BANG! BANG! BANG! ...BANG!
More than a dozen simultaneous explosions filled the atmosphere and everyone jolted in shock.
"Whatâs going on?" Someone screamed.
However, before anyone could say anything, the sword domain shook and a few cultivators screamed in terror.
"Azhen." Jiang Yue also screamed.
"Brother Yu." Xuan Ke shouted and rushed to catch the falling Yu Nianzhen.
With shaking hands, Jiang Yue took out several leaves of the Tree of Life and stuffed them into Yu Nianzhenâs mouth.
At the same time, he placed his palm on Yu Nianzhenâs back and helped him refine the leaves.
[Donât worry, I will be fine.] Yu Nianzhen transmitted but his voice was extremely weak.
"Donât strain yourself." Jiang Yue admonished.
He ignored the chaos within the sword domain and focused on helping his Taoist companion refine the leaves.
"What happened?" Someone asked when the chaos subsided a little.
"Fellow Daoist Wei, why did stop fellow Daoist Yu from opening the sword domain?" Another asked and everyone turned to Wei Ge.
"Fellow Daoist Ye of the sword sect spent a lot of time in the foreign devilâs battlefield. He knew the secret communication signals of my border guard faction and he used one just now."
"Fellow Daoist Ye and the others knew that they couldnât survive so they chose to take the enemies with them." Wei Ge explained and everyone fell silent.
No one expected the fifty poisoned allies to have such resolve at the end of their lives.
"I wish the fellow Daoists a good reincarnation." Someone suddenly said.
This sentence served as a cue and most of the six hundred repeated the same words.
As if the world was responding to the wishes, fifty or so golden lights appeared outside the sword domain before disappearing in the blink of an eye.
"Their reincarnations will likely have divine merit." Someone said with a hint of jealousy in his voice.
"They earned their luck." Another said and everyone fell silent again.
Soon after, everyone regained their composure and noticed the surroundings.
"The world outside has been devastated." Someone noted.
"More than a dozen origin tempering realm cultivators exploded themselves. The damage is not small."
"Fortunately, the traitors and disciples of the Death Flower Ascension Front were all killed."
"That may be so but we are also in trouble."
Because of the massive explosions, a deep hole was formed in the surrounding area.
At the moment, Yu Nianzhenâs sword domain seemed to be floating in the middle of the hole.
"How deep is the hole?" Someone wondered.
"It should be very deep."
"I donât dare to fall to the bottom." A female cultivator of the Heavenly Flower Cult said.
"The best way is to teleport away as soon as the sword domain opens."
"Speaking of the sword domain..."
At that, everyone turned to look at Yu Nianzhen.
After absorbing some of the leavesâ healing qi, Yu Nianzhen had regained some colour.
However, his internal organs still had serious injuries and he could barely maintain the sword domain.
"Brother Jiang, take Brother Yu into the ancient palace. I will take you out of this place." Xuan Ke said with a solemn look on his face.
When they heard that, neither Jiang Yue nor Yu Nianzhen argued.
They both knew Yu Nianzhen couldnât hold on and needed to focus on healing.
Most importantly, they trusted Xuan Ke to take care of the ancient palace and they werenât worried he would take advantage of their danger.
"Brother Xuan, do you have enough teleportation talismans?" Jiang Yue asked.
"Donât worry, I still have a lot."
"Okay."
With that, Jiang Yue gave him the ancient palace and then turned to face everyone.
"In ten breaths, everyone will be taken out of the sword domain. Be prepared to act." He said and everyone hurried to get ready.
Ten breaths later, Jiang Yue took Yu Nianzhen into the ancient palace and the sword domain disappeared.
Instantaneously, most of the cultivators including Xuan Ke activated their teleportation talismans.
âI should find a safe place before I contact Senior Yang and the rest.â He thought just before he teleported from the middle of the hole.
A moment later, he reappeared but he was still within the hole.
âI didnât expect the damage range to be so large.â He thought and activated another teleportation talisman.
Two teleportations later, Xuan Ke landed on land.
He could tell the place was still within the domain of the camp but there was no one around him.
With the attitude of being careful, he spread his divine sense and didnât find anyone within five kilometres.
"This place is safe enough." He muttered and heaved a sigh of relief.
Since there was no one around, he took out his communication jade and messaged Yang Xu, Bing Lan, and Li Futian.
Unexpectedly, he received a reply less than a breath later.
"West." He muttered as he looked at a flower firework that bloomed far to the West.
"It will take me a while to fly there." He said and a thoughtful look appeared on his face.
In the Cangxing world, only a few talisman masters could draw directional talismans.
As luck would have it, Xuan Ke exchanged a few directional talismans after he got out of the time tower.
At this time, he felt it was best to use the talismans to reach the others faster.
After all, he was alone and the enemies could be anywhere.
He didnât want to waste time on travel or take unnecessary risks.
"Itâs decided." He said and immediately activated a directional talisman.
A breath later, he appeared one hundred kilometres away but there was still no one in his vicinity.
Without hesitation, he activated another talisman and this time, he appeared at the edge of the enemyâs temporary camp.
âI should be close to our camp.â He thought and planned to activate another talisman.
However, a thought flashed in his mind and he stilled his actions.
With a cruel smile on his lips, he removed a stack of about one hundred talismans from his storage ring.
The talismans were third-level lightning talismans and each had the power to seriously injure an origin tempering realm cultivator.
"One hundred talismans should..." He started but his thought process was interrupted by someoneâs shout.
"Whatever will be will be." He said and activated the talismans before throwing them at the group of enemies.
Without waiting to see the result, Xuan Ke activated a teleportation talisman and disappeared from the edge of the enemyâs camp.
At the next stop point, Xuan Ke didnât linger because he worried that survivors would follow him.
Fortunately, he only needed to teleport one more time before he saw a large group of allies a few kilometres away.
Since the distance was not long, he chose to fly and arrived in the camp in less than an incense stick of time.
"Who are you?" A sentry asked as soon as Xuan Ke laned.
"I am Xuan Ke, a monk of the Thunder God Temple." He said and the guards quickly verified that he was not a disciple of the Death Flower Ascension Front.
"You may go in." The guard said and placed a jade plate on the campâs hastily arranged third-level defence formation.
Instantly, the formation parted and Xuan Ke walked into the camp.
"Brother Xuan." Someone called and Xuan Ke turned to see Li Futian.
"Junior Xuan, where are Nianzhen and Jiang Yue?" Yang Xu asked with a hint of worry in his eyes.
From the lists, he knew Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen were alive.
However, there was no way to know how the two were doing without seeing them.
"Senior Yang, donât worry." Xuan Ke said but his eyes turned a little solemn.
"Brother Jiang is fine but Brother Yu is injured."
"Injured? Are they in the ancient palace?" Bing Lan asked and Xuan Ke nodded before speaking.
"Letâs find a place to talk."
"Follow us." Yang Xu said and led the way.
Soon after, they arrived at an empty place and Yang Xu took out his ancient palace.
Without delay, the four entered the palace and Xuan Ke explained everything that happened.
"Fortunately, we didnât encounter the multicoloured light balls attack." Bing Lan said with lingering fear in her voice.
"Your group should be the only ones that encountered it." Li Futian said.
"What happened to the other groups?" Xuan Ke asked.
Initially, the orthodox cultivators separated into many groups to examine the formation.
After that, a lot of things happened and Xuan Ke didnât know what the other groups experienced.
"We discovered several enemy groups trying to break the formation from various places." Li Futian started and then frowned before continuing.
"Our sideâs formation masters worked hard but the formation was still broken."
"What about our losses?" Xuan Ke asked.
"Many." Bing Lan said.
"When the formation broke, fights broke out in many places. We lost many but so did they." Yang Xu said.
"In the end, we retreated into this defence formation."