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Chapter 285: Breached Array
Chapter 285: Breached Array
Chapter 285: Breached Array
The scar-faced man by the name of Xue Han slowly turned around upon hearing this, then ordered, "Get into formation and attack!"
The group of figures behind him gave a collective affirmative response before flying away, and it didn't take long before all of the dozens of spirit boats hanging suspended within the dark clouds to abruptly swoop down.
At the same time, they were moving in all directions, forward, backward, to the left, and to the right, as if they were soldiers adopting their positions in a pre-set formation, and all of the spirit boats quickly arranged themselves into a ring-shaped array.
Immediately thereafter, a burst of thunderous chanting rang out, and the dozens of black platforms on the spirit boats began to tremble in unison. The golden patterns engraved upon them also lit up with dazzling radiance while giving off powerful energy fluctuations.
A resounding boom rang out as all of the platforms on the spirit boats shuddered in unison, following which a golden pillar of light erupted from each of them directly into the sea of dark clouds up above.
The sea of clouds instantly began to churn violently with traces of golden light shimmering within them, immediately following which an enormous projection of a round plate appeared. The projection was over 10,000 feet in radius and was riddled with strange patterns that were radiating dazzling golden light.
All of a sudden, a burst of rumbling that resembled a string of thunderclaps rang out, and the entire sea of clouds began to surge like boiling water.
A series of giant millstone-sized fireballs shot out of the projection with scorching golden flames burning on their surfaces, then came crashing down toward the main island of the Holy Puppet Sect and the eight islands around it.
Thousands of golden fireballs were crashing down with long fiery tails behind them, resembling an almighty meteor shower.
It was as if the entire sky had been set alight with golden radiance, and even the dark clouds had been given a golden lining.
However, all of these fireballs were stopped cold in their tracks close to 100,000 feet above the main island, as if they had suddenly crashed into an invisible wall, and they exploded violently to send countless golden sparks flying in all directions.
As the explosions rang out one after another, a near-transparent semi-spherical light barrier was revealed. Azure light was flashing over its surface, and the constant barrage of exploding fireballs were sending ripples surging incessantly over the light barrier.
One massive crater after another appeared on the light barrier, only for it to bounce back and revert back to its original form amid flashes of azure light, and it was able to keep itself intact against the barrage of fireballs.
On the plaza on the main island of the Holy Puppet Sect, everyone was looking up at the sky with tense expressions.
"They won't be able to keep up an assault this ferocious for too long. How much longer can your defensive array last? " Yun Ni asked as she stood beside Bai Fengyi.
Bai Fengyi considered the question for a moment, then replied, "If this is all that we have to deal with, then we shouldn't have any problems. However..."
Before she had a chance to finish her sentence, the spirit patterns on the massive plate projection within the dark clouds faded, and the storm of golden fireballs subsided.
That's it?
Everyone was rather perplexed by this turn of events.
However, the golden plate projection then immediately began operating once again, and this time, it was releasing even larger golden fireballs that were falling twice as fast as before, building up tremendous downward momentum.
A resounding boom rang out as the golden fireball came crashing down.
The defensive light barrier shuddered violently as an enormous indentation appeared on its surface, and as opposed to light ripples, there were now turbulent waves surging over the light barrier.
Before the light barrier had a chance to recover, several hundred more golden fireballs came crashing down in rapid succession, and the entire light barrier was completely warped, looking as if it were going to collapse at any moment.
"It looks like the array won't be able to last much longer. Once the battle begins, I'll only be able to take on one of the two enemy Golden Immortals. What are you going to do about the other one?" Yun Ni asked.
"I'll think of a way to keep the other Golden Immortal at bay. Our cultivators and puppets outnumber them, so if we can quickly kill as many of their True Immortal cultivators as possible, we'll be able to severely dent their morale," Bai Fengyi replied.
"Indeed. These people have banded together solely for profit, so if we can force them onto the back foot, they'll immediately fall apart like sand. Hence, we have to go all-out from the outset and crush them from the get-go. Only then will we have a chance of securing victory," Yun Ni said.
Bai Fengyi nodded in response, then summoned an array plate before issuing a series of verbal instructions into it.
On the spirit boat high up in the sky, Xue Han was looking down at the array on the island with a hint of surprise on his face. "This array is more sturdy than I anticipated. Fellow Daoist Lu Ji, looks like we'll have to trouble you to do the honors."
Lu Ji offered no reply, merely nodding silently in response before flying out of the spirit boat, where he hovered in mid-air.
He then removed the silver longsword that was strapped to his waist, holding the scabbard in one hand while gently sweeping the index and middle fingers of his other hand over the hilt of the sword.
A sharp clang rang out as the silver longsword flew out of its scabbard before rising up toward the dark clouds above.
A circle of white sword qi that was visible even to the naked eye began to swirl around the sword in a frenzy, instantly piercing a giant hole with a radius of several thousand feet into the dark clouds in the sky.
A ray of bright sunlight passed through the hole, illuminating the entire area around Lu Ji and making him resemble a majestic sword immortal. The eyes of everyone down below were unconsciously drawn to him, and Han Li was also looking up at the massive hole in the clouds while standing next to the giant stone puppet on the island that he and Qilin 9 were stationed on.
The sword had risen up, but it hadn't descended.
The phenomenon created by the rising sword wasn't actually all that astonishing, but given Han Li's expertise in swordsmanship, he was able to see some things that others couldn't.
The concentration and sharpness of the sword qi around the flying sword were unlike anything he had ever seen before, and he had a feeling that once the sword did fall, it would do so with devastating effect.
Sure enough, mere moments later, dazzling silver light erupted within the dark clouds, and a string of loud sounds that were different from thunderclaps rang out as a menacing aura began to emanate through the air.
Blue light flashed within Han Li's eyes as he cast his gaze toward the sky, and he discovered a streak of pristine white swordlight that was over 10,000 feet in length standing among the clouds like a massive mountain.
Streaks of sword qi were surging around it in a frenzy, and bursts of rumbling resembling what one would hear in an avalanche were ringing out incessantly.
In the next instant, the streak of white swordlight descended like a snow-covered mountain crashing down toward the sea of dark clouds.
The layers of clouds melted away like snow and ice in the face of the swordlight, and a massive opening that was over 100,000 feet wide quickly emerged.
The streak of swordlight looked as if it were going to slice the entire heavens apart, and it descended with unstoppable force toward the light barrier down below, which was already severely warped from the barrage of fireballs.
An earth-shattering boom rang out as an enormous indentation appeared in the defensive light barrier, quickly stretching to several thousand feet in length before elongating even further.
The light barrier was already close to being a spent force, and it was unable to revert back to its original form, exploding violently and disintegrating into countless specks of light.
However, the massive streak of swordlight that had destroyed the light barrier was barely slowed down as it continued to descend.
All of a sudden, a burst of dazzling white light erupted into the heavens from the main island, and an enormous white snow lotus flower projection appeared, clashing against the swordlight tens of thousands of feet in the sky to result in a violent explosion.
Bursts of powerful shockwaves instantly erupted in all directions, sweeping up enormous waves in the surrounding sea within a radius of thousands of kilometers.
All of the cultivators assembled by the Ubiquitous Pavilion on the dozens of spirit boats in the dark clouds erupted into excited cheers at the sight of the defensive array being broken, and their eyes were glowing as if they could already see the countless spirit stones waiting for them to plunder.
"Now that the defensive array has been destroyed, how much you can plunder from the Holy Puppet Sect will be up to you, fellow daoists," Xue Han cackled.
As soon as his voice trailed off, countless figures instantly sprang down from the black spirit boats in the dark clouds, and they swooped directly toward the main island down below like a flock of starving crows.
However, right as they were approaching the island, the spirit patterns on the bodies of the eight giant puppets situated around the main island suddenly lit up.
Pillars of light of different colors that were hundreds of feet thick erupted out of the pagodas on top of the giant puppets' heads before converging toward the main island, where they came together to form a colorful light barrier that encompassed the entire island.
The hundred or so Ubiquitous Pavilion cultivators who were charging at the forefront hurriedly tried to stop themselves in their descent, but were unable to arrest their own momentum and crashed straight into the light barrier.
Aside from several True Immortals who were able to summon protective treasures in time and were only sent flying upon crashing into the light barrier, all of the other cultivators were instantly reduced to ashes, leaving only acrid plumes of black smoke in the air.
This second defensive barrier had stopped all of the Ubiquitous Pavilion cultivators cold in their tracks, and they quickly spread themselves out in all directions with wary looks on their faces.
Right at this moment, Bai Fengyi commanded, "Engage the enemy!"
Streaks of light rose up from all over the surrounding islands as countless figures sprang up into the sky around the colorful light barrier, charging directly toward the Ubiquitous Pavilion cultivators.
They were immediately followed by several hundred mechanical flying boats that hurtled directly toward the black spirit boats up above. In the meantime, some of the important locations on the islands were still being guarded by some cultivators and puppets in case of sneak attacks.
"I'm going ahead," Yun Ni said to Bai Fengyi, then rose up from the main island.
Bai Fengyi turned around to take a glance at Bai Suyuan and the others with a complex look in her eyes, then instructed, "Make sure to stay here and don't go anywhere."
After that, she also rose up into the air behind Yun Ni.
High up in the sky, Lu Ji was looking down to find a massive snow lotus flower projection rapidly ascending toward him from down below.
His expression remained unchanged as he raised a hand up high before making a beckoning motion, and a silver longsword swooped down from the giant hole in the dark clouds before landing in his grasp.