Five Immortal Sects
Chapter 143: Gan Shi

Li Yan soared through the colorful space at high speed, the exhilaration of such flight making his heart surge with joy. With his divine sense already comparable to that of an early Foundation Establishment cultivator, he vaguely sensed three or four light ribbons fluttering about fifty li to his side.

The entire space was filled with brilliant, multicolored hues. There were no sun, moon, or stars above, no clear sense of direction at all.

In the other directions, he sensed only one or two light ribbons here and there. Without hesitation, he chose the direction with the most, reasoning that it might offer a greater chance of finding Bai and the others.

As he sped closer, the light ribbons grew clearer in his spiritual perception.

Among them, one was unmistakably violet, but it remained some distance from the other four. This made Li Yan breathe a sigh of relief. With spiritual light flashing around his body, he shot toward the violet light like a streak of lightning.

…

At that moment, Gan Shi led four others, struggling forward atop the endless peaks of a snow-covered mountain range. Icy winds howled across the landscape, and the dazzling snow beneath the sun only served to intensify the bitter cold.

They walked along a narrow path that stretched across the spine of the mountain range, winding endlessly ahead. The surroundings were barren and exposed. Viewed from above, the vast ridgeline bore only a few black specks trudging slowly forward on the snow-bright trail.

Gan Shi’s complexion was waxy yellow. Walking at the front, he continuously formed hand seals, casting symbols, some round, some square, some irregular into the air and surroundings, enveloping the five of them within. This was his famed technique: Spell execution through formation.

From time to time, ghostly human faces would rise from the snowy ground on either side of the ridge, faces of infants, grotesquely vivid, as red as fresh blood. Their cries were pitiful, their eyes glinting with eerie yellow light.

Once formed, they lunged toward the group, mouths wide with tiny teeth still dripping blood, aiming to bite.

Each time one of these terrifying baby faces neared Gan Shi and the others, it was repelled by his seals. Though the faces snarled with rage, whenever they attempted to bite down, they were torn to shreds by invisible ripping forces woven into the spell.

Their wails were shrill, and the shattered visages spun upward, dissolving into the seemingly innocent and pure sky.

Yet a moment later, more appeared angrier than before, rising from the snow, crying and shrieking as they lunged. They came in endless waves, chilling the soul.

At this point, Gan Shi and his group were in dire straits. Aside from his pallid complexion, Gan Shi bore a ghastly wound on his right thigh, though roughly bandaged, each step left a trail of blood dragging through the snow.

Blood soaked through his trousers, the fabric long past saturation. Each drop now fell directly to the icy trail, leaving a dotted crimson line across the mountaintop path.

The four behind him fared even worse. Two supported the other two, who were clearly gravely injured and half-limp upon their companions’ shoulders. Every step was a monumental effort.

Were it not for Gan Shi’s protection, the ghostly infant faces would have devoured them long ago.

“Martial Uncle Gan, please… go ahead on your own. If we continue like this, we’ll all die together.”

The two Condensation Stage disciples who still had strength glanced at one another, then down at the barely conscious ones they supported.

In normal times, they wouldn’t have thought twice about carrying five or six people with flight spells. But now, their spiritual power was spent, they could barely walk themselves.

Of the four disciples, three men and one woman all were young, around twenty years of age. Judging from their robes, the ones still mobile were a male and female cultivator. The man was a disciple of Old Lord Peak, sturdy and plain-looking, though his face now burned with an unnatural flush.

The girl, from Gan Shi’s own Four Symbols Peak, was petite, her features pure and refined. Despite the icy wind, her face was slick with sweat as she leaned against an unconscious fellow disciple from Old Lord Peak.

The other injured man was a disciple of Buli Peak, his limp body propped against the stout youth.

They looked ahead at the tall figure dragging a wounded leg through the snow, then back at the scarlet infant faces swarming like starving ghouls from hell. Their eyes dimmed with despair.

After exchanging glances, the girl softly spoke.

The burly, yellow-haired man in front didn’t turn around. Still trudging forward, he growled in a low, gravelly voice.

“Bullshit. You think I’m the kind of bastard who’d leave juniors behind and flee for my life? Don’t bring it up again or I’ll slap your teeth out!”

As he snarled, Gan Shi fired off several more seals in rapid succession. His voice was filled with fury. The girl flushed red, and the others managed wry smiles despite their misery.

They had long since become familiar with this Martial Uncle Gan’s foul temper. But if things kept going this way, they wouldn’t last even a few more li.

Gan Shi, meanwhile, was seething with fury and frustration.

“So this is how it ends? If I make it out alive, I’ll demand justice from the Ten-Step Court and the Pure Land Sect. Even if it costs me my life, I’ll drag a few of their bastards down with me!”

Ever since they had entered the Wheel of Life and Death, Gan Shi and his group had fought through two previous trials. Though there had been casualties, they had survived.

In the first trial, they had encountered spirit beasts. Though two from their side died, Gan Shi quickly trapped the enemy with his powerful formations. The remaining cultivators unleashed a torrent of poisons and cleared the challenge in short order.

In the second trial, they encountered twenty remaining monks of the Pure Land Sect, led by the Chan master Zhi Wei. That battle was brutally intense. Gan Shi ultimately unleashed nearly all of his formations and, at the cost of five lives and seven serious injuries, spiritual powerged to slaughter all of Zhi Wei's cultivators but he himself suffered heavy injuries.

However, it was the third trial that nearly wiped them out completely. After several bitter skirmishes, they adopted a tactic similar to Li Yan’s group, arriving early at the yellow sphere and laying down formations and deadly poisons in advance.

What they hadn’t expected was that the enemy arrived just as swiftly. Before their setup was even halfway complete, Liang Liang of the Ten-Step Court led his forces directly into the sphere, and the battle erupted without warning.

To their great alarm, the enemy included more than twenty additional Pure Land Sect monks among their Qi Condensation cultivators, creating a vast disparity in numbers. Fortunately, most of Gan Shi’s formations were already in place.

Despite their shock, they held the line using formations and all manner of toxins, managing a hard-fought stalemate. Gan Shi, ignoring the worsening of his wounds, adopted a reckless, life-for-life strategy, paying no heed to the black shadows gathering outside the sphere.

He poured all his power into his formations, techniques flowing seamlessly into arrays, arrays giving birth to further spells cutting down enemies in a single breath. His large-scale array-based attacks swept across the enemy ranks, catching many Qi Condensation cultivators off guard. Even Liang Liang could do little against him.

But the sword cultivators were just as fearsome. Unable to strike Gan Shi directly, Liang Liang turned his blade against the weaker cultivators of the Wraith Sect. Though protected by formations, they were still far outclassed in power. After only a few exchanges, several were slain or maimed.

Left with no choice, Gan Shi abandoned large-scale attacks and focused solely on Liang Liang. As the two clashed, the elaborate traps laid by the Wraith Sect began to take effect. Liang Liang was soon poisoned multiple times. The toxins gradually set in, weakening him further, and eventually, he fell to Gan Shi’s hand.

Just as Gan Shi prepared to go all out and finish off the remaining enemies, a ripple flared on the sphere’s wall behind him, a monk burst through in a sneak attack, his staff smashing down toward Gan Shi’s head.

Caught off guard, Gan Shi couldn’t dodge in time. The tip of the staff pierced clean through his right leg, flinging him into the air. The attacker was none other than Chan Master Zhi Liao, his expression ferocious, mad as a crazed tiger.

By then, Gan Shi’s power was nearly exhausted. Facing Zhi Liao directly, he was clearly no match.

As he struggled to evade, Zhi Liao slew several more Wraith Sect cultivators. Fury blazed in Gan Shi’s eyes. With a glint of grim determination, he swallowed a pill, and in the blink of an eye, his spiritual power surged back.

Rallying all his remaining strength, Gan Shi launched himself at Zhi Liao. By now, the entire interior of the sphere was saturated with poison gas. Though Zhi Liao held his breath, Gan Shi’s ferocious, death-defying assault could not be evaded.

He made his body the array, each gesture forming layers within layers, grand formations within minor ones, minor formations nested in sub-arrays, unleashed without pause.

Zhi Liao realized Gan Shi must have taken some kind of pill to unlock latent potential. He figured Gan Shi wouldn't last long; once the pill wore off, it would be a simple matter to finish him off.

But he underestimated Gan Shi.

Gan Shi had studied arrays for decades, he had long since become one with the formation path. Every movement, every breath was itself a formation.

Eventually, during one retreat, Zhi Liao stepped into a hidden chain-trap array. Realizing it too late, he had no choice but to pour all his strength into breaking free. But this formation had been laid by Gan Shi while burning through his life force and triggering his potential, its runes interlocked, spiritual energy woven into every thread.

Zhi Liao was formidable, managing to resist the crushing barrage. Yet with his spiritual power almost depleted, his face flushed deep red. If he didn’t breathe soon, he would suffocate on the spot.

In desperation, he inhaled just a small breath and sealed his fate. The entire area was steeped in deadly poison, and Gan Shi had hidden within it his most prized and lethal toxin, saved as a last resort.

Chan Master Zhi Liao was formidable in life and could withstand a few more breaths before his spirit shattered. Gan Shi seized the moment and struck him down with a single palm.

In the end, of all those who entered the third trial from the Wraith Sect, only seven survived, six besides Gan Shi. Two were lightly wounded, four gravely injured, and Gan Shi himself collapsed from exhaustion.

It was thanks to the two who were still mobile that Gan Shi was force-fed another pill, allowing him to barely recover a sliver of strength.

They stepped out of the yellow sphere full of sorrow, their eyes sweeping across the battlefield littered with corpses. Because the battle had raged so fiercely, nearly all the enemy cultivators had destroyed their storage pouches before death.

Even the two Foundation Establishment cultivators had obliterated their spirit pouches, leaving Gan Shi with almost nothing in the way of pills or supplies.

The lack of spoils now became critical. Many of Gan Shi’s pills had already been used on the six severely injured from the previous trials. Now, with four more wounded, their resources were stretched to the brink.

And worst of all, without recovering the enemy’s storage pouches, he had no additional means to hold the injured. His own pouch could only store eight people at once. After a round of treatment, he had to leave two barely conscious disciples outside. Once they had rested a short while, they began their arduous trek across the snow-covered ridge.

But by then, Gan Shi’s internal and external wounds had become severe. Half an hour passed, and they had only covered half the journey.

The disciples following behind had grown nearly silent since leaving the yellow sphere. Their faces were dazed, filled with despair. None could understand how the enemy had brought so many cultivators.

“Martial Uncle… they were truly despicable!”

The burly disciple from Old Lord Peak finally broke the silence as he trudged forward, his tone thick with resentment. He knew they likely wouldn’t make it out alive but if he could just make it to the yellow sphere of this trial, he’d take a few of them down with him before he fell.

His yellow hair whipped in the cold wind. Gan Shi’s eyes locked on the path ahead.

“Heh… This time, our Wraith Sect was truly outplayed. But next, I’ll make them pay in blood.”

And in the depths of Gan Shi’s heart, a silent vow:

Bai, Sister Gong… you must make it out alive.

(Chapter End)