Chapter 1869: One Scale and a Half

The Mortal Realm

Sand and dust swept across the battlefield.

The roars on the battlefield faded, and a multitude of cultivators and demon cultivators stared blankly at the sky, their faces filled with shock.

Boundless dark clouds spread from the southeast, turning day into deep night. A golden light within the clouds drew all eyes.

Within the golden light, a dragon-like figure seemed to descend on clouds. As the cultivators gazed at the golden light, the sky above the battlefield was already bathed in a golden glow.

Boom!

Cultivators and demon cultivators alike, at this moment, felt an astonishing aura descend with a mighty roar.

Those with weaker cultivation suffered a terrifying suppressive force. Their hearts pounded violently, eventually succumbing to the overwhelming pressure, their minds severely shaken, causing them to spurt blood.

Those who had already formed battle formations resisted together, barely managing to steady their minds, but their faces were pale, and their eyes revealed deep fear.

This place was not without 'veterans' who had been stationed on the Yellow Springs Path for years, experienced countless battles, and had witnessed firsthand the immense divine power displayed when Great Immortals and Demon Kings clashed. Yet, this aura far surpassed anything they had seen; the two simply couldn't be compared.

“Could it be…”

“A Great Sage?”

The Daoist battle formations were in disarray; it was the hearts of the people that were chaotic.

The Daoist sect and the Ghost Fang Kingdom engaged in ceaseless conflict, deploying troops along the Yellow Springs Path, locked in perennial combat. At most, Great Immortals and Demon Kings would be dispatched.

True Lords and Great Sages were only heard of by name, never seen in person.

All cultivators clearly understood that once True Lords and Great Sages personally intervened, the situation would become irreversible, and Ju Mountain Prefecture would be overthrown in an instant.

Even before seeing the true form of the Great Sage, the battlefield was already in chaos, yet that aura was not directed at them.

In an instant, the dark clouds engulfed the healing altar as well. The multicolored auspicious clouds above the healing altar were shrouded by the dark clouds, and their auspicious glow grew dim.

Whoosh!

From within the dark clouds, a streak of golden light suddenly shot downwards.

White Stone Prefecture.

A mountain peak within the healing altar.

This mountain was the highest peak in White Stone Prefecture, but it was concealed by the healing altar's grand formation, rendering it invisible to ordinary people.

Unlike other places, there were no golden halls on this mountain. It was exceptionally spiritual and secluded, presenting a scene of pure nature.

At the summit, there were groves of purple bamboo. Within the groves, several bamboo halls had been built using purple bamboo. Their doors were tightly shut, and no one was around.

As the drumbeats resonated, the hall doors suddenly opened.

Creak!

No one emerged from the hall.

Inside the hall, an incense burner burned spiritual incense. A female Daoist, dressed in a moon-white Daoist robe, sat cross-legged on a prayer mat. Her aura was ethereal, almost imperceptible. Although her face was not veiled, it held a peculiar sense of haziness.

An ordinary person seeing her would not find her remarkably beautiful, nor would they find her ugly; they would simply forget her appearance in a blink.

Her eyes were closed, and she was in meditation.

The drumbeats reached her ears.

Her eyelids merely trembled slightly, her expression utterly unperturbed.

A soft sigh echoed within the bamboo hall. Suddenly, a red light shot out through the door, piercing the sky and heading directly towards the healing altar in Ju Mountain Prefecture.

Its true form was merely a thumb-sized brass bell, with a red ribbon tied to its ring.

The bell's speed was no less than that of the Great Sage; it traversed thousands of mountains and rivers in an instant. However, its presence was far less grand; anyone who saw it would simply mistake it for a peculiar shooting star.

Central Mao Prefecture.

The layout of the healing altar in this prefecture was vastly different from White Stone Prefecture. Eight smaller formations were connected on the periphery, collectively forming a grand formation. These were the official residences of the various departments of the Tian Shu Court, guarding a not-so-tall mountain in the center.

On the mountain were golden halls, resplendent and magnificent.

Located at the highest and most magnificent grand hall, a golden bell hung on one side of its door.

At this moment, the golden bell began to toll on its own, its sound reverberating only around this golden hall.

Above the golden hall, spiritual energy converged, and at its nexus, a faint illusion appeared, revealing the vague form of a lean Daoist.

The Daoist stood with his hands behind his back, gazing north, his expression thoughtful. He glanced towards White Stone Prefecture, then raised his right index finger, pointing remotely towards the healing altar in Ju Mountain Prefecture.

The next moment, the Daoist's figure gradually faded until it vanished, maintaining that same posture throughout.

Golden light descended from the sky.

The golden light was dazzling, revealing what was, in fact, a section of a dragon's tail, its golden scales glittering as it swept down from the firmament.

All cultivators outside the healing altar could clearly see that half-section of the dragon's body.

Whoosh!

The dragon's tail pierced into the auspicious clouds like a sharp arrow, directly above the remnant diagram of the Twenty-Four Heavenly Prisons.

In an instant, the auspicious clouds exploded with a roar, shaking heaven and earth. Even the cultivators and demon cultivators flying in the sky found it hard to maintain their balance, all utterly horrified.

Above the healing altar, a section of the dragon's body pierced through heaven and earth, its head unseen, its immense size unknown.

“Retreat!”

While the Daoist side was at a loss, the demon cultivators received orders to retreat.

The Demon Kings were the quickest to move. By this point, everything was unfolding according to the Great Sage's plan.

Their mission was complete. Their previous actions had merely been a bluff, intended to convince the Daoist Court that the Divine Court had emerged.

They were no longer needed to seize the remnant diagram of the Twenty-Four Heavenly Prisons, nor did they possess the ability to participate.

Orders were strictly obeyed.

The demon cultivators retreated like a tide.

The Daoist side, as if waking from a dream, had never encountered such a situation before. For a moment, they were caught between advancing and retreating. Then, a red light was seen flying from the west.

Jingle, jingle…

As the red light streaked across, the brass bell gently swayed, emitting a clear ringing sound.

The bell's sound was not piercing, but all cultivators inside and outside the healing altar heard it. It carried a calming power, and those who heard it immediately felt their chaotic minds greatly soothed.

The red light shot towards the healing altar, revealing its true form above it. The ribbon fluttered in the wind, and the brass bell suddenly began to shake violently.

Concentric ripples, visible to the naked eye, spread from the bell's opening. Yellow sound patterns appeared, and the void itself seemed to distort.

The sound patterns enveloped the dragon's body within the dark clouds.

Just then, the persistent high-pitched shriek, which had always been there, came from the depths of the Demonic Plains, growing closer.

Many cultivators and demon cultivators on the battlefield clutched their ears, their faces contorted in pain. The shriek even overpowered the bell's chime, piercing their minds.

This part of heaven and earth grew even darker.

Those with keen senses perceived something amiss. They looked up, pointed behind the healing altar, and asked tremblingly, “What is that?”

Those next to them followed their gaze and were also stunned.

Under the gloomy sky, peculiar patterns appeared out of nowhere, like fine ripples layering upon each other, emitting a black sheen.

“This… seems to be a feather?”

“It’s a wing!”

“A wing! Only one!”

Exclamations continuously erupted.

They finally saw clearly: the sky there was covered by a monstrous beast's wing.

Monstrous beasts were also demon beasts. Normally, apart from some bizarre exceptions, wings would come in at least a pair.

But from their vantage point, they couldn't even see the entirety of one wing, its boundary unseen, let alone another.

Suddenly, the firmament seemed to fall!

The cultivators looking in that direction subconsciously held their breath, an infinite sense of oppression flooding their hearts.

It wasn't that the sky was collapsing, but rather that the wing had flapped once, seemingly very slowly.

Whoosh!

A fierce wind suddenly rose.

The flapping of the wing generated a momentum no less grand than the dragon's tail. The filaments of its black feathers rustled, and a mass of black wind coalesced beneath the wing.

In the blink of an eye, this mass of fierce wind transformed into a hurricane, obscuring the sky and earth like the wing itself, swallowing the brass bell and the sound patterns.

The bell's chime immediately grew much weaker.

At the same time.

In the northwest, the sound of thunder was deafening.

Dark clouds swirled in the east, black feathers covered the sky in the north, and the western sky was occupied by gray lightning.

The countless bolts of lightning appeared chaotic, but their target was very clear: they headed directly towards the healing altar.

Boom!

The first gray lightning bolt, also the thickest, struck fiercely into the void on the west side of the healing altar.

Precisely at this moment, starlight descended from the sky here.

It was not night, yet countless stars appeared in the high sky.

Elsewhere, the starlight might have been incredibly brilliant, but now it appeared exceptionally dim.

However, the Milky Way within the sea of stars was still clearly visible.

Stars in the Milky Way glittered, sending down a ray of starlight, and immediately after, the surrounding stars also began to twinkle, one by one.

Rays of starlight fell from the sky, illuminating this battlefield and converging at the spot where the first ray landed.

At this moment, thousands of stars shone uniquely upon this place.

The starlight merged, transforming into a gentle jade color, and then truly coalesced into a jade talisman.

The jade talisman was no more than three inches long, small and exquisite, truly the most transparent jade in the world.

On the surface of the jade talisman, faint starlight shimmered, indistinctly, because the runes were constantly changing, as if all the stars in the heavens had been incorporated into the talisman.

The jade talisman trembled slightly, just as it was about to shoot towards the healing altar, when gray lightning suddenly arrived.

Rumble!

The area around the jade talisman immediately transformed into a gray lightning domain.

Although the jade talisman could not be easily destroyed, it seemed to have fallen into a giant lightning cage.

The Demon Call Drum could not control the attracted ferocious beasts, but it could barely utilize their instincts to secretly guide them as a means of driving them, though only for a very short time.

However, in the Demon Great Sage's plan, this brief time was already sufficient!

Boom!

The dragon's tail pierced through the auspicious clouds.

From above, a deep hole could be seen appearing at the center of the auspicious clouds. The dragon's tail had already pierced through an unknown number of illusionary layers.

Inside, the golden light was dazzling. Between the golden rays were spiritual lights of other colors, as well as countless strange fragments, converging into a storm with terrifying destructive power, capable of tearing apart everything around it.

The Great Sage forcibly intruded into the healing altar. Wherever the dragon's tail reached, it immediately triggered disturbances within the altar's illusions.

The dragon's tail was at the center of the storm.

Chaos meant that ancient, remnant divine abilities were gradually being activated. Even a powerful Great Sage dared not linger too long within the healing altar.

The golden light on the surface of the golden scales continuously flickered, like a sea-stabilizing divine needle, inserting itself straight into the healing altar, disregarding all else.

The healing altar shook violently.

With the storm at its center, chaotic fluctuations, mixed with golden radiance, erupted and spread throughout the entire healing altar.

Everyone within the healing altar felt these terrifying fluctuations.

Qin Sang and True Lord Zuo had not yet recovered from the roars of the two ferocious beasts when they were once again stunned by the next scene.

At this moment, the storm deep within the healing altar had not yet reached them, but they could already feel the oppressive force.

Furthermore, as the upper illusions were gradually assailed by the storm, they indistinctly caught glimpses of scales and claws amidst the chaos, enough to shake their very souls!

Boom!Boom!Boom!

The dragon's tail was unstoppable, piercing through layer after layer of illusions.

At this moment, the old Daoist priest, having guessed the Ghost Fang Kingdom's true intention, made a decisive move, vehemently flicking his whisk upwards.

The whisk's strands grew wildly, shooting into the profound yellow qi above.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The profound yellow qi coiled back, wildly gathering towards the central Heavenly Prison.

“Quick! Quick! Quick!”

When opening the Heavenly Prison, they had prepared in advance, making the spell-casting swift. However, collecting the Heavenly Prison was not as easy.

The old Daoist priest had already sensed the terrifying suppressive force from above, his eyes nearly tearing from their sockets, the knuckles of his hand gripping the whisk cracking loudly.

As the profound yellow qi contracted, it gradually restored the outline of the remnant diagram.

Just then, the profound yellow qi suddenly solidified, seemingly bound by a powerful force.

The old Daoist priest felt his connection with the remnant diagram of the Twenty-Four Heavenly Prisons become extremely weak, on the verge of losing control over it, and instantly turned pale with fright.

He flung his sleeve, and dozens of talismans shot out from it, continuously emitting 'bangs' as their power was activated, flying towards the remnant diagram of the Twenty-Four Heavenly Prisons.

He still wanted to struggle, to contend with the Demon Great Sage for the remnant diagram of the Twenty-Four Heavenly Prisons, unwilling to lose this treasure while it was in his hands.

In that critical moment, he even considered whether to fight desperately to seize the Demon Call Drum.

However, True Lord Ruoquan and the others had already clearly assessed the situation.

Even at their peak, they dared not directly face a Great Sage. Now, having severed their own cultivation to fall to the Cavernous Profound realm, even a slight ripple of aftershock could leave them without a burial place.

This was no longer a matter of sacrificing oneself for righteousness.

Even if everyone present sacrificed their lives, it would be impossible to stop the Demon Great Sage from seizing the remnant diagram.

Even if the old Daoist priest retrieved the remnant diagram of the Twenty-Four Heavenly Prisons, he wouldn't be able to escape far; it would still be a dead end.

Their only hope was that a True Lord could intervene in time to force back the Demon Great Sage.

“A Great Sage has arrived in person! We cannot fight them! Quick, retreat!”

True Lord Ruoquan cried out urgently.

The three Great Immortals fully activated their talisman altars, changing direction, ignoring everything else, and led their battle formations in a swift retreat outwards.

The old Daoist priest finally regained his senses. He looked at the remnant diagram with a complex expression, sighed deeply to the sky, and with a heavy heart, put away his whisk.

The old Daoist priest was the core of the battle formation. Once he made up his mind, everyone's speed greatly increased.

They had only retreated a short distance when they felt a blinding golden light. Looking up, they saw a large golden hole appear above them.

A section of the dragon's tail pierced through the illusion and arrived.

The White-Clad Demon King and other demons had already gathered together with the Demon Call Drum. All the demon cultivators watched the dragon's tail with fervent excitement.

Whoosh!

The dragon's tail suddenly whipped out a ray of golden light.

The profound yellow qi was instantly dispersed, transforming back into a small remnant diagram, which was caught by the golden light.

The dragon's tail coiled around the remnant diagram and the demons, ignoring the fearful Daoist cultivators, and swiftly withdrew.

Although the Demon Great Sage disdained to even glance at them, that golden light still left the Daoist cultivators in disarray.

They fled outwards with all their might, but ultimately could not escape the aftershocks of the golden light. Instantly, they felt a powerful force impact their bodies, causing them to spurt blood on the spot, scattering like celestial maidens strewing flowers.

The four Great Immortals exerted their full strength but could only protect the Daoist Immortals. Casualties among their subordinate troops were unavoidable.

The dragon's tail withdrew, but the large golden hole did not vanish, and the storm within the healing altar showed signs of intensifying.

Unlike the previous golden light eruption, the Demon Great Sage had truly shaken the healing altar's foundation, shattering the balance maintained for many years.

Beginning from the illusions pierced by the dragon's tail, the power of ancient divine abilities fueled the storm, causing it to spread continuously. More illusions were affected, their foundations shaken, triggering even greater chaos.

Peace was no more!

“This is bad!”

True Lord Zuo snapped out of his daze and cried out in alarm.

Although he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he could deduce a thing or two from the various signs.

The old Daoist priest and the others were currently at the center of the chaos. If they couldn't escape in time, their chances of survival were slim.

Whoosh!

True Lord Zuo didn't even have time to call out to Qin Sang, hurrying forth to provide assistance.

Qin Sang did not follow True Lord Zuo. He merely stared into the depths of the healing altar, his face ashen.