Volume 1 Volume 6 Chapter 157

Volume 6 Chapter 157: Shura’s Escape, Demon Devourer Appears (Part 1)

The power of such self-explosions was so great that even the Shura Clan, who claimed to have an "Immortal Body," lost nearly ten members under the force of the explosions. Despite the Shura Clan’s reputation for bloodshed and battle, they were momentarily horrified and exchanged worried glances.

In fact, although the previous self-explosion was powerful enough to cause great destruction, resulting in many casualties among the Shura Clan attacking the "All Immortals Formation," those who died were the weakest among them, and those with strength above the human Mahayana Stage were mostly just affected by the shock.

What truly shocked the Shura Clan was the bravery displayed by the humans. At a crucial moment, someone used self-explosion to stop their advance. This reminded them of the time before they were sealed, when human cultivators would self-destruct to take them down during battles. Even now, remembering the scene of hundreds and thousands of human cultivators charging and exploding in front of them gives them chills.

In the eyes of the Shura Clan, humans are undoubtedly a weak race. They have short lifespans but are very clever; however, they waste their intelligence and limited lives on intrigue, both against outsiders and among themselves. While Shura Clan’s internal conflicts are a tradition and a necessary means to stay strong, human infighting seems instinctive and unstoppable.

Yet, these weak and infighting humans often burst forth with a fierce spirit at critical moments, causing the Shura Clan significant harm.

If they continue to press forward, will more humans self-destruct to take them down like thousands of years ago? When hundreds or thousands of human cultivators start to explode, will they be able to remain unharmed as before?

With this in mind, when the Shura Clan members recovered from the shock of Gongsun Huasa and others’ self-explosions and resumed their assault on the "All Immortals Formation," they found themselves somewhat restrained. Additionally, the southern camp of the "All Immortals Formation," controlled by Jiuhua, began to supply Spirit Qi energy to assist the Qingxu Gate’s defenses, finally stabilizing the formation.

What the Shura Clan did not realize was that if Gongsun Huasa and the others had the chance to choose, they would definitely turn and run instead of self-exploding to stop their attack.

Seeing that the Shura Clan was not greatly damaged, but the situation had stabilized, Qinglingzi couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He looked around at the cultivators and noticed that none were missing. Who, then, were those three heroes that used self-explosion to protect the entire Righteous Alliance?

In his confusion, Qinglingzi felt great admiration for their actions. He believed that he lacked the courage and awareness to self-explode at that moment. Qinglingzi made up his mind that if the human cultivators won this battle, he would definitely seek out those three heroes and repay them by any means.

In the midst of feelings of wonder, Huanlingzi noticed that his expression was very serious and asked, "What’s wrong? Did you find out what happened at Jiuhua just now? Hmph, if it weren’t for the three unknown cultivators who used self-explosions to delay the Shura Clan’s attack at such a crucial moment, the ‘All Immortals Formation’ we worked hard to set up would have been destroyed."

As he spoke, Qinglingzi’s tone was filled with anger.

Huanlingzi sighed and said, "The three who self-exploded just now were Gongsun Huasa, Li Huatian, and Xuanyuan Huagu, the elders of Jiuhua."

Qinglingzi was taken aback. In his memory, Gongsun Huasa and the others didn’t seem to have the bravery and courage for self-explosions. Also, the power of those explosions far exceeded what Gongsun Huasa and the others could achieve, so he asked, "What happened?"

Huanlingzi said, "When I went to check the situation at Jiuhua as you ordered, I found that everything had returned to normal. Each Jiuhua cultivator looked very sad, and only Gongsun Huasa and the other three Taoist friends were missing. When I asked, Li Yuhan from Jiuhua told me that at the moment of danger, Gongsun Huasa and the others suddenly looked excited and absorbed all the Spirit Qi gathered by the ‘All Immortals Formation’ into their bodies before rushing here to self-explode."

"What?" Upon hearing Huanlingzi’s words, even though the Shura Clan was still attacking not far in front of them, Qinglingzi forgot everything else and carefully asked Huanlingzi, "Was it really Gongsun Huasa and the others? What truly happened before they exploded? Did they not say anything at that time?"

Huanlingzi replied, "Before they rushed out from their position, they only shouted an apology to Jiuhua for deceiving everyone for their own benefit and left a green slip for Li Yuhan to give to the masters of the Righteous Alliance, then rushed here to self-explode."

While speaking, Huanlingzi handed a green slip to Qinglingzi, his eyes showing a mix of admiration and confusion.

Being in different positions led to different ways of thinking. After hearing the events, Huanlingzi, just an ordinary elder in the Qingxu Gate, felt admiration and confusion about Gongsun Huasa’s actions. However, Qinglingzi, as the leader of Qingxusect, had spent years dealing with other sects, and after listening to Huanlingzi, the admiration in his eyes faded, replaced by a thoughtful look.

"So, Gongsun Huasa and the others’ actions were only seen by Jiuhua and their group?"

Qinglingzi had a slight, playful smile at the corner of her mouth as she asked.

Huanlingzi nodded in surprise, not understanding why Qinglingzi asked that.

Qinglingzi played with the green slip in her hand, her smile growing wider. She already guessed what Jiuhua had discovered, but she did not explain. Instead, she said to Huanlingzi, "You should join the formation now. Although the Shura Clan’s attack has weakened a lot, we must speed up our preparations for ‘killing demons.’ The situation for our seniors is becoming more urgent."

Hearing Qinglingzi, Huanlingzi nodded and joined the formation, but the confusion on her face deepened.

After Huanlingzi left, Qinglingzi looked towards Jiuhua’s camp and murmured, "I didn’t expect, besides Zhang Hualing and Xu Qingfan, that Jiuhua actually has other talented people who can act at this time to help restore Jiuhua’s reputation, but it also makes it hard to find fault… The information recorded in this green slip must be Gongsun Huasa’s words of regret. It’s clever to push all the blame onto Gongsun Huasa, then let him be a hero, minimizing the negative impact on Jiuhua. Perhaps after this, Jiuhua’s reputation might even rise."

As she spoke, Qinglingzi turned her gaze to a hundred feet away, watching the Shura Clan continuously attacking the "All Immortals Formation," and her expression changed to deep anger, "However, these Jiuhua cultivators are being too careless. They chose this time to act, and although the situation was urgent, after the self-explosion of Gongsun Huasa and the others, our pressure lessened greatly, but if it is not controlled well, ‘All Immortals Formation’ could break, leading to the total destruction of human cultivators. It seems I must teach these Jiuhua cultivators a lesson afterward."

Although she felt that Jiuhua was being inconsiderate of the bigger picture just to restore their reputation, nearly dragging the entire Righteous Alliance into an irrecoverable situation made Qinglingzi quite angry. She decided to teach Jiuhua a lesson afterward, but she did not plan to expose Jiuhua’s scheme.

Firstly, Jiuhua’s plan did succeed; with the self-explosion of Gongsun Huasa and the others, the situation was better than Jiuhua simply supporting with Spirit Qi. Secondly, although people could guess the reasons behind Jiuhua’s actions, they could not find evidence to expose them. Maybe Jiuhua did not expect to deceive everyone, just wanting to protect its reputation and find a reason and way out for the events that happened. Most importantly, exposing the matter did not benefit Qingxu. After all, Jiuhua and Qingxu are both among the six major Holy Lands. If Jiuhua’s reputation falls to the ground, all Holy Lands would be affected to some extent.

Although there were many complicated thoughts in Qinglingzi’s mind, they only flashed by. Once he sorted out his ideas, Qinglingzi did not think any further. Instead, he shifted his gaze to the edge of the battlefield, where four Shura Clan members floated in the air without any desire to join the fight. A serious look crossed his eyes as he wondered about the intentions of these four Shura Clan members.

On the other side, Li Yuhan entered the "All Immortals Formation" again. He provided his strength to the formation while keeping an eye on the movements near the Qingxu Gate. After a long time, he finally withdrew his gaze. If Xu Qingfan saw Li Yuhan at this moment, he would surely be shocked.

Originally, Li Yuhan looked like a young man, but now he appeared decades older. His hair was white, and wrinkles had appeared on his face. Combined with his deep eyes, his aged appearance gave him an air of cunning wisdom.

The "Qiankun Decree" was indeed magical and mysterious, but as one of the most top-notch treasures in the cultivation world, it could not be casually used by Li Yuhan’s level of cultivation. In order to control Gongsun Huasa and the others with the "Qiankun Decree," Li Yuhan boldly drained a large amount of his own lifespan.

After repeatedly thinking about his plan and finding no flaws, Li Yuhan finally felt at ease. His gaze turned, like Qinglingzi’s, towards the four Shura Clan members who had no intention of joining the battle.

If these four Shura Clan members were to join the fight, the pressure on the human cultivators would undoubtedly increase greatly. But at this moment, they floated in the air, coldly watching both sides fight, indifferent to the deaths of their own kind. What could they possibly be thinking?