Chapter 703: Sneering

With a shout of "Array rise!", eight beams of golden light descended from the sky!

The golden light split into eight directions, firmly embedding into the ground to form eight pillars of light.

Looking closely, inside the golden light were metal pillars resembling prison bars; each pillar had long chains hanging from it, and the chains were connected, tethering the pillars together to form a Great Array. Between the connected chains hung individual golden locks.

It was the minions of the Land Inspection Division making their move!

These demonic cultists were all old friends of the Land Inspection Division; how could they not know the opponent's methods? They immediately recognized this as a routine array attack and called out the name of the attack:

"Eight Gates Locking Key Array!"

"Landing Golden Lock Array!"

Two voices blurted out simultaneously, each echoed by several others in unison; the scene paused for a moment, and many looked at each other in dismay.

Isn't it one array?

But the next instant, the cultists realized the name of the array was unimportant; there was no time to hesitate at this moment, so they threw themselves forward regardless of their own safety.

Although they were reckless, it was not without strategy; on the contrary, their strategy was very mature. Seeing the array, they knew what they had to do without needing to use their brains to think.

The group of cultists who had just called it the Eight Gates Locking Key Array had long since pulled out grappling hooks and chains to hook the pillars, while the group on the other side did the exact opposite: they worked together to lift a huge pillar and thrust it into the center of the chains, intending to entangle those chains on the pillar head and destroy the golden locks one by one in the middle.

Only a few loud bangs were heard; whether they were lifting the pillar or using the grappling hooks, they were all swept into the array, and like debris sucked into a tornado, they went rolling and flying within the array.

Various screams came from the air for a time. The cultists were tossed about in confusion, unable to imagine: how could a strategy they were so familiar with suddenly be useless?

"Chi chi."

The Douya Tianmo in the very center made a sound resembling mockery again. It seemed that the misfortune of these cultists who had originally supported it pleased it even more.

It just kept mocking, seemingly not realizing at all that it was also enveloped by the array; those bars and golden locks were meant to lock it in.

The next moment, the golden pillars stabilized on the ground, and the golden chains shot toward the center together!

The target was not the Douya Tianmo, but the Heavenly Pillar above its head that connected it to another world!

The sprout let out a chi-chi laugh, seemingly completely unconcerned that its lifeline above its head was being severed; instead, it suddenly raised its head, using its sprout head as a hammer, and smashed toward another direction!

And almost at the same time, a person rushed out from the opposite side, Sword Qi like a rainbow, also stabbing toward the Tianmo!

Using a head against a sword blade—is this something a creature with a brain could think of?

But it did exactly that!

The Sword Guest on the opposite side saw it do this, and his heart was slightly suspicious; not daring to be negligent, the sword in his hand used Sword Art—

Whirlwind Sword!

The sword blade twisted like a whirlwind, and the Yuan Qi surged abruptly.

The rotating sword—its power increased by more than several times! Moreover, this Sword Guest originally focused on pure power and Momentum, his Yuan Qi was full and flexible, and with the addition of rotation at this moment, it was truly unstoppable!

Bang!

At the moment of contact, several phantoms split from the sword and shot toward the surroundings of the Douya Tianmo.

Sword Art—Sword Light Differentiation!

This was another powerful and forceful Sword Art; that this Sword Guest could use two Sword Arts in an instant showed his profound attainments in Sword Art.

But at this moment—

One could see the sword drilling onto the head, seeing a silver light spinning like a top, emitting a buzzing sound. One clearly heard the sound and saw debris splashing like mist, yet one saw no damage to the head.

At the same time, the Sword Light also pierced the body of the Tianmo from all directions with lightning speed.

The Tianmo's head did not move, but its cabbage-like collar suddenly opened, as if opening a bottomless green mouth, swallowing all the Sword Light at once.

Immediately after, the big mouth closed, then opened again, and countless Sword Lights flew back out.

The attacking Sword Guest was greatly shocked and wanted to control those Sword Lights, but he could not; they were clearly his own Sword Lights, but after a trip through the cabbage, they had become sharp weapons hunting him down!

The man had to retreat, but at this time the cabbage's Sword Light continued to fire, cluster after cluster, already exceeding the number he had shot over, like a rain of arrows without stopping, giving him no chance to dodge at all; he had to retreat again, further and further away.

Chi chi chi...

That mocking sound came again.

This mockery was indeed a universal language; one did not need to know its specific meaning to be enraged by it. The Sword Guest forced back by it was full of annoyance, his sword circling back, about to strike again, when someone behind him pulled him back.

"Hmm?"

He turned his head and saw a Sword Guest with slight stubble pulling him; his usual drunken eyes were wide open, shining with divine light.

At the same time, a light descended from the sky!

That array had also descended with golden light, but compared to this light, it was as if fireflies were compared to the sun!

That pillar of light was so bright that it completely enveloped the Douya Tianmo!

Uh-uh.

The Douya Tianmo made a suspicious and nervous sound; its strange facial features became constricted, but somehow, it actually looked a bit more normal.

So it didn't just know how to chi-chi laugh.

Amidst the strange cries, the Douya Tianmo's vegetable collar suddenly opened, pulling out countless thin blades of grass!

That was the weapon its true body relied on for offense; those Sword Qi from just now were merely small tricks.

But that Light Beam was even more ferocious, transforming into a Golden Tiger in the air, opening its mouth to roar.

The vegetable collar was like a bloody mouth, but the Golden Tiger naturally had a bloody mouth. It opened its mouth and pounced toward the head of the Douya Tianmo. The Douya Tianmo grew its leaves wide, striving to be larger than the mouth of the Golden Tiger, while shaking its body.

As it shook, the wild grass on the ground grew upward like crazy; originally only as tall as a large tree, they gradually grew like thin, long cliffs.

But if one looked closely, one would find that these wild grasses were not growing together; some wild grasses were like bamboo shoots, truly just growing upward, while others were like long spears, long whips, and sharp swords, turning into offensive weapons, as if held by soldiers, rustling toward the center to attack.

Some of them attacked the Golden Tiger and the enemy manipulating the Golden Tiger, while others directly attacked the golden pillars locking the perimeter—it could be seen that no matter how much it mocked and disdained, it still minded the golden pillars locking it firmly, and minded the safety light pillar above its head being cut off, interfering with its retreat.

"See that?"

The one who had just pulled back Che Lin, who wanted to Juan Tu Chong Lai, was naturally Chi Qianli, also a Sword Guest. Only the two Sword Guests faced the Tianmo directly; other Land Inspection Division officials, although they had long since arrived, were lying in ambush around. He pointed to the battle in the middle and said: "That big-headed sprout looks funny, but its strength is not funny; this is definitely a Great Heavenly Demon of Sword Hero level. Didn't you feel the danger just now? If it weren't for Tang Commander being here, we would all have been finished here. Now that Tang Commander has taken it over, you stop moving; if you and I insist on interfering, we will only be a nuisance."

Che Lin let out a breath and said: "I know. Damn demonic cult. What method do they use to conceal the heavenly secrets... No!"

He realized and said: "That's not right. The demonic objects they have inserted in their chests are for receiving guidance; since the location can receive guidance, perhaps the concealing of heavenly secrets is also the Tianmo taking the initiative?"

This is truly not good news.

Their past experience was that those Demon Cultists were like flies chasing stench, only caring to throw themselves at the Heavenly Demon, while the Heavenly Demon almost never responded, and most would even chew them up indiscriminately upon meeting; only the Phantoms that descended with the Heavenly Demon were more intelligent, capable of communicating with the Demon Cultists and offering some benefits.

It was precisely this bit of sweetness, coupled with that tendency toward total surrender, that allowed the Demon Cult to persist all along.

But if the Heavenly Demon side had a clear response, then it would be terrible. Not only would the Demon Cult and the Heavenly Demon coordinate from within and without in the future, making the Demon Cave many times more dangerous, but it would also cause the number of Demon Cultists to surge exponentially.

To put it plainly, the Demon Cultists' theory of "Moon God's Descent" is less of a faith and more of a fear, because they fear the Heavenly Demon will destroy the world, so they want to surrender early to secure a spot. However, are there not far more fearful people in the world than just these current cultists? Most people who are afraid did not surrender because they thought it was absurd—the Heavenly Demon simply cannot accept surrender. To defect is also to die; one can only resist or flee.

But what if the Heavenly Demon gives a response? What if the Heavenly Demon accepts them?

Looking at it now, the Heavenly Demon still does not take the Demon Cultists seriously, but it has already reacted; even mockery is treating them as living things to be mocked, rather than ignoring them as if they were nothing like before.

If they manage to pull this off, and if this Heavenly Demon cannot be eliminated this time, letting the news leak out might cause a huge commotion; what kind of disaster would that be?

The Land Inspection Division would bear the brunt of it!

Kill them!

Che Lin had made up his mind.

They originally had a plan for Tang Zhao to deal with the Great Heavenly Demon while the others were cleaned up by the Land Inspection Division, so there was no need to say anything more at this moment. Most of the Demon Cultists were still flying around in the Eight Gates Golden Lock Array, and those who were lucky enough to escape a disaster had long since scattered and fled—anyone with courage had just charged up and was still in the vortex and hadn't come down, while those who weren't swept in had no courage to begin with, so naturally, they had even less now and only cared about fleeing for their lives.

"They cannot escape."

On the back of Chi Qianli's hand crawled small Luse insects; this was his Sword Art, "Green Ants." And those scattered Demon Cultists each had one on their backs, like maggots on bones, absolutely impossible to shake off.

But there was no need for them to chase after them.

One only heard screams ringing out one after another from behind, each sound emerging from the grass leaves, as if those people had been eaten by monsters hidden in the dark forest. But in reality, it was the members of the Land Inspection Division who had long been lying in ambush all around who had struck.

From the very beginning, they had formulated a strategy: the only ones who needed to face the Heavenly Demon directly were Tang Zhao plus two Sword Guests.

And now, the one facing the Heavenly Demon directly was Tang Zhao, those cleaning up the stragglers while hiding in the grass were the Land Inspection Division members, and even those operating the blockade Great Array were personnel chosen long ago; everyone was faithful to their duties, leaving the two Town Guardians with nothing to do.

However... this was only on the surface.

Although they could not intervene in the battle at hand, there was one battle that should have been theirs to fight, only it hadn't started yet.

Che Lin said, "The helm master I was responsible for has already been executed; what about yours?"

Chi Qianli gritted his teeth and smiled, "I didn't find them. There were clearly two Sword Guests, but now there is only one, so one must be hiding. They must still be somewhere waiting to take advantage of a weakness. Tell me, besides this Great Heavenly Demon, are there other things they have hidden, given how they coordinated in advance and set up decoys?"