Chapter 228: Take Them Down One by One

Since the enemies had come to them, it was time to send them to meet their doomed fate.
Lin Dong immediately turned to Xiao Tianchi and said in a grave tone, “Master Xiao, gather all the unharmed disciples right away and wait for orders at any moment.”
Seeing Lin Dong’s determined gaze, Xiao Tianchi hesitated for a moment before nodding firmly.
“Let’s go!” Lin Dong nodded at Yun Lan.
The two walked toward the third Illusion Sand Formation.
“Dad, I’ll go with you,” Tian Hao hurriedly followed.
“Wait here. You can’t help much even if you go,” Lin Dong shook his head.
Although Tian Hao was somewhat dissatisfied, he dared not argue and could only nod.
The two stepped into the Illusion Sand Formation. Their vision suddenly changed—no longer filled with swirling sand like in the fourth-level Wind and Sand Formation. The endless desert was eerily calm, with faint golden light flickering intermittently, creating a silent and profound atmosphere.
“Follow closely!” Yun Lan called out.
“Follow closely? Sure!” Lin Dong smiled and reached out to the right, but found nothing.
Yun Lan was already on his left.
Tapping his nose, Lin Dong followed closely, acting as if nothing had happened.
They wound their way through twists and turns toward the center of the formation.
Upon reaching the center, they carefully checked the state of the entire spiritual formation and determined the enemy’s location before exiting again.
After walking for a while, they occasionally saw isolated disciples of the Ningji Sect. These disciples were only seeing various strange illusions. Ignoring them, the two avoided them and went further east. In the distance, they could already see a large group of Ningji Sect members—about four or five hundred in number. All gathered together, they moved forward under the command of five leaders, waving their long swords continuously. But in Lin Dong and Yun Lan’s eyes, these people were always moving around within a circle about three to five hundred meters in diameter.
“Given their position and the current time, we have only one target to attack. The closest we can get is about twenty meters away,” Yun Lan asked. “About twenty meters—are you sure you can make one of the elders’ swords move faster?”
“There should be no problem!” Lin Dong nodded. Accelerating was easier than slowing down.
“Follow my commands!”
The two gradually approached and stopped about twenty meters outside the circle, watching as the enemy continued to circle further away.
By the time the Ningji Sect’s group returned after one full circle, they had clearly realized it was an illusion formation. The long swords, which had been fiercely attacking the illusions, were now all held tightly in their hands.

When the five elders reached the position closest to the two of them, Yun Lan suddenly raised her arm and thrust the blue sword in her hand toward the sand surface not far away. Suddenly, everyone in the Ningji Sect realized that their companions beside them were disappearing one by one.
Over a hundred disciples were screaming in panic. Aside from those who accidentally touched each other’s bodies, all they could hear was the howling wind. Then, sand cones poured down at them from all directions.
As the five elders focused their minds together, the blue sword shot out violently. The sixth elder of the Ningji Sect, who was closest to the two of them, suddenly opened his eyes wide and stared intently at a fake sand cone charging toward him.
He swiftly swung his arm, and his spirit sword, glowing with a faint light, pierced at the fake sand cone. At the same time, the other four elders stepped forward and drew their swords, ignoring the other sand cones piercing their bodies as they targeted the same sand cone.
Clang!
The two elders collided, realizing each other’s presence. The other three elders hit three different parts of the blue sword, producing sharp sounds.
All three stepped back at the same time, and the blue sword wobbled before falling into the sand.
After realizing they could determine each other’s positions through the sounds of their swords, the five of them almost simultaneously swung their long swords, trying to signal their locations to one another.
“Get ready for the next move!” Yun Lan shouted. While the five of them used the sounds of their swords to draw each other closer, the blue sword suddenly moved through the sand, rushing upward from beneath the sixth elder’s feet.
Sensing something unusual below, the sixth elder shifted his left foot and swung his sword at the suddenly appearing fake sand cone.
With a clang, his spirit sword was sent flying back. After a brief pause, the fake sand cone turned sharply and lunged at the sixth elder’s throat.
The other four elders finally noticed the anomaly through the sounds of their swords and stopped swinging their swords, listening carefully to the direction of the fake sand cone.
Lin Dong’s gaze sharpened. As the sixth elder swung his sword at the blue sword, he suddenly pulled it inward.
The already lightning-fast spirit sword accelerated even more. The sixth elder was horrified. By the time he stopped his sword, the fake sand cone had already pierced through its defense and was heading straight for his throat.
Without hesitation, the sixth elder tilted his head to the side. The fake sand cone, like a parasite, twisted desperately to chase his head.
With one sword and one head, it began spinning frantically. From Lin Dong’s perspective, all he could see was a blue sword stuck in the sixth elder’s neck, with his upper body spinning like a top—making it impossible to tell which was faster. But Yun Lan and the sixth elder knew that the blue sword had the advantage and was gradually closing the distance between them.

The other four elders, relying on the rotation of the sand cone and the wind generated by the spiritual sword in the Sixth Elder’s hand, could already gauge the situation the Sixth Elder was facing, but none dared to act rashly. It was too close—no matter who attacked, from any direction or above or below, it would block one of the Sixth Elder’s escape routes. At such close range, even if they could intercept the fake sand cone, it would only slow it down. Given the strength the fake sand cone had shown before, it could surely kill the Sixth Elder while he was hindered in movement.

Tch!

As the four of them struggled to come up with a plan, a crisp sound came as the blue sword pierced into the Sixth Elder’s back, then quickly retracted. The four of them roared and chased after the fake sand cone without hesitation, but after just a hundred meters, the blue sword had already pulled ahead and plunged into the sand.

“This elder’s strength is probably slightly weaker than that one we encountered in the Gu Huan Sect.”

Lin Dong’s heart, which had been in his throat the whole time, finally settled, and he then remembered to take out a Spirit Restoring Pill and throw it into his mouth.

“Stay seated and don’t move!” Yun Lan nodded, gave the order, and immediately turned into a white shadow and disappeared. By the time she returned from the center of the formation, Lin Dong’s spiritual energy had fully recovered.

In the distance, the main forces of the Ning Ji Sect, though linked hand in hand, continued to circle in large loops. Further away, the four elders stood back to back with their eyes closed, allowing various illusions to pass through them.

“Qingyi! If the opponent leaves his position, inform me immediately with a bench.”

Yun Lan reminded them before stepping forward slowly into the range of the illusions in the spiritual formation.

After reaching slightly to the left of Elder Qingyi, Yun Lan slowly raised her right palm. The next moment, the fake sand cone reappeared and stabbed at the Seventeenth Elder of the Ning Ji Sect.

The four of them quickly changed from standing back to back to standing side by side with the Seventeenth Elder, all thrusting their swords forward at once.

Elder Qingyi’s chest was pressed hard against Yun Lan’s palm. His spiritual energy surged out rapidly, his expression changed, and as the incoming spiritual energy blocked his forward momentum, he spat out a mouthful of blood, kicked off the ground, and flew backward at high speed.

The fake sand cone suddenly turned and chased after the injured Elder Qingyi. The three others quickly drew their swords and pursued, while Elder Qingyi also swung his arm to strike.

In the distance, Lin Dong smiled grimly and suddenly made a grasping motion with both palms.

The spiritual sword moved first, advancing slightly before the fake sand cone could strike.

The three elders were horrified to find that the situation had reverted to its previous state, forming another deadlock they couldn’t resolve with their current strength. The difference was that, although attacking with palm techniques from close range would be detected, Yun Lan only used spiritual energy to strike after the green-robed elder bumped into her palm, causing several of his meridians to be damaged.
Compared to the sixth elder, the green-robed elder could hold out for only one-third as long.
With two elders lost, the enemy remained nowhere to be found—neither their height nor identity known. The other three elders were furious, but no matter how they attacked together in one direction, they still couldn’t break through the illusionary formation. They couldn’t even reach a distance of a hundred meters, let alone find the edge of the spiritual array.
They returned to the center of the formation and adjusted the illusion frequencies of the entire array. Once Lin Dong regained his spiritual energy, Yun Lan targeted the seventeenth elder.
By now, after calming down, the three of them had changed their stance again—from standing back to back to forming a straight line, with two at the ends handling the sides and one in the middle overseeing the top and bottom while coordinating attacks.
False sand cones descended from the sky, carrying countless illusory sand cones that rushed down toward the seventeenth elder’s head.
*Thud!*
The seventeenth elder thrust his sword forward, a loud thud echoing as his legs weakened and he knelt on one knee. The other two elders immediately turned and swung their swords, clearly having coordinated in advance—both on the left, one above and one below—to shatter the momentarily stalled false sand cones.
The blue sword flew upward, then descended again, this time accompanied by a rain of illusory sand cones, aiming at the seventeenth elder’s head.
*Thud!*
An even greater force struck straight down from the tip of the sword. The seventeenth elder trembled as he bent down to absorb the impact.
Before the blue sword could be shattered, the seventeenth elder hadn’t yet caught his breath when false sand cones descended once more, with even greater force, knocking his spiritual sword from his hand.
“No good, switch!”
After the false sand cones were shattered, the seventeenth elder grabbed his falling spiritual sword with his left hand, his right hand trembling slightly. The black-robed elder on the left immediately grabbed his robe, and the two instantly rotated and switched positions.
The blue sword reappeared and swiftly pierced at the seventeenth elder’s throat as he steadied himself. Forced to block with his sword, another loud thud sounded as he stepped back quickly, supported by the black-robed elder behind him.
Seeing that the false sand cones didn’t retreat like before but paused briefly before attacking again, the black-robed elder didn’t hesitate and swung his sword downward.
*Hiss!*
The false sand cone pierced through the sword shadow created by the spiritual sword and struck straight into the seventeenth elder’s chest.
“Bad! The opponent can make my sword attacks faster.”

The elder in black was furious; he finally understood why the other two elders had lost the advantage. Unfortunately, it was too late. The blue sword was pulled out of the seventeenth elder’s chest and attacked the elder in black once again. With Yun Lan’s strength, even without the illusions from the Illusion Sand Formation, she had a 90% chance of dealing with the two elders as long as they didn’t flee. Now, inside the Illusion Sand Formation, there was no need to worry about them scattering and escaping. Yun Lan immediately disregarded Lin Dong, who was still recovering his spiritual energy from the healing pill, and continued to attack fiercely. Blue and silver lights intertwined, and although the impact sounds were much weaker than before, the speed of the three spiritual swords had more than doubled. Lin Dong was dazzled. By the time his spiritual energy was fully restored, all he could see were a few dazzling drops of blood flying around. In just another moment, the elder in black’s focus wavered under the relentless attacks, and the blue sword left a long scar on his throat without hesitation. Soon after, the other elder followed suit. Yun Lan retracted the blue sword and asked, “Leave?” Lin Dong nodded; he didn’t want to kill too many people either. There were grievances to be settled and debts to be repaid. The disciples of the Ningji Sect were the greatest victims—Guhan Sect was.