CHAPTER 124: CHAPTER 122: SOUL-LINKING CHARM

Jiang Ming is dead!

A Second-Layer Golden Core Cultivator died just like that, without any chance to fight back!

He died unjustly because he had many formidable techniques he hadn’t used yet.

Moreover, being the Yellow Sand Sect’s only Tier Four High-grade Array Master and a Golden Core Stage Cultivator, if he were to guard Red Tiger Mountain, the Mountain Protection Array’s power would surely reach Tier Five levels.

But in Blood Nether’s eyes, his death was not unjust at all.

Cao Wenjin and Xiao Bufan’s previous speculation was correct, the two "Golden-winged Thunder Eagles" attacking Red Tiger Mountain were indeed Blood Nether’s doing.

After Blood Nether’s fall, Blood Nether had no choice but to prematurely end his recovery and leave seclusion.

However, since the details of Blood Nether’s fall hadn’t spread, he didn’t know how Blood Nether, with his Seventh-Layer Golden Core cultivation, died, so despite being much stronger, he dared not reveal himself easily for revenge.

Thus, after long planning, he specifically sent his still-injured disciple Blood Mo Luo to the Broken Cloud Mountain Range, to steal the eggs of two "Golden-winged Thunder Eagles", luring these Tier Four High-grade Demon Beasts to attack Red Tiger Mountain, forcing the Yellow Sand Sect to dispatch a Golden Core Stage Cultivator for the matter.

Meanwhile, he used a treasure that could conceal his presence to hide on the oasis, secretly awaiting the arrival of a Golden Core Stage Cultivator from the Yellow Sand Sect.

When Jiang Ming arrived at the Red Tiger Mountain Oasis, Blood Nether dared not act rashly, unsure if the Yellow Sand Sect had seen through his plans and if Jiang Ming was just a decoy thrown out by them.

Having maneuvered with the cultivators of the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm and various Immortal Dao Sects for centuries, he dared not underestimate the intelligence of any Golden Core Stage Cultivator. The lessons from the past told him to think thrice before acting.

Therefore, while observing Jiang Ming’s movements discreetly and gradually searching the entire oasis to ensure no other Golden Core Stage Cultivators were hiding like him, he also sent Blood Mo Luo to massacre various Foundation Establishment Clans with another surviving Purple Mansion Cultivator of Blood Slaughter Demon Sect to test the Yellow Sand Sect’s reaction.

Through such dual probes, he finally confirmed recently that the Yellow Sand Sect dispatched only Jiang Ming, the Golden Core Stage Cultivator, to Red Tiger Mountain.

Thus, after waiting painstakingly, upon seeing Jiang Ming leave Red Tiger Mountain, he followed closely and launched a fatal attack with all his strength when the mountain protection array was absent.

Such calculation against an unaware Second-Layer Golden Core Cultivator with a Ninth-Layer Golden Core cultivation and a Tier Five Top Grade Spiritual Artifact ambush.

If he couldn’t even kill Jiang Ming with this, what face would he have to claim the sect leader of Blood Slaughter Demon Sect?

Though Jiang Ming perished, the secret technique he used at the moment of death made Blood Nether frown.

"It’s the ’Soul-Linking Charm’ developed by those damn Daoists of the Profound Sun Immortal Sect specifically to target my Demon Sect. How could a Golden Core Cultivator of the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm know this technique? Did he think his comrades could avenge him by performing this on me?"

Blood Nether glanced at the layer of silver light shining on himself, a shadow flashing in his eyes.

The ’Soul-Linking Charm’ secret technique could only be cultivated by Golden Core Stage Cultivators and could be cast only once in a lifetime since it required sacrificing half of the divine soul.

The one afflicted by the ’Soul-Linking Charm’ would exhibit the silver light Blood Nether saw, rendering him unable to restrain his overwhelming demonic Qi as long as the silver light persisted.

Moreover, the Profound Sun Immortal Sect devised a special artifact called the ’Soul-guiding Lamp’ to locate Demon Cultivators afflicted by the ’Soul-Linking Charm’.

This ’Soul-guiding Lamp’ remains unlit usually, only igniting into bright light spontaneously when within several thousand miles of someone struck by the ’Soul-Linking Charm’, guiding the path.

Formerly, if a Golden Core Stage Cultivator of the Blood Slaughter Demon Sect were struck by the ’Soul-Linking Charm’, they would quickly seek help from a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator within the sect to disperse the silver light.

But now, with all Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators in the Blood Slaughter Demon Sect fallen, Blood Nether couldn’t find anyone to disperse the silver light. He could only wait for the technique’s duration to end.

Yet, according to Blood Nether’s knowledge, no Demonic Cultivator had ever survived long enough for the silver light to dissipate naturally since the ’Soul-Linking Charm’ was created!

This gave him a foreboding feeling of grave danger.

Once a cultivator foundation builds, they sometimes receive forewarnings before danger, let alone a Golden Core Stage Cultivator with divine soul merged into their core.

Blood Nether, just a step away from breaking into the Nascent Soul Stage, believed his ominous intuition would likely come true.

Feeling unsettled, he cast a glance at Xiao Bufan, still stupefied by the psychic attack above, and with a swing of his blood-colored jade axe, broke his head and body apart before he could utter a word.

After sequentially slaying a Golden Core and a Purple Mansion from the Yellow Sand Sect, Blood Nether collected their bodies and storage bags, ax in hand, and charged towards Red Tiger Mountain, aiming to level this Tier Four Top-Grade Spirit Mountain.

No matter the future, for now, he would continue with his revenge plan to avenge the fallen disciples of Blood Slaughter Demon Sect.

Elsewhere, though thousands of miles away from where Jiang Ming was ambushed, Zhouyang immediately sensed the surge of demonic Qi from a Ninth-Layer Golden Core Demon Cultivator upon Blood Nether’s explosion of demonic energy.

Feeling the demonic Qi’s overwhelming surge, his face turned pale, body shuddering as he collapsed, eyes full of dread.

Blood Nether’s cultivation technique, the ’Blood Slaughter Spirit Technique’, is the Blood Slaughter Demon Sect’s most evil and bloodthirsty, its power escalating with the practitioner’s Blood Evil Qi while accelerating cultivation speed.

However, this method is notoriously perilous, with heedless practitioners falling to its corruptive influence, becoming mindless demon creatures driven purely by slaughter.

Among the cultivators of the Blood Slaughter Demon Sect who dare to practice this Cultivation Technique, not even one out of ten succeed in it; those who choose to practice such a technique and eventually persist until reaching the Golden Core Stage are even rarer, one in a thousand.

Blood Nether has been practicing this Demon Technique since the Foundation Establishment Stage, and over the years, the number of cultivators and demon beasts directly slain by his hand has become unimaginable, with his entire being suffused with Blood Evil Qi and murderous intent, deeply embedded in every fiber of his Magical Power.

Thus, even though he was thousands of miles away, Zhouyang, upon sensing a strand of demonic majesty emanating from him, was almost struck as if by lightning, nearly driven to madness by that wicked and violent intent.

"It’s over! It’s over! Xiao Bufan is finished, and Red Tiger Mountain is probably doomed too!"

He collapsed onto the ground, his gaze filled with terror as he looked towards Red Tiger Mountain, knowing in his heart that no one would come to rescue him anymore.

He had been hiding within the array to recuperate all this time, completely unaware of Jiang Ming, the Golden Core Stage cultivator, coming to Red Tiger Mountain for reinforcement, otherwise, he wouldn’t even be able to sit steadily now.

The fall of a Golden Core Stage cultivator is too impactful!

Golden Core Stage cultivators, each one considered as existentially suppressing the sect’s fortune; the unexpected demise of one would directly shake the sect’s foundation.

The Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm hasn’t seen the unexpected death of Golden Core Stage cultivators for countless years; the last occurrence of such unnatural demise was a thousand years ago.

As for the cultivators of Yellow Sand Sect, Jiang Ming’s fall has them feeling as though the sky is collapsing halfway!

With an enormous Yellow Sand Sect, there are only two Golden Core Stage cultivators, and Cao Wenjin’s lifespan is over eight hundred years, nearing the millennium limit of Golden Core Stage cultivators, so relatively young Jiang Ming was pivotal regarding whether Yellow Sand Sect could maintain its dominance over the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm in the coming centuries.

Now, with Jiang Ming’s sudden fall, the Yellow Sand Sect - from Cao Wenjin to ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators - first thinks not of avenging him but how to fill the void left by Jiang Ming’s demise promptly.

Yellow Sand Sect cannot go without a Golden Core Stage cultivator for reinforcement!

The Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm had numerous sects in existence, yet now, the only sect that has continued to inherit in the form of a sect is Yellow Sand Sect.

There is only one reason for this arrangement, that being the now-destroyed sects lost their Golden Core Stage cultivators and were consequently divided by other sects and cultivation clans.

If Yellow Sand Sect loses its Golden Core Stage cultivator, its fate will similarly not be better than those vanished sects.

Dong dong dong—

Within the Mountain Gate of Yellow Sand Sect, the bell tolls thirty-six times consecutively, and the urgent ringing spreads throughout the entire mountain gate, heard across hundreds of miles.

Every cultivator of Yellow Sand Sect upon hearing the toll of the bell, no matter what they were doing at the time, would collectively change their complexion, faces laden with terror as they looked towards the direction of the bell’s sound; without a moment’s delay, they hurriedly either sword fly or move swiftly, making their way towards the square before the mountain gate at their utmost speed.

In the rules of Yellow Sand Sect, the tolling of the bell thirty-six times has only one meaning: that an unexpected demise of a sect’s Golden Core Stage cultivator occurred. If it were a normal natural death, the bell tolls only eighteen times, and slowly, one after another the rings echo.

These cultivators, upon arriving at the square before the mountain gate, immediately see the figure in the sky dressed in a golden robe, holding a white jade ruyi.

Every disciple of Yellow Sand Sect, upon entering the sect, must pay homage in front of the Ancestor Hall to the portraits of Golden Core cultivators across generations, so even those Qi Cultivation Stage disciples who have never seen Cao Wenjin in person immediately recognize the pillar of their sect upon sight.

When nearly a thousand people had gathered densely across the square below, Cao Wenjin in the sky finally looked down at the crowd, speaking in an indescribably somber tone: "Seven moments ago, the soul tokens of sect Golden Core cultivator Jiang Ming and Purple Mansion cultivator Xiao Bufan shattered, their souls returned to the Netherworld!"

"Half an hour ago, the soul tokens of twenty-five Foundation Establishment cultivators stationed at Red Tiger Mountain by the sect all shattered simultaneously!"

Dead silence!

Everyone in the square was dumbfounded, their eyes wide open at the shocking words uttered by Cao Wenjin.

Had it not been for the prior thirty-six soul-rending bell tolls to forewarn them mentally before arriving, they might have, at this moment, cried out in disbelief, shouting "Impossible!"

No one dares to believe, not even Cao Wenjin himself dares to believe, that one Golden Core Stage cultivator and one Purple Mansion Stage cultivator, along with twenty-five Foundation Establishment cultivators, would fall in succession within less than an hour.

Until now, he doesn’t know what truly happened, nor dare leave the sect immediately to investigate the matter.

Now, Yellow Sand Sect only has him as its Golden Core Stage cultivator, if he leaves and something happens to him, or if he leaves and something happens to the mountain gate of Yellow Sand Sect, the consequences are unimaginable!

"As for the enemy, this old man does not yet know, it could be the demon beast within the Broken Cloud Mountain Range, or more likely, the demon of Blood Slaughter Demon Sect!"

"But this old man knows, right now is the most dangerous moment for Yellow Sand Sect in a millennium!"

"Therefore, as the Guardian of Yellow Sand Sect, the old man orders all Purple Mansion cultivators of the sect to immediately return to the sect, and the sect’s Mountain Protection Array is to be fully activated!"

"From this moment on, Yellow Sand Sect enters a state of total warfare, all cultivators affiliated with Yellow Sand Sect must not defy the sect’s orders in any form or under any pretext, violators will be executed without mercy!"

Above the Yellow Sand Sect’s mountain gate, the winds and clouds vary dramatically, and the sect’s Mountain Protection Array, dormant for a thousand years, is now finally showcasing its Tier Five Middle Grade Array prowess.

In an instant, the land surrounding the Yellow Sand Sect Mountain Gate for hundreds of miles is wholly safeguarded by a circle of dazzling earthy yellow spiritual light, soaring skyward and visible from thousands of miles away.