Sikong Xuan, who had maintained absolute calmness since appearing on the battlefield,
broke out in a cold sweat on his forehead.
His gaze fell on the Short Flute in Baili An’s hand, his voice deep, "The Deceit Skill of the You Dynasty."
Who exactly was this newly appointed River Lord of Shouhe?
He had never heard of a Deceit Cultivator from the You Dynasty who also cultivated his physique. More importantly, with the aid of Shen Jibai, the Crown Prince of Guyin, Sikong Xuan had concealed himself and established his order among the Three Worlds—his mind on the minutiae, controlling the fates of all beings in the Three Worlds at his fingertips.
Looking at the entirety of Central Netherworld, among the younger generation, only the Crown Prince Ying Xiu had a deep mastery of the Deceit Skill.
But now it seemed that this young man’s control and understanding of the Deceit Skill far surpassed that of Ying Xiu.
Until now, he had never heard of such a person existing in the world.
Alive armies, once slaughtered by the fire of war, could no longer be tools in his hands.
But the dead armies, under the control of that little Jade Flute, showed even greater momentum; nourished by yin energy, the assembled soldiers were difficult to face directly.
At this thought, solely in terms of tactics, Sikong Xuan could not help but admire this young man thoroughly; he had thought he only relied on the power of weapons from the Demon World, but it turned out his troop deployment was no less inferior than that of his clan’s military advisors.
First, he bided his time, allowing Manxie’s army to break into the city and engage the Demon General and the City Guard in battle, then swept through with lethal weapons. The more corpses there were on the battlefield, from a tactical perspective, the more advantageous it was for him.
"However, it’s a pity. If it were ten years earlier, I would indeed have liked to confront you directly, to test how strong the Deceit Skill from Central Netherworld truly is."
Sikong Xuan showed a look of regret, his gaze on Baili An waned along with his fighting spirit and his tone even carried a trace of helplessness, "But this is a battlefield, I am but a military advisor, not a warrior."
On the battlefield, engaging in fervent combat with an enemy of interest, regardless of one’s own army and responsibilities, was a luxury for a military advisor.
Sikong Xuan was neither impulsive nor straightforward by nature.
As his gaze moved away from Baili An, a covert arrow hidden in the darkness, unknown to anyone, silently and maliciously concealed in the moonlight like a light feather, like a speck of dust, yet faster than any tangible object in the world, pierced through space from behind Baili An.
The flute’s music suddenly stopped, and on the battlefield, Corpse Mountain’s demons, like puppets whose strings had been cut, collapsed in disarray.
Blood slowly dripped down the Jade Flute.
Baili An slowly lowered the Jade Flute in his hand, the tail feather of the dark arrow stuck in him was a spectral dark hue, taken from the most poisonous part of a peacock from Yu Nanfang.
The dark hue on the arrow’s feather slowly dissipated, the poison flowing seamlessly, giving no time to react, injecting into Baili An’s body, causing his entire back to become numb.
Baili An expressionlessly drew the dark arrow from his chest, noticing his fingernails had turned black.
Sensing something, he looked back through the dusty wind, and on the eaves of a temple, he caught a fleeting glimpse of a figure, likely a woman.
His vision gradually became completely covered by a chilling, deathly bluish hue, followed by an agonizing pain in his head, torturous as if slicing his Divine Sense Platform to pieces with one cut at a time.
Baili An, adept at enduring pain, was not greatly affected by this degree of pain. His lips, turning dark green, barely moved, his calm, smooth voice reached Sikong Xuan’s ears across the heavy winds of the Imperial City, "Unfortunately, from the start, I never intended to let you witness the true Deceit Skill of Central Netherworld."
Triggered by his deep red gaze, Sikong Xuan felt an inexplicable chill of apprehension.
The peacock feather poison, as a beast of Immortal Country, was even more fatal than the most poisonous beast, Qiongqi, from the Demon World. The feather on that arrow, taken from the deepest poison part of the peacock, made Sikong Xuan believe that Baili An had no chance of turning the tables.
Yet, in the midst of it all, Sikong Xuan’s intuition, honed on countless battlefields, told him he had overlooked a crucial point in their brief encounter.
However, before he could dwell on it, the already bleak and ferocious atmosphere of the battlefield within the Imperial City suddenly turned heavy and oppressive. From the distant mountains outside the city, a long wolf howl resounded, air abruptly tightening.
The blood clouds in the sky seemed to be dispersed by an invisible giant hand, revealing a bloody scarlet moon.
Beneath the bloody moon, an unnatural, terrifying solemnity emerged; the moon in the sky seemed to have been disrupted by a stone breaking the surface of a cold lake, apparently sinking slightly, as if about to crash into the city.
Even standing within the city, one could almost see the continuous majestic mountains on the surface of that bloody moon, and the startling otherworld revealed.
A terrifying aura crossed from that world, within the blood-colored night, it seemed as though a pair of devilish eyes slowly opened, coldly comprehending the entire world.
Even Sikong Xuan, who had experienced countless death-filled battlefields, couldn’t help his face turning pale at the sensation of that gaze.
A pale, beautiful, yet faintly sinister-bloodied hand passed through the scarlet moonlight, reaching toward the ground with a gesture as if to grasp it.