A Night of Desperation

Chapter 389: Battlefield 387 One

In the canyon, hundreds were present, yet not a single person dared to utter a sound.

Countless gazes converged upon Yu Hong at the center.

Shock, confusion, fear, speculation—all kinds of emotions intertwined within the hearts of the magicians on both sides at this moment.

"This guy...!!? What’s going on!? His Dao Breath was obviously so weak!" The masked cloak-wearing woman’s voice was suppressed, her hands unconsciously clenching tight, cold sweat seeping from her palms.

"That’s why I have been saying, he’s a monster..." Zhao Yanjun communicated with a sigh.

"Let’s team up and try once, then run, how about that?" The woman fell silent for a moment; she noticed that Yu Hong was observing the others covered in silver light and seemed too preoccupied to pay attention to them.

"No, we can’t win!" Zhao Yanjun refused, "I’ve been keeping an eye on the matters of the Spirit Light Alliance. If you want to run, then run. I plan to join. If we can’t beat them, then join them; after all, when Long Qingzi pulled me into the fold, it was the same. Now it’s just a matter of switching masters."

"...I have no choice. I personally carried out the deployment of the sect at Zihe Palace," the woman paused and then spoke through transmission.

"A living Seven Evils is more valuable than a vanished Zihe Palace," Zhao Yanjun tried to persuade her.

Elsewhere, Yu Hong was observing Xian Kongzi, who was slowly getting up, Xuan Jingzi, who remained silent, and the cloaked gunwoman, who, after firing a single shot, was stiff all over and didn’t dare to move again.

Among these three, Xian Kongzi and Xuan Jingzi already had Spirit Light implanted in them, leaving only the masked gunwoman and Zhao Yanjun and finally the cloaked woman.

"I don’t have that much time to waste here with you," he said bluntly.

"Now, let me ask, those who want to join my Spirit Light Alliance, raise your hands."

"What if we’re not willing?" One of the Seven Evils, the cloaked woman, asked in a heavy voice.

"Then you are not my friends. And if you’re not friends, in such a dire situation as now, all unstable elements, I can only say sorry," Yu Hong replied without any intention of concealing his meaning.

"Right." His gaze suddenly turned, looking towards the Taoist Sect members who were watching the drama unfold from aside.

"The same goes for you. Either become friends, or die. Make your choice."

He appeared more amiable when facing the Taoist Sect, although only in expression—the options remained unchanged.

"..." On the side of the Taoist Sect, the Sect Leaders, most of whom had always been level-headed, like Master Yu, refrained from commenting on these provocative threats.

"Master Yu, this doesn’t seem right, does it? We are all from the Taoist Sect..." An old Taoist from the sect couldn’t help but speak out.

"Zihe Palace also thought you were their own. When they needed help, you were counted as one of them, but when they asked for assistance, you weren’t. The standards of ’our own’ in the Taoist Sect are too flexible," Yu Hong said indifferently.

Seeing that the people from the Taoist Sect remained silent, he couldn’t be bothered with further talk and, with a wave of his hand, a shower of silver light flew out, precisely landing on everyone present, one point for each person.

The majority instinctively wanted to dodge and reject the silver points, but restrained themselves under Yu Hong’s glance.

Some from the Taoist Sect tried to curry favor, but were blocked by several members of the Spirit Alliance.

Master Yu observed the many Spirit Alliance experts entering the Array, clearly recognizing some of the familiar faces among them.

Moreover, Yu Hong had just demonstrated his personal strength, confronting several Seven Evils alone.

Although it had not yet reached the level of a Spiritual Domain confrontation, Yu Hong’s speed, burst strength, and destructive power were unmatched. If one couldn’t break through that purple-red protection, they couldn’t even inflict minor injuries on him.

Even Xuan Jingzi, who was well-known for his powerful Passive Techniques, couldn’t last more than a few seconds against him.

Multiple complex thoughts piled up.

That led the Sect Leaders like Master Yu to make the decision to stand by and watch for changes.

But as Yu Hong released the Spirit Light to everyone, that decision proved to be a mistake.

The silver points of light scattered, and the remaining Sect Leaders intended to block them.

But the instant activation of Passive Techniques only managed to ward off the light points that targeted themselves; too late for the other magicians, who were all quickly struck.

"Master Yu, Qingchen Temple is also a branch of our Taoist Sect. You founded the Spirit Alliance and brought people here; if it’s for assistance, we welcome you, but this attitude..."

Master Yu’s expression darkened as he saw the silver Spirit Light merge into the surfaces of many Taoist Sect magicians.

"The Taoist Sect might have been a name without substance when they ignored Zihe Palace’s call for help," Yu Hong said coolly, "Moreover..."

He didn’t finish his sentence, suddenly, in the distant sky, a massive, transparent ripple burst forth, spreading outwards in every direction.

The ripple reached the canyon in an instant; it didn’t disturb any material object, targeting solely the living people there, exploding an ancient and profound bell tone within their hearts.

This bell tone instantly changed the expressions of the Nine Sects’ Sect Masters and the Seven Evils.

Their spiritual power was incredibly strong, and their innate warning systems were just as robust.

When hit by this wave, both factions felt an ominous foreboding.

Even someone with spiritual power like Yu Hong felt something was terribly wrong.

He interrupted his speech and took out a multitool from his waist.

Beep.

The measurement sounded.

Numbers appeared clearly on the LCD screen: 112.324.

"Why has it increased so rapidly!?" Yu Hong’s expression turned grim.

This number measured the Red Value.

Even in the Hope City World, such a significant jump had never occurred. There, the Red Value also increased gradually. And that place was riddled with Gates of Despair, from which the Black Disaster surged. How many gates were there here?

With this thought, he quickly switched to testing the Spiritual Fluctuation Value of the Spirit Disaster.

Beep.

Environmental Value: 79.527.

This number had also increased substantially.

However, considering the surrounding top magicians with high spiritual power, an increase in the environmental value made sense.

But after looking for less than two seconds, Yu Hong still felt something was off.

So, he tested the Spiritual Value again.

After a beep,

First, the value read: 184.652.

His expression hardened; he waited a few seconds, then tested again.

This time, the value rocketed towards three hundred!

By now, he could already be sure that something major must have changed at the main battlefield of the Spirit Disaster!

Although the True Monarch Silent Word seemed to be still talking next to his ear, Yu Hong could barely hear him clearly.

He turned his head to look in the direction of Tongning City.

There, was the battlefield of the Heavenly Masters where Quan He Monarch had led his people. Although he did not know what exactly had happened.

But, he hoped Quan He could make it in time...

He couldn’t care less about other things and turned back to look at True Monarch Silent Word who was speaking.

"The Heavenly Masters might be in trouble, I plan to go take a look, do you dare to join me?"

True Monarch Silent Word came to a halt, his many reasons to persuade the other party blocked by these words.

"We still have more important matters..." He pondered for a moment, feeling it was too dangerous.

Whoosh!

Before he finished speaking, his vision blurred, and suddenly another person appeared in front of him.

It was Yu Hong!

Yu Hong, who had just been more than ten meters away, had in a moment arrived right in front of him.

A crisp sound, whoosh!

Layer upon layer of passive techniques in front of him shattered like glass crystals, bursting into countless grayish-white light spots.

Yu Hong swung his right fist out, piercing through the passive techniques’ defenses, and thunderously struck the face of True Monarch Silent Word.

Boom!!

True Monarch Silent Word was sent flying on the spot, crashing into the mountainside like a cannonball, and blasting a crater several meters tall and more than a meter deep into the rock.

Debris scattered, dirt fell, and it all happened almost at the same time.

The rest of the Nine Sects’ Sect Masters simultaneously made their move, unleashing spiritual power of dao breaths, each with a strength of hundreds of thousands, firing various spiritual techniques and magic from behind at Yu Hong like a blanket from the sky.

But all the magic was blocked in mid-air by his outstretched left hand with spread fingers.

Bang!!!

A ring of purple-red inner power exploded into brilliance from Yu Hong’s left hand, forming a circular shield as tall as a man, staunchly blocking the various colored streams of magical spiritual techniques coming from behind.

Ice, flames, water, deadly poisons, and all other materialized magical techniques, at this instant, were all blocked by the purple-red inner power without gaining an inch.

Not just that, all magical techniques that made contact with the inner power were deadlocked for less than a second, before they started to blacken, become murky, and rapidly wane in their essence.

As if living beings were rapidly aging and withering, in less than two seconds, their power had weakened by more than half.

Puff.

Yu Hong closed his left hand, condensed the inner power into a massive purple-red hand, likewise clenched, and crushed all the magical techniques.

"Spirit Realm·Heaven and Earth Dustless!"

Suddenly, from inside the mountainside, True Monarch Silent Word, whose bones were largely broken, recited the True Word with furious voice.

Sizzle!

A ring of dark gray halo, with him as the center, suddenly exploded and spread outwards in all directions.

This halo moved incredibly fast, almost at the speed of light, making it unavoidable.

By the time Yu Hong had reacted, he had already been enveloped within the Spirit Realm.

All the surrounding scenery had utterly changed.

The original canyon walls, the withered yellow grass grounds, had now turned into an endless gray desert.

The whole world was a swath of gray sand, nothing else visible.

Only the surrounding stone sculptures within a radius of over ten meters stood clearly and oppressively.

These stone sculptures encircled Yu Hong sitting cross-legged, each about five to six meters tall, with their eyes closed and faces all carved with baby features.

They were dressed in daoist robes, wearing dao crowns, with a grayish-white vertical line on their foreheads, as if a third eye was beaming with white light.

At the same time, a thread of clear spiritual fluctuation entered Yu Hong’s mind. Automatically, the specific rules of this Spirit Realm also transmitted.

"Spirit Realm Heaven and Earth Dustless, a special domain formed by invoking the will of the Heavenly Court’s Sand Divine Intent. It lasts for thirty heartbeats, and after each heartbeat, the entrant will suffer a joint assault from the surrounding stone sculptures."

"After thirty heartbeats, if one is still alive, the Spirit Realm collapses. The caster suffers backlash. If one does not survive, their consciousness will be dragged into the Heavenly Court’s Constant Sand Realm, becoming one of the Nascent Soul stone sculptures, unable to ever break free."

"This is the Spirit Realm?" This was Yu Hong’s first time entering a top-tier Magician’s Spirit Realm.

This desperate ultimate move of a Magician seemed to have combined many characteristics of the Spirit Disaster Heavenly Court.

Just from the half-real half-fake environmental changes, the Spirit Realm had already stepped outside the traditional realm of magic where Magicians used spiritual power to manipulate environmental forces.

It had ascended to the level of the Spirit Disaster Heavenly Court’s Divine Intent.

What exactly Divine Intent was, and what exactly the Heavenly Court was – whether it was the spiritual forms Magicians ascended to – remained unknown.

"Then let’s see if your Spirit Realm can break my Protective Spirit Light!"

Thud.

Just at this moment, a huge heartbeat sound exploded in the heavens and the earth.

At the same time, more than a dozen baby-faced Taoist stone sculptures surrounding Yu Hong opened their eyes and the vertical slits on their foreheads, all three eyes firing dense, fuzzy-gray beams of light onto Yu Hong’s body.

The beams of light were as swift as the blink of an eye, their speed extreme, almost light-speed, making them impossible to dodge.

Ssss!!!

Dense gray light hit Yu Hong’s body, causing ripples to spread across his purple-red inner power. The intensity was at least several times stronger than before!

At least the previous magical techniques only caused slight ripples, but now extensive ripples appeared.

Despite the intense situation, the purple-red protective inner power remained unbreakable, steadily enveloping Yu Hong at its center, without a single harm.

He had also covered himself with a layer of Spirit Light beneath the inner power, but he hadn’t expected the Fifth Layer Tai Ling Skill to be so powerful. He laughed heartily.

His whole body’s purple-red inner power surged, covering his entire body, burning fiercely.

"Fragile to the core!"

Boom!!

A huge purple flame emanated from his body, turning into a pillar of fire, shooting straight into the sky.