Chapter 1381: Ruins

There were simply too many Butterfly Rakshasas entangling them, and more were arriving by the moment. It had become impossible to see what was happening around them. Hearing Yuan Se's call, Wu Chang, Granny Xue, and Mu Lianze began blasting obstacles aside as they fought their way over, intending to join forces as Yuan Se had suggested and finish off the Holy Rakshasa first.

But once they cleared away the Butterfly Rakshasas flying chaotically in their path and saw Yuan Se with one eye ruined, all three were badly shocked.

Each of the Nine Saints had his own strengths. In the struggles of years past, all of them had crossed hands with Yuan Se. His grotesque physique might look ridiculous, but he was practically impossible to kill. That body of fat could withstand an astonishing beating; even the other Eight Saints joining forces found it difficult to truly restrain him. Yet today, someone had actually blinded one of his eyes.

Yuan Se swept aside the Butterfly Rakshasas swarming around him. When his remaining eye saw the other three arrive, resentment flickered within it. He suddenly blasted apart the creatures diving from above, shot into the sky, and, relying on that infuriatingly hard-to-handle body of his, simply bulldozed through everything in his way and fled without another thought.

In his present condition, the greatest danger here was no longer the Butterfly Rakshasas. It was the companions who had come with him.

The remaining three continued blasting apart and killing the Butterfly Rakshasas attacking them while looking around. The Holy Rakshasa was nowhere to be seen. None knew where it had gone, and amid the present Rakshasa Tide, finding it again would be difficult.

Once they realized Yuan Se had already escaped, the three did not even need to discuss it. All reached the same decision and unleashed their strength, smashing through the swarm to break free.

But at that moment, the Holy Rakshasa suddenly appeared. It burst from the densely packed Butterfly Rakshasas and intercepted Mu Lianze, immediately launching into a violent exchange with him.

Hearing the sounds of fighting, Wu Chang and Granny Xue instantly turned back and carved a bloody road through the swarm, intending to join forces and eliminate the Holy Rakshasa.

The Holy Rakshasa saw them appear while fighting Mu Lianze and immediately flashed backward, disappearing once more into the Butterfly Rakshasas surging in like a tide.

The three attacked savagely, every casual strike sending dozens or even hundreds of Butterfly Rakshasas falling. They tried to scatter the swarm and pursue it.

But there was no longer any trace of the Holy Rakshasa. Flying sounds came from everywhere, making it impossible to locate the creature by sound. Once it hid among the Rakshasa swarm, had it flown upward, dropped downward, darted left, or slipped right? Amid the chaos, noise, and bodies blocking their sight, there was simply no way to lock onto it.

No matter how the three charged through the swarm, they seemed forever trapped inside an endless Rakshasa Tide. It was impossible to imagine how many Butterfly Rakshasas had gathered here. In a sense, it was rather like Wu Chang's Boundless Demon Domain. This place itself had become a domain of Rakshasas.

All three understood that this could not continue. However high their cultivation, they could not withstand the endless, uninterrupted drain on their spiritual power forever. Once their strength began to fail, they might truly die to a swarm of creatures they normally would not even have regarded as a threat.

People were different. Perhaps if every cultivator beneath Heaven joined hands and fought them like this, even the Nine Saints would be unable to endure it. But people had selfish motives, distracting thoughts, and fear. Not everyone would be willing to throw away his life and fight them to the bitter end.

Realizing they had lost their opportunity to eliminate the Holy Rakshasa, the three stopped entangling themselves. There was no point exhausting themselves further. They began breaking out.

Yet the moment they did, the Holy Rakshasa appeared again and once more attacked Mu Lianze, stopping him in his tracks.

The instant Wu Chang and Granny Xue heard the fighting, they again blasted through the swarm and rushed back to join forces with him. As soon as the two appeared, however, the Holy Rakshasa vanished into the Rakshasa swarm yet again.

Their breakout was obstructed once more.

When Mu Lianze was intercepted by the Holy Rakshasa yet again, Wu Chang suddenly blasted away the creatures blocking him and headed straight for Granny Xue. Upon reaching her, he shouted, "One last try!"

Granny Xue nodded, and the two turned back together, slaughtering their way toward the fighting.

But at that very moment, Wu Chang swept aside the Butterfly Rakshasas tangling with him and abruptly struck.

A vast, forceful palm shadow appeared.

The Demon-Flame Extinguish-Life Palm smashed ruthlessly toward Granny Xue.

Boom!

Caught completely off guard, Granny Xue barely managed to raise her cane crosswise and counter. The impact shook a spray of blue blood from her mouth and sent her plummeting into the Butterfly Rakshasa Tide below, where she vanished from sight.

"Wu Chang!" Granny Xue screamed in grief and fury.

Expressionless, Wu Chang turned away and unleashed a storm of attacks, slaughtering a path as he fled.

He knew that with his own strength, killing Granny Xue outright would be difficult. So he had simply lent the Butterfly Rakshasas a hand and would see whether they had the fortune to finish her.

That was clearly one reason.

The Holy Rakshasa was not attacking anyone else. Among the three of them, it targeted only Mu Lianze, seemingly determined not to let him go. With Mu Lianze already pinned down, Wu Chang had now grievously wounded Granny Xue as well. Leaving two weakened targets for the Holy Rakshasa should be more than enough to give Wu Chang time to escape at his leisure.

But that was only part of the reason.

Zhangsun Mi was already dead. If Mu Lianze and Granny Xue also died here, then even if Wu Chang lost the chance to search Shang Song's Traveling Palace for treasure and failed to kill the Holy Rakshasa, having several more of the Nine Saints perish here would still be a good thing.

They had already tested the Holy Rakshasa's depth. Once it left the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm and entered the outside world, it would not pose much of a threat.

Mu Lianze's escape had already been slowed by the endless swarm. With the Holy Rakshasa obstructing him on top of that, and with no way to finish the Holy Rakshasa quickly himself, he felt as though he had sunk into a mire from which he could not pull free.

Then Wu Chang and Granny Xue stopped appearing to help him.

Mu Lianze immediately understood. From his many years of dealing with these people, it was not difficult to imagine what had happened. He had probably become the sacrificial piece the others were using to delay the Holy Rakshasa while they escaped.

Facing this endless, unbroken entanglement by countless Butterfly Rakshasas, fear began rising in Mu Lianze's heart. It had been a very long time since he had felt death approaching so closely.

He saw the coldness and killing intent in the Holy Rakshasa's eyes.

Why was the Holy Rakshasa clinging to him and refusing to let go?

Mu Lianze had already guessed the reason.

He had snapped both of the Holy Rakshasa's wings.

He had offended it beyond forgiveness.

The Holy Rakshasa had fixed on him completely. It could ignore everyone else, but it would never let him escape.

Alone, without aid, unable to break free, Mu Lianze felt despair close in. While fighting the Holy Rakshasa, he poured cultivation into his voice and roared, "Wu Chang! Old demon hag!"

There was no answer.

No response from Wu Chang.

No response from Granny Xue.

Regret. Endless regret.

He regretted his arrogance in coming here.

He regretted his greed, regretted coveting Shang Song's Traveling Palace. One moment of avarice had trapped him in a dead end.

As for the grievously wounded Granny Xue, she had no attention to spare for him.

She did not possess Yuan Se's ability to withstand punishment. Wu Chang's ambush had nearly left her unable to react before the Butterfly Rakshasas swarming in tore her alive. By now her hair hung in disarray and her robes had been ripped to tatters.

In miserable condition, she fought her way toward the ground rather than trying to escape through the air. Her injuries were too severe. Faced with the boundless Rakshasa Tide and the Holy Rakshasa's presence, she needed the safest possible route out.

Fighting on the ground, she finally found the river she had seen from the air earlier.

She plunged into it and struck the water with her cane.

A colossal pillar of water surged into the sky and instantly froze into ice, sealing a whole mass of attacking Butterfly Rakshasas inside.

Granny Xue herself merged into the ice, transformed into a streak of blue light, and escaped along the river.

Bang!

The ice pillar exploded apart. A group of Blood Rakshasas beat their wings and shattered the frozen seal, then raced along the river searching for her.

But Granny Xue was already gone.

High in the sky, Wu Chang's frantic breakout finally carried him beyond the endless Rakshasa Tide. Looking into the distance, however, he saw still more Butterfly Rakshasas pouring toward the battlefield without end.

Wu Chang accelerated away.

With nothing obstructing him now, his speed through the sky was far beyond what the Butterfly Rakshasas chasing him could match.

Great flocks pursued from behind while more Rakshasas continued rising ahead to intercept him. He simply flashed past high above them and left the ascending creatures behind.

Countless streams of colored light chased after him like a radiant curtain of drifting cloud, yet also like an enormous mountain range pushing forward through the sky. They pursued without giving up. Even Wu Chang, glancing back from time to time, had never before witnessed such a magnificent sight inside the Butterfly Dream Illusory Realm.

...

Unable to break free from the Holy Rakshasa and the countless Butterfly Rakshasas surrounding him without end, Mu Lianze eventually reached the end of the road as his spiritual power drained away.

His clothes were in tatters, his whole body covered in claw marks.

He looked down at the sharp claw piercing clean through his chest, then gave a bitter smile. "I have roamed unchecked all my life. I never imagined I would fall in a place like this!"

The Holy Rakshasa did not understand what he was saying, nor did it care.

Smack!

Its other claw stabbed into his face.

It dragged him close, opened a fanged, bloody mouth, and bit savagely into his neck, gulping down the blood flowing from his body.

When it finally released him, the Holy Rakshasa twisted off his head with one wrench of its claw.

Then it flung head and body in opposite directions.

A swarm of Butterfly Rakshasas rushed upon the corpse, fighting over it and tearing it apart until nothing remained but fragments.

With no more enemies around to pursue or besiege, the countless Butterfly Rakshasas gradually began scattering. Their heaven-shaking momentum slowly subsided.

The Holy Rakshasa hovered in the air with both wings hanging uselessly behind it.

It stared in the direction the invaders had fled but did not pursue.

It no longer had the strength.

The silver markings across its face gradually dimmed. Its entire body suddenly swayed. Its eyes closed weakly, and it dropped from the sky.

It had suffered one heavy attack after another from five Saints. Its injuries were simply too severe.

If it had been able to keep fighting alone, the Holy Rakshasa would never have sacrificed so many of its own kind in battle. Faced with brutal reality, it had been left no other choice.

...

Niu Youdao and the other two had already hidden underground.

There had been no alternative.

There were simply too many Butterfly Rakshasas, enough to pack the entire palace city solid. The buildings offered no concealment anymore. If they remained above ground, the creatures would inevitably discover them, so the three had no choice but to burrow beneath the earth.

After hiding for some time, they noticed the sounds above seemed to have died away.

Yun Ji went up first to investigate.

When she returned, she reported, "Most of the Butterfly Rakshasas outside seem to have gone far away."

They had indeed gone far away.

They had surged after the fleeing invaders.

Only then did the three emerge from the ground, furtively poking their heads out among a field of ruins because the occasional Butterfly Rakshasa still passed overhead.

The entire palace city had basically become rubble.

There had simply been too many Butterfly Rakshasas before. The buildings inside the city could not withstand a Rakshasa Tide on that scale. The creatures had not deliberately tried to destroy the place, yet they had destroyed it all the same.

Only the thick outer walls still stood around them.

Inside those walls remained nothing but broken walls and shattered structures.

The sole building still standing intact was the huge cylindrical hall made of metal, the same metal structure that had sealed the Holy Rakshasa for several hundred years. Amid the ruins, it stood out starkly.

Butterfly Rakshasas still passed through the sky from time to time, but compared with before, the surroundings were already very quiet.

Beside the deep crater the Holy Rakshasa had smashed open, Zhangsun Mi's corpse in its true form had been dug out and torn into pieces.

The three looked around.

None of them knew how the battle between the Holy Rakshasa and the Five Saints had ultimately ended.

The fighting had already moved far away. Even if the three had remained on the scene, there had been so many Butterfly Rakshasas that they would not have dared show themselves, much less found an opportunity to see clearly what had happened.

"Look!" Yun Ji suddenly warned.

Niu Youdao and Xi Haitang followed the direction she indicated.

Far away, a vast curtain of drifting, firefly-like light was surging back toward them.

[End of Chapter 1381]