There were many kinds of Heavenly Star Unusual Arts. The kind that the Sea King Sect cultivated focused on the immeasurable expanse of the ocean and its unending torrential waves. Once they launched their offensive, they would release an unrelenting wave of attacks.
The four members of the Sea King Sect team activated their qi circulation together, generating vast and mighty waves of qi that were about to engulf Monk Pushan and Chu Liang.
Then a crisp crack rang out, and the raging torrent of foundational qi suddenly dissipated.
Meanwhile, the radiance of seven-colored light enveloped Monk Pushan. He was using an immortal art—the Transcendent Dharma Mirror.
When Monk Pushan met Luo Yao and Chu Liang for the first time, Monk Pushan had the appearance of a mysterious powerful cultivator going undercover in a diabolical sect. Luo Yao fought him and discovered that her shamanic spell Forbidden Ground had no effect on his Transcendent Dharma Mirror.
Since then, the undercover trio had used this combination to their advantage, as Pushan was the only one who could still use his divine abilities when Forbidden Ground was active.
At this moment, it was indeed Forbidden Ground that restricted the Sea King Sect team.
There was a crushed jade talisman in Chu Liang's hand.
Wenren Yan quickly realized that Chu Liang had activated a jade talisman containing Forbidden Ground, working in tandem with Monk Pushan's Transcendent Dharma Mirror. This was clearly a tactic they had prepared well in advance.
Nevertheless, that didn't stop Wenren Yan.
He circulated his foundational qi even more fiercely and shouted, "Circulate your qi at full power! I'll hold him off. You three kill Chu Liang!"
Even though Forbidden Ground was powerful, there were still limits to its effects. The more people it restricted and the stronger their cultivation, the shorter its duration would be.
Thus, despite his restricted abilities, Wenren Yan didn't retreat and instead advanced. He turned over his hand, pulled out a large banner from his storage tool, and charged toward Monk Pushan with it.
The banner unfurled and flapped about, producing loud gusts of wind. Wenren Yan was unexpectedly strong, and his attack was extremely fierce.
Monk Pushan maintained his Transcendent Dharma Mirror form and made a hand seal, completing it with a flip of his hands. A three-zhang-tall apparition made of golden light rose behind him and struck down with a palm strike.
Wham!
Wenren Yan blocked the strike with his banner, but he sank halfway into the ground, clearly taking significant damage.
The other members of his team charged toward Chu Liang, but they were also repelled by Monk Pushan's golden apparition.
Nevetheless, the Sea King Sect team were circulating their qi at full power, and the Forbidden Ground was already on the verge of breaking. It seemed that the power stored in one talisman could only hold them off for a short time. Once they regained all of their cultivation power, Monk Pushan would no longer be able to hold them off alone.
Just as they were about to recover the use of their divine abilities, another crisp sound rang out.
Crack.
Chu Liang had pulled out another jade talisman and crushed it.
The Forbidden Ground descended once more.
Again??
Wenren Yan leaped up and yelled, "Charge!"
At his command, his team members unleashed raging flames of qi, burning their qi and blood to gain immense physical power!
This wasn't quite the same as the Divine Dragons' Great Blood-Burning Technique. They were using a self-sacrificial technique that inflicted severe damage to the cultivator while immensely boosting their physical strength. Nonetheless, they didn't care much about that at this critical moment.
They just needed to break past Monk Pushan to Chu Liang, who was no threat to them.
Crack, crack, crack...
Right then, they saw Chu Liang pull out a whole bunch of jade talismans. He crushed them nonstop like he was addicted to crushing them.
Those jade talismans, which contained the spell Forbidden Ground, were a crucial part of his reserve of battle supplies.
Fuck.
Chu Liang had been inflicted with severe damage from overloading his Sea of Qi for fifteen minutes. It left his Sea of Qi pretty much useless and his muscles and bones battered and shattered. However, his corporeal body was as strong as a True Dragon's, so it was incredibly powerful.
Having a powerful physique meant that in addition to possessing physical attributes like great strength and speed, he had one very important thing—a great healing ability.
It was difficult for his Sea of Qi and meridians to heal, but three days had been enough for him to recover from his physical injuries. So, although Chu Liang couldn't use any divine abilities, he had recovered all of his physical strength, and that was all he needed to take out ordinary disciples of immortal sects.
Moreover, in the domain of Forbidden Ground, these Sea King Sect disciples couldn't use their divine abilities either, so that basically made it Chu Liang's domain.
"You..." Wenren Yan uttered as he shrank to his original size. There was blood seeping through the lapel of his robe, and his face was as pale as paper. "Have you been faking this helpless act the whole time these past few days?"
"It's just a bit of deception. If I didn't show that I was weak, how could I lure anyone into taking the bait?" Chu Liang replied with a small smile.
However, in Wenren Yan's eyes, that smile looked utterly evil.
He seemed to see a dark figure with vertical horns on its head rising behind Chu Liang.
It let out an eerie and menacing laugh. "Kekekekekekeke!"
...
With Wenren Yan's death, the Competition of a Hundred Sects finally came to an end. The hundreds of young cultivators at the event venue on the Emperor's Mound opened their eyes.
The venue quickly erupted with noise. There were expressions of joy, anger, excitement, and amazement...
When the cultivators died in the illusory realm, their souls had not been able to return to their corporeal bodies right away. Instead, they fell into a dream-like state, watching everything that happened within the illusory realm as a spectator. They continued like that until Immortal Jiuyi opened the Divine Mirror of the Eight Trigrams, allowing all of their souls to return to their corporeal bodies.
The moment Chu Liang opened his eyes, he was met with his fellow disciples of the Mount Shu Sect, whom he hadn't seen for quite a few days.
"You actually got us to advance!" Ling Ao exclaimed excitedly.
He pulled Chu Liang into a hug and gave him a couple of hearty punches.
Then came Xu Ziyang, who also wore an excited expression for once. He fiercely wrapped his arms around Chu Liang and Ling Ao, sandwiching Chu Liang in the middle.
The other Mount Shu Sect disciples who had arrived early on to watch over him all rushed in. Lin Bei, Shang Ziliang, and Lackey A—all of Chu Liang's friends jumped on him, burying him under the pile.
"Woohoo!!!"
They all cheered loudly, with bursts of "Heheheh!" in the mix.
It was like the scene of a group of people making a grand return to their ancestral lands.
When Yang Shenlong eliminated Jiang Yuebai, Xu Ziyang, and Ling Ao, he had seemed so overwhelmingly powerful that the members of the Mount Shu Sect fell into despair and thought that there was no hope left for their sect.
Yet, Chu Liang unexpectedly pulled through once more against all odds! He overcame so many challenges and brought Mount Shu back from the brink. It was nothing short of a miracle.
The outpour of emotions went on for quite a while before Chu Liang's friends finally released him. And when Chu Liang could see what was in front of him again, he found Jiang Yuebai standing there.
Her eyes were filled with joy as a smile lit up her face.
"Hehe," Chu Liang chuckled.
He walked over with a grin, intending to say something.
However, he was thrown off by Jiang Yuebai's fragrance as she stepped forward and hugged him gently. His mind went blank, and he couldn't remember what he had wanted to say.
"Thank you." Jiang Yuebai's voice carried the tremor of a sob, showing she wasn't as calm as she appeared. "This is truly wonderful."
GLTD Alternate Universe's Thoughts
Translator: LD