Chapter 299

Chapter 299: Do They All Go This Far?
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. What are you still hesitating for?”

The airy, ethereal voice echoed in Junior Sister Ning’s ears. Her eyes went blank, and her expression turned dazed.

[Yes, what was she hesitating for?]

The Heavenly Dao was the ruler of the cultivation world.

Offering sacrifices to the Heavenly Dao to beg for its pity was also something beyond reproach.

Junior Sister Ning lowered her eyes to look at the crying boy, who would not stop wailing. The emotions in her gaze calmed down, and the arm holding the knife slowly rose.

Seeing the blade glinting with cold light, the boy cried even harder, his sobs growing more pitiful.

Junior Sister Ning was unmoved and walked toward him step by step.

Squelch.

Cold light flashed.

A red arc sliced through the air.

The crying stopped all at once.

Junior Sister Ning wiped the blood from the corner of her eye without any expression and turned back to look at Tian Pu Zi.

Tian Pu Zi clapped his hands and laughed, praising her again and again.

Below the altar, Wei Ying and the others stared in a daze.

It was as if they could not believe Junior Sister Ning had really laid hands on a young child.

It was also like they were worrying about what they themselves would have to go through next.

Sure enough, after Tian Pu Zi took the knife back from Junior Sister Ning, he did not stop. He picked out Junior Brother Sha from the remaining people of Tai Bai Academy and ordered him to copy Junior Sister Ning and complete a sacrifice.

Then it was Wei Ying’s turn, then Junior Sister Chen’s…

Everyone from Tai Bai Academy was forced to stain their hands with a life.

Tian Pu Zi was finally satisfied. He felt that he had a firm hold on their weak points and had also gained six loyal followers. He stopped letting them take part in the rest and instead passed the chance to the Heaven’s Retribution cult followers, asking them to go up one by one and bleed the remaining young children.

Thick blood flowed and curled along the stone. A mysterious totem pattern slowly formed on the heavy altar surface.

Tian Pu Zi was extremely excited.

Now there was only the last step left.

He took a step forward and came to stand in front of Han Xinlan. Smiling like a warm spring breeze, he said: “To die by my hand, you can rest easy even in the Nine Springs Underworld.”

When he said this, the corners of his mouth curled up, and his eyes were full of arrogant pride, as if everything was under his control.

“That is what I should be saying to you.”

Tian Pu Zi’s heart gave a heavy thump. A chilling sense of danger wrapped around his whole body.

Without thinking, he used his Instant Movement Technique. His figure vanished from where he stood and then appeared some distance away.

He stared doubtfully at Han Xinlan, who was still tied to the jade pillar and could not move, completely confused.

So the person who had just spoken was not her?

[Then where did that voice come from?]

“Envoy Lord?”

The Ancestor of the Tu Clan and the other Nascent Soul old fiend both looked at Tian Pu Zi in surprise.

Tian Pu Zi instinctively wanted to ask if they had noticed anything strange, but when he remembered his special status, the words rolled around on his tongue and were swallowed back down.

He forced himself to focus and flashed back in front of Han Xinlan.

Because of that little incident, he lost interest in slowly torturing her. He simply thrust the knife straight at Han Xinlan’s abdomen.

Just then, something unexpected happened.

The Han Xinlan tied to the jade pillar suddenly changed into Tian Pu Zi’s own figure.

Tian Pu Zi’s stab did not stray at all. It pierced right through the dantian of the figure in front of him.

“Puff!”

Tian Pu Zi spat out a mouthful of blood in disbelief. He lowered his head to look at the wound that had opened on his own abdomen. His whole mind shook.

If he still did not understand that he had fallen into a trap, his many years of living would have been for nothing.

His gaze swept across the altar.

The Ritual Boys and Ritual Girls were all alive and well, still crying at the top of their lungs. Each was louder than the last.

Wei Ying and the others stared with wide eyes, their gazes clear and foolish.

So everything that had just happened was an illusion?

How had that person, without alerting anyone, cast Illusion Art on him alone?

Tian Pu Zi prided himself on having studied the soul path for many years. Cultivators at the same level found it very hard to resist his control techniques.

He had never thought that he would stumble like this today.

What a terrible humiliation.

But from the point of view of the Ancestor of the Tu Clan and the others, it was a completely different scene.

Ever since Tian Pu Zi had stepped onto the altar, he had been talking to himself. He ignored them whenever they spoke to him, like he was immersed in another world.

Seeing this, everyone thought Tian Pu Zi was acting mysterious, communicating with the Heavenly Dao, and their respect for him only grew.

Who would have thought that before long, Tian Pu Zi would suddenly stab himself.

From that one stab, it was clear he had used full strength. The handle was almost buried in his body.

His dantian was probably badly damaged. His Nascent Soul would definitely be affected.

He really could bear to hurt himself like that.

The Ancestor of the Tu Clan looked rather ill at ease.

[No one said joining the Heaven’s Condemnation Organization involved self-harm. Was it still not too late for him to quit now?]

Wei Ying and the others, who had been sitting restlessly below, were completely stunned.

[What was going on? Why had Tian Pu Zi stabbed himself? Was this also part of the sacrifice ritual? Did they all have to go this far?]

“Was that your doing?”

Hua Tu was probably the only one present who knew the truth.

His words sounded like a question, but his tone was very sure.

Yu Zhao let out a soft laugh, which counted as admitting it.

Hua Tu narrowed his eyes slightly, deep in thought.

If it had been him facing this situation, he would have rushed out without thinking and gone all out with Tian Pu Zi in a fight to the death.

Yu Zhao’s way of handling things was clearly much gentler, and the effect was better too. She had not even had to show her face before she badly injured Tian Pu Zi.

He wondered if he should learn from Yu Zhao’s strengths and change his way of attacking.

“Since our customers from far away have already made a move, why not come out and meet me?”

Tian Pu Zi pressed a hand glowing with Spirit Power over his wound and shouted loudly.

From the way he was hurt, it was clear that the other person’s skill in soul arts far surpassed his own. If that person did not reveal their location on purpose, it would be hard for him to find any trace of them.

So he could only try to force the other side to appear with his words.

But Yu Zhao did not plan to play along.

She took out the Mirror of Fleeting Lives and aimed the black mirror surface at the Ancestor of the Tu Clan and the other Nascent Soul old fiend. Two faint ghostly lights slipped silently into their bodies.

Before long, their expressions changed.

Star Reaching Mountain fell into chaos with them.

The two Nascent Soul old fiends started grappling with each other without caring about their image, and every move they used was a killing blow.

Tian Pu Zi wanted to stop them, but he was also wary of Yu Zhao, who was hiding in the dark, so he did not dare to act rashly for the moment.

As for the Golden Core stage and Foundation Establishment stage cult followers, they had already backed far away even before the two started fighting, afraid of being caught in the aftershocks.

Yu Zhao finally stepped out and stretched a little.

It was time for her to take the stage.

“Wei Ying, I am Yu Zhao. I will hold off Tian Pu Zi. You take your junior brothers and junior sisters and go save the people.”

Yu Zhao was worried that Wei Ying would not recognize her voice and would not cooperate, so she introduced herself right away.

Wei Ying froze for several breaths before she realized what Yu Zhao had just said.

Yu Zhao?

Was that the Yu Zhao from Five Elements Dao Sect?

She was here at Star Reaching Mountain too!

And she said she would hold off Tian Pu Zi?

[No, this was too dangerous!]

Wei Ying’s memory of Yu Zhao was still stuck at the time of the big cultivation competition. She did not know that Yu Zhao had already broken through to Nascent Soul, so of course she did not feel safe leaving Yu Zhao to face him alone.

“Yu Zhao, maybe I should stay and fight with you instead.”