As soon as they started bringing out the senior sect protectors, oldest generation disciples, and more elders Wu Long suddenly switched to targeting them, not paying much attention to the small fry that was now fleeing from him.
The outer perimeter as well as the gates still had some sect protectors and elders so the fleeing disciples did not have any opportunity to slip away through the gates as they now smelled the burning smell of the sect’s demise.
Wu Long started to release more Weapon Qi depending on which weapon he was currently holding as he was now reaping the lives of the sect’s main forces. The losses they were now experiencing were ten times as high as not only did his speed increase but what he was devastating right at this moment were personnel precious to the sect and crucial for its further development. But the ruckus was happening too haphazardly, and the ones to die first were now mostly people in the back, so the ones in the front did not have an accurate perception of the casualties.
The sect elders he was avoiding before that were a little more familiar with his movements and were the ones who started to notice the strangeness of his attack were among the first to be eliminated, and thus the chain of information and knowledge about him was severed, as they had to basically make observations from the start now to get a grasp on the situation.
He constantly shifted locations, not allowing them to trap him in one zone. He also continued to give them the illusion of being only one small step away from success. Gradually, the most experienced elders at high levels of the Revolving Qi Realm started to make their appearances, however, none of them could make a substantial difference.
As his attacks were getting stronger the buildings and pagodas started to sustain heavy damage. There were entire pagoda towers cleaved diagonally in two and buildings with missing halves as the powerful polearm-type weapon wind would blow away the rubble of broken down pieces. Wooden bridges between buildings were collapsed and walls creating separate areas for some buildings were leveled. He would only be mindful around the buildings that had women who were used as cultivation furnaces in them. But he disguised that by changing the trajectory or dealing damage to the part of the building that would not cause harm to these captives.
They could not accurately pinpoint where all of their forces should assemble, since his location shifted almost erratically, without any pattern sometimes targeting the half-assembled force and dealing heavy damage. That reinforced their sense of pursuing and trapping him and told them that as long as they could trap him in one place and concentrate their forces there, they would be able to get rid of this disaster.
As he devastated the main forces the collateral damage of less important sect members was not small at all, as he deliberately brought them down along with the main targets of the attacks.
Soon, he saw a disciple with familiar golden markings on him, identifying him as a Prime Disciple, the future of the sect. It was a handsome young man who had a confident smile on his face.
“It seems you dealt quite the heavy damage to the sect. As a future sect master, I have to properly thank you, haha. I will besto…hmph! Impatinent to di-..”
“Do not!!!”
“Be caref-..!”
As he was making a grand speech about ‘bestowing him the honor of being killed by the future sect master of the future number one sect’ Wu Long got through the crowd between them amidst the shouts of the horrified elders and passed through him, heading on to slaughter more core forces of the sect, while the ‘future’ was still standing with a frozen mocking expression, and then thousands of thin red lines started to appear all over his body, after which it simply collapsed into a red muddy-looking pile with a red poodle rapidly expanding around.
Curses came from all around as Wu Long deprived their sect of the most talented genius in all of their history, who already ruined countless specially ordered high-realm cultivation furnaces to reach the Revolving Qi Realm despite being quite young.
And soon a powerful pressure appeared as the current Sect Master and a Foundation Building Realm expert now appeared before Wu Long who finally stopped.
“How dare you! You, a despicable and lowly ant who is not even worthy of…”
But as he started his tirade Wu Long narrowed his eyes slightly, not bothering to listen to what he was saying despite the sect master’s quite arduous efforts to make the most impassioned and denouncing speech. He was seeing clues everywhere but now that he saw the Sect Leader he was sure of his assumptions.
“…speak I said! Who sent you?!!?!”
The sounds of the sect master’s voice returned from muffled to being clear as he was already red from screaming by which Wu Long understood that he was asking a question and not getting an answer for quite some time now.
He smiled.
Now that Wu Long stood in place for his ‘talk’ with the sect master, gradually the four sect ancestors in the Foundation Building Realm, as well as an extremely old and decrepit-looking man in the Core Formation Realm gathered here.
They also could see now that the remaining forces gathered over time that the extent of damage was far worse than they imagined as most of the sect elders were now dead and the senior sect protectors as well as senior disciples were decimated. What was left now was a husk of their former glory, and it was all done by this one man in a relatively short amount of time.
One of the most mind-boggling things was that it was only apparent now, as the realization of how bad things actually were suddenly hit them without much build-up. The amount of ruckus raised all over the sect since the main forces joined the battle was relatively the same all the time, and the people who died were mostly the furthest from him, thus leaving the closer ones to always feel like the casualties were not that high. They felt like they were lulled into recklessness.
“I was not sent by anyone, I am the one who brings your doom. If you were to say someone sent me, it was you, your wrong choice of picking up? Lust Cultivation all those years ago”
He simply said, but his voice resounded to the whole sect and beyond, and a dangerous light appeared in his eyes. The sect master sensed a chill covering him from head to toe. He felt as if he was facing the judgment of the heavens and not a mortal man. And that judgment was very clearly sentencing him along with the whole sect to death. The rest of them also felt a cold shudder. 𝒆𝙣𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝙚𝙩
There were only about two thousand people encircling him now quite densely. They were the elites of the elites, and the most powerful forces they had, but for some reason, they did not feel safe at all.
“You are very powerful and talented,? extremely deadly… but do you really think that you can deal with me?”
The Core Formation Realm decrepit-looking elder first gulped but then said with a chuckle, trying to convince others and himself that it was just a bluff and that there is no need to be nervous.
“If you were a real Core Formation Realm cultivator, with good skills, I might need some effort in defeating you, but your already dissipating life force, caused by breaking through when you were in the last years of natural lifespan, as well as no sense of any decent skills in your sect cannot do anything”
Wu Long only shook his head.
He stretched his hand and a high-quality sword that he took from the ‘future’ of the sect previously appeared in his hand, an extremely sharp aura enveloped the place as the falling snow seemed to slow down even more, and all sounds disappeared. The vivid colors became bleak and the daylight was now dimmed.
A vision of billions of swords forming a spectacular lotus flower appeared around Wu Long, enveloping him within.
“Heaven Transcending Lotus, 3rd form… Crimson Lotus of Destruction”
As a tranquil voice resounded from within the lotus, the people around that were struggling to move or even speak were horrified to see it starting to expand in size and bloom in all directions, as the swords moving in profound trajectories to form the petals started to part trajectories as if the flower was unraveling.
The vision grew until a giant lotus could be seen from far away. As the lotus was made by moving visions of swords that were all giving out reflections of resplendent light it initially was white in color, but as it enveloped the people around it gradually was dyed in crimson, which was even more vivid in the discolored world around.