A Night of Desperation

Chapter 383: departs at three

Tongning City.

The form of Cai Jing Taoist grew ever more gigantic, sitting atop the clouds as he flew forward, followed by a vast army of golden-armored dragon-men filling the sky.

The sky was shrouded in black clouds, thunder booming endlessly.

Inside Tongning City, everything and everyone, all vehicles, had come to a halt, as everyone looked towards the direction from which Cai Jing Taoist was approaching.

Recently, there had been frequent incidents around the city that remained unresolved, and the magicians sent to investigate had vanished together, with no explanation from the authorities.

This unbearable situation had already filled many hearts with ominous foreboding.

And now was when these misgivings came true.

Witnessing this phenomenon.

Some people raised their phones to record, some cheered loudly, while others devoutly believed it to be an immortal god descending to earth and knelt in prayer.

Yet only a handful of official magicians and stationed Taoists looked on in despair from high places as the golden army drew nearer.

Shells continuously fired from behind them, bombing into the golden army, but all the shells passed through them as if they were vacant, unable to touch the Spirit Disaster army.

Swarms of missiles took to the air from afar, shooting out, landing at supersonic speed, causing violent explosions, but afterward, only a few dragon-men were slightly repelled by the blasts of high-temperature fire.

Such bombardment worked against them, but not much.

The gaps blown open were soon filled by the advancing army.

Gradually, as they drew closer, a strange, phantom-like celestial music naturally began to resonate around Cai Jing Taoist.

It sounded like the prayers of immortal gods, easily inducing superstition and making people abandon resistance.

He sat cross-legged on the clouds, pointing a single hand towards Tongning City.

Instantly, a spot of multicolored light glowed at his fingertip.

That light rapidly expanded, brightening, then exploded in an instant, shot out, and transformed into invisibility, vanishing midway into the air.

Cai Jing Taoist stopped moving, withdrew his hand, and faced Tongning City. Then....

His head, enveloped in multicolored light, suddenly split open with a tear.

At the same time, within the entire city below, all people suddenly froze, as if they were paused.

Above countless people’s heads, a white, semi-transparent glow began to float and rise slowly.

The countless lights swarmed toward Cai Jing Taoist, and when they approached, they shrank automatically before drilling into the slit on his head.

From afar, it looked as if he was feeding!

"Has this world... gone mad?"

In a forested mountain range at a distance.

Zuo Yunfeng looked distantly at Tongning City that was being consumed, his expression icy cold.

He lowered his head to his trembling hand, clenched it with force, and closed his eyes.

"It’s not my fault... I just want to live forever. From ancient times to the present, it has been the pursuit of countless generations. I’m just like them...."

"Teacher, you’re still the same as before." Long Qingzi calmly walked out from the desolate woodland behind him.

His body was also covered in bloodstains, showing that the cost of breaking through the encirclement was not light.

Yet these injuries seemed not to dampen his spirits. On the contrary...

"As long as I see you deceiving yourself, Teacher, it always inexplicably makes me happy...."

"You’re not escaping?" Zuo Yunfeng turned and looked at him.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle!

Once again, terrifying and immense spiritual pressure emanated from them at the moment they met, and the hidden Passive Techniques embedded within the pressures attacked like covert weapons.

This state of Technique confrontation tangibly manifested itself as clusters of black halos appearing and dissipating in the air between them.

The fist-sized halos bloomed and withered like bizarre, beautiful black flowers.

A confrontation of Spiritual Techniques with values over a million shattered the thoughts and awareness of all life within a hundred meters, leaving them as instinctual shells.

Worms in the ground stopped crawling, birds fell from the sky one by one.

Leaves from the trees fell like raindrops, showering densely.

Some nearby wandering Spirit Disaster walking corpses fell suddenly due to the proximity, the former becoming ordinary corpses, the latter disintegrating into gray mist.

"Teacher, if even a first-rate master like you can’t handle such monsters, do you think others stand a chance against such a crisis?" Long Qingzi laughed neurotically while battling.

"When you fled the field, it was when that monster was at its weakest. Once it devours more souls and grows stronger, who could stop it then?"

"Or are you afraid? You’re the world’s greatest warrior, yet you’re scared of mere Spirit Disaster monsters that you could eliminate with a wave of your hand?"

Long Qingzi’s laughter cut like sharp knives into Zuo Yunfeng’s heart, even emphasizing the word "mere."

But his century-hardened visage did not falter, remaining expressionless as he continuously increased his suppressive force.

Had it not been for the injury inflicted by Cai Jing Taoist’s finger, how could he now be entangled with a mere Long Qingzi?

"Had incidents not occurred so frequently, once I completed the ritual and forged eternity, mere Spirit Disasters could have been repelled with ease." He lifted and swung the Chi Xiao Sword forward.

Swoosh!

A flurry of black fire became countless birds, charging at Long Qingzi.

At the same time, the air within a hundred meters around suddenly condensed.

The invisible spiritual pressure surged tenfold through the Technique at that moment, momentarily stalling Long Qingzi.

Long Qingzi formed seals with his hands, a pair of purple wings grew again on his back, and purple runes transformed into chains twirling around the wings.

He flashed to the left, deftly avoiding the swarming black firebirds, moving more swiftly than before.

"Do you really believe that, Teacher?"

"....." Zuo Yunfeng said nothing more, merely swinging the Chi Xiao Sword in silence, continuously slashing out flocks of black firebirds.

The two were in a state where they couldn’t unleash powerful Magic, resorting to a war of attrition.

"Hehehe... Teacher...."

Snap.

Suddenly, Long Qingzi dispersed all Techniques, the purple light on his body fading.

He stood there, arms open, smiling.

"Truly interesting...." he laughed.

Puff!

Puff puff puff puff!!!

In an instant, countless black firebirds engulfed him.

Flames covered the area where he stood, obscuring everything in sight, leaving only the roaring black fire.

"I will watch you." Long Qingzi’s voice echoed from within. "I leave this body to you, let me see how you turn the tide, I look forward to your performance....."

*

*

*

Ang!!

Amidst the rolling storm clouds in the sky.

A gigantic white crane, a hundred meters in size, carried four silhouettes swiftly towards Tongning City.

The white crane flapped its wings, calling out, graceful like a myth.

On the ground below, Yu Hong stood on Agrius’s back, arms crossed, gazing forward.

The thirty-meter-long Agrius charged straight ahead like a train.

Dark green and withered yellow forests swept past his sides.

Ruined villages, small towns, county seats passed by not far from him.

Agrius sometimes became virtualized, enveloping him as it leapt over mountains. At other times, it was tangible, running furiously on four legs, moving with silent speed faster than before.

It was nearly reaching full speed at two hundred yards.

Trees were smashed one by one in front of him, and wandering Walking Corpse Heavenly Soldiers were struck suddenly, thrown crashing to the ground, unable to rise again.

Gradually, as he approached Tongning City.

The sky grew darker and darker, the woodland withered black.

Suddenly, Yu Hong’s expression shifted slightly, halting Agrius’s advance, and looked up.

He pulled out a multimeter, switching it to red-value detection.

Beep...

With a faint beep, the red-value appeared: 21.682.

"Trouble...." Yu Hong’s face grew grave.

He still remembered the early black disaster shadows he had encountered were at red values in the twenties.

This environmental red-value concentration suggested that a massive black disaster had flooded this world, causing a rapid increase in the environmental red value.

He took out his phone to try again, but it still had no signal.

The phone’s signal relied mainly on towers, which must have been destroyed, and satellite signals were also blocked. The phone was essentially just a charged brick now.

He pondered for a moment, patted Agrius, instructing it to continue onward.

No matter what, investigating how many Gate of Despair and Gate of Ten Thousand Spirits were opened was a task that had to be done.

Then to rescue the Sky Stabilizing Plate fragments, even if it was shattered, if he could collect enough fragments, he might be able to use the Black Mark to restore it.

Moving slower now, the helicopters following him also kept up.

The helicopter carrying Qing Huang and Zhao Jingtang was closest to him, maintaining a distance of no more than two hundred meters back and forth.

At this moment, Zhao Jingtang’s voice faintly carried from the helicopter to Yu Hong’s ears.

"Hierarch, the Spirit Disaster and Black Disaster monsters ahead are increasing, and extremely dangerous monsters may appear, please be cautious."

This guy was smart, beginning with concern to subtly point out his usefulness, sensing potential danger from afar and avoiding being used as cannon fodder by Yu Hong.

"The direction beyond is Tongning City, Quan He Monarch has already led people there. We’ll head straight for the Nine Sects to scavenge the Sky Stabilizing Plate fragments. In this situation, the magicians of the Nine Sects definitely can’t hold out!" Yu Hong decided swiftly, redirecting the target.

"Understood, one of the nearest Nine Sects is the Upper and Lower Yuan Heavenly Master Mansions, just over a hundred kilometers away!" Zhao Jingtang quickly replied. "But I must remind you, Long Qingzi assigned the Seven Evils to block the key paths to the Nine Sects, which we will certainly encounter, guarded by two of the Seven Evils."

"What are their motives?" Yu Hong couldn’t comprehend, "By releasing Spirit Disaster and Black Disaster, what are the Seven Evils after?"

"You may not know, the Taoist Sect has suppressed the Seven Evil Alliance for too long, and what everyone desired most was to overthrow the Taoist Sect, to master their own destiny, to do as they please. Now, releasing Spirit Disaster and Black Disaster is the first step to overturn the table." Zhao Jingtang explained.

"Foolish." Yu Hong said coldly, "No, rather than calling it foolishness, it’s a group of antisocial madmen who delight in chaos, the more disorder, the happier they are."

"The Hierarch is absolutely right, I used to pretend to get along with those people because I detested them too..." Zhao Jingtang quickly agreed.

"I see." Yu Hong responded impatiently, "Then you lead the way!"