The company of Immortals was shocked as they moved further back.
Reverend Huiling had vanished completely. It was hard to believe that Patriarch Yuan Hua could eliminate him with just a strip of shabby-looking cloth, without leaving behind even a single fragment of his soul. A power like that was incredibly frightening.
Not uttering a word, Patriarch Yuan Hua sprung forward and grabbed the hilt of the golden colored immortal sword, then quickly sent his divine will into it. Even as he did that, numerous runes lit up on the sword, and a faint cry could be heard coming out from it. In just a blink of an eye, his divine will had approached the core of the complicated formation residing deep inside of the sword, and had made a vague contact with the now sleeping, almost fully broken item spirit of the sword.
The Immortals around came to to their senses suddenly. Despite how Reverend Huilin was eliminated, what method Patriarch Yuan Hua used to completely disintegrate his soul, the Eighteen Tier immortal sword looked extremely tempting to them. Although currently, its item spirit was seriously damaged, as long as they were willing to spend some time and effort, healing an item spirit was a rather easy job. If anyone of them could possess the immortal sword, they would have laid down a foundation of the number one immortal sect in Puluo Heavenly Realm, or even across the nearby heavenly realms.
Without the slightest hesitation, several hundred Immortals struck at the same time. "Fellow Immortal Yuan Hua, please let us have a good look at the sword!"
Abruptly, the void around Patriarch Yuan Hua shattered, from which came stretching out several hundred huge hands materialized from immortal energy, grabbing toward him. However, as they were pulling and tangling each other along the way, they left a large weak spot in their encirclement. Taking the opportunity, the Shadowcloud Sword blinked as it quickly brought Patriarch Yuan Hua out from the ring of encirclement.
Patriarch Yuan Hua gave a long screech before he cried out at the top of his voice, "Disciples of Yuan Hua Sect, let's go! Immortal Chuan, please don't forget that Huang Qiao Planet is now the property of Yuan Hua Sect!"
Daoist Chi flicked his sleeve and cast out a column of cloud that soared high up into the sky, using it to roll up Wu Qi and all the other disciples who participated in the match. After that, it transformed into a beam of light and fled towards the outside of the landmass, following closely behind Patriarch Yuan Hua. In the meanwhile, Patriarch Yuan Hua was flying at the foremost with the golden immortal sword in his hand. The sword emitted a golden light, which pushed the chaotic airflows away like pouring steaming water onto snow, opening up a tunnel that those disciples behind him could use to escape.
However, as the chaotic airflows had very strange characteristics and were extremely heavy, although Patriarch Yuan Hua was opening up a tunnel with the golden immortal sword, his flying speed was still at least one hundred times slower than usual. Therefore, while Yuan Hua Sect's disciples were fast to the escape, they were quickly caught up by the company of Immortals.
The leading pursuer was Pilgrim Gu He, whose face looked solemn and body emitted a pale-golden gleam. As he was approaching, the string of Buddhist meditating beads twining on his left wrist suddenly transformed into over one hundred soft, shimmering balls of Buddhist light and shot out, smashing towards Wu Qi and the others like a fierce thunderstorm. "Fellow Immortal Yuan Hua, there is a fate between that sword and Buddhism. Please put it down and make a good affinity with Buddhism!" Pilgrim Gu He said in a deep voice.
A deep, muffled chanting that sounded like thunderclaps could be heard coming from the cluster of Buddhist lights. Among Yuan Hua Sect's disciples who participated the match, the ones only at the Nascent Soul realm felt a sudden jerk in their brains, before they rolled their eyes and lost their consciousnesses. As for the ten Nascent Divinity disciples, including Daoist Xiao, their bodies trembled violently. Although they were protected by the cloud unleashed by Daoist Chi, the chanting still rocked their Nascent Divinities and nearly disintegrated them completely.
And Pilgrim Gu He did not stop there. With a slap on his forehead, a beam of Buddhist light shot out, transforming into a huge claw shaped like the talon of an eagle as it grabbed straight towards Patriarch Yuan Hua. The company of Immortals could see that a large sheet of golden flame was bursting out from the immortal sword. Evidently, Patriarch Yuan Hua was at the edge of wiping away Reverend Huilin's divine will, and would soon brand his own divine will onto the severely wounded item spirit.
Once Patriarch Yuan Hua managed to control the immortal sword, with his cultivation base of peak-stage Twenty-Eighth Tier Heaven Immortal realm, his overall strength would have skyrocketed for at least a few times. With that, nobody would be able to defeat him, not even with the joint forces of the few Immortal Monarchs.
Therefore, they had to stop Patriarch Yuan Hua from further refining the immortal sword. A very brief interruption would be enough, as with over one thousand Heaven Immortals striking at the same time, they could definitely seize the immortal sword from him. As for who would be the ultimate owner of the sword, it would of course go to the luckiest man among them, while every single one of them felt they were the lucky one!
At that very moment, Wu Qi let out a long hiss suddenly. With a wave of his left hand, countless golden dragon scales shot up into the sky, piercing through the air with an ear-splitting whistle as they greeted upon the cluster of over one hundred Buddhist lights unleashed by Pilgrim Gu He. Deep, muffled booms rang out rapidly as the dragon scales smashed onto the Buddhism lights. Dragon scales were shattered one after another, but the Buddhist lights that crashing down from above were pushed aside by the tremendous forces that came with the dragon scales. All of them plunged straight into a chaotic airflow not far away and disappeared completely after a spin.
What happened had greatly infuriated Pilgrim Gu He, and made him nearly cough blood. The string of Buddhism meditating beads was a precious treasure carried by him since he began cultivating. After spending countless years enhancing it with his Buddhist power and willpower, he had already established a very close spiritual connection with it, and its power was no weaker than ordinary immortal items. Now, because of Wu Qi, it was dragged away by a chaotic airflow. Even a Primordial Immortal could not find such a small string of beads amidst the vast expanse of chaos!
It was a known fact that Buddhist cultivators always lived in poverty. Usually, they only owned two to three Buddhist treasures, and those were the precious treasures formed from all of their Buddhist power and willpower. They did not pay too much attention to other external materials. As for Pilgrim Gu He, the string of Buddhism beads was the only Buddhist item he had, the precious treasure which he had poured years of effort to cultivate! With its unexpected loss here, although Pilgrim Gu He had already attained some great achievement in purifying his heart and cultivating his moral character, he still could not help but let loose a torrent of abuse.
"You damn junior! Give me back my precious treasure!" Pilgrim Gu He raised his brows in anger. He had given up pursuing Patriarch Yuan Hua. Instead, with a wave of his right hand, the huge claw turned and grabbed towards Wu Qi. If the claw managed to get its target, with the gap between their overall strength, it would definitely crush all of Wu Qi's bones and tendons, killing him on the spot. Right at this moment, Pilgrim Gu He was too lazy to consider if there was really a fate between Wu Qi and the Buddha.
Though he snorted coldly, Wu Qi had his jaw tightly clenched and felt a gnawing pain in his heart. At least ten thousand dragon scales from earth element dragon scale shield were destroyed by the Buddha beads just now. Those were the precious treasures he refined using dragon scales which he spent a great effort to loot from Wanying Dragon King's ancestral grave. After losing them, the earth element dragon scale shield suffered a sharp drop of forty percent in both its offensive and defensive strength.
"Old bald donkey! Give me back my dragon scales!" Wu Qi was enraged as well. He glared at Pilgrim Gu He with his third-eye opening up abruptly, from which, the Cold Electric Mirror shot out over one hundred purple electric arcs, hitting right onto Pilgrim Gu He's body. At the same time, Wu Qi pulled out all the immortal talismans given to him by Patriarch Jiang Yun, Bai Xia, and Qing Wu. In a desperate move, he threw all of them over his shoulder.
Pilgrim Gu He gave a muffled snort. Muscles with very defined lines were protruding from under his skin as he activated the Dharma body of Vajra Arhat. Loud clanging noises rang out when those electric arcs came touching his body. It sounded as if they were knocking on a big, golden bell. However, they could only rip some skin from his chest with the explosion. Not even a single streak of blood seeped out from his skin.
But, the Cold Electric Mirror had, after all, fused with a clump of heavenly thunder essence. And after a long period of being cultivated by Wu Qi, its power was approaching an ordinary immortal item. Although those electric arcs did not severely injure Pilgrim Gu He, they managed to consume much of his energy. It made him felt a distending pain and oppression in the chest, and his vision seemed to become dimmer. He was forced to halt where he was, and could not move even a little bit.
A couple dozens of immortal talismans exploded together. Instead of using the correct method to activate the magical power of these talismans, Wu Qi used the most violent and direct method to detonate them at once. Large billows of white cloud, water vapor, green mist, and blinding light blended into a large, fuzzy ball, before exploding brutally. The explosion ripped the large talon unleashed by Pilgrim Gu He to shreds, as well as collapsing the tunnel opened up by Patriarch Yuan Hua.
The explosion also stirred the nearby chaotic airflows, pulling them over in a messy manner, and nearly dragging Pilgrim Gu He out into the chaos. He screamed with great fear. In a hurry, he grabbed Reverend Miao Miao's ankle, who rushed over to his rescue, and barely managed to free himself. In the meanwhile, the sudden collapse of the tunnel had blocked the divine will and vision of the other Immortals who just caught up with them, and the distance between them and Wu Qi became even greater.
Taking the opportunity, Patriarch Yuan Hua changed his direction abruptly, steering his course sideway as he pierced through the chaos and flew further away. Daoist Chi quickly followed behind with Wu Qi, along with the rest of the disciples. Even as he did that, he did not forget to pat on Wu Qi's shoulder and praise, "Wu Qi, my good kid! You've done some beautiful work there!"
Although he was busy opening up a tunnel at the forefront so everyone could escape, Patriarch Yuan Hua also praised, "Indeed, that was a beautiful counterattack! Now, as long as we can escape today, this immortal sword will become Yuan Hua Sect's cornerstone treasure! Excellent, excellent! Little did I expect that Huiling actually possessed such a precious treasure. If not because of it, everything will be carried out according to our plan."
Wu Qi smiled bitterly as he heard that. When they were having a secret discussion at Green Cliff Mountain, none of them expected a result like this.
According to the plan, the 110 disciples, including Wu Qi, would kill and defeat Huiling Sect's disciples, claiming the ownership of the planet of energy stones. That was the first step. During the process, Patriarch Yuan Hua would stay back in Green Cliff Planet, only to travel over to the battlefield using a teleportation formation which had deployed in advance when Reverend Huilin challenged him for the match. Then, he would defeat the severely wounded Reverend Huilin with a fully healed body.
As long as Patriarch Yuan Hua managed to slay Reverend Huilin, Yuan Hua Sect would have obtained a complete victory. But unexpectedly, the thing that given Reverend Huilin the courage to raise the wager was actually an immortal sword of at least the Eighteenth Tier. Its appearance had greatly stirred up the whole situation, forcing Yuan Hua Sect to flee in a flurry.
Wu Qi was wondering. If Reverend Huilin did not find the immortal sword, would Patriarch Yuan Hua still attack him with that strange little strip of cloth? With its incredible power that could vanish Reverend Huilin in an instant, clearly it had an unusual background. Wu Qi reckoned it must be Patriarch Yuan Hua's final trump card!
Nevertheless, although not everything went according to their plan, Yuan Hua Sect had rightfully won over Huang Qiao Planet. Not only that would double their territory, they could solely occupy that planet of energy stones as well. With that, the future of Yuan Hua Sect was full of hope. Upon thinking of this, no matter it was Patriarch Yuan Hua, Daoist Chi, Wu Qi, and the rest of the disciples, everyone was laughing heartily. Their voices were full of complacency.
Even better, as Patriarch Yuan Hua had obtained an upper-grade immortal sword, it would definitely make Yuan Hua Sect the strongest immortal sect of Puluo Heavenly Realm in the near future! With the support of a powerful sect, it needed no further explanation to how bright a future would all the disciples have.
All of a sudden, the pressure that came from the front became lighter. Patriarch Yuan Hua had brought all his disciples out of the chaos.
The immortal sword issued a faint cry. Taking the opportunity that the item spirit was at its weakest moment, Patriarch Yuan Hua forcibly branded his divine will onto it.
At that moment, a strange light was seen quickly approaching from a direction. It was Reverend Yun, and he came before Patriarch Yuan Hua, burning with a frenzy of rage.
"Yuan Hua, how dare you killed Eminent Cloud Sect's disciples?" Upon meeting them, Reverend Yun welcome them with a fierce thunderbolt.