The moment he was discovered, the Shadow Division scout realized something was wrong and immediately prepared to use an escape technique.
However, the blazing white radiance illuminated the entire area as if it were broad daylight. Just as he transformed into an illusion and prepared to flee, he was forcibly dragged back and turned into human form again.
The Shadow Division was called that for a reason.
Every member of the Shadow Division, regardless of what cultivation method they practiced, also cultivated the Shadow Division's Great Shadow Escape. This escape technique advanced gradually like a cultivation method of its own, and one could begin practicing it from the second stage of Qi Refining.
At first, one could only hide within shadows, making oneself difficult to detect and deceiving people's eyes. When traveling, one moved like a night cat, silent and noiseless. It was not very powerful.
But the Great Shadow Escape followed the same advancement path as cultivation methods. Once cultivated deeply, a thought could transform one into an escaping shadow that traveled through the void. Even when a cultivator became a seventh- or eighth-stage expert, this escape technique would only grow stronger and more practical.
Such an escape technique was extremely rare throughout the world. It was the Shadow Division's secret art, never passed on to outsiders. Even among Shadow Division members who had mastered it, only a very few possessed the ability to teach it to others.
Anyone seen using this escape technique was, without exception, a member of the Shadow Division.
This scout had already cultivated the Great Shadow Escape to the point where he could travel underground. He could be considered exceptionally talented in escape techniques.
Yet even an escape technique cultivated to such a level could barely get started at this moment. He had no way to flee.
The scout looked at his opponent, and every method capable of stopping his escape flashed rapidly through his mind. This was also one of the compulsory lessons for all Shadow Division scouts. They had to remember every secret art, Dharma Treasure, environment, and other thing capable of breaking the Great Shadow Escape, as well as their characteristics, so they could recognize them immediately.
They also had to know how to counter them and escape with their lives.
Shadow Division scouts were generally best at running away. Their second strength lay in the professional skills needed to track down intelligence. The reason they had developed this way, apart from being required to practice the Great Shadow Escape, was that after so many years, everyone still alive in the entire Shadow Division was good at running away...
With the first two compulsory lessons occupying most of their energy, it was only natural that they were generally poor fighters. Even among cultivators of the same stage, their combat strength was considered low.
There were indeed all-rounders, but they were legendary figures so few in number that they could practically be ignored.
The scout had not slacked off while learning his professional skills. At this critical moment, after all the information flashed through his mind, he instantly locked onto one possibility.
"White Day Celebration Lantern!"
Then, another set of images instantly surfaced in his mind.
White Sun Evil Sacrifice.
Joy Lantern Priest.
For an instant, the scout's scalp went numb. How could he have encountered these damned things here?
Damn it, there were hardly any living people left in this wretched place. How had every demon and monster imaginable come here?
Before he had time to think further, the teams closing in from both sides had already floated over.
The scout gave a sharp whistle. The cloak draped over his body suddenly shook, and a cluster of hiltless flying swords scattered like fish, stabbing toward the encircling white-robed figures.
The flying swords pierced their bodies and passed through, carrying sprays of blood that crystallized into droplets of ice. Yet the white-robed figures acted as though they had noticed nothing and continued charging forward.
The scout chose a direction. His body seemed to have lost all weight as he continued drifting close to the ground. At the instant they crossed paths, he flicked his wrist. A thin thread, sharp as a blade, swept across one white-robed figure's neck and severed its head.
Hot blood shot into the sky. Without even glancing back, the scout continued his charge.
Then he suddenly stumbled and nearly fell. Looking back, he saw that the headless white-robed figure had reached out and grabbed the war skirt on his left side.
Blood was still spurting from the figure's neck. Though it had lost its head, it seemed not to have died. It reached out with its other hand and clutched his war skirt tightly as well.
That brief delay was enough for the surrounding white-robed figures to complete their encirclement. The white-robed figure carrying the White Day Celebration Lantern floated three inches above the ground and drifted over in silence.
The scout's heart sank, and resentment rose within him.
If he had been carrying out an ordinary mission, why would he have needed to wear this military equipment...
But there was no time to delay. Facing the Joy Lantern Priest, who completely countered him, surpassed him in cultivation, and possessed better Dharma Treasures, even knowing how to counter the other party's secret art was useless now.
Because in at most three breaths, he would die.
He gritted his teeth and recalled the flying swords scattered around him.
The flying swords glittering with silver light gathered together and shot toward the Joy Lantern Priest, while one more flew toward his left arm.
Silver light flashed, and his left arm was severed at the shoulder. With his right hand, he formed a seal and shouted in a low voice.
His left arm exploded into a cloud of blood mist. The mist enveloped him and transformed into several streaks of blood light that scattered and fled.
At the same time, the Joy Lantern Priest, holding the White Day Celebration Lantern in one hand, swept out his wide sleeve with the other. The incoming flying swords were drawn inside. As his arm descended, the swords twisted into corkscrews. Completely ruined, they fell from his sleeve.
The Joy Lantern Priest raised his head and glanced at the several streaks of blood light scattering into the distance. He abandoned the idea of pursuit and smiled instead of growing angry.
"For a mere scout to cultivate the Great Shadow Escape to such a level, and even know the blood-sacrifice escape technique of the demonic path—the Shadow Division's escape techniques truly stand above all others under heaven."
The Joy Lantern Priest held up the White Day Celebration Lantern. The lantern automatically spun once, causing the writing on it to vanish, and its radiance faded with it. The scattered white-robed figures returned and gathered behind him.
The blood on the white-robed figures pierced by the flying swords slowly faded away. Even their torn white robes automatically mended themselves.
Only the white-robed figure whose head had been chopped off stood up and picked up its own head. It tried several times to put it back on, but the head fell off again each time.
Looking closely, the wound on the head severed by the scout's thin thread had already begun to rot. In this freezing weather, its neck had been corroded shorter by an inch in a very short time.
The Joy Lantern Priest shook his head and waved his hand. The white robe on that figure flew off by itself and burrowed into the Joy Lantern Priest's sleeve.
The remaining headless corpse automatically collapsed to the ground. Its flesh rapidly withered, and when the cold wind blew, it shattered into dust that scattered with the wind.
The Joy Lantern Priest looked back at the two rows of people behind him. Only thirty-five remained, with the left side longer than the right. The more he looked, the more awkward it seemed.
After only a few glances, he swept out his wide sleeve. A force suddenly struck one person on the left. When the sleeve fell, the white robe on that person flew into his sleeve, while the person inside withered into a dried corpse. After falling over, it turned into dust.
"Much easier on the eyes..."
He raised the White Day Celebration Lantern in his hand. The lantern spun once more, revealing the character "Double Happiness" on its front. Its ghastly white halo revolved as it shone toward the direction of Jinlan Mine.
"There's a suitable person so close by?"
He was overjoyed. He had thought there would be no suitable materials left on the Wasteland, but unexpectedly, there was one nearby. Floating in midair like a ghost, he carried the white lantern and drifted toward Jinlan Mine.
He floated all the way to the village entrance. After glancing at the Locust tree forest on the right, which exuded an eerie aura, and then at the barren slope on the left, the white lantern in his hand slowly rotated. The character "Double Happiness" pointed toward the Abyss of Despair on the left.
His White Day Celebration Lantern guided him to a domain on the left, but its danger and lethality were both low. On the right was something unknown that his White Day Celebration Lantern had never illuminated, and its danger was extremely high.
Even now, the white light emitted by the lantern in his hand could not illuminate the Locust tree forest on the right at all, as if the forest had swallowed all the light.
He did not think much of it and walked down the road in the middle.
In an instant, heaven and earth changed. He stepped into Cècè's Abyss of Despair.
Looking back, he saw that the white-robed figures following him had all vanished.
On the hillside to the left, he saw the panicked Cècè, as well as several cannibals charging up the slope.
Looking into the distance, he saw that at the end of this domain stood a goat upright like a human, its Blood Essence surging throughout its body as demonic aura billowed around it.
A trace of confusion flashed through the Joy Lantern Priest's eyes.
He could be considered knowledgeable and experienced, but he had truly never seen such a strange domain...
Before he could act, the goat merely glanced at him, then instantly reined in all its surging Blood Essence and demonic aura. With a kick of its hooves, it disappeared into the mist at the end of the domain.
The Joy Lantern Priest held up the lantern and shook his head. Under its radiance, he could see at a glance that all the remaining people in this strange domain were illusions. Not one of them possessed any killing power.
He watched the new cycle begin. He quietly watched Cècè throw the child into the abyss to keep the cannibals from catching it, then watched Cècè die. A trace of curiosity remained in his eyes. After watching one complete cycle, his gaze became utterly calm.
It was merely a looping domain like a bound-spirit haunting, formed because one person's resentment at the moment of death had been too deep. No wonder its lethality was low.
The Joy Lantern Priest carried the white lantern and ignored everything happening here. He walked forward until he reached the mist at the end, then took one step and crossed into it.
Yet in the next moment, just when he thought the white lantern had illuminated the road ahead and that he could easily pass through, he returned to the place where he had first stood. Everything happened naturally. He had sensed nothing beforehand, and neither had his white lantern.
At this point, his brows tightened, and he became serious.
Its lethality truly was not high, but it was troublesome and difficult to deal with...
After quietly finishing his fist practice in the village, then quietly running to Cècè's Abyss of Despair to cultivate, Old Yang charged back toward the village.
"Er Han, Yu Ziqing, prepare to meet the enemy."
"They're here? How many? What level are they? Can we beat them?" Yu Ziqing fired off a string of questions.
Old Yang looked up and saw that not only had Yu Ziqing arrived, Er Han was already standing beside him with a grim expression. Dozens more burly men and women, their Blood Essence blazing like fire, had also hurried over with solemn faces.
If this group joined forces, any ordinary cultivator who dared to confront them head-on would either be hammered to death on the spot or worn down to death alive.
Old Yang hurriedly soothed the agitated crowd.
"Don't rush. That fellow got overconfident and actually dared to enter Cècè's territory. He won't be able to get out for quite some time."
Thanks to White Dog Passing Through a Gap for the ten-thousand-point tip, and thank you for your affection and support.
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