394: Chapter 388 Huang Wanfu is about to break through to the Golden Core stage

"Splatter!"

A streak of blood light soared into the sky. Before the Loose Cultivator could even let out a scream, his head flew high into the air. His headless corpse ran two more steps forward due to momentum before collapsing heavily into the muddy water.

Blood, mixed with mud, splashed across the faces of the surrounding Loose Cultivators.

This extremely bloody and brutal scene instantly intimidated everyone. The Loose Cultivators who were still fleeing in all directions froze in place as if an immobilization Spell had been cast on them, their bodies trembling uncontrollably.

Wang Er and Uncle Li were hiding behind a collapsed pillar, their faces already as pale as paper.

"Uncle Li... it's over... they've really attacked..." Wang Er gripped Uncle Li's arm tightly, his nails digging into Uncle Li's flesh, his teeth chattering violently. "That sound... that red light... they are monsters we can't possibly deal with..."

Uncle Li's expression was also extremely grim, but his cloudy eyes revealed a ferocity unique to an old veteran of the Jianghu.

"Don't panic! The more it's like this, the more you can't run around! Follow Commander Chen Jiao, and maybe there's still a way to survive!" Uncle Li lowered his voice and pressed down hard on Wang Er's shoulder. "Remember what I told you before: if we really go into battle later, don't charge forward. Find a pile of corpses and lie down to play dead!"

At that moment, Commander Chen Jiao strode to the very front of the crowd.

His bloodshot eyes scanned the shivering group of cannon fodder as if looking at dead men.

"Listen up! By order of the Grand Elder!"

Commander Chen Jiao abruptly raised the dripping electric whip in his hand, his voice hoarse and cruel.

"The Vanguard of the Demonic Path has already charged over! Their target is the Formation Foundation Stones outside the city! Now, all Loose Cultivators, regardless of cultivation level, pick up your Magical Artifacts and head to the Buffer Zone of the outer city wall!"

"Buffer Zone?!"

Hearing those two words, a wail of despair immediately erupted from the crowd.

The Buffer Zone was the edge where the City Protection Formation met the outside world. Although still under the protection of the formation, it was the most dangerous line of fire. The enemy's Spells and Magical Artifacts could easily penetrate that thin layer of defense and strike them.

Going there was equivalent to being used as meat shields to absorb the enemy's first wave of damage!

"Officer! Officer, have mercy! We can't even afford enough Inedia Pills to stay full, and seventy or eighty percent of the spiritual energy in our bodies is gone. Sending us to the Buffer Zone is just sending us to our deaths!" A white-haired old man knelt in the muddy water, kowtowing frantically for mercy.

"Sending you to your deaths? Soldiers are raised for a thousand days to be used for a single moment! The Sect gives you food not so you can wait for death here!"

Commander Chen Jiao was completely unmoved. He kicked the old man over and roared harshly:

"Law Enforcement Team, hear my command! Open the city gates! Drive them out for me! Anyone who dares to take half a step back will be executed on the spot!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The surrounding Disciples of the Chen family Law Enforcement Team roared in unison. The spears and Flying Swords in their hands glinted with a cold light as they pressed forward step by step.

Forced by this bone-chilling killing intent, thousands of Loose Cultivators could only walk towards the heavy Black Iron Gate of the outer city wall with endless despair and humiliation, like a herd of cattle and sheep being driven to the slaughterhouse.

The Black Iron Gate slowly opened amidst the rumbling of the mechanism, revealing the pitch-black death zone outside where wind and rain lashed down.

Wang Er walked in the crowd, his hand tightly clutching a Low Grade Flying Sword with dim spiritual light. Tears flowed uncontrollably, mixing with the rain. He looked back towards the direction of the high-and-mighty City Lord's Mansion in the inner city of Heavenly Sword City, a thick look of resentment flashing in his eyes.

"Chen Zhiwen... you bone-eating demon... even as a ghost, I won't let you off..."

He cursed frantically in his heart.

But this weak curse could not even stir a single ripple before the cruel war machine of the cultivation world.

...

Meanwhile, on top of the city wall.

Chen Zhiwen still quietly watched the Loose Cultivators being driven out of the city like ants, his eyes devoid of any pity.

"Tap, tap, tap."

A set of extremely light yet eerie footsteps, carrying a chilling coldness, slowly approached along the stone steps of the city wall.

The temperature in the surrounding air dropped by a dozen degrees the moment the footsteps appeared. The heavy rain falling from the sky actually condensed into black ice flowers the moment it came within three zhang of the newcomer, falling onto the bluestone bricks with crisp cracking sounds.

The Chen family guards on duty whipped their heads around, their spears instinctively pointing at the figure emerging from the wind and rain.

But when they saw the person's face clearly, everyone gasped, and even the hands holding the spears trembled involuntarily.

It was a woman.

A woman dressed in tight-fitting black clothes that perfectly outlined her hot figure.

But at this moment, no man dared to harbor any profane thoughts about her.

Because her skin was as pale as a corpse that had been stored in an ice cellar for a thousand years. Her lips were a strange purplish-black, and most terrifying were her eyes.

They were a pair of pitch-black pupils with no whites at all. Deep within those pupils, a bottomless black vortex seemed to be slowly rotating; one look, and it felt as if even the Soul would be swallowed.

Li Shuang.

After a day and a night of seclusion, Li Shuang, who had devoured the remnant Soul of a Nascent Soul Old Monster on the brink of death, had finally emerged.

Ignoring the terrified guards, she walked straight behind Chen Zhiwen and knelt on one knee.

"Subordinate Li Shuang pays respects to the Grand Elder."

Her voice was still cold, but it had gained a raspy quality like two bones rubbing together, making one's scalp tingle.

Chen Zhiwen slowly turned around, his deep gaze scanning Li Shuang up and down.

He felt the powerful Devilish Qi within Li Shuang that, despite her best efforts to suppress it, was still frantically surging. That was definitely not a power a Foundation Establishment Early Stage Cultivator could possess.

"Foundation Establishment Late Stage Peak." A faint smile tugged at the corner of Chen Zhiwen's mouth. "It seems you not only avoided being possessed by that old ghost but instead devoured him completely."

"In response to the Grand Elder," Li Shuang lowered her head slightly, an irrepressible bloodthirsty light flashing in her black pupils. "That old thing was too old, the meat was a bit tough, but the marrow in the bones tasted quite good."

This cruel dialogue, sounding like it came from evil spirits, made Chen Zhengchu's hair stand on end. He never imagined that his Junior Sister Li, who was once ruthless but still relatively normal, would now turn into a complete female devil.

"Very good. This seat likes madmen like you who don't even care for their lives for the sake of power."

Chen Zhiwen nodded with satisfaction. He turned around and pointed his slender finger at the pitch-black sea beyond the city wall.

"Do you see those insects charging over?"

Li Shuang looked up, following the direction of Chen Zhiwen's finger.

In her black demonic pupils, even in this pitch-black storm, she could clearly see thousands of light spots emitting the scent of blood rapidly approaching.

"I see them. Just a bunch of blood food coming to their deaths." Li Shuang licked her purplish-black lips, an extremely longing expression in her eyes. Having just broken through, the Demonic Technique of the Youming Sect within her was frantically clamoring for the nourishment of blood.

"Go." Chen Zhiwen's voice became cold and heartless. "Those Loose Cultivator cannon fodder down there are now under your command. This seat doesn't care what method you use; even if you have to throw all those Loose Cultivators in, you must pin the enemy's Vanguard firmly in the Buffer Zone!"

"I only want results, not the process. You can drink as much blood there as you want."

"Subordinate accepts the command!"

Li Shuang stood up abruptly, her body turning into a black afterimage. Like a giant night owl, she leaped directly from the city wall dozens of zhang high, diving towards the Buffer Zone.

Watching her disappearing back, Chen Zhengchu swallowed and asked in a low voice, "Grand Elder, Junior Sister Li... in her current state, if she loses herself to the bloodlust, will she even... our own people..."

"Our own people?" Chen Zhiwen glanced at Chen Zhengchu as if looking at an idiot. "On the battlefield, there are only the living and the dead. As long as she can kill the enemy, what does it matter if she is a blade or a mad dog?"

Chen Zhengchu lowered his head in shame again, not daring to say another word.

...

Meanwhile, in another hidden location not far from this bloody battlefield.

Inside that bamboo building deep within Crescent Moon Valley.

"Boom—!"

A muffled explosion suddenly erupted from inside the bamboo building.

Immediately after, the originally exquisite bamboo building shattered into pieces. Countless bamboo splinters shot out in all directions like hidden weapons, embedding themselves deeply into the surrounding rocks and trees.

A dazzling deep blue light pillar soared into the sky from the ruins of the bamboo building, piercing through the thick mist in the valley and illuminating the night sky for several miles in a vibrant blue.

In the center of this light pillar, a figure was slowly rising into the air.

It was Huang Wanfu.

At this moment, Huang Wanfu looked like a Heavenly God descending to earth. He was enveloped in a layer of extremely thick, almost solidified deep blue water-attribute true essence. His hair and beard were bristling, his eyes shot out three-foot-long blue light, and every wrinkle on his face was filled with arrogance and insufferable pride.

"Hahahaha—!"

A deafening burst of wild laughter erupted from Huang Wanfu's mouth. This laughter, mixed with the powerful force he had just "broken through" to, actually whipped up a gale within the valley.

"Golden Core! I have finally condensed my Golden Core!"

Huang Wanfu felt that "deep blue Golden Core" spinning rapidly inside his Dantian, emitting terrifying fluctuations, and his entire being fell into a state of extreme frenzy and excitement.

His mind, completely clouded by power, did not notice that at the very core of that so-called "Golden Core," a pitch-black ice thorn had already pierced deep into his Origin, and with every circulation of his true essence, it was delivering an extremely subtle deathly Cold Poison to his entire body.