Fight to the Death
After more than two hundred years of accumulation, the Mo Clan still had quite a few treasures in its treasure pavilion.
As the body's original owner knew, besides possessing a talisman inheritance that reached the third tier, the Mo Household also kept several treasures of immense value. Among them were high-grade Spirit Artifacts used by successive generations of ancestors, second-tier supreme-grade talismans with power approaching the third tier, and spiritual treasures of heaven and earth that aided cultivation.
These treasures held enormous appeal for Foundation Establishment cultivators. Anyone who came across them would want to claim them as their own!
So the moment those treasures appeared, the four Foundation Establishment cultivators would definitely come to blows!
And with that, the turning point Mo Wen hoped for would arrive! With his strength, as long as he did not run into a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he would surely sweep aside all opposition!
"I just wonder how many of the Mo Clan will still be left by then?"
Mo Wen sighed softly, seemingly seeing rivers of blood flowing across Jingxiu Mountain. There was nothing he could do about that. His strength was limited, and he would save as many as he could.
In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed since Mo Wen arrived at Jingxiu Mountain. On this day, he had just finished practicing the Sun Essence and Moon Radiance Life-Praying Technique once in his cave abode when he heard an earth-shaking boom outside. At the same time, the entire cave abode trembled violently.
"This is bad! The mountain-protecting array has been broken!" Mo Wen leaped out of the cave abode and rode the Purple Star Sword toward Jingxiu Mountain.
He soon arrived at the foot of Jingxiu Mountain. By then, the mountain was already a scene of devastation.
Mo Wen looked out over the mountain and saw that more than half its green pines and cypresses had toppled, exposing their shockingly jagged breaks. From halfway down the mountainside, enormous fissures had split open, revealing yellow earth and white stone beneath. The buildings on the outskirts of the Mo Clan grounds had also been knocked askew, leaving stretches of broken walls and ruins.
"How is this second-tier middle-grade restriction-breaking talisman so powerful?" Mo Wen watched the battle as he rushed toward the summit.
Overall, the Mo Clan cultivators were not making a desperate last stand. Instead, they were focused on breaking through the encirclement. The Mo Household disciples had a distinctive fighting style: they relied mainly on talismans to attack and, with their agile and unpredictable movements, could actually fight several enemies at once without falling behind for a short time.
What Mo Wen most wanted to know now was where the four Foundation Establishment cultivators were. Only after confirming that they were too occupied to look after themselves would he dare step in and save people. Otherwise, acting rashly would be courting death.
Before long, he reached the summit of Jingxiu Mountain. Because Spiritual Qi was most abundant here, the Mo Clan leadership's cave abodes and the Lineage's spiritual fields had all been built in this area.
The Mo Clan's treasure pavilion was a wooden building three stories tall. A second-tier low-grade Azure Wood Essence-Sealing Array had been set up inside, and its defenses were second only to the Mo Household's mountain-protecting array.
At this moment, more than a hundred Qi Refining cultivators had surrounded the treasure pavilion and were attacking the Azure Wood Essence-Sealing Array with all their might. Even the weakest among them was at the Seventh Layer of Qi Refinement. They were clearly the main force attacking the mountain.
In addition, a Foundation Establishment cultivator stood suspended in the air on each of the treasure pavilion's four sides. The four looked quite different: one was a white-haired old man, one a young swordsman, one a middle-aged scholar, and one a wealthy-looking gentleman. But they had one thing in common: all of them radiated an utterly imposing presence that struck fear into anyone who saw them.
Inside the treasure pavilion, several people were also fighting back with all their might under the array's protection.
Mo Wen took a closer look and recognized three of them: Mo Changkong, Mo Changying, and Mo Changge. The others were all cultivators of the younger generation. The strongest among them was a young man who bore some resemblance to Mo Changkong and was at the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining.
This young man must be Mo Qingyun. Unfortunately, his luck has run out. I'm afraid he won't escape this calamity that will wipe out his clan. Mo Wen sighed inwardly.
In a battle to wipe out a clan, the more promising the young, the more attention the enemy paid them! If they escaped, they would become a grave threat in the future.
For that reason, the cultivators of the four great clans had long kept exceptional talents like Mo Qingyun under close watch. There was no chance they would let him escape alive.
The Azure Wood Essence-Sealing Array's defenses were formidable. Under the attacks of more than a hundred Qi Refining cultivators, it stood as immovable as a great reef in the sea. Judging by the situation, holding out for another ten days or half a month would be no trouble.
At that point, the Foundation Establishment cultivators finally lost patience.
"Mo Changkong, the Mo Household's fate is sealed. If you won't open the array and surrender your stores now, what are you waiting for?" the Foundation Establishment High Person who looked like a young swordsman shouted sternly.
"Liu Hao, your clans have the ambitions of wolves! You covet my Mo Clan's foundation and seek to exterminate my Lineage's bloodline. This hatred cannot exist under the same sky! If you want us to surrender without a fight, that's impossible!" Mo Changkong glared at the Foundation Establishment cultivators overhead, his gaze icy cold.
"Mo Changkong, you're a mere Qi Refining cultivator, yet you dare talk wildly before us? You truly don't know whether to live or die!" With that, the young swordsman drew his sword and slashed at the Azure Wood Essence-Sealing Array.
A tremendously powerful streak of Sword Qi flashed past, and the Azure Wood Essence-Sealing Array's curtain of light immediately began to tremble. Seeing this, the other three Foundation Establishment cultivators also attacked the array.
Mo Changkong knew full well that the Azure Wood Essence-Sealing Array would not hold out much longer. He said quietly to Mo Changying and Mo Changge beside him, "The time has come. You two, follow the plan!"
Mo Changying and Mo Changge nodded solemnly, a trace of resolve in their eyes.
As the four Foundation Establishment cultivators attacked with all their might, the Azure Wood Essence-Sealing Array shook more and more violently. It was clearly on the verge of collapse.
Just then, Mo Changkong gave a loud shout, flew out of the treasure pavilion, and attacked Liu Hao with his sword. Though his cultivation had stalled at the Eighth Layer of Qi Refinement, his mastery of the sword was quite extraordinary: he had actually grasped a trace of the mysteries of Sword Qi Thunder Sound.
The power of Mo Changkong's full-strength strike was comparable to an attack from a Qi Refining Great Perfection cultivator. Caught off guard, Liu Hao was nearly wounded by Mo Changkong's sword.
Liu Hao flew into a rage and swept his sword out, raising wave after wave of sword force that surged toward Mo Changkong like an angry tide.
Mo Changkong neither dodged nor retreated. He tapped his chest lightly, and his entire body was enveloped in a bell-shaped golden light. The talisman he had just used was a second-tier supreme-grade talisman-the Golden Bell Talisman.
Protected by the Golden Bell Talisman, Mo Changkong rushed to Liu Hao's side with lightning speed and flicked his hand, sending out a purple pearl the size of a chicken egg.
"Purple Lightning Pearl!" Liu Hao cried out in terror and swiftly flew backward. At the same time, a ring of moon-white light appeared around him: the Moonlight Body-Protecting Technique, a defensive Law Technique built into his robe.
In an instant, a thunderbolt appeared out of thin air and spread into a domain of lightning ten zhang across, engulfing both Liu Hao and Mo Changkong.
A scream rang out as Liu Hao's figure escaped the lightning domain. Streams of black smoke rose from his body as he fell heavily from the sky.