Chapter 113

Chapter 113: Nine-Wheel Sacrifice

Yun Xi broke out in a cold sweat. This was an array meant to erase every trace. It wasn’t going to leave a single survivor.

She put away the Seven-Star Doom Staff, gripped a mid-grade spirit stone in each hand, and began replenishing the spiritual power being drained from her body as fast as she could.

She still had the presence of mind to glance at Qin Tong Shuang and Zhang Yan nearby. Both were late Qi Refining cultivators. She didn’t know if they could hold out.

Qin Tong Shuang sealed herself inside a block of thousand-year cold ice to stop her spiritual power from leaking away. But Zhang Yan didn’t have anything that good. He had already collapsed on the ground, and his body was slowly fading apart.

“Zhang Yan!” Yun Xi shouted.

The red cord on Mu Ning Zhu’s wrist automatically retracted, signaling that someone on the other end had died.

Mu Ning Zhu’s eyes reddened. She could only grit her teeth and clutch her spirit stones, refusing to follow Zhang Yan’s path.

Yun Xi stared up at the nine arrays, her mind racing as she searched for a way out. She didn’t notice the flower mark between her brows flickering in and out as it helped her resist the array’s pull.

“Fellow Cultivators, Li is grateful that you stayed to attend my bonding ceremony. And I thank you for your sacrifice. That way, my Qiu Shui can come back.”

A figure in white appeared above the Nine-Wheel Sacrifice Array. As he spoke, he waved and released a crystal coffin that dropped to the core of the formation. The sacrificed spiritual power was converted through the array and poured into that coffin.

“Master Li, what are you trying to do?”

“Li Cang Yuan, you evil cultivator!”

“Does City Lord Li know you’re doing this? For a dead person, you dare sacrifice an entire city. Aren’t you afraid your Dao heart will become unstable?”

“Master Li, spare us! Let us go…”

“Stop!”

The cultivators erupted. Their lives mattered more than anything.

“Hmph! You are the ones who killed my Qiu Shui. You have to pay with your lives!” Li Cang Yuan declared.

“Bullshit!” someone with higher cultivation immediately argued back. “This is my first time in Twin Mountain City. We’ve never even met the Qiu Shui you’re talking about. How could we have harmed her?”

Yun Xi noticed, however, that the cultivators who had been inexplicably transported into this space looked uneasy. Clearly, those people were not innocent.

Li Cang Yuan laughed wildly. “So what? You still entered the city alongside the cultivators who did it.”

His voice was already crazed. It was obvious he had waited a long time for this day.

Yun Xi forced down the urge to roll her eyes. If he wanted revenge, he should kill the people who actually did it. Why drag in innocent passersby?

“As long as I sacrifice all of you, my Qiu Shui can be revived!” Li Cang Yuan’s face twisted into something terrifying.

He had plotted for so long, waiting for the chance when his father was in closed-door seclusion. He wanted everything to be foolproof. Now that the array had started, he was about to succeed.

The two spirit stones in Yun Xi’s hands crumbled into powder. She grabbed two more mid-grade spirit stones and shouted as she cursed, “Your lover is already dead. The dead don’t come back to life. Are you sure that what you summon back with an evil array like this will be your lover’s soul?”

She continued, “If you love her that much, then after killing the ones who harmed her, why didn’t you abandon your body and cultivate ghost dao? Why didn’t you go accompany your lover’s soul yourself?”

Li Cang Yuan locked onto Yun Xi at once. When he saw she was just a little girl, he sneered. “I will bring Qiu Shui back to my side. We will ascend to the spirit world together, even the Immortal Realm. You ants are only fit to offer your lives. That is your honor!”

Yun Xi almost laughed from anger. Just because their cultivation was weak, they deserved to be crushed like this?

As they spoke, more cultivators turned to dust. The cultivators still barely holding on felt their hearts sink. The more who died, the more stable the array became.

“Fellow Cultivator Zhu, have you found the array’s flaw yet?” someone asked anxiously, looking at the formation expert who had warned them earlier.

Zhu Lin used a formation plate to shield himself from the Nine-Wheel Sacrifice Array’s pull while he calculated with a compass. Hearing the question, he looked up and said, “Only a Nascent Soul cultivator can destroy this array, and they would need to attack from inside and outside at the same time, or destroy the array core. Otherwise, none of us can escape.”

As he spoke, he looked toward the crystal coffin in the air. That should be the array core Zhu Lin meant.

Everyone’s faces darkened. This was clearly impossible. They didn’t have a single Nascent Soul cultivator, and none of them could even get close to the coffin.

Just as Yun Xi was considering whether to hide in her space, Dian Dian sent her a voice transmission: “Master, what’s happening? Dian Dian’s spiritual power is disappearing!”

Only then did Yun Xi remember Dian Dian was still in her arms. She immediately replied by voice transmission, “Dian Dian, I’m trapped in the Nine-Wheel Sacrifice Array. Everyone inside is having their spiritual power drained. If your spiritual power runs out, you can only wait to die.”

Dian Dian moved its little paws and replied miserably, “Master, Dian Dian was about to advance to Second Rank. I was just about to break through! How did I wake up and end up waiting to die?”

Yun Xi’s mind turned quickly. She sent another voice transmission, “When you advance, do you also have to go through Thunder Tribulation?”

“Yes!” Dian Dian replied. “Heavenly Dao is fair. When cultivators advance, they need Tribulation Transcendence. We do too.”

“If you have enough spiritual power, can you try to push into Second Rank and draw Thunder Tribulation?” Yun Xi asked.

“I… I think so?” Dian Dian replied, uncertain.

Yun Xi knew this space had been opened separately. She wasn’t sure if Dian Dian could bring Thunder Tribulation down here. Even if it did come, Dian Dian might be struck to death. With so many cultivators inside the Tribulation Transcendence area, the lightning would surely be terrifying.

But she wanted to use it to break the situation.

In her understanding, lightning restrained all evil things. Tribulation Transcendence heavenly lightning, especially, had to be able to smash an evil array like this.

She acted immediately. Yun Xi sent Dian Dian into her space, making it hold the Immortal Spirit Grass and cultivate, rushing toward the breakthrough threshold. If she dragged this out, she, as the master, would be dead soon.

The Immortal Spirit Grass was surprised when a black-eared rat suddenly appeared. It received Yun Xi’s instruction, but it seemed to dislike Dian Dian and refused to let it touch it. It only shook its leaves, and a green glow fell onto Dian Dian’s body.

Dian Dian could sense its master’s danger, so it immediately began absorbing spiritual power like its life depended on it. It had to save its master.

By now, half of the cultivators dragged into the array were dead. The remaining ones were mostly Golden Core and late Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Zuo Die Er and Ming Ya hid inside a bell-shaped spirit treasure, both looking pale and panicked. They even regretted following Zhou Lang Chen. Admiration was nothing compared to staying alive.

Li Cang Yuan’s eyes grew brighter and brighter as he muttered, “Qiu Shui, soon. You’re almost back.”

Suddenly, a beam of golden light struck Li Cang Yuan in the back. The figure hovering above the array wobbled and fell down beside the crystal coffin.

An aged voice rang out, “Cang Yuan, stop at once! How is this any different from an evil cultivator?”

Everyone forced themselves to look up, but they couldn’t see the speaker. Still, someone recognized the voice and shouted, “It’s City Lord Li! He’s come out of seclusion!”

“City Lord Li, save us!”

Cries for help rose one after another.

Li Cang Yuan didn’t move at all. He lay on the crystal coffin, absorbing the endless spiritual power flowing through the array core, and his cultivation steadily climbed.