Chapter 123 Sowing Discord
With a happy smile, Tang Yan stood on the official road, his giant sword inserted into the ground as before. Through the power of the blizzard, dozens of huge ice pillars were formed around him, surrounding the area within and outside a radius of 500 meters. Each pillar was only ten meters apart, with a chilling aura that made it seem like an icy prison.
Then Tang Yan sat in the middle, put Chui Xue on his thigh, and placed both hands on Chui Xue's face to meditate and said: "Old man, I'll close my eyes for a while. If they appear, you notify me!"
"Alright!" The old man replied weakly to Tang Yan.
Every minute and every second is very important to Tang Yan now, as he enters the Snow Boundary to continue studying the secret methods obtained from the two Dou Sheng in the Soul Temple. He constantly merges them into the Xīu Lóng Què, and then continues to cultivate, practicing for a day's time, equivalent to an hour outside. The old man's voice finally sounded in the Snow Boundary, forcing Tang Yan to put away the Xīu Lóng Què heart method, and exit the Snow Boundary with this improved Huang Jie heart method.
Within five minutes of Tang Yan leaving the snowy area, twelve black shadows appeared around him. To be precise, they were outside the ice pillars. This time, they wouldn't be deceived again. Facing these ice pillars, they didn't shatter them but instead stood outside with a furious expression, staring at Tang Yan as if they wanted to devour him whole.
"Haha, how about it? Are you afraid to come in? I'm waiting for you right here!" Tang Yan said, pointing at the twelve strong men outside with his snow-blowing hand.
"If you have what it takes, come on out!" one of the Dou Zong said.
"You just come in and see how I'll electrocute you all into roast pork!" Tang Yan said with a loud guffaw.
"Hmph, let's meet you this yellow-haired kid!" The two great Dou Zong with chain as their soul device hummed and said.
They were accustomed to the art of death, and even if they broke through these ice techniques, they couldn't evaporate the icy water in an instant. Who knew that before it was evaporated, Tang Yan might not use that move again to deal with them? Therefore, they could only choose to attack from a distance, with great force, let alone hundreds of meters away, even if it were a mile, they would still be able to kill without leaving a shadow.
As expected, they tore open a rift in the air as before, and a massive soul-locking chain extended out from within. Countless souls were roaring towards Tang Yan at high speed, destroying the ice pillars along the way, with deafening crashes and shattered ice flying everywhere, like a yellow dragon rampaging through the rivers.
Looking at the two dull, soul-chain-filled attacks coming towards him, Tang Yan's mouth curled up into a faint smile. If it were in the past, Tang Yan could only use his weapon to attack them. But now, heh heh, no need for that, because everyone was practicing a certain martial skill, Soul Devouring Technique. And Tang Yan's spiritual power was many times stronger than theirs, so he didn't even need to dodge these things.
His hands slightly opened, and the ten spiritual threads separately locked onto their soul-locking chains. His hands then closed again, and a large number of souls were pulled out by Tang Yan. Because earlier Tang Yan had merged the Devouring Dragon Technique with the Soul Temple's Devouring Soul Technique, the power of devouring souls had reached an extremely strong level. Moreover, the souls inside them were only ordinary souls, and only those at the level of a Dou Wang or above were strong.
In an instant, Tang Yan's spiritual silk was like a vampire, absorbing thousands of souls, each blow was like absorbing the primordial spirit of two or three stages of magic beasts. Stronger ones, such as the primordial spirits of four or five stages above magic beasts, were broken through by Tang Yan's power in just 4,000 souls.
"Boom!" A loud noise exploded from within Tang Yan's body.
"Two-Star Dou Huang?" The two great Dou Saints standing outside did not expect that at this time, Tang Ye would break through to Two-Star Dou Huang.
"The master of the temple... He's absorbing the soul in the Soul Absorber and turning it into energy!" said the two guys standing outside, attacking.
"What?" The two subordinates were shocked to hear this, because he had absorbed the soul and turned it into power. This technique was only known by the Soul Temple, so how did Tang Yan know it? Moreover, the two of them felt that Tang Yan's technique was much more powerful than theirs.
At this moment, Tang Yan's mouth curled up with a hint of a smile as he stood within the ice pillar array. The two massive chains hovered in mid-air, or rather, they were grasped by Tang Yan's hands. The white energy inside continuously flowed into Tang Yan at an extremely fast speed. Originally, the chains had been shrouded in a dark and gloomy aura of death, but now they slowly began to fade away. Having absorbed tens of thousands of souls, including several Dou Ling and Dou Wang-level souls, the Dou Qi within Tang Yan's Dantian was compressed to its limits, unable to be compressed any further.
"Boom!" Another muffled sound, Tang Yan broke through again, from a two-star Dou Huang to a three-star Dou Huang.
"Hurry, hurry and retrieve the Soul Lock Chain!" In just an instant, the two Dou Saints saw Tang Ye suddenly launch a surprise attack on San Xing Dou Huang, and he began to get frightened. If this continues, it won't be long before he breaks through to the Dou Zong realm.
These two soul-locking chains, they knew that inside there were at least 50,000 souls, although not as many as the soul swords in their hands. But among the many strong talents, it was still a formidable soul-locking chain, and its length reached several hundred meters. No matter what, they couldn't let Tang Yan absorb it like this.
"We can't hold on, Master Tang Yan, save us!" They felt that Tang Yan's spiritual power was starting to lock onto their yuan Shen and would soon be absorbed by him.
"Damn it, let's all work together to kill him, no, cut it off, right, cut it off!" He originally wanted everyone to work together, but thinking of Tang Yan's terrifying Soul Devouring Technique, he immediately changed his mind and said.
"Bang! Bang!" Two blood auras struck the soul-locking chain, producing two loud explosions.
"Ah! Pffft!"
They broke the two soul-locking chains, causing their primordial spirits to suffer heavy damage. A mournful cry escaped their lips as they spat out several mouthfuls of blood and retreated over a dozen steps before collapsing to the ground on soft knees. They stared at the 100-meter-long soul-locking chain that had fallen inside. The 100-meter-long soul-locking chain contained at least several thousand souls, which ultimately became nourishment for Tang Yan's mouth.
The soul-locking chain also slowly dissipated into black air and disappeared in front of everyone, as if it had never appeared!
"Both of you retreat first!" The two Masters of the Dou Sheng Hall said to their subordinates.
"Yes!" With their heavy injuries, they retreated to one side.
Tang Yan sucked away the two soul-locking chains on the ground, feeling that he was about to break through again. In a state of self-intoxication, his greedy eyes stared tightly at the weapons in their hands. The guys outside were intimidated by Tang Yan's gaze and quickly put the weapons in their hands back into space.
"Little one, how did you learn the Soul Devouring Technique and the Soul Searching Technique?" The two old men asked Tang Yan before making a move.
"Why should I tell you, just try it and you'll know!" Tang Yan said to the two old ghosts who couldn't be killed, thinking in his heart: "I wonder if I can swallow the two Dou Sheng Yuanshen? No way, I must think of a way to break through the Dou Zong. If I break through the Dou Zong, I can crush them at any time. Hmm, hmm, I have to think of a way to snatch the soul device from their hands."
"Are you a Soul Temple person?" They asked Tang Yan if he would teach them the secret skills of the Soul Temple.
"If I said it was this old man who passed it on to me, would you believe?" Tang Yan pointed at a short and stout saint.
"Bullshit! You're not a Soul Temple person, how could I have passed these secret skills to you!" the short and stout Dou Shengdian master cursed.
"Old man, I told you so back then. You passed these things to me, and sooner or later they would have been discovered. Now look what's happened - not only can we no longer work together, but we've both become fugitives! How does it feel? Is this what you wanted? Did you want to kill me?"
Everyone heard Tang Yan's words, and their eyes immediately looked at the master of their division hall, including one of the Dou Saints. It wasn't that they didn't believe him, but rather that Tang Yan had spoken with some reason. If it were them, they would have done the same thing, for the sake of the things in the forbidden land, and to monopolize the things inside. Let alone the division hall master, even the total hall master might use secret techniques to exchange with him.
"You... you're talking nonsense, believe me!" The old man was getting anxious after being told by Tang Yan.
"Is this true or not, wait for the master to say, and I can't do anything to you, what's the hurry, is there a ghost in your heart?" Beside Dou Sheng looked at him with a calm expression, now became a anxious monkey.
"Haha, he's not anxious? We're partners, and the Soul Devouring Technique I possess was also taught by him. Old fellow, how about this: you come in, we join forces to deal with them. As long as they die, no one will know that the two of us collaborated. Hmm, let's call your younger brother over too. We'll have seven against their six, plus my power... Heh heh, when I open the restricted area later, at most I'll take five shares!" Tang Yan said with a smile.
This time, the two hall masters immediately distanced themselves from each other. The soul device that had just been recalled was summoned out again. The pair of eyes that had been staring at Tang Yan earlier now shifted to his opponent's body. With an air of readiness for battle, both hall masters grew anxious, one being deceived and the other half-believing Tang Yan's words.
"Don't believe them, he's sowing discord!" The short and stout Dou Sheng yelled.
"What are you doing pointing a sword at me?" He didn't quite believe it either, but the other person was indeed holding a sword and pointing it at him.
"This... I just brought it out to deal with him!" The Soul Pavilion's branch master said.
"Alright, I think you can do it too, but you must come up with a reason that makes me believe you. We've already taken the lead, now it's your turn. Am I making things difficult for you?" He was clever, no matter whether Tang Yan was telling the truth or not, and no matter whether his words were loyal to the Zhongyuan Temple or not, as long as he killed Tang Yan, that would be the end of it!
"Alright, guys, follow me and let's go in there and kill him!" However, the younger brothers he brought with him didn't move a single one to follow him in. Firstly, they were afraid of Tang Yan's thunderous power, secondly, they didn't know what their master wanted to do. Seeing that his younger brothers weren't moving, he cursed again: "Bastards!"
"Your subordinates will stay here, you go in, who knows if you bring them in, they might turn against you!" Another branch master said.
Tang Yan saw that they were like this, and he knew that his sowing discord plan had succeeded. Now what he was thinking about was the soul artifact in their hands. As long as he could snatch the opponent's soul artifact, Tang Yan would be able to successfully break through to Dou Zong. At that time, those guys outside could slap them flying, Tang Yan was very happy that he had learned the secret skills of the Soul Temple, and now not only had he advanced to three-star Dou Huang, but also became a lifesaver in front of them.
"Old fellow, what are you afraid of? Come on in. I'm not your opponent. If you want to get something from the restricted area, help me out this one time. At most, I'll only take 30% of the things inside. I'm not afraid to be honest with you, I've seen many medicinal trees that can run around and fly too. You should know those are undying divine medicines, right? If you help me, once I break through to the Dou Zong realm later on, I'll definitely be able to defeat those undying divine medicines and bring them out for you, as well as the heavenly-ranked martial techniques inside..."