{I accidentally published the wrong chapter first, so if you already read this, the one you should read is the previous chapter, I just edited it to reflect the actual content. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience.}
Rumbling sounds filled every corner of the cavern. Fire pillars, water streams, rock boulders, and blasts of winds struck against the stream of creatures endlessly. Then, time slowed as the power built up by the few Mortal Transcendent cultivators present reached the zenith.
Qin Yan was the first.
His Heavenly Palace gathered qi to form a gigantic sword that hovered in the air right above him. Five different colors swirled within it. Namely: green for wood, brown for earth, red for flames, blue for water, white for wind, and turquoise for lightning. The tip of his sword exuded an immense pressure that forced some of the Mortal Transcendent level creatures backward with its raw might.
"Give it everything You've got! " Qin Yan struck the sea of creatures with the gigantic sword.
His blade traveled through the air at a speed only his Mortal Transcendent peers saw. It whooshed, crackling with lightning and leaving a trail of gale-force winds behind it. The moment it clashed against the sea of creatures a massacred happened. The scent of flesh sizzling against the intense heat of his attack hooked into everyone's nostrils.
A series of similar attacks shot out behind him. The other Mortal Transcendents joined in. Gigantic blades, spears, vines, and blobs of energy shuttled toward the creatures at breakneck speeds, slicing through them like a knife through wet paper.
Everything became quiet.
Qin Yan and the brave cultivators that fought the battle gazed at the sea of mangled corpses in front of them, feeling pride that the flood stopped. His hands shivered and weakness took over, thrusting him into the ground. The other Mortal Transcendents fell as well, exhausted from the battle.
The cavern walls were destroyed, and some of the flesh tunnels collapsed drenching the passageways in blood and the sticky substance. There wasn't a cultivator without their robes soiled by chunks of flesh and blood. Qin Yan wiped away the blood dribbling over his eyes and looked up.
"We did it... For now. Hopefully, this place is safe-"
Four powerful auras blotted his spirit sense. Fear bit into his heart with the force of an Overworld Hyena.
He froze.
The others did too.
No one dared to move an inch, let alone shiver in fright.
They saw it.
Four humanoid creatures with skin that was roasted over a flame, walked towards them. The ground shook, unable to contain the sheer power of every one of their steps. They had deep flaming red dents in place of their eyes that instilled fear right into the hearts of those who survived this far. The creatures had a basic resemblance to a human, with four thick and large limbs and eyeless faces. But through that eyeless face, Qin Yan saw mockery and disgust piercing into his eyes.
He gave up.
The aura that came off them was that of a Saint, someone that was one full realm above his own. There was no way they could make it through the trials the moment those creatures came. He should have known that would be the case. Stronger ones came to fill the gap every time they cleared the creatures.
"At least we tried every one. At least we tried, " he said.
Qin Yan gave up. He tried his best, pushing himself to the very limit of what his abilities allowed for. The Saint Level creatures were nothing they could hope to defend against with their current lack of Qi.
His eyes expanded to the size of a planet when the creatures sprawled on the ground wriggled. The sounds of bones cracking resounded, followed by limbs and mauled bodies snapping into standing positions. One of the four Saint Level creatures growled. The sea of badly chopped up and burnt flesh flew towards each other. At first, the flesh, bones, and limbs formed gigantic blobs of liquid flesh that floated behind the creature.
Unfortunately, that was not the end of it. The blobs of flesh, which numbered in the thousands morphed into the devil-like creatures they fought recently. These new recycled creatures weren't weak. Each of them was in the Mortal-Transcendent Realm.
Fear tore through his being. Regret, guilt, and anguish flooded him right after. His plans. His chance to make something of himself was all wiped out in the face of the Mortal-Transcendent army before him. Why did he have to meet such a fate?
"We can do this," Sister Baohai said next to him, sweat constantly dribbling down her face.
"Baohai! Don't!" Qin Yan shouted.
"Senior Sister!" the others echoed right after once they noticed Baohai's reckless actions.
"I will not wait for death!" Baohai hardened her heart and steeled her gaze. She gave one last tired exhale, hoping to calm her nerves. She turned back and smiled at Qin Yan.
She picked up a sword on the floor and stumbled to a standing position. She pointed the cracked blade at one of the Saint Level creatures, focusing the last bits of her qi into one more strike. Her Heavenly Palace bloomed behind her. It was massive, reaching the normal limit of Nine Floors, which meant a relative size of nine hundred centimeters when summoned outside of her Mindscape. Within her Mindscape this would equal Nine Kilometres.
Flaming chains wound around each floor. Earlier they glowed in resplendent light, but now, they were countless shades darker. Small cracks lined up the surface of the chains. If weren't for her thick cultivation base she wouldn't have been able to sustain the projection long enough for anything productive. Cracks on any fIxture within a projection of one's Heavenly Palace were a sign to call it back. But she kept it on, fighting through the pain that felt like her soul was placed on a hot pan and fried for eternity.
A large pond spread southwards, from the main entrance. It dried up during the massive battle that just occurred, only dregs, small droplets, were left sticking closely to the mud. She summoned her will, burning up the last few droplets left, and channeled them to the chains winding around her Heavenly Palace.
Finally infused with a new lease on life, the chains brightened up. Heat gushed out from her Heavenly Palace. Warmth graced all those that were in the cavern. She gathered her will once more, picturing the warmth leaving the confines of her Heavenly Palace, directly into the tip of the sword she carried. The Heavenly Palace rumbled. Wisps of red energy gathered to the tip of her sword and she sliced the air.
A red-hot wave gushed from the tip of the blade, aiming for the throat of one of the creatures. The creature in question ignored the strike as if it were mere air. Its gaze is focused on something else.
Long Wei.
The man that sat throughout the whole battle. Everyone present avoided the spot next to the pond where he sat as if his existence was a myth to all.
But it knew he was there.
Its connection to the environment was no different from a brain and a pair of two functioning eyes. It saw all and felt all that inhabited the system of caverns and tunnels. Long Wei's calm collected figure was clear to it as the sun during a hot summer's day. It connected its vision to the thousand Mortal-Transcendent creatures behind it. The aura that secreted off him into the atmosphere, although weak, felt far too thick to be something that belonged to a creature in the Heavenly Door Realm. Its instincts blared. Something was up.
The sword slash struck against its throat. An explosion of violent flame qi shot forth in all directions, searing some of the newly birthed Mortal-Transcendent creatures. Once the blinding red light faded out, it was still standing, eyeless face gazing in Long Wei's direction. It didn't even take a single step backward. Baohai's attack didn't even register on its skin, let alone tickle it.
"Those below the Sain Relm are ants," it whispered in its language.
It flicked its finger in Baohai's direction. Invisible force struck against her throat, blowing right through it. Blood sprayed out of the pin-like hole that drilled through her Adam's apple. Her pendant glowed, shock and fear present in her eyes.
Qin Yan leaped back, momentarily forgetting his fear and weak muscles. The mere thought of resisting made him nauseous. A cultivator that reached the same level as him was destroyed with a single flick of a finger. One single realm, yet the difference between them was paramount. He and the others had no chance of resisting.
"These humans are pathetic," The creature said, in what sounded no different from random growls to the young cultivators, after flicking Baohai out of the trials.
"Ruggrah, you are simply too strong for them," one of its peers patted it on the shoulder.
Ruggrah was bald from head to toe. It wore no clothes besides a small string with a cloth that covered its large appendage between its legs. Burn marks wrapped around its skin, like beautiful tattoos drawn by one of the most talented tattoo artists. The patterns were random, mimicking the odd flowing structure of Stratocumulus clouds. The difference was in the color, instead of the bright white, it was covered in reds and oranges of varying shades mixed with brown.
"Dgraah, don't say that. We both know that Ahrag is the strongest, don't try to get me into a fight," the creature called Ruggrah squirmed out of Dgraah's grasp.
Dgraah was the shortest of the bunch, about the average height of a human. Its body though, was nothing short of spectacular. Its muscles bulged three times more than the largest human bodybuilder's physique. The shapes came out ugly, making it look like a failed arrangement of giant balloons into a basic humanoid form. It didn't have clothes either as it had nothing to hide, whether it be on its chest or within its pelvic region
"Keep quiet. That one next to the Holy Spring, he is strong. Very Strong," Ahrag, the creature said to be the strongest amongst the four spoke. Its build was slightly different from its peers. It for one, was three times larger than the other two. Yet it wasn't as bulky, resembling a skinny humanoid giant. Golden red hair spread down from its burnt scalp to its hips. It wore hides made from human flesh around its hips and wore necklaces made from baby teeth.
Ahrag pointed a crooked finger at Long Wei, who sat peacefully completing the new technique he thought of.
"But that human's aura is far weaker than that sword wielding thing you just flicked," Orrag, the last of the Saint-level creatures spoke.
"Looks can be decieving. Watch. Attack that man sitting near the pond. Rip Him To Pieces!" Ahrag shouted the command to the newly birthed Mortal-Transcendent creatures.