Chapter 463: War Begins
Wei softly chanted a spell, pointing his hand toward the center of the cellar. In an instant, the thick rock walls around them vanished, seemingly transforming into a layer of transparent glass.
The sky’s light pierced through the ground, illuminating the surrounding earth layers.
Chen Xuan felt as though he was standing in a compartment suspended in space, with an abyss-like void beneath his feet.
"Bang!"
With a dull thud, a massive creature was suddenly pressed against the "glass shell."
The people behind him couldn’t help but gasp.
Even Chen Xuan felt a chill down his spine.
It was a giant worm!
It resembled a centipede, with countless appendages, its armor-like Saber-toothed Dragon’s spine adorned with a protruding bone spike on each segment, just one of which was the size of an adult. If its entire body were measured, it would rival a heavily loaded freight train in size.
Yet, it wasn’t a true centipede.
Its head resembled a human skull, its bulging eyeballs rotating 360 degrees, with two mouths, one in the usual place and another between its jawbone and throat, flanked by numerous insect-like curved mandibles, as hideous as possible.
This human-faced insect-bodied monster instantly triggers the uncanny valley effect in people, as if its sole purpose in looking this way is to evoke fear and disgust.
"I remember there was a worm residing on the Moon," Lin Qing said solemnly.
"The Dimensional Limit Mechanism’s so-called Star God probably refers to this," Chen Xuan nodded. The crawler before them was far less massive than the Star God in size, but it wasn’t a minor entity either; otherwise, the Lotus Cloud Sect’s Grand Array would have eliminated it long ago.
At least, in Wei’s view, it ranked on the same tier as Ji Yun’s Inner Demon as an enemy.
After two rotations of its eyes, they locked onto the Soulless Body, its slender appendages winding around the place like a snake as purple mucus continuously flowed from the pores on its abdomen, sizzling on the transparent shell.
No wonder they saw purple smoke rising from Kunlun Mountain.
Whether it was the cloud sea that never dispersed or the sudden appearance of smoke, they were reflections of one of the rules of the Grotto Heaven.
"It’s right outside the core area?" Honglian exclaimed, "Why didn’t we see it when we burrowed up from the ground?"
"The scenery in the Grotto Heaven is not equivalent to its true appearance," Wei explained, "The well indeed connects to the Array’s center, but their positions aren’t vertically aligned."
"Like the Life Gates of the Life and Death Eight Gates Array... it can instantly teleport someone seven or eight li away?" Chen Xuan mused.
"Almost. Though the Life and Death Eight Gates randomly choose a safe place, the well’s direction is fixed. Of course... it has a very strong prohibition, so in outsiders’ eyes, it’s just an ordinary deep well. Without the Sect Leader’s help, you absolutely wouldn’t be able to reach this place."
Not only the Sect’s prohibition, Chen Xuan thought, even the enemy detected the special nature of the well, causing the erosion zone to completely cover the entire well. Now blindly jumping into the well would only send them to another world.
That’s why Ji Lian came up with the idea of burrowing by the well side, avoiding the intrusion point before using the Array’s layout to find the only "living path."
"It’s also thinking of burrowing in..." Lin Qing realized the Sect’s core area wasn’t suitable for battle; if the enemy destroyed the Eye of the Array in its death throes, the Lotus Cloud Sect could still be doomed. "We need to lure it outside."
"No need for such trouble," Wei said, "I can change the Array foot’s position and send it along with you up to the surface."
"Then let’s do it," Chen Xuan nodded.
But she didn’t move immediately; instead, she glanced at Ji Lian, "The enemy has already invaded the Sect’s interior, I can’t fully support you all. If you notice anything amiss, please retreat immediately, Sect Leader."
"I understand," Ji Lian smiled, "Even though everyone has to die, if I were to perish here, the millennium-old Sect would cease to exist, so I know what’s more important."
At this point, she intentionally looked at Liu Shuyue, "Master, that goes for you too, don’t tie your fate to the Lotus Cloud Sect."
Liu Shuyue was slightly taken aback.
It was then that Chen Xuan realized that since descending the tunnel, she had been silent, her face tense in stark contrast to before, her eyes full of resolute intent.
"Even if the familiar place is gone, people must keep looking forward... as long as we live, there will eventually be new destinations to find, just like Ji Yun, Xu Xuanling, and me on our journey," Ji Lian said softly, "If Master isn’t around, we would be deeply saddened."
"..." Liu Shuyue opened her mouth but ultimately said nothing.
Ji Lian beamed at Chen Xuan, "Please take care of my Master."
"Do I even have to say it?" Chen Xuan shrugged, even though Ji Lian was likely the strongest among them, he couldn’t lose face in front of his disciple.
She nodded and turned to Wei’s clone, "Take us up."
Wei floated in place, transforming into a beam of white light that entered the Soulless Body, and then the entire cellar roared, as if the ground was shaking and the mountains were quaking! Through the shell, they could see the surrounding earth and rocks constantly converging beneath their feet, resembling the ground descending or them rapidly ascending!
In less than half a minute, the surroundings suddenly became wide open, and the snow-covered peaks and the bright blue sky appeared in everyone’s eyes, while the soil encasing the room turned into fluffy snow.
Originally, the surface wasn’t the first peak but the Kunlun Peak outside the Sect!
Chen Xuan even spotted the Wind Song ship parked three hundred meters away.
Given that even the territory of the Six Kingdoms was part of the Lotus Cloud Sect, sending them to the snowy mountains certainly suited their full-scale battle better.
As they reached the surface, the Soulless Body and transparent walls vanished without a trace, as if from the beginning the core area hadn’t ascended with them.
But the Star God... or rather, the hideous and massive crawler was truly brought out. It rolled out from beneath the snow mountain, not just falling but flying into the air like a Great Demon. This was when everyone could clearly see its enormous body, saying it was like a freight train underestimated it; the shadow cast by its belly alone could completely cover the ship, making the Cyan Dragon Vortex look like a tiny snake in comparison.
The monster let out a deafening roar, obviously furious at being expelled.
This banishment was undoubtedly temporary.
With some effort, it could once again approach the core region—if not for Chen Xuan and the others’ interference.
And indeed, they wouldn’t pass up this chance.
Seeing the giant worm take flight, everyone realized this was the optimal moment for an assault. There was no obstruction between them and their target, the positions clear, the enemy’s every move exposed under their watchful gaze.
Using the Divine Eye Technique, Chen Xuan observed that despite the giant worm’s Spiritual Qi response being vast and thick, its entire body lacked a core light point, presenting typical Demon Fiend characteristics.
Almost simultaneously, three strands of seven-colored light shot up into the sky!
They intertwined and merged into a gorgeously vibrant rainbow in the azure sky!
Ji Lian, Liu Shuyue, Xu Xuanling... these three Lotus Cloud Sect disciples made the same choice at the first moment.
Since it was a demon, they would use the most effective means against Demon Fiends!
——"Demon-slaying True Sword!"