Cultivation: Fortune by Lots-Chapter 435: One stroke of luck, two opportunities.

The attacks and defenses of the Middle Three Heavens Cultivators had no effect on these King Sea Chrysanthemum clones.

Even experts like Lin Likong of the Seventh Layer of Heaven Realm, when facing these King Sea Chrysanthemum clones, might hold them off for a while, but prolonged engagement meant grave danger.

They had only one choice:

Run!

Run immediately!

Unable to prevent the King Sea Chrysanthemum clones from landing, Lin Likong turned and fled Great Black Mountain at the first opportunity.

An elder of the Seventh Heavenly Layer from the Jiangzhou Lin Clan, though aware of the creature’s danger, lagged a step behind to rescue his clan’s younger members and was immediately entangled by the King Sea Chrysanthemum clones.

He was powerful. Consequently, more than ten white chrysanthemums assailed him at once. Within moments, blood was drawn.

Slaughter pervaded Great Black Mountain.

Some Lin Clan disciples escaped down Great Black Mountain with Lin Likong. However, a vast number of long-stranded white chrysanthemums soon drifted down from the mountain, relentlessly pursuing them and annihilating the group of Lin Clan disciples one by one.

The remaining long-stranded white chrysanthemums, yet to draw blood, continued to pursue Lin Likong.

Lei Jun, observing from afar, suddenly noticed an overwhelming surge of Sword Qi in the direction of Lin Likong’s escape, appearing to tower into the sky.

The Sword Qi was bone-chilling, more ferocious and glacial than the blizzards of the ice-bound Northern Country—clearly the direct lineage teachings of the Youzhou Forest Clan.

The invisible Sword Qi swept through, its momentum far surpassing the northern winds Lin Likong had previously summoned with poetry using Global Spiritual Qi.

The Confucian Sword Skill of an Eighth Heavenly Layer Scholar of Classics from the Youzhou Forest Clan.

So, besides Lin Likong, the Youzhou Forest Clan indeed had more formidable experts who had also come to these snowy ridges of the Northern Border. They had merely kept their distance from the Great Black Mountain area for the time being, avoiding immediate approach, likely to prevent provoking the Tang Imperial Court.

However, the sudden, shocking events on Great Black Mountain had ultimately forced that Eighth Heavenly Layer Clan Elder from the Youzhou Forest Clan to reveal himself.

The King Sea Chrysanthemum clones were indeed ferocious. Faced with the blizzard formed by the mighty Sword Qi, although many white filaments were damaged and severed, most of the silk threads managed to endure.

Seemingly delicate, they yet ferociously pushed through the snowstorm, continuing their assault on the two Great Scholars from the Youzhou Forest Clan.

No wonder the Lin Clan and Great Void Temple had placed such high hopes on this fiend.

The Youzhou Forest Clan Elder, at the Eighth Heavenly Layer, despite his ferocious sword momentum, chose not to confront the numerous King Sea Chrysanthemum clones head-on. Instead, he fought while retreating to protect Lin Likong, whose Cultivation was a level lower.

The long-stranded white chrysanthemums, like a school of bloodthirsty sharks, pursued the blizzard, gradually vanishing over the horizon.

Lei Jun watched this from afar, lost in thought. Those two Great Scholars from the Youzhou Forest Clan understood the general situation with the long-stranded white chrysanthemums. Their current approach suggests that these things might not be able to persist for very long. Avoiding their main assault could possibly allow one to drag things out until these fiends wither from exhaustion. Of course, that’s assuming one could hold out that long.

Lei Jun didn’t pursue them to see the outcome. Instead, he turned his gaze toward Great Black Mountain, observing the long-stranded white chrysanthemums still on the mountain.

These fiends could no longer be called white chrysanthemums. After gorging on fresh blood, every single one was now blood-red.

Yet, after the slaughter, these fiends that had devoured flesh and Spiritual Energy did not grow any stronger. On the contrary, the slender silk filaments of the now blood-red chrysanthemums began to show signs of withering.

After a short while, the silk filaments turned from blood-red to dark red, then finally to pitch-black, continuously shrinking.

The slaughter also accelerated these fiends’ journey to their end.

The long-stranded white chrysanthemums that had entangled Lin Likong and the other scholar, not having drawn blood, could actually persist longer.

No wonder they don’t share a mental connection with the true Great Demon, the King Sea Chrysanthemum. Strictly speaking, they can’t be considered its clones, Lei Jun realized.

He observed the changes in these fiends from afar, deducing that while they were indeed related to the King Sea Chrysanthemum, they were, more accurately, like the severed limb of a gecko—a product of it shedding its tail to survive.

Perhaps after the King Sea Chrysanthemum was severely wounded by the Empress, its injuries lingered and proved difficult to heal, ultimately forcing it to sever a part of its body to aid recuperation. Such an act must have greatly damaged its Primordial Qi and wouldn’t have been resorted to lightly. However, it was, after all, a Great Demon with Cultivation equivalent to a Ninth Heavenly Layer expert of the Human Race and inherently ferocious. These remnants were also used to bear a portion of the Empress’s power, thus differentiating into these bizarre, long-stranded white chrysanthemum-like fiends. The Great Void Temple acquiring them was, in a way, recycling waste. Master Lei found this line of thinking excellent. Creating some work for the lurking Youzhou Forest Clan experts was even better. With both sides temporarily counteracting each other, Tang Xiaotang would have fewer worries about her flank. ...Alright, observing a certain Celestial Master’s unrestrained fighting style, she truly seemed to have no such concerns.

Shangguan Ning had previously contacted the Tang Imperial Court, and a response had already come from the Capital City.

The Tang Court would also be secretly sending experts north to this area; however, their exact arrival time was unknown.

Hopefully, they wouldn’t arrive only after the curtains had closed on the entire affair.

Lei Jun shook his head slightly.

Great Black Mountain was now deathly still.

Most of the Lin Clan cultivators had perished amidst the fiends’ rampage. This included the unfortunate Seventh Layer of Heaven Realm Clan Elder from the Jiangzhou Lin Clan who hadn’t managed to escape. Dragged down in the end and besieged by all the remaining fiends, he ultimately died—a death that was, from a certain perspective, rather ignominious and undeserved.

And the fiends, after their widespread rampage, had also exhausted their last vestiges of Vitality, all of them withering away.

Now black husks, they crumbled and dispersed like ash in the howling north wind, scattering and vanishing with the breeze.

Lei Jun gazed towards the sky above the summit of Great Black Mountain.

He could still faintly sense the anomaly within the Void Realm.

However, there were no further changes there. To the naked eye, apart from the swirling snow, it looked no different from the ordinary sky.

Should he check if his Senior Sister had made any headway at Dragon Bone Ridge?