Five Immortal Sects
Chapter 127: Sudden Upheaval

When Li Yan stepped into the sphere, the first thing that caught his eye, aside from the group of cultivators from the Wraith Sect standing ahead, were the corpses strewn across the ground. The area was eerily quiet, so still that one could hear the beating of hearts.

The interior of the sphere was filled with twisted and grotesque bodies, each with a different expression frozen on their faces, and all had died tragic, horrifying deaths.

Some were curled up in distorted clumps, others had rotting, melted flesh; some faces were twisted and swollen purple, others had massive eyeballs protruding from their sockets and hanging outside their skulls; some had tongues stretched so far they drooped down to their chests, sending chills down the spine of any who looked.

One corpse had a bloodied hand still clutching a dripping heart, while its own chest had a gaping hole. Another held a head in its arms, white teeth smeared with blood and brain matter, the severed head mangled and barely recognizable.

There were even some with their bodies bent and twisted like twisted ropes, both hands having pulled out veins from their legs, casting them in blue and red strands all over the ground.

And… there were also male cultivators clinging to one another, faces flushed red, completely naked with erect bodies, expressions of bliss still on their faces as they died in each other's embrace...

This was the trap that Gong Chenying had arranged.

Back when they first charged into the magma black hole, she had already been calculating her plan.

In previous trials, few had died along the path, in fact, some had made it through without casualties. The real fatalities occurred inside the yellow sphere. In other words, deaths during the passing of the trial itself were far fewer.

Once one understood the nature of the attacks in a given trial, it became relatively easy to survive.

Thus, Gong Chenying decided to shorten the time spent along the way and instead rush ahead to the convergence zone ten li away. There, they could use the Wraith Sect’s greatest weapon, poison to ambush their enemies.

This, however, would inevitably increase the chance of casualties en route. But after weighing the risks, she concluded it was still better than risking everything in a life-and-death brawl inside the sphere, where the probability of death was higher.

She had only briefly transmitted a few words to the disciples before forcefully increasing her speed severalfold, giving them no chance to respond. The Qi Condensation cultivators behind her didn’t dare to object, they could only grit their teeth and follow.

As their Martial Aunt, she simply notified them of her decision, their consent was irrelevant. But that didn’t mean Gong Chenying wasn’t under pressure.

If her strategy resulted in too many deaths, and they managed to escape in the end, the surviving Qi Condensation disciples would surely report what had happened to their respective peak elders.

These disciples weren’t nobodies either, some were direct descendants of Foundation Establishment and even Core Formation elders.

Take Mei Caichu, for instance. He was the great-great-grandson of a late-stage Core Formation elder from Old Lord Peak. It was only by leveraging this connection that the fat man had been accepted into the Wraith Sect.

It was said that when he first arrived, he cried every day to go home and play with his pet birds, showing no desire to cultivate.

So the Core Formation elder locked him in Old Lord Peak’s Nine-Flame Crimson Fire Cellar for an entire month. By the time Mei Caichu came out, he was gaunt, skin red as blood. In his own words later he said:

“That old bastard was trying to kill me. An egg placed in the Nine-Flame Cellar would cook in a few breaths!”

He had no choice but to force himself to circulate his cultivation and endure the heat. Even so, he would sweat profusely, yet the elder refused to give him any water. He’d only said: “You can drink water once you learn Raincloud Technique.”

Mei Caichu had no choice but to meditate in agony to resist the heat while desperately trying to learn the spell. But the heat was so intense that any cloud he managed to summon would evaporate instantly. He was truly on the verge of tears.

He hadn’t wanted to participate in the Life-and-Death Trial, but before the sect-wide Qi Condensation competition, that Core Formation elder gave him one sentence:

“If you rank below fiftieth, you’ll spend three more months in the Crimson Fire Cellar.”

Terrified, he jiggled his way into the forty-ninth spot.

Though the elder seemed merciless toward Mei Caichu, if Gong Chenying made a wrong decision that resulted in his death, even Wei Chongran wouldn’t be able to shield her, she’d certainly be punished.

But Gong Chenying had her reasoning.

Inside the yellow sphere, as long as both teams didn’t enter at the same time, the space would maintain a distance of about forty zhang.

That much range meant poison traps could be set up with terrifying density. Especially when different types of deadly toxins were mixed and released at once, how many beings could survive even a few rounds of that?

When they had fought their way desperately to the final point and Gong Chenying entered first to scout and confirm the enemy hadn’t arrived, she finally let out a long breath of relief.

Then she led the Old Lord Peak and Four Symbols Peak disciples in to prepare the ambush. Naturally, she didn’t leave out Li Yan, the one bearing the “Fractured Poison Body.”

Once inside, Gong Chenying and the Four Symbols Peak disciples began setting up concealment arrays to mask their presence.

The Old Lord Peak cultivators began applying poison. Some placed invisible, odorless toxins, others used Four Symbols Peak’s formations to conceal sinister poisons within them, some even made use of the dust on the ground or light reflections to build chained poisonous triggers, touching one would be like igniting an oil barrel, setting off a chain of deadly reactions.

As for Li Yan, he simply strolled around casually, sometimes stopping here and there, occasionally tapping the sphere wall with his hand. He never took out any porcelain bottles, nor did he cast any spells.

This left many watching in speechless confusion. They had no idea whether this Little Uncle was even setting up anything at all.

Meanwhile, Fatty Mei Caichu sneakily pulled out a few jars and bottles from his storage pouch, face twisted into a lewd smile. He’d occasionally take a pinch of something from a bottle and carefully sprinkle it in a spot, or use a spell to seal some liquid onto the sphere’s surface.

He acted so suspiciously that those familiar with him were frightened into a cold sweat and hurriedly distanced themselves.

Two female cultivators, after seeing the powder Mei Caichu scattered or the gas he released and noticing his unnaturally excited expression, they couldn't bear it. One of them immediately walked up and kicked him squarely on his rear just as he was bending over with a lecherous grin on his face.

Mei Caichu nearly smeared the mouth of the porcelain bottle on his own nose and was utterly shocked. He turned around and glared angrily at the junior martial sister.

“This is the result of years of effort, and you nearly ruined my masterpiece for no reason!”

Everyone involved in this ambush was a seasoned poisoner. Even Li Yan had nearly five years of experience and was quick and precise. It took less than the time of half a stick of incense to fill the entire sphere with death.

According to one cultivator afterward, the dosage used wasn’t just enough to cover an area of forty zhang, it could have wiped out an entire city in moments. But at the time, the trap-laying process felt so satisfying that no one held back.

The reason the disciples from Spirit Insect Peak and Boundless Peak weren’t allowed into the sphere to help with the ambush was because both peaks specialized in manipulating poisonous insects and venomous beasts. In comparison, the traps set by Old Lord Peak and Four Symbols Peak were far more concealed and subtle.

Moreover, Gong Chenying couldn’t be sure whether the presence of those poisonous creatures might trigger the sphere’s rules to register both sides as present.

If that happened, the sphere might automatically expand its interior space, resulting in major vulnerabilities in their originally seamless setup.

Simultaneously, if the rules concluded that both sides had entered and then sealed the sphere’s entrance, those waiting outside would be trapped in a cocoon of their own making, doomed to be annihilated by the descending black shadow.

Of course, the possibility of the enemy realizing something was wrong and retreating through their entry path had also been accounted for.

The other reason Gong Chenying brought in the Four Symbols Peak cultivators was to arrange a one-way formation along the inner boundary of the sphere. This formation allowed entry but not exit, unless the enemy spent time breaking it. And as they did so, the concealed traps within the formation would automatically activate and attack.

But Gong Chenying couldn’t predict when the enemy would arrive. She could only delay the moment until the black shadow loomed just overhead.

To guard against the chance that the enemy might have only recently entered, she also placed a purely defensive formation on their side of the sphere wall, creating a kind of isolated fortress.

When the black shadow finally arrived, they would enter the sphere and fall within the protection of this formation. It would shield them from the enemy’s assault as well.

However, whether the formation would actually work, Gong Chenying herself wasn’t sure.

If the enemy was desperate and cornered and tapped into their latent potential, they might break through before her group entered. What awaited them then would be a vicious final counterattack in the throes of death.

In the end, the result brought relief to the Wraith Sect disciples. The defensive formation remained intact, and from the looks of things, their enemies had all perished. At least from where they stood within the formation, there was no sign of life elsewhere in the sphere.

When Li Yan entered, he didn’t see any expressions of joy. Though they were met with a scene full of corpses and a brief but terrifying silence, no one cheered.

Over fifty bodies lay strewn across the interior of the sphere, and what chilled their hearts further was that the clothing of the deceased clearly indicated they came from two sects, Ten-Step Court and Grand Profound Sect.

What was especially terrifying was that on the ground near the center of the sphere, two corpses each spaced seven steps apart were holding blue prism crystals.

One had fallen face-up. Now, there was only a skeleton left, drenched in blackened blood, its clothing soaked and clinging to the bones. Much of the robe had corroded away, with only fragments still hanging on.

Upon closer inspection, it could be determined that the corpse belonged to a Grand Profound Sect cultivator. His facial remains were nauseating: most of the skin had rotted away, and what was left clung in strips to the skull.

Even worse, the skeletal face, still sticky with dozens of blood threads, bore several rotting patches of flesh. The eye sockets were shriveled and hollow, completely black. One bone-white hand still clutched a blue prism crystal.

Seven steps away from him, another corpse also held a blue crystal. This one lay face-down, crawling toward the sphere wall. His face could not be seen.

One hand was frozen mid-cast, as though he had been performing a technique. His whole body was swollen, blackened, and shiny. His robe was stretched to its limit, had it not been a low-grade spiritual artifact, it would’ve long since burst open. Judging by the robe, this man belonged to Ten-Step Court.

(Chapter End)