Two flowers bloom, each showing its own beauty.
The other side of the abyss on the south bank of Huanling Sect.
The black fog piled up here, making the atmosphere seem like a ghost cave, gloomy and hazy.
The scenes and characters were completely covered by thick black fog, and others could not see them clearly.
It was at this time.
An extremely angry and sharp voice suddenly erupted from the layers of black fog.
The fog was suddenly stirred and rolled everywhere, creating a majestic atmosphere.
After a moment, the roar stopped abruptly and the black fog returned to stability.
"Hun Zun, why are you so excited? What happened?" Immediately afterwards, a rumbling sound was heard.
"My soul has died."
"Dead?" The rumbling voice sounded extremely surprised, and asked quickly: "Which soul is it?"
"Xuanwu." The voice of the man called Soul Master gradually returned to calm.
"Necessary sacrifices are always inevitable. Besides, among the three souls of your Soul Master, the Xuanwu Lord soul is not that important." The owner of the other voice said with a smile.
"Yu Zun, you!" The voice of Hun Zun, which had just calmed down, was raised again.
These words were exactly what Soul Master used to "comfort" Yu Zun after the death of Suzaku Lord, one of Yu Zun's three souls at Longcheng Pass.
It's said to be comfort, but in fact it's more of sarcasm.
What is worrying is not the scarcity but the inequality.
Yu Zun had always been feeling resentful because one of his three souls was lost in Longcheng Pass. Now that he saw that Hun Zun had also lost one of his souls, he felt much better.
Feeling good is one thing, but he also knows the priorities of things, so he hurried to understand the situation, "How did Xuanwu die, and who killed him?"
"If I remember correctly, didn't your Xuanwu soul go to the Yishuitai of the Sword Sect to destroy the Sword Sect's cross-domain teleportation array?"
"According to the intelligence, the person guarding the Yishui Terrace of the Sword Sect should be the Taibai Sword Master of the Sword Sect. How could he have the strength to kill you?"
Soul Master was silent for a moment, then a hoarse voice sounded, "I don't know either."
"But according to the soul returning, it was indeed Taibai Sword Master who killed me."
"There is an extremely strange and powerful force on his sword. With the strength of Xuanwu's soul, it is impossible to resist it."
Upon hearing this, Yu Zun, who was in the black fog, frowned and fell into deep thought.
"The Sword Sect's Peak Master is truly not a simple person..." After a long time, Elder Yu let out a breath and said quietly.
“Peak Master Haoran is only ranked last among the seven peak masters of the Sword Sect, and he just recently broke through to the Tribulation Realm. His current cultivation level is only at the Fourth Tribulation Realm. But even so, he has the ability to kill one of your souls?” He still found it hard to believe. “No matter how weak Xuanwu is, he is still a cultivator at the Honored Title Realm.”
Yu Zun has been in charge of the Huanling Sect for so many years, so he naturally knows that among the human race, the Sword Sect is the strongest in terms of top strength.
But he never expected that a sword cultivator who had just broken through to the Fourth Tribulation Realm could cross levels and defeat a cultivator in the Venerable Title Realm.
Even a sword immortal in the fourth calamity realm wouldn't be able to do this, right?
You have to know that the peak masters of the Sword Sect who are able to cross levels and defeat the Demon Lord have cultivation levels of at least the Sixth Tribulation Realm.
This is the foundation.
Without such skills, it would be difficult to reverse the situation even if one is very skilled in swordsmanship.
Why was Li Qiubai able to defeat Emperor Wu in a row with his eighth level of cultivation?
In addition to his superb swordsmanship, even though he fell from the Sword Immortal Realm to the Tribulation Realm, he still had the terrifying cultivation of the Eight Tribulations as a foundation.
So, what is the basis for the Master of Haoran Peak?
Both Hun Zun and Yu Zun found it hard to understand.
"This three-generation swordsman is indeed extraordinary," Soul Venerable murmured, "There must be some mysterious things in it that we don't know about."
The three incarnations of the Lord of Haoran Peak were not a big secret to these high-level Taoist monks.
"What should we do now?" Yu Zun's eyes flickered. "It's so difficult to deal with a peak master. The Soldier Demons sent news not long ago that the Sword Sect has made up its mind and is preparing to mobilize most of the sect's forces to march west to Zhongling."
"This bunch of sword madmen!" Soul Master cursed angrily, and then said solemnly: "Although the Sword Sect is strong, it is just a fantasy to want to suppress the whole clan with one sect."
"Not to mention, Qingyun Sword Immortal is still guarding Yumen Pass," he sneered and said, "In this case, the Sword Sect has nothing to fear."
"Except for Qingyun Sword Immortal, the remaining peak masters are equally extraordinary, but as long as they have not become Sword Immortals, they are nothing but fish meat that we can manipulate at will in front of the two remaining souls of you and me. What is there to be afraid of?"
Xuanwu and Suzaku are both the weakest souls among the two of them, and are completely incomparable to the other two souls.
The two sovereigns of the Heart Demon Clan were talking to each other.
"That being said, if we can destroy the Sword Sect's cross-domain teleportation array in time, we won't have to worry about this trouble." Yu Zun said with great regret.
"Accidents are always inevitable," Soul Master was very calm and continued, "We have given enough attention to the Sword Sect. We first sent Hei Mang with the Soul of Candlelight to break the formation. After he failed, I sent the Soul of Black Tortoise. But even so, we still failed to take down this formation. It can only be said to be God's will."
"It seems that our battle with the Sword Sect is destined."
"Huan Ling has wanted to take over the title of the strongest Dao Sect from the Sword Sect for ten thousand years, but has never succeeded," Soul Master laughed, "So this time, let's just remove the Sword Sect from the list and make Huan Ling's dream come true."
Yu Zun was also full of expectations, with a hint of murderous intent in his voice, "The other four regions have all announced their renunciation, only the Sword Sect insists on going its own way and being a lone hero."
"This time, let the Sword Sect know that it is not easy to be a lone hero."
"As for the Sword Sect's inter-domain teleportation array," Soul Master paused, "Anyway, except for the Sword Sect, other human forces are unwilling to support Zhongling as we guessed. So it doesn't make much difference whether this teleportation array is deployed or not, so let's just put it aside for now."
In their opinion, destroying all cross-domain teleportation arrays was a sure-fire way to cut off the source of the problem.
The so-called bottom-line guarantee means that even if there are some minor flaws, the impact will not be too great.
Besides, now except for the teleportation array on Yishuitai, there is no other teleportation array above Zhongling, which means that the expected plan has been basically completed.
Of course, the most important thing is that the demon army from their Wujian Realm is now advancing eastwards in the western area of ​​Zhongling.
However, Yishuitai is located in the northern area of ​​Zhongling.
There is a world of difference between the two.
It is obviously unlikely that he could lead the demon army to conquer Yishuitai.
"The human monks are gathering in the Changye Mountains, preparing to build a new city gate there to stop our army." Yu Zun said again.
The Long Night Mountains are a natural barrier that stretches between the east and west of Zhongling. It's like a natural city wall and shaped like a corridor.
The human race divides the east and west parts of Zhongling into two parts, and this mountain range is used as the boundary.
To the east of the Long Night Mountains is the eastern region of Zhongling.
"A new pass cannot be built in a short period of time. Besides, this time there is no Xia Daozu to build a divine formation for the human race."
"How can a city gate without a divine formation stop us?" Soul Master was extremely confident in the strength of the Wujian Realm Demon Clan. "No matter how tall and solid it looks, it's just a paper tiger. It will fall down with a single blow."
“But once the pass is built, it will definitely delay our pace of seizing souls and increase our losses.” Yu Zun said solemnly.
"Our army is too large and inconvenient to move, so it's hard to make a quick assault. Plus, the number of monsters accumulated by Huanling Sect over thousands of years will only be greater, making it difficult to coordinate. If we continue to advance like this, it will take at least three months to reach the Changye Mountains."
"Within three months, the human race will be able to build a strong enough city gate between the Long Night Mountains."
"Why don't we divide our forces and use some of our strength to rush straight to the Changye Mountains. Even if we can't directly wipe out the human cultivators gathered there, at least we can disrupt their city construction."
"Then what? Our overall strength originally crushed the human race, but once we forcibly split our strength into two parts, the human race and us will have a lot of trouble." Soul Master objected.
Although their Wujian Realm strength is extremely powerful compared to Zhongling, they still have some concerns.
First of all, the second war between Taoism and Demons had not yet begun, but the Wujian Realm was the first to launch a war to seize souls.
At this time, the other seven regions are in a "doing nothing" stage, which means that while the Heart Demon Clan has invested a large number of manpower in the front line, the rear must guard against the "stealing" of the other seven Holy Demon Clans.
There is only cruelty and cold-bloodedness among the demons.
If they were truly completely defenseless against the Wujian Realm, then it would be almost inevitable that the other seven major demon clans would attack the Wujian Realm.
By then, I think even the Soldier Demon and Giant Spirit tribes, which have reached a cooperation agreement with their Heart Demon tribe, will not give up this opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
For the other seven holy demon clans, this is equivalent to giving them a domain for free.
If you don't take what heaven gives you, you will suffer the consequences.
The so-called Wujian Realm is at war with the human race, and the claim is too naive.
In the abyss, profit always comes first.
A naive person cannot survive even in the abyss, let alone in the sky.
Therefore, taking this into consideration, Soul Lord and Control Lord must leave 50% of their manpower in the Wujian Realm.
In the battle of Longcheng Pass, although the demons achieved brilliant results and wiped out the most powerful group of Zhongling cultivators in one night, they also suffered losses.
——Under the desperate resistance of the monks in Longcheng Pass, they lost nearly 10% of their manpower in Longcheng Pass.
In other words, up to now, the Heart Demon can only deploy 40% of its manpower to the Central Spirit.
If 40% is divided into two, that is 20%.
With 20% of the manpower, the human race is not completely without a chance of winning against all the human cultivators in Zhongling except those in the west, as well as the sword cultivators of the Sword Sect who are on the western expedition.
"With 20% of the manpower, the outcome is unpredictable, but with 40% of the manpower, the odds are overwhelming."
"The overall crushing method is a little stupid and slow, but it is more practical and can minimize the occurrence of accidents."
"The human race has a saying that I think makes a lot of sense..." Soul Master said slowly.
"A good doctor may not have a glorious reputation, and a good warrior may not have a glorious achievement!"
"Individual battles may be reversed through strategies and tactics, but at the level of war, scheming and tactics become secondary. The most important and crucial thing should be strength."
"If you walk by the river often, you will get your shoes wet."
"If you play tricks too much, there will always be a time when you go too far, but strength is eternal."
"As you said, if we split our forces into two groups, once successful, we will be able to destroy the last resistance of Zhong Ling in one fell swoop, thus reducing our losses in seizing the souls."
"But if we fail, it won't just be a loss. It may even lead to our total loss."
"Since we have an absolute advantage in strength, we should maintain this advantage instead of giving up our martial arts." Soul Master did not lose his mind because of the death of his soul, and analyzed very calmly.
"Soul Master, won't the losses be too great if we act this way?" In his heart, Yu Zun was already leaning towards the method of overall crushing that Soul Master had suggested, but there was still some worry on his face.
It is conceivable that once the majestic pass of the Long Night Mountains is established, it will inevitably become a bloody battlefield.
"As long as we cross this threshold, there will be no one in the world who can contend with us, Wujian."
"For every one more person who dies in the Changye Mountains, ten fewer people in our Wujian Domain's demon clan will die in the future. Zhong Ling thought he could rely on the Changye Mountains to intercept our giant dragon, but he didn't know that he was actually raising a dragon!" Hun Zun sneered and said arrogantly.
This is the end of the conversation, and Yu Zun was finally completely convinced.
He nodded heavily and said in a deep voice: "Then it's up to you."
…
Yishui, the sky is getting dark.
The hunt for the evil cultivators and monsters of the Huanling Sect has been going on for a long time.
The dots of light in the sky never ceased.
A corner.
Xi Xiang, who had reached the perfect seventh realm, and three other fellow clan members had been hunting down a demon cultivator from the Huanling sect who was at the first calamity realm for a long time.
Both sides have already consumed a lot.
"Dingjun Peak, Pojun Sword Formation." Suddenly, Xi Xiang found a chance when a demon cultivator from the Huanling Sect counterattacked and the old method was gone but the new method had not yet been born, so he shouted.
The three veteran swordsmen beside him immediately followed his command and quickly occupied the important positions on all sides.
Sword cultivators have always been solitary wolves, and it is rare for them to practice forming battle formations.
Compared to the others, the old sword cultivators have their qi and blood depleted and their strength is not as good as before, but they are not completely without advantages.
That is, they are able to calm down and are a bit gentler than the unruly young sword cultivators.
Therefore, they were able to practice the combined attack formation which was rare among sword practitioners.
Xi Xiang occupied the eastern corner, and the sword light splashed out like water.
The other three places, west, north and south, were also shining with sword light.
Then, the four sword lights dimmed, merged into one, and rose up.
It can be seen that after slashing out this sword, the faces of the four old sword masters turned as pale as the snow mountains.
They were indeed old, and it was very difficult for them to perform this trick.
Even monks have to accept old age.
He gathered together a sword and swept across a distance of several miles with pure murderous intent, like light flowing in the universe, and in an instant he chopped down the head of the first-tribulation-level Huanling sect monk!
The Huanling Sect monk clasped his hands together, trying to capture the sword light.
As a result, the sword light just arrived and it split again, one into two, two into four, passed through his fingers and palms, and went into his chest and between his eyebrows.
Pure and exquisite killing intent erupted instantly.
Under the influence of the Pojun Sword Formation, the entire body of the Huanling Sect cultivator began to flicker and change continuously.
After this change happened countless times, there was a bang, the cultivator from the Huanling Sect screamed in pain, and his body suddenly burst into thousands of rays of light like the sun.
In fact, those were not thousands of rays of light, but thousands of tiny holes appearing on his body, with sword light bursting out from them.
boom!
In a moment, a cloud of blood mist exploded.
The four old sword masters from the Sword Sect looked at each other and finally couldn't help but laugh happily.
"What a pleasure!" Xi Xiang shouted.
Even though their time is running out, even though they haven't drawn their swords for years, they are still able to cross borders and kill the enemy.
Four sword cultivators at the peak of the Seventh Realm, through a combined sword formation, successfully killed a demon cultivator from the Huanling Sect at the First Tribulation Realm!
"Let's go back." Xi Xiang took the mustard seeds from the Huanling Sect monk and said.
…
When Xi Xiang and his three companions returned to Yishui, the pursuit had already ended and was in the process of coming to an end.
The sword practitioners gathered at Yishuitai, seizing the opportunity to recover the magic power they had just consumed.
There was an old swordsman running around, counting the casualties and the number of enemies killed in the battle.
Their young master stood aside with a solemn expression, waiting for the final report of the results.
Finally, after the statistics were completed and the old swordsman reported the detailed information, Lu Qingshan stepped forward and coughed lightly.
After everyone's eyes were on him, he announced in a deep voice: "In the battle of Yishui, the Sword Sect killed 1,200 enemies, including demons and monsters. Among them, 11 were in the eighth realm, 200 were in the seventh realm, and more than 1,000 were in the sixth realm."
"The Sword Sect lost two veteran sword cultivators at the First Tribulation Realm, namely Chang Tian and Yu Le, nine sword cultivators at the Seventh Realm, namely Qi Yun and Qin Yu... and twenty-nine young disciples..."
Speaking of this, Lu Qingshan's heart became heavier.
The death toll of young disciples was much higher than that of old sword practitioners.
Old ginger is still spicy.
This is not a question of cultivation.
Because the Sword Sect is the pursuing party, they have the right to choose their opponent.
No one would choose an enemy who is far stronger than himself as an opponent.
The old sword practitioners may be old, but whether it is the skills of killing the enemy, the methods of saving lives, or the vision, they are far better than the young disciples.
But no matter what...
"The Sword Sect won a great victory in its first battle after ascending to Zhongling!" Lu Qingshan shouted.
This victory did not have much impact on the overall situation of Zhongling.
This was only a minor partial victory.
But it's also a good start.
Therefore, we should celebrate this victory!