In the secret cave, the heavy sound of rushing water masked everything. But all of a sudden, the atmosphere shifted.
Even when it came to a seasoned Rank 3 Grafter like Branch Head Mo Tian, he could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing.
He gripped his halberd tightly, his eyes narrowing as he peered into the pitch black depths of the cavern behind the black waterfall.
It was too peaceful.
"Branch Head," the lead elite guard whispered, his voice trembling slightly. He held up a lantern "The tracking hounds... they refuse to take another step forward."
Mo Tian frowned deeply. In his mind, he flashed countless ideas and guesses, in addition to thinking of a solution.
Could it be that he had made a mistake?
The report explicitly stated that a Rank 2 Brood Mother had likely ambushed Mo Lin here. But the deeper they walked into this subterranean pocket, the more Mo Tian felt a deep, instinctive warning.
"Keep moving," Mo Tian said in a low tone, his expression cold. "We are thirty elite Grafters of the Mo Clan. Even if it is a Rank 3 wild Phantom, we have enough strength to subjugate it."
The guards gritted their teeth and obeyed. They channeled their soul essence, their various Rank 2 Phantoms manifesting as glowing shields and floating orbs of light.
As the light and shadow changed and fluctuated on the walls in front of them, a picture emerged that made everyone freeze in their tracks.
It was not a nest of webs nor was it the breeding ground of a Brood Mother. Before them lay a massive, circular mosaic made entirely of human bones.
The bones were arranged in geometric patterns. In the center of the mosaic, a skeletal figure sat cross-legged.
"Wait a minute, this is..." Mo Tian's eyes widened, and he suddenly turned around in realization.
He was met with the sight of a stone tablet half-buried near the skeleton. Although the words were archaic, Mo Tian recognized the dialect.
"A legacy!" one of the older guards said in dismay, pointing a trembling finger at the skeleton. "Branch Head, this is not a beast's lair! This is the secluded meditation cave of a Grafter! Look at the spatial stability here—this is a pocket dimension!"
In that short moment, the grief in Mo Tian's heart was entirely suppressed by overwhelming greed.
"Ha ha ha!" Mo Tian lifted his head upwards and laughed loudly. The sound echoed off the damp stone walls. "The heavens are truly fair! I lost my son, but the Dao has compensated me with a supreme encounter. Spread out! Search every inch, but do not touch the skeleton yet!"
The elite guards, their faces previously filled with fatigue, flushed with excitement. They scattered as they greedily inspected the area.
"Branch Head, over here!" a guard cried out. He kneeled near the edge of the bone mosaic, reaching for a small, emerald-green jade token that was half-buried in the dirt. It shone with an inviting light.
"It looks like an access token!"
"Bring it to me carefully," Mo Tian commanded.
The guard smiled, grabbing the jade token and pulling it from the dirt.
Click.
The moment the token was lifted, a grinding sound echoed. The emerald light of the token instantly turned sickly.
Mo Tian's facial expression suddenly changed. He covered a hand over his chest as a wave of intense nausea hit him.
"Damn!"
"What's happening?!" The guard holding the token screamed. The black light surged up his arm, instantly causing his flesh to wither. He dropped the token, but it was too late. In a matter of seconds, he turned into a puddle of pus.
Dead on the spot.
"It's a trap! Fall back!" Mo Tian roared in his head.
But his voice had barely faltered away when the entire cave began to tremble. The intricate bone mosaic on the floor lit up with a blinding, violet radiance.
Far away, in the quiet solitude of the Archive of Refinement, Mo Jue sat cross-legged, his jade colored third eye wide open. A cold, scheming smile graced his lips.
'Enjoy'
He had not just left a simple poison or a wild beast. During his brief time in the Blight Walker's cave, Mo Jue had utilized his knowledge. He had left behind a highly volatile residue of the Soul Pale and massive death energy.
It was an insidious plan. Once triggered, the array kills the victim and emit a highly specific scent that mimicked the exact smell of a heavily injured Rank 3 Phantom.
To the wild Phantoms wandering the Northern Ravine, it was an irresistible delicacy.
---------------
Back in the cave, Mo Tian watched speechlessly as the black waterfall covering the entrance of the cave suddenly parted.
It was parted by a tide of horrors.
A cacophony of shrieks, howls, and maddening clicks flooded into the cavern. The air grew so thick with corrupted soul energy.
It was hard to breathe.
"Wild Phantoms... a Phantom Tide!" the elders and guards who were watching at the sidelines all roared in terror.
Dozens of Rank 1 Bristle Boars charged in first, their eyes glowing red with madness. Behind them slithered three Armored Centipedes, their many legs clattering against the stone. Above, a swarm of Monkey Faced Bats descended from the ceiling, their fangs dripping with acidic saliva.
"Kill them! Defend the perimeter!" Mo Tian yelled. Facing the beasts charging at him, he rushed at them headfirst.
A fierce battle ensued. Mo Tian was a strong Rank 3 fighter. The halberd in his hand surged forward like a bolt of electricity. Every swing crushed the skull of a boar or shattered the chitin of a centipede.
Green blood and shattered bone littered the area, showing the obvious scene of a brutal massacre.
But there were simply too many. The scent was continuously pulling phantoms into the enclosed bottleneck.
"Ahhhh!" A guard was pulled down by a pack of No Face Hounds. He struggled with a painstaking effort, his face revealing utter despair. "Branch Head, save me!"
Mo Tian gritted his teeth, his expression cold. He kicked away a centipede with his leg, his body swayed from the massive expenditure of soul energy. He glanced at the dying guard and said ruthlessly "Buy us some time!"
Mo Tian didn't help. Instead, he grabbed another injured guard by the collar and hurled him directly into the swarm of Monkey Faced Bats.
"Ah! Branch Head, you—!" The guard spouted out a huge mouthful of blood as the bats tore into his neck. The red liquid mingled with countless bits of flesh.
"You are insane!" an older elite guard screamed at Mo Tian for using them as meat shields.
"Heh heh heh, anybody has the right to punish the weak!" Mo Tian stared menacingly at his own men. "My life is worth a hundred of yours! Just obediently block them. As long as I survive, the Logistics Branch will avenge you!"
The remaining guards' hearts twisted. But they had no time to curse. The tide of Phantoms washed over them. One by one, the elite guards of the Mo Clan collapsed onto the ground.
Lifeless.
Mo Tian fought like a madman. He kept releasing lightning. Most were affected a wide area.
His was soaked in blood, his strong chest muscles heaving. But he could feel his soul energy drying up. The Reliquary in his Dantian was groaning under the strain.
"Too weak, too weak!" He roared in his head, frustrated that he was backed into a corner by mindless phantoms.
As he retreated toward the center of the bone circle, his boot crushed something hard. He looked down. It was the jade token that had triggered the array. In the chaotic light of his lightning halberd, he finally got a clear look at the carvings on the token.
It depicted a spear piercing a bamboo leaf.
"The Spear Leaf Branch!" Mo Tian immediately recognized the identity of this token.
In that short moment, clarity hit him "I understand now! it was you, Spear Leaf rats!"
He completely bought the lie. The physical evidence was right in front of him, and the scale of this trap was something only a rival clan could orchestrate.
"You all have been looking down on me way too much!" Mo Tian flew into a rage and roared. "To hell with you!!"
He knew he could not outlast the Phantom Tide. He was only a Rank 3 middle stage right now, and the sheer volume of phantoms would eventually exhaust his essence. He had to break the array and escape.
Mo Tian bit his tongue, spitting out a glob of blood onto his halberd. He forcefully ignited his Reliquary, burning his foundation to draw out a massive amount of power.
His body surged with a blinding electric light. He leaped, completely ignoring the bites and scratches from the surrounding Phantoms. He aimed his halberd directly at the center of the bone mosaic where the array's core was hidden.
"Break for me!"
BOOM!
A huge force came, and the cavern shook violently. The lightning strike obliterated the array. The wild Phantoms caught in the blast were instantly forced into deep hibernation. They all turned into their static forms.
The violent shockwave threw Mo Tian backward. He flew into the air, his body falling onto the ground outside the waterfall.
Thump.
He spouted out a huge mouthful of fresh blood. His vision swam, and his body was covered in terrifying lacerations. His Rank 3 Reliquary was severely cracked from the overexertion. But he was alive. With the array broken, the surviving Phantoms lost the scent and began to turn on each other in confusion.
Mo Tian got up with a painstaking effort, using his halberd as a crutch. He stared back at the dark cave, his face was a hateful smile.
"I'll come back in the future to deal with you lot," Mo Tian swore through gritted teeth. "Spear-Leaf... you want a war? I will give you a war!"
His body moved like electricity, albeit sluggishly, as he fled into the mountain woods, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Back in the village, inside the dim Archive of Refinement.
Mo Jue sat quietly at his desk. Through the subtle connection he had maintained with the array's core, he felt the formation shatter.
He slowly stood up, his actions careful. He walked to the narrow window and looked out toward the Northern Ravine.
"He broke the array and escaped," Mo Jue said in a low tone. There was no disappointment in his voice.
Killing a Rank 3 Grafter who was determined to flee was incredibly difficult with the current resources. Cornering a beast would only make it fight with the intent of mutual destruction.
But Mo Jue didn't need Mo Tian dead.
"The Spear Leaf token was successfully planted," Mo Jue muttered, retrieving a fresh scroll to begin his scribing duties. "The war I need is guaranteed."
But Mo Jue's schemes were never single layered.
The array core had been laced with the residue of the Soul Pale. When Mo Tian smashed it, it turned the Soul Pale residue into invisible dust that coated Mo Tian.
He had put a ticking clock on Mo Tian.
Mo Jue sat down and dipped his quill into the inkwell. He felt entirely in control.
But at this moment, another sensation appeared.
It was not a sound, nor was it a physical presence. It was so deep and profound that it bypassed his physical body entirely and struck directly at his Ghost Pagoda.
He had been noticed!
Beneath his feet, miles below the stone floor of the Archive, the Great Suppression Array was humming. The destruction of thirty elite guards and the massive fluctuation of Mo Tian's Rank 3 essence nearby tipped the balance.
In his mind, Mo Jue flashed countless ideas and guesses. The Rank 5 Behemoth type Phantom trapped beneath the village was supposed to be sedated by the clan's continuous soul feeding.
It shouldn't be capable of conscious thought.
Yet, a voice loomed in Mo Jue's mind all of a sudden.
"You... smell... tasty..."
The voice was full of terrifying hunger.
Mo Jue gritted his teeth, his expression cold. The floorboards beneath his desk began to tremble.
The Rank 5 entity had locked onto him.
Before Mo Jue could suppress his aura, he noticed a group of soul energies approaching.