A Night of Desperation

Chapter 384: Depart at 382, Four

"....this...." Zhao Jingtang still wanted to argue. But his Spirit Light suddenly trembled violently, faintly feeling as if it was trying to escape on its own. Frightened, he quickly shut his mouth, not daring to waste words.

Silence reigned on the journey.

About half an hour later.

A town engulfed in burning black smoke emerged and drew closer.

In the mountains beside this town, one could see a dense layering of Taoist-style buildings, sprawling from the mountainside all the way to the summit.

"We’ve arrived at Yunchong Mountain!" Zhao Jingtang reminded.

Yu Hong didn’t say a word, just maneuvered Agrius to climb atop a giant tree and stood at a high vantage point to look out.

"Hmm??"

The scene at the foot of Yunchong Mountain seemed somewhat different from what he had imagined.

Within a bell-shaped white Shield at the base of the mountain, the blue and white-robed Magicians of the Taoist Sects were working hand in hand with a group of black-robed, masked Magicians from the Seven Evil Alliance, jointly releasing Dao Breath, channeling it into a huge brass Array Plate that stood rotating behind them.

The Array Plate was guarded by three conspicuous figures.

Among these three figures, two were in white Daoist robes, their backs adorned with the pattern of golden Yin-Yang fish.

On their chests, respectively, were the emblems of the Primordial Heavenly Master Mansion and the Secondary Heavenly Master Mansion.

These two were clearly the top Magicians dispatched by the two great Heavenly Master Mansions; in the absence of the Heavenly Master, the spiritual pressure emanating continuously from these two was at least on a level comparable to Zhao Jingtang.

Truly deserving of the deep heritage of a Heavenly Master Mansion.

The third person was cloaked in black, with a large ominous character on his back, and a gold-faced figure.

"Isn’t that Iron Dust Brush Wu Shaoyuan?" Zhao Jingtang’s voice, full of shock, reached Yu Hong’s ears.

"One of the Seven Evils, Wu Shaoyuan?" Yu Hong immediately remembered; Qing Huang had pleaded with him before, hoping to spare this man if they ever crossed paths.

Unexpectedly, they encountered the very man right after arriving.

"It’s him, he should have come with Han Ying Xiao Jiu to intercept the experts from the two great Heavenly Master Mansions, but why..." Zhao Jingtang voiced his confusion.

"The other person is missing, but this Wu Shaoyuan seems to be injured, and seriously at that," Yu Hong, with his extraordinary constitution and extremely acute vision, could see from afar Wu Shaoyuan’s face pale as gold leaf, panting heavily, with bloodstains on his black robe on the right arm and right leg.

"Go let them kneel and submit. If there are Rebels, deal with them personally!" Yu Hong said, his eyes resolute.

"Alliance Hierarch, they seem to be jointly guarding against something; isn’t it rash for us to approach like this?" Zhao Jingtang hesitated.

"That’s why I’m sending you first," Yu Hong said. To test the waters and see if it would provoke any trouble.

"....." Zhao Jingtang really wanted to curse, but the words were repressed at his lips.

"Go. With the Spirit Light, they’re no match for you." Yu Hong’s gaze shifted beyond the Array Shield to the ruined small town, searching for what exactly they were guarding against.

He had Agrius stop about three to four hundred meters away from the bell-shaped Shield.

Then he watched as one by one, the elite Magicians from the Seven Evil Alliance who had been captured, jumped from the helicopter behind him and moved forward.

Zhao Jingtang, Dark Sky Master Ouyang Chengtao, were the leaders of this group; behind them, a total of five masked Magicians, all of Temple Master Level. Having been implanted with Spirit Light, these people now shone with silver turtle-shell-like luminescence, cautiously approaching the Shield at the foot of the mountain.

They had just approached when a familiar figure emerged from the ruins.

Golden Armor, dragon head, three eyes, seated upon swirling clouds, and the sharply pointed golden spear laid flat in hand.

It was the Three-eyed Dragon Man!

And not just one!

Right under everyone’s nose, one by one, the Three-eyed Dragon Men emerged, each holding a long spear and eyeing the approaching Zhao Jingtang and the others like predators.

But the biggest problem wasn’t just that.

Yu Hong’s gaze moved to the side of the group of Three-eyed Dragon Men, to a clearing.

There, a group of black-skirted, long-haired women appeared faintly visible in the shadows.

Hee hee hee hee...

The strange, sharp laughter echoed continuously in everyone’s ears.

Di di di di.

The alarm on Yu Hong’s multi-tool watch went off wildly.

He took it out for a look, and the Red Value had already broken through two hundred thousand and was still rising.

"Black Withered Woman..." Yu Hong, his teeth gritted, squeezed out the three words.

A war-level Black Withered Woman, part of the Black Disaster, whom he had not encountered in Hope City, was now, for the first time, faced here!

Much like the Evil Shadow Level, War Level was also a broad category, with large variations in strength.

The Black Withered Woman, an evolved form of the Withered Woman, had far greater lethality. Capable of releasing a wide expanse of black miasma upon touch, if one came into contact with the black gas she emitted, it would instantly wither and die.

In the ruins, the Three-eyed Dragon Men and Black Withered Women seemed to stand off against each other diplomatically.

Between them, the dividing line was the already withered corpse of a black-robed, gold-faced man.

Sensing something amiss, Zhao Jingtang and the others slowly halted their advance.

But as soon as they stopped, they felt a knife-like gaze sweeping over them from behind. It was so piercing that it sent chills down their spines.

"With the Spirit Light, what’s there to fear! Advance!" Yu Hong roared.

These Magicians of the Seven Evil Alliance were kept precisely for a time like this.

Those who hesitated, even if they were spared now, would later be executed on the spot by him, their essence extracted to strengthen himself.

Repeated encounters had made it clear to him that human treachery could at times be more harmful than the Source Disasters.

Hearing the rebuke, Zhao Jingtang and the others had no choice but to continue forward, first making contact with the side of the Three-eyed Dragon Men.

*

*

*

In the woods.

Swish.

The black fire dissipated, and Long Qingzi’s entire body had already been burned into a purple-red sphere.

The sphere was only the size of a fist, inside of which countless tiny red dots, small as stars, flickered in and out of sight.

Zuo Yunfeng was momentarily stunned that the other party had actually given up resisting, and after releasing his magic, he still stood there, dazed.

Then, upon seeing that violet-red sphere solidify, his face lit up with joy, and he quickly rushed over, grabbing the floating sphere with one hand.

"Primordial... the key, finally in my hands!!"

Long Qingzi had actually forsaken his own body and most of his spiritual power, choosing to complete him.

This madman really was insane.

"Even if this guy has mastered the Divine Secret Technique, the main body still has at least more than half of its consciousness, giving up the main body means permanently reducing his strength by half. His thoughts will also be incomplete, causing various mental issues... Has Long Qingzi really gone mad?"

He pinched the sphere, suddenly feeling the situation somewhat unreal.

The ever-shifting final step was so suddenly served up to him on a silver platter.

Thereupon, he glanced at the Cai Jing Taoist in Tongning City who was still devouring the consciousness of the crowd.

Casually holding the sphere, he muttered to himself in a low voice.

The remnants of his spiritual power began to encircle the sphere, condensing into black threads, weaving into a strange, ancient, intricate black net.

Hiss!!

The black net contracted, instantly slicing the sphere into countless pieces, then shooting skyward.

A tremendous number of fragments turned into a slender purple light, flying upward into the sky towards the dark clouds, and in the blink of an eye, they merged into the bright, colorful-glowing Pool of Ten Thousand Spirits.

At the same time, further away above the Ancestor Court of the Taoist Sect, the massive figure holding the Night Pool quivered slightly. From it flew numerous, dense black threads, heading towards the Pool of Ten Thousand Spirits.

"It’s starting... It’s starting!!" Zuo Yunfeng watched from below, his blood boiling with excitement.

His century-long dream was finally, finally about to come true!!

Hiss!!!

In an instant, a great many black lines from the Night Pool charged into the Pool of Ten Thousand Spirits, bridging the two across the sky, linking them straight together.

"Declare your wish..."

"Give me your wish..."

"Limitless, boundless..."

"The infinite of the night..."

"The evolution of the ten thousand spirits..."

At that moment, a multitude of phantom voices echoed around Zuo Yunfeng’s ears.

His face slowly contorted, his eyes revealing a frenzy of anticipation and ecstasy.

"Make your wish..."

"Make your wish..."

The overlapping voices repeated themselves incessantly at this moment.

"Using the wish from the Night Pool, in combination with the endless evolution acquired from the Pool of Ten Thousand Spirits. I make my wish!"

Zuo Yunfeng spoke loudly.

"I wish to obtain, eternal life! Never aging. Never sick!!"

"Granted." A mechanical, cold, and rigid voice responded to him.

In an instant, a column of golden light shot out from the Pool of Ten Thousand Spirits, accurately shining on him.

Zuo Yunfeng’s body began to gradually become transparent.

A massive pulling force grabbed hold of his consciousness and pulled it upwards towards the sky.

Rip! Above his head in the sky, a golden light crack naturally opened up, revealing the magnificent Immortal Palace of Heaven, with its buildings surrounded by mist and resplendent with gold and jade.

That pulling force dragged him towards the golden crack.

"No... this isn’t right!! I didn’t mean to go to Heaven, I wanted eternal life!!" Zuo Yunfeng felt something wrong and immediately tried to struggle.

But it was useless.

That immense power forcibly enveloped his entire body, along with his consciousness, bound and heading towards the golden crack.

Whoosh!

Below, in the forest, the body of a young woman who had not been dead for long, slowly rose to her feet, a flicker of strange purple light flashing in her eyes as she looked at Zuo Yunfeng being carried away towards the golden crack.

"Teacher... becoming a member of the Immortal Gods in Heaven would grant you eternal life, wouldn’t it?"

He finished speaking and couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

"Spirit Disaster and Black Disaster really haven’t lied to you, everything was your own choice..."

Although his own body was now destroyed and his consciousness and spiritual power reduced to only a third of the original, it didn’t matter... seeing his always confident and in-control teacher show such a look of despair, he felt incredibly content.

Boom!!

At that moment, Zuo Yunfeng in midair suddenly exploded, turning into countless black flames, severing the massive power that was leading him.

The disc-shaped black fire, at the cost of the damage to the Chi Xiao Sword, took Zuo Yunfeng’s place in facing one disaster.

His consciousness returned to his body, and he fell heavily to the ground, covered in blood, half of his hair also torn off, revealing the white bone beneath his scalp.

"No... This isn’t right!! I’ve checked... checked many times..." Zuo Yunfeng knelt on the ground, disheveled, like a deranged man. A huge loss turned into despair, creating a gaping hole in his heart.

Bewildered, incomprehensible, in pain, disappointed.

The intense negative emotions almost submerged his consciousness at that moment.

"Teacher, why don’t you quickly turn around and deal with the Spirit Disaster? Your disciple has been waiting here for you to show your divine might!"

Long Qingzi laughed loudly from afar, full of mockery.

"Didn’t you say, you blamed us for not cooperating with you to achieve eternity? Now your disciple is cooperating with all his might, hurry up and turn the tide, suppress the Gate of Ten Thousand Spirits! Hahaha! It can’t be that you are incapable, right??"

"You are the strongest in the world! The mightiest Magician of our times? Heavenly Master, right!! For someone of your stature, my trivial tricks are nothing but opening the Gate of Despair and the Gate of Ten Thousand Spirits, they shouldn’t even catch your notice, should they?"

"Shut up!!" Zuo Yunfeng roared.

With a ferocious look, he stared dead at Long Qingzi as if he wanted to completely devour him!