abnabooks Chapter 100 The Dust Settles
Chapter 100 The Dust Settles
Wen Haoran knelt in the mud, his once meticulously styled hair plastered to his face, the water flowing down his face a mixture of rain and tears.
Duanmu Hong propped himself up. The Azure Light Wall was mostly shattered, with only a few palm-sized fragments of light flickering in his palm.
The two guards stood back to back, their long swords held horizontally in front of them, the blades riddled with nicks and chips.
The three people surrounded Wen Haoran, protecting him in the middle.
The middle-aged scholar stood on the back of the three-tailed fox, looking down at them with a faint, cold smile on his lips.
He raised his hand.
The five three-tailed foxes moved simultaneously, their three tails unfurling in the air, the dark golden orbs at the tips of their tails spinning to their maximum speed before crashing down.
Duanmu Hong's azure light barrier met the attack head-on, only to be smashed to pieces. He was so shaken that he staggered back several steps, his back slamming against the city wall.
The middle-aged scholar pointed his bamboo slip at the two guards, and the power of his inner strength, wrapped in dark golden mist, sent them flying.
The guard fell into the mud and struggled to his feet, his right arm hanging limply at his side, while his left hand continued to slash at the attacking monsters with his sword.
A rocket was hanging on his back, its claws embedded in his shoulder blades and he couldn't pull them out. Every time he swung his knife, blood flowed down his shoulder.
Another guard lay in the rubble, his chest struck head-on by a fox tail. The blood blister at the corner of his mouth burst and swelled again in the rain. He struggled several times but still couldn't get up.
Lin Mu glanced at the wasteland beneath his feet.
He was too far from the city gate.
Just now, in order to attract the attention of the middle-aged scholar, he fought his way to the deepest part of the beast tide, and now he was surrounded by monsters.
If the three Core Formation cultivators fall, he will surely die.
No, we must save ourselves.
In a flash, the only solution he could think of was for him to replace Wen Haoran in activating the petition of the people.
He glanced at the scroll of the People's Book that Wen Haoran had dropped into the mud, then took a deep breath and threw a punch in that direction.
Shattering Mountains and Rivers' fist smashed an ice wolf blocking his way. He stepped on the wolf's corpse and charged forward a few steps. His left fist forced back a blood python, and his right knee shattered the skull of a rocket.
He was still a dozen or so steps away from the Book of the People, and those steps were taken very slowly and with great difficulty.
The monsters pounced on him one after another, and he could only punch them back one after another, his inch-force slowly flowing under his skin.
Every monster that collided with his body was bounced back, but there were too many monsters.
After one head was knocked back, three more pounced.
He gritted his teeth, stuffed another handful of Qi and Blood Pills into his mouth, and continued walking forward.
Duanmu Hong was hit by another claw.
The fox tail that could sever the field swept past his side, cutting through the blue light barrier and also slicing open his left rib.
He grunted, his right hand forming a suction force to pull the attacking Transformation Realm demon beast over and smash it with a palm strike, while his left hand condensed a blue light barrier.
It's just thinner and darker than before.
One of the two guards finally couldn't stand up.
He knelt on one knee in the pile of rubble, his long knife stuck in the ground in front of him to support his body, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, spreading a small dark red patch in the muddy water.
The other guard was still hacking away, one strike after another, shouting something hoarsely, his voice drowned out by the roars of the beasts.
……
Lin Mu finally rushed to the front of Wanminshu.
He fished the bamboo scroll out of the muddy water; the cover was covered in mud and blood.
The patina on the edges of the bamboo strip had long since faded to a withered gray-white, and all the ink characters had been extinguished, not a single one remaining.
He held the bamboo slip and poured his righteous energy into it according to his thoughts.
no response.
He urged his mind to draw it.
Still no response.
He turned the bamboo slips over and over, and they lay quietly in his hands, like a piece of dead wood.
He took a deep breath, burying his last shred of hope in his throat.
"Please help me in this life-or-death situation."
The bamboo slips did not respond.
"Please help me quickly."
His voice was hoarse and urgent, and his fist, which could shatter mountains and rivers, continued to smash the attacking monsters. The dark golden light on the Inch Force barrier flickered in the rain.
The bamboo slips still did not respond.
The ink-written characters were as silent as if they were dead, and the mud and blood on the cover had stained the bamboo strips a dark brown.
Lin Mu was getting impatient and angry.
He held the bamboo slip up in front of him and started cursing at it.
"What utter bullshit, the Book of the People."
"The monsters are about to breach the city, and you're just pretending to be dead."
"Where has your integrity gone?"
"What about your vision of a peaceful and prosperous life for all people?"
"What about the will of your forefathers?"
"Your book says that below are rivers and mountains, above are the sun and stars. The rivers are almost dry, the sun and stars are almost gone, and you're just lying here waiting to die."
The Wanminshu did not respond.
He finished denouncing the Book of the People, but he still felt it wasn't enough.
He looked up and glanced at the old scorch mark on the city wall, now covered by blue bricks.
According to the "Records of the River Source", the six major sects formed an array here and fought to the death for seven days and seven nights. How many people died and how much blood was shed?
Their blood seeped into the soil, and their bones were buried in the soil.
"You too."
His voice was hoarse, as if he were speaking to everyone buried beneath this land.
"On this blood-soaked land of Heyuan, countless people have died because of the monsters."
"Now the monsters are about to breach the city again."
"You'll just have to watch your descendants be sown."
After he finished cursing, he spat.
Then the wind picked up.
A wind that is both extremely dry and extremely warm, like the breath of soil stirred up when turning over the ridges of a field in spring.
The bamboo slips of the Book of Ten Thousand People trembled slightly in his palm.
Beneath the old scorch mark on the city wall, deep within the patterns covered by blue bricks, a faint, dark crimson color began to reappear.
Then, on the scorched earth across the moat, in the cracks of those blue bricks scorched countless times by the righteous energy, on those old battlefields soaked in the blood of demonic beasts and dried by the winds of time.
Thousands of extremely faint and fine strands of blood-red color were drawn from the soil, as if pulled upwards from the ground by some force, climbing up along the cracks in the blue bricks, up along the cracks in the frozen soil, and up along the mist on the surface of the moat.
One drop of blood after another surged in from all directions, converging into a river that flowed continuously toward the bamboo scroll in Lin Mu's hand.
The character "墨" lit up one by one.
They were no longer pure white light, but a deep, intensely hot dark red.
Lin Mu gripped it tightly, raised his head, and gazed at the vast expanse of monsters on the opposite bank of the moat.
He opened his mouth and chanted, "Heaven and earth possess righteous energy."
He stopped after reciting only one sentence.
A faint, thin layer of pure white light emanated from his fist, but it only shone for a moment before fading away.
It wasn't that his righteous energy wasn't pure enough, nor that the power of the Book of Ten Thousand People wasn't enough; it was that his Dao heart wasn't stable enough.
Wen Haoran's more than ten years of self-reflection is something he cannot catch up with overnight.
But there was no time to hesitate, as Duanmu Hong was about to be bitten to death by the three-tailed fox.
He stuffed the book of ten thousand people into his bosom, took out a porcelain bottle from his sleeve, flicked the stopper with his thumb, and poured the last few Qi and Blood Pills into his mouth.
Then close your eyes and gather all your strength.
The golden power of the fist.
A pure white light emanating from the aura of righteousness.
The Zhulong mark is extremely yang and dry.
The chilling aura of the Nine Infants' mark lingers.
Four forces were tearing wildly through his meridians, as if trying to rip his body apart from the inside.
Then he chanted the Great Qi, drawing upon the power of the Book of Ten Thousand People to attach to the shattered mountains and rivers.
At that moment, he felt that heaven and earth, wind and rain, mountains and rivers, all people, and even the source of the river were standing behind him, forming a true fist-like force.
He threw a punch in the direction of the middle-aged scholar.
When he threw that punch, he couldn't hear a sound at all.
Only light.
The light, a blend of dark gold, pure white, and golden yellow, along with the dark red glow of the Book of Ten Thousand People, condensed on the fist of Shattered Mountains and Rivers, forming a single line before exploding with a deafening roar.
Wherever the light passed, the monster's body was ignited.
The primordial mark flickered, struggled, and extinguished violently in the light, and then the entire monster, from its bone armor to its flesh and blood to its soul, was burned to ashes.
Five three-tailed foxes turned around in the light, their three tails instinctively folding into shields, the dark gold patterns on their tails shining brightly.
Then the shield shattered.
The light on the fox's tail melted away inch by inch, the scales peeled off piece by piece, the flesh turned to ash in the light, and finally even the bones were scorched into charcoal.
For the first time, fear was reflected in their dark gold vertical pupils, which were always brimming with cunning.
The middle-aged scholar stood in the center of the light, looking down at his chest.
His body was shattering inch by inch, starting from his chest, with a dark red light spreading along his meridians to his limbs.
Wherever it passes, skin cracks, flesh melts away, and bones turn to ash.
He looked up, his dark golden vertical pupils filled with disbelief.
He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but his lips moved a few times, and what came out of his throat was not a sound, but ashes.
Then he exploded from the inside out, turning into ashes that were scattered by the wind onto the moat.
When the light faded, only the charred corpses of monsters remained on the opposite bank of the moat.
The martial arts techniques ignited slightly, [Fist Stance 128/10000]
Then Lin Mu heard Yue'er behind him cry out in anguish, "Brother Haoran!"
He didn't have time to check, he quickly collapsed, lying stiffly in the pile of monster corpses, and closed his eyes.
Pretend to be exhausted, pretend you can't get up.
That punch was too shocking; he didn't want anyone to know.