The First Immortal of Destiny-Chapter 520: Sudden Mutation_1
Just as Shen Mo was deep in thought, a sudden change occurred!
The Evil Demon’s aura that enveloped the sky was shattered by streaks of streaming light. It was as if the sun, after a rainstorm, had torn through the dense dark clouds, its rays beaming straight down.
"Evil Demon, you dare to boast so brazenly? Die!"
A furious shout, like muffled thunder, boomed across Golden Light Ridge! A streak of Sword Light, more dazzling than the blazing sun, then enveloped the Thousand-eyed, the Heavenly Demon, the Human-faced Willow, and other Class IV great demons at the summit of the ridge.
The Heaven Sword Sect!
A hint of surprise finally touched Shen Mo’s usually indifferent and stern face.
Through his five senses and spiritual sense, even from dozens of li away, he could see very clearly. One of the streaks of light was the main peak of the Heaven Sword Sect—a precipitous mountain resembling a deadly sword.
This mountain peak didn’t just resemble a sword artifact; it *was* a magic treasure, forged through acquired means. The Heaven Sword Sect had pooled its resources, gathering Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures to forge this mountain. Then, over generations, its disciples had honed their sword Qi and comprehended sword intent upon it, ultimately forging this peerless treasured sword—one of the sect’s most powerful foundations.
When the world underwent a drastic upheaval, the members of the Heaven Sword Sect combined their strength to activate this giant mountain-sword and escaped Beyond the Heavens.
Now, the Heaven Sword Sect once again wielded this sword, having returned from Beyond the Heavens...
At the hilt of the giant sword stood the Heaven Sword Sect’s most powerful Supreme Elder. The other sect disciples were hidden within the sword, continuously channeling their Mana, True Yuan, and their Sword Path intent to power the colossal blade!
Besides the mountain-like giant sword, another streak of light was the Ghoul formed from the Corpse Spirit of the Nameless Heavenly Monarch.
Two or three years ago, Shen Mo, along with many disciples from the Riverside Sect, Yuxin Sword Master of the Heaven Sword Sect, Deputy Sect Master Chou Jiuyian of the Seven Stars Altar, Elder Chu Zhen of the Profound Moon School, and the Giant Corpse Master of the Ghost Corpse School—all peak Spirit Sea Realm cultivators—had conspired to obtain the remains of the Nameless Heavenly Monarch!
At that time, the Heavenly Monarch’s remains had already given birth to a Corpse Spirit possessing strength equivalent to the early Golden Core Realm.
After a series of perilous magic duels, Shen Mo’s group, with the aid of the Profound Moon School’s Illusionary Mirror and the Seven Stars Altar’s temporary Teleportation Array, managed to bring the five Immortal Sect Patriarchs before the Corpse Spirit and subdue it!
Originally, the Ghost Corpse School would have refined the Heavenly Monarch’s remains into a powerful Ghoul through repeated Heavenly Sacrifice rituals. And when the demonic calamity became unstoppable, they would have relied on its intact cave paradise to shelter the disciples of the five sects, as well as some immortals and mortals from Red Flame Country!
Unexpectedly, the situation in the Red Flame Zone shifted like the tide.
The Foreign Realm Demons lost contact with the Heavenly Demon Realm during the upheaval.
Furthermore, due to heavy losses from the abnormalities at the Ghost Country relics and the Four-eyed Giant, they were no longer the greatest threat to the billions of lives in the Red Flame Zone!
Instead, the emergence of numerous forbidden lands, powerful creatures from the Outer Zone, and manifestations of evil spirits became the greatest perils. Therefore, the Ghost Corpse School, without consulting the other four sects, directly utilized the not-yet-fully-refined Heavenly Monarch’s Ghoul, moving all its disciples and some mortals from You State into the Ghoul’s cave paradise to seek refuge and evade disaster.
To be honest, the Ghost Corpse School’s actions were indeed improper; after all, the Heavenly Monarch’s remains were obtained through the combined efforts of the five sects.
However, Shen Mo, Zhou Zhiwei, and other cultivators from the Riverside Sect didn’t harbor excessive resentment towards the Ghost Corpse School. The reason was simple: they later learned that the Ghost Corpse School had only relocated its entire sect into the Heavenly Monarch Ghoul’s cave paradise *after* the Riverside Sect’s mountain gate and a large part of Qing State had been swallowed by the Soaring Serpent Bizarre Dragon. The fact that most Riverside Sect disciples were trapped in the Mountain River Realm, and that the billions of creatures residing in Qing State were swallowed by the Soaring Serpent Bizarre Dragon—none of this could be blamed on the Ghost Corpse School. Of course, the Ghost Corpse School still owed the other four sects.
That being said, the members of the Ghost Corpse School, high and low, hadn’t lost their cultivators’ spirit; they too piloted the Heavenly Monarch’s Ghoul toward Golden Light Ridge to slay the Evil Demons!
Meanwhile, Shen Mo also noticed that the Heavenly Monarch’s Ghoul appearing over Golden Light Ridge was different from the Ghost Corpse School’s other Ghouls. It was clearly more sentient; it felt to him as though the Heavenly Monarch’s Corpse Spirit’s consciousness hadn’t been obliterated.
Perhaps the refining time was too short, and the Ghost Corpse School hadn’t performed enough Heavenly Sacrifice rituals on the Ghoul, which is why a part of the Corpse Spirit’s gnosis and soul was preserved, making it easier to control this Ghoul!
The Heaven Sword Sect and the Ghost Corpse School had arrived one after another.
Furthermore, even the Profound Moon School, which had sealed its mountain for two years, and the Seven Stars Altar, which had withdrawn to its mountain gates and become less active after the cataclysm, had dispatched their Golden Core Realm Patriarchs.
Two other streaks of light were the Profound Moon School’s Illusionary Mirror and the Seven Stars Altar’s Mountain Suppressing Dharma Platform, their presence also quite formidable!
It could be said that, excluding the Riverside Sect, four of the original Five Great Sects of Red Flame Country had rushed to Golden Light Ridge.
As for the Riverside Sect, they truly had no other option.
At the Chong’a Mountain subsidiary courtyard in Yu State, there were merely a hundred disciples at or above the Qi Gathering Realm. Disciples in the Body Tempering Realm couldn’t even reach Zhong State; even if they did, they would only be courting death!
The sole remaining Supreme Elder was Zhou Zhiwei.
In the current Red Flame Zone, if the subsidiary courtyard lacked a Golden Core Realm expert, any passing Class IV great demon could have performed a bloodbath at Chong’a Mountain!
Patriarch Zhou Zhiwei couldn’t even go to the Dragon Fall Abyss himself. He could only send Shen Mo to contact Elder Li and obtain spiritual medicine from the Jade Pool Dungeon to sustain the subsidiary courtyard’s operations.
Among the beams of light, like pillars converging on Golden Light Ridge, most were actually powerful creatures from the Outer Zone. Of course, these were all from clans of the moderate faction, classified by the Immortal Path forces as allies.
There were exquisite and beautiful Flower Fairies with three pairs of delicate wings on their backs; dark ice creatures, transparent as ice and exuding a faint chill; giant Gold Men, thirty feet tall, appearing as if forged from pure gold; alien tribes resembling jellyfish, their bodies constantly shimmering with iridescent spots of light; and Flame Worms, whose true forms were small, flame-like insects, but whose ’Dao Bodies’ were constructed from various Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures or the powerful husks of other creatures.
A cursory glance revealed more than thirty different races and over a hundred powerful creatures possessing Class IV strength, charging towards Golden Light Ridge alongside the mountain-like giant sword, the Heavenly Monarch’s Ghoul, the Illusionary Mirror, and the Mountain Suppressing Dharma Platform!
Additionally, cultivator disciples who had infiltrated and creatures from the Outer Zone’s moderate faction hidden among the Evil Demons suddenly launched attacks around Golden Light Ridge, creating widespread chaos and commotion.
Simultaneously, fleets of magic ships sailed from the direction of Yan Tianjing and from the territories of sects in Zhong State that had not fallen to the Evil Demons, converging on this location. Many Immortal Path cultivators, either by artifact controlling or using escaping light, gathered from all directions, accompanying the magic ships. Among them were also many Class II and Class III creatures from the Outer Zone!
BOOM!
From the summit of Golden Light Ridge, a dozen or so attacks erupted, blasting the foremost dazzling Sword Light into fragments.
This Sword Light, embodying the full might of the Heaven Sword Sect, had reached the peak of the Golden Core Realm in terms of level and power. Slaying one or two Class IV great demons, equivalent to Golden Core Realm cultivators, would not have been difficult for it!
As the mist on the mountain peak dispersed, the figures of Class IV great demons were revealed one by one before everyone...
