Chapter 418 - The Great Immortal from Hell (2/2)
The fighting stopped momentarily with the appearance of the Great Immortal and everyone retreated back to lines of the Elders belonging to their own faction. An uneasy silence hung between the invaders and the defenders as they eyed each other warily. On one side, the Elders, chieftains, and leaders of the Orthodox Path stood menacingly and on the other, the members of the Sect stood defiantly behind a column of Corpse Puppet that held up the defensive line.
Xiao Chen looked to the invaders and saw a good many faces he knew; First Elder Guyang of the League, Perfected Immortal Fengxi of the Xianyong Sect, a handful of Elders of the Pavilion of Swords, Perfected Immortal Feng Lan of the Divine Mist Sect, the Elixir Saint Situ Bei, Qi Heng of the Order of the Divine Fire, Elders Zi Mo and Qingfeng of the Jade Qing Sect as well as Perfected Immortal Yanluo, Li Muxue’s mentor, and Su Yue, the fourth daughter of Clan Su.
Among them, Xiao Chen also saw Xiaoyue, Yu Yifeng, Zuoqiu Yang, Su Zimu and many more of the Orthodox Path’s rising talents including a great many faces that Xiao Chen never recognized.
A vile peal of cackle resounded from within the ranks of the invaders. “Old Great Immortal! For so many years we have not heard any word about you! I thought you had gone to Hell for real!”
The Great Immortal turned and spied the speaker, a strange old man in garbs of purple. “I see. Xiaoyao Zi of the Jade Qing Seven. The Corpse Refinery Sect has no quarrel with the Jade Qing Sect. Why are you here attacking us?”
He turned to the rest and bellowed, “For thousands of years, we of the Sect have never interfered with the affairs of the Orthodox Path. What is the reason for this aggression?”
“You can rest trying to play dumb, Great Immortal! Do you think none of us are aware of the heinous practices you adopt here? Release the girls you have taken now!”
Angry murmurs and cries rose from the ranks of the invaders. It was evident that news of the Sect’s abductions of girls born on the seventh day of the seventh month every year had spread across the lands like a blazing bushfire.
A whiskered old man broke out from the crowd of the Orthodox Path. Having cultivated powers of the Apotheosis Realm, he was the de facto leader of this invasion, Perfected Immortal Feng Lan of the Divine Mist Sect. “Much evil and foul things you have wrought, all of you of the Corpse Refinery Sect,” he declared, “For millennia, countless lives have been lost by your hand and we are now here to put a stop to all this!”
Desperately and distastefully, the mages of the Orthodox Path tried to justify their attacks when they were only trying to decimate the Corpse Refinery Sect before it could unleash its Divine Corpse. For all their claims of upholding peace and justice, these mages were only here to ensure that the Divine Corpse would never be awakened lest their authority and standing suffered.
“So this is where the parley breaks down,” The Great Immortal mused aloud coldly, raising an arm. He threw it forward, conjuring several jets of black fumes that streaked down from the sky and more Corpse Puppets appeared in a puff of dark brimstone, each of them emanating strongly with evil Qi and startling the invaders.
With eyes flashing with anger, the Great Immortal growled, “I will say this one last time: Go back from whence you came and we’ll speak no more of this! Or else, we’ll fight to the death! Legions of Corpse Puppets we have at our disposal and I daresay your supply of fresh talents is definitely finite! Consider this if you value your lives.”
Hundreds of Corpse Puppet stood erect with rancor in their eyes and their disheveled hairs swaying in the night breeze, obscuring their faces. Many of them were still glistening with fresh blood as if they had just been freshly flayed as dark, foul aura creped out of every gash and cuts of their skins like foul creatures that were trying to slink out of a bottomless abyss. Even under the lively radiance of the sun, the sight of these mindless killing instruments looked no less harrowing than the night.
There were at least a few millennia’s worths of Malicious Grudge between the Corpse Puppets here. Enough to give Zimo and the others a good run for their money. Silence lingered between both sides across the corpse-strewn field like a tauted arrow ready to be set loose.
“CHARGE!” A voice blared like a war trumpet, “KILL THEM ALL! WE’LL KILL THESE FOUL THINGS!” The tinderbox blew and both sides charged at each other, swinging their weapons and the battle was on again. The members of the Corpse Refinery Sect willed their Corpse Puppets to meet their foes. Indestructible human mannequins with insurmountable strength that could tear a human into halves with their bare hands. They ripped, they tore, and they shredded with brutal tenacity that all color was gone from the faces of the lesser mages who encountered them.
Not even powerful mages like Xiaoyue found it easy to deal with century-old Corpse Puppets; the two that she had just defeated had exhausted much of her strength and she could have sworn that the diamond-hard hides of these abominations almost dented her Autumn Water.
Armed with his spear, Zuoqiu Yang could have easily punctured the defenses of any mage of the Nascent Soul Realm. But none of his attacks managed to cripple these Corpse Puppets. With every thrust of his silver-tipped spear, his veins threatened to pop and burst. Yet still, his enemies advanced, forcing Zuoqiu Yang to be on the defensive instead.
Despair began gnawing on the ranks of the invaders as everyone began to feel the strength of the Corpse Puppets growing. Even Zi Mo was locked in an intense battle against the Puppet he was facing off against and he was nowhere near to destroying it, least of all Yu Yifeng and the rest of the junior mages who could barely hold their ground against the indomitable strength of these monsters.
Deep in the woods a couple of leagues away, Xiao Chen and Su Lianyue were still watching the battle unfold. The siege of the Ridge of the Fallen Drake seemed more like a failure than an uphill climb and the destruction of the Corpse Refinery Sect seemed more distant by the second.
For almost a quarter of an hour, almost thirty-four Corpse Puppets have been destroyed, although not without the cost of many mages of the Orthodox Path. The Great Immortal surveyed his losses through gritted teeth and he motioned for the Corpse Puppets to retreat to the defensive lines at once. “Is this what you want, all of you!” He roared across the carnage to the regrouping invaders who were visibly relieved for the brief respite, “As we fight, the remaining leagues of evil watches in glee, waiting to reap the harvests we sow!”
Xiao Chen felt a shudder. Is it true? Members of the other three evil orders are also watching this fight from the shadows?