Once the military order was given, there was no room for argument.
The six squads combined into a single force, over a hundred armored soldiers and cultivators in all. They marched out through the camp's main gate, straight toward the ruins of the Little Hidden Temple.
The three Qi Refining masters were nowhere to be seen. Jiang Che could only hope that, if the True Demon appeared today, they would arrive quickly.
Upon entering the ruins, they found the paths cleared over the past few days still quite clean. They occasionally encountered Demon Monsters, but these were few and far between and posed little threat. They were easily dispatched.
And so they advanced unimpeded. Just half an hour later, the ruined temple stood before them.
The temple's doors were long gone, leaving only two charred gateposts. A plaque lay on the ground, broken in two, bearing the words "Little Hidden Temple."
The force stopped before the entrance. Fear filled everyone's eyes, and no one dared be the first to enter.
This was where Hu Yan had to play her part. Before their departure, the three Qi Refining masters had placed her in command.
Standing at the head of the force, she reached back and drew the long saber from her back.
"Follow me inside."
Was she not afraid herself?
She was.
But military orders stood like mountains. She had no way to retreat.
As she took the first step forward, Jiang Che and Zhang Erguo followed close behind. They belonged to the same squad; there was no getting out of this now.
Only once someone took the lead did the others dare creep timidly inside.
Jiang Che stepped through the temple entrance and surveyed his surroundings.
The Little Hidden Temple was surprisingly small. He could take it all in at a glance.
A front courtyard, a main hall, and a few side rooms to the east and west-that was all. Even including the little grove of pagodas behind it, the entire place occupied very little land.
Yet this tiny temple had kept three Qi Refining masters besieging it for days and swallowed the lives of dozens of Embryonic Breath cultivators.
Though there were no Demon Monsters in sight, Jiang Che never loosened his grip on his sword hilt.
The force split up here. Two squads peeled off to search the eastern and western side rooms, while the main force headed straight for the main hall.
Two soldiers received their orders and, one on either side, pushed open the main hall's doors with trembling hands. Two squads of armored soldiers then entered with torches raised, followed by everyone else filing in.
The hall was quite spacious, with cobwebs hanging overhead and dust an inch deep. The three Buddha statues once enshrined here must originally have stood thirty feet tall, but the ones on either side had collapsed into clay fragments and wooden frames scattered across the floor. Only the central statue remained standing, though its head was nowhere to be found.
But as soon as Jiang Che entered, his gaze was riveted to that headless Buddha.
There was only one reason: a luminous layer of azure light flowed slowly over the clay statue, rippling like water!
It was exactly like the phenomenon surrounding the Old Dream of Willow Source. This Buddha statue actually held an instance!
After just one glance, Jiang Che naturally shifted his gaze away, betraying nothing unusual. He even kept his heartbeat in check.
But he had already made up his mind. He would find a chance to touch that Buddha statue shortly.
A single touch would let him draw this unknown instance into his consciousness space.
And there would be plenty of opportunities. After all, their first look inside had revealed nothing unusual, so they would have to search the place. How hard could it be to touch a thirty-foot Buddha statue?
Just as he was thinking this, the last person stepped into the hall, and the doors that had been so difficult to push open suddenly slammed shut with a boom!
Everyone started. The already poor lighting grew dimmer still, leaving only their torches to illuminate the hall.
"L-look! That's... there!"
Jiang Che whipped his head around. At some point, someone had appeared atop the severed neck of the headless Buddha, whose azure light continued to flow!
The torchlight was not particularly bright, but it was enough for the Embryonic Breath cultivators to see clearly. The figure was bare-chested, with purplish-gray skin and short, pale hair.
He sat with one knee raised and an arm draped casually across it, looking down upon the crowd that had poured into the hall. An ominous wickedness suffused his features.
Although he looked human, no one would mistake him for one.
Before coming to Ailin, Jiang Che had naturally studied plenty of information about what they would be facing. Accounts of True Demons first stated that they were born in the Demon Abyss, then described them as evil beings formed from gathered demonic energy. Their forms were uncertain; only their auras could not lie.
In other words, they could look like anything. Their aura was all that mattered.
Whether a True Demon could conceal its aura or not, this one clearly had no intention of doing so.
The oppressive demonic might that struck them in the face, utterly unlike that of Demon Monsters, proved that they had indeed found their true quarry.
Jiang Che was both shaken by the True Demon's appearance and aware that he was in serious trouble.
He needed to touch the Buddha statue and claim the instance, but the True Demon was sitting right on top of it!
Facing the True Demon, the Embryonic Breath cultivators in the hall did not dare move a muscle.
Attack? They would not dare. A Qi Refining Cultivator could force every one of them to their deaths, and this True Demon might be stronger than any single Qi Refining master!
Flee? They did not dare do that either. The True Demon had yet to act, and no one knew what he intended. They feared that any sudden movement might draw that thing's attention and leave them dead without a place to be buried.
In an instant, the hundred-odd people fell so silent they could hear one another's heartbeats.
"Tsk, tsk."
Atop the Buddha's severed neck, the True Demon suddenly gave a derisive chuckle, his voice hoarse.
"A flock of clay chickens and tile dogs. You've come all this way, and now you're just going to stand there?"
Who dared answer?
He laughed twice, then lost interest and looked outside the hall instead. "And those three outside. You've cowered for days, driving this swarm of vermin in to probe me, yet you don't even dare enter yourselves... You simply want to see what I'm capable of, don't you?"
"Then watch closely!"
He casually opened his hand, and a humming sword cry erupted from within the Buddha statue beneath him!
A pitch-black demonic sword burst out through the headless Buddha's chest, demonic energy coiling around its blade like ink!
Was this the True Demon's trump card?
"The big ones won't dare come," the True Demon said, seizing the demonic sword. "Then I'll test my blade on you little ones first!"
Before his words had faded, he flicked his wrist and slashed!
Pitch-black sword qi swept through the air. The unlucky souls directly in its path were none other than Jiang Che and those around him!
Jiang Che's mind went blank. It was exactly as Hu Yan had said: if your luck was truly rotten, nothing else mattered!
The gap in cultivation was right there. Once this sword strike landed, whether it was him or Hu Yan, everyone in this entire section would be slaughtered!
Just then, an Azure Cauldron that seemed somewhat familiar to Jiang Che materialized in front of them.
With three legs and two handles, it gleamed with azure light and stood roughly six feet tall, blocking the path of the sword qi.
Clang!!
The sword qi struck the cauldron with a tremendous crash, shaking loose the accumulated dust throughout the hall. The Azure Cauldron trembled violently, a deep sword scar left starkly visible upon its body.
In the blink of an eye, Du Yongchang appeared in the hall. Standing right beside Jiang Che, he did not look at the True Demon. Instead, he gazed at the sword scar on the Azure Cauldron with considerable distress.
Before you continue