Ting Lanyue was the first one to be rid of her bindings. She immediately jumped up and said: "Back then my Great Ting clan ancestors pioneered the Great Wilderness together with the ancestors of the Sword Sect. They knew how terrifying the Celestial Elephant Old Mother was and left records about her as warning to the later generations. I’ve read those records, this Celestial Elephant Old Mother is a demon G.o.ddess, she’s no ordinary spirit! Those demons want to awaken her, we have to inform our sect leaders no matter what, otherwise things will get really out of hand!"
Zhong Yue gave her the other sickle blade so she could control it, and the two of them quickly cut away the spider silk tying the rest of the disciples. When everyone was about to leave, He Chengchuan immediately said: "Conceal the bodies!"
Zhong Yue suddenly realized that this road led to the demons’ lair, and if someone saw so many aberration bodies on the ground they would know for sure that some people escaped. They needed to bury the corpses to gain more time for themselves in order to escape!
"Brother apprentice He is also someone who’s gone through battles, and his thoughts are meticulous." Zhong Yue thought in his heart.
The group immediately buried the aberration bodies, identified their position, and quietly escaped toward the demon ruins’ entrance.
There was no day or night inside the demon ruins and the sky was always a great patch of gray. Zhong Yue and the rest of the disciples hid east and concealed themselves west all the way through, dodging around many demon tribes. Their distance to the demon ruins’ entrance was getting closer and closer.
A sword portal stood tall where they were headed. This was the demon ruins’ entrance as well as its exit. There were two Sword Sect elders standing guard outside this sword portal, and they only needed to cross out of this sword gate to reach safety.
"Hu-"
Everybody let out a long sigh of relief. They only had a few li left before they could leave the demon ruins and escape with their lives.
He Chengchuan wiped off the cold sweat on his forehead. His mood calmed down and he said: "As long as we escape from the demon ruins we’ll be safe. We’ll report to the higher ups in the Sword Sect, there should be enough time left to save the disciples who were captured."
Many upper yard disciples nodded, but suddenly a voice filled with a peculiar demon might clearly fell in their ears. It chuckled delicately as it said: "You can escape all the way here, your luck is truly extraordinary. But not even one of you will be able to leave, why are you talking about saving people?"
Everyone’s expression quickly changed. They raised their head and saw a woman stand at the demon ruins’ exit. The so-called woman didn’t have a human head though, but rather an elephant head. A long elephant trunk swung back and forth, and she even had two long ivory tusks!
Celestial elephant demon!
Celestial elephant demons were the highest level of demon inside the Sword Sect demon ruins. This race had a relatively poor reproductive ability, so they were few in number, but they were incomparably powerful one and all. Ordinary celestial elephant demons wouldn’t be any weaker compared to mutant aberration demons!
More than a dozen corpses lay under this celestial elephant woman’s feet. It must have been the corpses of upper yard disciples who managed to break out of the demon encirclement and came here after untold hardships. Unfortunately they died right in front of this sword gate killed by this celestial elephant woman!
"Demon Qi Refining warrior!" Tian Lanyue said quietly.
"Qi Refining warrior?"
Everyone was shocked within their heart. The demons unexpectedly left a Qi Refining warrior to guard this place, and top of that it was the strongest of demons inside the demon ruins, a celestial elephant demon!
Tian Lanyue’s voice also carried some despair: "With a Qi Refining warrior standing guard here, there’s absolutely no way we can leave this place alive."
"The little human girl has pretty sharp eyes, you can actually see I already became a Qi Refining warrior."
This celestial elephant woman exposed surprised in her eyes as she said with a smile: "Now, you can all come fight me. I don’t have much interest in eating humans, but I’m very interested in killing humans."
Tian Lanyue clenched her teeth and said in a quiet voice: "Fellow apprentices, now we can only desperately fight for our lives. One person who can escape will be on more safe disciple!"
Everyone fell silent. Zhong Yue also took the dark iron sickle blades and silently wiped them. Qi Refining warriors could induce a spirit, combine spirit and soul into a spiritual soul, also called primordial spirit. They were incomparably powerful, and the distance between the disciples and a Qi Refining warrior was impossible to imagine. This time they probably didn’t even have one shred of a chance to win.
Even if they desperately fought for their lives, everyone would probably die in this palace, no one could run away!
"Zhong boy, this time no matter what I will borrow your body!"
Little Xin Huo’s voice suddenly came from inside his sea of consciousness: "If you die I can only go back to deep sleep and wait for the next person of the f.u.xi G.o.d race to find me. It’s only that I’ve already gone through endless years, and I’m already close to being extinguished. I can’t wait anymore!
Even if I have to expose myself I still have to do it!"
Zhong Yue was surprised and was about to say something, but suddenly he heard gurgling and creaking noises. The sword portal was unexpectedly slowly opening!
Everyone stared blankly at this situation. No one had antic.i.p.ated something like this to happen. Even the celestial elephant woman was startled and couldn’t react.
A Sword Sect elder’s voice came from outside the sword portal: "The demon ruins are open, you people can go in."
"Many thanks elder."
As the sword portal opened, upper yard disciples came in one after another in a single file, some of them talking and some of them laughing. It should have been some upper yard disciples coming inside the demon ruins to train.
As soon as those upper yard disciples came inside the demon ruins, they saw Zhong Yue, Tian Lanyue and the other disciples, then saw the celestial elephant woman standing straight in front of the sword portal. They couldn’t help but stare foolishly.
"Fellow apprentices quickly escape!"
Tian Lanyue said in a severe voice: "Quickly inform the elders, demons captured all of us upper yard disciples. They intend to use us as blood sacrifice in order to awaken the Celestial Elephant Old Mother…"
Before she could finish a sentence, the celestial woman’s trunk suddenly swelled and immediately enlarged many times over, resembling a white flesh bag a hundred feet thick. She sucked air in forcefully, and the hundred upper yard disciples who had just entered the demon ruins helplessly flew up. Among them more than a dozen people were sucked inside the elephant trunk!
"I hate eating raw!"
The elephant demon woman forcefully chewed, fresh blood flowing out of the corner of her mouth as she swallowed the dozen disciples down!
The rest of the ninety upper yard disciples had all been suctioned up in the air. The celestial elephant woman swung her trunk at them. It was as if a white python several hundred feet long swung toward those ninety disciples and crush them in mid-air. Shockingly no one escaped!
"Evil creature!"
The sword portal wasn’t closed yet and a white ray of light streaked inside. The next moment, a white-clothed old man stood in front of the sword portal, looking at the celestial elephant demon woman with both surprise and rage. His expression suddenly changed and he almost lost his voice: "A Qi Refining warrior of the celestial elephant demon race? There’s no spirit of heaven and earth inside the demon ruins, how can Qi Refining warriors be born here? Not good!"
This white-haired old man was precisely one of the two Sword Sect elders tasked with watching over the demon ruins. He immediately came to his senses and sternly shouted: "Quickly sound the alarm! The demons of the demon ruins worshiped this land and made this piece of heaven and earth give birth to demon spirits!"
The other elder outside the portal heard this and immediately acted. The faint ring of a bell came to them, the sound low and melodious.
"This old ghost of the human race is actually pretty quick-witted."
The celestial elephant demon woman giggled and swung her trunk, trying to wrap it around the elder and capture him. She said smilingly: "But it’s too late, the Celestial Elephant Old Mother’s spirit is about to be awakened. You Sword Sect can’t do anything even if you know!"
"Celestial Elephant Old Mother?"
The white-robed old man’s expression quickly changed. Another ray of white light suddenly flashed their way. The other elder had also charged inside the demon ruins. They both joined hands to besiege the celestial elephant woman.
The three Qi Refining warriors waged a great battle at this sword portal, using all kinds of divine skills that shocked the heavens and shook the earth. The celestial elephant demon directly combined body and spirit into one, exhibiting a strange shape with eight arms, four elephant heads and a human body. The body was a thousand feet tall, crumbling the sky and shattering the land as she fought.
The two Sword Sect elders also each combined body and spirit. One was a divinity with bird wings, and the other was a deity with the body of a great serpent and the feet of a dark turtle. The divine skills continuously poured forth, and the three Qi Refining warriors’ divine skills’ prestige exploded out, forcing the disciples several li away to continuously step back, Zhong Yue included. They absolutely had no way of going close to the sword portal, and naturally they couldn’t leave the demon ruins either.
"Sword Sect elders?"
Suddenly rolling demon qi spewed forth, forming into beams of demon qi that resembled pitch-black tentacles, and sharply shot forward like arrows. One elder was caught by surprise and got hit by a tentacle of demon qi. He suddenly felt that his blood essence was being continuously drained out. He couldn’t help but be greatly alarmed in his heart. His body and flesh were almost about to be melted inside that pitch-black demon qi!
The rolling demon qi in the distance became a demon cloud. A man stood above the demon cloud, his body covered in a black robe, and his face was indiscernible. He laughed: "Elder of the Sword Sect, your qi and blood are thick and mellow, worthy of a livestock who cultivated for dozens of years. You’ll make a top quality sacrifice!"
Tentacles flew and danced in circles around the other Sword Sect elder. They repeatedly stabbed, and soon the elder groaned, his chest pierced by demon qi, the blood essence in his body also madly draining away.
"Who are you?" The two Sword Sect elders sternly yelled, both angry and alarmed.
"This isn’t something you’re qualified to know!"
The black-robbed Qi Refining warrior laughed loudly. In a flash the two Sword Sect elders dried down, their spiritual souls also sucked dry, and became two dry skeletons!
"With the blood essence from those two Sword Sect elders, we already have enough to awaken the Old Mother’s spirit!"
The black robe Qi Refining Warrior laughed freely. He rose and flew away, disappearing in a flash, his voice coming from far away: "Listen children, prepare the human livestocks, sacrifice all of their blood!"
Seven li away from the sword portal, Zhong Yue, Ting Lanyue, He Chengchuan and the others fell in a daze. He Chengchuan mumbled: "The two elders died…"
"Giggle, the small devils of the human race were actually hiding here."
A gigantic shadow suddenly covered them. Zhong Yue raised his head and saw the celestial elephant demon woman standing in front of them, a four-headed eight-armed elephant demon G.o.d!
The celestial elephant woman’s four mouths opened at the same time and her voice rumbled like thunder: "Capturing you little devils is only a secondary goal, this time the main goal of our demon clans was the two Sword Sect elders. We can only reestablish the Celestial Elephant Old Mother’s complete state with the help of the blood essence from those two Sword Sect elders!"
"How can the demon inside the demon ruins possibly know there were two elders standing guard outside? Don’t tell me…"
Zhong Yue’s facial colors faintly changed, and he raised his head: "Someone told you about the two elders outside? There are demon spies inside our Sword Sect?"
"Human brains are actually pretty smart!"
The celestial elephant demon woman’s expression showed praise. Her elephant trunk waved as she smiled: "Unfortunately you’re all going to die…"
Zhong Yue’s expression dimmed, thinking in his heart: "I’m guessing Xin Huo is going to use my body and act…"
Before the celestial elephant demon woman’s trunk could fall back, a b.l.o.o.d.y line suddenly split between her eyebrows, followed by a lithe and graceful sword light shooting out from her brain!
"Shua!"
The glorious sword light extended several li, before it traced back and disappeared. The celestial elephant woman stared with round eyes and her corpse collapsed down with a thundering sound, shocking the land into ceaseless quakes!
A white-clothed Qi Refining warrior gently stepped forth in mid-air. From afar, he looked at the depths of the demon ruins. Over the demon altar deep inside the demon ruins, a b.l.o.o.d.y mist gushed forth. There seemed to be a G.o.d demon inside this blood fog, the huge silhouette faintly discernible.
Those demons shockingly sacrificed the whole of the thousand upper yard disciples and dedicated them to the Celestial Elephant Old Mother!
"Mountain Bearer, give me my sword!"
The white-clothed Qi Refining warrior calmly said. In the next moment huge rumbling sounds came, and when Ting Lanyue’s group of upper yard disciples searched for the origin of the sound they saw a gigantic old turtle big as a mountain range. It walked in slow steps, and when it pa.s.sed by them the earth cracked and the mountains undulated!
This old turtle carried a sword light on its back emitting an incomparably dazzling brightness.
"Celestial Elephant Old Mother from ten thousand years ago?"
The white-clothed Qi Refining warrior spread his palm open. The awe inspiring sword light soared in the sky and fell in his hand. The enormous old turtle looked as if it had been relieved of a heavy burden and its movements immediately became much faster.
"Sword Sect’s Fang Jiange invites the Celestial Elephant Old Mother to grant him instruction!"