Chapter 995: The Two Beauties Captured
“Feng, watch out!”
Xuan Sushang darted in front of Shuo Feng, her face grim.
Lu Xichan immediately tried to contact the outside world, only to find all communication channels severed.
“You insignificant mortals! In the presence of the Dharma Spreading Heavenly Venerate, why do you not kneel!”
A fourfold voice boomed like thunder in their ears.
In the dim sky, what seemed to be the divine manifestation of a Heavenly Venerate had actually appeared.
It gazed down with an effortless authority.
BOOM!
An immense, invisible pressure suddenly descended, pulverizing the bamboo house in an instant.
The pressure pinned Xuan Sushang and her companions, rendering them momentarily motionless!
Before they could even struggle, five blood moons blazed into existence in the shadow-shrouded sky.
“Drawing Silk!”
An ice-cold voice, utterly devoid of emotion, echoed from the heavens.
Myriad threads cascaded down from the blood moons.
They shot down silently, like countless tentacles, and wrapped around them.
The threads seemed intangible, yet the moment they made contact, a wave of profound weakness washed over them.
“Xichan!” Xuan Sushang cried out as battle armor materialized around her and Shuo Feng.
Yet it offered no defense against the intangible threads.
Lu Xichan’s situation was even more dire. Silver, runic symbols of power flickered into existence all around her, only to dissipate without a trace moments later.
Cold sweat beaded on her forehead. The shock in her eyes gave way to undisguised terror.
In the chaos of battle, anyone not versed in the art of formations might have been oblivious to her plight.
But Lu Xichan knew exactly what was happening: every time she tried to lay down a formation, a mysterious force would emerge and shatter it in an instant!
The formations were shattered before they could even fully materialize!
It was as if her opponent knew her every move, dismantling her formations with an almost precognitive, utterly inconceivable speed!
Initially, Lu Xichan suspected a traitor within the Array Strategy Hall had leaked her entire repertoire of formations.
But soon, even when she resorted to her most secret and powerful formations, the result was the same: instant annihilation!
And so, an unstoppable dread began to consume Lu Xichan.
It was as if she were once again standing before her master for the first time.
Her master's profound mastery of formations had left her in awe, completely captivated. Before him, the talent she had once taken such pride in seemed utterly insignificant.
Yet the entity dismantling her arrays now possessed a level of skill that far surpassed even her master's!
It was a level of mastery she could not even begin to comprehend!
“Who... who is doing this?”
With her pride as the Chief of the Myriad Immortals Alliance's Array Strategy Hall shattered, Lu Xichan felt the surrounding shadows coalesce into the countless faces of her master.
“Xichan, you are such a disappointment to me!”
“Never again tell anyone you are my disciple. I cannot bear such shame!”
“Lu Xichan, how can I rest in peace?!”
...
“No, Master, it’s not like that...” Lost in the hallucination, Lu Xichan trembled uncontrollably.
For a moment, she lost all will to fight back.
The dense shadows around her swirled and enveloped her completely, and then she vanished from the sea of bamboo.
Xuan Sushang's face drained of color at the sight. But between the divine manifestation looming overhead and the unending assault of threads, she was already struggling to hold her own.
“Brother Xingwang, I've temporarily sealed Lu Xichan,” Mo Rubin's voice transmitted, tinged with confusion. “But just now...”
“Heh heh, we simply struck at her psychological weak point,” Li Fan replied with a sinister cackle. “Who would have guessed the famed Chief of the Array Strategy Hall was nothing more than a coward terrified of her own master?”
“I see.” The battle wasn't over, so Mo Rubin didn't dwell on it.
“My remaining power is fading fast. I fear I don't have enough left to seal both Xuan Sushang and Shuo Feng...”
“Don't worry. Their fate is already sealed.”
As the two exchanged a brief mental communication, their assault remained as deadly as ever.
With Tianyang and his two companions directing the formation, Xuan Sushang was tossed about like a leaf in a storm, her situation growing more precarious by the second, even with the protection of her battle armor.
A crimson radiance shielded her mind, but it buckled under the relentless pressure of the divine manifestation's gaze from above.
She was already at her breaking point.
By now, Xuan Sushang had realized the truth: the phantom overhead wasn't the manifestation of the Dharma Spreading Heavenly Venerate at all.
It was merely the perfect illusion, crafted to overwhelm her senses and psyche from the very beginning.
After all, helping the Tianxuan Mirror create a human avatar violated the very system established by the Dharma Spreading Heavenly Venerate.
It would be a lie to say Xuan Sushang felt no fear.
Though it wasn't the true manifestation of the Heavenly Venerate, the pressure it exerted on Xuan Sushang was no less intense.
Furthermore, the cackling shadows that swirled around her spawned a host of hallucinations, leaving her unable to defend herself.
Meanwhile, the grey threads that had been coiling around her since the start of the battle grew ever thicker.
Her thoughts grew sluggish, her movements leaden.
“Just who are these people?”
Countless unanswered questions raced through Xuan Sushang's mind before she finally lost consciousness.
With both Dao Integration cultivators subdued, the outcome of the battle was no longer in question.
Shuo Feng, with his Soul Transformation cultivation, had been unable to intervene from the start.
Under the combined mental pressure exerted by the four Dao Integration experts through their formation, he had passed out long ago.
After suppressing the remaining cultivators from the bamboo grotto-mansion in his own Grotto-Heaven, Li Fan turned his gaze to the two unconscious female Dao Integration cultivators before him.
Both possessed a beauty that could topple nations. Lu Xichan exuded a noble grace, while Xuan Sushang had the air of a young woman, her face still touched with a hint of youthful innocence.
“Brother Xingwang, my power is about to fade. I leave the rest to you.”
The boundless shadows that had enveloped the sea of bamboo converged, coalescing into a single, indistinct figure.
He looked at Li Fan and said slowly, “If you get any news about the Xuantian Treasure Mirror's avatar, contact me immediately.”
“The host body has been utterly destroyed. Remember to bring another one next time we meet.”
“We'll meet in the same hidden Grotto-Heaven as last time.”
His voice faded along with his shadowy form, slowly dissipating into nothing.
“This battle went remarkably smoothly, largely thanks to Mo Rubin's sky-blotting shadows.”
“Even as an ally, I felt a faint pressure from them. For a moment, lost in the darkness, I thought I saw the forms of the Heavenly Doctor and the immortals of the Immortal Ruins...”
“The Xuantian Sect... is truly something else.”
The thought vanished as quickly as it came, and Li Fan refocused his attention on Xuan Sushang and Lu Xichan.
“Emissary, do we withdraw now?” Daoist Baihua asked gingerly.
Li Fan pondered for a moment before shaking his head. “The three of you, go and guard the entrance to this sea of bamboo.”
“I intend to interrogate them on the spot for news of the Tianxuan Mirror's avatar.”
The three acknowledged his command and departed.
Li Fan, for his part, took out two Truth Inducing Fruits.
“Only two left,” he mused. “Looks like it's time to ask the Five Elders Council for a resupply.”
Li Fan's eyes narrowed slightly as he slowly wove an intricate lie.
Once the Truth Inducing Fruits began to pulse with a brilliant radiance, Li Fan fed them to his captives.
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