Chapter 287: Righteous Alliance? A bunch of fat sheep delivering their heads!

Outside the Heavenly Demon Palace, the sounds of killing shook the heavens.

The colorful lights of Magic Treasures and the trails of Flying Swords bombarded the thick black mountain-protecting Formation frantically, like fireworks that cost nothing.

"Rumble—!"

Every violent impact caused the entire mountain to tremble in an earth-shaking shudder.

Gu Lan walked out of the Heavenly Demon Hall with Jiang Wanqing, looked up at the dense crowd of Righteous Cultivators surrounding the Formation like locusts in the sky, and couldn't help letting out a cold laugh full of mockery.

"These old geezers really know how to pick their time. The Grand Elder, that old dog, just finished causing sabotage from the inside, and they rushed over right after. They're planning to wrap up the Heavenly Demon Palace in one go."

"Master, the light barrier on the eastern side of the mountain-protecting Formation has dimmed!"

Jiang Wanqing had been keeping her head down, but her perceptual power as a top-grade Sword Cultivator had not weakened in the slightest. She instantly detected the loss of the Formation's energy, pointed at a flickering Formation node in mid-air, and spoke with a hint of urgency in her tone.

"That should be the Formation eye guarded by the Grand Elder's men!"

Gu Lan curled his lip. "Although the old dog is dead, the group of loyal-to-death traitors he raised under his command probably destroyed the Formation eye long ago. Working together from the inside and outside, this Righteous Alliance certainly knows a thing or two about playing dirty."

Sure enough, just as Gu Lan's voice fell,

"Crack!"

a sound as crisp as glass shattering thoroughly resounded through the clouds.

On the eastern side of the Heavenly Demon Palace's mountain-protecting Formation, several Righteous Nascent Soul Stage old monsters on the outside jointly blasted out a huge gap that was dozens of zhang wide!

The black Devilish Qi protective shield peeled off like a shattered mirror.

"The Formation is broken! Charge!"

"Kill all the Demonic Cult evildoers! Plunder the Demonic Cult treasury!"

"Kill all the men! Capture the women back to serve as Cauldrons!"

As soon as the gap opened, those Righteous Cultivators outside, whose eyes had long since turned red, swarmed in through the gap like starving wolves that had smelled blood, scrambling to be first.

Charging at the very front were several inner sect Elders wearing the attire of the Tianjian Sect and Xuanyin Pavilion. Their faces were full of greed, and their eyes shone brightly. There was not a shred of the demeanor of high experts that they usually faked in front of the world; that eager expression of theirs was simply a hundred times more arrogant than highway robbers.

"Junior Brother……"

Jiang Wanqing stood behind Gu Lan. Listening to those Righteous Elders shouting about "capturing women as Cauldrons" and "plundering the treasury," her face instantly turned pale, and her cold, clear eyes were filled with disbelief.

This…… was this the reputable and upright sect she grew up in?! Was this the light of the Righteous Path that she had always taken pride in and sworn to defend with her life?!

In the face of interests and greed, on a battlefield where no disguise was needed, they actually discarded even their most basic fig leaves, looking even uglier and more unbearable than the Demonic Cult fiends!

"Did you see clearly, Senior Sister?"

Gu Lan did not turn back, but his voice revealed a trace of coldness that had seen through the secular world.

"This is the Righteous Path you have always believed in."

"In their eyes, things like eliminating demons and defending the Dao, or upholding justice, are all bullshit excuses. Snatching resources, seizing territory, and satisfying their own dirty selfish desires are the true purposes of these hypocrites!"

Jiang Wanqing bit her pale lips hard, even biting out a trace of blood. The last shred of fantasy she held in her heart toward the Righteous Path completely collapsed and turned to dust at this moment.

She suddenly understood.

She understood why Junior Brother would rather shoulder the eternal infamy of a traitor and resolutely infiltrate the Demonic Cult! Because in this turbid world, there was no such thing as absolute justice! Rather than wallow in the mire with those sanctimonious hypocrites, it was better to incarnate as a Devil Head and fight violence with violence!

"Junior Brother is right. They are simply not worthy of calling themselves the Righteous Path!"

Jiang Wanqing's fingers quietly gripped the corner of her robe beneath her gray cloak, her gaze instantly turning incomparably firm, even exuding a biting, unyielding Killing Intent.

"Today, I will accompany you to kill all these hypocrites! No matter what you become, I will share life and death with you!"

If Gu Lan knew that Senior Sister had already prepared herself in her heart to "darken" and start a massive slaughter, he would probably be so shocked that his jaw would drop to the ground on the spot.

However, he didn't have time to care about Senior Sister's inner monologue right now.

Because the group of Righteous Cultivators who rushed in had already caught sight of Gu Lan, standing conspicuously in the center of the hall square in a black and gold robe.

"That is…… Gu Lan?!"

The leading inner sect Elder of the Tianjian Sect's eyes lit up, as if he saw a moving mountain of gold.

"Hahaha! Truly, finding it requires no effort after a long search!"

"This old man was just fretting over not being able to find you, a traitor who deceived his master and destroyed his ancestors! I didn't expect you, little beast, to deliver yourself to our doorsteps!"

This Elder had the cultivation of the Golden Core Late Stage Peak. Relying on his profound cultivation base, he held a longsword flashing with thunderous light and pointed arrogantly at Gu Lan.

"Gu Lan! You if kneel and beg for mercy now, obediently hand over the Demonic Cult holy sword in your hand, and offer that cloaked foot-washing maid behind you to this old man for some pleasure, this old man might still put in a good word for you in front of the Sect Leader and leave you with an intact corpse!"

The surrounding Demonic Cult Disciples had originally felt a bit flustered because the mountain-protecting Formation was broken. At this moment, hearing the old man's words, they all stopped in their tracks and looked at him with the gazes one would give an utter mentally disabled person.

This old thing must have had his brain kicked by a donkey before leaving home, right?

Even a Nascent Soul Stage old monster like the Grand Elder had his hands crippled and his head crushed with a single sword strike by Lord Sword-Wielding Envoy right inside the hall. A trash in the Golden Core Late Stage like you dares to talk big here? And you have the shamelessness to demand Lord's foot-washing maid?!

"Old fellow, what did you just say…… you want me to hand over what?"

Gu Lan smiled.

He smiled extremely brightly, yet it made people feel a chill rising straight from the gaps in their bones.

He leisurely pulled out the soul-devouring demon sword from his waist.

"Hum—!"

Accompanied by an extremely excited and bloodthirsty sword hum, purple-black Devilish Qi rolled wildly on the sword body like boiling magma, and that scarlet demonic eye suddenly opened, locking firmly onto that Tianjian Sect Elder in mid-air.

"You want the demon sword? Or do you want the woman?"

Gu Lan took a step forward.

"Boom!"

The hard obsidian ground was directly trampled by him into a deep pit resembling a spider web.

His entire figure instantly transformed into a black lightning bolt dragging a long tail flame of Devilish Qi, directly shooting towards that Tianjian Sect Elder in mid-air!

The speed was so fast that it even dragged out a series of deafening air-exploding sounds in the air!

"So fast!"

The arrogance on that Tianjian Sect Elder's face instantly solidified, his pupils shrank sharply, and a shadow of death shrouded over his head. He just wanted to raise his sword to parry.

"Too late!"

Gu Lan's figure had already appeared in front of him like a ghost, a pair of cold purple eyes staring fixedly at him, as if looking at a dead man.

"In your next life, keep your eyes wider!"

"Boom!"

The soul-devouring sword carried the violent strange fires intertwined by the Green Lotus Core Flame and Red Lotus Karmic Fire. Without using any fancy sword formulas, it was just the simplest and most brutal strike of splitting Mount Hua with brute force!

"Crack!"

A teeth-aching, crisp sound rang out.

That top-grade defensive magic shield, which the Tianjian Sect Elder was so proud of and which was sufficient to withstand an attack from the Golden Core Great Perfection, couldn't even last half a second under the sharpness of the soul-devouring sword. It was directly split into two and shattered into countless points of light across the sky.

Immediately after,

the sword blade cleaved open his skull with the force of pulling out rotten wood, traveled all the way down his chest, and slashed straight through to the bottom without any stagnation!

"Pfft!"

Blood gushed wildly, and internal organs shattered.

A dignified Righteous Elder of the Golden Core Late Stage Peak didn't even have time to let out a miserable scream before he was forcibly split into two halves by Gu Lan with a single sword strike, right in front of all the Cultivators of both the Righteous and Demonic paths!

A sky full of bloody rain poured down.

Gu Lan bathed in the bloody rain, yet not a single drop of blood stained his body. His black-and-gold robe danced wildly in the wind, and dark purple Devilish Qi lingered around his body, resembling a peerless demonic god stepping out from the depths of Hell.

"Thud! Thud!"

The two broken halves of the corpse fell onto the square, making two dull thuds.

The whole scene was dead silent.

The Righteous Cultivators who had just clamored to rush in for a massive slaughter and plunder the treasury were now all as if their necks were tightly choked by an invisible pair of giant hands.

Their mouths were wide open, their eyeballs were about to pop out, and their legs began to tremble uncontrollably.

Instant kill!

Another suspense-free instant kill!

That was an Elder of the Golden Core Late Stage! In front of this traitor whom they regarded as the "shame of the Righteous Path," he couldn't even survive a single move and was hacked alive like cutting melons and vegetables?!

"This…… how is this possible?!"

"What on earth is his cultivation level?! That sword in his hand…… is too fiendish! It is simply unstoppable!"

The Righteous Cultivators crowded at the gap were so frightened that they retreated repeatedly, trampling on each other. Their originally arrogant and domineering aura was instantly doused clean by a basin of ice water, leaving not a trace.

Gu Lan casually shook off the black blood stained on the soul-devouring sword, its tip pointing obliquely at the ground.

He looked down condescendingly at this group of frightened hypocrites, the arc of his mouth becoming even more arrogant and cruel.

"Weren't you shouting quite happily just a moment ago?"

Under the agitation of his True Essence, Gu Lan's cold voice rolled like muffled thunder, spreading throughout the entire Heavenly Demon Palace square.

"Aren't you going to plunder the treasury? Aren't you going to capture women back to serve as Cauldrons?"

"This Seat is standing right here! Whoever wants my life, whoever wants this sword in my hand, come up and take it!"

"However……"

Killing Intent burst forth from Gu Lan's eyes, and the ten-pattern purple extreme golden core inside his body spun frantically.

A terrifying demonic might comparable to the Nascent Soul Stage erupted abruptly. Like a hundred thousand great mountains, it directly pressed down so hard that the legs of hundreds of low-tier Righteous Disciples in front went soft, and they collapsed to the ground in unison!

"Today, as long as anyone steps through the gates of this Heavenly Demon Palace,"

"they will all leave their lives behind!"