Chapter 95: 91 Yumen Guan

91 Yumen Guan

The shadow in the water is precisely a flood dragon.

A snake-like body, strong limbs, seemingly dragon-shaped, yet it lacks horns.

Although it is not a true dragon, the flood dragon is also a legendary animal; even in Chen Zong's hometown there are legends of it, so how did it become a Heavenly Demon?

Tang Zhao was in a trance for a moment; the Heavenly Demon in Si Liyu's words sounded like a monster, both terrifying and disgusting, yet the Heavenly Demon before his eyes was a flood dragon, and its posture in the water had a great sense of immortality, completely like an ancient beast from mythology.

What exactly is a Heavenly Demon?

"Damn that Qingtian Temple, they miscalculated again." As he was lost in thought, Xing Ji beside him was already cursing, "This is a Water-type Demon Cave, you mother? This is clearly an Earth-type Demon Cave!"

Tang Zhao was stunned—a whole river had come down, was this Demon Cave not watery enough?

"It's a good thing this town was prepared early, otherwise we would have been done in by them. Tang Zhao—"

Tang Zhao was alerted and said, "Present—"

"Protect me."

Tang Zhao replied, "Yes." He immediately drew his sword and stood beside Xing Ji.

Xing Ji did not draw his sword; he took out a Lamp with one hand and lifted it gently.

A beam of light shot into the sky, forming a pillar of light!

As if in response, seven pillars of light rose simultaneously from seven directions around them, totaling eight pillars of light, sealing the eight directions!

This must be the agreed-upon signal.

At this moment, Xing Ji finally drew his sword; with a flash of Sword Light, a tiger-shaped divine beast leaped out—

The son of a dragon, Bi'an!

Popular legend says there are nine sons of the dragon, each with their own preferences; the fourth son is called Bi'an, resembling a tiger with great power, fond of litigation, and thus stands at the prison gate.

At the same time, Xing Ji formed a seal with one hand, slashed his sword downward, and shouted, "Sword Art Array—Yumen Guan!"

Bi'an leaped out of thin air, and a huge stone gate rose beneath its feet. The stone gate grew larger and larger, its heavy base sinking deep into the ground, instantly blocking the oncoming water light.

On the stone gate, a massive tiger head looked majestic and awe-inspiring; it was precisely the image of Bi'an.

This stone gate was just like the gate of a prison in the mundane world.

At the same time, stone gates rose in the other seven directions as well. From afar, one could see seven stone gates, all heavy and solid, like seven majestic passes that ten thousand men could not breach.

Tang Zhao watched in amazement, thinking: The area covered by these seven gates is at least ten miles; can mere Sword Art achieve this? There must be Art Tools assisting, right?

As for why it wasn't a Dharma Artifact—Xing Ji is a Sword Guest, not a Sword Hero, and cannot use Sword Law.

His gaze shifted from the stone gate and looked around.

While the eight gates were indeed impregnable, there was still vast open space between the gates, and anyone could pass through. Could it be that after the Sword Art Array is built, there are invisible walls between the eight gates that can block all outsiders from entering or exiting?

Tang Zhao's gaze wandered; he seemed to feel something abnormal in the air, but he wasn't sure if he was being overly sensitive.

After building the Sword Array, Xing Ji said, "Follow me inside. From now on, everyone who wants to approach the Demon Cave must pass through the stone gates. No one is allowed to cross the open space."

Tang Zhao agreed and followed him forward. When they reached the gate, he saw the two eyes of the Bi'an on the gate staring at him; the tiger eyes glowed, as if they could see right through him.

After a brief pause, the gate opened automatically. Xing Ji and Tang Zhao walked in, and the stone gate behind them closed automatically; no one else followed.

Tang Zhao said, "Are there only the two of us?"

Xing Ji said, "Didn't you read the files? Come, I'll give you a math problem: sixteen people, eight gates, how many can enter through one gate?"

Tang Zhao chuckled; of course, he wouldn't actually calculate it. However, he also knew that apart from Loose Practitioners, Heavy Swordsmen, and those who possessed special powers, it was very dangerous for ordinary Martial Artists to enter the Demon Cave. Except for those registered with the Land Inspection Division, the other auxiliary bailiffs were likely left outside. As for other allies like Black Widow and the others, he hadn't seen them from the start and didn't know if they were on the outer perimeter.

Those Heiyang County Martial Artists and noble families plotting for the Demon Cave didn't even need the Land Inspection Division to deal with them; among those elite bailiffs outside were also Knight-Errant experts, meant to clear the outer perimeter.

But could they really hold them off? He remembered that those noble families had quite a few Loose Practitioners. Although they had been tricked by the White-haired Swordsman, it was hard to say whether they still had the heart to break into the Demon Cave, but who knew if there weren't forces of equal strength coming to fill the gap? For instance, that Holy Moon Sect, did they really not send any experts? Wasn't there still a Branch Master?

When the time comes, if they can't rely on the bailiffs, are they supposed to rely on those few gates?

Tang Zhao asked again, "Can your gate distinguish between good and evil?"

Bi'an and Xiezhi are very similar; both are divine beasts that distinguish good from evil, and the two swords are also very similar, both being Sword Arts that determine power based on the inner heart.

Xing Ji's expression was complex as he said, "I would like to distinguish between righteous and evil, but this gate mostly distinguishes between friend and foe. There are indeed some experts with the ability to force their way through Yumen Guan, and relying on people from the Division won't stop them. But even if Yumen Guan can't stop everyone, at least it can alert me; it's more reliable than others."

The closer they got to the river, the wetter the ground became. In the night, the water vapor evaporated, becoming as thick as fog. The distant murmuring of water turned into a roar as they approached.

Suddenly, a shadow drifted out of the fog; it was round and flat, with eight legs, looking just like a large crab.

A Phantom!

"Sword Art—Horn Strike!"

The sword tip elongated and pierced the top of the crab. Although a real crab would have a hard shell, the Phantom crab was no different from a fish; once pierced by the sword tip, it immediately dissipated.

"Not bad, you use it very skillfully." Xing Ji didn't make a move, waiting on the side to watch Tang Zhao's performance.

Tang Zhao smiled and said, "It's nothing, these Phantoms are small fry; they vanish at a touch."

Before he finished speaking, various Phantoms gradually appeared in the fog; fish, shrimp, crabs, and shellfish flew about everywhere, some even swimming, as if the Demon Cave river had receded and could no longer contain so many aquatic creatures.

These aquatic creatures were aimless at first, but upon seeing Tang Zhao and the others, they swarmed over like mosquitoes seeing blood.

Tang Zhao was not intimidated; he stood alone in front, using Horn Strike to pierce them one by one. Those Phantoms came with great momentum, but left quietly, disappearing like bubbles without a trace.

Tang Zhao had become somewhat addicted to it; wherever his long sword went, the Phantoms shattered, and there was a strange sense of satisfaction, like popping bubbles.

He had just tried all his offensive Sword Arts in the waterfall and found that Horn Strike was the best to use; it was fast to activate, accurate, could be used in continuous strikes, could kill in one hit, and was easy to use without consuming much.

Xing Ji followed behind him, barely moving, and said, "No, Phantoms are not fragile; on the contrary, they are very hard to kill because they have no weaknesses at all—" He casually thrust his sword, piercing a giant fish nearby. The giant fish struggled, slid off the sword, and acted as if nothing had happened. Although wisps of fog trailed from the wound, it didn't stop it from baring its steel teeth and pouncing again.

"To destroy them, you must use force—" Xing Ji said unhurriedly, then swung his sword again, like a heavy hammer, smashing the giant fish into fragments filling the sky, "You have to smash it to pieces. Otherwise, you must use Spirit Image attacks or special Sword Arts. You think Horn Strike is an ordinary horn? That is the horn of the Xiezhi."

Tang Zhao was startled, then nodded. Horn Strike did indeed originate from the single horn on the Xiezhi's head, but this Sword Art could be released without a Sword Image. If he used a Sword Image to release it, he could probably see the Xiezhi using its single horn to gore the Phantom to death. It was just that summoning a Sword Image would increase the burden, and considering his own body and mind, Tang Zhao decided it was better not to summon it unless absolutely necessary.

"The Xiezhi uses its horn to gore evil people to death. Do those Phantoms all have sins? Did they kill people?" Tang Zhao asked while fighting hard to exterminate them.

Xing Ji replied, "Why must they kill people? These scum from outside the territory, no matter what messy form they appear in, are all robbers and villains who invade our territory, harm our people, seize our resources, and destroy our homes. Killing them on sight is never wrong. The Xiezhi Sword has already judged them."

Tang Zhao said, "Can both Heavenly Demons and Phantoms be killed?"

Xing Ji said, "Hasn't your sword already told you?"

Tang Zhao gripped his sword and truly felt the sword's excitement; it was a manifestation of the sword's intent to kill. But this killing intent did not affect Tang Zhao, because Tang Zhao felt no killing intent from the bottom of his heart.

It was not that he felt these Phantoms should not be killed, but rather...

One does not need killing intent to kill.

Killing intent is a very malicious emotion, one that Tang Zhao had always found difficult to generate; these Phantoms were all just fish and shrimp, one could stab them without killing intent, and there would be no killing intent even after stabbing them. Those head chefs have no killing intent, yet they don't know how many of these things they kill in the kitchen every day.

Carrying this relaxed rhythm, the two of them actually fought their way through the Phantoms in the mist and arrived before the river.

Here, there was already someone waiting.

"Old Peng, how is the situation?" Xing Ji greeted him casually.

Peng Yiming stood before the river, his eyes tightly shut, and said, "The Town Guardian has finally arrived. My Ling'er is working too hard and is barely maintaining it now; how is it, is it okay now?"

Xing Ji laughed, "Don't be anxious, hold on a little longer, wait until everyone has arrived. Unless you, Old Peng, can't hold on anymore."

Peng Yiming said resentfully, "It really is hard to hold on." Even so, he still executed Xing Ji's order, gritting his teeth and forcing himself to endure.

After a while, more than ten martial officers from the Land Inspection Division arrived one after another from various directions; most of them bore traces of battle, and a few were truly quite disheveled, not looking like they had fought through the group of Phantoms, but rather like they had luckily broken through while enduring attacks.

Everyone stood silently in place, and Xing Ji said, "No need for nonsense, everyone knows the Heavenly Demon has a weakening period upon arrival; we cannot delay, the longer we delay, the harder it is to fight. Quick battle, quick decision, Formation B. Tang Zhao, follow me."

Everyone responded with a roar, skillfully deploying.

Seeing the formation set up, Xing Ji said, "Alright, Old..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Peng Yiming shouted, "It's coming out, it's coming out—"

An exquisitely beautiful woman flew out from the river, graceful as a startled swan, lithe as a swimming dragon.

It was the Spirit Image of the Spirit Official Peng Yiming.

The woman held a Strange Stone in her hand, with a pearl-like bubble embedded in the stone; it was the Sword Seed.

This had been arranged long ago: if the Sword Seed did not appear, the Heavenly Demon would not descend, but the descending Heavenly Demon could not obtain the Sword Seed.

Tang Zhao had shot out the Sword Seed, and Peng Yiming's Spirit Image had been lying in ambush, waiting for the Heavenly Demon to descend and snatch the Sword Seed, playing hide-and-seek with the Heavenly Demon in the water to buy time.

Now, it was time to lure the snake out of its hole.

The moment the Sword Seed left the Demon Cave, a dragon's roar echoed from the river.

A massive flood dragon head emerged from the river!