Hello There! I would like to thank all of those folks who replied to the survey, and to those who volunteered to help proof/edit. Thank you my patrons who have supported me thus far, and my newest patron also :D I was planning to have two chapters today but I had one of those oh god my head hurts I needa lay down and then fell asleep days.........
I think I'm going to start posting the chapters a few days later on rrl and post first on novelsnao O_O not sure still, sigh curse my indecisiveness
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The gigantic magic circle began glowing and blood began streaming out of the eyes of the people trapped inside. Soon blood began seeping out from their pores and a pool of it formed under their feet.
An instant later the very flesh on their bodies began melting off of their bones and falling onto the floor. All of this happened in but an instant, not allowing Zhang very much time to react or help at all.
Once the blood and flesh that covered their bones were completely gone, only hundreds of skeletons were left. With nothing left to hold them together the skeletons scattered into the ground forming a sea of bones.
Then the glowing magic circle grew brighter and the blood and melted flesh began swirling about and condensing in the center of the circle. Flowing into the air the mix of gore condensed together, creating a pearl sized ball. A pitch black pearl fell to the ground as the light that was emitting from the magic circle faded away. In that end all that was left behind by the hundreds of people were bones, clothes and the single black pearl.
A second later the man cloaked in black clothes who was the lord of the New Moon Province leapt off the mountain of bones and landed in front of the gigantic magic circle. Picking up the pearl he began to examine it as Zhang and the others stood with shocked expressions on their faces. Having collected and found countless pearls such as the one that was just created right in front of his eyes, Zhang could simply imagine the amount of people that were killed in order to create so many pearls.
“Perhaps that's what happened to all of the people in the mansion and all of the soldiers guarding the city…” Zhang thought to himself as he watched the man examine the pearl.
“Hmph another defective one… Besides those three perfect ones I’ve yet to create another perfect soul pearl…” The lord of the New Moon Province said with a disappointed tone as he held the pearl in his hand, without showing any reaction toward the deaths of the people in the magical circle as he stepped on their bones.
“Thank you for bring me the next batch of materials, I was just about to go fetch them.” New Moon City’s lord said with a sinister grin as he looked at Zhang’s newly acquired soldiers.
Of the one thousand and five hundred new additions to Zhang’s army only the men who were kept in the cages were fit for battle while the people recovered from the sealed jars had amnesia and were not fit to fight at all.
From the way the provincial lord acted he seemed fairly confident that he could defeat everyone present, or rather he had some way to deal with all of the people Zhang freed.
“Everyone retreat!” Zhang yelled to his followers. From the essence this man was emitting Zhang could tell that he was at most at the sixth level of cultivation. Which is lacking if one compared him to Zhang, the beauties who were at the seventh level of cultivation, nearing the eight and the thousand five hundred people that had just been rescued.
But from the confidence on his face and speech, Zhang knew that he most likely had a way to deal with everyone present.
“Maybe there are other magic circles here and are just buried underneath the piles of bones.” Zhang thought as his people began retreating out of the massive twin gates and back into the chamber that they had just come from.
“There’s nowhere for you to run!” The provincial lord yelled as he snapped his fingers. The walls began to tremble as hundreds of runes and inscriptions on the ground began to light up. Unlike the magic circle before, these ones turned the piles of bones on top of them into ash and replaced the bones with something sinister.
The piles of bones were instantly replaced with hundreds of Jiangshi and lesser Jiangshi. There were also a dozens of monsters like the one that Zhang had faced in the corridor, some looked like children while others looked like grown men and women.
Then there were even four gigantic monsters that resembled hundreds of conjoined people, which Zhang had resembled the larger versions of the thing Zhang had killed in the corridor, slowly inching out of the magic circles.
“Retreat to the corridor! Use the small space to our advantage!” Zhang commanded. Without knowing how many magic circles could pop up, paired with the large number of monsters that had just shown up, the best place to put up a stand was the corridors. If anything they could flee back to the surface and leave the province. When in doubt and without a way to fight the best strategy is to flee.
The spiders were the first into the corridor thanks to their speed then they were followed by the people who were toward the rear of the group when entering the room behind the twin gates, then came the beauties and Zhang.
Following behind his men, a glint appeared in Zhang’s eyes as he caught sight of the cages that he had freed the shirtless men from not too long ago. Although the locks on the cages were broken, the cages themselves were completely intact and usable.
With a grin on his face, Zhang stored away every inscription covered cage in his path as he headed toward the corridor. Amazingly he did all of this while hundreds of defective Jiangshi and a horde of monsters were in pursuit.
“Run as much as you’d like but none of you are getting out of here alive!” The New Moon Lord yelled as maniacal laughter soon followed.
“This guy has a few screws loose… As if sacrificing his people to make an army of monsters scary enough, guy has to be crazy too.” Zhang thought was a sigh as he and his people neared the corridor.
Once inside he would be able to use the cage to block the path of the incoming monsters, make it so that only a few of the monsters if any at all can engage them in combat at a time. From what he had heard before, Zhang knew that none of the
Jiangshi present were full-fledged ones because only three complete black pearls had been created. So if New Moon City’s lord only had three complete pearls then all of the creatures present were made with defective pearls.
With a wave of his hand, an inscription covered appeared out of thin air and a wall of bars stretched from side to side of the corridor, leaving but a small gap for the monsters to squeeze through.
Along with the cage’s appearance, Ai withdrew her Queen of the Night whip and dozens of black vines then shot out of the walls, latching the cage into place. With the vines keeping it in place, the cage was able to prevent the bulk of the monster horde besides a few from making it past.
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Besides holding the cage in place the black vines also struck out at the monsters. Of course they weren’t enough to turn any of the monsters into ash, but they were able to keep the monster back.
“You there, lead your men and inform our men above ground to move out of the city. God knows if he had placed magic circles around the city.” Zhang commanded because he thought the current situation was not something that these men could handle so it would be best for them to leave and inform the others above ground to leave also.
“The rest of you form up and kill whatever gets past the cage!”
“Honey I’ll be back!” Ling yelled to Zhang as she decided to head for the surface. Without any water present she wouldn’t be of too much used so her first priority right now would be to head to the surface and come back with the massive store of water that was brought for her use.
With a nod Zhang began to face the few a Jiangshi that was squeezing through the side of the cage. But before it could make its way through, a throwing knife pierced through the air and imbedded itself into the Jiangshi’s forehead. However, despite having a knife lodged into its head the Jiangshi continued forward as if nothing happened.
“I’m sure these ones are the same as the ones chained at the entrance…” Zhang though as creases appeared on his brow. But then it was as if a light bulb appeared atop of his head.
Remembering back to how he had gotten rid of the hundred or so Jiangshi that were bound by the entrance of the corridor, another throwing knife was withdrew from Zhang’s interspatial ring and shot forth at the Jiangshi.
Moments later the second throwing knife lodged itself into the Jiangshi’s chest and the instant it did the Jiangshi bursted into dust as two halves of a partially black pearl fell to the ground.
“Unless there was sunlight the only way to kill these defective Jiangshi was to damage the pearls inside their chests that serve as their cores.” Said to the people beside him, who in turn told those beside them. Soon this bit of information was known by the entire group. This tiny bit of information could have possibly meant the difference between life and death.
Soon one after another the Jiangshi that managed to squeeze through the side of the cage were dealt with in an orderly manner. Although Zhang somewhat regretted having to break the pearls, there currently was no other way to kill them.
Each pearl represented hundreds if not thousands of people converted into essence. Making them very precious, especially for someone like Zhang who did not like harming innocent people. It was highly unlikely that he would ever sacrifice thousands of people to produce things such as these pearls, however if he could acquire them through other means that he was all for it.
Only a fool would turn down a hard treasure worth the lives of thousands of people.
“After this is over, I’m going to collect those broken pearls and see what I can do with them… Maybe the shards will still work but to a lesser degree.” He thought as he eyed the dozens of broken pearls lying about on the ground.
“To think your using my cages to hold back my army back…” The provincial lord’s voice rang out from within the monster horde. Not long after he walked up from the mix of monsters and placed his hand on the cage.
Instantly the inscriptions on the cage stopped glowing and allowed the monsters to easily rip through the iron bars.
“Fall back!” Zhang yelled as he withdrew another cage and used it to buy himself and the others some time. He didn’t want a brawl to break out because that may end up too risky. The last thing he wanted was for the people he saved to be turned into lesser Jiangshi and used against him. Considering their levels of cultivation, they should be able to hold their own against the monsters, well in normal circumstances but currently the vast majority was suffering from memory loss. Meaning their minds were in disarray and which in turn could affect their combat capabilities.
Zhang also noticed that despite having high cultivation a few of these people seemed to lack proper form. From the way their held their weapons and positioned their bodies, he could tell that before this incident they were most likely just regular people.
A true cultivator’s body had proper form and such things etched into them. For example, even if Zhang had lost all of his memories, if he was given a pair of twin swords he would still be able to use them fairly proficiently. Muscle memory could not be erased like the memories stored in the mind.
If someone was a farmer for all of their life, even if they lost all of their memories they still be able to use a shove with proper form and such if given one.
“Silky! Take your masters out of here! Quickly!” Zhang said. Of all of the Wraith Spiders, Silky was the only one present. The others were at the very front of the group, while Silky stuck around with Yuying and the girls.
With a screech in reply Silky shot silk at the three beauties and caught them in a thick web. Once it’s cargo was secure Silky scurried onto the walls and made its way toward the front of the group, carrying the three beauties to safety.
Soon after another screech could be heard coming from the front of the group, and unknowns to Zhang the other Wraith Spiders began copying Silky. One by one the other spiders began carrying off the people in the group in silky sacks. This caused the speed of the group to drastically increase, creating a small gap between them and the horde of monsters.
At the far end of the group, Zhang was making inscription covered cages appear one after the other, because with a wave of his hand the lord of New Moon City was able to dispel the inscriptions allow the monster horde to charge straight past.
“Futile attempts won’t help you against me.” New Moon City’s lord said to Zhang.
Despite being at a higher level of cultivation, Zhang felt that something was off about the man chasing after him. From his mannerisms, speech, and a variety of other things, Zhang felt something odd about this man.
“Once we reach the exit, I’ll smash a hole in the ceiling and turn your monster horde into dust… Then I’ll deal with you and then harvest all of those black pearls.” Zhang thought as he shot a glance the lord of New Moon city.
“Hey! Maybe next time you chase after a guy, you should tell him your name first!” Zhang shouted. He did not know his pursuer’s name and referring to him as the lord of the new moon province was getting annoying.
“Why should I tell my name to someone who will just end up dead in a bit.” The lord of New Moon City said mockingly.
“Snooty fucker… Once we get out of here I’m going to kill you…” Zhang cursed in his mind, as the group neared the staircase that lead out of this dark world.