Chapter Ninety-One: A Life-and-Death Crisis

Ten men charged together into the depths of the cavern.

The farther they went, the weaker the goblin-like cultivators became in rank: Six Spirit, Five Spirit, Four Mystery... .

Gradually, no more goblins emerged from the cave walls.

But everyone only grew more furious.

Within the concave molds lining the walls, there were hunchbacked, ordinary human beings.

Mortals!

These were actually mortals!

By then, they had penetrated ten thousand zhang into the cave.

The walls were packed tight with countless mortals, more than anyone could count.

Su Yizhao controlled his flying sword, repeatedly slicing open the molds in the wall.

One by one, the mortals tumbled out.

Their faces were like corpses; their breaths thin as silk.

Seeing this, the other cultivators also hurriedly moved to save them.

Killing a Four Mystery cultivator no longer counted for points anyway.

Six Spirit earned one point, Five Spirit half a point, and anything below that earned none.

Naturally, no one had any more desire to kill.

Because this was not about points at all.

This was a matter of principle.

As everyone burned with rage, suddenly a sinister laugh echoed from deep within the cave.

Su Yizhao's heart sank.

The true culprit had finally appeared!

"Heh heh!"

A cold wind swept across their faces, and before anyone could react, countless vines materialized around them and struck to bind them in an instant.

Too fast.

In the blink of an eye, all ten had been tied up by the vines.

Su Yizhao only felt his waist and abdomen tighten, a crushing force surging in and squeezing his chest nearly to the point of shattering.

Even his body, tempered to the middle stage of Six Spirit, could not withstand the pressure.

He was so terrified his soul nearly flew apart.

At the critical moment, with a thought, ten thousand streaks of golden light slashed toward the vines.

"Pop, pop, pop..."

The golden light scattered, but the vines remained.

A perfected Vine Art, and more than likely sixth rank or above.

It sounds slow, but in truth it took no more than a single breath.

None of the ten escaped; all were trapped and dragged toward the depths of the cave.

The vines suddenly tightened, and everyone was instantly bound so hard that their vision blurred and their spirits seemed to scatter.

In the next instant, they had been dragged to the very end of the deep cavern.

"How dare you disturb this lord? I'll devour you!"

At the voice, everyone woke with a start and looked up, only to nearly faint from terror again.

At the end of the cavern sat a monstrous creature, four to five zhang in size.

What had bound them was not vines at all, but tentacles growing from beneath that monster's body.

Su Yizhao and the others had no chance to catch their breath; the tentacles whipped them up and tried to stuff them into the monster's gaping maw.

Before they even reached the mouth, the stench was already unbearable.

The tentacles were monstrously powerful, and no one could break free.

Just as they were about to be swallowed, a command suddenly rang out: "Stop!"

At once, the whole space seemed to freeze.

Seizing the chance, Su Yizhao unleashed his swords in a storm, sending them straight into the monster's mouth.

His hands moved urgently, golden light churning madly within the maw.

A moment.

Only a moment.

And after that moment, the rest were inevitably crammed into the giant mouth.

Yet what surged in through their noses was not only foul reek, but an even thicker odor of blood.

Su Yizhao felt the binding at his waist loosen slightly, and in that instant he twisted his body.

In the span of a breath, he shot out of the giant mouth and landed on the ground.

"Ugh!"

Clutching his chest and abdomen, he retched again and again.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

One figure after another also burst from the mouth. Most of them could not keep their footing and fell to the ground, vomiting violently.

Then, from above, came the sound of chewing.

Enduring the pain and nausea, Su Yizhao looked up.

The massive mouth had closed, its upper and lower jaws grinding against each other as though chewing something.

From the corners of the mouth, streams of blood poured out like waterfalls, flooding the ground.

Su Yizhao thought someone had failed to escape, but after looking around he found all ten cultivators present.

The monster's tentacles, once suspended in the air, were gradually losing strength and drooping down.

Its four-to-five-zhang body slowly collapsed.

The giant mouth ceased chewing; in the blood that flowed out were chunks of torn flesh.

With a thunderous crash, the monster fell to the ground.

Su Yizhao made a grasping motion with his right hand, and eight streaks of golden light instantly shot back, whirling rapidly between the fingers of his right hand.

He straightened and let out a faint breath.

This was absolutely the closest he had ever come to death.

A divine art really was useful.

If not for that instant opening, he would likely already have become this monster's meal.

The other cultivators slowly rose and silently looked at the corpse of the mountain-sized beast before them.

Even though all had weathered countless life-and-death trials, their feelings now were the same.

Lingering fear.

Clap, clap, clap...

Suddenly, a soft round of applause came from behind them.

The golden light in Su Yizhao's right hand gathered faintly, about to burst forth, when Ouyang Xiuxuan's voice came from behind: "A fine divine art. And your perfected Sky Sword Art is even finer."

The golden light in Su Yizhao's hand paused slightly. He slowly turned around.

There stood Ouyang Xiuxuan, looking at him with a smile.

"Senior, did you know long ago what was happening here?" Su Yizhao asked.

Ouyang Xiuxuan did not answer. He passed them by and continued forward, stopping before the monster's corpse.

"Do you blame me for not stopping it in time?" he asked softly, while examining the monster's massive body.

Su Yizhao lowered his head.

How could he not blame him?

If he had the power, why not stop it at once?

In that instant, he felt utterly disappointed in Ouyang Xiuxuan.

These were mortals.

Though mortals lived at the bottom, they were the foundation of all cultivators. Without mortals, where would cultivators come from?

The higher the rank, the greater the responsibility; the higher the cultivation, the greater the responsibility.

Without that awareness, what was the point of cultivating immortality?

It was better to cultivate into a demon.

The Azure Heaven Sect was nothing more than this.

Better not to join.

"Little octopus, you dare leave the deep sea to cultivate on land? This is what becomes of you!" Ouyang Xiuxuan actually muttered to the monster's corpse.

Su Yizhao raised his head and slowly walked toward the cave entrance.

Completely disappointed.

"Stop!" Ouyang Xiuxuan barked.

Su Yizhao halted and said coolly, "What orders does Senior have?"

"What kind of attitude is that?"

Without the slightest hesitation, Su Yizhao lifted his foot and continued forward. "The competition is over. I'm tired."

"So am I," Huang Qizheng said, dragging his steps as he followed.

Ouyang Xiuxuan waved a hand and collected the monster's corpse, then said, "Very good. A pair of ignorant brats. Hmph!"

With a cold snort, he vanished instantly.

The other cultivators said nothing either. They cupped their hands lightly toward Su Yizhao and the other man, then flew away.

"You're very good," Huang Qizheng said.

Su Yizhao shook his head. "It's all thanks to you."

The two looked at each other and could not help but smile bitterly.

No matter how powerful they were, what of it?

The mortals clinging to the cave walls had fallen away like plants stripped of nourishment, already dead beyond saving.

In the end, they still could not be rescued.

Su Yizhao opened his robe. Across his chest and abdomen lay a long, deep mark of binding.

He circulated his inner energy around it again and again.

"I'll let you have first place," Huang Qizheng said suddenly.

Su Yizhao had already been disheartened with the Azure Heaven Sect, but hearing this, he immediately objected, "It was mine to begin with!"

Only then did he remember that even if he did not enter the Azure Heaven Sect, he still had to fight for first place.

That hundred million superior-grade spirit stones would become three billion and seven hundred million.

Huang Qizheng did not argue further.

With that monster cultivated to such a level, how could ordinary flying swords ever wound it?

Without his divine art, Su Yizhao could not have drawn his sword, and they all would have died.

But with only his divine art, they would merely have lived a moment longer.

The perfected Sky Sword Art truly was formidable.

Su Yizhao suddenly said, "Given how we acted, do you think he'll still give us first place?"