A Year of Great Undertakings – Book 6, Chapter 89: Darkness and Ligh
As this sword stabbed onto the formation, it exploded with a blinding light. The formation began to groan and wail as if it were alive.
As soon as this sword strike landed, Ye Fenghan didn’t even stay to watch.
He immediately booked it.
Regardless of what the result of his sword strike was, there was no way that he would be able to endure the consequences that were about to take place.
At the same time that he charged out of the Astral Hall, an enraged roar thundered through the air. “NO!”
Following this cry, the Astral Hall exploded.
A powerful wave of energy cascaded in all directions, surging like the tide of the ocean.
Even though Ye Fenghan had retreated incredibly decisively, the violent explosion still caught up to him and slammed into him like a giant wave tossing about a small boat. He felt as if his bones were going to break, and his flesh and blood seemed to be melting away under the violent onslaught of energy.
In that moment, his face, eyes, arms, and even his chest began to melt away, revealing the pearly white bones underneath.
Ye Fenghan was in so much pain that he almost wanted to kill himself.
Even so, he was eventually able to endure.
He furiously attempted to revolve his Immaculate Cultivation Technique in order to guard his heart until the turbulent waves of energy disappeared.
Ye Fenghan descended to the ground, a mangled mass of flesh and blood.
At this point in time, his entire body was injured, and he had even gone blind because he had lost his eyes.
However, Ye Fenghan was still laughing as he pulled out a vial of medicine, dumped out a few pellets into his hand and swallowed them, then continued to run.
Yes, he was happy.
If even he, with his seven Lotus Platforms, couldn’t withstand the violent explosion, then those six Astrals would have an even harder time.
Even though Astrals were powerful, that was on the level of Origin Energy and consciousness power control, not their physical bodies.
Even a high-tier Astral would have had a difficult time withstanding the sudden burst of energy, let alone a few mid-tier Astrals. As long as he could evade the pursuit of the six mid-tier Astrals, any loss would have been worth it.
Even so, it was at that precise moment that Astral Hall glowed with an intense light. A blazing, humanoid figure could be seen amidst the turbulent energy – one of the six Astrals.
How had the Astrals survived?
Even though he couldn’t see anything, Ye Fenghan was still capable of sensing the presence of the Astral behind him.
However, that Astral’s figure was quite strange. Its body was flickering with light, alternating between darkness and light.
He hurriedly shot in Ye Fenghan’s direction, roaring madly as an arrow of sound whizzed towards him.
Ye Fenghan couldn’t see the attack, but he could hear the sound. He didn’t know what kind of attack was coming his way, but he didn’t need to know either.
His figure flickered, and he disappeared, reappearing in another direction.
Whitetower Teleportation.
Ye Fenghan had learned almost all of Su Chen’s techniques. It could be said that he was Su Chen’s most loyal follower.
The arrow of sound shot past Ye Fenghan, but just as it flew past him, it suddenly expanded. A blazing white light burst forth from the arrow, and the attack blew past Ye Fenghan, sending him flying.
The Astral once again flew into the air, roaring angrily. However, its voice seemed incredibly primal and unclear, making it impossible to interpret what he had said.
A violent wave of energy surged yet again, but this time it was a white column of light that swept across the sky like a blade of white light. Immediately afterwards, the ground cracked.
Just as Ye Fenghan was about to use Whitetower Teleportation again, his brain suddenly seized as his consciousness spiraled out of his own control, making it impossible for him to actually activate the technique.
Just as this white light was about to slice him into two as well, a person suddenly appeared and pulled him aside, allowing him to narrowly avoid being hit.
It was Chang He.
“How come you look like this?” Chang He was stunned when he saw Ye Fenghan’s bloody appearance.
“Hurry and get out of here!” Ye Fenghan yelled.
He had only just spoken when a black fog suddenly burst forth out of the white streak of light, threatening to envelop them both.
Chang He was badly startled. He had never seen an Origin Skill that could transform like that before, and this sudden transformation made him extremely wary of directly touching it. Thankfully, he also knew how to use Whitetower Teleportation and managed to leap aside before it touched him.
He turned to glance at the Astral, who had suddenly begun to spew out a boundless amount of black fog that circled towards Chang He.
Chang He hurriedly retreated, watching the flickering shadow closely as he said, “That’s an Astral?”
Ye Fenghan couldn’t see anything, but his senses were as sharp as ever. “It’s not just an Astral. I can sense many different energies clashing with one another inside that body…… Yes, it must be the six Astrals. They must have merged bodies, relying on that to endure the explosion.”
“The Astrals can merge bodies?” Chang He was stunned.
“I don’t know.” Ye Fenghan shook his head. “That’s nothing more than a guess of mine. The Astrals have all kinds of strange tricks up their sleeves. It’s not particularly strange that they can merge bodies, is it? Or perhaps that was the function of the formation in the first place.”
“ROAR!”
The enraged shadow roared yet again and continued to chase after the two of them, black fog surging out from its body.
Now that he knew the secret behind this shadow, Chang He actually grew less anxious.
He calmly watched his opponent attack, even ignoring the black wave that surged in his direction.
Just as the black wave was about to swallow him up.
Boom!
A massive explosion of energy burst forth, forcing the black wave to retreat.
Behind Chang He stood hundreds of Origin Qi Scholars. A few of the small squads had arrived on the scene.
All of the Origin Qi Scholars in these patrol squads were Light Shaking Realm cultivators. Even the flickering shadow was no match for them and immediately fell into a disadvantaged position.
“Not so arrogant now, are we? No matter how strange your techniques are, it’s not enough if you’re not strong enough,” Chang He chuckled.
The flickering shadow was unable to endure the combined pressure and could only roar in anger. Ye Fenghan said, “Don’t kill it! This kind of amalgamation is definitely rare and hard to find. It may be useful in Sect Master’s hands.”
Chang He was startled for a moment. “That’s right, Sect Master likes this kind of thing the most. Everyone, capture it…… Holy crap, you’d better speed up!”
Chang He’s voice suddenly jumped an octave.
Off in the distance, waves of Astrals had begun to pour out of the canyon.
Such a giant commotion would naturally not go unnoticed, and it was only natural that the Astrals had sent out some people to take a look at what had just happened.
When they saw the scene before their eyes, the Astrals couldn’t hold back their mournful cries.
The mournful cries were echoed by the puppets they controlled.
Countless puppets had charged out of the cemetery and were rushing in their direction.
“Hurry up and get out of here!” Chang He howled as he unleashed a palm strike onto the shadow’s body. The overlaid might of these palm strikes was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and it was actually compressed into a ball.
A web shot forth from the hundreds of cultivators and enveloped the shadow, making it impossible for him to move.
Then, the cultivators all retreated.
At this point, it was more important for them to survive than try to maintain a location for the rest of the troops to home in on.
Boom!
A formless consciousness fluctuation burst forth, enveloping all the cultivators and numbing their consciousness for just a moment, causing their speed to drastically decrease.
A moment later, however, the cultivators all pulled out a pill and tossed in their mouth, which allowed them to immediately revert to normal.
A strange chant sounded off in the distance immediately afterwards. As the sound waves gently rolled over their ears, the Boundless Sect’s disciples suddenly found themselves quite sleepy, making it hard for them to fly quickly.
One of the squad commanders, however, laughed and pulled out a jade chime and tapped it with a small hammer. A clear, crisp sound rang out, immediately rendering that chant ineffective.
At the same time, another cultivator pulled out a handful of sand and threw it into the air. The sand immediately whipped up a sandstorm.
This sandstorm was not designed to hinder their opponent’s advance but to obscure their vision, making it difficult for them to unleash techniques on them.
A lightning storm suddenly descended from the sky.
This wave of attacks was much simpler in comparison. They were using brute force this time.
The Astrals’ Arcana Techniques were quite powerful. The fact that they could unleash such powerful skills even from this kind of distance was impressive in and of itself.
However, the Boundless Sect’s disciples were all more afraid of bewitching techniques. After all, they were better equipped to resist these kinds of physical attacks.
As the Boundless Sect’s disciples forced their way through the lightning storm, the sandstorm behind them was already beginning to dissipate.
Another wave of attacks assaulted their senses, this time in the form of illusions. The Astrals were clearly hoping to send the Boundless Sect’s disciples into a dream realm from which they would have a hard time escaping.
Thankfully, with the aid of the previously applied Heart Walls, they were able to completely avoid this attack altogether.
Actually, the Astrals were greater in both numbers and in might.
However, the gap between them became the disciples’ greatest ally. Many of the Astrals’ skills had a distance limitation on them which could not be used or would not be nearly as effective because of how far away the disciples were. And the Boundless Sect had made more than adequate preparations for their expedition this time around. Quite a bit of information on the battle tactics of the Astrals had been gathered throughout the past tens of thousands of years of combat. As long as it was something they had seen before, there would be a way for them to handle it.
As a result, there was nothing that the Astrals could do to this group of soldiers despite their objectively superior strength.
The Astrals were stumped for a time.
They were beginning to lose hope of ever catching up to the Boundless Sect’s disciples when an extraordinary wave of consciousness power washed over them.
Upon sensing this consciousness power, the Astrals actually stopped in their tracks and turned to pay their respects to something.
A tall Astral was flying in their direction – the very same high-tier Astral who had been overseeing the ceremony earlier.
When the explosion had taken place, that Astral hadn’t immediately tried to leave the canyon. Only now did he finally arrive on the scene.
Chang He just so happened to turn around. When he saw this, he immediately knew they were in trouble. “Hurry and get out of here!”
However, the disciples were already running at top speed. No amount of urging was going to make a difference.
The high-tier Astral began to raise his hands as he howled into the sky.
The space around him actually began to distort.
Suddenly, soundless whistles began to spread through the air.
These sounds weren’t actually physical in nature, but they penetrated deep into the hearts of all who heard. The disciples all felt as if something had grabbed them by the heart, causing them to shiver and squirm in intense discomfort. There was no way for them to continue unleashing techniques, and all they could do was scratch themselves fiercely. Only Ye Fenghan and a few more of the peak-tier Light Shaking Realm cultivators could endure.
A single attack had managed to incapacitate a squad of a hundred people.
Chang He was badly startled.
He knew that he wasn’t going to be able to hold on for much longer. As such, he stuffed the shadow into Ye Fenghan’s hands and said, “Take this guy and run in that direction, okay? That’s where the main army is. Don’t go astray.”
“What are you going to do?” Ye Fenghan instinctively sensed that something was up.
“Of course I’m going to go and pick a fight with that guy!” Chang He cried out a
Ye Fenghan was badly startled. “No, don’t!”
“Hurry and leave! Hand this strange creature over to Sect Master!” Chang He planted his foot on the seat of Ye Fenghan’s pants and booted him away, then turned around and rejoined the rest of the soldiers to charge against the high-tier Astral.
Tears began to roll from Ye Fenghan’s eye sockets.
“Remember to tell Sect Master that my name is Chang He!” Chang He yelled as he charged fearlessly in a true display of heroism.
“Chang He, is it? I’ll remember it.”
A voice suddenly spoke at that moment.
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