Chapter 503: Five Sages Break the Formation
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"Petty human tricks dare to show off before experts?!"
The Manifestation Sage—a golden-armored rhinoceros demon sage—threw back its head with a deafening roar, lightning coiling around the horn on its forehead.
Clapping its massive palms together before violently separating them, the thousand-jun battleaxe in its grasp seemed infused with thunder, crackling with unrestrained lightning. Raising the colossal axe overhead, dark clouds instantly churned across the heavens as thunder rumbled ominously.
Spiritual energy between heaven and earth grew turbulent as thunderous power concentrated along the axe's blade. Then, gripping the haft with both hands, the demon sage planted its thick hooves firmly into the ground before swinging the storm-summoning thunder axe downward.
BOOM—! Amidst deafening thunderclaps.
The giant axe descended with mountain-splitting, world-shattering force, crashing directly upon the eye of the Seven Stars Dragon-Binding Array. The demon sage's overwhelming might held nothing back from its very first strike!
"Disaster!" Li Ziping's face paled dramatically as he desperately channeled spiritual energy to reinforce the formation's core.
Yet wherever the colossal axe passed, space itself was pulverized by thunderous power, lightning and fire intertwining into apocalyptic scenes that rendered all resistance futile.
KABOOM—!
An earth-shaking explosion tore through the heavens as if the sky itself had been violently ripped apart!
The main formation eye of the Seven Stars Dragon-Binding Array exploded into dust under the axe's impact. The seven radiant pillars trembled violently before snapping apart, the Big Dipper pattern in the sky fracturing like shattered glass as countless golden chains disintegrated into metallic fragments that dissipated into the void.
The Seven Stars Dragon-Binding Array was instantly broken.
Demon soldiers and generals previously suppressed by the formation regained their freedom, continuing their advance through sword rains toward Cangbo Mountain Range's main peak. With demon sages backing them, their morale soared to fearless heights!
That single axe strike didn't just shatter the formation—it crushed the morale of Moon Shadow Sect disciples.
Any fleeting sense of human cultivator superiority over the demon race evaporated instantly.
"One formation down by my hand, let this old bear break another!" The Mountain-Moving Sage roared wildly.
The black-furred bear demon wreathed in crimson flames abruptly launched skyward.
Inconceivably, its heavily-armored, seemingly clumsy bulk shot tens of thousands of meters upward in an instant. Spreading its arms, a massive spiked club materialized before its chest, coalesced from demonic flames. The weapon expanded a hundredfold upon encountering wind, dwarfing even the bear sage's colossal frame.
"For your king—" The Mountain-Moving Sage transformed into a black whirlwind wreathed in mountain-scorching flames, charging straight toward the Demon-Slaying Heavenly Sword Array's foundation, "—BREAK!!!"
"The containment array is broken! We can't let the killing array fall so easily!"
"Stop him!"
Exchanging a glance, Li Ziping and Zhang Mengchu acted simultaneously.
Each took position at a secondary formation node of the Heavenly Sword Array, channeling their full power to operate the grand formation. Their personal cultivation realms stood no chance against Great Ascension Stage demon sages. Only by leveraging the formation and heaven-earth energies could they hope to resist.
HUM—!
Amidst countless sword hums, all sword qi within the Heavenly Sword Array condensed instantly.
One hundred thousand flying swords wove an impenetrable wall midair, their razor edges pointed directly at the approaching Mountain-Moving Sage.
The bear sage snorted derisively, swinging its spiked club horizontally. "Devour Heaven and Earth!"
The weapon whipped up hurricane winds laced with sky-scorching flames, forming a vortex capable of swallowing all creation. At the whirlwind's epicenter, the Mountain-Moving Sage warped space itself as it advanced, reducing vegetation to ash and stone to molten lava.
The seemingly indestructible sword wall shattered like paper before the blazing maelstrom, torn to fragments within moments.
With their defensive wall broken, Li Ziping and Zhang Mengchu—faces pale—attempted to regroup the scattered sword qi.
However...
BOOM—!
The earth trembled as the Mountain-Moving Sage descended like a meteor, landing with cataclysmic force. The devastating firestorm it carried smashed directly into the formation's foundation, its spiked club sweeping through like a scythe through wheat, shattering all eighty-one Spirit-Anchoring Stakes while flames consumed the remaining formation runes. The Demon-Slaying Heavenly Sword Array collapsed spectacularly, massive swords in the sky exploding into falling embers like doomsday fireworks.
The array's destruction unleashed a backlash that instantly engulfed the two cultivators at secondary nodes.
Both Void Treading Stage experts grimaced simultaneously, blood spraying from their mouths as their auras visibly withered.
The chasm between Void Treading and Great Ascension proved ultimately insurmountable. Even leveraging formations and natural energies, their combined efforts could only withstand a demon sage's attack briefly at best.
"Is this all?!"
The Golden-Winged Roc standing behind the two demon sages threw back its head in mocking laughter.
"When you humans united to drive us demons into the Hundred Thousand Mountains, did you ever imagine this day?!"
"Where are your Great Ascension cultivators? Tsk tsk tsk... Could it be they've all died of old age from spiritual energy depletion?"
The demon sages' terrifying pressure pinned Li Ziping and Zhang Mengchu to the ground, their faces ashen with trails of blood dripping from their lips. Formation backlash bound their meridians and dantians like invisible shackles, leaving only their eyes free to reflect the unfolding devastation.
In the distance, the main peak was already surrounded by demonic forces. Without the arrays' protection, Cangbo Mountain's summit lay exposed like a turtle without its shell, utterly vulnerable to the demonic onslaught.
The five demon sages stood atop the clouds, gazing down with not just triumph, but decades of pent-up vengeance finally satisfied. They deliberately spared these two humans—to force them to witness the annihilation of everything they'd dedicated their lives to building.
Li Ziping's eyes mirrored the demonic tide, his fingers clawing deep into the earth.
"Cough... Could it be... those seniors in the Void Abyss truly won't intervene?"
The simultaneous emergence of five demon sages would create cosmic disturbances impossible for the Void Abyss's ancient monsters to miss. Those beings who spent centuries calculating heavenly secrets and ascension methods, perpetually monitoring heavenly tribulations—they must have known the moment demons left the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
If they weren't acting now... was it unwillingness? Or had they already perished from exhausted lifespans within the Void Abyss?
Without the Void Abyss's Great Ascension experts...
Only the Patriarch remained...
But the Patriarch had only recently reached Great Ascension—could he possibly face five demon sages?
The Mountain-Moving Sage loomed over the two Void Treading cultivators, bending down with a vicious smirk:
"Watch closely! Isn't the main peak filled with your Moon Shadow Sect disciples?"
"We demons will slaughter every last one, then cross Cangbo Mountain Range to attack your sect!"
"The humans' doomsday has only just begun!"
The bear sage threw back its head for its trademark roar when suddenly—
BOOM—!
Thunder detonated from the main peak.
Simultaneously, it felt a light punch to its chest.
The air filled with the scent of something scorched.
Blinking stupidly, it looked down to find the fur visible between its armor plates burned white and curled.
At the same moment, a thunderous bellow erupted from Cangbo Mountain's summit:
"FIRE—!"