Pit Killing

"It's a trap, everyone retreat quickly!"

A core Disciple of the Evil Path was horrified. He roared and immediately tried to retreat.

But just as they retreated, the ground suddenly collapsed continuously, and countless arrows flew out from underground. Anyone struck by the arrows immediately exploded.

Those arrows were Guo Ran's great invention, Explosive Arrows made from Yin and Yang stones, but they were different from the previous ones.

Long Chen had added a little "seasoning" to the Explosive Arrows he gave him. This seasoning was the venom he had obtained from that Silver-Armored Centipede in the Land of Exile.

One must know that the venom of the Silver-Armored Centipede could kill even a Middle Stage Third-Rank Demonic Beast within a quarter of an hour.

However, Long Chen had previously dried this venom into powder and sealed it all inside tiny wax pellets.

At that time, he had intended to use this poisonous powder to create poison pills. Because the venom sac was so huge, Long Chen had to make over a thousand wax pellets to seal it all away.

This time, it finally came in handy. Long Chen had previously had everyone work together to set up the trap.

Because the valley was narrow, with only a path over a dozen zhang wide available, this was the best place to set up a trap.

Long Chen had an indescribable love for traps; the feeling of tricking people was simply amazing. Victory in physical combat brought pleasure, but victory through intellect brought spiritual enjoyment.

"If I can play you to death, I will absolutely not beat you to death." Adhering to this life philosophy, Long Chen had everyone set up hundreds of Explosive Arrows underground.

Anyway, Guo Ran had tens of thousands of arrows and countless Yin and Yang stones. As long as he had time, he could make hundreds of Explosive Arrows in a quarter of an hour.

Long Chen took out dozens of poison pellets and placed them on the arrowheads of the Explosive Arrows. Once the Explosive Arrow was triggered and exploded, it would simultaneously shatter the poison pellet.

The power of the Explosive Arrow itself wasn't great, but the key was that after adding the poison pellets, the power was terrifying.

After the poison pellet shattered, the poisonous powder inside could instantly envelop a range of a hundred zhang. Some incompetent Disciples inhaled it directly through their nostrils, immediately becoming poisoned, dizzy, losing consciousness, and eventually dying.

As for those smarter guys, they were even worse off than those incompetent ones. At least when the incompetent Disciples died, they died comfortably; they died the moment they hit the ground, and their posture was quite cool.

Those clever elites noticed the poisonous powder immediately and almost instinctively held their breath. Unfortunately, they underestimated the toxicity of the Silver-Armored Centipede.

Once that poisonous powder landed on their skin, it acted like sulfuric acid, burning the skin, and it was also incomparably itchy, making people unable to resist scratching.

Once they started scratching, even their hearts began to itch, and even their Soul began to itch. They wished they could tear off their own skin.

This kind of itch was impossible to resist. After scratching a few times, they tore their own flesh off, but it still didn't relieve the itch. Some Disciples simply used blades to cut off the itchy areas.

However, Long Chen didn't just set up one part of the trap. On the hillsides on both sides, dozens of grass covers were lifted, and dozens of crossbows aimed at the crazily wailing Evil Path Disciples, ruthlessly firing arrows.

"You bastards of the Evil Path, taste the power of your Grandpa Guo!"

The giant Army-Breaking Crossbow in Guo Ran's hands aimed at the crowd below and fired wildly, cutting off their retreat.

For a time, flesh and blood flew, explosions shook the heavens, and the bottom of the valley was swallowed by a faint mist.

That mist was the poisonous powder of the Silver-Armored Centipede. The Disciples of the Xuantian Branch had all taken the anti-poison pills Long Chen had given them, allowing them to ignore the poisonous mist.

But those Evil Path Disciples couldn't. Let alone them, even those core Disciples couldn't withstand it. They swallowed several anti-poison pills in a panic, but were horrified to find they couldn't suppress it at all.

Realizing they had fallen into a trap, they retreated crazily, but behind them were dozens of Branch Disciples holding crossbows, constantly firing Explosive Arrows.

The most terrifying thing was that after the hundreds of Explosive Arrows in that huge Army-Breaking Crossbow were fired, the guy Guo Ran simply took out a new Army-Breaking Crossbow.

Guo Ran's eyes were glowing blue with excitement. He had never been as excited as he was today in his entire life.

The Explosive Arrows were fired wildly as if they were free, and the rain-like arrows completely cut off their retreat.

"We can't retreat backwards, charge forward!"

I don't know who shouted that, but the Evil Path Disciples, unable to retreat, began to charge forward crazily.

However, the surroundings were filled with poisonous powder, and they couldn't see the situation ahead at all. After running less than ten zhang, suddenly, the ground beneath their feet vanished.

"Ah…"

Screams were constant, but these screams were extremely muffled because they came from several dozen zhang deep underground.

Because in front of them was a giant pit over fifty zhang deep. Such a large pit basically wouldn't kill anyone from the fall alone.

However, Long Chen didn't intend to kill them from the fall. He only needed to trap them for a few breaths of time, because the poison of the Silver-Armored Centipede would cause them to completely lose their combat ability within that time.

The battlefield was filled with wailing, and they couldn't see the situation around them at all. However, what they heard most clearly was the sound behind them—the constant explosions that drowned out all the screams from the front.

Therefore, at the first moment, everyone desperately charged forward, and as a result, they all fell into the deep pit.

The people who fell into the pit first didn't die from the fall, but they ended up being crushed to death by the people who fell in afterwards.

Everyone was screaming and wailing wildly, but it was useless. The surroundings were grey and hazy, and they couldn't see the situation at all.

The more they wailed and screamed, the easier it was to inhale the poisonous powder, which further accelerated their deaths.

Long Chen looked indifferently at the Evil Path Disciples in the poisonous mist, who were like headless flies. There was not a trace of expression on his face, just as if he were watching a performance.

The Branch Disciples behind Long Chen were dumbfounded. They couldn't even dream that a duel between experts could actually be resolved using mundane combat methods.

Looking at Long Chen's back, their hearts were filled with reverence. This was a miraculous man who would lead them to create one legend after another.

The wailing lasted for about a quarter of an hour. Inside the valley, the explosions continued without stopping. Long Chen couldn't help but curse angrily:

"Guo Ran, you wasteful kid, the enemies are all dead, what are you still shooting for? Do you have an addiction to firing blank shots?"

Guo Ran finally recovered from his excitement. He had just been too busy having fun and forgot that there was no sound below anymore. He hurriedly put away his Army-Breaking Crossbow.

"Everyone, don't move yet. The poisonous mist will take half an hour to dissipate. Everyone guard your positions and watch out for any fish that slipped through the net."

However, after half an hour passed, the poisonous mist slowly dissipated, and the legendary fish that slipped through the net did not appear.

Because the ground was full of dead fish, and there wasn't even a single one half-dead. They were all dead as could be. Even those powerful core Disciples hadn't been able to escape.

It seemed he had overestimated the Alchemy level of the Evil Path. Not every Alchemist could refine High Grade Third-Rank anti-poison pills.

If it wasn't a High Grade Third-Rank anti-poison pill, it simply couldn't defend against the potent poison of the Silver-Armored Centipede, so the result was obvious.

Everyone looked at the bodies on the ground and couldn't help but feel it was somewhat unreal. They had killed a team of Evil Path Disciples so easily?

Compared to the heart-pounding, life-and-death struggles of the past, this was simply too easy, so easy that it was hard to believe.

Long Chen scanned the battlefield with his Soul energy and found no Soul fluctuations, which meant this group of guys was definitely dead.

"Everyone, clean up the battlefield. Be careful, there might be people playing dead." Although he knew there were no living people here, it was good to scare them a bit. After all, being careful was never a mistake, and it would help them develop a habit.

"Senior Brother Long Chen, these people's heads…" A Disciple said, holding a pitch-black head.

Long Chen smiled and said, "Cut off all the intact heads. Don't worry about whether they are black or not. The Branch counts points by number, not by color."

Those heads, because of the potent poison, were already black beyond recognition, and some were already bloody and mangled, with their features indistinguishable.

As for how the Branch would distinguish the cultivation of these heads in the future, that was the Branch's business. Anyway, the Branch must have its own secret methods.

It had to be said that after the last great battle, the Branch Disciples had overcome their fear of death and had become ruthless.

Since they weren't even afraid of death, there was nothing for them to fear. Cutting off heads was as easy as cutting watermelons.

In less than half an hour, the battlefield was cleaned up. Anyway, most Evil Path Disciples had spatial rings. They put the corpses into the spatial rings and just threw them into a pit.

As for the remaining spatial rings, they were handed over directly to the Branch, because this was one of the Branch's regulations: Righteous Path Disciples were not allowed to study the Cultivation Techniques or classics of Evil Path Disciples. Violators would be executed directly, without mercy.

At the time, this made Long Chen feel a bit fearful. If such a regulation existed, wouldn't it mean that he couldn't practice the Nether Ghost Shadow Steps he had swindled?

But thinking about it, this order was because they were afraid that Righteous Path Disciples would secretly practice Evil Path Cultivation Techniques due to their power.

Because many Evil Path Disciples' Cultivation Techniques were exceptionally vicious and terrifying in power; Long Chen had learned a lot about this from Gui Sha back then.

But these Cultivation Techniques and battle skills required killing people to practice. No matter how powerful they were, Long Chen couldn't do it.

As for the Nether Ghost Shadow Steps, it was just an unfathomable set of footwork, without any distinction between Righteous and Evil. Long Chen felt that secretly learning this should be fine. As long as he didn't publicize it, who would know?

However, the Nether Ghost Shadow Steps were too powerful. He had secretly tried it a few times and couldn't operate it at all. He could only wait until he reached a Breakthrough in the Tendon Tempering Realm before talking about it.

After arranging for everyone to clean up the battlefield and restoring the original traps, Guo Ran started busily making Explosive Arrows again.

This kid had tasted the sweetness of it; he hid alone in the trap on the hillside and started working non-stop.

Long Chen checked the number of people and found that forty-seven people had already achieved a Breakthrough in their Realm, so he let them take the shift and let the original people go for their Breakthrough.

This way, everyone had a chance to achieve a Breakthrough. In such a tense environment, even if they couldn't achieve a Breakthrough, they would still build an extremely solid Foundation, which had only benefits and no harm.

Just after finishing the deployment, two hours later, another batch of Evil Path Disciples came over in a grand, imposing manner.

"Hehe, more food has arrived."

A smile appeared on Long Chen's face. Points were flowing in like water. Hehe, this time he could collect the medicinal herbs for the Yuheng Star.