"What is that!"
A human Core Formation cultivator pointed toward the ground and shouted.
Everyone saw the stone steps exposed beneath the surface, which were clearly not of recent construction.
They coexisted with the Landou Sect on Landou Island; in fact, Dongming Island had been discovered jointly by their ancestors and the sect. Yet none of them had known that another secret lay hidden here.
"What did those Witch Clan people take?"
The cultivators exchanged glances and barked in unison, "After them!"
The two sides gave chase through the forest.
Sword light and saber qi surged in unbroken succession, lashing out in a torrential onslaught, only to be held at bay by the Beast King Banners.
Before long, they broke through the Dark Thunder Wood forest. The Witch Clan cultivators breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that the flag formation was undisturbed. At the same time, the human Core Formation cultivators spotted the array at the boundary of the grand formation, along with the billowing black smoke!
"Not good—they slipped in from there! That man is trying to escape, stop him!"
Someone pointed at the black-robed man and yelled urgently.
Yet the Beast King Banners and the other Witch Clan cultivators still stood between them. It was already impossible to destroy the flag formation and cut off his retreat.
The black-robed man glanced back and let out a cold sneer.
The flag formation was right in front of him. As long as he stepped inside, slipped out through the corridor corroded by the black smoke, and then retrieved the outer flags to sever the passage, they could effortlessly shake off their pursuers.
Drawing these people here might not even be a bad thing; Eldest Senior Brother would easily be able to slip away.
By the time those pursuers detoured all the way to the exit of Dongming Island and gave chase outside, their group would have long since vanished without a trace.
The only thing they had exposed this time was the Beast King Banners. But plenty of sects within the Witch Clan possessed Beast King Banners; even if the Landou Sect wished to investigate, they would have nowhere to begin.
Plotting his next moves, the black-robed man felt victory firmly within his grasp. He plunged downward, darting straight toward the flag formation.
Right then, disaster struck.
Beside the flag formation, a dazzling beam of sword brilliance erupted without the slightest warning from a seemingly ordinary Dark Thunder Wood tree. The trunk shuddered faintly before splitting straight down the center, toppling to both sides and crashing to the earth.
That sword beam expanded violently in the black-robed man's pupils like King Yanluo demanding a life, thick with the stench of death.
Caught completely off guard, the black-robed man was gripped by both shock and fury. He had never imagined someone would lie in ambush here in advance without a single one of them noticing.
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind!
The thought flashed through his mind, yet he could not fathom how anything had gone awry. Their plan had been so meticulous, its execution so smooth—where could the flaw possibly have been?
Still, there was no time to ponder such things.
"Senior Brother, look out!"
Cries of alarm rose from his junior brothers behind him.
The black-robed cultivator was a veteran of countless battles. Though shaken and enraged, his composure held. Blurring his hands through a hand seal, he spat out a streak of blue light.
Encased within the light was a command arrow.
With a sharp metallic ring, the arrow flashed and interposed itself before the sword beam in the nick of time.
Unexpectedly, the sword beam flickered and differentiated into more than a dozen blazing streaks of sword light. Each was exceptionally razor-sharp, impossible to distinguish as real or illusory, effortlessly curving past the command arrow and streaking straight toward him.
"Sword light differentiation!"
Furious, the black-robed man felt his back go taut as a chill crept up from the depths of his heart.
Those capable of grasping sword light differentiation were without exception paragons among human sword cultivators. He had run into a mortal foe!
Maintaining his wits in the face of peril, he willed an insect to fly out from his body. It turned out that the dragonfly-like creature from before was his natal insect gu.
*Pfft!*
The moment the gu insect emerged, the black-robed man turned pale and spat a mouthful of essence blood across its body.
The creature gave a high-pitched, droning shriek as bloodlight flashed across its shell. In the next breath, it materialized a massive illusory form two men tall, completely shielding the black-robed man behind it.
At the same time, the black-robed man shot backward in retreat. He knew full well that so long as his natal insect gu held the enemy off and allowed him to pull back into the Beast King Banner formation, this assailant would have no chance of harming him.
His natal insect gu might suffer injuries in the process, however.
He had already used essence blood to forcibly unleash its potential; if it took heavy damage on top of that, it would likely take decades of gentle nourishment to fully recover.
Yet compared to his life, none of that mattered.
Seeing that the streaks of sword light were about to be intercepted by the phantom insect...
In the next instant, an unbelievable sight occurred. An unassuming speck of blue light abruptly manifested. Its speed was terrifying, overtaking the sword light from behind and hurtling directly toward the phantom.
It was none other than the Star Conch!
Before the black-robed man could react, a muffled pop resounded within the phantom. The massive form shattered on the spot, and his natal insect gu was unable to escape the same doom. Struck by the Star Conch, it died instantly, bursting into a mist of blood with not even a trace of its corpse left behind.
With his natal insect gu dead, the black-robed man felt a tearing agony rip through his origin soul, wresting a shrill scream from his throat as his face turned deathly pale.
A natal insect gu was linked to its master's heart and mind. Its demise inflicted a grievous wound upon the master.
"It's you..."
The black-robed man pointed at the figure beside the flag formation, his eyes nearly splitting at the corners.
He recognized it. That day, the treasure that had slain his Fourth Junior Brother in a single strike was this very item!
"It is me!"
Qin Sang sneered.
Having slain the gu insect, the Star Conch flew abreast of the sword light, bearing down with crushing force.
The black-robed man was no easy prey either. Even in such dire straits, he refused to give up, struggling desperately to survive. He hurtled backward at blinding speed, hair disheveled like a madman, muttering incantations under his breath as though attempting to cast some life-preserving Daoist art.
Just then, another sudden change erupted.
As the black-robed man swept past a Dark Thunder Wood tree, an extraordinarily beautiful butterfly suddenly revealed itself. It snapped its wings open, unleashing countless hair-thin yet devastatingly powerful arcs of lightning straight at the back of his heart.
Though the Heavenly Eye Butterfly was small, it was a third-transformation spirit insect after all. Even someone as formidable as the black-robed man dared not meet its full-powered strike head-on.
Pushed to the brink of death, he had focused every shred of his energy on parrying Qin Sang's sneak attack in hopes of preserving his life; how could he have anticipated an ambush from the rear?
Moreover, who could have guessed that this butterfly possessed such supreme concealment skills, trailing alongside them the entire time only to deliver a fatal blow at the final moment?
The lightning shattered the black-robed man's protective spirit light, freezing him in place. In the very next breath, the Star Conch punched straight through his flesh, killing him where he stood.
The black-robed man struggled to turn his head, wanting to see whose hands he had died by, but caught sight of only a fluttering butterfly's silhouette.
*A Heavenly Eye Butterfly! No, that's not it, it doesn't look like...*
That was his final thought.
Flapping its wings rapidly, the Heavenly Eye Butterfly swept past the black-robed man's waist, clutched his mustard seed bag, and darted into Qin Sang's embrace. Reunited with its true master at last, it radiated boundless delight, eager to dance.
Meanwhile, the black-robed man's junior brothers were rushing over in a frantic bid to rescue him.
The distance between them had been short, but Qin Sang had acted with ruthless decisiveness. Striking with thunderous momentum, victory and defeat were settled in an eyeblink, leaving them no chance to intervene.
Qin Sang soothed the excited Heavenly Eye Butterfly, raised his hand to recall the Star Conch, and channeled the ebony sword to unleash a vicious wave of sword qi forward. Then, beneath their stunned and furious glares, he retreated into the flag formation.
With a light push off the balls of his feet, he turned and stepped into the corridor of black smoke.
Chapter 904