Chapter 5899
Outside the Earthfire Pavilion, dark clouds loomed, threatening to crush the city.
Thousands of cultivators from the Evil Path Hall swarmed in like locusts, completely surrounding the pavilion.
They were all dressed in long, black robes, their faces adorned with demonic masks, and their evil weapons reeked of a nauseating, bloody aura.
The entire sky was stained a dark red by the dense, malevolent energy, blocking out even sunlight.
The protective array’s protective barrier trembled violently under the relentless attacks, like a candle flickering in the wind.
The surface of the barrier was covered with spiderweb-like cracks, each attack widening them and producing a sickening cracking sound.
“One more strike! The array is about to break!”
a deacon from the Evil Path Hall roared, wielding a blood-red longsword and slashing at the barrier.
“Boom!”
The barrier trembled violently, and a fist-sized hole appeared in its center!
Although the hole quickly repaired itself, this plunged the members of the Earthfire Pavilion into despair.
The protective array wouldn’t last much longer.
Before the mountain gate, three black-robed elders stood suspended in mid-air, like three insurmountable mountains.
They were none other than the three vice hall masters of the Evil Path Hall… Soul Fiend, Bone Demon, and Soul Annihilation!
Vice Hall Master Soul Fiend had a withered face, sunken eyes, and eerie blood-red pupils.
He was shrouded in a thick, viscous blood mist, within which countless struggling human faces could be vaguely seen, emitting silent wails.
Vice Hall Master Bone Demon was emaciated, resembling a skeleton draped in human skin.
His fingers were long and pale, their tips gleaming with a chilling white bone light; a single stroke could tear through space.
Vice Hall Master Soul Annihilation was the most bizarre; he had no physical form, his entire being resembling a constantly shifting gray mist.
Within the mist, countless eyes appeared and disappeared, each radiating a chilling aura that sent shivers down one’s spine.
The three men’s auras merged, forming an invisible cage that enveloped the entire Earth Fire Pavilion.
That was the oppressive aura of a peak ninth-grade Celestial Immortal, as vast and overwhelming as a mountain, making all the disciples of the Earth Fire Pavilion suffocate.
“Huo Fentian, this is the last chance.”
The voice of the Deputy Hall Master of the Soul Fiend Sect was cold and hoarse, like sandpaper being rubbed. “Hand over the remnant soul of the Earth Fire Ancestor and Kai, and the Earth Fire Pavilion’s lineage can be preserved. Otherwise… not a single one will be spared.”
Inside the protective array, Huo Fentian stood at the forefront, his crimson-gold robe stained with blood, some his own, some of his enemies’.
Behind him, more than a dozen Earth Fire Pavilion elders were all wounded, their auras weakened.
Further away in the plaza, fewer than a hundred disciples remained capable of fighting, most of them heavily injured.
The three-day siege had cost the Earth Fire Pavilion dearly.
Of its nearly a thousand disciples, less than one-tenth remained.
If it weren’t for the protective array relying on the Heart of Earth Fire, possessing almost inexhaustible energy, it would have been breached long ago.
“Dream on!”
Huo Fentian’s eyes were bloodshot, his voice hoarse yet resolute. “Our Earthly Fire Pavilion has stood for three thousand years, and has never had a traitor! Even if we fight to the last man, we will never bow down to you demons and heretics!”
“Stubborn to the end.”
The Bone Demon Vice Hall Master shook his head, his tone tinged with regret, but his eyes were as cold as knives. “Since you insist on seeking death, then so be it.”
He slowly raised his right hand, his five fingers spread, and gently clenched his fist towards the mountain-protecting formation.
“Bone Prison – Myriad Manifestations.”
“Crack crack…”
The ground trembled violently, and countless white bone spikes burst forth from the earth, each as thick as a bucket and tens of feet long!
The bone spikes twisted and grew like living things, instantly covering every inch of land outside the mountain-protecting formation, forming a terrifying forest of bones!
Even more terrifying, these bone spikes began to frantically attack the mountain-protecting formation. They collided, pierced, and entangled, each attack causing the light shield to tremble violently, cracks spreading at a visible speed!
“Hold on! We must hold on!”
an elder roared, burning his life essence to inject immortal power into the core of the formation.
The other elders followed suit, and more than a dozen crimson rays shot into the sky, merging into the protective formation.
The light shield stabilized somewhat temporarily, but everyone knew that this was merely a temporary fix.
Burning their life essence was overdrawing their lives.
At this rate, all the elders would be exhausted within half an hour.
“It’s useless.”
The voice of the Soul Extinction Deputy Hall Master resounded directly in everyone’s minds, cold and eerie, “A trapped beast’s struggle will only increase its suffering. It’s better to give up resistance, and I can let you die a quicker death.”
Before he finished speaking, gray mist suddenly spread, transforming into countless fine threads that seeped in through the cracks in the protective formation!
“Ah…!”
Several disciples of the Earth Fire Pavilion were entangled by the gray threads, letting out a shrill scream.
Their bodies withered visibly, their life force rapidly drained, until they collapsed as dried corpses.
Their souls were dragged out by the gray threads and absorbed into the Soul Annihilation Deputy Hall Master, becoming part of his power.
“You beast!”
Huo Fentian’s eyes widened in fury as he slammed his palm down on the gray threads.
Crimson flames erupted, burning the gray threads into wisps of smoke.
But even more gray threads surged in from the cracks, impossible to defend against.
Despair, like a chilling tide, engulfed everyone’s hearts.
“It’s over…” A young disciple knelt on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, “We’re all going to die here…”
“The protective formation can’t hold…”
Another elder wept bitterly, “Sect Master, please take the princess and escape! We’ll fight to the death to buy you time!”
Huo Fentian smiled bitterly: “Escape? Where to escape to? Since the Evil Path Hall has come out in full force, they won’t leave us any way out.”
He looked into the depths of the Earth Fire Pavilion, a complex look flashing in his eyes: “I only hope… Kai and Ling’er can escape this calamity.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a crisp cracking sound suddenly came from the center of the protective formation.
“Crack…!”
A huge crack spread from the top to the bottom, like shattered glass.
Then, a second, a third… cracks spread like a spider web!
The protective formation had broken!
“Kill!”
The eyes of the Po Sha Deputy Hall Master blazed with bloodlust, “Leave no one alive!”
“Kill!” Thousands of Evil Path Hall cultivators surged towards the Earth Fire Pavilion’s gate like a tidal wave.
Huo Fentian took a deep breath, his body engulfed in raging flames: “Disciples of the Earth Fire Pavilion, heed my command! Fight to the death!”
“Fight to the death!” The surviving disciples roared with tragic resolve, preparing for a final, desperate struggle.
Just then!
“Roar!!!”
A deafening dragon’s roar echoed from the depths of the Earth Fire Pavilion!
The roar was high-pitched, majestic, and sacred, containing an undeniable imperial pressure!