Chapter 135 - The Boundary Pillar and the Rotting Beast
Chapter 135: Chapter 135 - The Boundary Pillar and the Rotting Beast
The monsters moved through the red mist.
Heavy footsteps shook the ruined valley. Rotting bone scraped against cracked stone. Red vapor leaked from broken ribs and hollow eye sockets.
For a moment, the young cultivators tightened their formations and prepared to receive the charge.
Then the ground trembled again.
A second stone tablet rose near the black river. Ancient characters lit up across its broken surface.
[Protect the Boundary Pillar.]
The words were simple. But no one dared ignore them.
Across the river, on the opposite bank, the faint stone pillar stood alone in the mist. Its surface glowed weakly, like a candle about to be swallowed by night.
Only then did everyone realize something.
The monsters were not rushing toward them. They were heading toward the Boundary Pillar.
Yan Lie’s expression changed.
"They want to destroy it?"
Zhuge Jing’s feather fan opened.
His gaze swept over the monsters, the terrain, the pillar, and the spreading mist.
Then his voice rang out.
"Intercept them."
No one argued. Not this time.
The Boundary Pillar falling might mean the route would collapse, the mist would rise, or worse.
The young generation moved.
They split naturally into several directions.
Zhuge Jing remained slightly behind the front line, watching the entire battlefield. His fan moved slowly, each motion adjusting people’s positions.
"Scorching Sun Valley, right flank. Do not chase too far."
"Myriad Swords Sect, cut the smaller ones before they reach the pillar."
"Glass-Lotus disciples, stay near Sister Bai. Keep the barrier close to the wounded."
"Divine Artificer Citadel, watch the ground cracks."
"Tang Clan, poison the path, not the air. The wind is false."
His voice was calm. But every instruction landed where it needed to.
Even those who disliked being commanded obeyed.
The pressure of danger made pride quieter.
Radiant Sky Sect moved toward the left side, where a large rotting beast had broken away from the main wave.
It was at the Golden Core level.
Its body looked like a wolf, a bear, and a corpse had been forced together by something without patience.
Its spine was exposed. Its claws dragged red mist through the earth. Each step caused black blood to drip from its joints.
Qin Baoshan stepped forward first.
His shield appeared in his hand.
"Leave the front to me."
His voice was steady.
The rotting beast lowered its head and charged.
The ground cracked under its weight.
Qin Baoshan did not dodge. He planted his feet.
Unshakable Mountain Stance.
Earth-colored Qi sank from his legs into the ground.
His shield expanded with a deep glow.
Boom!
The beast crashed into him.
The impact shook the nearby stones.
Qin Baoshan slid back half a step.
His arms trembled, but his posture did not collapse.
"Now," he said through gritted teeth.
Liu Meng moved.
She did not rush forward like a warrior. Instead, she stepped sideways, fingers opening a small jade bottle.
Pale yellow alchemical powder scattered into the air.
The powder did not strike the beast directly.
It spread around its head and sank into the red mist leaking from its mouth.
The beast’s movements suddenly became uneven.
Its left claw missed the ground.
Its head twisted toward nothing.
"Sense-confusion powder," Liu Meng said quickly. "It cannot stop it for long."
Ji Ruyue raised her hand.
A cold line flashed.
Frost spread across the beast’s front limbs.
The beast struggled, but the frozen parts cracked slowly instead of instantly shattering.
Ji Ruyue’s control was precise.
"Three breaths," she said.
Han Yuelin sighed.
"That is very short."
Even as he spoke, his hand moved to his sword.
He had not fully drawn it yet.
But the sword intent had already moved.
A lazy, quiet sword light slid through the air.
Then it cut into the beast’s shoulder before the beast could react.
Rotting flesh split open. Red mist burst out.
Su Bai’s eyes shifted toward Han Yuelin.
That sword intent...
It was the Sloth Sword from the Ancestral Sanctum.
Han Yuelin had truly grasped it.
The beast roared.
Su Bai moved.
Several thin needles appeared between his fingers.
His arm flickered. The needles vanished.
They struck the beast’s joints one after another.
Each needle entered with almost no sound.
The red mist inside its body twisted violently, as if trying to escape.
Su Bai took out another needle.
This one was different. It was hollow and a faint trace of heavenly fire slept inside it.
Weeping Needle.
Su Bai flicked it forward.
The hollow needle pierced the beast’s right hind joint.
For one breath, nothing happened.
Then the needle wept fire.
Ashen gray cold flame erupted from inside the joint and spread through the hollow spaces between bone and rot.
The beast staggered.
Qin Baoshan seized the chance.
He roared and smashed his shield forward.
The blow struck the monster’s chest.
The rotting beast was forced back.
At the same time, Ji Ruyue formed a hand seal.
Cold Qi gathered above her.
A massive ice spear formed in the air.
It fell like a frozen judgment.
The spear pierced through the beast’s shoulder and nailed it to the cracked ground.
The beast screamed.
Liu Meng moved again.
This time, her steps changed.
Flame flickered beneath her feet.
Wildfire Step.
The movement technique Su Bai had given her from the jade slip.
Liu Meng’s figure crossed the battlefield in short, quick arcs. Each step left behind a small flame that grew only after she had already moved away.
The flames did not burn randomly.
They formed a curved path around the beast.
A half-ring.
Then a full ring.
The sense-confusion powder inside the ring ignited slightly, producing a strange medicinal smoke.
The beast tried to retreat.
The smoke pushed it back.
It tried to turn.
The flames closed.
Liu Meng stopped behind Qin Baoshan and exhaled.
"Its route is sealed."
Qin Baoshan nodded.
"Good."
Han Yuelin finally drew his sword fully.
The blade flashed once.
The sword intent that had already wounded the beast returned, this time cutting across the frozen spear wound.
Ji Ruyue’s ice cracked.
The beast’s shoulder collapsed.
Su Bai raised his hand.
A final needle appeared.
His gaze landed on the beast’s skull.
The rotting beast sensed danger and raised its head.
Too late.
The needle struck the center of its brow.
Ashen-Frost Blight Flame erupted inward.
The beast’s roar stopped.
Its massive body stiffened.
Then it fell.
Boom.
The ground shook.
Red mist leaked from its corpse, still writhing. But the flame spread over the rotting corpse and devoured the remaining contamination.
The beast’s body withered rapidly.
Bone cracked.
Rot collapsed.
Mist disappeared.
After several breaths, only a small pile of blackened ash remained.
The Radiant Sky Sect disciples stood around it.
None of them spoke for a moment.
Then Han Yuelin looked at the ash.
"Very clean."
Qin Baoshan nodded.
"It is."
Nearby disciples who had seen the exchange did not know whether to laugh.
But they were too shocked to laugh properly.
The Radiant Sky Sect group had taken down a Golden Core-level rotting beast quickly, cleanly, and without chaos.
They did not look like five disciples forced to cooperate. They looked like five pieces of one formation.
Zhuge Jing had been watching. His eyes brightened slightly.
His gaze settled briefly on Su Bai.
A fire hidden inside a needle.
And that ashen gray flame...
Zhuge Jing’s fingers moved beneath his sleeve.
Then stopped.
He smiled faintly.
The nearby cultivators were also startled.
Radiant Sky Sect had been quiet for too long.
That quietness had made people underestimate them.
But no one had time to remain shocked.
The monsters were still advancing.
"Left side!" Lin Weiyang shouted.
A crawling beast with six arms was moving through the cracks toward the Boundary Pillar.
Tang Ziyan’s needles flashed first.
Violet light sank into its arms.
The creature stiffened for half a breath, then continued crawling.
Tang Ziyan’s expression cooled.
"Rotten things are troublesome."
"They resist poison?" Liu Meng asked.
"They are already half poison and half corpse," Tang Ziyan said. "Poisoning them is like pouring muddy water into a swamp."
Su Bai understood that feeling.
Probably.
Yan Lie arrived from the right, flames surging around both fists.
"Then burn them!"
His flame struck the crawling beast and forced it backward.
The fire was fierce and overbearing. Bright enough to cut through the red mist.
Several Scorching Sun Valley disciples followed him. Their flame arts formed a wall.
This time, Yan Lie did not rush too far.
He had learned.
Or at least, he remembered Lin Weiyang’s warning.
Bai Zhi stood closer to the center, her lotus barrier moving with the group.
When a disciple from a smaller sect was nearly struck by a bone spear, Bai Zhi’s white lotus light unfolded and blocked the blow.
The disciple stumbled back, face pale.
"Thank you!"
Bai Zhi only nodded.
Her forehead had gained a faint sheen of sweat.
Protecting many people in a moving battlefield was much harder than standing still.
Chen Feng and the Myriad Swords Sect disciples formed a sword net near the front.
Sword Qi cut down the smaller humanoid monsters before they could reach the pillar.
Chen Feng’s expression was grim.
He was not weak.
His sword was sharp.
His foundation was solid.
His problem had never been talent.
It was that he had met Ji Ruyue too early.