Chapter 143: A Complete Lunatic!

A golden dragon roared, soaring from above the heads of the remaining cultivators and crashing directly into the hundreds of flying swords. Those seemingly indestructible flying swords shattered the instant they touched the golden dragon, and the crisp, metallic sound of breaking echoed continuously.

In merely a single breath, the hundreds of longswords were completely annihilated. Under the golden dragon's strike, not even fragments were left behind; they dissolved into microscopic metal powder in the air and were swept away by the chilling wind.

Baili Mo let out a muffled groan, involuntarily stumbling backward. Although the golden dragon had not targeted him directly, the annihilation of the swords controlled by his mind still caused a severe backlash.

"As expected, a fake is a fake," Xia Chuan said with icy detachment. "If it were truly one of the Six Jia Secret Incantations, merely uttering a single 'character' from it might actually allow you to barely withstand this indirect strike instead of ending up in such a pathetic state."

"Heh," Baili Mo curled his lips, blood staining the corners of his mouth.

"Back then... I let go. I let go with absolute resolve. I foolishly thought that was what people called love, I foolishly thought it was the best way to treat her, and I foolishly thought that once I let go, she would find the happiness she desired."

"Is it laughable? Right now, I am like a child demanding a toy from an adult—naive, stubborn, unreasonable, and making a fuss over nothing."

"I was merely escaping. Merely unwilling to face the reality of it all."

"Clearly I was the one who let go first. Clearly I had already decided to stop searching for her. Clearly I had long intended to forget her. Yet here I am, shamelessly crawling back, desperately yearning to win back her love, desperately yearning for her forgiveness."

Baili Mo lowered his head, his hair disheveled and untamed, blood continuously trickling from the corner of his mouth. Beneath the curtain of long hair, his eyes were dark and gleaming. He was smiling, yet it was a bitter, mocking laugh directed entirely at himself.

"What on earth are you blabbering about?" Xia Chuan's patience was wearing thin, and he frowned with utter annoyance.

"So just this once! Just this once! Completely! Without regard for the consequences! No matter the cost! To liberate myself! To face myself! To fight with everything I have!"

"To hell with the Great Xia Emperor! To hell with the danger! I, Baili Mo, do not need my woman to protect me! Without you, what meaning does any of this have!"

"Lu Qinglian! I have come! I will not allow you to marry into the Northern Province! And I will never allow you to marry those barbarians!"

"The only person you are allowed to marry is me! Baili Mo!"

"Ah!!!"

Baili Mo roared, causing the cliffs on both sides of the canyon to tremble violently. Chunks of rock continually tumbled down from the mountain faces, and Xia Chuan suddenly sensed a powerful surge of spiritual energy emanating from the surrounding cliffs.

"An array! Such a massive array!" Xia Chuan exclaimed in shock, watching as line after line of blood-red runes flashed across the precipitous cliffs on either side. The lingering smell of blood, which had not yet dissipated, suddenly intensified tenfold—so thick and sweet that it turned one's stomach.

"The Five Dragons Blood Array—the true Five Dragons Blood Array! How is this possible? How could a Golden Core cultivator possibly activate a fourth-grade array!" Aside from shock, a trace of fear crept onto Xia Chuan's face.

"Could it be... Have you lost your mind?!" Realizing something, Xia Chuan roared forward, "Kill him! Kill him now! He is shattering his own Golden Core in exchange for a temporary surge in cultivation!"

"Soldiers of the vanguard, advance in formation! Array! Rise for me!!!"

"I refuse to believe that even after staking my entire Golden Core, my entire cultivation, and spending three sleepless days and nights tracing these array runes with my own blood, I still cannot activate this damn array!"

Baili Mo roared, his expression twisting in agony, his face turning an inflamed, furious crimson. Combined with his wild, wind-whipped hair, he looked like a madman—a completely unhinged madman.

Inside the carriage decorated in full bridal red, Xia Qinglian, whose face was concealed beneath a red veil, suddenly felt a wave of inexplicable unease. She gently pressed her hand against her chest, where her heart was beating frantically.

"Why does it still hurt so much, even now?" Xia Qinglian murmured. The interior of the carriage was exceptionally quiet—so quiet that she could hear nothing save for her own increasingly rapid breathing.

Frowning, Xia Qinglian could not comprehend why she felt so unsettled and agitated. She gently touched a jade pendant resting against her chest. The pendant was broken, severely fractured, and entirely devoid of luster, yet Xia Qinglian's touch upon it was filled with infinite gentleness and meticulous care.

It was the first gift Baili Mo had ever given her. She treasured it as if it were her very life; even though the jade pendant was now shattered, she still protected it with utmost care, carrying it with her wherever she went, perhaps hoping that somehow it would make her feel as though he were right by her side.

With a muffled thud, the carriage gave a slight tremor—a very faint jolt, yet it was enough to make Xia Qinglian furrow her brows. She had some understanding of the array protecting this carriage, and this vibration clearly indicated that the exterior had suffered a considerable impact.

Gently lifting the fabric curtain over the carriage's wooden window and pushing the red bridal veil up onto the top of her head, Xia Qinglian peered outside. The mountains and the ground were shaking in unison, and howling winds whipped up dust and gravel, obscuring her vision. Even so, she could see massive boulders continuously sliding down the mountain faces and crashing violently into the surroundings.

"What is happening?" Xia Qinglian asked herself in confusion. At that moment, the fractured jade pendant against her chest began to emit an extremely faint, ghostly glow. Startled, Xia Qinglian abruptly flung open the fabric door of the carriage.

Outside the carriage.

"The Five Dragons Blood Array! Rise, twin dragons!" In the distance, fine beads of blood began to seep from the pores of Baili Mo's face, turning his already flushed countenance an alarming blood-red.

Two blood dragons materialized behind Baili Mo, far more terrifying than the previous one, exuding an even greater oppressive might and presence. Their fierce, vertical slit pupils both stared straight ahead, as if locking onto their prey.

"All troops, hear my command! Form up!" Xia Chuan stared fixedly at the scene before him, his expression grave. Though the opponent was merely a desperate Golden Core cultivator, he had forcibly triggered a premeditated fourth-grade intermediate array that usually required the Nascent Soul realm to activate. This made them a remarkably thorny problem.

With only a single man to contend with, Baili Mo stood no chance of defeating Great Xia's force of nearly a hundred soldiers; that much was undisputed. However, as the commander, Xia Chuan had to consider more than just victory—he had to secure that victory with minimal casualties, which was precisely why the Great Xia Emperor valued him so highly.

Once the Five Dragons Blood Array was truly fully awakened, the Foundation Establishment cultivators, who made up the majority of their forces, would suffer catastrophic losses.

"Gather Qi!" Xia Chuan gave another cold snort.

Unlike arrays commonly used by cultivators, which required advance preparation and layout, military formations relied on the alignment of heaven, earth, and human harmony. They channeled the momentum of dozens, hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of individuals through a single commander to create offensive and defensive maneuvers, unifying the battle aura of hundreds of soldiers into various martial arts techniques.

The most prominent manifestation of this was the materialization of fighting spirit. This was the most common offensive method, unifying the soldiers' battle aura to project their collective will into physical form, allowing them to evenly distribute the impact of incoming attacks among all the soldiers.

Even mortals could utilize such methods, and by leveraging numbers and the strength of a shared conviction, they could exert considerable power.

While similar effects could be achieved through static arrays—often exceeding the potency of standard military formations—such arrays required prior setup and extremely complex procedures. Only those proficient in array mastery could deploy them, making them far less convenient and straightforward than the formations utilized by armies.