252: Chapter 252 Using Blood Beads

On a low hill in the distance.

Wu Li crouched on a horizontal branch of a crooked pine tree, his gaze piercing through the morning mist and landing on the area currently engaged in battle.

Bai Chi stood on a tree branch behind him and to the side, wings folded. After watching for a while, she lowered her voice and said, "Old Ancestor, things are escalating. If this continues, will the Human Race……"

Wu Li crossed his arms, his blood-red pupils remaining fixed on the battlefield: "That has nothing to do with us."

"Besides, look at Patriarch Ekuang; he doesn't seem prepared to wait for the outcome."

Bai Chi followed his gaze.

E Kuang stood behind the lines of Yao soldiers, his iron jaws clamped shut. His gaze passed over the two warring sides and landed on the golden light barrier and the fissure behind it, which was seeping with pale white light.

Just as Wu Li had thought.

'No, if this continues, the situation will be dire.'

Patriarch Ekuang could see that under these conditions of battle, if the Human Race received any more reinforcements, the Yao Race would have almost no chance of victory.

He watched for a moment, an idea forming in his mind.

He did not continue to wait for the battle to reach a conclusion; instead, he concealed his figure and walked toward the array base.

The Yao soldiers behind him did not follow. He alone crossed the edge of the battle zone, bypassing the Moon Guards and Yao soldiers who were locked in combat.

Inside the array base.

The three Cultivators from the Tiangong Bureau had already put down their surveying Magical Artifacts and were retreating, but the distance they had covered was limited, and they had not yet completely left the array base's range.

Xi Sha's gaze paused on E Kuang's movements. He did not speak, but the force on his claws visibly increased. The cracks on the surface of the spiritual light barrier were accelerating, as if trying to clear more space for E Kuang's advance.

E Kuang walked to the edge of the array base and stopped less than a zhang in front of the fissure.

"Give me……"

"Open!"

He raised his right claw, a point of dark red light condensing at the tip. The light was small, flickering continuously at his fingertip, before transforming into a beam of dark red light that injected into the array base patterns at the edge of the fissure.

The spiritual light at the edge of the fissure began to expand the moment it touched the dark red beam. Its color shifted from pale white to dark red, and the edges of the entrance continued to widen, like a door being pushed open from the inside.

Patriarch Ekuang did not pause.

When the entrance widened enough to allow one person to pass through, he turned sideways and squeezed into the fissure. His figure was swallowed by the dark red light and disappeared behind the entrance.

The dark red light at the edge of the array base did not dissipate immediately after Patriarch Ekuang entered; instead, it maintained the width of the entrance, like a door that had not yet fully closed.

Commander Su Qin withdrew his gaze from the direction where Patriarch Ekuang had disappeared, his voice low: "He went in."

Liu Ruobing stood at the front of the array base, her hands still in the hand seal position, her voice carrying an irrepressible urgency: "Then what do we do?"

Commander Su Qin was silent for two breaths: "Leave half the men to hold back the Yao Race, and the other half follow me in."

As Commander Su Qin's voice fell, the Moon Guards' lines began to contract.

The Moon Guards in the front row fought while retreating, pulling the battle lines from the outer perimeter of the array base toward the entrance.

Colonel Liu Zhong forced back the rushing Yao soldiers with a single blade strike, then turned and retreated toward the entrance. The blue-gray spiritual light on his blade was gradually dimming.

Colonel Zhao Yuanan put away the remaining Talismans in his sleeves and retreated with Colonel Liu Zhong.

Liu Ruobing withdrew her hands from the hand seal, and the residual spiritual light of the Azure Wood Seal flickered a few times on the ground before completely dissipating.

The Gray-robed Elder retreated to the edge of the entrance holding the jade plate, with the middle-aged Cultivator and the female Cultivator following behind him. The three stood in a triangular formation, protecting each other's flanks, and yielded the position of the entrance.

The Yao Race did not pursue.

Mo Lin stopped his movements, his gaze shifting from the retreating Moon Guards to the dark red entrance, then glanced again at the direction where Patriarch Ekuang had disappeared.

"Damnable Patriarch Ekuang, he actually dared to deceive us!"

Shi Yuan withdrew the palms he had pressed against the ground, the dark brown Demon Power slowly fading from the ground.

"Stop the nonsense, let's go in quickly!"

Xi Sha withdrew his claws from in front of the spiritual light barrier, took a few steps back, and stood on the other side of the entrance. His gaze swept back and forth between the retreating Moon Guards and the Tiangong Bureau Cultivators, confirming that they were indeed gathering toward the entrance rather than flanking to the sides.

The Yao soldiers behind him also stopped their actions; their formation did not break, but their attacks ceased.

Mo Lin spoke first: "Hurry."

He stepped toward the entrance, not waiting for the other two to respond.

Shi Yuan stood up from the ground, his tortoise shell making a low grinding sound.

On this side.

Commander Su Qin was also the first to react, and at the same time, the first Human Race Cultivator to enter.

"Swish, swish, swish~"

Colonel Liu Zhong and Colonel Zhao Yuanan followed behind him on the left and right, Liu Ruobing was further behind, and finally, the three Tiangong Bureau Cultivators, with the Gray-robed Elder walking in front holding the jade plate, and the middle-aged Cultivator and female Cultivator behind.

The remaining Moon Guards did not all follow inside; about half remained on the outer perimeter of the array base, redeploying their defensive line and sealing the outside of the entrance.

Some of the Yao soldiers also remained in place, standing in a standoff with the Moon Guards at a distance, with no one making the first move.

On a low hill in the distance.

Wu Li saw that the dark red entrance was slowly contracting, the dark red light at the edges fading layer by layer.

He did not look any longer, spread his wings, and his figure swept from the horizontal branch, flying toward the array base.

Bai Chi followed closely behind to the side; the two figures glided rapidly along the edge of the low hill without making any extra sound.

The dark red light of the entrance had already narrowed to the point of allowing only one person to pass through sideways by the time they arrived, and the edges were still continuing to contract, as if being slowly closed by some force.

Wu Li and his companion squeezed into the entrance sideways before it completely closed, with Bai Chi following closely behind; both figures disappeared into the dark red light one after another.

The dark red light at the edge of the array base shrank another circle after they entered, finally narrowing into a thin line, and then completely extinguished, as if it had never existed, leaving only the residual spiritual light on the surface of the array base and the traces of Demonic Qi that had not yet dissipated over the swamp.

...

The scene shifted.

Inside the Jingxuan Grotto-Heaven, Buddha light filled the entire space. Pale golden light seeped out from everywhere, adhering to the stone walls and ground, forming a fine layer of halo that continuously emitted a scorching aura.

The moment Wu Li stepped into the Grotto-Heaven, that layer of Buddha light fell upon him. The surface of his skin felt as if it had been scalded by something, and a burning pain spread upward along the roots of his feathers. The flow of Demon Power in his Meridians also slowed down significantly, carrying a sluggish resistance as it circulated.

He frowned, and the Blood Pupil on his forehead opened on its own. Scarlet light surged from the pupil, forming a thin layer of blood-colored light film on the surface of his body, separating the Buddha light from his skin.

The burning pain subsided, and the Demon Power restored its flow speed.

Bai Chi followed closely behind him into the Grotto-Heaven.

The moment the Buddha light touched her wings, she let out a muffled groan, and her wings involuntarily folded, as if being pressed by something from the outside.

"Use that Blood Bead."