. If he didn’t give the order now, not only would he be unable to kill that little brat, but there was a chance everyone would be completely wiped out. In fact, Huangfu Qielan wasn’t sure how many of his people would ultimately survive—the reason he’d ordered everyone to form a circle was so those on the outer perimeter would be sacrificed for the sake of the others closer to the center….

Whether they were willing or not, all the Golden Cores hastily obeyed Huangfu Qielan’s command and formed up into a circle before activating all manner of Ancient weapons and spells to protect their flanks. They started heading back down the original path with Huangfu Qielan at the very center of the circle, yet even though their speed was as quick as lightning, the movements of the large formation bore down upon them and forced them to break through it to advance. It was here that the Yin Ghost Thralls began to throw themselves towards the cultivators like a school of flesh-eating fish tearing away chunks of gore nonstop….

“My god, I’m the leader of the Black-Swamp Tribe and have been cultivating for seven hundred years, yet it’s all going to end at the hand of these evil things?”

“What exactly are these kinds of ghostly things? Why are they so powerful….”

“Damned little demon, how dare he set such a vile trap for us! There is no end to our enmity….”

Amidst the loud cries and growls, the stone cave became akin to a hell for the Golden Cores. Any one of these people would have been considered a peerless master outside and an existence many looked up to, yet all those accolades had become worthless cabbage in here. They were killed so easily by the Yin Ghost Thralls that were floating everywhere, all their cultivations and studies vanishing into nothingness. Their ambitions dissipated, full of unfulfilled desires, unwillingness, reluctance….

As long as they could get outside, they could still escape. Although the Yin Ghost Thralls were certainly fast, there was still a significant difference compared to the speed of the Golden Cores’ teleportation spell, but the great formation within this stone cave continued to throw the rules in disorder, preventing them from using teleportation at will. They were like wild boars that had been tied up, unable to escape the assault of these ghostly things in such a confined space.

As for Fang Xing and the golden crow, they were much more fortunate than the group of Golden Cores.

The Yin Ghost Thralls seemed drawn towards the Golden Cores and most of the ghosts had focused their attention wholly on them, while Fang Xing and the golden crow—mere insects—were not subjected to nearly as much vigilance. Less than half a dozen Yin Ghost Thralls came to attack Fang Xing and the golden crow, and the pair’s cooperation allowed them to move within the formation as freely as a fish swimming within the water. The golden crow’s speed had also greatly improved since his last visit, to the point he moved like lightning and the Yin Ghost Thralls weren’t really able to do anything to them. The two passed through everything like a butterfly floating through a flower garden as they made their way around the Yin Ghost Thralls and out of the formation, and no matter how the five or so thralls thrust out their hands and chased after them, there was always two to three feet between them that couldn’t be reduced.

The stone tortoise in the immortal’s hall had a damaged spirit sense and it wasn’t able to cover the entire area of the stone cave—it couldn’t tell that these Golden Cores were actually enemies of Fang Xing and had assumed everyone who entered was on the same side. Furthermore, the stone tortoise wasn’t the true owner of the immortal’s hall and was only able to control a part of the formation, and not particularly smooth or easily at that. As for the Yin Ghost Thralls, the tortoise only utilized a special property within the formation to awaken them as guardians of the immortal’s hall and wasn’t actually able to command them directly, meaning these Yin Ghost Thralls would act based upon their own instincts once they were awakened.

The same characteristics that had allowed Fang Xing to successfully flee in the past were still present today, and the pressure he felt was also much less thanks to Huangfu Qilena’s Golden Cores drawing most of the Yin Ghost Thralls’ attention. Adding in how much experience Fang Xing and the golden crow had with the formations here, they actually had the upper hand over this group of Golden Cores.

The stone tortoise didn’t know any of this, of course. It had been so angry after being scammed by Fang Xing in the past that it had been unable to fall asleep, and all it could do was blame itself for being unable to move freely to go outside and seek revenge on that little bastard. Thankfully, however, the little bastard was so greedy he actually came back in another attempt to plunder the immortal’s hall; was that not the best chance for revenge? The stone tortoise was so joyous and excited there was no way it would let Fang Xing go, so it used all of its power to push the formation while vowing to grind this little bastard dead this time around. The stone tortoise had no idea the formation it was moving with all its might was actually helping Fang Xing finish off his enemies instead.

A number of cultivators had gradually gathered outside the Qingqiu Tombs. The Bohai Kingdom’s Qingqiu Tombs and the Mysterious Domain weren’t terribly far apart, and although these people were a bit slower than Fang Xing and the Golden Cores, they were still able to eventually catch up. When they saw the three Golden Cores standing guard outside in mid-air, they knew the little demon was definitely nearby.

The shock within these arriving cultivators’ minds couldn’t even be described with words, and their curious gazes shifted back and forth in an attempt to find out where the little demon was. At the critical moment when the esteemed young master of the Huangfu clan was leaving the Mysterious Domain, he’d actually been assassinated with a single strike from that little demon! Such an extreme contrast would perhaps be even more shocking than finding the princess of a kingdom in bed with a beggar!

This was the young master of the Huangfu clan!

Yet he’d been struck dead with a single sword strike? Who could actually believe that?