Chapter 124: The Dao Court in Its Death Throes

On another stretch of wasteland within the Boundary Heaven battlefield.

Originally, by the agreement between the Dao Court and the Pure Land, the moment the Pure Land came under attack, the Dao Court should have detected it and rushed to reinforce them.

Yet in the end, the Dao Court never showed itself from start to finish.

The reason was that, at the very same moment the Pure Land cultivators were ambushed by the Holy Sect, the Dao Court too had run into an unexpected great calamity and was locked in a bitter fight of its own.

On the wasteland, a colossal city floated in the air.

This treasure was similar to the Pure Land's Terrain Vessel—both were specially forged dharma treasures—yet at this moment, the great city was shrouded by a mass of black clouds.

The black clouds pressed down upon the city as if to crush it; wherever they passed came an endless drone of insect wings, and when they struck the city's protective treasure-light they let out a shrill screech that set one's scalp crawling. As time went on, the city had already been gnawed to pieces by the swarm, and a great many of the Dao Court's cultivators had been devoured.

"What on earth are these bugs!?"

"Divine abilities, dharma treasures—nothing works on them!"

"Hold the line!"

A Dao Court cultivator standing on the very front line, his magic power drained to the limit, faltered for a single instant and a demon-bug bored straight into his mouth and nose; in the blink of an eye he froze in place.

A moment later, that Dao Court cultivator crashed to the ground.

Looking again, where was there any trace of a human form? All that remained was an empty, bloodied husk and a swarm of demon-bugs that had multiplied to over a hundred, scattering across the sky!

This was the horror of the Qi-Devouring Bugs.

Hard to wound with metal, impervious to water and fire, and able to devour spiritual energy—divine abilities and dharma treasures alike all fell within their diet, within the range of what they could swallow!

Across the entire battlefield, there was only one spot where the situation had been steadied.

There stood a single cultivator—a tall, dashing woman wreathed in sword-light; wherever she passed, demon-bugs were torn apart in swathes.

"You've still got to hand it to Yushu Jiange."

Deep within the city, the leader of the Dao Court this time, Wang Jinting, could not help sighing: "The Absolute Sword divine ability of the Jade Pivot Yushu Jiange truly lives up to its name."

"A pity she's only one person… At this point, we can only abandon the 'Void Heaven City'!"

Thinking of this, Wang Jinting glanced again at the Comprehensive Survey Map of the Whole Realm in his hand, his face darkening.

"The Pure Land… is gone!?"

The Comprehensive Survey Map of the Whole Realm could scan the entire Boundary Heaven; so long as one was still within this lesser realm, no one could possibly escape the search of this Fruit-Position treasure.

Unless that person was already dead.

Yet now, Wang Jinting had discovered that the cluster of light-points on the map that had represented the Pure Land cultivators had, in a single instant, almost entirely vanished!

In their place was a great host of disciples of the Initial Holy Sect.

"How could the Initial Holy Sect possibly—?"

Wang Jinting found it impossible to imagine. Hadn't the Initial Holy fiends already been mostly hunted down by them? Unless a True Person had descended from the heavens, how could they possibly have defeated the Pure Land?

"Had I known it would come to this, I never should have ignored those demon-bugs back then." Thinking of this, Wang Jinting felt a measure of regret. With the Comprehensive Survey Map of the Whole Realm in hand, he had actually had the chance to get ahead of everyone, locate the Swarm King of the Qi-Devouring Bugs, slay it, seize its Heaven's Favor, and thereby win victory.

Yet this battle for the Dao was a joint effort by the Dao Court and the Pure Land to suppress the demonic path.

Under such circumstances, victory was only one part of it; the other, more important task was to kill as many Holy Sect disciples as possible—especially True Inheritor Disciples!

For that purpose, he had previously paid no attention to the natives within Boundary Heaven.

The result was that those natives had instead used that time to grow rapidly under Boundary Heaven's nurturing, until now they had formed a scale that could no longer be stopped!

Beyond that, the defeat over at the Pure Land filled his heart with an intense unease.

"…Retreat first!"

Thinking of this, Wang Jinting finally made the decision to retreat, and was about to activate the Comprehensive Survey Map of the Whole Realm to teleport all the Dao Court cultivators out.

But just at that moment, shouts from disciples suddenly rang out from outside.

"They've stopped… they've stopped!"

"These bugs aren't attacking anymore?"

"What's going on?"

The voices made Wang Jinting halt his action, a look of bafflement on his face. The next second, a vast wave of spiritual sense pierced through layer upon layer of obstruction and descended before him.

"…Being from beyond the heavens."

Feeling that vast spiritual sense, Wang Jinting's pupils contracted sharply; he instinctively retreated a step, then realization dawned in his heart: "You are the Swarm King of the demon-bugs?"

"Correct."

Perhaps because it had devoured so many cultivators, the Qi-Devouring Swarm King had by now begun to develop a rudimentary intelligence, and even its speech was gradually growing fluent:

"I have eaten your people. You and another group do not seem to be of the same lot—I saw many of you hunting down that other group. Since that is so, you must certainly know that among that group there is an existence that cannot be matched. I need detailed intelligence on him."

"Huh?"

Hearing the Swarm King's words, Wang Jinting was instantly rooted to the spot, and only then did he realize that the "other group" the Swarm King spoke of must refer to the Initial Holy fiends.

Among the Initial Holy fiends there was an existence that could not be matched?

Impossible!

Wang Jinting had experienced the terror of the Qi-Devouring Bugs firsthand; their numbers and quality were beyond reproach, and for a Qi Refining cultivator to deal with them was virtually impossible—

"…Foundation Establishment!?"

In an instant, Wang Jinting felt as though he had plunged into an icy abyss, and then burst out cursing: a battle for the Dao fought by Qi Refining disciples, and yet they actually sent a Foundation Establishment True Person to take part?

Bastards!

Yet even so, Wang Jinting still did not give up. The next second, he raised his head to look at the Swarm King's spiritual sense, and a thought rose in his heart.

—There was still hope! He could still work with this!

If the natives of this Boundary Heaven could borrow the power of these demon-bugs, they might yet have a chance of winning, or at the very least they could fight to a draw!

Thinking of this, Wang Jinting finally spoke:

"I can tell you the location intelligence on that person, make sure it cannot find you. But I too have a demand… you must help me deal with that lot."

"We cooperate—what say you?"

"After all, you want to deal with them, and I want to deal with them too — we should be on the same side."

"And once we've killed off all those people, we will leave this place on our own — you won't even need to say it."

In an instant, Wang Jinting sorted out his thoughts.

"I refuse to believe the opponent could really be at Foundation Establishment. There must be some flaw — endurance, for instance, the inability to maintain combat power for long."

"No matter what, we have to probe first. These demon bugs are undoubtedly the best probing tool — huge in number, and they don't fear death. Let them charge at the very front, and we'll surely be able to test the depths of that Foundation Establishment True Person from the Chusheng Sect, then work out our tactics based on the situation."

"As long as I hide and don't show myself, it doesn't count as a loss!"

"At this moment, Wang Jinting must be thinking exactly that."

The Myriad Spirit Banner fluttered as Lü Yang and Ancestor Tingyou sat facing each other. Ancestor Tingyou analyzed the situation methodically, while Lü Yang showed a look of agreement.

"Cooperating with the Qi-Devouring Bugs, using a human-wave tactic to wear me down — I'd do the same in their place."

Although after Ancestor Tingyou's improvements, the current Maiden of Virtue had no flaws, and no matter how many Qi-Devouring Bugs of this caliber came, it would be useless.

But if the other side kept hiding in the shadows, only sending swarms of bugs to die, that would also be quite troublesome.

At the very least, it would be a long war of attrition.

And if it dragged on too long, who knew whether the Qi-Devouring Bugs — as the Child of Destiny of this realm — might grow to a level he couldn't handle.

Therefore, a swift victory was essential.

And to achieve a swift victory, the only options were to find the cultivator in Wang Jinting's camp who held the Fruit-Position Treasure, or to kill the Bug King — the Child of Destiny among the Qi-Devouring Bugs.

Thinking of this, Lü Yang tried calculating with his fingers.

A moment later, he released his hand and shook his head: "No good. The other party is holding a Fruit-Position Treasure, so the karmic ties are obscured — I can't calculate the exact location."

Just then, a voice suddenly came through:

"True Person. Are you looking for someone?"

Lü Yang turned his head at the sound, and saw the Holy Sect's True Disciple, Bi Feiyuan, dressed in a light gauze robe, smiling charmingly: "Perhaps we can help."

(End of chapter)