Chapter 51: Breaking the Array
Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Breaking the Array
The three men wore different attire, but all shared the same icy expression. They were clearly prepared. The moment they landed, they simultaneously formed hand seals and began chanting. The Spirit Light around them surged as they started to burn their life essence, forcibly channeling a power far beyond what their Realm could normally control!
HUM! HUM! HUM!
Three distinct beams of Treasure Light, each pulsing with a heart-stopping, destructive aura, shot skyward from their hands!
The first man held a short ruler, crimson all over and shaped like a vermilion bird spreading its wings. Dense Flame Runes flowed across its surface like living things, and the terrifying heat instantly distorted the surrounding air. It was a Tier Two Lower Grade Magical Artifact—the Solar Fire Ruler!
The second man had a small, palm-sized silver mirror hovering above his head. Its surface was as smooth as the moon, its edges carved with arcane patterns. As he poured Magical Power into it, a blinding point of silver-white light gathered in the center, radiating a peerless Sharpness that could pierce through anything. This was a Tier Two Lower Grade Magical Artifact—the Breaking Gang Mirror!
The third man gripped a short hammer in both hands. It was pitch-black and covered in vicious barbs. A faint, earthy-yellow Spirit Light flickered on its head. This was a Tier Two Lower Grade Magical Artifact—the Earth-Splitting Hammer!
For a Qi Cultivator, even one at the Great Perfection Realm, truly Refining and freely wielding a Tier Two Spiritual Artifact was next to impossible. They could usually only manage to channel a sliver of its power. But now, these three men were clearly using a Secret Technique, even burning their own life essence, to forcibly unleash the power of these three Magical Artifacts. The cost was immense, and each man could only strike once!
"Break!"
"Open!"
"Shatter!"
The three roared in unison, their voices hoarse and filled with a desperate madness!
The Solar Fire Ruler was swung, unleashing a crimson line of fire, condensed to its absolute limit like flowing magma. It shot toward the rapidly closing breach in the Array, carrying terrifying heat!
The Breaking Gang Mirror flashed. A silver-white beam, as thick as an arm and condensed until it seemed solid, overtook the fire and struck precisely at the center of the breach!
The Earth-Splitting Hammer smashed down! There was no earth-shattering boom, only an earthy-yellow Spirit Light that slammed violently into the edge of the breach!
Three Tier Two Spiritual Artifacts. Three attacks far beyond the Qi Cultivation Level. They all erupted at the same instant—at the critical juncture of the Array’s healing, at its most vulnerable moment when its old power was spent but new power had yet to gather, weakened by a continuous barrage of other attacks!
KRRR-ACK—!
SHATTER!!!
This time, there was no world-shaking explosion, only the crisp, cracking sound of glazed glass completely breaking apart!
The three attacks were like three red-hot iron pokers plunging into a giant, solidifying block of gelatin! The crimson line of fire melted through the remaining Array Patterns, the silver-white beam pierced the core node, and the earthy-yellow Spirit Light completely pulverized the mending edges of the Array!
Under this triple deathblow, the incredibly tenacious and rapidly healing Array Light Shield finally collapsed, like a camel whose back was broken by the final straw.
A massive, irregular gap—far larger than before—was forcibly torn open! Its edges no longer flowed with the Spirit Light of healing energy, but instead took on a charred, molten appearance. The opening was dozens of feet wide.
’It worked! A real breach!’
But Lu Zhao keenly noticed that the energy at the edge of the breach was extremely chaotic and violent. Although the healing speed had been greatly slowed, it hadn’t stopped! From within the Zhao Family Marketplace, several powerful auras of Spirit Light were rapidly approaching. Time was short; every second counted!
The very next instant the breach was torn open, Lu Zhao’s pupils contracted. He witnessed a scene that shook his Heart Spirit to its core!
From the formation behind him, that squad of a dozen or so old Cultivators—their auras failing, silent and unmoving as Panshi—made their move!
There were no shouts, no hesitation. Almost in perfect unison, every one of them crushed a Talisman that radiated a dense, earthy-yellow Spirit Light—a Tier Two Earth Escape Talisman!
HUM! HUM! HUM!
A dozen beams of earthy-yellow light flared up instantly. Heavy Earth Element Spiritual Power enveloped their bodies, and with a flash of light, the figures of the old Cultivators vanished from where they stood!
When they reappeared, they were standing defiantly right in front of the huge, newly-torn breach, where chaotic energy was still slowly trying to heal.
However, what greeted them was not the smooth path to victory, but a furious counterattack from the shocked and enraged Zhao Family Cultivators that rained down like a storm!
"Attackers! Seal the breach!"
"Kill them all!"
Streams of light from a massive number of Magical Artifacts—Flying Swords, Long Sabers, Giant Axes, Long Spears—shot out like a disturbed hornet’s nest. They flew from inside the breach and from behind the parts of the Array Light Shield that hadn’t yet collapsed, shrieking through the air!
A dense barrage of Low-Tier Magic—Fireballs, Ice Cones, Wind Blades, Stone Spikes—blotted out the sky, blanketing the entire area in front of the breach with almost no gaps!
A few more powerful attacks, clearly from Late-stage Qi Cultivators, struck like venomous dragons emerging from their lairs, aimed straight for the old Cultivators at the very front!
The stench of death was overpowering!
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK—!
Flowers of blood bloomed instantly before the breach!
The few old Cultivators at the front, their defensive Spirit Light only half-formed, had no time to mount any effective resistance. They were torn apart by the first saturation wave of attacks from all directions, like paper shredded by a gale, instantly riddled with holes. Severed limbs, viscera, and fragments of Magical Artifacts flew everywhere!
In a single exchange, four old Cultivators fell! The thick smell of blood filled the air in an instant!
However, their gruesome sacrifice was not in vain!
Because of this sudden, death-defying charge and the brief "shield" formed by the flesh and blood of the front-line Cultivators, the storm of attacks faltered for a split second, its firepower dispersed!
’Now is the time!’
The surviving old Cultivators behind them acted with a near-frenzied resolve! They ignored the lethal attacks grazing past them, even ignoring the wounds torn in their own bodies by the aftershocks! Their movements were blindingly fast!
One after another, Defensive Spiritual Artifacts of all shapes were frantically activated! Turtle Shell Shields, Copper Bells, Iron Umbrellas... a multicolored tapestry of defensive light shields lit up, layer upon layer!
Defense Talismans were slapped onto their bodies without a moment’s hesitation! Vajra Talismans, Earth Armor Talismans, Water Curtain Talismans... Spirit Lights of every color exploded around them, forming one flimsy layer of Defense after another!
They armed themselves into mobile fortresses, and then, like moths drawn to a flame, they charged headlong toward the breach, braving the unending torrent of attacks!
"Stop them!!" the roars of the Zhao Family Cultivators grew even more shrill. Inside the breach, what awaited them was a denser, closer, and more concentrated barrage of attacks! The light from Magical Artifacts and Magic was so bright it nearly illuminated the entire interior of the gap! For them to charge in was tantamount to suicide!
At this critical moment, just as Lu Zhao thought these old men would be instantly engulfed by the dense magic inside the breach like those before them, several of the old Cultivators suddenly revealed savage, triumphant smiles! A crazed fire burned in their eyes, a flame called "mutual destruction"!
Instead of trying to block the imminent attacks, each of them raised a fist-sized, pitch-black pearl... on its surface, countless tiny, violet serpents of lightning crackled and danced.