Chapter 1341: Divine Maiden Hall

Chapter 1340: Divine Maiden Hall

Bai Zisheng regretted it the moment the curse left his mouth.

That wasn’t like him. He normally wouldn’t insult people like that. Most of the time, he couldn’t even be bothered to waste words, much less spit out such crude, undignified abuse.

He must have been led astray by that little rascal of a Junior Brother.

Bai Zisheng felt a bit of remorse.

The Yuwen clan members, however, were furious.

Especially Yuwen Hua. His eyes were red, and his entire body trembled with rage.

This kind of humiliation… no one could endure it.

He pointed at Bai Zisheng and snarled viciously, “Kill that Bai Zisheng!”

The Yuwen clan’s Golden Core elders all made their moves at once, activating their magic treasures as they charged at Bai Zisheng.

Bai Zisheng could only flee.

In a second-grade mountain realm, using only Foundation Establishment cultivation, his combat strength was nearly at the peak of that realm, he feared no one.

But in fourth-grade territory, Golden Core cultivators could use Golden Core power and their life-bound artifacts. Under such a crushing realm difference, Bai Zisheng was no longer invincible.

He could only struggle under the joint assault of many Golden Core cultivators, barely holding on while trying to escape. His figure looked somewhat disheveled.

Seeing this, Yuwen Hua sneered coldly, “Bai Zisheng, don’t forget, you’re an abandoned son of the Bai Clan. The Bai Clan doesn’t even care about you. In this chaos, you don’t even have a Golden Core guardian elder. Aren’t you just courting death by coming here?”

Surrounded by the Yuwen clan’s Golden Cores, Bai Zisheng looked at Yuwen Hua with icy eyes. “You don’t dare fight me one-on-one. Afraid you’ll die by my hand?”

Yuwen Hua flew into a rage from shame, then laughed coldly. “I won’t play heroics with a brute like you.”

“We cultivators have long years ahead of us. A momentary victory or defeat means nothing.”

“Cultivators also follow the tide of circumstances. Today, I have my clan to rely on. You, you bastard, have nothing.”

“So today will be your death day!”

Trapped under the siege of many Golden Core cultivators, Bai Zisheng’s pupils suddenly turned cold. A dark brown hue surfaced within them, as if dragon blood had fused with his body. A wild, arrogant dragon’s might radiated from him.

“Yuwen Hua, you’re courting death?”

Under Bai Zisheng’s glare, Yuwen Hua felt his heart skip a beat.

His bloodline was not weak, but compared to Bai Zisheng’s, it was still far inferior. For a moment, suppressed by Bai Zisheng’s presence, even his blood seemed to slow.

In that brief daze, he suddenly saw Bai Zisheng already charging at him, spear in hand, man and weapon as one.

Yuwen Hua was horrified.

The Yuwen elders were equally alarmed. They hurriedly recalled their magic artifacts and rushed back to intercept, blocking between Yuwen Hua and Bai Zisheng.

Bai Zisheng’s spear clashed with various Golden Core sabers, swords, and magic treasures. For a time, the battle was extremely intense.

But Yuwen Hua simply did not dare fight Bai Zisheng directly. He knew how strong Bai Zisheng was and feared truly being skewered by a single spear strike, so he could only dodge left and right.

After another chaotic clash lasting dozens of exchanges, Bai Zisheng had suffered quite a few injuries, and his strength was waning.

Seeing that he couldn’t kill Yuwen Hua for now, he stopped pressing the attack, silently committing the grudge to memory. He shot Yuwen Hua a look of contempt, then withdrew his spear and retreated.

Just that single look made Yuwen Hua even more unable to bear it. Enraged, he shouted, “Quick, go kill him!”

The other Yuwen elders obeyed and gave chase.

But halfway through, formation patterns suddenly flashed across the ground. Blazing flames surged up, and the floor of the great hall exploded apart, smoke and dust billowing everywhere.

The Yuwen elders were blocked for a moment. By the time the smoke cleared and they looked again, Bai Zisheng was nowhere to be seen.

The elders exchanged glances, frowning in confusion.

“Where did that formation come from?”

“When was it set up… How strange…”

Yuwen Hua cursed under his breath and rushed out of the hall. Outside, fighting raged everywhere, killing cries shook the sky, and chaos reigned… but Bai Zisheng’s figure was already gone.

Yuwen Hua seethed with hatred. He turned to look at the Yuwen elders and asked coldly, “Why didn’t you kill Bai Zisheng?”

One Yuwen elder replied, “We were blocked by a formation.”

Yuwen Hua’s gaze turned icy. “I meant earlier, why didn’t you go all out and kill him then…?”

“You were all holding back, weren’t you?”

The Yuwen elders’ expressions were deep and unreadable.

They weren’t fools.

If they didn’t know, that would be one thing. But now that they did know Bai Zisheng was from the Bai Clan, they would never dare deal a killing blow.

Young masters fighting young masters…. even if one killed the other, that was still the young masters’ affair.

They, on the other hand, had worked bitterly to reach the Golden Core realm and finally secured positions as guardian elders. How could they not understand the stakes?

Moreover, Bai Zisheng was only at Foundation Establishment.

If they, as Golden Core elders, killed Foundation Establishment Bai Zisheng… the Bai Clan would probably find an excuse to wipe out their entire branch.

The Bai Clan had risen through slaughter. Their merits were forged in blood.

No matter how unwelcome Bai Zisheng was within the Bai Clan, he still bore the surname Bai. The Bai Clan could exclude him, neglect him, scold him, beat him—that was the Bai Clan’s business.

It didn’t mean those surnamed Yuwen could kill him.

One obviously senior Yuwen elder sighed. “Young Master, Bai Zisheng’s cultivation is truly formidable. We really couldn’t take him down in such a short time. Please forgive us.”

Yuwen Hua sneered, his gaze sweeping across the elders’ faces. He said nothing more, only spoke coldly,

“Fine. Just keep a close watch on Bai Zisheng. Don’t let him enter the Dragon Pool. Once I form my Golden Core, I’ll kill him myself.”

Right now he was only at Foundation Establishment, not Bai Zisheng’s match.

But once he entered the Golden Core realm, his Dao foundation would transform. With a realm advantage, killing Bai Zisheng would naturally be as easy as turning his hand…

“This Bai Zisheng has humiliated me again and again.”

“I refuse to believe that once I’m Golden Core, I still won’t be able to kill you…”

Yuwen Hua sneered inwardly.

Just then, a squad of barbarian soldiers happened to pass by. Yuwen Hua gripped his spear and rushed over, brutally slaughtering them. The sight of blood finally calmed the agitation in his heart.

“Let’s go,” Yuwen Hua said. “Find the Dragon Pool as soon as possible.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

…

Elsewhere, amid the chaotic battle in the Royal Court.

Bai Zisheng broke free from the Yuwen clan’s encirclement. Dressed in white, he weaved through the crowd. After a while, his divine sense stirred. He looked up and saw Mo Hua lying on a rooftop, waving at him.

With a sweep of his spear, Bai Zisheng knocked several barbarian soldiers flying, disengaged from the fight, leaped onto the eaves, and joined Mo Hua.

Mo Hua whispered, “Senior Brother, you really curse in an awful way… You weren’t like this before…”

“I had an affair with your mother!”

“Do you think that sounds appropriate?”

Bai Zisheng took a deep breath, silently reminding himself that he was grown now, no longer the little hotheaded Senior Brother he used to be.

Otherwise, he would’ve pinned Mo Hua down and given him a beating.

“Where to next?” Bai Zisheng asked, clearly unhappy.

Mo Hua thought for a moment and pointed south. “Over there. I sense the aura of the Divine Dao.”

“Don’t tell me you got it wrong again.”

“Hard to say…” Mo Hua admitted honestly. “It’s my first time in the Royal Court too. I’m not very familiar with the place.”

“Fine…” Bai Zisheng sighed.

After tending to his injuries for a bit, the two followed the direction Mo Hua indicated, searching for the shamanic temples.

But the road ahead was still full of hardship.

After the Dao Court forces breached the city, the entire Royal Court had long since descended into utter chaos.

A chaos stewed in blood.

Mo Hua searched several grand halls in succession. Inside, the people were a mixed bag—nobles of the Great Wilderness, Royal Court soldiers, demonic cultivators, Dao Court forces, or cultivators from various clans.

In the midst of the military turmoil, most people had already killed until their eyes were red.

If your side didn’t match, they would kill on the spot.

Moreover, many of these cultivators were Golden Core experts, spanning the major factions of both righteous and demonic paths. All had cultivated for centuries, shrewd and calculating, each armed with powerful artifacts and mysterious techniques. Their methods were strange and unpredictable, neither completely righteous nor completely evil.

Even Mo Hua couldn’t guarantee that his concealment would remain completely undetected in such chaotic fighting.

Let alone Bai Zisheng.

The slightest slip would inevitably lead to relentless pursuit.

Other demonic Saint Sons and clan prodigies all had Golden Core–realm “Dao-protecting elders” guarding them closely.

Only Mo Hua and Bai Zisheng—these martial brothers—were alone. One was a runaway cast-off from his clan, the other a poor rogue cultivator. In the Royal Court, they were like orphans with no one to look after them.

Mo Hua did have “connections,” but True-Person Zhuge was a Feathered Ascension expert, busy commanding the overall situation.

Other sect elders he knew weren’t present either and were too far away to help.

To make matters worse, he had made many enemies. Across both righteous and demonic paths, plenty of cultivators held grudges against him, some grudges even Mo Hua himself had forgotten.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say enemies were everywhere he looked.

Ordinarily, people might restrain themselves. But this was the Great Wilderness, the Royal Court, a battle of city-wide slaughter. Every moment, countless lives were being lost.

Killing Mo Hua along the way right now was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

After all, his cultivation was only at Foundation Establishment, he looked like an easy target.

Kill him, chop the body to pieces in the chaos, toss it to demon beasts, and there wouldn’t even be a ripple.

Thus, Mo Hua—the top formation genius of Qianxue, number one in Sword Debate Tournament, Little Senior Brother of the Great Void—had, in the Great Wilderness Royal Court, suddenly become like a rat crossing the street, everyone shouting to beat him.

And with Bai Zisheng added to the mix, who was also extremely good at making enemies…

The two martial brothers together doubled their aggro.

Across the Royal Court’s many great halls, the pair truly became like street dogs, chased and hunted everywhere by cultivators of every faction.

Righteous path, demonic path, and people of the Great Wilderness alike.

Several times, when Mo Hua was cornered, he almost used Divine-Sense to form a sword and kill a few people to “consecrate the blade.”

But after thinking it over, he couldn’t bear to ruin the “persona” he had worked so hard to craft.

Mo Hua forcefully suppressed the urge to kill and, together with Bai Zisheng, darted about the Royal Court, hiding east and west, fleeing in all directions.

Finally, when both of them were nearly exhausted, they escaped the chaotic battlefield. After another half hour of traveling, they found, within the Royal Court, a comparatively quiet place, a beautiful grand hall of glazed crystal.

Above the hall were written three dignified and elegant barbarian characters:

Divine Maiden Hall.

Bai Zisheng frowned and asked Mo Hua, “Is this the place?”

Mo Hua pondered for a moment. “According to Great Wilderness customs, since it’s called the ‘Divine Maiden Hall,’ it should be where the Divine Maiden cultivates and conducts rituals.”

Bai Zisheng looked around. “Why is no one here?”

Mo Hua scanned the surroundings, then mentally sketched the terrain he had observed along the way.

“This is already the inner court of the Great Wilderness. The Dao Court army doesn’t seem to have reached here yet. And…”

Mo Hua glanced toward the Divine Maiden Hall. In his eyes, he could see several “divine generals” shaped like barbarian gods, invisibly guarding the hall.

There were eight of these divine generals, fierce and menacing, their power of faith extremely strong.

They resided within nearby stone statues. Ordinary people couldn’t see them at all, but anyone who dared intrude recklessly would have their divine sense silently severed by these guardians.

Within the Great Wilderness Divine Dao system, the Divine Maiden Hall seemed to be a sacred, inviolable place.

At this moment, the Dao Court’s Dao soldiers had not yet reached this place. The Divine Maiden Hall was likely one of the few remaining lands of peace left within the Royal Court.

But once the slaughter spread here, once blood flowed to this place, what the Divine Maiden Hall would become… no one could say.

Mo Hua frowned.

Bai Zisheng asked, “How do we get in?”

Mo Hua thought for a moment. “Follow me.”

He led Bai Zisheng along a stone path at the side of the Divine Maiden Hall, quietly making their way toward the main hall.

The instant the two stepped onto the territory of the Divine Maiden Hall, divine might descended. One Divine General suddenly opened its eyes, glaring furiously, raising two great bronze axes as if to cleave the intruders in half.

Mo Hua looked up and gave the Divine General a calm glance. A deep golden light flashed in his eyes.

The Divine General shuddered. The fury in its eyes cleared away, and it silently lowered the twin axes behind its back, shrinking into the stone statue, wishing it could bury itself underground, not daring to raise its head.

Beside him, Bai Zisheng also sensed a sudden killing intent and was just about to ready his spear. But in the blink of an eye, the feeling vanished, and the murderous aura dissipated without a trace.

Only Mo Hua, in that fleeting instant, had revealed a heart-pounding, terrifying authority.

Bai Zisheng stared blankly at him. “Little Junior Brother, you…”

Mo Hua withdrew all the aura around him and whispered, “Don’t make a sound. Come with me.”

Bai Zisheng nodded dumbly.

Mo Hua then repeated the trick, bringing his senior brother over the wall and up onto a section of the Divine Maiden Hall’s eaves.

The structure and formations of the Divine Maiden Hall were extremely profound, encompassing the Four Symbols Formation and even incorporating certain Divine-Dao formations.

But before Mo Hua—once a great Divine-Shaman—it was nothing unfamiliar.

Mo Hua unraveled the protective formations of the Divine Maiden Hall and was just about to bring Bai Zisheng inside when he suddenly felt something was off.

This was the Divine Maiden Hall of the Great Wilderness. Who knew what other formations lay within, or what barbarian gods and evil spirits might still be there?

Moreover, his senior brother’s concealment wasn’t as strong as his own. Bringing him inside would make them easy to expose.

Mo Hua whispered, “Little Senior Brother, I’ll go in first to scout the way and remove all the formations. I’ll call you in afterward.”

Knowing Mo Hua’s mastery of formations and his quick mind, Bai Zisheng nodded. “Alright.”

Wearing a concealing robe, Bai Zisheng lay in wait on the eaves.

Mo Hua concealed himself and slipped in from the roof, landing atop a great beam.

His guess was right. The interior of the Divine Maiden Hall was also filled with formations. Among the sacred beast patterns were mixed Divine-Dao runes used to seal divine auras.

Inside were also many “juvenile-form” winged barbaric gods—vermilion luan, azure sparrows, fire hawks, and more.

Mo Hua unraveled all the formations.

These juvenile vermilion-luan-type little barbaric gods, upon seeing Mo Hua, trembled as if they had seen a Divine-Lord, not daring to make a sound.

Mo Hua moved slowly along the great beams of the Divine Maiden Hall, searching room by room for Dan Zhu’s elder sister.

There were many rooms within the Divine Maiden Hall.

In rooms large and small, many barbarian girls dressed in red, attendants of the gods, knelt before divine statues, praying silently.

But among these girls, none resembled Dan-Zhu in any obvious way.

Mo Hua could only remain patient, peering into each room one by one.

Suddenly, a cold voice entered Mo Hua’s ears:

“Who allowed you to come in?”

Mo Hua was startled. “I’ve been discovered?”

But he waited in place for a moment. No one appeared, no divine sense swept over him, and no killing move descended.

Mo Hua frowned slightly and thought back.

The voice belonged to a woman—clear, tinged with anger, and carrying a resolute fierceness…

Following the direction of the voice, Mo Hua moved around several more beams, casually undoing formations as he went. He leaned down to look and saw, in a grand and ancient hall, a woman in red standing before a Vermilion Bird statue.

She wore a red robe, her features delicate, her skin white as jade. Yet her brows and eyes burned like fire, and her tall figure radiated a dazzling brilliance.

Her appearance bore some resemblance to the handsome Dan Zhu.

Mo Hua’s heart skipped. He immediately confirmed that this woman was Dan Zhu’s elder sister, the princess of the Vermillion Sparrow Tribe, the legendary number one beauty of the Great Wilderness Royal Court, and the Royal Court’s Divine Maiden who served the gods…

Dan Ling.

And standing opposite the radiant, red-robed Dan Ling was another person.

This man was a burly figure, tall and broad, upper body half bare, covered in fire-pattern tattoos. He wore the Royal Court’s shaman robe and exuded the aura of a late–stage Golden Core cultivator, imposing and extraordinary.

When Mo Hua saw the man’s face, his gaze trembled.

This fire-pattern tattooed Golden Core brute… he knew him as well.

He was the High rank shaman who, in the Desolate Wilderness, had colluded with external enemies during Mo Hua’s Golden Core breakthrough, betraying him and trying to put him to death…

Flame Shaman Yan Zhu.