As the sacred land’s defense systems crumbled, Divine Kasyapa’s heart sank further and further. He could sense that he didn’t have a lot of time.
If he didn’t make a move now, the defenses would collapse and he’d be exposed. Catching his enemies by surprise would be impossible then.
“It’s now or never!”
Divine Kasyapa had made up his mind. He grit his teeth and, a flash of his form later, manifested an ancient trident with a simple design. He then flipped his left wrist to materialize an ancient golden glyph in his hand.
Either I take him down with this one hit or I’ll be trapped by them. There was no other possibility.
No cultivators could ascend to divinity without a strong heart and an iron will.
With his mind made up, Kasyapa threw out the golden glyph without hesitation. Blinding golden lightning burst out as a mult.i.tude of snakes.
The strands instantly converged into a golden ocean and barreled into the sallow cultivator.
The man had been attacking the sacred land’s defense system with a single-minded focus. He huffed when he spotted the lightning. His robe expanded to radiate strange green rays, intercepting the golden light.
Suddenly, Kasyapa charged out from the golden light, stabbing his trident into sallow’s lower ribs at lightning speed.
This was the most difficult angle to defend against.
The sallow cultivator had known this was a surprise attack when he dodged the lightning. Reflexively, he tried to parry the second attack.
Guided by the instinct of a powerful cultivator, he managed to react in time, blocking the trident with a backhand slash.
Nonetheless, Kasyapa’s stab was mighty. The block wasn’t enough to stop the trident. It broke through the green light and cut into the man’s robe. Blood gushed out of the wound, dyeing half of robe red.
d.a.m.n it.
The other three divine cultivators immediately came to their companion’s aid.
Three attacks came for Kasyapa from his right, left, and back, showing no mercy.
Kasyapa cursed under his breath. His two moves had managed to hurt the man, but weren’t seriously enough to be fatal.
The other divine cultivators’ intervention gave sallow man a chance to disengage. He shot backward in a flash of green, shock and fear lingering in his expression.
Although blood had colored his robe, the injury wasn’t severe.
“You had an easy way out, An Kasyapa, but you chose the hard way. Fine then. We’ll grant you your wish and hunt you down!”
The sallow cultivator flourished his robe and raised his longsword, glaring at Kasyapa with hatred s.h.i.+ning in his eyes.
The bald cultivator sighed. “You brought this onto yourself, Daoist An. Don’t blame us for being merciless.”
He had been pulling his punches for An Kasyapa’s sake, but he couldn’t after Kasyapa attacked his companion.
The two enforcers were even more powerful than the sallow and the bald cultivators. They looked perfectly calm even though sallow was injured.
However, seeing An Kasyapa stoked their desires to fight.
The enforcer on the left was dressed in a golden robe and gave voice to a long howl.
“I hear you’ve offended Master Lighford on several occasions, An Kasyapa, and you refused to accept his multiple invitations issued out of his appreciation for your talent. Today, my brother and I are going to make you pay for that. Let us see how strong the rebellious An Kasyapa is!”
An Kasyapa scoffed. “We can fight if you want a fight. Why waste your breath with that tripe?”
As he spoke, he dashed toward the fringes at full speed. He wanted to take the fight elsewhere so that Huang’er and the others could escape safely.
The two enforcers huffed. They turned into golden and silver light respectively and chased after Kasyapa.
The sallow cultivator cursed angrily, “You’re not running away after hurting me! This is the last day of your life, An Kasyapa!”
The two enforcers exclaimed, “Don’t give chase, Daoist Yu. Stay here and supervise the battlefield. Look out for people trying to break out from the sacred land.”
They didn’t stop sallow from following. They just needed someone to stay at the exit of the sacred land. It’d be bad if Kasyapa was trying to lure them away, and they fell for it.
Sallow was thrilled that they had allowed him to go after An Kasyapa with them, interpreting that as a sign of their trust.
Even his injuries felt worth the pain now.
While he was distracted, the air around him suddenly rose in temperature. Waves of heat circled and enveloped him, which caused his injury to relapse ten-fold!
“What’s going on?” As a divine cultivator, he’d seen many things and met many powerful beings.
At this moment however, he didn’t know what to do.
Screech!
A sound pierced through the air; the clouds and the sky seemed to be spontaneously dyed red all of a sudden. A spirit large enough to eclipse the sun emerged from thin air.
It slashed at the sallow cultivator with an enormous claw, the force powerful enough to destroy mountains and bring down the stars.
The sallow man’s heart spasmed and sank under the terrifying might.
His instinct commanded his body to dodge, but when he tried to move, he realized with shock that his body seemed to have grown ten times heavier. His movements were extremely slow and stiff.
That caught him off-guard. A terror he’d never felt before overwhelmed him. Something wasn’t right!
“Save me, master enforcers!” Putting his pride aside, he called out for help, his voice desperately panicked.
He had a feeling that if he made a wrong move, he’d die. He knew it like an instinctual fact.
The two enforcers had locked in on An Kasyapa some distance away. Hearing their companion’s cry for help, they started and looked back at him.