Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 13

While the two sides remained locked in a standoff, someone noticed what was happening at the altar ahead.

“Junior Sister, there’s…” A young man of about twenty stepped up beside Weng Mingshu and quietly explained the situation.

After hearing him out, Weng Mingshu shot Cang Li one last glare. Then she led the large group past the two of them and hurried to the altar.

The Qingyun Sect and Chixiao Sect disciples’ expressions shifted at their arrival. All of them retreated warily.

Weng Mingshu swept an indifferent gaze over them. “We’ll be taking both the supreme-grade spirit stone and the ten-thousand-year black iron.”

In other words, they were to leave.

The Qingyun and Chixiao disciples’ expressions turned extremely ugly. They had fought for so long, only to have someone else swoop in and reap the rewards.

Weng Mingshu raised an eyebrow. “What? You don’t want to go? Or would you prefer that we *invite* you to leave?”

The two groups exchanged uneasy looks and decided to withdraw.

Just then, a smoke bomb landed in their midst with a metallic clatter.

“Watch out!”

Boom!

Thick smoke engulfed the entire altar. It obscured everything and stung their noses and throats.

“Who did that?!” someone cried.

“Quick! Protect the supreme-grade spirit stone and the ten-thousand-year black iron!”

Weng Mingshu coughed violently. Sword in hand, she rushed up the steps toward the altar platform—but before she could reach it, something caught her foot.

She pitched forward uncontrollably.

The fall left her grimacing in pain. “Who’s playing dirty behind my back?!”

Meanwhile, the two culprits had already worked in perfect unspoken harmony to stuff the entire altar platform, supreme-grade spirit stone and all, into a storage space.

They were just about to make their escape when the ground suddenly split open.

“Oh, hell.”

Yuan Yao and Cang Li looked at each other and spoke almost in unison.

In the next instant, everyone in the altar grounds began to plummet.

Cries of alarm rang out around them.

A damp, bone-chilling wind tore past. Weightlessness and dizziness seized Yuan Yao as she fell through the darkness. Then a hand caught the back of her collar.

“It’s me.”

Cang Li’s voice instantly put her at ease.

An indistinct clamor rose from below. It grew clearer as they drew closer.

Hissss.

Hiss…

Yuan Yao’s heart jumped. She looked down, and her face changed.

Dozens of giant pythons lay coiled across the dim ground below. Each was dozens of zhang—hundreds of feet—long, their enormous bodies covered in scales that gleamed coldly in the faint light.

The giant pythons seemed to sense the cultivators overhead. One by one, they lifted their heads. Icy serpentine eyes fixed on the falling humans, glowing with a sinister light.

Waves of terrifying pressure poured from them, chilling every cultivator to the bone as though they had fallen into hell itself.

“They’re Bloodflame Pythons!”

Third-rank Bloodflame Pythons!

Each one was a match for a Golden Core Realm cultivator!

The cultivators went deathly pale. They frantically tried to mount their flying swords, but an invisible force suppressed them. No matter what they did, they could not take flight.

Cang Li’s expression grew grave. He tightened his grip on Yuan Yao’s collar, a decision already made in his heart.

“Yaoyao.”

“Third Senior Brother, don’t—” Yuan Yao’s heart clenched. A terrible premonition surged through her.

A long spear abruptly appeared in Cang Li’s hand. He twisted around and drove it into the solid wall, then planted one foot on the shaft. His palm struck Yuan Yao’s back, and a powerful surge of spiritual energy enveloped her.

Boom!

The spiritual power became a giant palm, propelling Yuan Yao straight upward like an arrow loosed from a bow.

“Wait for me up there. If I don’t come back… don’t keep waiting.” Cang Li grinned with his usual carefree air.

Yuan Yao’s pupils contracted.

“Third Senior Brother!”

Cang Li looked up and smiled gently at her.

At that moment, Yuan Yao could no longer hold back her tears. Every emotion she had kept buried finally broke free. Ever since System 250 had told her what happened in the previous life, anxiety, fear, worry, and dread had gnawed at her without pause.

The thought of how everyone had persecuted Third Senior Brother in his previous life cut through her heart like a knife.

“Third Senior Brother, you’re the biggest idiot alive!”

Yuan Yao shouted through clenched teeth, unable to hide the tremor in her voice.

By the time she reached the ledge above, the last stretch of solid ground was still collapsing, and a mechanical gate had sealed the passage they had come through.

They were trapped.

The ground crumbled so quickly that Yuan Yao had to retreat again and again.

At the same time, the more accomplished cultivators copied Cang Li’s method, driving their weapons into the wall to keep from falling.

Cang Li repeatedly looked up to make sure his Little Junior Sister was safe.

When he saw Yuan Yao still standing there, he could not help shouting, “Get out of here!”

“The passage is blocked!” Yuan Yao called back.

Cang Li froze, but an idea quickly came to him. “Blast it open!”

Before he could finish, Yuan Yao had already thrown a high-grade talisman at the mechanical gate.

A deafening explosion followed.

Boom!

Soon, Yuan Yao’s anxious voice came from above. “Third Senior Brother, I can’t blow the gate open!”

The expressions of the cultivators who had still been clinging to hope changed. With no escape above, their only choice was to carve out a path below.

But how could they possibly defeat dozens of third-rank giant pythons?

Most of them were only in the Foundation Establishment Realm. Just one had reached early Golden Core Realm: Yan Haonan, Eldest Senior Brother of the Tianyun Sect.

He was the young man who had been standing beside Weng Mingshu.

“Stay up there!” Cang Li’s expression turned solemn. Still worried, he added, “No matter what you see, do not come down!”

Then he looked at the cultivators “hanging” from the wall around him.

“Everyone, you understand our situation. Our only choice is to kill these pythons, find an exit, and get out of here. Will you fight beside me?”

The cultivators exchanged looks, their expressions varied.

“Hah…” The square-faced man from the Chixiao Sect gave a cold laugh. “You just want to use us as cannon fodder! You tell your junior sister to stay up there, then order us to fight the third-rank pythons. What a fine scheme!”

“Exactly! We’re not going!”

“With our strength, we can climb back up ourselves!”

“If you’ve got the nerve, make your junior sister come down. Then we’ll believe you!”

Cang Li answered coldly, “My junior sister is only at the ninth level of Qi Refining. If she comes down, she’ll be a burden to me. She might even hold all of us back. I told her to stay above so she could watch the passage and alert us if the gate suddenly opens.”

Many of the cultivators found his reasoning fair.

But the square-faced man, Lin Jingtao, continued to sneer. “In that case, why don’t we all climb up and wait for the gate to open? What need is there to fight those third-rank pythons at all?”