Chapter 226: How Much Still?
“Are the two of you still planning to stubbornly resist?”
The Immortal Slaying Flying Sword had appeared at some point in time and easily penetrated the protective artifact light membrane, pointing at the Qi Sea of a True Core elder.
The sharp sensation told him that if he did not behave properly, his Qi Sea would be instantly pierced.
The other True Core cultivator wanted to resist when he saw that the situation was bad, but before the gourd in his hand could turn around, Jiang Li’s figure was already gone.
The white-clothed figure pulled a pitch-black chain and appeared behind him. The blood-stained palm that had just dug out a Golden Core grabbed the top of the other party’s head.
The Hundred Tempering Mountain’s special defensive artifact, while having superb defense, also had the ability to reflect flames onto the attacker.
A layer of flames appeared on the membrane of light, and it ceaselessly burned Jiang Li’s palm in an attempt to make him retreat.
However, with Jiang Yi’s fire resistance, this bit of fire was really harmless.
The flames did not have much effect. Instead, the right hand containing the power of a hundred beasts pressed down, causing his neck to become three inches shorter.
After half of the Core Formation cultivator’s body was buried in the ground, the Dragon Imprisoning Lock bound him tightly and he also lost the ability to resist.
Jiang Li attacked alone and easily took down the trio consisting of a Golden Core and two True Core cultivators.
Such an accomplishment already made people forget his actual cultivation. In fact, Jiang Li’s cultivation level really did not have much reference value for his true strength.
He made a hand gesture, and only then did the fellow disciples standing on the wooden wave recover from their shock. They hurriedly jumped down and attacked together, controlling the two Hundred Tempering Mountain elders.
“You two, open the door to the treasure vault.” Jiang Li spoke indifferently.
The only reason why these two fellows were still alive was that Jiang Li still needed them to open the door.
The Hundred Tempering Mountain’s treasure vault was also an important building with very tight security. After all, what was stored inside was the wealth and foundation of the entire Hundred Tempering Mountain.
The defensive array formation was extremely solid.
Jiang Li had tried it before. If he wanted to forcefully open these two doors, he had to send at least three to five warships to bombard them for a day.
However, if someone led the way, things would be much simpler.
These two fellows were quite unyielding in the beginning, but after Jiang Li took out two waste pills and stuffed them into their mouths one by one, their unyielding character did not last long.
Jiang Li had not used waste pills for a long time, but it had a hundred percent success rate when negotiating with captives.
Waste pills could not kill people but would slowly destroy everything they possessed. This was a pain that no cultivator could endure.
Therefore, after consuming a few waste pills, when they felt that their spiritual root and inner core were beginning to be polluted, they were willing to agree to whatever Jiang Li said.
The Hundred Tempering Mountain’s treasure vault was divided into the Weapon Storage and Pill Storage. The things stored inside were the accumulation of a top sect like the Hundred Tempering Mountain over a long period of time. It should be comparable to the total production of the Misty Mountain Range’s Spiritual Medicine Mystic Realm for years or even decades. It was a huge amount of wealth.
Breaking through this place could mean gaining a fortune in war.
As the initiator of this joint battle, the Scripture Storage Valley finally obtained the opportunity to attack this place on their own.
However, looking at the actions of the two captives and the process of entering, he felt that things were not too simple.
After the two elders produced the tokens and complicated seals, the doors of the treasure vault on both sides slowly opened.
What welcomed them was not the sight of countless spirit pills and magical artifacts that were bursting with spiritual light.
Instead, there were shattered porcelain bottles, collapsed shelves, and piles of rubbles. The two treasure vaults were actually empty!
…
In the core of the Hundred Tempering Mountain.
The Hundred Tempering Mountain was originally called the Earth Fire Hundred Cave Mountain. It was a dangerous volcano that could produce Earth Fire all year round.
However, after hundreds and thousands of years of research by many cultivators of the Hundred Tempering Mountain, they had completely tamed this irritable Mountain of Calamity.
Not only could they control the eruption of the Earth Fire Lava and guide the Earth Fire to refine pills and weapons, the cultivators of the Hundred Tempering Mountain even excavated the entire Hundred Cave Mountain along the lava path.
By connecting the earth fire vein, they could excavate high-grade fire attribute spirit mines. Even the fire poison that they used as trump cards to fuse into their pill qi to fight was dug out in this mountain.
This volcano was like a treasure, giving them endless motivation to excavate.
Up until now, the Hundred Tempering Mountain cultivators had already excavated more than a thousand complicated intersecting pathways and hundreds of underground chambers with various functions.
At the core of the mountain, there was a huge core fire room.
There was no one else here except for the Hundred Tempering Mountain Sect Master, Situ Fengzhu, and a man whose entire body was enveloped in black fog.
This was Old Demon Black Lotus, who had snatched the demonic treasure lotus platform in the battle of Benevolent Travel Temple.
At that time, the Hundred Tempering Mountain and the Black Lotus Divine Sect had schemed against each other on the battlefield of Benevolent Travel Temple. It seemed that under the pressure of the alliance of the three major sects, this kind of conflict did not allow them to part ways.
“How could the array formation of your Hundred Tempering Mountain be broken so quickly! Didn’t you say that it could last for at least half a month!”
“Also, this earth vein power was completely severed in just a day. Hmph! There’s probably someone in your sect who wants to join the other side! They’re trying to protect themselves!”
Old Demon Black Lotus questioned Situ Fengzhu angrily. The loss of half a month of buffer time had dealt a considerable blow to their plan.
Hearing his words, Situ Fengzhu’s face was also as black as the bottom of a pot. His mood was extremely terrible.
After all, it was impossible for someone to find the earth vein that had been teleported by the array formation in such a short period of time.
Moreover, all 175 of them were found and none were spared. There must be a spy among the higher-ups. There was no other explanation.
There were not many people who knew the location of all the earth vein branches!
“That’s none of your business! I’ll deal with it myself.”
“What’s wrong with your Black Lotus! Can’t it be activated yet?!”
“Don’t play any tricks. Believe me. If the Hundred Tempering Mountain is destroyed, you won’t be able to escape!”
Through the sect’s array formation, Situ Fengzhu sensed the unfavorable situation outside. Every moment, his disciples died.
Although those were outer sect disciples who they usually did not take seriously, if all of them died, the Hundred Tempering Mountain would fall from a top sect to a cultivation clan.
He had not expected that in the final battle, after paying a huge price and casualties, the Black Lotus would be obtained by this guy.
Although the conditions they offered when they reached a cooperation were to help the Black Lotus Cult retrieve the demonic artifact, they had never thought of fulfilling them.
It was one thing for the Black Lotus to be obtained by the other party, but to think that the originally ferocious demonic artifact could not be used on a large scale again.
This made him suspect that Old Demon Black Lotus was deliberately lying to him.
“Hmph, you can’t blame me for this. If you want to blame someone, blame your disciples for being useless. The flesh, blood, and souls sacrificed are far from enough.”
Old Demon Black Lotus looked at the lotus platform and felt his heart ache.
After obtaining the lotus platform, he discovered that something was wrong.
The damage caused by the sword stabs on the lotus platform were not an issue.
In ancient times, a Mystic Cultivator called Lotus Flower Child could rely on his talent, Lotus Reconnection, to cultivate an almost undying body.
Although this lotus platform was not that powerful, the principle was similar. Sharp weapons could cut it apart, but it could not cause much damage and would quickly recover.
After the lotus platform recovered, he discovered that two core lotus seeds were missing from the lotus platform, and the energy in the lotus platform was completely empty and was unable to unleash its original might.
This made their plan to use the Black Lotus to resist the righteous cultivators fail. They could only think of ways to recover the Black Lotus first. The fastest and simplest method was the blood sacrifice that the demonic sect cultivators were most skilled in!
“How much more?”
Situ Fengzhu was also a ruthless person. He did not care if the blood sacrifice was cruel or not, nor did he care that the sacrifices were his disciples.
He only cared about the remaining difference.
“Sect Master Situ is indeed a person who does great things. Hahahaha, there are still 10,000 cultivators needed! Of course, if you, Sect Master Situ, sacrifice yourself, the effects of the blood sacrifice will be even better!”
…
With the Hundred Tempering Mountain’s alchemy and artifact refinement standards, the amount produced every year was more than what their disciples needed. Even if they had distributed more to their disciples during the war, there should still be a lot left. But now, the two treasure vaults had actually been emptied!
It was obvious that they were packing up and planning to escape.
“Tell me quickly! What’s going on! Also, where are the Situ and Ma clansmen of your Hundred Tempering Mountain!”
Jiang Li thought for a moment and realized that the situation was really not right.
This surprise attack had taken them by surprise.
However, the resistance they suffered after entering was too weak.
There were many enemies and powerful alchemist cultivators, causing them quite a bit of trouble.
However, it seemed that up until now, they had not seen the Ma and Situ cultivators.
The cultivators of both their families were dressed gorgeously and were quite different from ordinary cultivators. It should not be difficult to recognize them.
However, they had already reached the interior of the Hundred Tempering Mountain. Where did those guys go?
They left an empty shell? A diversion?
This was the first possibility that Jiang Li thought of.
But soon, he rejected this guess.
This was because the ones who truly determined the battle were the Nascent Souls in the sky and the top cultivators above.
The fact that they could still fight with the top cultivators of the alliance army for so long without a winner was enough to prove that the main combat strength of the Hundred Tempering Mountain had not left.
At that level, a battle could not be faked.
However, since they did not leave, even if they lured the tiger away from the mountain, the three families’ strength would be empty now. With just the group of cultivators in the Core Formation realm, Foundation Establishment realm, and even the Qi Refinement realm, what could they do?
It was impossible for a group of top cultivators above the Nascent Soul realm to sacrifice themselves to stay behind and protect those useless juniors.
Jiang Li looked at the two huge warehouses. He felt indignant if he did not go in to look for them. He sent people in, afraid that there would be a trap.
He simply waved his hand and scattered a group of Wood Demons into the warehouse, searching everywhere they could.
He did not find anything else, but after lifting the floor and really digging for three meters, he discovered something strange.
Below these two treasure vaults, there was a layer of spiritual qi pathways.
Jiang Li felt that something was amiss. He could not be bothered about the battle outside and waved his hand to command a large amount of wood to flow into it.
He got them to open all the floors and dig up the soil. All the miscellaneous things were carried out of the door by the wave-like wood.
In next to no time, Jiang Li discovered two strange huge images underground in the two warehouses.
The images had a certain pattern. They were formed by thick lines!
The lines were even thicker than Senior Sister Little Four’s waist.
It took Jiang Li a lot of imagination to realize that these were two super-large versions of rune spirit carvings.
He stretched out his hand and a large amount of spiritual qi poured into the lines, but the huge amount of spiritual qi disappeared completely.
With Jiang Li’s knowledge, these were probably two spirit carving modules that belonged to a corner of a large array formation.
It was precisely because this array formation was truly too large that Jiang Li’s spiritual qi was insufficient and did not produce any reaction.
In that case… Jiang Li began to dig up the ground outside the warehouse again. Sure enough, there were similar patterns buried a few meters below.
With such a reasonable guess, it was very possible that such formation patterns were hidden under the entire Hundred Tempering Mountain.
Moreover, these array formation patterns did not seem to have been buried for a long time. Furthermore, they seemed to be in a hurry. Many places were quite rough.
This array formation should not be complicated, but because the array formation was too big, what he saw was too one-sided. This made him unable to recognize what this array formation was used for.
In short, it could not be anything good.
Jiang Li and the others began to interrogate the two True Core cultivators again, but it seemed that these two fellows really did not know anything else. They were foaming at the mouth, so they could only give up.
It was impossible for Jiang Li to directly bring his men out of the battlefield for this unknown discovery. In that case, regardless of whether he had a good reason or not, he would be labeled as a deserter.
After losing their chance to make a fortune, they turned around and continued to join the battlefield.
At this moment, besides the thousands of cultivators who had come out to attack, the large troops on the flying ship had already arrived successively, causing the battle to become a one-sided slaughter.
Jiang Li raised his hand to summon the wooden dragon, and then he threw the two elders into the dragon’s mouth. In fact, they were stored in the coffin hidden in the body of Rayquaza.
Then, he rode the wooden dragon and led a large number of Wood Demons and his fellow disciples to slaughter them. However, he started to hold back after that. All the cultivators who were swept in by the wooden tide seemed to have been crushed into mush, but in fact, they had all entered the Yin Burial Coffin.
Just as Jiang Li happily captured another Core Formation cultivator, intense spiritual qi fluctuation suddenly came from the largest volcano on the peak of the Hundred Tempering Mountain.
After the volcano vein was cut off, it erupted again. However, this time, what spewed out was not lava ashes, but hundreds of artifacts shimmering with spiritual light!
At this moment, the cultivators of the three major sects who were fighting did not know what was going on, but the rogue cultivators and cultivators from the small sects who had been watching from afar instantly erupted.