Chapter 140: Blood Moon

Those crimson rays carried an illusory quality, yet they permeated everywhere, creeping into every corner of the Jade Pool.

High above in the sky, a crimson moon grew increasingly eerie, its light casting a faint chill upon everyone it touched, much like a cold mist in the dead of winter.

"What is this?"

Everyone halted their actions instinctively, and even the Master of the Jade Pool looked somewhat bewildered.

Regardless, no one's expression was relaxed.

The burial grounds of the Jade Pool immortals suppressed divine souls, while the grand demon-locking array suppressed physical bodies. What consequences would ensue if a ferocious beast, suppressed by the Jade Pool—one of the sacred lands—at such an immense cost, were to re-emerge into the world?

The spiritual energy and oppressive might between heaven and earth began to surge frantically into the gigantic body, resembling a vast ocean swallowing water.

Compared to the previous state where oppressive pressure filled the world, this current manifestation of restrained divine splendor appeared all the more terrifying.

"Linghua, this deity shall slaughter every last member of your Jade Pool today."

The Nightmare suddenly raised its head and let out a wild roar, a frenzied howl that seemed like an outlet for venting or a defiant demonstration against the heavens.

A moment later.

A trace of playful mockery suddenly flashed across the Nightmare's eyes. It cast its gaze downward, and its massive right hand made a grasping motion in the empty air, instantly seizing the Dragon-Binding Pillar of Liubo Mountain.

"Stop."

Xi Jiu's figure soared straight up into the air, but in the next instant, he was instantly struck down into a precipitous cliffside amidst a billowing cloud of dust.

Withdrawing its right hand, the Nightmare slowly clenched the Dragon-Binding Pillar. That renowned magical artifact of Liubo Mountain immediately let out a shrill, vibrating shriek before shattering into pieces with a deafening roar.

Lying in a rocky crater, Xi Jiu coughed up another mouthful of blood, his vitality utterly withered.

"Amitabha."

The aged monk of Linyin Temple whispered softly, and a golden Buddhist palm, measuring a full hundred feet across, materialized above the Nightmare.

A gentle breeze swept upward into the sky, and without a single shred of suspense, the golden Buddha palm instantly shattered into fragments.

"A pack of mere ants."

A hoarse and disdainful voice issued from the Nightmare's mouth, sounding somewhat stiff as if it had not spoken for millennia.

For some reason, despite making these moves, the Nightmare did not launch another proactive assault; it simply closed its eyes in silence.

He Pianpian, the Saintess of the Jade Pool, was trapped within the array, unable to break free, her face still slightly pale.

The fierce, storm-like onslaught from everyone just moments ago seemed to have inflicted not even the slightest harm upon the Nightmare's physical body.

The Master of the Jade Pool wore a grave expression.

The opponent had halted its attacks naturally not for any other reason, but simply because three thousand years had passed, and it was still struggling to re-adapt to this body.

Yet right now, this was not even the most critical matter.

Su Mo raised his head to gaze at the sky.

That crimson moon seemed to grow ever larger, turning the earth, the sky, the trees, the cliff edges, and the palaces all into a shade of blood-red.

"It has absorbed the Ghost's Heart-Eye divine ability."

Su Mo remarked with a hint of emotion.

The Master of the Jade Pool was stunned for a moment, her pupils instantly contracting.

However, Su Mo's next sentence caused her heart to sink to the very bottom.

"No, it's not absorption. This should originally be an ability native to the Nightmare itself; right now, it has merely absorbed the soul's origin and thus reclaimed control over it."

Su Mo thought for a moment and said, "After all, several thousand years have passed, and many things tend to be forgotten."

Although the Ghost's cultivation realm was extremely low, its Heart-Eye divine ability was already capable of posing severe trials to people in this world. If unleashed by this ancient, immortal and indestructible supreme beast, just how terrifying would its might be?

During the Jade Pool gathering, the crimson radiance shone upon everyone, ethereal and dreamlike.

Before long, the crisp sound of porcelain and glazed wares shattering echoed across the grounds.

The young disciples of various sects all collapsed unconscious onto the ground.

The fairy maidens who had been dancing gracefully within the Jade Pool fell down as well.

The greater cultivators with slightly deeper realms sensed that something was amiss and quickly crossed their legs, utilizing spiritual power to protect themselves.

Yet it was all in vain; after holding out for a brief moment, their bodies listed to the side and they fainted.

The eerie part was that diverse and conflicting expressions were plastered across everyone's faces—some wore looks of utter bliss, others wept in silence, while still others showed regret, vexation, and guilt.

In the end, only a handful of individuals in the arena barely maintained a sliver of remaining consciousness, yet they could only struggle bitterly, not daring to spare even a fraction of their focus.

Dead silence filled the Jade Pool.

...

Beneath the lowest point of that crimson moon, Xi Jiu, covered in blood, gazed up at the bizarre luminary, his eyes gradually growing hazy, drifting somewhere between wakefulness and sleep.

The aged monk of Linyin Temple pressed his palms together, lowering his head to chant Buddhist mantras as a faint aura of Buddha light began to manifest behind him.

Spiritual energy manifested visibly around the Master of the Jade Pool, swirling like a white vortex, with two elderly matrons standing on either side of her.

"We must disrupt the divine ability the Nightmare is casting first."

"The Nightmare has not yet reached its peak state. If we first destroy or defend against the Heart-Eye divine ability, Kunlun will sense the anomaly here and send reinforcements."

The two of them spoke almost simultaneously.

The Master of the Jade Pool fell silent for a moment before saying, "If that is the case, we must rescue Pianpian first. Her spiritual body is the key to resisting the Heart-Eye divine ability."

As her voice trailed off, the three of them exchanged glances and fell silent.

During the previous battle, everyone else could approach within a hundred feet of the Nightmare's physical body, but the three of them alone could not.

In other words, the Nightmare knew that apart from these three, none of the others could inflict substantial damage upon it.

Yet even more crucially, they were the only ones who knew the method to rescue He Pianpian from the grand array behind the Nightmare.

Su Mo stood quietly aside, gazing into the distance. That crimson moon in the sky had never exerted the slightest influence on him.

From beginning to end, he remained merely a spectator.

"Draw the Nightmare's attention, and someone will break the array and rescue He Pianpian."

Su Mo raised his gaze to the horizon and said gently.

The three of them were taken aback. Disregarding his extraordinarily calm and relaxed demeanor at the moment, they asked in bafflement, "Why?"

Su Mo pointed toward a tiny black dot amidst the distant mountains and said, "Look over there."

...

On a subsidiary peak beside the three towering mountains, a young man in green robes walked calmly along the mountain path.

The ground beneath his feet was as hard as iron, shimmering with profound yellow brilliance.

Shen Yu did not deliberately conceal his aura, for he knew the Nightmare had already detected him long ago.

The reason it had not taken action was purely because his current aura was simply too weak.

Because he was too weak, he was deemed unworthy of notice.

This was also a common trait among the ferocious beasts of heaven and earth.

Shen Yu reached the summit, gazing across the empty air at the trapped Saintess He Pianpian within the grand array.

Shen Yu asked, "Once you come out, can you block that crimson moon for a short while?"

He Pianpian smiled and retorted, "And if I cannot?"

Even while trapped within the array, He Pianpian retained an aura of elegance and agility.

Shen Yu said indifferently, "Then you can just stay here for a while longer, and I'll save some effort to find another way."

For some reason, a trace of resentment flickered in He Pianpian's eyes before she replied, "I can do it, but how do you plan to rescue me?"

Shen Yu raised his head to appraise the surroundings.

The runes of the three great mountains were still present, and the core of the array remained fundamentally undamaged.

Therefore, Fairy Qinghua, who excelled in the Dao of arrays, could only perform a sleight of hand to swap the Nightmare's physical body suppressed beneath the mountain with He Pianpian.

A trace of reminiscence flashed in Shen Yu's eyes.

A supreme master of the Dao of arrays whom he had once known in the past had uttered a single phrase:

Any peerlessly powerful array in this world is composed of countless large and small arrays combined together. The more arrays combined, the greater the might, yet the more fragile it becomes.

This was inherently a contradictory statement.

Yet Shen Yu had understood it.

The most crucial step in breaking an array was to find its central nexus, and then destroy it using something equally complex and precise.

That something could be anything in this world—

For instance, the intent of the Dao.

Or perhaps.

Sword Qi.

Shen Yu slowly raised his right hand, and strands of blood-red sword Qi gathered like threads of hair within his palm, gradually fusing together.

Until finally, a blood-red ball of light pulsing with explosive energy materialized in his hand.

An aura of annihilation and terror emanated from within the orb of light.

Had any sword cultivator been present here, they would have discovered that the aura of the light orb in Shen Yu's hand was identical to the aura emitted by that sword array within Sword Immortal City.

Shen Yu thought to himself that this might be troublesome.

Although his own cultivation realm was low and his sword Qi was not sufficiently profound, his Dao intent was the absolute highest in this world.

Dao intent fused with sword Qi.

As strands of violent aura drifted outward ever so slightly, the Nightmare abruptly lowered its head, its third eye on its forehead fixing its gaze squarely upon Shen Yu, simultaneously shooting out a mesmerizing crimson glare.

Three auras were rapidly approaching from the distance.

Shen Yu spoke up: "Close your eyes."

Before He Pianpian could even react, she saw Shen Yu gently toss the orb of light in his right hand forward.

It landed precisely in the center of the three great mountains.

Boom!

The tangible orb of light burst into brilliant radiance, its sword Qi transforming into tens of thousands of lightning bolts that penetrated deep into the interior of the mountain massifs.

A thunderclap split the sky, and the interiors of the three mountain ranges, which resembled natural chasms, shook violently.

The scorching heat seemed capable of melting everything in existence.

Countless people stared dumbfounded at this spectacle.

Rumble!

In the next instant, the entire body of Jade Pool Saintess He Pianpian shot straight up into the sky. Subsequently, a vast and mighty surge of spiritual energy rapidly converged into her entire body, repairing those parts of her flesh that had been faintly scorched.

He Pianpian paid no heed to her own injuries and hurriedly turned her head.

A beam of crimson light enveloped Shen Yu's entire body, and in the next moment, it instantly transformed into a rainbow arc, sucked straight into the beast's eye.