Chapter 548: Backstab

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

“Hiss!”

Thousand-Eyed Ghoul looked towards Jiang Yongzhou, nearly a thousand eyes blinking, emitting a chilling hissing sound.

If an ordinary person were here at this moment, there would be no need to see the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul; merely hearing this sound would immediately cause a transformation in the body.

Every pore of the body would burst open, mutating into eyeballs.

This is the terrifying aspect of powerful and eerie phenomena. Faced with such evil, ordinary people, let alone resisting, would find the thought of survival to be a luxury.

It’s not just that one shouldn’t listen; one mustn’t look.

Hearing the sound would cause mutation, and if seen, one would immediately become frenzied, actively rushing toward the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul, offering up all of one’s flesh and blood to it.

This is not about ordinary people being as fragile as chicks; even chicks, when faced with danger, still try to survive. When ordinary people encounter evil, before the thought of survival even arises, they have already completely perished.

Jiang Yongzhou’s hair fluttered backward, completely ignoring the sound of the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul. A blade appeared in his hand, and in the next moment, a dark sword intent pervaded all directions.

Nine hundred and sixty-five eerie eyes, this evil is only a bit away from assembling a thousand eyes, truly breaking through the limit and entering the metamorphic period from the third stage to the fourth stage.

This transformation, stepping forward means entering the fourth stage, while stepping back results in direct annihilation.

Within the Thousand Feathers Alliance, it has been too many years since such levels of evil have appeared.

For the vast majority of people, encountering evil is to be avoided at all costs, but for the Shadow Abyss Sect, especially for someone like Jiang Yongzhou, who has reached the pinnacle of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, the situation is slightly different.

Regardless of the regulations within the Thousand Feathers Alliance, for Jiang Yongzhou alone, if he could capture and refine this Thousand-Eyed Ghoul, the possibility of breaking through to the Mountain Sea Realm might be increased by a few points.

Although it’s just a few points, for breaking through to the Mountain Sea Realm, anything that could potentially increase the success rate is extremely rare and not easily abandoned.

The Thousand-Eyed Ghoul sensed Jiang Yongzhou’s sword intent, and all the eyeballs on its body blinked rapidly. The elemental energy in all directions became chaotic in an instant, and the surrounding sword intent became fragmented.

Those majestic blade elements, upon entering within ten meters of the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul, gradually weakened, then completely decayed, turning into the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul’s power instead.

This contamination followed the position of Jiang Yongzhou’s blade elements, infecting them in reverse. In just an instant, what was supposed to be a domain formed by sword intent turned into a dark polluted zone.

Jiang Yongzhou squinted slightly; the power of this Thousand-Eyed Ghoul exceeded his expectations.

The elemental power cultivated by the Shadow Abyss Sect inherently carries a chill, which, to a certain extent, can suppress evil.

But now, just as they’ve started, it’s Jiang Yongzhou who finds himself at a disadvantage.

Although the move just now was only a probe, for someone at the pinnacle of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, any move possesses astonishing power.

The Thousand-Eyed Ghoul can completely reverse the situation in an instant, proving that its strength may be stronger than that of an ordinary pinnacle of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm.

Hundreds of miles away, Chen Fei stood on the surface of the sea, a beam of light radiating from his brow as he watched the scene in the distance.

The specific scene was already too far for Chen Fei to see clearly. However, the changes in the atmosphere were visible to him.

And sometimes, the changes in the atmosphere are enough to determine many things, especially under the Heavenly Eye, where many overlooked details are magnified.

From another perspective, possessing the Heavenly Eye technique, Chen Fei is as if he were on the scene at this moment.

Placing the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul here is a tactic.

By using formations to attract the attention of the Shadow Abyss Sect, as long as the people from the Shadow Abyss Sect aren’t foolish, they can immediately discern the situation.

However, towards evil, the attitude of the Shadow Abyss Sect is actually similar to that of ordinary martial artists towards spiritual materials.

Sometimes they may know that the spiritual materials given by others may have some issues, but if the power is sufficient, they will ultimately not let them go to waste. Especially for sufficiently powerful Evils, this was even more true.

And indeed, the situation was just as Chen Fei had anticipated.

Evil at the pinnacle of the third stage is rarely seen on ordinary days, and the pinnacle experts within the Shadow Abyss Sect will not let it slip by.

“Hum!”

Under the Heavenly Eye, Chen Fei sensed another pinnacle expert of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm joining in, it was another top-notch expert of the Shadow Abyss Sect, Xin Hongdu.

With two pinnacle experts of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm from the same sect, the past hundred years have been considered the most prosperous period for the Shadow Abyss Sect.

It is precisely because of this prosperity that the Shadow Abyss Sect hopes to take further steps forward.

If they fail to take this step, they will inevitably decline in the end.

With the current resources of the Shadow Abyss Sect, having two pinnacle experts of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm in the same period is already the most extreme state. Most of the time, ensuring the continuous inheritance of pinnacle experts of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm is quite a difficult task.

Not only the Shadow Abyss Sect but also other top forces are in a similar situation.

With Xin Hongdu joining the fray, the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul, which had the upper hand, suddenly found itself at a disadvantage. However, it was only a slight disadvantage, and it was far from the time to slay and refine the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul.

The resistance of the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul was extraordinarily tenacious, with the nearly thousand eyeballs blinking, almost completely controlling the surrounding natural elemental energy.

This control was not a crude monopolization but a meticulous manipulation of the natural elemental energy. Each eyeball was responsible for the natural elemental energy of a specific area, and with nearly a thousand eerie eyes, the areas they could control naturally became extremely vast.

Even though Jiang Yongzhou and Xin Hongdu were both pinnacle experts of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, and their cultivation techniques were top-notch, they still found themselves at a disadvantage in the struggle for elemental energy.

Because of this, despite their overwhelming momentum, they could only suppress the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul to some extent but couldn’t gain a true advantage to decisively control the situation.

Within the battle, Jiang Yongzhou exchanged a glance with Xin Hongdu, and a surge of blade energy soared into the sky.

However, in just a moment, dozens of Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts from the Shadow Abyss Sect poured out like a flood.

In other factions, sometimes a Combined Aperture Tempering realm expert represents the pinnacle of power within the sect. If something were to happen to this expert, the sect would be severely crippled.

It would be almost impossible for them to recover in a short period because breaking through the Combined Aperture Tempering realm is incredibly difficult. It’s not something that can be achieved just by wanting to break through; success is far from guaranteed.

Looking at top-tier forces like the Shadow Abyss Sect, they have dozens of experts at the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, outnumbering dozens of other fourth-tier or even third-tier forces.

Although most of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts within the Shadow Abyss Sect are in the early stages, there are still quite a few in the mid and late stages of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm.

Moreover, among the early-stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts, many are under the age of one hundred and fifty, or even one hundred. They have plenty of time to grow and become mid or late-stage Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts, or even future pinnacle experts of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm.

This is the foundation of a top-tier force. Facing this Thousand-Eyed Ghoul, the Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts of the Shadow Abyss Sect have acted to completely block its final escape route.

In battles between pinnacle experts of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, if experts from other realms want to intervene, only a few can form a formation.

However, formations are generally ineffective because after forming a formation, their speed is greatly affected, and they can’t catch up with their opponents, unless there are other experts of the same level to distract them.

But now, with Jiang Yongzhou and Xin Hongdu dealing with the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul, the other Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts from the Shadow Abyss Sect can easily form a formation and completely surround and kill the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul.

Chen Fei stood a hundred miles away, watching as the aura of the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul was gradually suppressed.

With dozens of Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts forming a formation, not only was there immense power, but the struggle for natural elemental energy completely eradicated the advantages of the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul.

Without this advantage and fundamentally not much stronger than Jiang Yongzhou and Xin Hongdu, being suppressed at this moment is entirely inevitable.

Outside of someone else’s stronghold, revealing one’s true form will ultimately lead to being ganged up on like this.

As time passed, the aura of the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul weakened, and the space it could move in became smaller and smaller. Following this trend, the killing of the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul had almost become inevitable.

Chen Fei’s gaze flickered, and the killing of the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul also resolved a trouble for him.

Although Chen Fei was certain that his aura hadn’t been memorized by the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul, it would still be challenging for the creature to accurately pinpoint his exact location.

But being stared at by such an evil entity was still somewhat unsettling.

Under the Heavenly Eye, as Chen Fei watched the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul about to dissipate, his figure began to blur.

It was already possible to leave. Continuing to stay here, once the Shadow Abyss Sect had some free time, they would likely start investigating who led the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul here.

Faced with a behemoth like the Shadow Abyss Sect, Chen Fei currently did not have the strength to retaliate.

“Hum!”

Suddenly, the natural elemental energy trembled, and a hundred miles away, Jiang Yongzhou’s aura suddenly weakened, while the auras of several Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts dissipated.

Although Chen Fei had already turned around, he suddenly looked back towards the distance, his eyes filled with a hint of incredulity.

Clearly, the Shadow Abyss Sect had already secured victory, so how did a sudden turn of events occur?

The light emitted from the Heavenly Eye pierced through several feet, and with the help of the Heavenly Eye’s ability to review past auras, Chen Fei quickly discovered the reason.

At a critical moment within the Shadow Abyss Sect, the formation was suddenly reversed by several Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts, directly striking Jiang Yongzhou and causing him to be injured.

The Thousand-Eyed Ghoul had anticipated this, immediately following up with an attack that severely wounded Jiang Yongzhou.

As for the Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts whose auras had dissipated, they were also fiercely slain by the sudden turncoat Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts. Although these turncoat experts were heavily injured themselves, they showed no hesitation whatsoever.

It was as if their own lives were of no importance at all.

Chen Fei narrowed his eyes, and in his mind flashed scenes of the seeds planted in Kou Yuanheng’s mind.

Those Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts from the Shadow Abyss Sect, at some point, had also been implanted with seeds.

Viewing evil as a resource and constantly seeking out evil, the members of the Shadow Abyss Sect had unexpectedly been corrupted by evil without even realizing it themselves.

But it’s also possible that precisely because of the Thousand Feathers Alliance’s constant search for evil, the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul found an opportunity. In this situation, these people were corrupted by the evil without even realizing it.

Chen Fei looked into the distance, where it should have been easy for the Shadow Abyss Sect to effortlessly slay the Thousand-Eyed Ghoul. Yet, the situation had become confusing and uncertain.

The formation formed by the other Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts of the Shadow Abyss Sect had already been broken.

It’s not that they couldn’t form the formation again, but rather they didn’t know if, among their own ranks, there might be others who were implanted with seeds but hadn’t revealed themselves yet.

Forming a formation meant completely connecting their elemental powers, making them both strongest and most vulnerable.

If there were still contaminated individuals who hadn’t shown themselves, would they betray them again at a critical moment?