Just a Useful Pawn in the Stain Sect

Chapter 261: Chapter 261: Lü Yang! Come Out

By the time Master Miaoyin sensed something was amiss, the sun had already set, and a star-filled sky hung above her.

”...Fellow Daoist Suo Huan?”

Miaoyin looked back at Suo Huan, only to find he had already started setting up an Array. Line after line of Array markings appeared as he worked. ℯℯ𝑙.

’What is he doing?’

Before Master Miaoyin could react, a signal flare soared into the distant sky, bursting into a brilliant firework display accompanied by shouts.

”We found them!”

”We found them!”

The overlapping shouts crashed in like an invisible, overwhelming tidal wave, completely undisguised. At the same moment, the starry sky above burst into brilliant light.

The next moment, Master Miaoyin felt the ground begin to tremble. She subconsciously tried to summon her Flying Light to escape, but just then, pillars of light—auras of blood and Qi—shot up all around her, linking with the starry sky. An invisible pressure instantly descended, forcibly snuffing out her Flying Light!

”Something’s wrong! We’re surrounded!”

Master Miaoyin’s pupils constricted as she finally understood. ’Yuan Tu... He actually plans to kill me? Did he bring them all here?’

RUMBLE!

The slight tremor of the ground quickly escalated into a thunderous roar. Unable to even levitate, Master Miaoyin leaped to the top of a tall tree and looked out. She watched as the distant horizon was stained black, a line that rapidly solidified into a dark tide, sweeping toward her, blotting out the world!

For the first time, Master Miaoyin was truly shaken by sheer numbers.

At that thought, she spun around to look for Suo Huan. He had already finished the Array and was standing within its shimmering, Splendid Light.

”Is that... a Teleportation Array?”

Joy lit up Master Miaoyin’s face. She hastily brushed a stray strand of hair from her forehead, her beautiful eyes sparkling as she hurried toward Suo Huan. ”Daoist, you truly think of everything...”

But her only reply was Suo Huan’s icy gaze.

”Goodbye.”

In the next instant, the Splendid Light vanished, and Suo Huan’s figure disappeared with it. Having lost the power of a Great Trueman’s Position, the Array’s brilliance faded.

The smile on Master Miaoyin’s lovely face froze solid. As she looked around, an unprecedented wave of terror finally crashed over her. It was a feeling she hadn’t known since she became Minor Metal’s Dao Companion, and it made her grit her teeth.

’If only Minor Metal were here...’

At this thought, her resentment toward Minor Metal grew even stronger. But she quickly shook off these distracting thoughts and surveyed her surroundings.

’Fortunately, I chose to enter seclusion in the mountains.’

Although she hadn’t anticipated an attack on this scale, Master Miaoyin had considered the possibility of being discovered and besieged by the armies of the Ten Thousand Martial Realm.

That was why she had specifically chosen a mountainous region.

The terrain here was dense with forests, perfect for guerrilla tactics. It shouldn’t be too difficult for a single person like herself to break through the army’s encirclement.

However, she soon realized something was terribly wrong.

With every step they took, the soldiers of the surrounding army devoured everything in their path. Tree bark, grass roots... they were even eating the soil.

Ahead of them lay a dense mountain forest.

Behind them, a barren wasteland.

Even with all her worldly experience, Master Miaoyin stared, dumbfounded. These weren’t men! They were a swarm of humanoid locusts, bent on total destruction!

’Lü Yang... How did he do this?’

Master Miaoyin had no more time to think. The army had closed in, and the soldiers at the vanguard had already spotted her.

”That’s her!”

”She’s the Outer Celestial Demon! The Immortal Master has given the order: kill the Outer Celestial Demon!”

”Kill! Kill!”

A tidal wave of frenzied soldiers charged, and the immense Power of the Life Star came crashing down upon Master Miaoyin.

Under this terrifying suppression, Master Miaoyin’s Qi trace plummeted. Her Cultivation, once at Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Perfection, dropped again and again until she was stripped of her status as a Foundation-Stage Cultivator. She lost every shred of her Position, left with only a reserve of True Qi far surpassing the Final-phase of Qi Refining. And with that, she had to face tens of thousands of elite, ferocious soldiers alone!

”You’ve got to be kidding me...”

Gritting her teeth, Master Miaoyin formed a seal for one of her Abilities. Her Mana vibrated like taut strings, releasing a deadly resonance that instantly shredded the front line of soldiers.

”You really think I’m afraid of you?”

Master Miaoyin’s fingers danced through the air, unleashing a sea of Mana. Instantly, blossoms of blood bloomed among the charging soldiers.

But it was a futile effort.

She had only killed a few hundred, perhaps a thousand, of the foremost soldiers, yet a tenth of her Mana was already gone. She had no choice but to stop.

To make matters worse, she was in the Ten Thousand Martial Realm, where the Spiritual Qi was toxic and hostile to outsiders. Unless she could restore her Foundation Establishment Cultivation, she couldn’t even perform the Breathing exercises needed to recover her Mana. She was like a river cut off from its source, forced to watch as the tide of soldiers surged forward to swallow her whole.

’This can’t go on!’

’Where’s Lü Yang?’

Master Miaoyin scanned her surroundings. The suppression from the Life Stars was indiscriminate. If she was suppressed into this wretched state, she refused to believe that Lü Yang could be completely unaffected!

「Meanwhile, on a cliff several thousand meters from the battlefield.」

Lü Yang sat calmly in a tea pavilion, brewing tea. Protected by over a hundred members of his Personal Guard, he watched the distant battlefield unfold.

”Have An Min advance the eighth column three meters.”

”Yes.”

A series of Lü Yang’s commands were quickly relayed, and the army’s formation, which had begun to fray under Master Miaoyin’s assault, became whole and orderly once more.

Under their relentless assault, Master Miaoyin had lost all semblance of her former noble grace. Hair disheveled and palace gown stained with blood, she stared in disbelief at the soldiers still swarming her, unable to comprehend these madmen. ’Based on my experience,’ she thought, ’they should have been terrified of being slaughtered by now!’

She had killed nearly ten thousand of them!

Normally, an army of any size would have broken after losing ten thousand soldiers so brutally. Their morale should have collapsed, allowing her to exploit the chaos and carve a path to escape.

But these men were different.

Their eyes were bloodshot, and they were utterly unfazed by the deaths of their comrades. In fact, it only made them more frenzied as they continued to charge, one wave falling only to be replaced by the next.

Soon, another Hour had passed.

The ground was now a mountain of corpses in a sea of blood. Master Miaoyin stood at its center. She had used every Spiritual Treasure, every Dharma Artifact, and every Ability at her disposal.

’How many have I killed?’

Master Miaoyin herself felt a little dazed. In the past, she might have been delighted, as all the men besieging her were Martial Artists who possessed a Life Star.

By killing them, she could use the Qi Collection Technique to Deprive the Ten Thousand Martial Realm of its Qi. But now, she didn’t have a single moment to spare to use the technique. Her vision was turning black and her Mana was nearly exhausted. Yet when she looked up, all she could see was a boundless sea of men.

”The Martial Soldiers are in position.”

Master Miaoyin had killed more than half of the thirty thousand Elite Soldiers, but now, over one hundred thousand Martial Soldiers had already filled the void.

Seeing this, a look of utter despair finally dawned on Master Miaoyin’s face.

”Lü Yang! I know it’s you!”

”Where are you?”

”Show yourself!”

Master Miaoyin finally broke down and screamed. The most infuriating part was that she hadn’t even caught a glimpse of Lü Yang from start to finish!

She couldn’t understand why Lü Yang had suddenly decided to kill her. To mobilize such a massive force, it must have been planned long in advance. If her own plan had been exposed, that made no sense either. She was confident in her ability to conceal her karmic links; there was no way Lü Yang could have divined her intentions.

No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t make sense of it.

But why would Lü Yang ever show himself? What if Master Miaoyin still had some hidden ace up her sleeve? If he appeared rashly, he would be giving her a chance to turn the tables.

And so, Master Miaoyin’s cries were destined to go unanswered.