41: Chapter 41 They call this an illusion?

Inside the temporary meeting tent of the Blood Fiend Sect, the air was heavy and thick, and every breath was stagnant with the scent of blood.

At the head of the table, Elder Xuehe's face was as pale as water-soaked rice paper, and the shadows of terror still lingered deep within his eyes.

He had just recounted his experience at the foot of Changge Peak of the Taixuan Sect, word for word.

Especially that leaf that had fluttered down, and that terrifying canyon that still spanned the heavens and earth, bottomless.

The tent was deathly silent.

After a long while, a burst of rough, mocking laughter tore through the silence.

"Hahahaha! Xuehe, I think you've been scared out of your wits by that bunch of turtles from the Taixuan Sect!"

The speaker was a burly man whose frame seemed to fill everyone's field of vision; his muscles were knotted, and his skin was covered in strange, black demonic patterns.

The Old Ancestor of the Heavenly Demon Sect, Li Tianxing.

Li Tianxing slammed a palm onto the table, causing the teacup to emit a painful hum.

"A single leaf cutting through a mountain range? Do you think this is some ghost story for three-year-olds?"

"Let me tell you, if such methods truly existed in this world, then why bother cultivating immortality or seeking the Dao? We might as well all go home and play with leaves!"

On the other side, a hunched old woman with a sinister face let out a rasping, bizarre laugh, her voice dry and piercing.

She was the Old Ancestor of the Hehuan Sect, Ghost Granny.

"Brother Xuehe, you are a great Cultivator at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, how could you be deceived by such a clumsy illusion?"

"In my opinion, the Taixuan Sect knows our great army is approaching and that they have no strong experts guarding their Sect, so they deliberately created this illusion to scare us away."

"Exactly!" Li Tianxing nodded heavily, his eyes flashing with greed and disdain.

"This just proves that they are weak on the inside despite their outward show of strength, and they are at their wits' end! They've even resorted to such low-class tricks!"

Elder Xuehe suddenly looked up, his lips trembling, attempting to defend himself: "No! That was not an illusion! Absolutely not! That feeling of powerlessness when facing the might of heaven—I would never misidentify it! The canyon is still there to this day. If you don't believe me, you can go see for yourselves..."

"Enough!"

Li Tianxing interrupted him impatiently.

"We have gathered the strength of three Sects and an army of hundreds of thousands—are we here to listen to your stories? Have you forgotten the news sent back by our scouts?"

"That Foundation Establishment brat who went in to investigate came out insane, babbling nonsense about seeing immortals and seeing the mountain split open."

"I think the illusion he fell for is the same one you saw!"

The more he spoke, the more certain he became, and a perfect logical loop formed in his mind.

A Foundation Establishment scout and a Nascent Soul Elder were both harmed by the same "illusion."

This meant that the Taixuan Sect's Mountain Protection Grand Array, in addition to defense, also carried some extremely sophisticated illusion attacks!

But this was precisely a sign of their guilty conscience!

"Pass on my order!" Li Tianxing stood up abruptly, his voice exploding inside the large tent.

"All Disciples, prepare immediately! Stop with the probing—the entire army is to move out and accelerate the assembly!"

"Three hours from now, we will be at the gates of the Taixuan Sect!"

"Ghost Granny, you and I, plus Brother Xuehe here, will attack together. We shall use thunderous force to shatter their Mountain Protection Grand Array first!"

Li Tianxing's face was filled with a ferocious grin.

"I want to see what they use to play god and act like ghosts once that turtle shell is gone!"

"The tens of thousands of years of the Taixuan Sect's foundation shall be split equally among our three families!"

Ghost Granny let out a cackling laugh and readily agreed.

Only Elder Xuehe, looking at these two "allies" who had been blinded by greed, felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to his scalp.

He opened his mouth, but in the end, he didn't say a word.

Go ahead.

Go see for yourselves and you will know.

I just hope that when that Senior gets angry, he doesn't take it out on my Blood Fiend Sect.

He made up his mind that when they attacked the mountain later, he would absolutely only go through the motions and not put in any real effort; he would hide as far away as possible.

...

Three hours later.

Above the Taixuan Sect, the sky changed abruptly.

"Rum-rum-rum—"

A continuous shadow first appeared on the horizon, which rapidly expanded and approached, finally turning into hundreds of massive war vessels that blocked out the sun!

The war vessels were entirely pitch black, their hulls carved with ferocious demonic patterns, and the massive ghost head statues standing at the bows exuded a nauseating stench of blood and evil Qi.

Every war vessel was packed with dense crowds of Demonic Path Cultivators, their auras fierce, their eyes bloodthirsty and fanatical.

Hundreds of war vessels, like a gigantic black canopy, shrouded the entire Taixuan Sect.

The sunlight was completely cut off.

The world went dark; the apocalypse had arrived.

On the peak of Changge Peak, Su Changge stood with his hands behind his back, his robes fluttering in the wild wind.

He narrowed his eyes, looking at the Demonic Path army above his head that almost completely covered the sky, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously curled up slightly.

"Hoh... this is quite a big spectacle they've put on."

He muttered silently in his heart while pulling up the System interface.

【Current emotion points balance: 3,850,000】

Looking at this string of numbers, Su Changge seemed to see a brighter future.

Last time, a single leaf scared away a Nascent Soul Old Monster, his emotion points skyrocketed, and the System even leveled up as a result.

Now, this dark mass in the sky...

He could already imagine this string of numbers with a few more zeros added to the end.

"Not bad, not bad. The more that come, the better; the more organized, the better."

Su Changge nodded with satisfaction.

"It saves me from having to go find you one by one."

Just then, above the main peak of the Taixuan Sect, an aged and resolute voice resonated through the sky.

It was the voice of the Sect Head, Qingyunzi.

"All Disciples of the Taixuan Sect, listen to my order!"

"Activate all defensive Formations! Protect our Sect, protect our Dao!"

"Today, even if we fight to the last soldier, even if we bleed to the last drop of blood, we will never bow our heads to the evildoers of the Demonic Path!"

"Hum—hum—hum—"

As the words fell, beams of light in various colors shot up into the sky from the various peaks of the Taixuan Sect, intertwining in mid-air to form a massive, multicolored light shield, shrouding the entire Sect within.

This was the final barrier of the Taixuan Sect.

Inside the Sect, the atmosphere was suppressed to the extreme.

Countless Disciples held their Dharma swords, looking up at the sky with pale faces, their bodies trembling slightly from fear.

"Too many... there are too many enemies..."

"Can we... block them?"

Panic spread silently among the crowd.

Suddenly, two Outer Sect Disciples exchanged a glance, a flash of determination in their eyes, and they abruptly turned to control their Flying Swords, actually attempting to escape from the back mountain amidst the chaos.

They had not flown ten zhang when a sharp sword light descended from the sky, directly severing their Flying Swords.

"Ah!"

The two fell to the ground, screaming.

Wang Tiemian, the Head of the Law Enforcement Hall, appeared before them, his face as dark as charcoal, his eyes cold.

"Those who flee in the face of battle shall be executed without mercy!"

The cold voice made all the Disciples who harbored thoughts of luck shudder, and they dared not make any further moves.

Just at this moment of panic, a beautiful figure, carrying an autumn water long sword, walked step by step to the very front of the mountain gate.

She was dressed in white as snow, her posture straight and tall.

Facing the thousands of troops outside the mountain, there was no fear in her eyes, only an indomitable determination.

It was Ye Qingyao.

"Senior Sister!"

"It's Senior Sister!"

Seeing Ye Qingyao's figure, many panicked Disciples found their backbone, and a glimmer of light rekindled in their eyes.

Ye Qingyao did not look back.

She simply inserted the long sword in her hand steadily into the stone steps in front of the mountain gate.

"Zheng—"

Her movement was small, yet it seemed to be declaring to everyone.

As long as the sword is here, I am here.

Sworn to live and die with the Sect!

At this moment, from the enemy camp, came a deafening challenge.

"You cowardly turtles of the Taixuan Sect! Your death date has arrived!"

"If you know what's good for you, open the mountain gate and cripple your own cultivation; we grandfathers might still leave you a whole corpse!"

"I heard the female Disciples of your Taixuan Sect are all luscious. Once we break the mountain gate, we will definitely catch them and have a taste! Hahahaha!"

The filthy language surged in like a tide, assaulting the eardrums and hearts of every Taixuan Sect Disciple.

On Changge Peak, Su Changge turned a deaf ear to these insults.

He was waiting.

Waiting for the opponent to gather more completely, waiting for their Formation to be denser.

To make it easier to wipe them all out in one go.

Finally, Li Tianxing seemed to lose patience.

He waved his hand and shouted coldly: "First round, probing attack! Bombard them for me!"

As the order was given, the ghost head statues on the bows of the hundreds of war vessels simultaneously lit up with scarlet light in their eyes.

The next moment, thousands of thick, blood-colored beams of light tore through the air, carrying the aura of destruction, and slammed fiercely into the Taixuan Sect's Mountain Protection Grand Array!

"Boom—"

The deafening sound swallowed all other noises, the multicolored shield shook violently, and ripples surged wildly on its surface.