Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 148 A desperate fight

In Lingyun Mountain, in the dim training room, Ding family elder Zhuang Wenqing was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, practicing Qigong.

There was a sudden hurried knock on the door. Zhuang Wenqing opened his eyes, frowned, and opened the stone door. He saw a disciple of Qingyuan Sect standing outside.

"Friend Zhuang, our sect's headmaster requests that you come to the main hall immediately. We have an urgent matter to discuss."

"It's an emergency, what's going on?"

"I don't know. I'm just here to inform you. Please come quickly, Fellow Daoist Zhuang."

Zhuang Wenqing had no choice but to follow him to the main hall. Soon, they arrived in front of the hall and saw that all the disciples from the three sects outside had gathered there.

"What happened? Who asked you to gather here?" Zhuang Wenqing walked up to the Ding family disciples and asked.

The disciple replied, "We don't know either. The Qingyuan Sect monks called us here one by one. They said it was an emergency. When we arrived, the Qingyuan Sect and Xuri Sect disciples were already here. When we asked them, they didn't know either."

Zhuang Wenqing became more and more confused and felt vaguely uneasy. It seemed as if he was about to start a war with others. He strode into the hall and saw Hu Yingquan sitting in the main seat, with Huang Qing, an elder of the Qingyuan Sect, and Wu Yao, an elder of the Xuri Sect, sitting below him.

"Master Hu, I wonder what important matter is that you called us here?" Zhuang Wenqing bowed to him.

"Fellow Daoist Zhuang has arrived. We've been waiting for you. Please take a seat." Hu Yingquan waved his hand for him to take a seat. "We've suddenly gathered everyone here today because of an urgent matter. The Rising Sun Sect just sent someone to inform us that they've declared war on Qixia Mountain and request our immediate support."

"What?" Zhuang Wenqing was shocked and looked at Wu Yao who was sitting opposite him. "What is going on? Why did the Rising Sun Sect suddenly start a war with Qixia Mountain? Is it Qixia Mountain attacking the Rising Sun Sect, or is it the Rising Sun Sect attacking Qixia Mountain?"

Wu Yao's expression was expressionless. "What difference does this make? The Loose Cultivator Alliance's desire to destroy us is well known to everyone. Last time, they injured our disciples outside Nanyuan Square. Our sect and Qixia Mountain have long been at odds. Instead of waiting for them to make a move, why not strike first?"

"Our sect's headmaster has gathered all his disciples and is preparing to attack Mount Qixia. We hope that Headmaster Hu will follow the alliance agreement and send alliance monks to support our sect."

Before Zhuang Wenqing could react, Hu Yingquan replied, "Of course. We formed the alliance to counter the threat posed by independent cultivators. If your sect is in trouble, the alliance should help. I have gathered all my disciples and will go out immediately to support your sect."

"Wait a minute." Zhuang Wenqing hurriedly asked, "May I ask Sect Master Hu if the head of our family knows about this matter?"

"It was an emergency, and there was no time to inform Palace Master Ding. The Rising Sun Sect has already sent someone to inform him."

"In that case, I will wait for the decision of our Patriarch before I can lead our disciples to help."

"How unreasonable!" Wu Yao said angrily. "Our sect is about to engage in a bloody battle with Mount Qixia, yet Fellow Daoist Zhuang is stalling. What's the logic behind this? If we wait for your mansion to respond, how long will it take? By then, our sect will have been defeated. Can Fellow Daoist Zhuang bear this responsibility?"

After saying that, he turned to Hu Yingquan.

"Master Hu, when we formed our alliance, we agreed that no matter which of the four sects was at war, the coalition would provide all possible assistance. Now that our sect is at war, I implore Master Hu to follow the coalition agreement."

Hu Yingquan nodded and said, "Fellow Daoist Zhuang, there is indeed such a treaty. Lord Ding also signed and swore an oath to it that day. We are obligated to help the Rising Sun Sect. If Fellow Daoist Zhuang refuses to comply, it would be a violation of the alliance treaty. Not only would it hinder the Rising Sun Sect's important cause, but it would also put Lord Ding in an unjust position."

Zhuang Wenqing's eyes flickered and his mind raced. Hu Yingquan and Wu Yao's concerted actions made it difficult for him to cope. For a moment, he had no idea what to do.

Wu Yao continued, "Rest assured, Fellow Daoist Zhuang, we will not let your sect's efforts go to waste. We will reward you handsomely after we capture Qixia Mountain. Your disciples only need to assist. When our sect captures Qixia Mountain, your sect only needs to block their retreat and help block any reinforcements from the independent cultivators."

"Without further delay, it's settled." Hu Yingquan said firmly, "I will explain everything to Palace Master Ding later. Now, as the leader of the coalition, I order you all to depart immediately. No one may disobey. Otherwise, I will severely punish him for violating the coalition's regulations."

"Yes." Huang Qing and Wu Yao immediately stood up and responded.

Zhuang Wenqing was still hesitating. For a moment, three pairs of eyes were looking at him, as if three sharp blades were stabbing at him, making him feel very uncomfortable.

"Friend Zhuang, are you going to disobey the orders of the coalition forces?" Hu Yingquan narrowed his eyes and his voice was as cold as a knife.

"I obey."

At this point, Zhuang Wenqing had no choice but to compromise. The Qingyuan Sect and the Xuri Sect had already stood together and were in the right. He was just an elder and was afraid that if he insisted, he would suffer the consequences.

We can only take it one step at a time, agree to it first, and then act according to circumstances.

"You guys go!" Hu Yingquan waved his hand.

Huang Qing and Wu Yao immediately turned and walked out of the hall, followed by Zhuang Wenqing. The three of them left the hall and came to the front of the crowd. Wu Yao spoke first, "The four families in the alliance are united and united. Our sect is currently engaged in a fierce battle with Mount Qixia. The leader of the coalition, Sect Master Hu, has ordered us to depart immediately to provide support."

Everyone suddenly started to make a commotion, whispering to each other.

"Quiet," Huang Qing shouted, suppressing the noise. "Since you have joined the coalition, you must follow the alliance's rules. Anyone who disobeys will be severely punished."

Zhuang Wenqing glanced behind him and said, "Friend Huang, isn't Sect Leader Hu coming with us?"

"The headmaster has to guard the coalition headquarters, so he naturally can't go with us." Huang Qing gave an order: "Everyone, listen up, let's go."

.........

The moon was as bright as day, and in Bianxia Town at the end of June, there was no chill at all even in the middle of the night.

Two spirit ships carrying the coalition monks and disciples of the Rising Sun Sect have quietly arrived at the headquarters of Qixia Mountain. In order to ensure the smooth operation, the Rising Sun Sect has made many preparations, including asking the Qingyuan Sect to come forward and borrow the spirit ships from the Beast Taming Sect.

The two spirit boats carried everyone to a place several dozen miles away from Mount Qixia, and then withdrew.

Mao Jie, the head of the Rising Sun Sect, led more than 20 of his own disciples, plus 15 disciples stationed in the coalition forces, and 10 disciples transferred from the Qingyuan Sect, a total of 50 people, and approached Qixia Mountain from the south.

The fifteen cultivators from the Ding family and the remaining ten cultivators from the Qingyuan Sect were lying in ambush on both sides.

Just as Mao Jie was approaching stealthily, intending to surprise the enemy and attack Qixia Mountain in one fell swoop, he suddenly saw a ball of brilliant fireworks blooming in the air. It was obvious that the monks of Qixia Mountain had discovered them.

Soon, several rays of light shot up into the sky from Qixia Mountain. With the mountain gate as the center, a red cloud appeared in the air within a radius of 500 meters, like a huge red barrier.

In the blooming red light, countless fireballs were faintly jumping.

"The enemy has discovered us. Now that things have come to this, we have no choice but to fight to the death to capture Qixia Mountain. Everyone, obey my orders and do not retreat. Anyone who disobeys will be killed." Mao Jie's face showed determination, and he shouted, "Follow me."

Everyone rushed towards Qixia Mountain and soon arrived under the red cloud layer covered by the formation.

Seeing the disciples of the Rising Sun Sect rushing into the inner room, Huang Qing suddenly waved his hand and stopped the ten disciples of the Qingyuan Sect who were with him.

"Elder Huang, are we just going to watch?" one of the disciples asked in confusion.

Huang Qing turned around and gave him a cold look: "Do you really want to enter the formation and fight with the monks from Qixia Mountain? If you want to go, I won't stop you."

The disciple blushed and replied awkwardly, "Of course not."

"Listen, we are only here to help. Leave the attack on the formation to the Rising Sun Sect. Once they break through the formation, we will lend them a helping hand. No one is allowed to act rashly without my order."

"Yes." Everyone replied in unison.

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud crackling sound in the red cloud, and then several huge fireballs fell from the red cloud.

There were ten fireballs, each about ten feet in size, with incredible power. As they fell, it seemed as if even the air was burned through, making a crackling sound.

Without any probing attacks, Qixiashan unleashed the most powerful attack from the formation. There was a huge difference between first-order and second-order formations. Second-order formations often had both offensive and defensive capabilities, offering not only offensive methods of various attributes but also defensive barriers.

However, a first-level formation cannot have both functions. It must be either a purely defensive formation or a purely offensive formation.

The Qixia Mountain protection formation is a first-grade, superior attack formation. It does not have any defensive barriers, and the formation altar is hidden within the high-walled courtyard.

The entire formation covers an area of ​​only two hundred feet. At this distance, not to mention cultivators, even mortals can quickly rush to the formation altar with a little time.

Therefore, Qixiashan launched the most powerful attack of the magic circle at the first move, because he had no room to test or pull.

Many fireballs fell down, Mao Jie shouted loudly, and the eight team members of the Rising Sun Sect used magic spells and talismans to protect themselves, and some used magic weapons to attack the fireballs.

This time, in order to capture Qixia Mountain in one fell swoop, Mao Jie spent a huge amount of money. It can be said that he put the entire future of the Xuri Sect on the line. He took out almost all the sect's hidden treasures, including all the magic weapons and talismans.

In fact, he had wanted to take action against Qixia Mountain for a long time, but he had not waited for the right opportunity. Firstly, his own strength was not enough, and secondly, he was afraid of making things difficult for others.

The battle between sects is no joke, let alone attacking someone else's mountain gate. If you injure one thousand enemies, you will also lose eight hundred of your own.

Even if the entire sect were to use its full strength to capture Mount Qixia, it would not be able to keep those resource territories with its own sect's strength alone. They would inevitably be divided up by other forces, and in the end, it would be a waste of both effort and troops.

However, there is always a way out. In April, the Qingyuan Sect took the lead in launching an attack on the Yunfeng Trading Company, the strongest independent cultivator force in Bianxia Town. The attack was very successful. They wiped out the Yunfeng Trading Company in one fell swoop and took over all its resources and territories.

This made Mao Jie, who was already eager to make a move, feel excited and couldn't hold himself back any longer.

When the Qingyuan Sect sent people to the sect and asked him for help, he agreed without any hesitation, because this was also a rare opportunity for the Xu Ri Sect.

With the Qingyuan Sect taking the lead, creating the bird head and absorbing the hostility of the independent cultivator forces, the Xu Ri Sect can then follow suit and attack Qixia Mountain.

From that moment on, he had made up his mind to take action against Qixia Mountain.

Afterwards, the independent cultivators formed an alliance, and soon after that, the Qingyuan Sect also proposed an alliance. In his opinion, it was like having divine help.

On the one hand, he had fewer enemies and no longer had to worry about the Qingyuan Sect and the Ding family stabbing him in the back. He could reap the benefits after he conquered Qixia Mountain and their strength was greatly weakened.

On the other hand, it gave him more bargaining chips when negotiating with the Qingyuan Sect.

He first pretended to disagree with the alliance conditions set by Qingyuan Sect, and then made an outrageous request, proposing a condition that Qingyuan Sect could not accept.

Wait until Qingyuan Sect gives in, and finally reveal your intentions.

In order to form an alliance as soon as possible and defend the territories seized from Yunfeng Trading Company, Qingyuan Sect agreed to do its best to assist him in attacking Qixia Mountain.

Hu Yingquan promised that after the alliance was established, he would dispatch alliance troops to help him as the leader. In addition, he also provided him with some additional help.

For example, he borrowed a spirit ship from the Beast Taming Sect and sent ten disciples to assist him in a frontal attack.

Things basically went as he expected. The only variable was that Hunyuan Sect did not send anyone to garrison Lingyun Mountain, resulting in ten fewer available troops. But this was not important. He had not expected Hunyuan Sect and the Ding family to contribute much to the attack on Qixia Mountain.

Others are not fools and will not take huge risks to help him attack Qixia Mountain head-on. As the leader of the coalition, Hu Yingquan can force the coalition disciples to send troops to assist, but he cannot force others to attack against the formation and fight a desperate battle with the main force of Qixia Mountain.

This time, the main force in attacking Qixia Mountain was still their own disciples, and the others were just raiding the formation, responsible for capturing and killing the fleeing remnants to prevent them from gathering and counterattacking after escaping.

The fact that Hunyuan Sect did not join had basically no impact on the war situation, and it also saved the need to compensate Hunyuan Sect after the war.

The most important thing is the support of Qingyuan Sect, which is related to whether these resource territories can be maintained after the war.

Without the support of Qingyuan Sect, even if we captured Qixia Mountain, we would not be able to hold it.

Of course, the reason why Qingyuan Sect is willing to provide all possible assistance is because this matter will be of great benefit to them.

If the Xu Ri Sect can capture Qixia Mountain, it will not only greatly weaken the strength of the Loose Cultivator Alliance, but also share the pressure of the Qingyuan Sect. Ever since the Qingyuan Sect captured the Yunfeng Trading Company, the Loose Cultivator Alliance has regarded it as a thorn in its side, and Hu Yingquan is always worried about being retaliated against.

Originally, the reason why Qingyuan Sect was able to wipe out Yunfeng Trading Company in one fell swoop was because of the help of Casar, a foundation-building cultivator.

Now that Casar has left, the Qingyuan Sect alone is unable to compete with the Loose Cultivator Alliance.

That's why they couldn't wait to form an alliance, organize their allies, and bring the other three sects on board.

In addition, helping the Xu Ri Sect will of course also bring benefits to the Qing Yuan Sect. The two parties have already discussed it. After the matter is accomplished, the Xu Ri Sect will give them the two best resource sites under the jurisdiction of Qixia Mountain.

.........

Within the formation, many huge fireballs fell and were blocked by the layers of defense of several teams from the Rising Sun Sect.

Taking advantage of the gap in the formation attack, Mao Jie led the team towards the formation.

Just an arrow's distance away, the second wave of attack arrived. Several huge fire dragons roared out from the red clouds, shaking their heads and tails and attacking the people of the Rising Sun Sect.

At the same time, about twenty people rushed out from the Qixia Mountain Gate to meet the people from the Rising Sun Sect.

The two sides soon engaged in battle, and forbidden attacks were still launched from time to time in the clouds in the sky.

Although the Xu Ri Sect had a large number of people, about twice as many as the Qixia Mountain Sect, they had to deal with the Qixia Mountain monks while guarding against attacks from the formation restrictions, so they were a little confused for a while.

Soon, several disciples died under the attack of the formation.

Fortunately, this top-grade formation had limited power. After several rounds of attacks, its strength had significantly decreased, and the restricted attacks it could launch became increasingly weaker. Furthermore, the Rising Sun Sect was well-prepared, with talismans and magical instruments far superior to those of the Qixia Mountain sect.

The Xu Ri Zong used more than a dozen second-level talismans. After a fierce battle, they finally gained the upper hand. After leaving behind several corpses on Qixia Mountain, they retreated towards the mountain gate.

Although the Rising Sun Sect also suffered heavy casualties, this was not the time to worry about casualties. Seeing the other party fleeing, Mao Jie roared and led the rest of the people to chase after them.

When they were still dozens of feet away from the tall and powerful courtyard surrounding the magic array, suddenly, a loud shout was heard, and dozens of monks rushed out from the hall not far away.

The number of people was actually much larger than that of the Rising Sun Sect. Mao Jie was stunned when he saw this scene, and his heart sank to the bottom.

There are less than 40 people in Qixia Mountain in total, and there are no more than 20 people stationed at the mountain gate. In the previous battle, Qixia Mountain had dispatched nearly 20 monks. He thought that this was all the strength of Qixia Mountain and wanted to fight to the death, but he didn't expect that there were so many monks hiding in this temple.

Obviously, Qixia Mountain had been prepared for this, so all the personnel were transferred back to guard the mountain gate. Who leaked the news?
Could it be the Qingyuan Sect?

At this moment, seeing so many people rushing out of the main hall of Qixia Mountain, everyone in the Xuri Sect panicked, looking at each other, not knowing what to do.

"Master, what should we do?" Wu Yao, the elder of the Rising Sun Sect, was also panicked. He could not hide his nervousness and his voice trembled slightly.

There was no time to dwell on how Qixia Mountain had known of their sudden attack. Now that things had come to this, there was no way back. Mao Jie's eyes flashed with determination, and he shouted, "Listen, disciples! Break through the formation, and the Qingyuan Sect disciples outside will support us. If we win this battle, each of us will be rewarded with 1,000 spirit stones, and there will be even greater rewards for those who kill more enemies."

At this critical moment, Mao Jie no longer cared whether he would be able to fulfill his promise later. In order to inspire everyone to fight to the death, he offered a huge reward.

"Kill." The leader of Qixia Mountain spat out a word coldly, and a group of monks behind him rushed over, and the two sides fought in a melee again.

(End of this chapter)