Chapter 27: Advancement

  Thank you for the big baozi from the cafeteria.

  As time went on, the battle on the city walls changed from a fierce and bloody fight to a cruel and desperate defense.

  The current situation is no longer something that any individual can turn the tide of, even if they are as powerful as Ma Tian Gang, a warrior who has reached the eighth level of spiritual awakening. At this moment, he is also covered in wounds, and the speed at which he wields his heavy sword is getting slower and slower!

  The disciples of the Ichimonjiken sect were killed or injured, and even the inner door disciples fell by more than a dozen. Now there are only more than 40 inner door disciples protecting more than 500 outer door disciples in the human wall, fighting a hard defensive battle against the oni-tsukai.

  Ma Tiangang led the crowd to fight and retreat, fleeing towards the storage room in the city, and launched a narrow battle with the ghostly servant, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. This allowed people who had been fighting for half the night to rest and avoid being attacked from all sides.

  Huangshi Town has already fallen, occupied by the ghost slaves. The battle has been going on until now, and hundreds of ghost slaves have died, but it seems like there are more and more of them.

  No one knows why the ghost slaves are so abnormal today, pouring out in a swarm, like a tidal wave, and killing them is endless.

  Everyone fought and retreated in an orderly manner towards the storage room in the city, defending the passage and engaging in a desperate battle with the ghostly servants.

  Ahh! Ahh! Ahh!

  Everywhere in Huangshi Town was filled with the howling of ghostly servants, making people's scalps numb. Those swift and murderous figures, like ghosts, were running, howling, and killing, with blood splashing everywhere, severed limbs scattered all over the floor of Huangshi Town...

  "Quick! Quick! Quick! Into the storage room!"

  The crowd stepped back and retreated, finally arriving at the location of the storage room. Ma Tian Gang anxiously urged the many outer sect disciples to enter the storage room first.

  This storage room is where the entire town of Huangshi stores its grain, it's extremely large and can hold hundreds of disciples without feeling crowded at all.

  Xiao Chen followed the crowd and entered the storage room, then with Ma Tian Gang as the leader, four inner door disciples formed a human wall, directly blocking the passage.

  Fierce slaughter burst out in an instant, more than a dozen times more intense than the battle on the ground. The only belief of the fearless and death-defying ghost servant was to slaughter, like a steel torrent crazily charging towards the five people guarding the passage, Ma Tian Gang.

  In the storage room, many disciples had exchanged a moment of peace, but outside, the sounds of slaughter were deafening, the clashing of swords and knives was as dense as firecrackers, and the killing was extremely frantic.

  Huuu... Huuu...

  The disciples who had been fighting for most of the night were all panting heavily, their bodies exhausted to the extreme, and the true energy in their dantian was almost depleted. At this time, a kind of emotion called despair gradually spread among the crowd.

  "There are still two hours until dawn, at that time the core disciples will arrive, we just need to hold on for the last two hours and the crisis will be lifted, everyone must cheer up."

  A young man wearing a red Izumo Toshiro uniform said, pulling the crowd out of their desperate emotions and boosting morale.

  "Now we must all work together in order to have a chance of defeating the enemy. I, Hu Yidao, may not be talented, but if everyone trusts me, then please listen to my opinion." The disciple continued to say.

  "Fang Hu, senior brother, you are the sixth-ranked disciple on the Potential List. Among all the disciples present, your status is the highest. Whatever you have to say, we will listen and follow your orders."

  Several inner disciples exchanged a glance and nodded, whereupon one of them, a slender inner disciple, spoke up.

  As for the outer door disciples, they were completely ignored and no one asked for their opinions.

  Xiao Chen sat cross-legged on the ground as soon as he entered, closed his eyes and began to recover his true energy.

  "Now the only thing we can do is to defend ourselves to the death, counterattacking is no longer possible. So we must maximize our defensive strength. Master Ma and his men won't be able to hold on for much longer either. Let's form groups of five and take turns fighting in shifts while others rest and recover their combat strength."

  "It can't be helped."

  Everyone has no objection, at this time, the only way is to fight with flesh and blood!

  Then Fang Hu began to arrange manpower, with each inner door disciple leading four outer door disciples with stronger martial arts as assistants, taking turns to guard the passage.

  At this moment, the disciples of Chuyun Jianzong showed extraordinary unity, united against outsiders, with no one showing dissatisfaction or fear of death. Each and every one of them calmly faced death, just like that ghostly servant, fearless and unyielding, guarding the alleyway in succession.

  Xiao Chen was indeed powerful in combat, but his cultivation level was relatively low. For the time being, he wasn't even ranked to go on stage yet. Xiao Chen took this opportunity to frantically recover his true energy.

  Xiao Chen utilized the Netherworld Poisonous Smoke to kill Zhao Wumian, and in return obtained a large quantity of Netherworld Poisonous Insects. At this moment, Xiao Chen secretly employed 'Magic Sound Nine Songs' to control the Netherworld Poisonous Insects, causing them to absorb the energy condensed from Zhao Wumian's essence blood and transmit it to him, allowing him to recover his true qi.

  Zhao Wumian was a warrior of the Lingjue Mirror, and his essence contained energy that was not much different from the one that killed the Youming Tiger King on that day. After being transformed by the Youming poisonous insect, it turned into a powerful energy.

  In Xiao Chen's dantian, the originally dimmed vortex due to intense consumption began to solidify and rapidly spin, absorbing and refining the energy from the Youming poisonous insects, storing it in his dantian, filling his vortex with power.

  Xiao Chen's recovery speed was extremely fast, and in less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had recovered to his peak state. At this moment, the fierce battle in the alleyway was even more brutal than before, with the ghostly servant's roar seeming to be right next to their ears. The number of people falling on both sides continued to rise, and then the personnel on both sides continued to fill up, one defending and one attacking, turning the passageway into a road of death.

  "It hasn't reached me yet, I hope that after absorbing the energy of all the yin-yang poisonous insects, I can advance." Xiao Chen opened his eyes and took a look, finding that there were still more than 20 teams ahead of him. For now, he continued to start cultivating.

  At this time, no one would disdain their own cultivation being high. Xiao Chen continued to perform 'Magic Sound Nine Songs', squeezing out the energy from the bodies of all the yin and yang poisonous insects, making it his own cultivation momentum.

  Xiao Chen's dantian was filled with increasingly majestic true energy, rapidly expanding. The Stellar War Body cultivation had no bottlenecks, as long as there was enough true energy to support it, it would advance smoothly like water flowing into a channel.

  When he reached a critical point, Xiao Chen suddenly felt that the true energy in his dantian was almost out of control.

  "It's time to condense the second cyclone." Xiao Chen thought to himself, and immediately began to start condensing the cyclone.

  With the experience of the first condensation vortex, this time condensing the vortex again was as easy as letting out a fart for Xiao Chen. Along with a faint sound from his dantian, Xiao Chen's tiger body involuntarily trembled, and he only felt that his strength had suddenly soared by twofold.

  "With a focused mind, a second vortex is formed in the dantian, with a strength of 2,500 jin, comparable to that of a martial artist who has reached the seventh level of spiritual concentration. The true energy is thick and far-reaching, even if one were to launch a full-force attack, there would still be enough true energy to sustain for the time it takes to burn an incense stick." Xiao Chen looked inward at his dantian, feeling his current state, and was very satisfied.

  "Xiao Chen, shidi, it's our turn." However, at the moment when Xiao Chen was filled with a sense of excitement and satisfaction from his own strength increase, Yue Ling gently pushed Xiao Chen's arm.

  Upon hearing this, Xiao Chen opened his eyes, full of energy and spirit, like a revitalized soldier. He nodded at Yue Ling and stood up straight.

  Yue Ling, Zhou Qianlong, You Jian, these three people were in the same group as Xiao Chen. Due to Zhao Wumian's disappearance, a temporary replacement was assigned to this group, an inner sect disciple with a cultivation level of Lianhua Mirror, One Heavy Heaven, named Tan Tan.

  Xiao Chen and the others arrived at the passageway, where the previous group of five had exhausted their oil and lamp, looking like blood-soaked people, and were replaced by an even more bloody battle.

  Before, in the warehouse, Xiao Chen didn't know the situation here. Now that he's arrived at the passageway, he's only just discovered that there are severed limbs everywhere, blood flowing like a river, and corpses of humans and ghost slaves covering the entire passageway. The ghost slaves behind him keep dragging away the corpses, devouring their essence and blood. The scene is extremely bloody and gruesome, making one want to vomit.

  "Kill!"

  Tan Tanfa's sword shook, and the long sword tip burst out, directly cutting a ghost soldier in half. And Yue Ling and others also showed off their skills, engaging in a fierce battle with the ghost soldiers.

  Xiao Chen directly used Zhao Wumian's sword, without avoiding anything. Now, it's likely that anyone can cover up Zhao Wumian's death with any excuse, and no one will suspect Xiao Chen of killing him. After the chaos caused by the ghost servant, who still cares about whether Zhao Wumian is dead or alive?

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  The alley battle was cruel beyond compare, with only a few square meters of space, the killing was fierce and intense. Both sides refused to give an inch, blood splattered everywhere, and Xiao Chen and Tan Tan were both masters of the sword, becoming the main force in this frenzied slaughter. In the face of the endless tide of ghostly soldiers charging forward like a flood, all techniques lost their effectiveness at this moment. The most effective and direct technique was to frantically slash and hack.

  This is a moment of witnessing power and courage, only slaughter.

  "Ah!"

  Zhou Qianlong was suddenly pounced on by a ghostly servant, his arm was directly torn off, and blood sprayed wildly, but he still held up his sword to kill, iron and blood unyielding!

  Splash!

  Xiao Chen's chest was slashed by a ghostly claw, the wound deep and to the bone, with blood gushing out like a pillar. However, Xiao Chen seemed to be unaware of it, and he killed the ghostly creature under his sword.

  You Jian's shoulder was pierced by Gui Pu's sharp claws, and Yue Ling's thigh was torn apart by Gui Pu to reveal a shocking blood hole...

  A bloody and brutal melee, a fierce battle, shocking and thrilling. At this moment, the alleyway is like a giant meat grinder, it's a hell on earth, where there is no survival!

  "Can't kill like this!" Xiao Chen thought to himself as he frantically swung his sword, slashing at the ghostly servants: "I wonder if the Netherworld Poisonous Smoke will have any effect on these ghostly servants?"

  As soon as he thought about it, he couldn't care about many things at this moment. At this moment, Xiao Chen released a wisp of mysterious and sinister smoke, and in the midst of the fierce battle, no one noticed that the mysterious and sinister smoke was spreading silently under Xiao Chen's control towards Gui Pu...

  Ahh! Ahh! Ahh!

  What surprised Xiao Chen was that the Netherworld Poisonous Smoke had taken effect. The moment the ghostly servant inhaled the smoke into his body, he instantly lost his combat strength and fell to the ground with a blood-curdling scream. In less than an instant, his body had turned into a puddle of pus and blood. The scale armor that was impervious to swords and knives was completely unable to defend against the Netherworld Poisonous Smoke.