Chapter 164 — The Forbidden Ground
The Sword Questions the Heavens · Page 1 of 6
The seemingly endless torrent of beast-demons surged madly upward in wave after wave, slamming with the few giant beasts as their spearheads against the barrier of light raised by the righteous cultivators. Watching the light-screen totter on the verge of collapse, and seeing the faint fear beginning to show on the faces of the younger disciples beside him, Xiao Yichen knit his brows tightly. He knew that unless those leading beasts were driven back, the situation would spiral beyond all control.
With a great shout he called out to the disciples around him and was the first to charge at a nearby giant beast. Yet he had scarcely moved, had not flown more than a few paces, when a sharp gust swept past behind him and a figure shot out from his side like lightning, hurtling straight at the beast.
Xiao Yichen glanced at the figure and froze for a moment. Though stained with fresh crimson, the form was slender and graceful, cold and peerlessly beautiful—it was Lu Xueling. There above the countless black beast-demons and the righteous disciples' barrier of light, Lu Xueling seemed to ride the wind straight upward, charging at the beast that was dozens of times larger than her own body.
Another figure burst out beside her—Zeng Shuyan. His originally refined appearance was now smeared with patches of blood and filth, and he called urgently to Xiao Yichen: "Senior Brother Xiao, let's go help her!"
Xiao Yichen nodded quickly and rushed forward. The giant beast-demon directly opposite them was the enormous skeletal serpent that had once appeared in the Seven-Li Cave of the Miao people in the southern borderlands. Beneath the dark clouds its skeleton gave off an unnatural pallor, and the three pairs of gaudily colored wings trembling ceaselessly behind it were joined directly to the white bones—a sight grotesque beyond words.
At this moment the skeletal serpent had coiled its massive body, nearly three zhang long, and beat the three pairs of wings upon its bony back. Its forked tongue flicked in and out of its serpent's head, spewing jets of black miasma, and it glared furiously at the barrier of light. Each time its huge head swept past, righteous disciples of lesser cultivation perished—some bitten to death by the great maw, others unable to withstand the black poison, which attacked the heart and killed them.
Having slain many in succession, the skeletal serpent looked upon the righteous disciples scattering in flight before it, its great jaws opening and closing. Though no expression could be read on its fleshless face, it was plainly swollen with arrogance. Just as it was at the height of its triumph, a white shadow suddenly flickered before it, and there came what seemed a soft, cold cry. A woman of peerless beauty appeared in midair, the blue immortal sword in her hand blazing with brilliant radiance, and she struck down from the sky.
A hiss rose from the serpent's bones, and it showed not the slightest inclination to dodge, treating the Heaven's Axis Divine Sword as though it did not exist. Its great maw gaped wide, baring two enormous white fangs, and it lunged to bite at Lu Xueling.
The fangs, each seeming larger than a man, gleamed with cold white light as they descended from the sky. Facing this terrifying sight, Lu Xueling's face remained utterly cold, without the slightest expression, as though she did not even regard the skeletal serpent as worthy of notice. The Heaven's Axis Divine Sword blazed brighter still and soared skyward, like a phoenix crying across the nine heavens amid the black miasma. In an instant it clove the black vapor, split the dark clouds, and before the skeletal serpent could react, struck the bones three feet below its head.
"Sss… crack!"