Minglong

Chapter 292 A Trap?

The story of how Lü Yan ended up here is quite complicated and full of hardships.

After being beaten unconscious in Yanjing, Lü Yan was imprisoned because the Divination Sect was suspected of colluding with evil Taoists. At first, he thought he would die in his coffin.

But a few days later, an old man with white hair released him again, saying something like, "The matter has been investigated and cleared up. You did not betray the righteous path, but the Divination Sect colluded with evil Taoists to wreak havoc on the court. You must atone for your sins by doing good deeds," and so on...

Lu Yan wondered what crime he had committed. He had simply sought an opportunity to be brutally beaten by Xie Jinhuan from south to north... Oh, being bad at the game was his original sin!
The speaker was the Old Demon of Qixia, whose Taoist rank was even higher than that of True Man Huanglin. For this, Lü Yan still seriously accepted the criticism.

Then the Old Demon of Qixia said that the Divination Sect was attempting a coup, Yang Huaxian had resurfaced, there were undercurrents in the world, and the Southern Dynasty was probably not stable either. He told him to reflect on his mistakes in this place, and whoever came, he should kill. If he won, he should go back and become the sect leader. Martyrdom would be considered as atonement for the Divination Sect.

Perhaps fearing he would starve to death, they even threw him a bag of fasting pills. When Lü Yan saw the quantity, he estimated it would be enough for him to eat for more than ten years. He was stunned!

Moreover, not only was he sentenced to more than ten years in prison, but the place where he was imprisoned was even more terrifying. When he opened his eyes, he saw a gate that was more than ten feet high, with the seals of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism pasted on it. The toes of the tomb guardian beast were bigger than his head. With such a scene, black smoke was also hissing out of the gate, which almost scared him to death!

Lü Yan knew that he had been captured by the Old Demon of Qixia and used as a laborer.

After all, there was a reason why the Demon-Suppressing Tomb where he was initially imprisoned was so close to the Confucius Temple. As long as someone damaged the bronze gate, the demon in Ziwei Mountain would wake up immediately.

Although the demonic nature of the corpse ancestor was unleashed and no one could stop it, potentially harming innocent people, the tomb of the corpse ancestor had already been opened, so some sacrifices had to be made. In any case, not a single fly would escape Danzhou alive, and the once warm-hearted fellow cultivators would all become cold and indifferent cultivators.

Now, Qixia Old Demon is going to Beiming Lake to help the North settle things and can't return in time. He doesn't really trust the Southern Dynasty, and since he's idle anyway, has decent strength, and doesn't need wages, he's just left here to squat in the dungeon. This way, no matter what happens in the Southern Dynasty, there will always be a vicious dog barking twice.

Lu Yan obviously had no power to refuse the decision, so he could only obediently squat down and treat it as a period of seclusion to break through to the fifth realm.

He thought this seclusion would last for many years, but unexpectedly, it had only been a few days. Just as he was starting to feel the breakthrough, the gate to his cave was kicked down!

Lu Yan has always had a fiery temper. The reason he didn't take action earlier was simply because he didn't know who was coming and was afraid of running into Shang Lianbi and Yang Huaxian as soon as he went out, without even being able to send a signal.

Upon realizing it wasn't some old demon from the Immortal Ascension Sect, Lü Yan naturally felt more confident. His Daoist robes billowed as he coldly said:
"The Divination School has always been known for its flawless calculations. I am here today to welcome you heretics and villains."

The divination school can indeed tell fortunes, but to be able to predict that a heretical Taoist priest would come to the Confucius Temple to cause trouble and specifically wait there for him is a bit too far-fetched.

Xu Tong didn't believe it at all, but Lü Yan was indeed there, and she couldn't pretend she didn't see him. At this moment, she could only look towards the underground passage inside the Confucius Temple:

"Is this the Tomb of the Corpse Ancestor?"

"Ah……"

Lü Yan scoffed:
"You're all quite frank, but you're not using your brains. Even the Emperor of the Righteous Path wouldn't dare to inquire about the forbidden area of ​​the righteous path, and Ye Sheng actually tells me, a mere second-in-command of a northern Taoist sect, and lets me come and go freely? Do I even deserve to be called one?"

"..."

Xu Tong and others felt they were not worthy.

After all, no matter how Lü Yan looked at it, it was impossible for him to be as safe as the monk Wuxin and Lu Wuzhen. Keeping it from the supervisor and letting foreigners guard such a forbidden area was just ridiculous.

Of course, they didn't expect that once Qixia Old Demon locked Lü Yan up here, he had no intention of letting him see the light of day again before annihilating the current generation of demonic cultivators, so it didn't matter whether he kept his mouth shut or not.

He Tianqi and the others realized they had fallen into a trap, and the thought of retreating began to cross their minds.

Lu Yan's eyes were filled with a thirst for merit. After all, "single-handedly destroying a demonic group that tried to dig up the ancestral tomb" was a merit worthy of a separate page in the Ancestral Hall. If the other side got away with it, he probably wouldn't be able to sleep for the rest of his life.

After exchanging a glance, they both understood what the other was thinking.

The Confucius Temple and its surroundings fell silent at this moment.

stomping on...

Footsteps could be heard running outside the academy, along with shouts from teachers and elders:
"what happened?"

"Who's causing trouble over there?"

"..."

Upon seeing this, the four people in front of the temple simultaneously stood up and fled at full speed towards the outer perimeter.

But at the same time:

"rise!"

Lu Yan slammed his hands together in a hand seal and struck the ground. Instantly, a monstrous heatwave erupted in front of the Confucius Temple, and the surrounding evergreen vegetation turned scorched yellow. Then:

Boom boom boom...

A towering wall of golden-red flames, over ten zhang high, rose from the edge of the square, instantly illuminating a large portion of the night sky, and then, one after another, the first, the second…

In an instant, the eight walls of fire sealed off the entire Confucius Temple, turning the entire white stone square into an octagonal cage. The nearby white stone paving stones rapidly crumbled under the scorching heat of the real fire.

clap clap clap...

Xu Tong immediately stopped, while Huangfu Qi, who was fleeing in panic, didn't have time to react and crashed directly into the wall of raging fire.

Call ~
Although the body was pierced through, it crashed onto the ground outside the wall, its clothes and flesh charred black. The invisible evil entity, however, was contained within the wall of fire. It flew towards the Confucius Temple, but still collided with the flames, its illusory outline flashing for a moment, and a shrill scream resonated deep within everyone's minds:

"what--!!"

Zhao De, dressed in a red robe, stood in front of the Confucius Temple. He felt the suffocating flames rushing towards him, and his face turned pale with fright. He then realized the ground was scalding hot, and he began hopping back and forth in terror.

"Immortal Master, please wait... I am the Crown Prince of the Great Qian Dynasty..."

"roll!"

"Oh……"

……

Having recognized the strength of the 'Strongest Fire Mage,' Xu Tong and the others no longer dared to charge headlong into the fray. Instead, they turned and attacked Lü Yan, who was performing a ritual in front of the Confucius Temple!
Xu Tong, wielding a three-foot-long Qingfeng sword, arrived in the blink of an eye. His azure sword energy, like a blue dragon piercing the sky, instantly tore a two-zhang-wide groove in the square. Wei Jili, meanwhile, drew his sword and circled around from the side.

Sa——

Lu Yan cast the Ten Thousand Mile Divine Travel Spell, dragging a golden-red streak of light, and instantly flashed to the other side of the plaza. Facing Wei Jili's intercepting attack, a protective shield of fiery energy, three zhang in diameter, enveloped his body, followed by the billowing of his Daoist robe.
"Chong-"

A phantom of a crimson phoenix burst forth from within the body, its fiery rings shattering the surrounding floor tiles.

Wei Jili, along with the force of the blade's wind, was thrown back by the recoil. When he landed, his robes were charred black, and flames still clung to his hair. His eyes widened in astonishment.
"No wonder Xu Guanfu failed..."

Xu Tong unleashed a flurry of sword strikes, each strike tearing through the earth, yet his gaze remained unhurried.

"He has no Fire Order to protect him, so he can only defend by maneuvering. He's expending too much energy and can't hold out for long. We need to finish this quickly."

Boom boom boom——

The Taoist sect's attacks are earth-shattering, but their sustainability is inevitably limited, which is also the sect's fatal weakness.

Seeing that Xu Tong was incredibly strong and that he would have difficulty fighting two opponents without a suitable magic weapon, Lü Yan transformed into a flying fire meteor and darted around randomly within the Eight Gates Burning Array. Halfway through, a golden-red fireball shot into the sky.

swoosh~
Boom——

The fireball exploded in the sky, instantly pushing aside the surrounding clouds, and the golden and red flames illuminated Danyang City and even the nearby Zihui Mountain as if it were daytime!

Many of the yamen runners and cultivators who rushed to investigate were blinded by the light and retreated in panic.
"what--"

……

Such a large flashbang could be seen flashing across the northwestern sky, even by ordinary people a hundred miles away, let alone top-grade cultivators or those with perception arrays.

Xu Tong clearly understood the intention and responded calmly:
"A good method, but unfortunately there's no leader in the capital, and nobody knows how to do it..."

The words were cut off abruptly before they could be finished.

Wei Jili and the others glanced towards the direction of the capital, only to see that before the flames had died down, a black line, carrying the power of thunder, shot toward them.

Sa——

Such a rapid reaction speed surprised not only them, but even Lü Yan, who was trying to evade, and he thought to himself:

Fellow Daoists from the Southern Dynasty, did you arrive so quickly to provide support?
Compared to this, the fish and shrimp in the north are just rotten stinks...

Playing in high-level matches is still much more comfortable...

……

Boom——

In the blink of an eye, the black line had plunged into the afterglow of the flames, accompanied by a thunderous roar:

"Senior Lü Yan... I'm here to help you!"

Sa——

A bluish-white lightning bolt appeared in the sky and shot towards the Confucius Temple!
Upon hearing that familiar voice, Lu Yan's surprise instantly turned into anger. He realized that the other party wanted to yell "Old man Lu Yan" but changed his tune when he realized the situation was not right. But he didn't have time to waste words at the moment.

Boom——

The emerald-green Zheng Lun Sword, trailing azure-white lightning bolt, plummeted through the air, creating a gap in the wall of fire that allowed it to pass through and become embedded in the countless ghostly figures darting about.

The ghost cultivator had no physical form, but when pierced by the Zheng Lun Sword, it was undeniably pierced through the chest. Its phantom flickered violently in the lightning and was directly pinned to the roof of the Confucius Temple.
"what--"

Stab la la...

A figure in white robes arrived one after another, landing above the Confucius Temple. A terrifying pressure spread throughout every corner of the Eight Gates Burning Array, and the gaze fell upon the five people in the arena...

(End of this chapter)