Returning from the Immortal World

Standing in front of the tent, Tang Xiu’s gaze followed Bai Yuheng’s group as they left. Then, he immediately turned to look at Mo Awu and said in a deep tone, “Pass my message to everyone to be careful. That Bai kid is not a good man. His strength may not be that strong, but he’s harboring bad intentions.”

“Why not kill them directly, Sect Master?” asked Mo Awu.

“The country needs more people right now,” said Tang Xiu faintly. “Moreover, be it Bai Yuheng or the people around him, they are not weak. Especially those two old geezers behind him. They may not be as strong as Golden Core Stage cultivators, but it’s likely they can match a late-stage Foundation Establishment expert. Killing them will waste more cannon fodder, so it’s best to let them fight the demonic beasts and die in their claws.”

Mo Awu caught the intention quickly and smilingly nodded. “You’re right, Sect Master. They’re going to die in any case. They might as well help us kill some demonic beasts, hehe. Alright, I’ll immediately tell everyone else. Should they dare to do anything shady to us, they are to capture them immediately.”

Tang Xiu returned to the military tent and immediately took out his communicator to dial Gu Xiaoxue’s cell number. After his call was picked up, he asked, “How is Xue Yu’s situation? Has she come out yet?”

“I’ve seen Master personally, Grand Master. She said she doesn’t know when Xue Yu will come out. It’s because she’s inside the Demon Horde Array. She won’t be able to come out of the array if the demons inside the array have yet to be exterminated completely.”

“Yan’er actually arranged a Demon Horde Array?” asked Tang Xiu in amazement.

“Yes! Xiaoxue also wanted to enter the Demon Horde Array, but Master said the array’s might is too powerful for me. Even 9 out of 10 Golden Core Stage experts will die inside it. She said only those at least at the Nascent Soul Stage would have a chance to survive inside.”

“I see.” Tang Xiu nodded and said, “Tell Yan’er that once Xue Yu comes out to immediately rush back to China. I’ll be waiting for her on the mainland.”

“Understood!” answered Gu Xiaoxue respectfully.

After hanging up, Tang Xiu seemed to contemplate something. The Demon Horde Array was a very suitable array for training, and many small and large sects in the Immortal World normally arranged this array with various levels of power to train their disciples. Gu Yan’er seemed to really care about Xue Yu since she arranged the Demon Horde Array for her training.

As the next day came, Duanmu Lin passed the news in the evening to inform Tang Xiu of the demonic beasts’ emergences. There was a strange occurrence, however, since those demonic beasts didn’t attack the blockade line immediately, but stopped about five kilometers away, as if waiting for something.

Quickly after, Tang Xiu appeared at the defensive line and saw that there were not only many cultivators who he had never seen, but also that Bai Clan’s scion—Bai Yuheng.

“Hmph!”

Upon seeing Tang Xiu, Bai Yuheng directly made a gesture of neck slashing and haughtily raised his head.

Feeling too lazy to bother his antics, Tang Xiu went towards Duanmu Lin and asked, “How many demonic beasts are there now, Senior Duanmu?”

“About 260-plus in total,” answered Duanmu Lin. “But I just informed you that another group of them is coming boasting similar numbers, around 300 demonic beasts. They haven’t come here and just stopped at the periphery. But I suspect these two groups of demonic beasts are acting like the vanguards of an army. Could it be that they are preparing something like a massive-scale attack?”

“It’s possible, I think.” Tang Xiu said, “We’ve killed many demonic beasts for the last few days, yet they are still fearless to attack the blockade line again and again. I think they’re testing the waters. And this time, it’s almost time for them to test a large-scale attack.”

“We can handle it if the number of the demonic beasts is less than 1,000, but over that is impossible,” said Duanmu Lin with a heavy face. “I must inform you that we have yet to find and collect all the materials needed for that geomancy array, so we can expect a massive loss on our side if we are to face them head-on.”

“We have no choice but to kill them to the best of our abilities,” said Tang Xiu. “We can’t just let them breach the blockade line even if we all die in battle. That’s right, there’s one thing I missed before. Why would these demonic beasts keep heading towards us? The Himalayas are very vast, while our blockade line only stretches out for tens of kilometers. What if those demonic beasts come out from other places?”

“Several groups of our armed forces have already blocked several regions of our country. We have also installed monitoring equipment in many special areas and some spy satellites in space to monitor them. But still, we haven’t spotted any signs of demonic beasts in other regions. I suspect there’s a huge array in the depths of the Himalayas, but it has been breached and the exit is right in front of the scope of our blockade line.”

Tang Xiu was silent for a moment. Then, he nodded and said, “Your conjecture is reasonable. Yet, we can’t neglect to guard the other regions either. How about forming a patrol squad? In case the common people can’t spot them, cultivators can discover them in advance. It’s just for precaution since there can be no slight negligence in this case.”

“I’ll arrange it immediately after we repel this attack.” Duanmu Lin nodded.

Time ticked and four hours passed by in the blink of an eye. A cultivator was sitting cross-legged under the curtain of the dark night while calmly waiting for the arrival of the demonic beasts’ horde. From the footage sent by the surveillance equipment, the number of demonic beasts kept increasing and there were now over 1,000 of them gathered 5-plus kilometers away from them.

“Reporting, Sir. They are moving just now!”

Aquababe, donning a stinted camouflage suit, dashed and appeared before Duanmu Lin.

With a changed complexion, Duanmu Lin shouted, “Attention, everyone! The horde of demonic beasts has begun rushing towards our position. Get ready to fight!”

Tang Xiu squinted his eyes. He looked at Hao Lei and the others. All of them had gathered up and Hao Lei was standing close to Gu Yin.

After over a minute, shadows of demonic beasts had appeared in the sight of hundreds of people. Searchlights illuminated the surrounding area like daylight as hundreds of cultivators quickly rushed toward the demonic beasts. Tang Xiu himself had yet to lead the Tang Sect people to get into action and just stood quietly at the blockade line, even though their aura kept soaring.

Duanmu Lin hadn’t moved either. He turned his head to look at Tang Xiu and said in a deep voice, “We’ll hand over the flying demonic beasts to you later. Those abominable flying beasts are truly hateful. They just hover in the sky and dive down, again and again, to strike us and cause no small casualties.”

Tang Xiu shifted his eyes at the sky ahead. Then, he nodded and said, “I’ve manufactured many charms in the last two days. Well, let’s just have those flying demonic beasts to taste how it feels to get burned by the raging flames.”

Duanmu Lin slightly nodded and said, “Let’s move now!”

“Well, you should’ve heard the bet between me and that Bai Clan’s young master, Bai Yuheng, right? Please assign some people to count the number of demonic beasts killed by us both,” said Tang Xiu.

“There’s no need for that. This area is covered by our surveillance equipment. Every move and action of yours and any demonic beasts you’ve killed will be recorded. We can count it later after the end of the battle.”

“Alright then.”

Tang Xiu curtly replied and immediately made a gesture to take action. Along with 200 experts of the Tang Sect, he soared into the sky and quickly lunged towards the bird-species demonic beasts in the sky. Some of them formed a sword formation with their immortal swords; some unleashed their respective magic swords to form a sword array like a rainbow, instantly disrupting the formation of flying demonic beasts in the sky.

“KILL!”

Tang Xiu unleashed his divine sword. His body flickered from one spot to another from time to time. But some demonic beasts would be killed every time he moved.

“DAMN HUMAN!!!”

Ten flying demonic beasts approached fast from the hundreds of others. They didn’t move to target the other Tang Sect disciples, but flapped their wings and flew fast towards Tang Xiu. The shadows of their feathery wings were like a stream of lights as though falling meteors as they instantly appeared in front of Tang Xiu.

“Magical spells and divine abilities?”

Tang Xiu’s complexion instantly turned solemn. He had killed many flying demonic beasts before, many of whom had power at the Golden Core Stage. But this was his first time encountering flying demonic beasts who could use magical spells and divine abilities. To his further surprise, all of these ten flying demonic beasts were able to unleash magical spells and their own unique abilities. While the most remarkable thing was their power which could rival experts at the Golden Core Stage.

‘They are targeting me?!’

A chilling light flashed in Tang Xiu’s eyes. He instantly shot his divine sword to the ten flying demonic beasts bolting towards him. At the same time, he cast a secret art and heavenly thunderbolts blitzed down from the sky. Lightning sparks the size of an arm bolted down and bombarded a certain demonic beast.

“COMMANDER!!!”

Suddenly, the ten flying demonic beasts let out a voice in the human language. Amid their roars, a demonic beast with charred body appeared out of thin air. This demonic beast had four pairs of wings, four long feet and, most importantly, it had a half-meter long tentacle-like antenna on its head.

ROAAAR…

A thunderous, deafening roar suddenly blasted out in the air. All Tang Sect cultivators at the early-stage of Foundation Establishment felt a faint ache in their eardrums, while their blood and power inside their bodies turned chaotic. The others at the mid-stage and late-stage of Foundation Establishment looked uncomfortable. It was obvious that the roar had greatly affected them.

‘This flying demonic beast has power at the Nascent Soul Stage?’

Tang Xiu’s face drastically changed. Never did it occur to him that a flying demonic beast with Nascent Soul Stage power would appear here. He was now more certain that these flying demonic beasts were targeting him and had laid out a trap to get him.

‘Pity that you all have underestimated my strength.’

Tang Xiu was still calm in the midst of peril. He simultaneously unleashed some secret arts and his divine sword and successfully blocked the flying demonic beasts attacking him. At the moment when those ten flying demonic beasts charged at him again, he immediately grabbed dozens of Raging Flame Charms and activated them without hesitation, causing a raging fire to envelop those ten Golden Core Stage flying demonic beasts.

“Be ready to get killed if you wanna kill me!”

Overlapping layers of sword lights howled and steamrolled forward toward the demonic beasts in front. Even though they tried to avoid them, they were still unable to evade unscathed and suffered bleeding wounds on their bodies.

BOOM…

A black flame wrapped in an odd-shaped object suddenly clashed with the divine sword controlled by Tang Xiu. An anguished roar from the Nascent Soul Stage flying demonic beast was then heard as the flame suddenly scattered away.