Chapter 472 Into the Crevasse
Chapter 472 Into the Crevasse
As they fought the untied front of the Profound Music Palace, Frozen Garden Palace and the Brilliant Sun Temple managed to gradually stabilize the situation, as the guest Sect's disciples, Elders and Sect Protectors arrived a little later to completely stop the tide not far from the crevasse.
Part of this force were the disciples of Yin Yang Unity Palace led by Xia Jung, since they did not need to retreat as there was no separate party targeting them.
The only ones conspicuously missing were the Sects hailing from the Cloud Piercing Continent, which were invited by the Cloud Piercing Sect, and some of the local sects invited by the Profound Martial Arts Valley.
The sturdy-looking defense, however depended on the fact that Wu Long and Hua Ziyan were exterminating any Demonic Beast above the 7th tier, though if the beast was of low-level in the 7th-tier it could still be handled by Grand Elder Qu.
Wu Long took this time to give Hua Ziyan more experience fighting 7th-tier beasts and then eventually had her defeat an 8th-tier beast after a little bit of struggle on her own.
There appeared three 9th-tier Demonic Beasts in total, combined with the one Wu Long slayed first, their shapes slightly differing showing that the evolution of Demonic Beasts from the same species deviated the higher the tier was.
"Hmm, we should soon head in, I doubt any 9th or 8th-tier will appear now and the window of opportunity is closing"
Wu Long spoke to Hua Ziyan and Xue Bing, as well as the group of Core Disciples that decided to follow.
"Eh? But... what if more appear while you are gone?"
"The night is ending, so they would not be able to pass. And the ones going out now we can slay while on our way"
Wu Long said as Xue Bing started to understand. In the past they also always experienced a strengthening of the wave during night time, though never to these proportions.
"Let's go"
Wu Long moved forward after giving a signal to people behind, and the group followed him as they continued to cut down any higher-tier beasts on their way.
The spear in Wu Long's hand was constantly flashing with arcs of electricity, as did his skin though with smaller barely visible ones, while he moved efficiently and extremely naturally, as if every move flowed out from the one before.
Hua Ziyan could definitely feel that he was much faster without trying very earnestly. Though there were still some blemishes and flaws now in his movements which were not present before as it seemed that not everything worked perfectly at this point, and he was still adjusting things on the go.
She could also feel Water Qi in him from time to time as she understood that he was likely using the Water Rune to offset the effects of the Lightning Rune inside his muscles, and do damage control as well.
He also sometimes took medicinal pills, which she never saw him do during fights. It seemed that the damage he accumulated was still substantial enough even though on the surface it did not look like he was hurt at all.
As they moved closer both she and Xue Bing, as well as the disciples with them looked up at the giant crack in the icy stone wall of the mountain which partially looked ancient and partially fresh from where the 9th tier beast broke it before.
The stampede of the Demonic Beast grew denser to the point that they had to now not only target higher-tier ones but to slay any that would cross their paths just to take a step forward.
"Thousand Spears of Anguish"
Wu Long made a move and a thousand Spiritual Qi spears appeared above his head. The spearpoints moved after they appeared, seemingly all having a specific target, and launched, targeting a thousand higher-tier beasts while a few water droplets from melted snow rose into the air before him and made a thin arc, launching forward.
The higher-tier beasts were skewered through the head by spears, each one not missing a single mark while the lower-tier ones as far as they could see were cut in half.
"...!"
Xue Bing and the disciples widened their eyes once more at this display, as both attacks on their own were not that impressive if taken on their merits. It was the execution of the techniques which made this such a deadly force.
Techniques utilizing a lot of attacks at once were generally considered wasteful and lacking refinement, since there was almost no one who could display such a fine control over each individual attack, resulting in a lot of attacks hitting empty space.
If Wu Long launched the attack as it appeared, he would have at most hit about 300-400 beasts, many attacks hitting the same targets.
They usually also were quite costly on the reserves of one's Spiritual Qi. Especially if they had a good piercing or blunt power, but Wu Long's technique looked to be quite generic. What he did was slightly alter the technique's flow and manipulated the composition of the Spiritual Qi in the spear blades.
'So that is what I felt...'
Xue Bing had a realization, her gaze turning to Hua Ziyan as she felt something strange while watching her fight. Each of her Spiritual Qi fists moved as if driven by specific will, and utilizing a thought-out trajectory despite their quite impressive numbers.
She understood that Wu Long specifically pushed the petite beauty to learn fine control over each attack much like he had over his, not letting her increase the number of fists until she mastered fighting with the ones she had.
'It may slow down how fast she gains more firepower... but eventually the difference between her and someone like me who launches all attacks simultaneously and in one direction with little to control will be more apparent'
She thought as she realized how lucky Hua Ziyan was to receive such careful guidance.
It was one thing to try to do this on her own from now on, and receive the guidance who already had an unfathomable control over Spiritual Qi and his techniques, since she did not even know where to begin doing what Hua Ziyan was doing.
"Wu Long, is that moon we saw before what you once called a 'Secret Realm'?"
Hua Ziyan asked as they gained a moment of respite thanks to him clearing out the passage, though they could already hear more Demonic Beasts getting closer far ahead.
"Mm, indeed. There are many types of them, this particular one is quite common though.
It is an actual satellite tiny planet next to this one, which once in every decade gets into the correct position over this mountain, forming a connection to the Dragon Vein of this Spiritual Land
Judging by the fact it was not known in this world before the Great Calamity as neither that old man nor Madam Liang knew about it, the connection was probably formed at the time this Spiritual Land sprang into existence as the upper level of these lands was blown off by the catastrophe"
Wu Long nodded with a light explanation, moving slightly forward and slaughtering the beasts ahead with little to no effort.
"Then... the Demonic Beasts are not born in the Spiritual Land but that... 'Secret Realm'?"
Xue Bing cautiously asked, not sure if he would answer her questions, but to her slight surprise he nodded without much hesitation.
"Correct, it is also the reason your Sect was so wrong with the estimates about the size and intensity of the Demonic Beast wave.
You always assumed that the beasts were born in the heart of the mountain, monitoring the Crevasse to gauge the level of threat, while they are simply passing through the link deep within here"
Wu Long spoke as they passed into the depths of the mountain, the icy ceiling beginning to glow and illuminate the passage with soft and gentle bluish light as it seemed to somehow pass the moonlight even though there were tons and tons of solid rock above them.
"The strength of the link depends on the quality and quantity of Spiritual Qi released by the Dragon Vein of the Spiritual Land, which means that while you expected some beasts to grow stronger and there being more of them, the consequences of the recent improvements in Spiritual Qi were that the link became more stable and let through more powerful beings"
There was a vexed expression of realization on the faces of the Core Disciples as he explained, recognizing that they simply fundamentally did not understand the phenomenon they called the Winter Forest Demonic Beast Wave.
"Though it could still not pass any 7th or higher tier beasts in daytime. As you probably figured out, at night the connection grows stronger.
So there is no need to worry that the line of defense is in any danger, since the link would soon grow weak again. Though that would mean it would be impossible for us to go through it safely"
He soothed their worry, at the same time explaining the phenomenon a little further.
Wu Long then shifted to killing off more powerful Demonic Beasts only again, as Hua Ziyan, after this brief break resumed her training with double the effort.
They reached the heart of the mountain half an hour later, not meeting any 9th-tier beasts on the way anymore.
"Hmm, the link must be getting weaker already as the number of 8th tier and 7th-tier beasts is also dwindling"
Wu Long said, slightly increasing his pace as the others followed suit.
They soon found a large lake, above which the cave suddenly expanded far into the sky with the blue moon they saw before clearly visible and shining brightly both above and in the reflection of the lake.
They could see the hordes of Demonic Beasts emerging from the lake, without disturbing the surface at all, as if it was a mirror.
"Let's go"
He lightly reminded the beauties around who were a bit mesmerized by the scene, and the group cut their way throughthe beasts, eventually jumping into and disappearing into the lake.