Witch Wind

Chapter 399 Unworthy of Being a Son (Part 2)

"War has begun! War has begun!"

That blockhead Black Hyena, shaking a handful of dice, was shouting that he wanted to find someone to bet against him, betting on whether Zhang Bao or Sima Ping would win. The bet he proposed was simple and uninteresting: once they reached the next world, the loser would have to treat the winner to three jars of the finest wine.

Black Hyena was shouting loudly.

Xing Tianli, Ran Min, and Liu Jing, the three women, were so excited by the commotion that they all placed their bets on Zhang Bao.

Judging from this situation, it was the Sima clan that made the move, and Zhang Bao and the Shu Han behind him seemed to be at a disadvantage... However, standing behind Zhang Bao was none other than the Prime Minister!
Even if Sima Ping's cultivation level is comparable to Zhang Bao's, both being at the Great Luo Realm, even if Sima Ping's cultivation level reaches the Quasi-Saint Realm and he conjures up 360 Quasi-Saints to surround Zhang Bao, Xing Tianli and the others would still bet on Zhang Bao to win!

Ms. Zhong is not interested in gambling.

She didn't know Zhang Bao's background, or how detestable the Sima Jin Dynasty was.

But she was clever; she followed Xing Tianli and the others in placing bets.

Black Hyena's face darkened—although Zhang Bao was at a disadvantage in the situation, seeing Xing Tianli and the others bet on Zhang Bao without hesitation, this seemingly rough and crude pig-headed man, who actually had a hundred and eight thousand schemes, couldn't help but mutter to himself.

He might lose money this time.

On the White Phoenix Star, Zhang Bao let out a long howl. In the air, Zhang Lan and Zhang Zhu abandoned the nine mantis demon generals of the same realm, and with a swift movement, they rushed straight towards Zhang Bao. Zhang Bao grabbed with both hands, and a two-zhang-long serpent spear suddenly appeared in his hands. He, Zhang Lan, and Zhang Zhu formed a small triangular formation, and with a loud shout, they charged straight at Sima Ping.

Sima Po, Sima Shi, and the others slowly retreated, clearing the battlefield.

Sima Ping danced with joy and burst into laughter.

His 360 clones also retreated, and the mantis demons, arranged in the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Golden Lock Formation, tens of thousands of elites, under the command of the nine generals, surrounded Zhang Bao and his group.

Sima Ping's voice slowly rang out: "Sima Po, Sima Shi, do you remember this? Battle is dangerous. We are precious people, so unless absolutely necessary, do not put yourselves in danger."

“We are surrounded by millions of troops. In that case, let these lowly soldiers wear them down. Once Zhang Bao and the others are exhausted, the risk to us in the battle later will naturally be reduced... We, the Sima clan, cannot be like Zhang Bao and the others, foolishly rushing into the battlefield.”

Sima Ping snorted coldly: "What kind of status does Zhang Bao have? In Shu Han, he is a prominent young master from a powerful family. Yet, for the sake of a mere commoner on the border of Bai Luan Star, and a group of commoners who are not of the same mind as them, he foolishly rushed into the battlefield!"

"Such a thing is absolutely unacceptable for any member of the Sima family!"

Hundreds of thousands of mantis demons surrounded Zhang Bao and his companions from all directions, their three identical spears piercing left and right, spraying green blood everywhere. Zhang Lan and Zhang Zhu were only at the Taiyi level, and Zhang Bao was only at the late Daluo level, but the three of them formed a small Three Talents Killing Formation, which actually unleashed combat power comparable to a perfect Daluo.

The nine Taiyi Mantis Demon generals, who commanded the army, formed a military formation whose maximum combat power was only enough to trap a peak Da Luo... Against ordinary enemies, this formation would be sufficient, but Zhang Bao and his two companions were no ordinary people.

In Xing Tianli's eyes, their cultivation level was not high, but they were born with an extremely strong talent for amplifying their combat abilities.

A series of loud roars rose into the sky, vaguely recreating the awe-inspiring roar that shattered the Changban Bridge years ago—the three were trapped in the great formation, their skin and flesh all black, like three Vajras forged from black iron.

The spear moved with such force that it was impenetrable; any mantis demon that got too close, regardless of its cultivation level, would be pierced through.

A series of loud roars exploded, and massive black gusts of wind sprayed outwards. Large swarms of mantis demons were blasted to pieces, their bodies exploding into a spray of blood and gore. The three men's roars were like heavy aerial bombs falling, each roar easily wiping out all the mantis demons within a radius of several miles.

Time passed little by little.

Zhang Bao and his two companions seemed to possess inexhaustible strength. Despite the frenzied attacks of hundreds of thousands of mantis demons surrounding them, they did not suffer a single scratch. Countless swords, spears, halberds, and arrows rained down from all sides, yet they could not break through the defensive circle formed by the three snake spears.

His roars were always so powerful and so deadly.

At least 100,000 mantis demons had already been killed on the spot by Zhang Bao and his two companions. The three of them gripped their snake spears tightly and also summoned extremely heavy battle swords, piercing around their bodies and cutting down the mantis demons around them like wheat.

They were also wearing three layers of heavy armor.

The inner layer is a close-fitting soft armor made of dragon skin, the middle layer is a chainmail of the Great Luo level, and the outer layer consists of three identical sets of heavy tiger armor with tiger head chest guards, tiger head shoulder guards, and heavy tiger head reliefs decorating the elbows, knees, and other areas.

The triple armor has amazing defensive capabilities.

The spear, the heavy sword, and the triple-layered armor were all forged using the weapon-refining techniques of the outer sect of the Jie Sect. On the battlefield, the blood essence of countless slain mantis demons was being continuously absorbed by these weapons and armor. As time passed, the power of these weapons and armor had increased by more than 10% out of thin air.

The more you kill, the stronger you become.

Xing Tianli noticed that whenever Zhang Bao and his two companions killed five or six thousand mantis demons, their armor seemed to be fully charged. The lifelike black metal tiger head on the large tiger head relief breastplate would suddenly open its mouth and let out a high-pitched, cloud-splitting roar.

This tiger's roar was powerful and continuous, like the Yangtze River, flowing endlessly. It could easily travel for hundreds of miles, suppressing the power of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Golden Lock Array on the outer perimeter, making the smoke and fire dim.

"Beat!" Zhang Bao suddenly roared, like a thunderbolt exploding from the ground. He flicked his spear, and three cold stars shattered the sky. The protective array of the three Taiyi Realm mantis demon generals who were besieging them was forced to open, and the three cold stars shattered their heads in an instant.

Three of the nine key points of this great formation were immediately shattered.

The formation's defensive power was reduced by about 40%. The heavy battle swords beside Zhang Bao and the other two suddenly rose up and transformed into three black pythons that resembled dragons and serpents. They swirled fiercely in all directions, and screams of agony filled the air. More than 50,000 mantis spirits with cultivation levels around the Earth Immortal realm were cut in half at the waist by a single sword, their life force instantly collapsing.

"Impressive, impressive, no wonder you are Zhang Bao." Sima Ping sneered again, "But you have the reputation of being tiger generals, but alas, alas... you are still ignorant of the general situation."

Sima Po, standing to the side, chimed in: "May I ask, Fifth Ancestor, what is the great power?"

Sima Ping chuckled strangely, "So this is what the great trend is all about: not taking action yourself, but using endless military force to overwhelm the enemy—that's the great trend!"

The military flag behind Sima Shi waved, and the deep sound of war drums rose from all directions.

Around the city ravaged by the mantis demons, countless fierce mantis soldiers, clad in heavy armor, took to the air and flew towards them. Beside Sima Ping, the avatar of the great general raised and waved military flags in the air, and hordes of mantis demons joined the battle formation under the command of this great general.

Among the mantis demons, twelve generals at the early stage of the Great Luo Realm appeared.

Behind each Great Luo Realm mantis demon were twelve Taiyi Realm deputy generals. They commanded a million mantis demons, and their surging, murderous aura instantly enveloped the void for nearly a hundred miles.

Sima Ping, Sima Po, and others also withdrew to a place more than a hundred miles away.

All around, an even larger army of mantis demons appeared. They used evil magic, summoning hundreds of millions of captured, three-foot-tall little people with dark clouds and eerie winds. They set up an altar near the battlefield and, with incredible speed, beheaded the captured little people on the spot.

Blood energy surged, and weak streams of essence blood flew out from the bodies of these tiny figures, only to be swallowed whole by the million mantis demons forming the army. These fierce mantis demons, whose cultivation was merely at the Earth Immortal level, absorbed enough essence blood, and their auras instantly reached a completely new level, as if fueled by oil.

Their surging energy was certainly superficial, frenzied, and unfounded.

However, this sudden surge of power was real. Their power, through the operation of the great formation, converged and condensed on the twelve Great Luo generals, instantly causing their combat strength to soar.

Xing Tianli and the three women, including Liu Jing, remained silent.

The formation these mantis demons were using at this moment was no longer a trapping formation like the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Golden Lock Formation, but a true killing formation. Moreover, they were extremely familiar with the way the formation operated; it was clearly the Twelve Capital Heavenly Gods and Demons Formation, which had been passed down from the ancient witch temple of the human race.

In the darkness, a terrifying force, after slaying enough three-foot-tall little people, was summoned and quietly descended.

Behind the twelve mantis demon generals in formation, a mist quietly surged, and strange, god-like phantoms of great sorcerers appeared and disappeared behind them. These mantis demon generals, wielding long swords, swung their swords, and terrifying forces of earth, water, fire, wind, heavenly thunder, and earthly fire gathered and crashed down on Zhang Bao and his companions like a divine punishment.

With the support of twelve Great Luo Immortals and a million fierce soldiers, and with hundreds of millions of tiny people being slaughtered on the battlefield, their life essence was constantly being devoured by the formation, frantically increasing its power. Zhang Bao and his two companions were momentarily overwhelmed and unable to breathe. They swung their spears, and the three spears were struck by the twelve longswords with a loud clang. Their arms trembled incessantly, and their bodies retreated step by step.

Their swords could no longer freely traverse the battlefield. No matter where their swords struck, a barrage of attacks rained down, causing their swords to tremble and wobble, groaning as they were forced to retreat.

Their protective aura was constantly forced open, and the blade light struck the heavy armor. Various kinds of heavenly thunder and earth fire violently splashed, causing the three men's faces to turn pale. Zhang Lan and Zhang Zhu, whose cultivation was not high enough, even vomited a lot of blood.

Zhang Bao was furious: "Sima Ping, do you have any shame? Slaughtering women and children, is this the civil and military achievement of your Sima clan?"

Sima Ping said calmly, "Those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts... Of these three-foot-tall lowly people, only your Shu Han truly treats them as human beings... Ha, they don't even consider your Shu Han as their own people, do they? In this great battle, if they hadn't been dragging you down in the court, how could you three uncles and nephews have fallen to such a state?"

With a strange laugh, Sima Ping said softly, "Zhang Bao, your prime minister really has no other tricks up his sleeve? Ah, ah, if he really has no next move, then I'll gladly accept the three of you..."

The towering banner behind Sima Shi suddenly soared into the air, and a hazy yellow aura shot into the sky.

From all directions, deep shouts rose and fell, and the surrounding air flickered with light and shadow. In a fluctuating light and darkness, the phantom images of mountains rose one after another. The mountains were majestic and imposing, and the grass and trees on the mountains moved without wind. Gradually, they transformed into strange and fierce figures, forming a military formation on the mountains.

Xing Tianli was momentarily dazed: "The wind howls and the grass and trees seem like soldiers... This, this, this, the Sima Jin Dynasty, the Xie family were also from the Jin Dynasty, right?"

Xing Tianli was a little dazed.

He chuckled dryly, "This is... awkward... When reading history books, every era has its protagonist, and every era has a clear choice between good and evil, right and wrong. Master Xie Xuan defeated the Qin army at the Battle of Fei River. Without a doubt, when reading this part of history, you should blindly side with Master Xie Xuan."

“However, Xie Xuan was, after all, a minister of the Jin Dynasty,” Xing Tianli said with a dry laugh. “That makes things rather awkward.”

Those heroes and valiant figures whose names once illuminated a period of history, separated by the vast chasm of history, their remarkable lives will never collide.

However, under the influence of certain sages, those who shone at different stages of history may very well clash with each other!
These historical figures certainly had their own choices.

However, for younger generations like Xing Tianli, this presents a bit of a choice dilemma.

A lean scholar dressed in a long-sleeved robe, wearing a feathered crown and holding a feather fan, quietly appeared atop the illusory peaks of the dense, rolling mountains. Behind him, banners waved, and tens of thousands of heavily armored, fierce soldiers stood silently in formation.

Within the mountain shadows stretching for thousands of miles, countless illusory figures of fierce soldiers, transformed from vegetation, quietly merged into the forms of tens of thousands of armored warriors. As a result, these armored warriors, whose cultivation was merely at the Celestial Immortal level, experienced a surge in their aura, forcibly elevating them from the Celestial Immortal realm to the Golden Immortal realm.

The scholar holding the feather fan was also a late-stage Great Luo cultivator.

Tens of thousands of elite soldiers at the Golden Immortal realm formed a great formation, and their aura combined with his own. He simply stood quietly on the mountaintop, yet his aura directly overwhelmed Zhang Bao and his two companions.

“Zhang Bao, surrender.” Wen Sheng said leisurely, “You are a famous figure in history books. If you were to perish here, it would be too cruel for the human race of our Nine Provinces.”

Zhang Bao's gaze also became extremely subtle. He said in a deep voice, "Xie Xuan?"

Wen Sheng cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, Xuan, for being here."

Zhang Bao sighed softly: "You are quite a remarkable person...tsk, do you think the Sima family are enlightened rulers?"

Xie Xuan smiled, a smile that was meaningful and subtle.

Sima Ping, Sima Po, Sima Shi, and other members of the Sima clan all began to hurl insults and abuse, and some of the younger members of the Sima family used incredibly vulgar language...

Some people even started directly insulting Zhang Bao's elders.

Zhang Bao roared in anger, but trapped by the great formation, he was powerless to do anything to these foul-mouthed young men from the Sima family. Xie Xuan, however, snorted coldly, his slightly greenish-glass eyes flashing, and in an instant, these cursing young men from the Sima family were all pierced through the cheeks by invisible sword light.

Blood splattered everywhere, and fragments of teeth flew everywhere.

The young man from the Sima family cried out in pain, rolling around on the ground clutching his face.

Sima Ping's breath hitched, and he glanced sideways at Xie Xuan, coldly asking, "Xie Xuan, what...do you intend to do?"

Xie Xuan bowed respectfully to Sima Ping from afar: "Prince Pingyuan, please restrain your clansmen. The reputation of Master Zhang is not something that these lowlifes can tarnish."

Sima Ping's face twitched, twitched, and twitched again.

Xie Xuan's words...

He angrily said, "Xie Xuan, don't forget that your Xie family are subjects of my Sima Jin Dynasty."

Xie Xuan smiled slightly and gently shook the feather fan in his hand: "Your Highness is mistaken. The Xie family and the Sima family are allies, allies... Heh, the interests involved must not be misunderstood."

Xing Tianli clapped his hands in admiration: "Wow, Sima Jin! Hehe, I was just wondering if these strange and wonderful things would happen... Heh, hehe, hey, hey, I wonder how much cultivation that old Mr. Wang Youjun has now."

Xing Tianli suddenly felt a burning sensation all over his body.

He really wanted to find Wang Youjun right now, and then find a large flock of the fattest white geese to trade with him for various calligraphy works—for example, the "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion." If he captured Wang Youjun alive and forced him to write a thousand or ten thousand copies... wouldn't that be a bit too much?
Oh, oh!
The Tower of Creation has traversed tens of light-years and crashed into this star field shimmering with rosy light.

Suddenly, the surrounding avenues became clear, and the primordial energy surged forth.

Xing Tianli hurriedly formed hand seals and shouted, causing the void in front of the Tower of Creation to suddenly shatter, and the group of them instantly teleported out. In a single leap, Xing Tianli and the others arrived directly at the White Phoenix Star, where the Round Light Technique was located.

On a planet with a diameter of approximately 100,000 miles, some technologically advanced space stations and space weapon platforms still remain in outer space. However, at this moment, these space stations and weapon platforms have been riddled with holes, and many cultivation-oriented flying warships are currently patrolling back and forth in outer space.

On these ships, large flags fluttered without wind, clearly bearing the characters 'Sima' and 'Jin'.

At first glance, it appears that Bai Luanxing has indeed been completely captured by the army of the Sima Jin Dynasty.

The Tower of Creation suddenly expanded to a size of a hundred miles. With a loud bang, the atmosphere of the entire White Phoenix Star trembled violently, and gusts of wind rose from the ground. Xing Tianli rode the Tower of Creation and crashed directly into the atmosphere of White Phoenix Star, reaching the sky above the city where Zhang Bao and others were fighting.

"General Zhang Bao, I'm here to help you out of this predicament. How about you help me ask the Prime Minister for some original handwritten manuscripts and poems? It's a worthwhile deal for you!"

Xing Tianli let out a wild laugh, and a huge hand with five distinct elements and five colors rose from behind his head. The hand, several miles in diameter, carried a terrifying aura and grabbed down towards Sima Ping and the others.

"Prince Pingyuan, Sima Ping? I heard you have a mental illness. You really do have schizophrenia?"

"Tell me, tell me, you're willing to risk your life to trade calligraphy with Wang Xizhi. How many copies of the 'Preface to the Orchid Pavilion' would he want in exchange for your life?"

Xing Tianli arrived abruptly, and his attack was ruthless and skillful to the extreme.

His cultivation level was comparable to Sima Ping and others, but in terms of combat strength... even ten thousand Sima Pings combined wouldn't be enough to withstand a single poke from Xing Tianli's finger...

With a scream, Sima Ping and the others were grabbed by Xing Tianli. The immense force almost crushed their bodies!

"Unworthy of being a son, unworthy of being a son..." Sima Ping roared hoarsely, "You old scoundrel Zhuge, I've fallen for your tricks again!"

(End of this chapter)