Cultivation: From Poor Peasant to Celestial Lord

Chapter 328: Chapter 169: Mountain God’s Protection, Breakthrough to Foundation Establishment

”PFFT—!!!”

On the outermost ring of the altar, the two hundred Cultivators responsible for supplying the Spiritual Power nodes in the legs threw their heads back in unison and without warning, spraying jets of blood three feet into the air.

The scene was utterly gruesome, like a synchronized, bloody sacrifice to death itself.

”My legs... AARGH! My legs are broken!”

A young prodigy, normally the pride of his clan, screamed as he collapsed, clutching his legs and writhing madly on the ground.

There were no visible wounds on his body, but under the backlash to his Divine Soul, his leg bones were cracking and crumbling to dust inch by inch.

Next, as the Evil Flood Dragon’s Corrosive Dragon Breath rained down on the Mountain God’s back.

”Hot... It’s so hot!!”

”Help me! I’m on fire!”

The hundreds of Cultivators in the middle of the altar, responsible for supplying Spiritual Power to the torso, suddenly let out bloodcurdling wails.

Their skin began to redden, blister, and fester at a visible rate, as if an unseen fire was burning their internal organs from the inside out. It was the Law of corrosion eating away at their life force.

”Hold on! All of you, hold on!!”

Xia Xing knelt in a core position behind Chu Bai. Black, clotted blood was streaming from all seven of his orifices, his face twisted and demonic, but his hands remained locked tightly into the Array Patterns of the altar.

He watched his comrades fall one by one, watched as once-proud prodigies now convulsed like chunks of rotting meat, and tears mixed with blood streamed down his face.

”If you let go... the Divine Body will collapse, and we’ll all die! We’ll all die!”

Xia Xing roared hoarsely, trying to awaken everyone’s will to survive.

But in the face of an absolute power disparity and the terror of death, willpower has its limits.

”I can’t take it anymore... Please, spare me... I don’t want to die...”

A Loose Cultivator with a weaker will finally broke. Losing his sanity amidst the extreme agony, he cried out as he tried to forcibly wrench his hands—already fused with the Array—from the Array Patterns.

However, this Grand Array, which gathered the Spiritual Power of a thousand people, was already operating at its peak. It was like a massive, high-speed millstone—how could anyone withdraw as they pleased?

”AAARGH!!!”

The moment the Cultivator reversed his Spiritual Power in an attempt to break free, a violent backlash surged into his Dantian.

”BANG!”

A dull, wet explosion sounded.

Right before everyone’s eyes, this Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer Cultivator exploded into a mist of crimson blood, like an overinflated balloon.

Shattered limbs and warm pieces of viscera splattered onto the people nearby with a sickening PITTER-PATTER.

This scene completely shattered the last of many people’s mental defenses.

”He... he exploded...”

”We’re going to die... We’re really going to die...”

”The might of a Foundation Establishment expert... it’s not something we can possibly withstand...”

Panic spread like a plague through the narrow Underground Palace, the sounds of crying overwhelming Xia Xing’s roars.

Meanwhile, Chu Bai, at the very center of the Array, was enduring a hundred times more pressure than anyone else.

He had to bear not only the greatest physical backlash but also the despair, fear, and Resentment converging from the thousand Divine Souls.

Countless screams, cries, and curses surged along the torrent of Spiritual Power, madly battering his Sea of Consciousness.

If his Guardian Scripture hadn’t already reached the Perfection Realm, making his Divine Soul as solid as a boulder, his head would have exploded just like that other Cultivator’s during the very first wave of impact.

But even so, his situation was utterly dire.

That precious Earth Element Treasure had already turned to dust in less than fifteen minutes.

Now, the only thing keeping this hundred-zhang-tall Divine Body from collapsing was the very lives of these thousand-plus people!

’No more energy...’

Chu Bai watched the once-dazzling Dark Gold light in the display flicker and dim, like a candle sputtering in the wind.

A profound sense of powerlessness washed over him.

’No.’

At this critical juncture, the panic in Chu Bai’s eyes suddenly vanished, replaced by a stillness as profound as a bottomless ancient well.

He forcefully cut off the erratic counterattack commands. The massive Mountain God, which had been struggling to its feet, suddenly ceased all clumsy movements.

’Although it lacks the amplification of a Decree, this is still a hundred-year-old Divine Body officially consecrated by the Great Zhou. Even without its core, the durability of this shell is still slightly greater than that of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator.’

Chu Bai’s mind raced with terrifying calmness. ’I was too greedy just now, trying to use the power of an ant to control a battling elephant. That’s what exposed our weakness. If I abandon all offense and use all the Spiritual Power to fortify our position...’

He rapidly calculated the Divine Body’s rate of depletion against the limits of what everyone in the Underground Palace could endure.

’As long as I remain as motionless as a mountain and consolidate our defenses, even if we’re besieged by three Divine Spirits, it would take them at least a quarter of an hour to break through this ”turtle shell.”’

”Everyone! Stop the chaotic flow of your Spiritual Power! Stabilize it!!”

Chu Bai’s sharp command spread throughout the entire area via his Divine Thought.

Immediately, the Mountain God outside, which had been on the verge of toppling, went with the motion. Instead of trying to stand, it crashed down, sitting cross-legged on the ground!

This time, its two enormous stone hands didn’t swing out. Instead, like an old monk entering Meditation, they staunchly guarded the core areas of its chest and abdomen.

The Spiritual Power that had been distributed throughout its limbs for attack flowed back like a receding tide, coalescing on its surface into an incredibly thick, earthen-yellow film of light.

”CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!”

The Night Patrol God’s Iron Mace fell once more, and the Evil Flood Dragon spat its Dragon Breath again.

But this time, the seated Mountain God was like a foul, hard rock from a latrine pit—stubborn and unyielding.

The attacks hammered against the consolidated defensive layer. Although they still shook the very earth, they could no longer cause structural collapse as easily as before.