Chapter 542: Isolated Island, Puppet, Decisive Battle

After stowing the massive corpse of a Tier 3 Ring-Necked Turtle into his storage bag, Gu Gu Shaoshang's gaze fell beneath the sea surface.

At a single glance, he sensed something was wrong.

That fluctuation of spiritual energy was not a sign of a Red Rock Crab self-destructing.

"Evil energy?"

Just as he was puzzled, he raised an eyebrow, immediately withdrew, and vanished into the void.

Beneath the sea surface.

Luo Chen was somewhat stunned. A cultivator?

And a great cultivator at the seventh level of Jin Dan!

Suddenly, his expression shifted; he put away his Blazing Fire Miasma and quietly escaped into the deep sea.

On the large island nearby, the battle was drawing to a close. The Red Rock Crab clan could already spare forces to sweep the battlefield; this was no place to stay for long.

Following their departure, a long while later, a figure flew to this sea area.

He circled once, then revealed a look of confusion.

Gone?

Whether it was his own kin or the demon king of the Ring-Necked Turtle clan, neither was to be found.

Could it be that his kin had been killed, and even the corpse had been taken away?

After searching a while longer, the Red Rock Crab demon king had no choice but to return empty-handed. Fortunately, this large island had been conquered, bringing them one step closer to attacking Xuanyan Island.

On a deserted island.

As soon as Luo Chen returned to his cave dwelling, he lost no time in taking out the Tier 3 Red Rock Crab that had died not long ago from his storage ring.

Driving a magic tool, he channeled his magic power to dismantle the shell from the corpse, then immediately soaked it in a special medicinal liquid for treatment.

Only at this step did Luo Chen finally breathe a sigh of relief.

For a Tier 3 demon crab, it was no longer necessary to refine it into medicine while alive.

But correspondingly, the materials on its body had to be treated in advance to prevent the contamination of death energy.

Otherwise, if too much death energy stained it, even if he later refined the Black Emperor Paste, the quality would be inferior, and the fish he had caught while muddying the waters would have been caught in vain.

Counting it up, this was already the third Tier 3 demon crab he had quietly hunted in recent months.

Originally, Luo Chen had almost given up on this idea.

Who knew that the offensive of the demon crab side would suddenly change.

From the initial orderly coordination, it evolved into inconsistent advances and retreats, gradually devolving into fighting on their own.

Coupled with the increasingly fierce resistance from the Ring-Necked Turtle side.

The situation became increasingly chaotic!

This gave Luo Chen sufficient opportunity.

With the Tier 3 Concealment Array engraved on his body, whenever Luo Chen struck, as long as he didn't use high-power methods, it was almost silent and traceless.

The first two times, he encountered two Tier 3 demon crabs that had won a pyrrhic victory and were heavily injured.

After he quietly deployed his natal magic treasure, the Hunyuan Cauldron, he easily captured them.

This time, it was even easier!

Thinking of the process of this strike, Luo Chen's mind recalled that young-looking great cultivator.

"To think someone else is learning from me to be the oriole behind?"

"Late-stage Jin Dan..."

Luo Chen's thoughts stirred, and he sent out a sound transmission.

After a long while, a seemingly ordinary seagull circled in the sky a few times before landing on this nameless deserted island.

She followed a specific route, walked slowly, and finally entered the cave dwelling where Luo Chen was.

"Master, Seeing Tianxuan has returned. What are your orders?"

The young man with his back to her turned around, holding a painting in his hand, which depicted a lifelike portrait of a man.

Before he could speak, Seeing Tianxuan saw the portrait and couldn't help but blurt out.

"Gu Gu Shaoshang!"

"It really is him."

Luo Chen nodded slightly, ignited a flame on his hand, and burned the newly drawn portrait to ashes.

He knew that in this Xuanyan sea area, where there were usually no human traces, how could a great cultivator at the seventh level of Jin Dan appear for no reason.

If it was Gu Gu Shaoshang, it wasn't strange.

After all, the other party had arrived long ago and had even cooperated with the royal demon crabs.

The only strange thing was that even though the Feiyunjian cultivators had already withdrawn from the Xuanyan sea area, this Gu Gu Shaoshang had returned, and like him, had started acting as the oriole.

"His goal is very obvious; he is aiming for the Tier 3 Ring-Necked Turtles."

"Just like I am aiming for the Tier 3 demon crab kings!"

"However, since he had already joined forces with the demon crab side before, why bother being so base and acting sneakily like me?"

Muttering to himself, Luo Chen fell into deep thought.

Seeing Tianxuan stood there respectfully, not daring to disturb Luo Chen in the slightest.

After a long while, Luo Chen finally hesitated and came back to his senses.

"Returning after leaving, acting as the oriole—is this because he fears the demon crab side will discard them after the job is done, so he relies on his cultivation to act alone?"

It must be said that Luo Chen's guess was no different from the truth.

Or rather, it wasn't difficult to guess this point.

The Seeing Tianxuan Fighting Gull, upon which Luo Chen had applied concealment methods, circled in the nine heavens at all times, monitoring the progress of this great battle for him.

During the process, he had also seen several times the Feiyunjian cultivators transporting Ring-Necked Turtle corpses to the demon-hunting ships.

This was clearly one of the conditions of cooperation between humans and demons.

Previously, he just assumed the Feiyunjian cultivators had earned enough and had hurriedly withdrawn.

Now it seemed that Gu Gu Shaoshang's appetite was not small.

Of course, the other party was also very cautious, first withdrawing the weak members of his own sect, and then hunting more Ring-Necked Turtles alone.

From this, a thought also occurred to Luo Chen.

"Should I take advantage of him being alone to kill him? To avenge Seeing Tianxuan?"

The vengeance for Seeing Tianxuan was not as simple as just face.

Because the Seeing Tianxuan Fighting Gull was captured, it provoked the three great demon spider crab kings to attack Seeing Tianxuan Island, thereby exposing Luo Chen's location.

Otherwise, he wouldn't need to take such risks now, personally entering the battlefield to hunt demon crabs.

After some thought, Luo Chen temporarily dismissed this idea.

"Forget it!"

"The top priority is still to secretly hunt more Tier 3 demon crabs to prepare more Black Emperor Paste for the late-stage Tier 3 tempering of the ancient body."

"Creating side issues would be counterproductive."

Luo Chen knew how to distinguish priorities.

The current battlefield environment was chaotic and complex, which was just right for him to fish in troubled waters and reap benefits.

If he created side issues and alerted the five royal demon crab clans, it would easily lead to bigger trouble.

And besides!

To deal with a late-stage Jin Dan great cultivator, with his current abilities, he would inevitably have to use all his means.

Whether he could take him down was one thing, but if the commotion was too big, that was another matter entirely.

The master of the Evil Flood Thief Gull was a great enemy of the demon crab side!

After setting his primary and secondary goals, Luo Chen looked at Seeing Tianxuan.

"What is the current situation of the crab-turtle war?"

Seeing Tianxuan answered without hesitation: "Fifty-four islands have been broken, and only eighteen islands remain under the control of the Ring-Necked Turtle clan. According to my observations, the five royal demon crab clans are determined to win this battle and have almost sent out all the elites in their clans. Taking the remaining eighteen islands is just a matter of time!"

Only eighteen large islands left?

Luo Chen pondered this number, a thoughtful look appearing on his face.

The Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Array used nine islands as one array eye, dividing into eight regions to form an Eight Trigrams posture, guarding Xuanyan Island in the center.

That is to say, the eighteen large islands were the last two array eyes.

Either they wouldn't be broken, but once broken, under the chain reaction, the direction of this war would be completely set.

The time left for him was not much either!

"Continue to monitor the battlefield situation; once a great battle breaks out, notify me immediately."

"Yes, Master!"

"How is the situation with Black King?"

"According to the array map provided by Master, Big Black is already extremely close to Xuanyan Island. However, wanting to sneak in is probably quite difficult."

Hearing this news, Luo Chen nodded.

The Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Array, while seemingly magnificent, was actually quite crude.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easily found for flaws by Gu Gu Shaoshang and broken one by one.

On his side, with Han Zhan's guidance, plus the God-Sealing Compass's method of searching for spirits, the direction of this great array was even more transparent and clear.

Therefore, long ago, he had already let Black King take advantage of the heated battle to quietly sneak into the inner array for emergencies.

"You notify Black King: if he gets onto Xuanyan Island, follow the array map I gave him, go to the designated place, and bury the God-Sealing Compass."

Seeing Tianxuan asked in surprise: "Master, are you going to the island too?"

Luo Chen smiled nonchalantly, "If it really comes to that point, I also want to personally witness how this war ends. I imagine that kind of scene should be quite spectacular!"

Personally observing the rise and fall of a clan could be considered a beautiful thing in a cultivation career.

Even if there was no gain, it could be used as a good topic of conversation when communicating with fellow Daoists in the future.

Time passed slowly.

After losing Gu Gu Shaoshang's command, the attacks of the demon crab side became very chaotic.

However, as each clan formed its own army, with less mutual interference, the chaos in command was effectively alleviated.

For this, the price paid was that the losses of each of the five royal demon crab clans increased by thirty percent.

Not only low-level demon crabs, but even high-level combat power losses suddenly increased.

Some great demon kings had personally counted that the five clans had almost paid the lives of more than twenty Tier 3 demon kings in this battle.

And on the Ring-Necked Turtle side, the losses were even more tragic!

But even so, the resistance of the Ring-Necked Turtle side never stopped, and was even more determined, not yielding an inch.

The five royal demon crab clans were the same!

The battlefield began to advance continuously.

From the initial seventy-two islands, to thirty-six, then eighteen.

Unknowingly, the breaking of the array and destruction of the islands had lasted for nearly a year.

Until the patriarchs of the five royal clans stepped onto Kongshe Island together.

Jin Hun, Chi Yan, Zhu Xiang, Jiu Zhua, Lü Xiu.

The five revealed their complete forms, their massive bodies standing on Kongshe Island.

Behind them were millions of demon crab armies.

In front of them was a large island with an area of a thousand miles!

If viewed from the air, it looked like a piece of land.

This was Xuanyan Island!

"Planning for decades, fighting for five years, we have finally reached here. Everyone, success or failure depends on this final battle!" Jin Hun exhaled and spoke, without any sense of vicissitudes, only full of ambition.

The four demons on the side were also extremely complicated in their hearts at this moment.

Among them, some just happened to be there and only participated in this battle at the end.

Others had prepared in advance and had been secretly paying attention to the progress of the Tyrant Crab clan.

Regardless, the price paid by each family was equally huge.

Lü Xiu blinked her eyes and said somewhat sentimentally: "To get here, my Green Emperor Crab clan has paid seven Tier 3 clansmen, and the remaining Tier 2 and Tier 1 are countless. Even now, the corpses of some Tier 3 clansmen have not been found."

Zhu Xiang said indifferently: "All the sacrifices are worth it. As long as we take Xuanyan Island!"

"Chirping and chirping, those who don't know would think it's those weak cultivators being sentimental." Chi Yan sneered.

And Jiu Zhua could no longer hold back, revealing the fangs in his mouth.

"When do we act?"

Jin Hun raised his giant pincer, "Only the last step remains, so there is no need to delay. Better to choose today than any other day, let's do it today!"

As he spoke, the giant pincer fell with a boom.

"Attack!"

As the words fell, he soared into the air.

With him were the other four patriarchs.

Under the gaze of all, the five demons broke through the air and headed straight for the vast giant island.

As they flew out, the island trembled violently, and a pillar of light rose from the ground.

Majestic spiritual energy erupted from deep underground.

There was also a terrifying suction force permeating in all directions.

But unfortunately, this suction force lacked a response.

The Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams had been broken, and the remaining Central Palace, without response, was just an isolated island.

That pillar of light, after unfolding, had not yet manifested its form before it was collectively struck by the five patriarchs using peerless demon energy and shattered.

As the pillar of light was shattered, layers of trembling sounds came from Xuanyan Island.

Several high mountains on the island collapsed.

The earth rolled as if a dragon were turning over.

Waves of seawater surged from all directions, with the momentum of a tsunami.

I don't know when, but Ring-Necked Turtles with cold eyes had appeared on the island, and they were ready for the battle to protect their homeland.

No nonsense!

Following the order of the five patriarchs, millions of demon crab armies began to land on Xuanyan Island.

For a time, the sounds of killing shook the sky and earth.

Endless blood rain sprinkled, and the fishy demon energy permeated all directions.

"I should also go to the island."

In the demon crab army, a Tier 2 demon crab moved slowly, looking slightly out of place.

Under that shell, in the abdominal cavity, Luo Chen controlled this demon crab puppet with a look of surprise, walking forward slowly.

Yes, a demon crab puppet!

This demon crab was a simple puppet made by Han Zhan for Luo Chen in his spare time.

Its offensive and defensive capabilities were very average, but it excelled in being able to conceal traces.

Coupled with Luo Chen's "Breath-Restraining Spirit Technique" reaching perfection, he could absorb others' aura and disguise and imitate them.

With the two combined, if one didn't look closely, almost no one would discover that something was wrong with this demon crab.

As Luo Chen controlled it, a strange feeling emerged in his heart.

"It's a bit like controlling a mecha in the sci-fi I saw in my previous life."

Muttering a word, the demon crab puppet stepped out with eight legs, keeping up with the rhythm of the army's attack.

But after getting on the island, it didn't join the battle immediately, but found a direction, separated from the main force, and quietly left.

Moving forward all the way, battles broke out frequently on the road, but Luo Chen avoided them as much as possible.

Suddenly.

Luo Chen's footsteps paused, and his gaze looked towards a location.

There, spiritual light transformed, and a figure slowly emerged.

"It's him!"

Gu Gu Shaoshang had also come.

However, compared to Luo Chen's silence, Gu Gu Shaoshang's whereabouts were somewhat exposed.

It was fine if the number of ordinary demon beasts was small, but now on this battlefield full of demon beasts, the sudden appearance of a human cultivator was simply too conspicuous.

Just after appearing, Gu Gu Shaoshang had to personally kill two demon beasts.

Luo Chen glanced at it, had no intention of participating, and controlled the demon crab to avoid the center of the battlefield.

"Hmph!"

On the battlefield, Gu Gu Shaoshang pointed like a sword, controlling a flying sword to harvest the lives of nearby demon beasts.

He was somewhat helpless.

He was not proficient in concealment methods, and he didn't expect that there would be so many demon beasts participating in this final decisive battle.

After a moment of carelessness, he was actually exposed.

Seeing two demon kings flying towards this side in the distance, he had to withdraw and fly away from Xuanyan Island.

"In this final battle, I'm afraid I won't even have the chance to watch."

In helplessness, a glimpse of his peripheral vision saw a demon crab that was out of place walking in the opposite direction.

A strange demon crab, not even listening to the orders of the clan king?

Luo Chen naturally didn't know that he had fallen into the other party's eyes for a moment.

He only knew that he was very smooth.

Walking all the way, under his deliberate detour, he avoided battles of all sizes.

Finally, the demon crab puppet stopped in a swampy mud pit covered by miasma.

Eight legs stopped.

The miasma also seemed to be blown away by the wind, giving way to a path.

A giant python with a single horn on its head poked its head out and looked at the demon crab with confusion.

But with a spiritual sense sound transmission entering its ears, it hurriedly reacted.

"Welcome, Master!"

The demon crab didn't reply, stepped out, and stepped into the swamp.

As soon as he entered, the shell was lifted, and Luo Chen walked out from it.

Looking around, he revealed a look of satisfaction.

"Although this place is inferior, it connects to the deep-sea spring eye, and it is easy to advance or retreat; it can be a base! Black King, you did well!"

As he spoke, he casually threw a jade bottle over.

Black King caught it like a treasure.

"Master, are we going to participate in the war?" He held the jade bottle and asked cautiously.

Luo Chen's mouth curled slightly.

Participate in the war?

This naturally had to be done, but it couldn't be done in a hurry.

The top priority is to observe the battlefield situation first!

Without answering Black King, Luo Chen found a dry place in the swamp and sat cross-legged.

The God-Sealing Compass appeared in front of him.

He operated his natal cultivation technique, absorbed the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and before it was converted, he immediately cast a spell.

Soon, a huge water mirror slowly took shape.

In the mirror, the battles everywhere were lifelike.

But because of the eruption of demon energy and spiritual energy, this water mirror began to ripple constantly, looking somewhat unstable.

"With my spiritual soul comparable to the late-stage Jin Dan, can I not maintain the Water Mirror Technique under this scale of battle?"

Muttering a word, Luo Chen had no choice but to accept reality.

However, he had other methods.

"Senior Han, please help me."

In the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, Han Zhan helplessly revealed his figure.

"You brat..."

As he spoke, he pointed at the water mirror in the air.

In an instant, the mirror surface was as stable as could be!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 543 =====