Chapter 556 - 385: Outplayed
Chapter 556: Chapter 385: Outplayed
Ever since Zheng Wuji arrived, Patriarch Zhou had been making preparations.
The moment the Grand Array detected Demon Power, Patriarch Zhou activated it without the slightest hesitation.
He then began a more detailed scan.
There were the power fluctuations of one early-stage Core Formation Demon, as well as several others belonging to Foundation Establishment Demons.
With a Core Formation Demon present, the Foundation Establishment Demons were merely support.
Having assessed the situation, Patriarch Zhou breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, they had a Supreme Elder from the Upper Sect—a middle-stage Core Formation cultivator—acting as their guardian. If this was all the force the Demons were sending, they could handle it with ease and wouldn’t need to call for reinforcements.
If the forces dispatched by the Demons had been much stronger, the likely outcome would have been the Zhou Family suffering grievous losses and losing their ancestral land, while the Supreme Elder from the Upper Sect would have been forced to retreat.
The ones who reacted most strongly to the activation of the Zhou Family’s Grand Array were the cultivators at the Qi Refining Level.
The Zhou Family’s Foundation Establishment-level leadership was already aware of the situation and had long been prepared.
The Zhou Family’s leadership hadn’t informed the clan’s Qi Refining members in order to avoid alerting the Demons to anything unusual.
If all the clan’s cultivators had known the situation, it would have been far too easy for the Demons to notice something was amiss. The more people who know a secret, the more prone it is to problems—especially when it’s the kind of information that could easily cause a panic.
"What’s going on? Why did the Grand Array activate?"
"Quick, look outside!"
"That looks like... it looks like... a Core Formation Demon!"
"How can this be? Haven’t the Demons been laying low all these years?"
As members of the Zhou Family, having grown up under the tutelage of their elders, they all had a certain degree of understanding about the Celestial Cloud Sect’s Earth Realm and the surrounding Evil Sects.
This was especially true of the Celestial Cloud Sect’s annihilation of the Celestial Demon Sect.
To them, that had been a monumental event!
That was why they were all so shocked by the appearance of a Core Formation Demon.
Some of the Qi Refining clan members in their forties and fifties had believed that if they failed to reach Foundation Establishment by the age of sixty, they would still live out their days in relative peace. They thought that Demon activity within the Celestial Cloud Sect’s Earth Realm would be rare, and any Demons they did see would be at the Qi Refining Level.
And yet, now a Core Formation Demon was attacking their Zhou Family.
"My older cousin went to help at the family’s branch territory more than half a year ago. Now I finally understand why."
"My younger cousin went too, but that was half a year ago."
The Zhou Family cultivators they spoke of were all cultivators with True Spirit Roots.
Anyone with a True Spirit Root was considered a future prospect for Foundation Establishment in the Zhou Family.
Unlike in the past, the Zhou Family’s Foundation Establishment Pills were now almost all Middle Grade. This greatly increased the family’s prospects of successfully reaching Foundation Establishment compared to before.
As they discussed this,
the Zhou Family’s Qi Refining cultivators all began to suspect something.
Perhaps the family leadership had known all along that something like this would happen, which was why they had sent the family’s Foundation Establishment prospects to the branch territory in the former lands of the Celestial Demon Sect.
"Are we the sacrifices?"
"Shut up! Don’t talk nonsense, the Patriarch is here too!"
Faced with this situation, it was natural for everyone to feel some resentment.
But the thought that the Patriarch and some of the family’s Foundation Establishment leaders were still with them lessened that resentment considerably.
Sometimes, such things were simply unavoidable...
The one attacking the Zhou Family was one of the Demon Spirit Sect’s Supreme Elders, Song Yaoli.
Of the Demon Spirit Sect’s three remaining Core Formation Demons, one was at the middle stage, and the other two were at the early stage.
Once the Zhou Family’s Grand Array activated,
Song Yaoli of the Demon Spirit Sect no longer bothered with stealth.
Her Demon Power erupted as she immediately entered a state of Half-Demonization. Wings sprouted from her back, and fur grew across her face.
With every flap of her wings, she whipped up gusts of purple, demonic wind that constantly battered the Zhou Family’s protective Grand Array.
The protective barrier formed by the Grand Array rippled, and the center of the ripples looked as if it could shatter at any moment.
’I hope this mission goes smoothly.’
As Song Yaoli thought this, her face remained expressionless. She didn’t say a single word to the Spirit Refiners within the Grand Array.
The execution of this mission was not proceeding as originally planned.
Forced to carry out the mission this way, her mood was anything but pleasant.
"Supreme Elder, we’ve come to help!"
The Foundation Establishment Elders of the Demon Spirit Sect had arrived behind her.
Just as these Foundation Establishment Elders spoke, Song Yaoli, who was bombarding the Zhou Family’s Grand Array, sensed that something was wrong.
Suddenly, her expression changed.
"The situation has changed! Go back, now!"
Hearing this, the Demon Spirit Sect’s Foundation Establishment Elders were at first confused. They didn’t understand what the problem was or why their Supreme Elder would say such a thing.
「The next moment.」
The answer came crashing down on them.
A figure flew out of the Zhou Family’s Grand Array, holding a black-and-white gourd. He aimed it at the Supreme Elder of the Demon Spirit Sect and opened the mouth of the gourd, unleashing an immediate torrent of black and white mystic water.
The aura of a middle-stage Core Formation cultivator... It’s a Supreme Elder from the Celestial Cloud Sect!
"We have to go!"
"Right."
With their Supreme Elder covering their retreat, they should be fine.
Just as they turned to flee, the black-and-white torrent of mystic water had already reached Song Yaoli.
Song Yaoli’s wings abruptly folded, weaving together in front of her to form a purple barrier.
BOOM—!
The mystic water crashed against her wings. Demon Power and Spiritual Power clashed violently, unleashing a shockwave that instantly pulverized the surrounding trees and vegetation. Song Yaoli was blasted back dozens of yards, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth as the demonic markings on her wings dimmed.
"Hmph. Zheng Wuji, your Celestial Cloud Sect really knows how to spare no expense!" she sneered. Seeing the Demon Spirit Sect’s Foundation Establishment Elders already hundreds of yards in the distance, her heart calmed slightly.
To think the Celestial Cloud Sect would actually station a middle-stage Core Formation cultivator here as a guardian.