"So Huang Tian and the Wuji Sect Master were bribed with Withered Yuan Pills after all."
Daoist Zhenyi recalled past events.
Bribing a Nascent Soul cultivator was no simple matter; the conditions capable of tempting one were few and far between.
Qu Huan had been an undercover agent he personally planted in the Sin Abyss, but upon forming his nascent soul, Qu Huan had slipped beyond his control. Had it not been for this major turmoil in the Sin Abyss, Qu Huan likely would never have served as an insider.
Having learned the inside story, the fervor in everyone's eyes when looking at the Withered Yuan Pill lessened slightly, replaced by more wariness.
Qin Sang's interest also waned considerably.
The consequence of taking a Withered Yuan Pill was the three decays of essence, qi, and spirit; the jade Buddha could only protect his nascent soul. Once the latent danger erupted, one's realm would even drop—the loss outweighed the gain.
Qu Huan was not stingy at all and handed the Withered Yuan Pill over to Daoist Zhenyi.
Now privy to the inner details, everyone's morale surged.
According to their previous plan, pinning the Sin Abyss down in Yucheng and facing them across the city was already the best possible outcome. Now that an unexpected turn of events had arisen, they naturally would not remain satisfied with such a result.
As the saying went, strike when the enemy is down.
The Sin Abyss had brought this end upon themselves.
"Fellow Daoists, you have heard. The Sin Abyss is in internal turmoil and has suffered catastrophic losses; this is a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. I urge you all not to hold back, but to strike with all your might to break the city-defending grand formation!" Daoist Zhenyi called out in an urgent voice.
This time, the Xiaohan Realm cultivators did not object.
Demon Monarch Tongyou said, "The main army is on its way. Even if we cannot break the grand formation, we can pin them down and give them no chance to mend the breaches. However, it is said that the inner city's formation was left by the Sin Abyss's forebears and has never been breached. Breaching the inner city will likely not be that easy; we must plan carefully..."
As they spoke, everyone joined forces to break through over a dozen layers of ancient restrictions.
From outside the city-defending grand formation, one could see that within the lotus grand formation, the interior of a cyan lotus petal was hazy and chaotic, sounding as though a hurricane was raging within, accompanied by continuous rumbles.
Yucheng trembled, and the lotus grand formation darkened intermittently.
Just then, Qin Sang and the others suddenly felt their entire bodies tighten, only to find the scenery before their eyes shifting drastically—they had been forcibly shifted elsewhere.
Reinforcements had arrived to assist the cultivator surnamed Qi, forcibly separating Qin Sang and the others to slow their pace in breaking the formation.
Whoosh!
The ebony sword turned into a streak of sword light to shield him.
Qin Sang scanned his surroundings and saw no other figures; it seemed he had been deliberately singled out.
Yet not a shred of worry appeared on Qin Sang's face. Qu Huan had already told them all the permutations of the city-defending grand formation; the Sin Abyss was merely putting up a desperate, cornered struggle.
At the same time, the Nascent Soul cultivators of the Sin Abyss entered the formation one after another to intercept the incoming enemies.
...
Blue sky and white clouds.
Flowers bloomed like brocade, their fragrant scent wafting around his nose.
The scenery here was utterly out of place with the outside world.
Qin Sang knew he had fallen into a certain pocket space within the grand formation. Within a few breaths, the Heavenly Eye Butterfly spotted the flaws in the illusory scenery, but Qin Sang did not act rashly.
'Hm?'
Qin Sang seemed to detect something. His gaze suddenly sharpened, and with a tap of his foot, he soared high into the air.
In the next moment,
the earth and stones churned as streams of black qi gushed up from underground. Wherever the black qi touched, the fresh flowers withered and died one after another, reducing the splendid scenery to utter ruin in an instant.
Whoosh...
The black qi surged, and a sinister wind howled as though countless evil ghosts were wailing.
Directly after, withered palms tore through the soil and crawled out from beneath the earth—they were all refined corpses.
"Heh... heh!"
The refined corpses made guttural, incomprehensible noises. They abruptly snapped their heads up, their pitch-black ghostly eyes fixing upon Qin Sang in unison. The eerie scene sent a chill down the spine.
"I have long heard that Fellow Daoist Qin possesses peerless divine abilities. Today, I finally have the chance to experience a measure of them."
All the refined corpses spoke at once, their voices identical; someone was clearly pulling the strings from behind.
"A corpse array?"
A name instantly crossed Qin Sang's mind. "Are you the renowned Judge?"
While searching for the Heavenly Corpse Sect and Tan Hao, Qin Sang had thoroughly investigated the cultivators in the Sin Abyss who practiced the corpse and ghost path, and he knew of a demonic cultivator titled 'Judge' who was adept in corpse refining.
However, his corpse refinement differed from the Heavenly Corpse Sect's style. Instead of specifically strengthening a single refined corpse, he deployed them to form a corpse array, which was quite peculiar.
It was said that as long as he was inside the corpse array, the Judge could remain undefeated, making him exceedingly troublesome to handle. Qin Sang looked closely and indeed found that the qi mechanics between each refined corpse were linked, quietly conforming to a specific array formation.
"You flatter me! I fear this trifling reputation hardly catches Fellow Daoist Qin's discerning eye..."
The refined corpses laughed wildly.
Qin Sang's gaze swept across the corpses one after another, yet he could not discern where the Judge's true body was hiding.
Perhaps every refined corpse was his true body.
"No need to search. None of these is his true body. He uses a soul lodging technique to parasitize his soul onto the refined corpses and can shift at will within the corpse array. It's impossible to tell from the outside which corpse harbors the primary soul. Your Heavenly Eye divine ability happens to be countered; they clearly sent him intentionally to stop you,"
Bai secretly transmitted his voice.
Being a refined corpse himself, he could see the profound mysteries of the corpse array.
"Can Brother Bai find his primary soul?" Qin Sang's expression remained unchanged as he communicated with Bai in secret.
"Once I see through the shifts in the corpse array, I should be able to spot a clue. Tangle with him first, and I will look for an opening to strike," Bai replied.
Qin Sang's eyes flashed. Wasting no further breath on his opponent, he pointed a finger.
The ebony sword shot forward with a whistle.
In an instant, sword light poured like rain, blanketing the corpse array and manifesting the Seven Po Killing Array.
The refined corpses' laughter came to an abrupt halt, replaced by ear-piercing shrieks. All the corpses sprang into motion simultaneously, turning into streaks of black shadows.
Their movements appeared erratic, but as they moved, their speed grew faster and faster until they blended into one. Corpse qi soared to the sky as the true might of the corpse array fully revealed itself.
Qin Sang attempted to use the Seven Po Killing Array's soul-affecting ability to drag out the Judge's primary soul, but to little effect; his primary soul could indeed shift at will.
Seeing this, Qin Sang simply changed the array's posture.
In an instant, a chilling bleakness gripped the sword array, the sword light turning grim and stark, brimming with lethal intent!
Whoosh!
As the two arrays clashed, Qin Sang gained the upper hand. Catching a flaw in the corpse array, myriads of sword lights slashed in unison toward a single refined corpse.
The Judge grew alert.
Within the corpse array, the other refined corpses formed bizarre hand seals and struck toward that corpse through the air. The power of the corpse array converged upon it, causing the corpse's aura to surge violently as a layer of black armor made of corpse qi enveloped it out of thin air.
Boom!
Yet the Judge was still a fraction of a second too slow. The moment the armor formed over the corpse, the sword light arrived. The armor shattered on impact, and the corpse itself was shredded by the sword array.
Crash!
The refined corpse fell backward, shattering into countless pieces.
Unexpectedly, a new refined corpse crawled out from underground in the very next instant, leaving the corpse array completely intact.
Qin Sang was startled, but without hesitation, he drove his sword to press the attack.
As time passed, one refined corpse after another was shredded by the sword array, yet the corpse array never collapsed. The Judge had a ceaseless supply of corpses; each time one was lost, he immediately summoned a replacement.
With the Three Domains War having lasted for so long, the one thing never in short supply was corpses. Who knew just how many corpses the Judge had refined—they seemed virtually endless.
Chapter 1304