Still coiled in her armor of living chains, Sister Xie Yue was trying to break free. But the grip on her neck was strong enough to crush even her throat. At the same time, she was hearing the sound of thunder, as though a cavalry stampeding through the red clouds. On her face she could already feel the air pressure caused by the mere movement of the tyrannic halberd.
'Lake of Iron'
Before the strike could claim of life, which she was certain it would, Sister Xie Yue sent forth all the chains around her. They spread with her at the center. Even Weiji He was struck by them. Despite his cultivation, he was pushed away and his strike missed its target. Still, Sister Xie Yue's eardrums almost ruptured and she felt a tremendous force against the side of her body. Her blood was raging like crazy as her heart was pumping with abandon.
Without any hesitation, she pressed on the attack. Although she was weaker than her opponent, she couldn't stop the fight. Thus, the only alternative she had was to fight with everything she had. Besides, the very Sisters that had made her stealth attack against Weiji He fail were here. They could join with the mercenaries. All of them gathered could probably tip the balance of the fight. After all, there was only one grade of difference between their cultivation. And Weiji He had truly been oblivious to her stealth attack. Maybe another one could work if he was distracted again.
As Sister Xie Yue was rushing toward him, Weiji He turned his sights toward the other Sisters and the mercenaries. He hit the air with the bottom of the halberd, as though it were the ground. When it hit, a powerful shock wave was created that extended all over the place. In the red and broken skies, skeleton horses appeared. They were without any soldier on their backs, but they were clearly war horses. Some pieces of flesh remained here and there on those horses and could be seen through ripped armor. Most of all, they could be smelled. Blood and decay were everywhere now. 'Chaos of War' was indeed a horrifying art. One would feel like they had been thrown into the bloodiest war they could fathom, and some more.
The mercenaries and the Sisters realized that they were standing on severed heads. While the Sisters quickly regained their sanity, it disrupted the mercenaries. Even though Boss Gui had trained them, they were not as disciplined as the Sisters of the Abyss. They would need more time to regroup. Unfortunately, they had no such luxury.
The skeleton war horses had reached them. They were the embodiment of the shock wave created by Weiji He's halberd. For Sister Xie Yue, this was nothing. But for late Golden Blood Children, this simple attack was deadly. A few mercenaries and the Sisters were firm enough and stood their ground. All of them took out their weapons. The Sisters were even able to set up an improvised battle formation. They were like a rock in the storm. Several horses broke apart on their weapons. But some of the mercenaries broke a few bones. Behind them though, enough horses passed through to kill a handful of panicking mercenaries.
Despite the deaths of those mercenaries, the Sisters realized that they had not even been Weiji He's target. No, his shock wave crashed into the array formation behind them. All the war horses broke apart on this array formation. Their bones ruptured and exploded. Like thousands of small knives, those bones tried to pierce through the defenses of Boss Gui's residence.
Before Weiji He could send another attack, Sister Xie Yue was already close enough. With her chains, she could keep her distance. But she didn't want her enemy to be able to break free as he would clearly attack the woman she was tasked to protect. Of course, if Weiji He wanted to run away, she would allow it without any hesitation. Her mission was to keep Boss Gui alive, not to kill a madman like Weiji He. Unfortunately, it was unlikely. After all, if he ran away, his life was forfeit. All the Sisters of the Abyss would track him and even Lord Wanghuo would want his head. In fact, if he didn't surrender, his family would be tortured and killed to force his hand. So he had to succeed or die. And Sister Xie Yue knew it as much as he did.
'Nine From the Lake'!
Sister Xie Yue was still clad in her armor of chains and surrounded by a lake made out of those very chains that had spread all around her. From this lake, nine heads emerged. Although they were made out of the chains, they looked very life-like. They were serpentine and full of pure hatred. Their yellow teeth could be seen in their scaly maws. Suddenly, they attacked Weiji He from all sides.
'Breaking the World'!
With the flat of his halberd, Weiji He struck the very first head coming for him. When they collided, the entire world shook. The shock of the impact repelled it as many links were broken apart. Under such a force, they were completely flattened but it didn't stop them. Those broken links flew toward Weiji He. This time though, they were unable to pierce his Wei Qi. He had been surprised the first time, but he was not going to let the same attack hit him again. In fact, he was more worried about a stealth attack from a small chain than those links that couldn't even pierce through his flesh.
Before the other heads could devour him, Weiji He moved around. His halberd fell on the closest head and he cut it in half. Several pieces of the chain fell to the ground, inert. Weiji He knew that he had to close the distance with his opponent while Sister Xie Yu knew she had to maintain it as long as she could. It would become a battle of attrition. Although Weiji He had more stamina in theory, his lungs had been pierce through and through twice already. Despite his blood cultivation, Weiji He wasn't like Cao Yun. He couldn't heal as well as the young human.
In his chest, his lungs had already begun to heal. In fact, the exterior wounds had closed up. But his organs were not yet healed. It would take a few hours, maybe even more than a day considering how severe the injuries had been. The pain was not that hard to bear, but the wounds were weakening him. And as he was forced to exert his own strength, he couldn't even heal properly, which then would require more time and more Qi. He really wasn't in a good position. Besides, he couldn't completely forget the mercenaries and the Sisters below. Although they were not his match, they could be enough to help Sister Xie Yue win.
Assessing the situation, Weiji He reached a conclusion. He was going to die. There was almost no chance for him to survive. But at the very least, he could take down his enemies with him. Unfortunately, his worst enemy was still confined in her residence. At that point, Weiji He had grown convinced that Sister Xie Yue was just trying to protect her no matter what. She had most likely lied. Boss Gui had maybe not killed Weiji Nian herself but she had given the order. Seeing to which extent the Sisters of the Abyss were protecting her, he was certain of his analysis. Of course, he was wrong. But Sister Xie Yue couldn't tell him the truth either. Moreover, it wouldn't have changed much at this time.
From his spatial ring, Weiji He took thousands of small axes. Controlled by his spiritual senses, they flew all over the place. Against Sister Xie Yue, those axes were almost nothing. Indeed, she simply used her own spiritual senses to disrupt Weiji He's. When they got too close to her, the trajectories of the axes got chaotic and slow. Her chains easily picked them off. This was why most Accomplished Demons of equivalent strength didn't fight using their spiritual senses to control their weapons. On the other hand, the Golden Blood Children had no way to disrupt Weiji He's spiritual senses. As such, they had to fend off the axes with their own weapons.
Once again though, the real target was the array formation. Weiji He had almost not moved away from Boss Gui's residence. Sister Xie Yue had tried to lure him away toward another of Cao Yun's array formations she could use against him, but he had not fell into her trap.
The axes struck the barrier that had already been damaged by the horses and the shock wave. Under this relentless assault, the barrier finally gave way.
-
Deep under the Monastery of Bliss and Repose, Cao Yun's meditation was disturbed. He sensed that his array formation had been broken. If someone had been able to unravel it properly, Cao Yun might not have felt anything. But because it was so abruptly destroyed, he did sense it. After all, this was a 2-star Heaven array formation. There were parts of it dedicated to send information to its master. At that moment, Cao Yun knew that Duma City was under attack. Unfortunately, there was nothing to do.
Just to reach Duma City would take a few months. Even with Hongyu and his own speed, it would take at least two to three weeks. However, he sent this information to High Mother Lisha. With their network throughout the Nalupu Kingdom, they could know what was happening their in record time. Information traveled faster than people.
-
Cao Yun was right. He wouldn't make it in time. The array formation had completely collapsed. It looked as though a dome of glass had exploded. But the shards disappeared as they were falling down. Now, Boss Gui's residence was wide open. The array formation couldn't protect anyone anymore. Weiji He abandoned his current fight and flew at full speed toward Boss Gui.
Sister Xie Yue tried to get in his way but she wasn't fast enough. Between Weiji He and Boss Gui, Mister Dai and Miss Wo acted as human shields. Unfortunately, they were torn apart. Their bodies exploded as though they were mere bags of blood. Finally, Weiji He's hand grabbed Boss Gui's throat. The war general looked into her burned eyes.
"This is such a pity you won't see your body when I cut off your head..."
Boss Gui felt utterly powerless, more than she had ever felt in her entire life. Her body was already very small. But at that moment, she felt smaller than ever. She couldn't even speak. The woman thought about all the crimes she had committed, all the suffering she had visited on others. And she was going to die for something she had not done. Irony was too cruel, even more than Boss Gui had been all her life. In her next life, if such a thing was really true, she would be even more ruthless and cruel. She wouldn't meet such an end.
Without adding another word, Weiji He brandished his halberd and hacked away. Considering the difference in cultivation, all of Boss Gui's Wei Qi was useless. His tyrannic halberd went through the small woman as though she were not even there. Weiji He let her go at the moment of impact. Her body was ripped apart in an instant. Under Weiji He's rage, the force was so intense that her head almost exploded while her shoulders were blown away. Her arms fell to the ground, soon followed by her mangled body. Finally, Weiji He grabbed her head and literally crushed it in his hand.
"Weiji Nian, you are avenged!"
At that very moment, Sister Xie Yue's chains pierced through the war general's heart. This time, there was no distraction. Sister Xie Yue's chains did pierce through his back and went directly for his heart. As he had focused everything on Boss Gui in that moment, he had left himself wide open. The very moment Sister Xie Yue's chains stabbed his heart, they spread all around. His major organ exploded and the chains attacked everything they could in his body. Weiji He had already given up on life.
While he was dying, it dawned on him that he had been as stubborn and stupid as his niece. When it came to her son, she couldn't think straight. When it came to his sister and her daughter, he couldn't think straight either. Hopefully, his bloodline wouldn't be afflicted with such a plight. His foolishness may have doomed his entire blood. Still, he was convinced that he had done enough to distance himself from everyone else. Of course, he would have preferred to survive his vengeance. But he had been prepared for such an end and had done everything he could to help those who would survive him.
He could feel the chains moving around in his chest. As an Accomplished Demon, even losing his heart and his major organs were not enough to kill him right away. Besides, he knew that Sister Xie Yue was trying to preserve his brain. The Sisters were not as good as City Lord Sihe, but they could most likely extract his memories, even from his corpse. Thus, he had no hesitation. Weiji He sent all of his remaining blood into his own head.
There, he focused on his Turbid Demons. Without batting an eye, he unleashed them all. Immediately, they attacked his very sea of consciousness. Just like Cao Yun, he had developed the Flying Poison, the Unclean Evil, the Stinking Lungs and the Corpse Dog. All of them unleashed, his sea of consciousness had no hope. They ripped it apart, even destroying each other in the process. Weiji He's last moments were pure agony and anguish. But he had made sure that all his memories were destroyed, along with his very soul. Unlike Boss Gui, he had no hope for another incarnation. And he didn't mind.
Sister Xie Yue felt it right away. There was nothing she could do. Thus, she completely destroyed Weiji He's head. After all, she was afraid one of those Turbid Demons could injure her in some way. The chances were low, but she didn't take any risk now that there was nothing to save from his mind. Looking around, she saw the corpses of Boss Gui, Mister Dai and Miss Wo. Outside, a few mercenaries had been killed as well. She had to report her failure to High Mother Lisha now...