Chapter 690: Six Fangs

Despite her armor, one could see that the woman was rather slender. In fact, she didn't look like a fighter at all even in her complete set of armor. However, her eyes were piercing as though she could see through anything. Immediately, Cao Yun realized that she was most likely an array formation master. Traps and ambushes using array formations were rather common, especially in war. Obviously, they needed to have some expert in the field. That being said, there was no doubt that she was at least a 5th-grade or even 6th-grade Accomplished Demon. In his current condition, Cao Yun wasn't convinced he could trick her senses.

As soon as she turned her head, her eyes looked in the young man's direction. He had been lucky enough to go past her once. But she had probably already sensed something then. In fact, she most likely knew he was there. Since she was looking at Cao Yun directly, the young man knew what was going on. Thankfully, his mind was still working perfectly well. Unfortunately, his body couldn't follow as well as it should have. In that instant, he knew what was coming but still didn't have enough time to prepare for it. Knowing it, he had to do something they would not expect, but he wasn't ready for their attack either.

The moment the woman's eyes met his, he felt a tremendous pressure all around him. In that moment he realized that this woman was directly attacking his soul. Considering that his soul was completely exhausted, this was the worst kind of attack at the moment. His body could take a lot but his soul was at the breaking point. In fact, even the woman seemed surprised by the weakness of her opponent. But she didn't reduce her onslaught as faking weakness might also be a trick. All six warriors in front of Cao Yun had been hardened on the battlefield. They knew exactly what they were doing and they were disciplined.

After Cao Yun's soul was attacked, the other warriors moved. Two of them got closer to the entrance, expecting some other attack, ready for any surprise. But they couldn't get in without triggering the defenses and no priest was there to help them get in either. They were two men. The first one holding a large golden halberd whose blade was even larger than he was and had to weigh more than a hundred thousand dan*. The only reason why he wasn't just digging into the ground was because of his spiritual senses. In a sense, he was almost levitating while keeping his feet on the ground, just reducing his own weight enough so as not to destroy everything by merely walking. His face was severe and exuding arrogance. That man was clearly in command of the group at the moment.

The other warrior who didn't do anything was quite elegant with long black hair falling on his armor and a small beard that gave him the look of a scholar. At his waist was a very long and thin scabbard holding a long sword. He was watching the situation while his spiritual senses were encompassing the entire scene, going even further than the woman who was focusing on the current threat, Cao Yun.

The woman didn't move but she kept Cao Yun under control. In his sea of consciousness, he was hearing the moans of ghostly figures. Above in the sky, he could see crows flying. Both the crows themselves and their flight created a melody that was directly disrupting his senses. Cao Yun began to hear colors, to see tastes. All his senses were going out of control. Then, he felt his arms instead of his legs, his heart instead of his fists. Even his internal senses were off. Moving became more difficult as he had to imagine moving his ear to make his leg move. If his soul hadn't been as exhausted, this level of soul attack would have still been a challenge but he could have adapted to it in a short amount of time. At the moment, he was having a hard time controlling his own flesh and this was beyond frustrating.

Finally, the three other warriors were attacking him. The smallest warrior of the group was a woman with very short hair. In fact, some might have thought she was a young man at first. But her face was clearly feminine. However, there was also something ferocious in her expression. By looking at her, Cao Yun felt as though he was looking at a wild beast, a tiger, a leopard or some kind of predator. In a flash, she was right where Cao Yun was. Clearly, she wasn't as perceptive as the other woman. Thus, Cao Yun knew that they had been preparing the attack through mental messages for quite some time already. And their battle formation was very good. Although the other two warriors were staying behind to prepare for any unforeseen event, they were also ready to attack Cao Yun's retreat if need be. Even at the moment, he could feel their killing intent around him.

That feline woman took out two shining sabers. They were quite short, with golden inscriptions on the grip, the guard and even the silvery blade. One blade was smooth and sharp while the other blade was serrated and almost looked like the jaw of a beast. Cao Yun couldn't move in time to avoid the attack. Even in better circumstances it would have been difficult. Indeed, that woman was incredibly fast. She moved almost as fast as Cao Yun's mind. That was staggering.

Since he couldn't move in time because of the attack on his senses, he focused on his mind. Completely letting go of his stealth technique, he focused on his 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars'. While sending his blood everywhere in his body to protect every part of it, he circulated 'The Son of Heaven's Spear and Shield'. All around him, a scaly armor appeared. Thankfully, the woman had attacked Cao Yun before he let go of his stealth. Despite the first woman's indication, the feline warrior had failed to find Cao Yun's exact location. In particular, she had failed to gauge his height and her weapons had not slashed his head or his throat. Instead, they had collided with his chest.

The scaly armor around his chest broke apart, and the blades pierced his clothes and his skin. But they had lost too much momentum to go through his muscles. Considering her speed, Cao Yun had to use any moment of surprise to his advantage. During the attack, he had been able to figure out how to use his hands again as it had been his priority. In that situation, he could wait a bit for his legs but not for his hands. Thus, he grabbed the two blades before she could retract them. However, her reactions were unexpected. She simply let go of the two blades, kicked Cao Yun's chest and moved away. For an instant, Cao Yun could see her at two places at the same time.

When her image in front of him disappeared, a large man stood before the young human. He wasn't as tall as the Silver Wolf Marshal, but his body was clearly much larger. Even his armor had a hard time with his large frame. Besides his armor, he had gauntlets with several metallic plates covering his forearms and small pikes on his knuckles. The moment he attacked, his skin turned completely black, like iron. He directly went to grab Cao Yun who was still holding the two blades. It was as though a mountain was falling on Cao Yun.

Thankfully, the large man was slower than the feline warrior. That being said, he screamed like a bear. This added to Cao Yun's confusion. His senses were already in disarray and this scream assaulted all of them at the same time as both the sounds in his ears and the vibrations in his flesh turned into tastes and images as well. This attack was working in unison with the first's woman soul attack. Clearly, they knew perfectly well how to work together. Considering their cultivation, taking down a late Accomplished Demon wasn't impossible. In fact, they might have made a 9th-grade Accomplished Demon's life difficult and Cao Yun was not close to that stage yet. Besides, he was exhausted.

Since he could use his legs too well at the moment, Cao Yun improvised. As the two sabers fell to the ground, he sent two palms directly into the large man's biceps. Unfortunately, he was a bit too large for Cao Yun to reach his chest where he was standing. But his palms collided with his biceps.

This was 'Slaughtering the Enemy' from 'Axiu Qian's Blood Wrath'. In his palms, Cao Yun had sent a powerful vibration. This didn't stop the attack although the demon clearly was in pain as his scream intensified even more. But that wasn't Cao Yun's goal. Since he couldn't move his own legs as well as he would like, he literally pushed against his opponent to throw himself away from him. And it worked. While the large demon was too massive to move, the force of the attack mostly pushed Cao Yun away from his enemy, avoiding being crushed by his gigantic iron arms.

The attack wasn't over yet. The feline warrior recovered her blades before Cao Yun could even see her move. But she wasn't the one to attack him next. Before even she could pounce on her prey, eight crescent blades went flying toward Cao Yun. Each one was aiming at a different target and he clearly couldn't block or avoid all of them. From each blade, there was a chain connected to the last of the six warriors. Since he couldn't avoid them all, Cao Yun was finally able to take out his spear. Suddenly, the atmosphere around him changed as his Spear Heart manifested fully at last.

'Imperial Throne'!

A powerful wind surrounded Cao Yun. All the crescent blades struck that as a solid wall and it canceled their momentum. However, the chains acted as though they were alive. They tried to entangle Cao Yun and seal his movements. Thankfully, his wind was just too powerful and even the chains were sent away. But the feline warrior crossed through the wind, moving too fast for Cao Yun to focus in her direction. This time, her weapons were going right for Cao Yun's legs. She had figured out that he couldn't move them well enough and was already exploiting that weakness. Maybe the first woman had seen through him and had warned her. Cao Yun couldn't know for sure.

'Cracking the World'!

The butt of his spear struck downward, not particularly aiming at the woman. The steps of the Temple of Grace and Submission exploded and turned into dust in an instant. Suddenly losing her balance, the feline warrior's attack failed. But of course, Cao Yun was dealing with Accomplished Demons. They could all fly. It was just the sudden change that caught them off guard for an instant.

As fresh blood was flowing from his chest, Cao Yun realized how much danger he was in. Then, something even more terrifying happened. From the temple, he could feel a presence. It was as though a primordial beast was coming directly for him, as though it was attracted by the smell of blood. At that moment he knew. The Silver Wolf Marshal was within the Temple of Grace and Submission. There was absolutely no way he could fight him in his current condition. Even under the best circumstance, this fight would have been extremely challenging. But he would have to fight the Silver Wolf Marshal, his six Accomplished Demons, and he could barely use his soul. In fact, his soul was so weak that Cao Yun couldn't fly, even levitating was too much for him at the moment.

Without hesitation, Cao Yun used the brief reprieve in order to activate several array formations. This had been his goal since the beginning. Not only had he set up several array formations around the Holy Hongxue City, he now could control the 'Embrace of the Loving God' array formation. Thus, he activated all the array formations he could.

All around the temple, the statues of demons began to react. From their eyes, fiery beads could be seen. The stench of blood engulfed the entire mountain into which the temple had been carved. It was as though all those demons were alive. One could see them move and try to tear and rip each other apart. This was a manifestation of Death Energy. Within the Temple of Grace and Submission, everyone could hear the painful scream of agony of those demons. They could feel it as well. Fortunately, Cao Yun was able to alter it enough so the array formation would only affect the demons who were above the Blood Child realm. As such, the slaves and servants were mostly unaffected. This was supposed to assault the intruder of course, but Cao Yun had bypassed that.

Moreover, leaving the Temple of Grace and Submission would require going through a literal wall of Death Energy. Even the Silver Wolf Marshal would have a very hard time doing so without being severely hurt or even killed. Cao Yun had no illusion that this would trap him for years, but it might trap him for a few months at least. Maybe, with help from the outside, it would be less. But hopefully, his warriors would focus on him more than Cao Yun.

That thought was a bit too naive though. Indeed, the two men who had stayed behind looked at each other. After an instant of hesitation, they both flew toward Cao Yun. They knew what their priority was. If they killed Cao Yun right now, they might be able to take down the array formation. In fact, it was incorrect, but if there was a slight possibility, they would take it anyway. Besides, they knew what their marshal would want and they acted accordingly. Their marshal wasn't weak enough that he needed them to save him.

Thankfully, Cao Yun had thrown caution away. He had not just activated the 'Embrace of the Loving God', he had also fully activated the array formations he had set all around Holy Hongxue City. In an instant, the sky turned black all around the city. Lightning bolts, literally made of fire, flew across the black sky as powerful winds rose everywhere, spreading the dust of the temple's steps all over the place. And then, the heavens themselves roared. The scream of a tyrannical beast shook every temple and every demon across Holy Hongxue City.

* 1 dan = 50 kg = 110 lb