Chapter 1024

– The Stone Sculpture Opens Its Eyes
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Chen Changsheng could clearly see that the pressure exerted by the Angel of Sacred Light in the darkness was incredibly powerful. Even amongst the former Storms of the Eight Directions, only the Elder of Heavenly Secrets or Bie Yanghong would have been able to resist it.
No one could determine whether the Li Palace’s grand array could suppress this person, or for how long it could suppress this person.
The current Li Palace array was not complete. Mao Qiuyu was still in the capital.
Even more importantly, based on Bie Yanghong’s recount, two Angels had appeared that day with Black Robe.
Since one Angel had appeared, the other certainly had the ability to appear as well, but where was it?
This was what concerned Chen Changsheng the most.
It was clear that the appearance of these two Angels of the Sacred Light was related to the Demon Lord.
In a very short moment of time, he made a decision.
While one Angel was still unable to break out of the Li Palace’s grand array and the other Angel had not appeared, they had to kill the Demon Lord.
This meant entering the darkness in the courtyard, adventuring into its depths.
At the same time, he still needed to preside over the Li Palace array to both suppress this angel and ensure that the Demon Lord could not leave.
What should be done?

Don’t let it out.

He placed the Divine Staff in Tang Thirty-Six’s hand.
Somewhat disbelieving, Tang Thirty-Six asked,
Me again?

There was no meaning to this question. There was no one else present that could temporarily serve as the array pivot.
To put it another way, the only hands the Divine Staff was willing to be held by, besides Chen Changsheng’s, were Tang Thirty-Six’s.
Who had made it so that he was the one to receive the Divine Staff when the previous Pope was bestowing it?
Although Tang Thirty-Six appeared very angry, his two words like a groan of pain, he did not refuse.
Because he knew that he could not refuse.
He took a step forward and raised the Divine Staff.
The expensive leather boot from Tianliang County made a deep crack in the ground as it stepped on the cobblestones. The Divine Staff in his hand exploded with light, causing the Falling Star Stone and the other treasures to unleash an even more terrifying pressure that surged toward that Angel in the darkness.
Tang Thirty-Six’s complexion instantly paled, but his eyes shone with determination.
Chen Changsheng did not see this sight. Before Tang Thirty-Six had taken the step forward, he had already vanished into the darkness.
The divine might of the Li Palace’s grand array cut off the courtyard from the world, suppressed the darkness and that other world, but it had no effect on him.
The darkness was so thick that it obscured all vision, but it could not slow him in the slightest.
His spiritual sense was as serene as water. It could light up the most distant star in the night sky, so it naturally could pierce through this darkness before him.
But the Demon Lord had already retreated very deep into the darkness, fusing with it. It would take some time to find him.
Right now, what he lacked most was time.
Fortunately, he was not alone.
When he was passing the Divine Staff to Tang Thirty-Six, that person had already entered the darkness.
More accurately, that person had never retreated from the darkness in the first place.
The biting strum of a zither had impassively struck into the darkness.
The blind zither player truly did have an unfathomable cultivation level and most sturdy mental fortitude. Even the descent of an Angel of Sacred Light was not able to make him waver.
Chen Changsheng heard the note from the zither and his eyes moved, his storm of swords following.
The darkness was torn apart by intimidating sword intents and biting zither notes, revealing a path.
At the end of this path was a tree.
The Demon Lord drifted backward, his two hands laying down barrier after barrier as he retreated.
Sword intent and zither note pursued, shattering those barriers as if they were made of glass.
Countless shattering sounds could be heard as the Demon Lord landed on the ground with countless tears hacked out of his midnight-black robe.
Golden blood could be seen seeping out of those tears.
The howling wind suddenly stopped for a few moments.
Chen Changsheng and the blind zither player appeared.
Zither notes lingered while the storm of swords formed an array.
The tree was suddenly no more.
It had not truly become nothing, only been rendered into the finest powder by zither notes and sword intents.
This powder was so fine that not even the wind could blow it away, so it was naturally impossible to see.
Chen Changsheng and the zither player did not continue their attack, because they felt an ill foreboding.
The Demon Lord had stopped his retreat.
He stood where the tree had once stood, stood in his own darkness. He calmly regarded Chen Changsheng and the blind zither player.
It was like he was viewing two superb works of art, praising their perfection.
The works of art in Xuelao City had always tended toward ostentatious and opulent, but at their core, one would always find the ice-cold aura of death.
The finest work of art was death itself.
In the Demon Lord’s eyes, Chen Changsheng and the blind zither player were two lifeless corpses.
……
……
Chen Changsheng and the zither player began to sense more and more danger.
Where was the Demon Lord’s confidence coming from? Where was that indistinct sense of danger hiding?
Was it from that misty ball of light in the night sky?
No, the Angel in that ball of light was still incapable of breaking out of the Li Palace’s grand array for the time being.
There was still another Angel.
Chen Changsheng had already prepared himself for this.
The string of stone pearls had at some point moved from his wrist into his palm.
He gripped the chilly stone pearls and silently observed the surrounding darkness.
Only by confirming his opponent’s position could he launch his strongest attack at this expert from another continent.
He was confident that even if he could not kill or heavily injure the Angel, he could make things incredibly troublesome for it.
Because his sea of consciousness contained the battle experience and wisdom passed down by Senior Bie Yanghong.
Because he had the Heavenly Tome Monoliths.
At that moment, he was confident that the blind zither player would seize the chance and kill the Demon Lord in a flurry of zither notes.
But he now realized that his arrangements were apparently set for failure.
As was said before, his spiritual sense was as serene as water. It could light up the most distant star in the night sky, could disregard the thickest darkness.
But he could not pin down the location of that Angel.
The courtyard in the darkness was still and quiet.
Both the stalemate between the Li Palace array and the other Angel, and the Demon Lord right in front of him, seemed like they were in another world.
Chen Changsheng looked at the Demon Lord, his expression still, but his palms already somewhat sweaty.
The five Heavenly Tome Monoliths became somewhat slippery from the sweat. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling and only deepened his apprehension.
The situation before him had already become flowing sand, impossible to grasp.
The response from his scattered spiritual sense and the zither notes were all telling him something.
The Angel of the Sacred Light was not in this darkness, was not in this courtyard, and might not even be on this continent.
So why did he still feel that danger, and why was it getting worse and worse?
The Angel that was now contending with the Li Palace array had appeared without warning.
Was the same thing about to happen?
……
……
In truth, only a few moments had passed since the tree had disappeared.
Chen Changsheng and the blind zither player had already scoured the darkness with their sword intents and zither notes several times.
They had failed to notice that to the side of the courtyard’s rear gate was a stone sculpture.
Even in the heavy darkness, this stone sculpture was very conspicuous. If they had turned around, they would have undoubtedly seen it.
It was a statue of a naked person, half-crouched, two wings sprouting from its back.
It looked rather similar to the Angel in the ball of light.
In truth, this naked stone sculpture had always been an Angel.
Chen Changsheng and the zither player had failed to sense this stone statue because it really did seem like an actual stone statue.
This stone sculpture had no Qi, did not breathe, had no vitality or heat, and it certainly did not move.
In other words, this stone sculpture was a lifeless object.
No matter how one examined it, whether with spiritual sense, or sword intent, or zither note, one would reach this conclusion.
Suddenly, the stone sculpture opened its eyes.
It came to life.