Chapter 317 - Day of the Ritual

Originally, there were supposed to be two beneficiaries for the ritual that Master Dongran had painstakingly planned for.

Leader of the Blazing Wings, Blazing Dragon or Master Dongran.

As well as the emissary from the Radiant Raven Sect, Zuomin Ta.

Since Master Dongran had mistaken him for the emissary from the Radiant Raven Sect, Lu Tianzi decided that he might as well go along with the flow, taking over Zuomin Ta's position as one of the beneficiaries.

But if he was already taking the place of Zuomin Ta, why not go all the way and replace Master Dongran with Nanlan Qianxue as well?

This was a ritual that was supposed to boost Master Dongran to the Fifth Origin Cycle, possibly even to breaking him to the very edge of breaking through to the Sixth Origin Cycle.

For an Essence Condensation realm martial artist like Nanlan Qianxue, this was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Of course, it was not that easy to simply swap out Master Dongran.

In Zuomin Ta's case, nobody here knew of his true identity. On top of that, he was even foolish enough to confront Lu Tianzi in the wilderness, allowing Lu Tianzi to take both his life and his identity with no one being any the wiser.

However, there was no way that Master Dongran would make the same mistake.

Even if Master Dongran did confront Lu Tianzi in the wilderness, Lu Tianzi could not just take him out if he wanted to go ahead with the plan.

That was simply because he had no way of assuming Blazing Dragon's identity.

Without Blazing Dragon taking the lead, it was unlikely that Aged Crow or the other members of the Blazing Wings would be willing to listen to him at all.

And without their willingness to cooperate, the ritual could not be activated.

Therefore, Lu Tianzi had no choice but to cooperate with Blazing Dragon, at least up till the point where the ritual was successfully activated.

The moment the ritual was activated, however, it shall be the moment to strike!

***

Lu Tianzi stood under the moonlight, his gaze landing upon the mansion in the distance.

This is the day.

It had already been an entire day since he met Blazing Dragon. Now, he had returned to the Blazing Wings' base to see things through to the end.

Huuu-!

Lu Tianzi let out a long breath before continuing up the barren hill.

As he did, Lu Tianzi cautiously spread his perception in all directions.

This might be a location near to Bog Town, but that was just relatively speaking. The Blazing Wings certainly would not build their secret base right outside the town or they would just be inviting trouble.

Lu Tianzi let out a faint smile.

Apart from the large group of people up at the mansion, there were also a few other groups hiding nearby.

From the looks of it, the bounty that had been placed on the leaders of the Blazing Wings had managed to draw in quite a few ambitious characters as well.

Fortunately, none of them were at the Origin Core realm, so Lu Tianzi need not worry about them too much.

It appeared that the town lord and the noble families were clueless about the significance of today.

How amusing would it be if they were to suddenly awaken to a sacrificial ritual drawing away their life essence?

Lu Tianzi continued up the hill, taking each step slowly but firmly.

When he reached the top, Lu Tianzi was greeted by a spectacular sight.

With the mansion as the backdrop, probably more than a thousand masked townsmen were gathered in a huge clearing.

Five gigantic Sky Crystals lit up the place, one positioned in the centre of the clearing while the other four stood at each of the corners. A wooden stage had been constructed, with two familiar masked men standing on top.

They were none other than Blazing Dragon and Aged Crow.

Below, the thousand masked townsmen were roaring at the top of their voices, riled up by Aged Crow's speech.

"We need a change!"

"We need a change!"

"We need a change!"

Upon sensing Lu Tianzi's arrival, Blazing Dragon signalled to Aged Crow, who raised a hand into the air.

Understanding what Aged Crow meant, the crowd quietened down immediately.

"And now, let us all welcome the person who will help us set everything right!" Aged Crow yelled. "Let us open a way and welcome White Griffin, the honourary emissary from the Radiant Raven Sect!"

Thunderous cheers erupted from the crowd as they parted, opening up a clean path leading from the stage to where Lu Tianzi was standing.

"White Griffin, you are finally here!" Bald Falcon hurried forward to greet him. "We have been waiting for you!"

Lu Tianzi nodded in response before following Aged Crow down the open path, entering the stage in a spectacular fashion.

"White Griffin," the masked Master Dongran clasped his fist towards Lu Tianzi.

"Blazing Dragon," Lu Tianzi returned the greeting.

After which, Master Dongran nodded towards Aged Crow, who turned back towards the crowds.

"Now then, as I have said earlier, today is a special day for us," Aged Crow started. "Today will mark the true start of our revolution, our movement to free Bog Town from those evil and depraved noble families who aren't noble at all in any meaning of the word! We will no longer just spread awareness. We shall start taking action!"

Cheers from the crowds once more.

"Is everything in place?" Lu Tianzi sent a voice conveyance to Master Dongran without turning away from the crowd.

"Don't worry, everything is nicely set. Now, we just need to start the final act," Master Dongran answered.

"Good."

"To commemorate this day, let's all offer a drop of blood to the land," Aged Crow shouted with fervour while raising his thumb into the air. "With the marking of our blood, this place shall be known as the start of the revolution. With the marking of our blood, this place shall be the holy land of change. And with the marking of our blood, we will no longer be just comrades in arms, but family who will have each other's backs in the fighting that is to come!"

The crowds seemed to have entered a state of trance, their cheers just came ceaselessly.

Going with the momentum, Aged Crow bit hard on his thumb and let a drop of blood fall to the ground.

"With this, I prove my allegiance to the Blazing Wings!" Aged Crow yelled.

"With this, I prove my allegiance to the Blazing Wings!" the crowd echoed, mimicking his actions to let a drop of blood fall to the ground.

"Hahaha! Very well!" Master Dongran laughed heartily. "And I shall gladly accept all of you as part of the Blazing Wings, as a part of me!"

The crowds roared, and the five Sky Crystals' dim glow quickly grew in intensity, masking the dim emblem of light that had started to appear on the ground.

Lu Tianzi sighed inwardly.

How could there be this many clueless people gathered together in a single town?

Even if they had not known anything before, surely they should have noticed the glowing emblem on the ground by now?

But no, none of them did.

All of them had their attention fixated on the three figures standing on the stage, on the ones who would be leading them in the coming fight for a better future.

In such a state, even the growing intensity of the glow from the Sky Crystals, as well as the appearance of the glowing emblem on the ground, became nothing more than a miracle brought about from their belief.

Then again, with how many years Master Dongran had spent to mould their thoughts, it was difficult to blame the townsmen.

Who asked the other noble families to be so cooperative as well?

"Now then, White Griffin," Master Dongran turned his attention towards Lu Tianzi. "It is time."

Lu Tianzi nodded.

With the offering of the masked townsmen's blood, the condition for activating the ritual had finally been fulfilled.

Now, it was time to fully activate the formation and draw in the life essence of everyone in the vicinity.

Be it the remaining townsmen, noble families, or even the town lord's influence in Bog Town.

Be it the poison masters who had just descended from Wondertrap Mountain and were merely passing by.

None of them shall be spared.

Lu Tianzi and Master Dongran each raised a hand before slamming it down onto the stage floor, sending a surge of Origin Force into the grand formation.

Their Origin Force intertwined, forming into a powerful wave of energy that headed straight towards the Sky Crystal in the centre of the clearing.

This energy wave quickly filled up the Sky Crystal, causing its light intensity to reach a peak before the energy wave was further split into four, each individual stream of energy heading towards a Sky Crystal in the corner of the clearing, leaving behind a trail of light.

Exposed to the energy streams, the other four Sky Crystals lit up as well, but things did not stop there.

From each of the four Sky Crystals, the energy streams divided further, leaving behind trails of light as they searched for the next nearest Sky crystal. From the top of the hill where they were, they quickly found their way down to reach the other Sky Crystals that had been planted in the vicinity and then spreading out further.

Just like that, it quickly formed a network of light, a cruelly beautiful sight to be beheld in the darkness of the night.

At this point, some of the masked townsmen who were martial artists themselves finally felt that something was off.

Master Dongran and Lu Tianzi did not bother hiding their actions earlier, so even they could tell that the duo had activated some sort of formation.

This caused a group of them to start frowning in confusion, and even Aged Crow seemed to be slightly taken aback.

"Leader, isn't this supposed to be an acknowledgement ceremony that permanently brands the three of us as leaders over the rest?" Aged Crow asked hesitantly. "Why do I feel that something isn't quite right?"

However, Master Dongran could no longer be bothered with him.

So what if they had their doubts?

So what if they had found out?

They had already offered up their blood anyway, so it was already too late for regrets!

"Thank you, White Griffin," Master Dongran let out a satisfied grin. "Without the help of you and the Radiant Raven Sect, there was no way that I would have been able to accomplish this."

"Don't worry about it, you did well too," Lu Tianzi replied.

"But before we move on, I have a-" Master Dongran stopped halfway through his sentence.

"Why? Is there something wrong?" Lu Tianzi asked.

"The formation… there's something wrong with it!" Master Dongran exclaimed in alarm. "It is not reaching Bog Town!"

"Is that so?" Lu Tianzi replied.

Seeing Lu Tianzi's composure, Master Dongran could not help but frown. "You already knew about this?"

Lu Tianzi smirked under his mask.

When Master Dongran explained the plan to him the day before, Lu Tianzi had already memorised the location of every single Sky Crystal marked out on the map.

This allowed him to deduce the formation that was supposed to power this sacrificial ritual, which also meant that he could modify it accordingly.

While Lu Tianzi was not nearly cruel enough to come up with a scheme like this on his own, he was not nearly noble enough to have wanted to save the inhabitants of Bog Town from the sacrificial ritual either.

Since Master Dongran had already put the plan in motion, Lu Tianzi had absolutely no qualms about making full use of it.

But at the same time, he had no wish to incur the wrath of the Divine Storm Sect by becoming the one responsible for ravaging the town.

On top of that, he still needed to claim that reward for getting rid of the leader of the Blazing Wings!

How would he be able to do that if the sacrificial formation wiped clean the whole of Bog Town?

As for the masked townsmen gathered before him, Lu Tianzi cared not about their life or death.

He had zero relations with them in the first place. Since they were the ones who made the choice to join the Blazing Wings, they would just have to suffer the consequences of their poor decision.

All Lu Tianzi needed was for the core group in Bog Town to survive.

So before even attempting to hijack the sacrificial ritual, Lu Tianzi had to make sure that it did not end up killing every single person in Bog Town.

That was what he had spent the entire day doing, adjusting the Sky Crystals in the slightest of manners so as to disconnect the link to Bog Town without anyone noticing.

This was the advantage of being a formation master!

Of course, Lu Tianzi was not about to admit it.

Not now, at least.

"I only came to the same conclusion as you a few moments earlier," Lu Tianzi shook his head. "Let me see what I can do about it."

With that, Lu Tianzi slowly made his way over towards Master Dongran.

"Tch! Forget it! Everything is too late now! Since things have already come to this…" Master Dongran gritted his teeth in frustration before speaking into his communication ring. "Now!"

Almost immediately, a surge of energy rushed out from the mansion behind them.

Lu Tianzi spun around to see a masked lady flying out from mansion, charging straight towards him with her sword unsheathed.

A silvery light flashed across Lu Tianzi's eyes, allowing him to see right through the mask.

"Madam Dongran?" Lu Tianzi said.

"That's right!" Master Dongran laughed. "Yesterday you asked me about the madam? Well, this is my answer! You have served your purpose, so now it is time to relinquish your position to my true partner!"