Chapter 959: Secret Code
Translator: StarveCleric Editor: Millman97
"No doubt about it, that tribesman is definitely that Zhang Xuan fellow in disguise!"
At this point, everything was as clear as the day to the Goldenleaf King, and his face turned livid in rage.
They had just been thinking about how they could capture that fellow, but who would have thought that he would appear before them, disguised as one of their own, to release this formation plate on them?
Had they been prepared beforehand, they might still have been able to destroy the formation with brute force in the moment that it was activated. However, with them standing within the activated formation, it wasn’t as easy to do so anymore. They had to find the center of the formation first.
"Humph! A grade-7 formation might be formidable, but I happen to be skilled in formations. I don’t believe that I won’t be able to unravel this!"
The Goldenleaf King felt extremely furious, but he knew that it wasn’t the time for him to lose his temper. Thus, he suppressed his anger and began to assess the formation calmly.
Of the many Kings, he was the one who was the most skilled in the field of formations. This was also the reason he had been chosen to cross the seal. If the other party had used a grade-7 pinnacle formation to trap him, it would still have taken him a fair bit of effort. However, not only had the formation not reached grade-7 pinnacle, it had also been activated from a formation plate instead of formation flags. It was impossible for a formation of such caliber to trap him!
The Goldenleaf King flew in the direction that he perceived as upward, and a few breaths later, he realized that his surroundings were still completely hazy. After which, he stopped and attempted to fly front, back, left, and right as well.
"To be able to distort the surroundings and one’s sense of direction to such an extent, this formation sure is formidable!" the Goldenleaf King remarked with a grim expression.
Based on his analysis, the formation wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
He was confident that he would definitely be able to break apart the formation with time, but it would be extremely difficult for him to succeed in the short run!
"Argh!"
The Goldenleaf King had just taken out a compass, hoping to analyze where the Life Gate of the formation lay, when he suddenly heard a scream of agony from the depths of the formation. Following which, the sound of an object crashing to the ground echoed loudly.
"That fellow is assaulting our tribesmen?" The Goldenleaf King narrowed his eyes menacingly
Beguilement Formations usually didn’t wield the power to kill others, so being trapped within one wasn’t a big deal. Furthermore, the formation that had trapped them was activated from a formation plate, which was extremely taxing on the cultivator’s zhenqi. It might have been able to trap them for a short period, but once the other party ran out of his zhenqi, the formation would automatically be released, and the tables would be turned around. They would be at their full might, unharmed, whereas the other party would have experienced a dip in his fighting prowess from being sapped of his zhenqi.
He had just been thinking that he could stall for time within the formation since it would be more disadvantageous for the other party the longer the battle continued. However, who could have known that the fellow would have the strength to attack their tribesmen while the formation was still activated!
That fellow was courting death!
With a leap, he immediately rushed in the direction of the scream, and as expected, he found a tribesman who had been killed with a single punch. The storage ring that should have been on the tribesman’s finger was missing, presumably taken away.
"Argh!"
The next moment, another scream of agony was heard. Yet another tribesman had been done in.
They had dispatched all two hundred of their tribesmen to comb through the area to search for the master teachers, and those who were currently in the base were those who had returned after finding nothing at all. There were around fifty of them in total.
From the looks of it, it seemed like that fellow was intending to wipe out all of the personnel they had stationed at the base.
The price they had to pay in order to send these tribesmen over was unimaginably large. The loss of every single one of them was a huge price to pay, and yet, the other party intended to wipe out their forces. He was dreaming!
Flicking his wrist, the Goldenleaf King took out a jade token.
It was a Correspondence Jade Token, an artifact unique to the Otherworldly Demons.
With it, he could easily sense the closest distressed tribesman to him and lend him his aid.
Hu!
The jade token flew from his hand, headed in a certain direction, and the Goldenleaf King hurriedly followed it.
But by the time he arrived, there was nothing more than a mere corpse lying on the ground. The tribesman had already been killed.
After seeing that, he immediately activated his Correspondence Jade Token once more, hoping to save the next one, but the other party was still a step faster than him.
By the time he stumbled upon the eighth corpse of his tribesman, the Goldenleaf King was already completely frenzied.
Whenever he used the Correspondence Jade Token to seek the next distressed tribesman, he could sense from the jade token that the tribesman was still unharmed. Yet, no matter how fast he traveled, the distressed tribesman would be dead by the time he arrived. It felt like the other party was forever a step ahead of him no matter what he did, as if the other party knew of every movement that he was making.
"To be able to maneuver around the formation so easily and hunt down our tribesmen, that fellow’s comprehension of formations is at least equivalent to the human standards of 7-star," the Goldenleaf King remarked with a darkened face, realizing how fearsome the opponent he was facing was.
If that fellow was only able to activate the formation plate but knew not of the internal functioning of the formation, he would have only been able to trap them but not maneuver around freely to slay them. On top of that, it was clear that the other party was tracking his whereabouts through his formation. In terms of comprehension of formations, the other party could be said to be on par with him!
Or perhaps... even superior to him!
"Damn it! You’d better pray that you never fall into my hands, or else I will make you suffer a fate worse than death!" the Goldenleaf King spat furiously through clenched jaws.
At that moment, he suddenly felt an overwhelming killing intent gushing into the air, following which, the sounds of battle drifted over.
"It’s the Greenleaf King!" The Goldenleaf King’s eyes lit up as he quickly rushed over.
He had fought with that Zhang Xuan fellow when he was disguised back then, and the latter wielded strength on par with him. Given the strength of the Greenleaf King, he should be able to stall that Zhang Xuan fellow for a fair amount of time. As long as he could arrive on time and team up with the Greenleaf King to fight against that Zhang Xuan fellow, their combined force would be more than sufficient to overpower the other party and kill him!
Hu la!
In just a few moments, he arrived at the area where the fighting sounds originated from. The Greenleaf King was indeed clashing with another fellow.
The opponent that the Greenleaf King was facing was indeed the Otherworldly Demon who had released the formation while reporting the news to them.
The both of them were incredibly powerful, raising powerful shock waves as they crossed hands.
"Greenleaf King, I will help you!" Roaring furiously, the Goldenleaf King charged into the battlefield to aid his companion.
At the same moment, that Zhang Xuan fellow seemed to have noticed his presence and swiftly turned around to flee. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared into the depths of the Beguilement Formation.
"Where do you think you are escaping to!" the Goldenleaf King roared as he prepared to give chase, but at that moment, he heard the voice of the Greenleaf King.
"Don’t! He is the one controlling the formation. We risk falling into his trap if we give chase recklessly!"
The Goldenleaf King paused for a moment before realizing the same too and nodded in agreement. "You’re right."
Turning around, he saw the Greenleaf King clutching his chest. There was a massive palm print of roughly two inches deep imprinted on the other party’s chest, nearly crushing his heart.
The Goldenleaf King was astonished. "You... How did you suffer such heavy injuries?"
Given that his strength was roughly equal to that fellow’s, the Greenleaf King should have been able to at least stand his ground against the other party. Even if it had been an unexpected assault, it shouldn’t have been possible for the Greenleaf King to have been so severely wounded.
Had the palm print been just a little deeper, the Greenleaf King might already have died!
"Cough cough! That fellow... he disguised himself as you... I let my guard down for a moment..."
As he spoke, the Greenleaf King spurted a mouthful of blood as his face paled feebly.
"He disguised himself as me?" Hearing those words, the Goldenleaf King clenched his fists tightly.
Indeed, he had nearly forgotten that the fellow had the ability to disguise himself as one of their own flawlessly. Back then, the other party had even been able to list the flaws of his cultivation technique accurately. If the other party had disguised himself as him, it was understandable that the Greenleaf King would unwittingly have let his guard down.
"That fellow has the ability to morph his appearance at will, and he can even imitate the aura of one’s weapon and soul, making him an extremely dangerous opponent. You must be careful as well!" the Greenleaf King advised.
"Un." The Goldenleaf King nodded grimly.
In the first place, the limited visibility and inability to discern directions in the Beguilement Formation was already a huge handicap for them. The other party’s ability to disguise himself as them only served to worsen the situation, making it difficult for them to trust one another.
In other words, any single person he encountered could very well be that fellow in disguise.
In a direct battle or even a sneak attack, given that their fighting prowess was near equal, he would at least be able to protect himself. But if it was an attack from an enemy disguised as a friend while his guard was down... even he couldn’t say for sure whether he would be able to survive it or not.
After a brief moment silence, the Greenleaf King sent a telepathic message over. "I need to recuperate for a moment, but we can’t allow that fellow to continuing killing our tribesmen like that! You should head out to stop him first, and I will meet up with you once I have recovered. To prevent him from disguising himself as me, why don’t we set a password? We will say the passwords when we meet, and if they tally, it can serve to verify our identities. Otherwise... it can only mean that the other party is that fellow in disguise!"
"That is a good idea!" The Goldenleaf King’s eyes lit up after hearing those words.
To better save their tribesmen, it would be ineffective and inefficient for them to remain together. But if they were to separate, that fellow could make use of this opportunity to disguise himself as the other to assault them. They needed an effective method to verify they were who they claimed to be.
"Un, you can decide on the password. You will say the first line, and I will return with the next. If I am unable to reply with the password, it can only mean that the fellow is disguising as me. If so, just sneak up on him and launch a fatal blow!" the Greenleaf King replied telepathically with a grim expression.
"Very well!" The Goldenleaf King nodded. "How about this? I will say ’Slay all master teachers,’ and you will reply with ’the Demonic Tribe shall dominate!’ If I fail to say the password upon meeting you, you should just head straight up and deal a lethal strike!"
"Alright!" The Greenleaf King nodded.
"It’s settled then." The Goldenleaf King heaved a sigh of relief. At that moment, another scream of agony was heard, and he quickly said, "I will head over to take a look. You must be careful!"
"Don’t worry. Having fallen for his ploy once, I won’t be so foolish as to fall for it once more," the Greenleaf King replied confidently.
The Goldenleaf King nodded before hurriedly leaving.
Arriving at the origin of the scream, he found another dead tribesman, killed in the same brutal method as before.
"No, this won’t do. At this rate, our forces will be annihilated. I have to undo the formation as soon as possible." Seeing how the formation was showing no signs of dissipating even after such a long period of time, it could only mean that the other party had plenty of zhenqi reserved.
At this rate, they wouldn’t be able to outlast the other party. The Goldenleaf King couldn’t help but frown in dilemma.
"Where are you escaping to?" Just as the Goldenleaf King was beginning to devote himself to studying the Beguilement Formation, he suddenly heard a furious roar, and a figure abruptly rushed for him. Raising his gaze, he realized that it was none other than the Greenleaf King.
At the same time, the Greenleaf King also noticed him and hurriedly asked, "Brother Yin, did you see anyone passing by here earlier?"
"I didn’t." The Goldenleaf King shook his head as he began to assess the Greenleaf King before him carefully.
This Greenleaf King was completely unharmed, the palm print that had struck his chest was nowhere to be seen. His sharp eyes were gazing at him intently, as if trying to peer through him.
Without any hesitation, the Goldenleaf King immediately sent a telepathic message over. "Slay all master teachers!"
"Indeed, we have to slay all master teachers. There is no doubt now; that fellow is definitely a master teacher. He tried to launch a sneak attack against me earlier, but it’s fortunate that I reacted swiftly and dodged his attack!" The Greenleaf King waved his hand and harrumphed coldly.
"At all costs, we must kill that fellow!" Upon hearing the Greenleaf King’s response, a sharp glint concealing deep killing intent flashed across the Goldenleaf King’s eyes as he slowly walked toward the Greenleaf King.
The Greenleaf King nodded earnestly. "Indeed!"
"That fellow possesses fighting prowess on par with us. The only way we will be able to defeat him is to collaborate with one another. I happen to have something here that might be useful in dealing with that fellow. Here, take a look at it," the Goldenleaf King said as he flicked his wrist and passed a jade token over.
"What is it?" the Greenleaf King glanced at the item in the other party’s hand doubtfully.
"It is..."
Seeing that the other party was completely unguarded, a savage glint glowed in the Goldenleaf King’s eyes as he roared, "Die!"
The next moment, his fist crushed heavily into the body of the Greenleaf King!
Hong long!
Due to the close proximity and swift strike, by the time the Greenleaf King reacted, the fist was already right in front of his chest.
"Brother Yin, what are you doing?" the Greenleaf King hollered with narrowed eyes as he hurriedly channeled all of the zhenqi in his body to protect his vitals.
"What am I doing? Do you think that this flawed disguise of yours will be able to fool me? Die!"
Boom!
An incomparably powerful fist landed directly on the Greenleaf King. He felt a crushing pressure tearing through his chest before he was sent flying.
Pu!
Fresh blood spurted from his mouth.