The Quest for Immortality - Chapter 1153 (Patreon)

Chapter 1153: Blood Battle

Yang Jiyong blanched at the words, grabbed Mo Hua, and stammered, “That kind of talk… you can’t just say that out loud.”

If the Great Wilderness Sect really had rebelled, that would be one thing.

But if they hadn’t, then Mo Hua saying so—once it spread—would be slander against a sect directly under the Dao Court, a blow to the army’s morale, and an extremely serious crime.

Besides, how could the Great Wilderness Sect possibly rebel, or dare to? The Dao Court’s power was far too great. Would the Great Wilderness Sect be courting death?

Mo Hua shook his head. “I don’t know the exact reason, but the Great Wilderness Sect should have rebelled. And very likely, they’ll launch a mutiny tonight…”

Otherwise, the death omen wouldn’t have appeared between Yang Jiyong’s brows.

Yang Jiyong frowned, studying Mo Hua.

In his impression, Mo Hua would never tell a lie. But to truly believe this… it was hard.

Out of nowhere, saying the Great Wilderness Sect would mutiny.

And precisely tonight, at that.

Yet Mo Hua’s expression was unspeakably grave.

Time was tight, and Yang Jiyong couldn’t decide on his own. “Come with me to tell Big Brother.”

This wasn’t something he could decide.

Mo Hua nodded.

Yang Jiyong led Mo Hua to Yang Jishan’s command tent.

Yang Jishan was handling military affairs. Hearing Yang Jiyong out, he was both shocked and alarmed. He stared at Mo Hua in disbelief. “Is that true?”

Mo Hua nodded. “There’s a high chance.”

Yang Jishan knitted his brow. “How did you… know?”

“I…” Mo Hua was silent a moment, then decided it was better to reveal a little of the secret. “I’ve studied a bit of heavenly mechanism and karmic arts.”

“Heavenly mechanism and karma?”

Yang Jishan’s expression changed, and Yang Jiyong’s face trembled as well.

Heavenly mechanism and karma—such ethereal, nearly extinct inheritances—weren’t something ordinary cultivators could touch, much less learn.

Even in the Yang clan, those high-level cultivators who knew anything of karmic arts could be counted on one hand.

And without exception, those cultivators had centuries of cultivation, the vicissitudes of life behind them, and a wealth of experience to distill before they could glimpse a shred of heaven’s mechanism and perceive a trace of karma.

Mo Hua was a youth in his early twenties. Where had he gotten the experience—and from whom had he learned karma?

Yang Jiyong looked utterly lost.

Yang Jishan also could hardly believe it.

Mo Hua said, “I really can.”

Yang Jishan pondered a moment, then shook his head. “Even if you truly know karma, but…”

He paused, then spoke frankly. “In fact, most cultivators don’t know this: before the Dao Court moves on a large campaign, there are always experts who divine the heavenly mechanism in advance. Even now, among the high command with the army, there are Ascension-realm grand strategists who understand karma…”

He finished and looked at Mo Hua with a weighing gaze.

In other words, you’re not the only one who knows karmic arts; the high command of the Dao Soldiers has Ascension grand strategists who know them too.

A mutiny—those Ascension strategists didn’t divine any karmic sign.

Yet you, a Foundation Establishment junior, divined it?

Mo Hua was taken aback.

That, he hadn’t expected.

Truly, the cultivation world is vast and full of talent. Many superior abilities aren’t his alone.

But the problem was, he had indeed deduced an ominous sign.

So why had the Ascension grand strategists shown no reaction?

Had he miscalculated?

Mo Hua glanced at Yang Jishan and found a faint grayness between Yang Jishan’s brows as well—also a sign of looming death.

It was just that Yang Jishan, as a Golden Core commander with higher cultivation and a better chance to survive, showed a shallower omen than Yang Jiyong.

Even so, as time passed, the death omen between Yang Jishan’s brows was deepening little by little.

There would be no mistake!

Mo Hua’s heart tightened. His gaze turned extremely solemn as he told Yang Jishan, “I don’t know the overall situation for the Dao Soldiers. But Commander Yang, both you and Big Brother Yang face life-and-death danger. You must, must find a way to save yourselves!”

When someone is meant to die, they will die.

If they don’t think to save themselves at a time like this, then it truly becomes beyond salvation.

Mo Hua genuinely feared that Yang Jishan and Yang Jiyong would follow Elder Ji of the courier city and Steward Wang into the grave—also dying in the mutiny.

Yang Jishan’s frown deepened.

He could tell Mo Hua truly cared about his life and was absolutely sincere, without falsehood.

But this matter…

Yang Jishan looked at Mo Hua, and his heart suddenly jolted.

He discovered that when Mo Hua grew serious, his bearing was completely different from before.

Previously, Mo Hua had been a clear-eyed, sunny, approachable youth.

Now, in the night, as he spoke of heavenly mechanism, his presence grew deep and weighty. In those eyes was an unfathomable depth, with karma flowing between his glances.

Yang Jishan’s heart shook.

This aura—he had only ever seen it upon the clan’s top brass, those who schemed and controlled the overall situation.

Just who was this little brother…

Yang Jishan’s thoughts drifted back to Nanyue City, but after thinking for a long time he still had no clue.

Those memories seemed veiled by fog, not to be peered through—not even a thread to grasp.

Just then, the night wind howled over Windwave Ridge.

The bitter cold pierced the tent, making the lamp-flame dance.

The red light washed over Mo Hua’s face like flowing blood.

Outside the tent, Windwave Ridge lay jagged and uncanny, mountains like shambling corpses and wraiths.

The sight made Yang Jishan’s heart suddenly shudder.

For an instant, the veil of heavenly mystery thinned.

A scene flashed through his mind.

The sky was shrouded in blood. The mountains and plains crawled with zombies—like the corpses and ghosts of the Avici Hell—roars and howls shaking heaven and earth.

Amid ten thousand corpses stood a single king, towering and awe-inspiring, exuding a terrifying, savage aura.

But at this moment, that terrifying Corpse King was kneeling.

He knelt before a little cultivator who looked only a dozen years old.

At the same time, the legions of zombies all prostrated.

The Corpse King knelt, the iron corpses submitted, ten thousand corpses paid homage.

And the little cultivator at whom the Corpse King knelt—fine-browed and exquisite of face, yet carrying profound majesty—was precisely the youth before him…

Mo Hua.

Like a bolt from the blue, it split his mind.

Yang Jishan remembered everything. At last he recalled who Mo Hua was.

He was that strange youth of years past who quelled the corpse calamity at Nanyue City—who made the Corpse King kneel and ten thousand corpses submit at the brink of crisis!

Yang Jishan’s heart surged like a stormy sea; he couldn’t help but tremble all over.

How could he have forgotten something so important? How?

A moment later, the battle-hardened Yang Jishan forced himself calm amid the violent rush of emotion.

Now wasn’t the time to think about it.

If Mo Hua truly was that youth who subdued the Corpse King, then his words would never be false.

Whether or not the Great Wilderness Sect really would mutiny, at the very least he had to be fully prepared.

Yang Jishan’s expression turned grave. He told Yang Jiyong, “Pass the order—every soldier in the camp is to don armor, open the arrays, be on full alert, and prepare for an enemy raid…”

Then, face solemn, “I… will go to the main camp and seek the overall commander’s orders.”

He was only a third-grade Golden Core commander; he could decide the actions of his own single battalion.

But he had no authority over the grand situation of all Dao Soldiers.

Even if the Great Wilderness Sect truly rebelled, he still had to request instructions from above and let the Ascension-realm overall commanders discuss and decide.

“Yes!”

Yang Jiyong answered in a low voice and sent the order down.

The Yang clan cultivators in camp had hardly rested when they were ordered back into armor, weapons in hand, on guard once more.

Yang Jishan made a circuit, confirmed the defenses were correct, and was about to depart for the main camp.

Just as he moved to go, Mo Hua suddenly caught his sleeve.

Yang Jishan started and looked back.

Mo Hua’s face was solemn. He shook his head.

Yang Jishan sensed something, spread his divine sense—and discovered that in the howling wind, the night around Windwave Ridge crawled with figures. Like ghosts, they crept along the ground, inching toward the camp.

They were coming from the Great Wilderness Sect’s encampment.

Their timing was chosen to perfection. They clearly knew the inside details of the Dao Soldiers’ movements.

Their armor also bore concealment arrays.

If not forewarned, it would have been impossible to defend.

Yang Jishan looked at Mo Hua—astonished that Mo Hua’s words were true, and amazed that this Foundation Establishment youth’s divine sense was keener than his own Golden Core’s, noticing the enemy raid a few breaths earlier than he did.

Yang Jishan waved his hand.

Yang Jiyong understood and turned to pass the command. “Proceed as planned.”

Within the Yang clan’s camp, the soldiers hunkered down.

Moments later, an array-light flared. A raiding Great Wilderness cultivator was sliced in half at the waist. The reek of blood spread, and the congealed night turned instantly murderous. Shouts shook the sky.

“Enemy attack!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

The slaughter erupted. In almost an instant, red seeped into the night.

In the darkness none knew who was killing and who was dying. Some were beheaded in a single sword stroke, some were run through by a spear, some were shredded by an array—broken limbs everywhere.

Black and red intermingled, killing intent boiling.

In such a tense melee, Yang Jishan had no time to report to the main camp.

And there was no need—because not long after, the Great Wilderness Sect’s full mutiny began.

…

Windwave Ridge swarmed with Great Wilderness cultivators.

They raised butcher’s blades against the Dao Court’s Dao Soldiers.

Fanned by the cold desert wind, the flames of war spread in the blink of an eye.

The fighting was vicious to the extreme.

From the very first moment of treachery, the battle leapt to white heat.

Yang Jishan clashed with a Great Wilderness Golden Core in a life-and-death struggle.

Yang Jiyong and the others were also trapped in bitter combat.

Fortunately, Mo Hua’s warning and the marching arrays he laid in advance served as a screen, so the situation didn’t plummet.

Otherwise, with them attacking by surprise and striking to kill, perhaps other Dao Soldiers might fare differently—but Yang Jishan, Yang Jiyong, and this whole battalion of Yang clan soldiers would likely have been doomed.

After a while of entangled slaughter, the situation deadlocked.

Yang Jishan was pinned by a Great Wilderness Golden Core; the two fought to an impasse.

Mo Hua then broke his usual restraint and moved a little divine will. With the Spirit-Stirring Eye Technique, he shocked that Golden Core for a few breaths.

In a life-and-death battle, a few breaths decide life and death.

By the time that Great Wilderness Golden Core came back to himself, Yang Jishan’s spear had already pierced his chest.

In Dao Soldiers’ warfare, first you look to the commander, then the troops.

In a third-grade theater, Golden Cores command; Foundation Establishment are the rank-and-file.

When the Golden Core dies, they lose their commander and their apex battle strength. The remaining Great Wilderness Foundation Establishment cultivators’ power plummeted.

Yang Jishan tapped his spear and killed a few more Great Wilderness cultivators, then became a gusting gale, charging back and forth several times to rout the rest.

The crisis at the Yang clan camp eased.

But before anyone could catch their breath, a dazzling sword-radiance flared across the night. A mighty pressure spread at once like a mountain-toppling, sea-overturning roar.

Mo Hua’s heart tightened. He looked up—and the pitch-black sky turned bright as day.

Up in the heavens, a cultivator strode through the air. Pure white sword-light fanned behind him like wings, guarding his body—brilliant, ethereal, like an immortal.

Walking on air!

An Ascension True Person!

This was Ascension, the real power of it.

This Ascension cultivator seemed to be an overall commander for the Dao Court’s side. He pinched his fingers and drew a stroke. A world-cleaving sword qi dropped like a cliff.

The sword qi crashed into the Great Wilderness ranks. Spiritual power burst like a landslide, splitting the earth.

Whether Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, or Golden Core, all were shredded in an instant by the Ascension’s dazzling sword qi.

Such was the power of a single sword.

Mo Hua’s mind swayed, stunned.

While the Ascension sword cultivator slaughtered Great Wilderness cultivators with his Ascension sword qi, a yellow glow shot up from the Great Wilderness side.

A Great Wilderness Ascension True Person with tiger stripes on his back rose like a ferocious tiger, blood-qi surging to the sky. He stepped into the air and hurled a punch to clash with the Dao Court’s Ascension sword cultivator.

Fist and sword crossed, the shockwaves spread.

All cultivators within the rippling spiritual shock—Dao Court and Great Wilderness alike—were shredded.

The Ascension sword cultivator slipped past the tiger-striped giant and cut again toward the Great Wilderness lines, reaping lives without number.

The tiger-striped giant laughed coldly, faced the Dao Soldiers, and gave a thunderous roar. The vicious tiger’s bellow vaporized flesh and blood in an instant. Several Golden Core commanders and many Foundation Establishment Dao Soldiers on the Dao Court’s side were reduced to white bone.

The battlefield turned even more brutal in a heartbeat.

Mo Hua felt a chill in his heart.

This was a true Ascension cultivator.

One who crossed the battlefield in the sky with nothing to fear.

From on high, cutting down low-realm cultivators was like an immortal slaughtering mortals.

Golden Core and Ascension were separated by a single major realm—yet it felt like a heavenly chasm, worlds apart.

No wonder Golden Cores were merely called great cultivators, while upon reaching Ascension one could be called a True Person.

In the sky, the Ascension-realm melee raged on. Several Dao Court overall commanders and high-level Ascension True Persons of the Great Wilderness Sect joined the fray.

For a time, over Windwave Ridge, spiritual power reached to heaven and dao-arts reached through the earth.

Mountains collapsed, ground split, flesh and blood flew—misery beyond words.

Yang Jishan’s face went ashen. “Ascension True Persons have joined the battle!”

He didn’t hesitate. He ordered the Yang clan soldiers, “Quick! Everyone! Take refuge in the third-grade sector to the east!”

An Ascension battlefield is pure slaughter; no one beneath Golden Core can withstand it.

Stay any longer and once caught by a stray strike, all would die.

He yanked Mo Hua. “Come, with me!”

Mo Hua nodded, grave.

Yang Jishan and Yang Jiyong led the Yang clan Dao Soldiers, shielding Mo Hua, retreating toward the third-grade eastern sector of Windwave Ridge.

Other Dao Soldiers clearly had the same idea—shoving, trampling, shifting toward east and west.

They moved while still fighting the Great Wilderness cultivators.

The battlefield descended into chaos.

But before Mo Hua and the others reached the third-grade sector, a squad flashed out ahead—three Great Wilderness Golden Cores in the lead with a hundred-plus Foundation Establishment behind.

As soon as they met, a Great Wilderness Golden Core shouted, “It’s Yang Jishan—kill them!”

Seeing three Golden Cores, Yang Jishan’s heart sank. Narrow path, no retreat—he had to level his spear and charge.

But one against three was brutally hard.

Worse, the Great Wilderness side had two early-stage Golden Cores and one mid-stage.

Yang Jishan, only early-stage and already battle-worn, flagged under the three-on-one assault. His moves grew increasingly strained.

Once he fell, the rest of the Yang clan cultivators would be slaughtered.

Perhaps this, too, was part of the death omen.

Mo Hua’s face tightened. He wanted to use Spirit-Stirring Sword to help kill for Yang Jishan.

But Yang Jishan, besieged by three and under extreme pressure, could barely hold on.

Even if the Spirit-Stirring Sword created an opening, he had no strength left to decapitate a Great Wilderness Golden Core.

If he himself acted—drawing on the God-Slaying Sword…

That would inevitably stir the fate-sha.

On a battlefield where blades and spears spared no one, provoking fate-sha and letting that eerie baleful power backlash upon himself was no different from courting death.

Mo Hua had no choice but to use arrays and Five Elements spells to harry the three Golden Cores for the moment.

He had barely moved when a lanky Great Wilderness Golden Core fixed razor eyes on him. “It’s that kid!”

“The one Young Master wants!”

“Seize him—or kill him.”

“Young Master said, dead or alive—bring him back.”

The two early-stage Golden Cores lunged for Mo Hua, leaving the mid-stage to keep pressing Yang Jishan.

But two early-stage Golden Cores couldn’t catch Mo Hua.

His body flowed like water. With a single light slip he slid out from between them.

“Damn it, what the hell is this kid…”

“Isn’t he Foundation Establishment? Two Golden Cores can’t catch him?”

“Save the nonsense—move!”

The lanky Golden Core swung a poisoned hook for Mo Hua’s throat.

The other brought a mace down at Mo Hua’s head.

Mo Hua blurred into mist and slipped away again.

The two cursed and tangled forward once more.

Seeing Mo Hua in danger, Yang Jishan wanted to help—but his weaker cultivation left him crushed under the mid-stage opponent’s ghost-headed saber. He could barely breathe. Anxiety ate at him.

Yang Jiyong, only Foundation Establishment peak and already wounded, was surrounded by Great Wilderness disciples and struggling bitterly.

Caught between the two Golden Cores, Mo Hua scanned the field and felt his heart sink.

If this dragged on, things would turn bad.

The death omen he’d foreseen would come true…

Mo Hua frowned slightly, then looked at Yang Jishan. Blending a thread of divine will into his voice, he whispered, “Commander Yang, go!”

Yang Jishan started.

Mo Hua’s face turned cold. He called to the three Great Wilderness Golden Cores, “Was it that bastard young master who sent you to catch me?”

“Bastard…” The lanky Golden Core parroted the word, then snapped to, slapped himself, and spat, “Pah! Dare to call Young Master a bastard? Boy, you’re dead!”

Mo Hua sneered. “Am I wrong? If he isn’t a Great Wilderness bastard, what is he?”

That line enraged all three Great Wilderness Golden Cores.

“Insult our Young Master? Once I catch you, I’ll have you cut into a thousand pieces!”

“Grind your bones to dust!”

Mo Hua smiled with contempt. “With that footwork of you three wastes—even as dogs, you’d never get to the fresh dung in time.”

“Brat, you’re courting death!”

The mid-stage Golden Core in Great Wilderness armor, wielding the ghost-headed saber, flew into a rage, abandoned Yang Jishan, and hacked at Mo Hua.

Ripples of water—Mo Hua slipped aside and dodged the saber, then shot him a mocking look and burned his movement Technique to flee.

It was naked provocation.

The other two struck—one hook, one mace—but both hit mist and failed to stop him.

“Damn it! Big Brother!” the lanky Golden Core shouted to the mid-stage one.

The mid-stage cursed. “After him! We must bring back the one Young Master wants. If Young Master isn’t happy, how do we explain to the mistress?”

“Right!”

“Flay him alive!”

The three Great Wilderness Golden Cores immediately abandoned the Yang clan soldiers and chased after Mo Hua.

Yang Jishan moved as if to pursue, but after drawn-out battle and heavy wounds he simply had no strength left to save Mo Hua.

He could only watch as Mo Hua, alone, lured away three powerful Great Wilderness Golden Cores—saving the entire Yang clan battalion in the process.

Blood at his lips, Yang Jishan was seized by shame and regret.

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