Five Immortal Sects
Chapter 142: The Furious Wang Lang

“Spread out! Everyone, take to the air!”

“Strengthen your protective barriers! Do not touch anything on the bridge!”

At the front, Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing had witnessed the tragic scene with eyes wide and bloodshot. The sudden calamity had caught them completely off guard, they hadn’t the slightest idea what had occurred.

But they reacted quickly. These symptoms were clearly signs of poisoning. The first victims they had seen perish were all those who, in the midst of staggering, had lightly touched the iron chains for support.

Yet by the time they shouted warnings, it was already too late. This poison was so vicious that neither of them had ever heard of or seen its like. In just a few breaths, over twenty people had vanished into nothingness.

In all the trials so far, the attacks had always come from their surroundings. Never had they encountered anything suggesting that their immediate environment carried such lethal toxins. What’s more, they had walked for miles over wooden planks without issue and now, in the span of moments, so many disciples had died.

Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing were heartbroken. These disciples had cost their sects dearly, decades of cultivation and countless resources, and now they had vanished in an instant, without even knowing how or why.

“What’s going on here?!”

Wang Lang hovered in the air, his eyes bloodshot with fury. His rage surged like a storm. And yet, the black demonic condors in the sky still shrieked and swooped relentlessly, showing no signs of dispersing.

With fury and grief flooding his heart, Wang Lang struck with far greater force than before. Each movement unleashed dozens of icy, gleaming flying swords, filling the sky with a rain of blood and severed feathers.

As he roared from the depths of his throat, Quan Jiuxing’s face twitched. A quick sweep of his gaze had told him that thirteen or fourteen Grand Profound Sect cultivators had already perished in an instant. He now searched furiously for the source, like a wolf on the hunt.

But their efforts yielded nothing. No matter how wide they cast their divine sense, there was nothing in the vicinity except the condors in the sky and the golden-thread snakes below. No trace of another living being.

Once they were certain there was no ambush, the two men turned their focus to the iron chains. After a moment of probing with divine sense, they both retracted their awareness with grim expressions.

“Only within ten zhang of the chains do faint traces of spiritual energy appear. This aura exists solely to conceal its presence, there’s no offensive power. Its only purpose is to hide the poison beneath.”

Wang Lang spoke each word slowly, teeth grinding audibly.

“Could this be a new mechanism introduced in the later levels? It’s too despicable! The spiritual aura is so faint, it’s impossible to detect amid our widespread attacks. Even I wouldn’t notice it without careful inspection!”

Quan Jiuxing’s previously gentle and refined face had long since darkened, now stormy with rage.

“But this feels artificial. That spiritual aura… it doesn’t match the essence of this world.”

Wang Lang turned abruptly, locking eyes with Quan Jiuxing.

“I feel the same. But who could possibly do such a thing here? Don’t tell me… they’ve also grasped the secrets of this realm?”

Quan Jiuxing was fending off constant attacks as he spoke, his face deeply puzzled.

He couldn’t believe in coincidence. This was their first time using the five-element method to combat the Wraith Sect, how could it be that someone else had secretly mastered even higher techniques, silently planting traps right under their noses?

But they were unaware that amidst the chaos of spells and flashing blades, two faint tendrils of spiritual energy were already inching toward them, converging on the blue prism crystal in their hands.

Just five zhang ahead, hidden within the light membrane, Li Yan was cautiously releasing two strands of spiritual energy. He had been waiting for this exact moment. The Twelve Fractured Poisons he had scattered earlier weren’t just meant to kill, they were meant to throw the enemy’s formation into disarray.

“Now! This is when their minds are in turmoil!” Li Yan whispered as he guided his energy forward.

He needed to disrupt the elemental balance within their blue prism crystals. But since the artifacts were held tightly by two Foundation Establishment experts, trying to approach undetected was practically impossible.

So Li Yan created his own chance, unleashing chaos to cover his infiltration.

At a distance of five zhang, Li Yan calculated that if he timed his exit from the membrane perfectly, his spiritual energy would launch like a bolt of lightning, reaching them before they could react.

Still, for greater certainty, he chose a more careful approach, inching the energy closer and closer for a better ambush position.

“Four zhang... three... two...”

As Li Yan narrowed the distance, Wang Lang’s eyes suddenly narrowed.

At the same moment, Quan Jiuxing snapped his head toward a direction. The sudden movement from both of them made Li Yan’s heart tighten.

“Not good… they’ve noticed!”

When the two threads of spiritual energy were less than two zhang away, the two Foundation Establishment cultivators instantly swept the area with their divine senses and locked onto the exact place where Li Yan was concealed.

He didn’t dare delay a second. With a burst of force, his spiritual energy surged forward like wild horses unleashed.

“There is indeed something hidden here! Let’s see what underhanded schemes lie beneath this trial!”

Wang Lang bellowed, and a brilliant sword-light shot forth.

At the same moment, Quan Jiuxing’s expression darkened. With a sweeping gesture, his hand drew a strange crescent-shaped sigil that flew like lightning toward Li Yan’s hiding place.

Li Yan’s spiritual energy, already loosed, was now like startled hares, racing wildly toward their targets. But in that moment, their aim wavered slightly and the energy veered off, brushing past Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing’s sides and shooting harmlessly into the air.

The two men clearly sensed a powerful force in the energy, yet there was no trace of any spells or technique within it, just raw power.

They hesitated. Could it really be such a simple strike? Not even enough to break through a basic spiritual shield.

But just then—boom! the twin bursts of spiritual energy exploded into nothingness.

And in the next breath, both men’s expressions changed dramatically.

The dissipated energy, as if drawn by some invisible force, rushed straight toward the blue prism crystals in their hands, so fast that they couldn’t react in time.

The spiritual energy surged into the crystals. Both men instantly felt a turbulence erupt within the five-element space housed inside.

Before either could act, the very air in the passageway around them twisted violently.

Cries of alarm rose behind them.

Turning to the sound, both men’s faces drained of color, the vast shadow in the sky was now plummeting toward them at terrifying speed.

“What… is happening?!”

Gone was the elegance of Wang Lang’s usual demeanor. His face contorted with rage, and his roar shook the heavens.

“So this… is the consequence of the hidden method?”

Quan Jiuxing stared at the colossal shadow descending upon them, murmuring as if in a trance.

They had already forgotten the blue prism crystals in their hands. Amid the chorus of despairing cries, a new change overtook the space.

A deafening boom howled down from above, drawing every gaze from the sky behind to the air overhead, only to see a massive sphere of yellow light plummeting straight toward them.

In their stunned, almost hopeless eyes, the yellow orb swelled rapidly in their vision until it filled their entire field of view…

After an earth-shaking crash, Wang Lang, Quan Jiuxing, and the remaining cultivators stared blankly around themselves, they were now inside a yellow sphere. Looking up, the enormous black shadow had already spread across the dome above them, and though none could explain why, a faint sense of relief seeped into their hearts.

It was like a dream. Poisonings, deaths, two team leaders inexplicably striking toward a single point…

Then, the sky had turned chaotic, a massive black shadow bore down, and in the blink of an eye, they were encased in a giant sphere of yellow light.

Everything had happened far too quickly.

“The crystal! The crystal, hurry!”

Snapped from their stupor, Wang Lang and Quan Jiuxing simultaneously cried out. They looked to the blue prism crystals in their hands while their other hands swiftly pulled out pale green gourds.

Their reactions were swift and within mere heartbeats, they’d acted. They knew that everything had stemmed from those two mysterious strands of spiritual energy.

Yet before they could even uncap the gourds, two low, thunderous rumbles sounded behind them. As they turned to look, their expressions instantly twisted in horror, two earthen platforms had already risen with a roar behind them.

Above, the vast black shadow thickened even more.

Everyone inside the sphere instantly understood what this meant. Color drained from their faces one after another.

The attack had come.

Li Yan, sensing two powerful forces tracing his spiritual energy back toward him, dared not linger a moment longer. With a swift movement, he closed the narrow crack on the black semicircular archway.

At the very instant he sealed the gap, the two forces struck the membrane of light, causing it to ripple violently. Without hesitation, Li Yan slipped out of the membrane barrier and dared not use divine sense to peek back inside.

Once beyond the membrane, his robes were already soaked through. Though the ambush seemed simple, he had crouched within the barrier for nearly half a tea’s time, constantly channeling spiritual energy to maintain the balance within the prism crystal. He had expended nearly eighty percent of his spiritual power.

At that moment, the new “Ghost Chariot Talisman” on his body had dimmed, its light nearly extinguished, clearly on the verge of running out of power.

Li Yan had previously discovered through testing that the blue prism crystal showed a particular affinity to the water-type energy cultivated from the Guishui True Scripture. His spiritual power, once near, would be absorbed automatically. From this, he had devised a plan to disrupt the crystal’s inner balance.

He tossed several pills into his mouth and drew out two spirit stones. Sitting cross-legged on the spot, he began to restore himself.

A quarter of an hour later, some color had returned to his face. He pocketed the spirit stones, time was too tight to allow for full recovery.

He drew the blue crystal once more, floated onto the pure white membrane behind him, and sent his divine sense into the crystal’s core. After a moment, he withdrew it.

“All ten archways are black now… What does that mean? Could it be that the massive black shadow arrived early and devoured everyone after that last move? But if that’s the case, why hasn’t the white light ribbon disappeared yet?”

As Li Yan pondered, he shook off the thought of investigating further. With all ten arches darkened, he didn’t have the guts to enter. If he stumbled into that shadow headfirst, it would spell doom.

“I need to find Senior Brother Bai, then return quickly. Though Sixth Senior Sister and the others know the truth of what’s going on, their situation is still precarious.”

Sweeping out with divine sense, Li Yan confirmed that the violet membrane ribbon still remained. A faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips, because the nearby yellow membrane had already vanished.

He turned toward another direction. In his spiritual perception, several other light bands were faintly visible in the distance. With a flicker of his figure, Li Yan vanished into the horizon, leaving only the pure white light ribbon fluttering silently in the prismatic space.

What Li Yan didn’t know was this:

Not long after his departure, a roar of unimaginable grief and rage echoed from within the white membrane.

“Why?! Why is it like this?! You said everything was calculated, then why?!”

Wang Lang, covered in blood, stood inside the yellow sphere. Blood gushed from his mouth and a long gash crossed his chest and abdomen, deep enough to expose his trembling organs within.

In his right hand, he still clutched a long sword, but his eyes stared blankly around him, seemingly oblivious to his injuries.

The ground around him was strewn with corpses. Behind him, only three Ten-Step Court cultivators remained alive, all bearing wounds, their faces etched with grief.

Among the bodies scattered about were nearly half the Ten-Step disciples. The rest were Taoist cultivators from the Grand Profound Sect. Among them, one held a blue prism crystal in one hand while forming a seal with the other, pointing straight toward Wang Lang’s current position.

His face, once so refined, now twisted in confusion. He lay in a pool of blood, pierced by several swords. His eyes were still open in death.

It was Quan Jiuxing, once a peerless prodigy who had now fallen.

Overhead, the massive black shadow above the sphere had congealed into a thick, liquid-like mass, on the verge of breaking through.

On the inner wall of the sphere before Wang Lang and the others, a ripple slowly spread in widening waves.

(Chapter End)