Chapter 228 | The Cage Reversed

Chapter 228: 228 | The Cage Reversed

Four pillars of thick, foul-smelling blood light erupted from the corners of the central arena pit, shooting straight up toward the vaulted dome of the Heavenly Colosseum.

Across the lower tiered stands, panic exploded in an instant.

"Demonic cultivators! It’s the Blood-Bone Demonic Cult!"

"The Black-Sun Sect betrayed the twelve sects! Run..."

Thousands of spectators surged out of their seats in a deafening wave of screams as thirty-two disguised executioners tore off their outer cloaks along the lower walkways, drawing curved, jagged blood-sabers that reeked of grave-rot and human marrow.

High atop the western balustrade of the Black-Sun Sect’s elevated terrace, Elder Mo threw his head back and laughed with wild, unhinged malice.

"Run? Where do you think you’re running?!" Elder Mo’s voice boomed across the chaotic amphitheater as his Middle Stage Core Formation aura blazed with corrupted scarlet flame. "Once the Blood-Sealing Slaughter Cage closes over the dome, everyone inside this colosseum will have their blood and Qi drained dry within an incense stick’s time!"

Behind him, the three Core Formation commanders of the Blood-Bone Demonic Cult grinned savagely, their scarlet cloaks billowing as they prepared to leap down and slaughter the weakened younger generation in the pit.

In Elder Mo’s mind, the plan was flawless.

Jian Wuchen had just expended ninety percent of his Golden Core essence on Stage One, and the elders of the other eleven sects would have thirty percent of their strength suppressed the moment the blood barrier inverted the colosseum’s spirit-vein array.

Yet just as the four rising pillars of dark-crimson blood light reached halfway to the colosseum.

CLANG—HUMMMMM!

Four blinding beams of pure, silver-gold sword light suddenly shot out from the four main structural dragon-pillars of the colosseum walls, intersecting the rising blood light in mid-air!

Down beneath the cracked floor of Stage One, the four six-foot Demonic Blood-Sacrifice Spikes gave a violent, hollow shudder—and then sputtered out like candles dunked in cold water!

Because Elder Bai and the Sky-Pillar Sword Sect’s Grand Elders had severed the subterranean spirit-iron reversal valves before dawn after Lin Tian’s warning, the ninety-nine-percent blood charge inside the spikes had nowhere to flow!

Instead of turning crimson, the massive protective array above the Heavenly Colosseum flashed a brilliant, impenetrable azure-silver—dropping a heavy curtain of array light directly around the inner perimeter of the central pit and the Black-Sun terrace, while leaving the twelve outer public exit tunnels open!

The manic laughter died abruptly in Elder Mo’s throat.

His sunken eyes bulged as he stared up at the azure-silver dome and then down at the dead, unresponsive blood-jade fragments in his palm.

"What... what happened to the spirit-iron conduits?!" Elder Mo rasped in disbelief. "The central spike clearly hit one hundred percent just now! Why didn’t the main array invert?"

Across the pit in the Crimson Nimbus Sect terrace, Elder Bai stood calmly at the front balustrade, a silver formation disk revolving slowly above her palm as her cold, clear voice echoed across the arena:

"Because the lower valves beneath the four stages were cut before sunrise, Elder Mo. Did you really think no one in the northern sects would notice the Refined Blood-Bone Iron you welded inside Mo Yan and Zhao Lie’s sabers?"

Beside her, Elder Liu stepped onto the stone rail, her emerald robes fluttering as the radiant, terrifying pressure of her Middle Stage Core Formation erupted into the sky like a sea of emerald-gold fire!

At the exact same instant, Grand Elder Jin of the Sky-Pillar Sword Sect and Elder Su of Frost-Moon Valley rose into the air from the central and northern terraces, locking down the upper sky with four overwhelming pillars of righteous Core Formation pressure!

"Evacuate the public tiers through the outer tunnels!" Grand Elder Jin’s voice thundered across the colosseum. "The Nine-Pillar Sky-Lock Array has sealed the central arena! Not a single traitor from the Black-Sun Sect or the Blood-Bone Cult leaves this floor alive!"

On the western terrace, the blood drained completely from Elder Mo’s withered face, followed immediately by the ferocious madness of a cornered beast.

Elder Mo snarled, his hateful gaze snapping down toward Lin Tian standing on Stage One.

Knowing there was no longer any hope of escaping through the array while four righteous Core Formation Elders blocked the sky, Elder Mo turned to the three demonic Core Formation commanders beside him and roared:

"Jian Wuchen is out of Qi on the stage, and the junior disciples of the twelve sects are still down by the lower walkways! Kill the juniors and seize Frost-Moon Valley and Crimson Nimbus Sect’s representatives as hostages—it’s the only way to force Grand Elder Jin to open the array gate!"

"Kill!"

Before the words had even faded, the three Core Formation demonic commanders and the thirty-two Peak Foundation cult executioners in the lower pit lunged forward with suicidal ferocity!

High in the air, Elder Mo and two of the demonic Core Formation commanders charged upward to tangle with Grand Elder Jin, Elder Liu, and Elder Su, filling the sky with deafening explosions of colliding Core essence.

Meanwhile, the third demonic powerhouse—a hulking, scar-faced Early Core Formation butcher known as Commander Xue, wielding a pair of heavy Tier-3 Low-Grade Blood-Skull Hooked Cleavers—did not fly upward at all.

Instead, Commander Xue dropped like a falling meteor straight toward the northern stone walkway between Stage One and the Frost-Moon Valley staircase, accompanied by eight Peak Foundation executioners!

On Stage One, Jian Wuchen braced himself on his silver sword and tried to force his depleted Golden Core to rise, only to cough a trace of blood as two executioners charged up the western steps toward him.

"Stay behind the boundary pillar and recover your breath, Senior Brother Jian," a calm voice sounded beside him.

Before Jian Wuchen could answer, a tall dark-robed figure blurred past his shoulder, and a crimson shadow leaped simultaneously from the joint supervision bench below!

SHIIIING!

Instructor Qing landed squarely at the foot of the western staircase, her long black hair snapping in the wind as she drew her crimson longsword.

With Lethal Fire-Poison purged from her body the night before, the true speed and ferocity of her Divine Valkyrie Body burst forth without a trace of restraint!

"Anyone who takes another step toward the stage dies!"

Qing’s blade flashed in three scorching crimson arcs, instantly forcing three Peak Foundation cult executioners back down the steps in a shower of sparks and severed armor straps.

Fifty paces away, along the wide northern stone platform leading down from the Frost-Moon Valley terrace, five junior female disciples in pale-blue silk robes were caught directly in the path of five charging cult executioners.

"Form the Frost-Wheel formation!"

Su Ling glided down to the front of her junior sisters, her frost-wrapped longsword flashing out of its sheath.

Having fought Jian Wuchen in the quarter-finals yesterday, Su Ling’s spiritual sea had only recovered to roughly eighty percent. Even so, her Extreme Frost-Yin erupted in a brilliant blue curtain across the walkway.

Clang! Crack!

With two clean, ruthless thrusts of her frost sword, Su Ling froze the throats of the first two Peak Foundation executioners solid and kicked their stiff corpses over the railing!

Yet at the exact instant her blade pierced the second executioner’s chest and her old stance reached its end—

WHOOOOSH!

A suffocating wave of nauseating, Early Core Formation blood-pressure dropped directly out of the smoke five feet behind her blind spot!

It was Commander Xue!

Ignoring the junior disciples entirely, the scarred Early Core Formation demonic commander grinned savagely as he swung his right Blood-Skull Hooked Cleaver in a silent, downward-ripping arc aimed straight at the back of Su Ling’s slender neck and left shoulder!

"Little beauty of Frost-Moon Valley, use your head to open the gate for this commander!"

From the sky, Elder Su—locked in combat with a Middle Stage demonic commander—let out a furious cry: "Ling-er, behind you!"

Down on the walkway, Su Ling felt the skin on the back of her neck prickle with mortal danger.

Because her sword was still buried in the frozen chest of the executioner in front of her, she tried desperately to circulate her Extreme Frost-Yin to twist sideways—only for the sudden, violent surge of cold Qi to trigger the old frost-scars inside her secondary meridians!

A sharp, freezing cramp locked her left ribcage for half a breath.

In a fight against an Early Core Formation expert, half a breath was the difference between life and death.

The jagged, blood-dripping hook of the Tier-3 cleaver screamed within four inches of her pale-blue collar, its corrosive blood-wind already stinging the pale skin of her neck!

Right before Su Ling’s eyes could even close—

Step.

A deep, immovable wave of scorching golden heat suddenly materialized directly behind her back!

Crossing forty paces of the chaotic pit in a single shadow-flash, Lin Tian stepped directly into the narrow gap between Su Ling and the descending cleaver.

Without hesitation, his strong left arm slid firmly around Su Ling’s slender waist, pulling her lithe, frost-chilled frame backward and flush against the solid wall of his chest to spin her out of the blade’s path—while his right hand gripped the hilt of the Profound Void-Yang Blade and swung the upward with one arm!

KCHHHHHK—BOOOOOOM!!

Profound Void Yang Blade crashed head-on against the descending Blood-Skull Hooked Cleaver less than three inches above Su Ling’s shoulder!

A blinding ring of golden fire and shattered blood-mist blasted outward across the northern walkway, cracking the ironstone slabs beneath Lin Tian’s boots while his body did not budge by a single hair!

Held securely against his left side by the firm grip of his arm around her waist, Su Ling’s breath caught completely in her throat.

For twenty years, practicing the supreme ice arts of Frost-Moon Valley had left her heart colder than mountain snow, and no man had ever touched so much as the hem of her sleeve.

Yet the instant her back and waist pressed flush against Lin Tian’s chest, the pure, volcanic warmth of his Primordial Yang-Tyrant Body passed straight through her pale-blue silk robes—instantly melting the painful frost-cramp in her rib meridians and sending an unfamiliar, breathtaking wave of soothing heat racing straight to her heart.