Five Immortal Sects
Chapter 141: The Sudden Ambush

Li Yan withdrew his divine sense, he had to act now. Judging by Wang Lang and the others’ current pace, in just two more gates, they would arrive at the ten-li mark and initiate their attack.

However, a trace of shock lingered in his heart. To think that the Grand Profound Sect and the other two sects had schemed for centuries just to bring down the Wraith Sect.

Li Yan also now understood that within this world, there truly had existed a person with mixed five-element spiritual roots who, without the aid of any special cultivation technique, not only reached Foundation Establishment but even advanced all the way to the late stage of the Core Formation realm.

Judging from Quan Jiuxing’s words, this Core Formation cultivator of the Grand Profound Sect who had discovered the blue prism’s secret, had ultimately failed in his attempt to reach Nascent Soul.

“I wonder what kind of pill that Grand Profound Core Formation cultivator swallowed to defy the heavens so? If I could obtain such a pill, I imagine my cultivation speed would soar severalfold at least.”

Li Yan couldn’t help but lick his lips, a flicker of longing flashing through his eyes.

Then, he chuckled at himself and shook his head. “As if all the luck in the world could possibly fall into my lap.” With that, he exited the light ribbon’s membrane...

Li Yan sent his divine sense into the blue prism crystal. At this moment, the second-to-last gate had already begun to glow brightly from its base up to its midpoint, while the upper half of the semicircular arched gate began to emit an orange hue, a clear sign of its impending activation.

Standing atop the white light ribbon, Li Yan wasted no time. He took one step forward and arrived at the final black gate.

With a slap of his hand, a fresh "Ghost Chariot Talisman" flared to life upon his body. Earlier, Gong Chenying had given him her remaining three talismans, and now with his own he had six in total, more than enough for now.

Li Yan’s figure swiftly passed through the dark gate and landed upon the iron-chain bridge. Immediately, he activated his movement technique and darted in a blur across a ten-zhang radius, scouring the area around his appearance point. Then, using his highest speed, he dove back into the membrane layer of the light ribbon.

This maneuver was extremely risky. Even though he’d executed it with all his speed, just before he slipped back into the light ribbon, a black demonic bird had appeared behind him, thrusting its long, sharp beak viciously toward his back.

Li Yan only sensed the ominous wind at his back, he dared not look back. With the blue prism flashing in his hand, he crashed forward with all his might into the invisible door.

The moment he entered the light ribbon, a muffled thud resounded behind him. Li Yan could feel even the tough membrane shudder slightly from the impact, causing cold sweat to drip down his back.

“Hmm? Something moved up ahead!”

At the same time, more than a li away, Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing suddenly looked up, both exclaiming in unison. They instantly expanded their divine sense and scanned the surroundings. After a few moments, both men wore expressions of suspicion.

“Strange. Brother Wang, did you sense anything?”

“How could a black demonic bird appear here? According to the rules, it should only appear once we reach that segment of the trial. Could something have gone wrong?”

Wang Lang frowned, perplexed. According to prior experience, so long as the team hadn’t reached a specific stretch of the trial, nothing would manifest ahead of time.

Thus, their attention had always focused on their immediate surroundings and the massive dark shadow looming in the sky behind.

“Could the difficulty of the trial have increased? Perhaps even some of the rules have changed?” Quan Jiuxing said with a deep frown, a vague unease forming in his heart.

Wang Lang remained silent, sweeping his divine sense across the area several more times. When he discovered that even the black demonic bird from before had vanished without a trace, he too began to feel a sense of foreboding.

“Brother Quan, something is off. We must be extremely cautious. There’s still more than a li to go, stay on full alert!”

His expression turned grave. In the face of such uncertainty, they could not afford to be anything less than vigilant.

Meanwhile, within the light ribbon’s membrane a li away, Li Yan, still holding the blue prism, maintained the steady glow of azure light while pondering silently:

“So they still noticed something was off. Once this is over, I must find a more refined movement technique. To think that covering a ten-zhang radius took me a full breath’s time. If not for that, I wouldn’t have triggered the restriction.”

Two more breaths passed. Li Yan carefully aimed a beam of blue light from the prism at the black semicircular gate, prying open a narrow slit. Slowly, he sent a strand of divine sense slipping through.

Moments later, he exhaled softly. The black demonic bird was gone. Aside from the surging waters below and the distant sounds of spiritual techniques exploding in combat, the area outside was momentarily quiet.

A dozen breaths later, Wang Lang and his group had arrived within a li of their target. However, their speed had clearly slowed, and their protective wards were now tighter than ever.

Above them, black demonic birds shrieked with piercing cries, while below, the golden thread-snakes surged in endless waves. They shot upward in dense volleys like a storm of arrows, shattering the planks beneath their feet into splinters that fluttered into the river, leaving only long, empty chains stretching toward the distant shore.

This chaos threw the Qi Condensation cultivators into disarray. Some wobbled unsteadily as they floated in the air, while others balanced precariously, standing with feet aligned along a single chain, their bodies swaying violently with the bridge’s lurching.

Yet up ahead, Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing seemed utterly unaffected. They floated serenely, their expressions severe, showing no intention of accelerating their progress. Meanwhile, the Qi Condensation disciples behind them were bombarded from all sides and thrown into utter disorder.

Several black demonic birds came barreling down from the heavens, riding the winds and thunder. Their long, sharp beaks cut through the air with such speed that arcs of light curved off their tips.

One swordsman from the Ten-Step Court stood on a long chain, his body fused to it like iron. He bore a massive sword box on his back. With a single motion, dozens of flying swords shot out, weaving a swirling curtain around him.

The blades danced up and down, shielding him on all sides. Whether it was the birds in the sky or the golden snakes in the water, all were cleaved apart. Black feathers scattered, and golden corpses fell in pieces into the river. His bladework was truly ferocious and unmatched.

A black demonic bird in the sky caught sight of him mid-dive. Instantly, its eyes gleamed with vicious intent, and it hurled itself toward him with terrifying speed.

The Ten Steps swordsman was locked in fierce combat when he suddenly sensed a dreadful killing intent descending from above. Alarmed, he twisted his body and looked up only to see a shadow like a black storm cloud crashing down upon him, so fast that it was already upon him in the blink of an eye.

He was shocked, this demonic condor was at least twice as large as the others nearby, and it had descended from the sky in a deadly dive. Its momentum was truly terrifying. Hastily, he pressed his palms together, and four massive swords appeared above his head.

With a flick of his finger, the four blades let out a resonant hum and merged into a colossal sword, nearly three zhang in length. Its gleaming edge shone with a piercing chill as it surged upward to meet the threat.

Yet the condor did not retreat. Instead, it lunged with its massive beak, striking straight at the giant sword. In the next instant, ears rang with sharp metallic clangs clang clang clang! like thunder rolling through a storm. Its lengthy beak, swift as a woodpecker’s strike, repeatedly pecked at the sword’s edge in blinding flashes.

Each strike landed precisely on the blade's sharp point, and in the blink of an eye, several jagged notches had been gouged into the once razor-sharp edge.

Below, the outer court swordsman from the Ten-Step Court turned pale as blood drained from his face. His body trembled atop the iron chain, and the next second, he spat out a mouthful of blood. His expression dimmed, and his spirit wavered.

As he staggered, one hand reflexively reached for the iron railing beside him for support. At the same time, the great sword in the sky crumbled, splitting back into its four original blades, each now dull and drained of all spiritual light.

From above, the condor’s talons gleamed with a ghostly light. Aligned in a deadly straight line, they swept toward the swordsman’s neck like a pair of blades forged to cleave life itself.

There was no time left to dodge.

The swordsman’s fate seemed sealed.

But just then, a cold snort rang out beside him. Another cultivator raised one hand, two fingers pressed together, and pointed forward. In the next instant, a sword shot through the sky in a graceful arc. In a blur, it appeared beneath the condor, slashing hard at its talons.

This was a stronger inner court swordsman, one who had refined a sword pellet within his Niwan Palace. The power of his blade was far greater, and its trajectory was erratic and impossible to predict, moving with astonishing speed.

Though it seemed like a long series of events, from the moment the outer court swordsman summoned the massive sword to when the inner court swordsman intervened, it all occurred within two breaths.

A cold glint flashed in the inner court swordsman’s eyes. This sword pellet had been painstakingly refined over more than a decade. Among all the Qi Condensation disciples, only a handful had achieved such a feat. Though they all had mixed spiritual roots, the overwhelming resources of the sect had made the impossible possible, the once rare sword pellets were now in the hands of several elite disciples.

With such a weapon, even if they couldn’t defeat a Foundation Establishment cultivator outright, they could still escape with their lives. Their battle strength was formidable.

This inner court swordsman was confident that his strike would sever the condor’s talons.

But just as his gaze brimmed with certainty, when the blade was about to cleave through the beast's claws, the condor abruptly twisted its wing and vanished with eerie suddenness.

Stunned, the swordsman barely had time to react before the condor reappeared behind him, its talons slicing straight for his right arm. Alarmed, he threw himself sideways, rolling onto one of the iron chains.

The talons swept past, grazing his shoulder. Boom! With a deafening roar, the condor’s claws struck the chain beside him, shaking the entire bridge violently.

Everyone on the bridge staggered. Some reached out to grab the chains for support; others leapt into the air to stay aloft.

The giant condor missed and veered off, only to circle and dive again. The inner court swordsman finally regained his footing, only to notice the place where the beast's claws had landed.

The chain, which had withstood numerous spells without damage, now bore a deep dent. His heart sank.

The condor came barreling toward him again. There was no time to summon his flying sword. But then a sharp cry split the air. A beam of sword-light tore through the sky like a meteor.

In a single flash, it struck the condor, cleaving through its body. The massive beast exploded into pieces.

From ahead, a calm voice drifted over:

“Vile beast, how dare you act so brazenly.”

The inner court swordsman, along with the outer court swordsman who had just steadied himself, both let out long breaths of relief and looked ahead gratefully at the elegant young man bathed in light.

But in that very moment, both of them suddenly felt dizzy, their vision blurring. A sharp pain twisted through their guts like knives.

At the same time, all those cultivators who had touched the iron chains moments ago began to scream in agony.

Some saw their hands erupt in festering sores. As they wailed in horror, their bodies melted like wax under rain, turning into puddles of pus and dripping into the river below.

Others turned bright red, black smoke billowing from their seven orifices. They opened their mouths to cry out, only for thick clouds of smoke to spew from their nostrils and lips. Their faces twisted into monstrous expressions before they disintegrated into drifting ash.

As the pus fell into the river, even the golden thread-snakes that came into contact with it melted into sludge, dissolving into the water.

The floating ash drifted upward. Some demonic birds brushed against it and were instantly melted like wax under a forge, vanishing in plumes of black smoke without even a chance to scream.

In the span of just a few breaths, more than twenty disciples from both the Ten-Step Court and the Grand Profound Sect had perished, some poisoned suddenly, others contaminated by pus or black smoke from those beside them, vanishing together into nothingness.

(Chapter End)