Chapter 3038: Tragic Calamity
In Skyward Sword King's eye sockets, the black of his pupils expanded outward, filling the entire eyeballs.
Three different laughs echoed in the space near Skyward Sword King.
One was childish, one deep, one hoarse.
From Skyward Sword King's Divine Realm World, three figures exuding fierce murderous aura walked out, each with extremely powerful auras. The fluctuations they emitted shattered countless formation light walls around them.
One of the figures was an embroidered big-headed cloth doll, laughing shrilly: "Feng Yunba, Xuan Yuanqing, Shang Hong, your end has come. Surrender to the Darkness Temple and you may live! Haha!"
It was very eerie. When it laughed, it sounded like thousands of voices overlapping.
The sound contained powerful spiritual power fluctuations, causing all cultivators below Great Saint on the divine ship to collapse to the ground, clutching their heads and wailing in extreme agony.
Even Great Saints had to exert all their strength to resist.
"Shidi!"
"Human Skin Lantern!"
"Zhao Wuyan!"
Xuan Yuanqing recited three names in succession, her eyes cold to the extreme, her heart sinking into the abyss.
These three before her were all top-tier evil beings of the Darkness Temple. Any one of them appearing could shake an entire starry sky. With all three arriving together, plus Skyward Sword King who was controlled by Wu Yue, today truly felt like doomsday.
It was the twilight of the gods of the Heavenly Court!
The only chance now was the attack divine formation of the Xufeng Divine Ship. If they could fully activate the attack divine formation, there was still a chance for a desperate comeback.
"Surrender to the Darkness Temple? You must be dreaming."
Xuan Yuanqing grabbed the Radiant Divine Sword with both hands, furiously circulating divine Qi within her body, and stabbed it into the ground.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh..."
Countless white light swords surged up from the ground. The heavenly and earthly rules in the surrounding space all transformed into Light Rules and Sword Dao Rules, coalescing into a Radiant Sword Domain that spread toward the three gods of the Darkness Temple and Skyward Sword King.
Zhao Wuyan rode atop a five-zhang-tall Red Hound Ghost Beast, clad in dark armor, and let out a deep laugh: "Xuan Yuanqing, circulating your divine Qi like this, are you seeking death?"
The big-headed cloth doll named "Shidi" laughed: "She's buying time, trying to trap us."
"I'll hold her off. You go destroy the formation core on the Xufeng Divine Ship."
Human Skin Lantern radiated dazzling light, draped in black long hair, his skin covered entirely with stitched needle and thread patterns. Holding a battle axe that emitted thick dark aura, he crushed countless white light swords underfoot and attacked Xuan Yuanqing.
"Xuan Yuanqing, your cultivation is merely at the initial Taibai stage. You're far inferior to your elder brother!"
"Nine Forms of Nether Slaughter."
"Boom!"
Human Skin Lantern swung his axe in one strike.
All the light swords between him and Xuan Yuanqing shattered completely. The surging divine power spread outward, sending cultivators standing outside the sword domain flying. Those with weaker cultivation directly turned into pools of blood and mud.
"So strong! This Human Skin Lantern's combat power—even Xuan Yuanqing at full strength might not be his match." Zhang Ruochen's gaze shifted to Skyward Sword King, Shidi, and Zhao Wuyan.
He saw them transform into three beams of divine light, rushing rapidly toward the formation core of the Xufeng Divine Ship.
The ship's small formations and divine patterns couldn't stop them at all, only slightly delaying them for a moment.
"They must not be allowed to destroy the formation core, or else all of us here today will die."
The gods of the Wind Clan, and all the gods of the Radiant Divine Temple including Shang Hong and Jia Linan, knew the situation was critical. Ignoring the Yellow Spring Flower toxins being refined in their bodies, they transformed into beams of divine light to intercept the three gods.
Zhao Wuyan stopped, holding a strange battle weapon shaped like a crescent blade, and laughed loudly as he swung it horizontally through the air.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Three gods in succession were split apart, exploding into blood mist and bone fragments.
Of course, they were false gods!
"I'll hold them off."
Skyward Sword King pointed a finger forward. From his fingertip flew a giant sword as bright as the scorching sun, charging straight at Shang Hong.
Shang Hong pressed his right arm forward, executing a divine ability. A sky full of multicolored light appeared before him.
"Boom!"
The multicolored light was torn apart by the sword Qi. Shang Hong's divine body was pierced through, and large amounts of divine blood splattered out.
But strangely, Shang Hong's shattered body split into three, forming three identical divine bodies, each executing different divine abilities. They actually managed to block Skyward Sword King's subsequent attacks.
Zhang Ruochen's heart was conflicted. The current situation was extremely unfavorable for the Heavenly Court. Defeat and death were only a matter of time. He very much wanted to take advantage of the chaos to rescue Xiao Hei and Blood Butcher, then escape.
But Feng Yan, Feng Xi, Lian Xi, and even Feng Xuan—their friendships were deep or shallow. How could he just walk away like this?
If he fled like this, how deep would the regret and grief be in the future?
But if he didn't leave, he would inevitably pay a huge price. At the very least, his identity and the secrets he carried would be exposed. At worst, he would lose his life.
This was a true life-or-death moment!
Just then, Zhang Ruochen saw Feng Xi, taking advantage of the chaos of the gods' battle, actually go alone to pursue the Darkness Temple's Great God Shidi. He cursed inwardly—she really had no regard for her life!
Zhang Ruochen could no longer care about anything else. He took out a wolf-head talisman seal, crushed it, then picked up the Green Duckweed Sword and charged toward the area where the gods were locked in battle.
Zhao Wuyan, riding on the ghost beast, spotted him. Amidst the siege of the gods, he still effortlessly swung his battle weapon, striking at Zhang Ruochen from a distance.
"Swish! Swish!"
Zhang Ruochen threw out over a thousand defensive talismans, but they were all smashed to dust.
The crescent-shaped divine light broke through the talisman patterns and slashed straight at him.
"Sword Fourteen!"
The Green Duckweed Sword slashed out.
A green lotus bloomed before Zhang Ruochen, its light dazzling, its sword Qi soaring to the heavens.
"Boom!"
The lotus exploded, transforming into thousands of sword Qis.
Zhang Ruochen was sent flying thousands of zhang away. Every step he took cracked the ground. The skin on his sword-wielding arm burst open, divine blood flowing out. But he took advantage of the momentum to break free from Zhao Wuyan's Divine Realm World and chase after Feng Xi ahead.
Zhao Wuyan's eyes flickered with a strange light. His casual strike just now was not something a Bu Tian realm god should have been able to block.
But that Daoist not only blocked it but also seemed hardly injured. It was too unbelievable.
When Zhao Wuyan saw the Daoist chasing in Shidi's direction, a cruel smile appeared in his eyes, as if looking at a dead man.
...
Feng Yan knew that with his cultivation, he was no different from an ant before gods. But seeing one Heavenly Court god after another fall in pools of blood, and familiar Saint realm cultivators dying in droves, his eyes were bloodshot. He only wanted to rush out and fight the Darkness Temple gods to the death.
This bloodlust and fearlessness of death—he had it.
Feng Yunba opened his eyes and said, "You stay here!"
Feng Yan showed great joy and said, "Father, have you already refined the Yellow Spring Flower toxin?"
Feng Yunba slowly stood up. His face was still very pale, but his eyes were sharp and cold, his figure firm as a mountain.
When he looked at Feng Yan, a hint of tenderness appeared in his eyes. He said, "This calamity—I, your father, cannot get through it. But you still have a chance. You have awakened the Pure Yang Heavenly Venerable's Three Heads Six Arms bloodline. You have a chance to awaken the sword spirit of the Pure Yang Divine Sword. However, you are still in the Saint realm now, and your bloodline is not strong enough. You need to undergo the baptism of the divine tribulation. The sword spirit can help you kill enemies!"
"With your current state, you cannot yet cross the divine tribulation. I, your father, will help you."
Feng Yunba was full of exhaustion. He placed his palm on Feng Yan's shoulder, and a pure, supremely yang power from within his body continuously poured into Feng Yan.
Feng Yan couldn't move. Tears streamed from his eyes like a spring.
"Don't cry. Look at this battlefield. Look at those dead Wind Clan cultivators. Keep the blood and hatred firmly in your heart, turning them into an unshakable motivation for cultivation. If you don't break through to the God realm and don't avenge them, you are not worthy of being a man of the Wind Clan." Feng Yunba shouted loudly.
Feng Yan gritted his teeth, forcing his eyes wide open, watching the tragic scenes before him.
...
Zhang Ruochen advanced all the way. All formations had been destroyed. All divine patterns had been torn apart.
The ground was covered with bloody corpses. The vast majority couldn't even keep their bodies intact. Broken bones, severed arms, and heads were everywhere—a ghastly sight.
A quarter of an hour ago, they had all been iron-blooded sacred soldiers.
There were fallen gods. Their divine bodies had been cut into hundreds of pieces by an extremely sharp weapon, their divine souls also disintegrated.
The more Zhang Ruochen saw, the more shocked he became, because he recognized this god. He was not a false god but a powerful true god of the Wind Clan, named Feng Xu.
Just how strong was that doll-like existence?
Such a powerful true god had no power to resist before it. Moreover, it had extinguished Feng Xu's spiritual will and divine soul at an extremely fast speed.
Eerie. Terrifying.
If he hadn't already seen Feng Xi standing ahead, he would have immediately fled, never daring to provoke that cloth doll.
Feng Xi stood frozen in place, staring straight ahead at a seventy-two-layer formation tower.
That was the formation core of the Xufeng Divine Ship. Around the tower, lightning was dense, and divine patterns interwove. The divine patterns were ancient heaven-level divine patterns, containing the power to slay gods. Even a great god would find it no easy task to force their way in.
The big-headed cloth doll stood at the base of the tower, its finger pointing upward. A strand of spiritual power thread from its fingertip shot up, wrapping around Feng Xuan's neck, hanging him in midair.
It looked like someone pulling a fish out of water but not reeling in the line.
The key was that it had no rod in its hand, only the line.
Feng Xuan had the cultivation of an Upper-level God Great Perfection. Even with his neck bound, he should have had the power to resist. But now, the power within his body seemed to be locked. No matter how he struggled, it was useless.
The big-headed cloth doll's eyes were bloodshot. It opened its bloody mouth wide and smiled at Mo Xiansheng, who stood at the tower's entrance: "Open the formations and divine patterns, and I'll let him go."
Mo Xiansheng had long since sobered up. He snorted coldly, "You're dreaming."
"Alright, then there's no other way!"
The big-headed cloth doll was very disappointed. It withdrew its finger.
The spiritual power thread around Feng Xuan's neck suddenly tightened. With a "plop," divine blood splattered. Feng Xuan's head and body separated, falling from midair.
Mo Xiansheng roared in fury, summoning a divine thunderbolt from the sky.
The big-headed cloth doll pressed its palm toward the void, forming a dark spiritual power cloud that blocked the divine thunder. It said, "The Xufeng Divine Ship's attack divine formation requires the support of several gods to fully activate. Mo Mo, this little bit of power you're summoning now—how can it possibly deal with me? Has your spiritual power still not broken through to the eightieth rank?"
"I, this old man, can activate the attack divine formation alone."
Mo Xiansheng's peach-shaped head began to burn. Clearly, he was about to fight to the death. He split into twelve spiritual power avatars, standing at various positions of the formation tower, forming hand seals. Under his spiritual power's control, the formation tower slowly rotated.
But...
"Rumble!"
The divine ship shook violently, cracks appearing in its hull.
Mo Xiansheng looked up and saw a divine talisman ten thousand li long pressing down from above. On the talisman, billions of talisman patterns flowed like rivers, converging into a skull pattern.
Wu Yue's figure stood atop the divine talisman.
"Heavens! The Shang Tu Divine Talisman! How could it be the Shang Tu Divine Talisman? Heaven wants to destroy my Wind Clan!" Mo Xiansheng roared in indignation, looking up to the sky in grief.
...