A Pawn's Passage

The black clouds were like ink that covered the sky.

Shangguan Jing was not surprised, calmly issuing orders.

Influenced by their boss, the Daoist disciples on the Yinglong Warship did not panic even though they were nervous. They quickly returned to their respective positions according to Shangguan Jing’s orders.

Not long after, the various talismans on the ship lit up one after another. From a distance, it seemed as if thousands of golden lamps were lit.

Then the Yinglong Warship began to take off. Water vapors condensed at the bottom of the hull, creating heavy rainfall.

Shangguan Jing was still standing at the bow of the ship, peering at the black clouds that were now above his head, as though he wanted to see through them.

A superintendent hurried over, unable to conceal his dismay. “Deputy Hall Master, we’ve been isolated. All connections have been cut off. We can’t contact Jade Capital with the mother-child talisman or the rapid post talisman. It’s as if a big bowl was placed upside down above Cuowenbu, sealing us inside. This seems to be a magical power only possessed by Pseudo-Immortals.”

Shangguan Jing muttered, “We’ll have to fight alone.”

The superintendent said, “The Black Robes are in the West Gobi, and they have heavy artillery. It’s impossible that they can’t see these ominous dark clouds.”

“There will be no reinforcements. We can only rely on ourselves.” Shangguan Jing frowned.

“W-What?!” The superintendent blurted out.

Shangguan Jing said in a stern voice, “The Black Robes will not come to our aid, nor will Jade Capital send reinforcements. Whether we can leave this place alive depends on us entirely.”

Flustered, the superintendent asked, “But why? Why aren’t there any reinforcements?”

Shangguan Jing replied calmly, “You will find out if we can return to Jade Capital alive. If we can’t survive this, then it won’t matter whether we know the reason for the lack of reinforcements.”

The superintendent wanted to speak, but Shangguan Jing raised his hand to stop him. “Let’s focus on getting out alive. Then we can talk.”

Hearing this, the superintendent obliged and kept his mouth shut. He bowed to Shangguan Jing and returned to his post.

At this moment, a ray of light appeared through the dark clouds. The black clouds retreated to both sides, like curtains parting on a stage to reveal the backdrop. The originally thin ray of light turned into a ravine and kept expanding, as if two invisible giant hands were separating the curtains.

Many Daoist disciples were shocked beyond words seeing this scene.

Behind the curtain of black clouds were not clear skies or the blazing sun, but a sea of ​​red, resembling blood.

The ​​​​sea of blood above them seemed boundless and still. There were also countless blood lotus flowers with closed buds floating on the surface.

A huge black mountain stood majestically at the end of this sea of ​​blood, covering most of the sky. It looked like an ink-wash landscape painting.

They could vaguely see a huge palace, still intact, on the mountainside. Its architecture was nothing like what the Daoist disciples were familiar with. The black mountain seemed endless. Countless blood-red fires were connected in a line, like beacons stretching into the sky, extending to the horizon.

“That’s…” Shangguan Jing paused, unsure of the sight before him. “...Lingshan?”

The Lingshan Paradise of Ancient Wuism was on the verge of collapsing after successive wars. Its passage to the mortal realm was cut off. After the Ancient Immortal Wu Luo resurrected, she rebuilt her own version of Lingshan in her Divine Kingdom. This was the origin of the Lingshan Witch Cult.

Shangguan Jing did not look away. He saw countless clouds of fire piled up in the sky above the black mountain, connecting into a sea of ​​​​fire.

The red clouds that continued to descend could destroy a city.

This was what Buddhists called karmic fire. The ancient witch goddesses were born in the wilderness and preferred blood sacrifices. Therefore, the Divine Kingdom of Wu Luo was not as bright and golden as the Buddhist version, nor was it shrouded in mist like the Daoist version. Instead, it was a mass of fire and blood. It looked more like hell than a Divine Kingdom.

In the eyes of the Daoist Great Sages, what Wu Luo did was tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst. However, even the power of decay was still power that should not be underestimated in the slightest.

Shangguan Jing’s heart dropped. Has Wu Luo come in person?

The next moment, a blood lotus flew out of the sea of ​​blood and slowly descended.

At first, it looked very small, similar to an ordinary lotus. But as the blood lotus continued to descend, its size grew larger until it became the size of a ceremonial canopy.

At the same time, the Yinglong Warship was not a sitting duck waiting for death to befall it. It continued to accumulate power in preparation for an all-out fight.

A magical formation appeared under the hull of the Yinglong Warship, and the talismans on the warship were getting brighter until it was so dazzling that one could not look at it directly.

The warship continued to absorb the essence from its surroundings, creating a huge whirlpool invisible to the naked eye with the ship as its center. If someone were to fall into the whirlpool, they would have been shredded into countless pieces in an instant.

The bud of the blood lotus bloomed slowly. An arm protruded from it, its skin as white as snow. Then, there was a soft sigh, as if a languid beauty was just waking up from an afternoon nap.

Two fingers stretched out from that arm, with blood-red nails that were crystal clear. The fingers tapped lightly in the direction of Shangguan Jing, who was standing at the bow of the warship.

This little tap made Shangguan Jing shed tears. In a moment, these tears turned into blood, staining Shangguan Jing’s face red. His eyes had disappeared, leaving only two empty sockets.

Shangguan Jing covered his face with one hand and raised his other hand high. His body was trembling slightly, but he did not step back. Instead, he continued to issue orders to the Daoist disciples on the ship using his spiritual mind.

The Yinglong Warship slowly turned and tilted the hull until the bow was pointing diagonally at the blood lotus in the sky above. The stern pointed downward at the Cuowenbu Lake below.

The water vapors gathered around the Yinglong Warship as rolling clouds, piled on top of each other to create a fog barrier.

A strange phenomenon appeared below the warship. The wind was howling, lightning was flickering, and the clouds were changing. They rotated like a huge whirlpool that extended toward the lake, finally turning into a tornado that connected the sky and the earth.

The blood lotus bloomed slowly, revealing a woman dressed in a red dress, with hair as black as ink.

The bow of the Yinglong Warship was shaped like a dragon’s head. At this time, it looked like a real dragon opening its mouth, with a cloud of purple energy gathering in it. At first, it was just a hazy mist, but it later condensed like water.

Shangguan Jing suddenly put down his raised hand.

A mighty dragon’s breath that shook the heaven and earth surged out and headed straight for the blood lotus above.

The Yinglong Warship swayed from the shockwave of the impact. The hull shook incessantly, creating a circle of ripples visible to the naked eye in the sky and spreading out in all directions like an ever-expanding circle.

The blood lotus at the woman’s feet shattered from the dragon’s breath.

However, the dragon’s breath could not hurt the woman at all. The woman’s body was covered with a layer of blood-colored divine power. She stood unmoving like a boulder in the torrent of the dragon’s breath.

The woman parted the dragon’s breath as she floated down and landed on the bow of the ship. Then she stabbed Shangguan Jing’s body with both hands.

Shangguan Jing did not move. His body went into shock, but he had a calm look on his face as he gave his final order.

……

Qi Xuansu was running in the direction of Cuowenbu according to the map. He was in the West Gobi, heading to the east of the lake.

Suddenly, he felt as if he had run straight into an invisible wall. Even though he had the physique of a Martial Arts Practitioner, he still saw stars as he staggered back a few steps and fell to the ground from the impact.

After a while, Qi Xuansu got up from the ground, feeling strange.

At this moment, he heard an earth-shattering noise, shaking his internal organs so hard that he almost vomited blood.