Chapter 97: More Than a Hundred Bare-Chested Men Against Six Men in Black

Inside the white bone tower, all was deathly still. The commotion outside seemed to have silenced even the creatures within, as though they were cowed into awed fear.

Leaned against the tower, Lin Zhan sat cross-legged on the ground, taking advantage of the moment to regulate his breathing and heal his wounds while he considered how to deal with the peril before him.

"Damn it, why are we stopping here?" Wei Xiaoran growled.

Black Five was clearly one of the higher-ranking disciples among those at the black level. Seeing the clan head angry, he hurried forward, clasped his hands, and said cautiously, "My lord, there may be an ambush inside."

Wei Xiaoran fixed him with a cold stare. "Ambush, my ass. And even if there is one, damn it, are the six of you at the black level afraid of some tiny ambushed inn?"

"This subordinate dares not. I will lead the brothers in at once!" Black Five quickly made his position clear. To defy the clan head's wishes would bring severe consequences.

Of course Wei Xiaoran knew there was no ambush in this inn at all. If there had been, Lin Zhan would never have needed to leap out of the courtyard alone and fight himself into grave injury.

It was only that the white tower seemed strange, and within the inn there lurked a faint but formidable aura, clearly connected to that tower.

The group entered the courtyard with caution. Wei Xiaoran paused, produced a talisman, flicked it into the air, and cried, "Seal!"

The talisman burst into light and vanished in a flash. At once, the entire Phoenix Sun Inn seemed to be wrapped by some invisible barrier.

It was a sealing talisman, capable of locking away the fluctuations of aura within a small space. Once used, whatever happened next inside Phoenix Sun Inn, no matter how violent, would not be known to the outside world.

After the barrier formed, Wei Xiaoran also swept into the inn.

Lin Zhan, still leaning against the white tower, sat in meditation. Seeing the black-clad men enter, he slowly raised his head and forced a grin, as if to smile, but another mouthful of blood came spurting out.

That smile was like a taunt, leaving the six black-clad men petrified on the spot.

"Damn it, you're already injured this badly, and you still have the heart to smile?"

Lin Zhan's injuries were no light matter. Eight enemies at the black level had battled him in relentless rotation, and the spiritual power within him had been drained far faster than it could be replenished. Had it not been for the rather high-grade Dark Cloud Demon Armor, which had provided the most basic protection, he would have been torn open and left in tatters.

The wounds were all internal. Aside from the unavoidable strikes of Black Five's palm force during the course of his evasive fighting, there had also been countless sword qi and blade lights. His organs had shifted out of place, and more than one bone had been broken and shattered.

To have held on long enough to flee here to the bone tower was no small feat.

"Do you really intend to kill them all?" Lin Zhan suddenly asked.

His voice was loud, so loud that perhaps even the more than one hundred people trapped inside the white bone tower heard him. It was so loud, in fact, that Lin Zhan paid for it by coughing up still more blood.

The black-clad men exchanged confused looks. Kill them all? Of course they were going to kill him!

One of them said, "Kill them. Kill as many as there are!"

He meant everyone in the Phoenix Sun Inn, Lin Zhan included. Kill them all, leaving none alive.

Lin Zhan asked again, "Can't you give people a chance to mend their ways? Can't you spare them?"

Another mouthful of blood spilled from his lips.

The black-clad men were utterly baffled, but Wei Xiaoran snapped in anger, "It's too late now. Even if you hand over every treasure you possess, do you think that can simply wipe the slate clean?"

At that moment, Lin Zhan sent a covert transmission into the bone tower: "You heard him. I had intended to let you leave, but unfortunately my sect's people still mean to kill you all. Though you have already handed over everything on your person, I still cannot make the decision. So now I will release you from the tower. Then resist with all your strength and seize your own chance to escape. In a sect like this, I myself would want to betray it and run. I can only help you this far. Life and death now rest in your own hands. Alas..."

That final sigh was filled with boundless pity and helpless regret.

At the same time, Lin Zhan loosened the array restrictions within the bone tower, allowing those inside to recover their strength.

At once, the people within the tower erupted in fervor, each one indignant to the core.

"So this young man is actually so kind-hearted! He truly meant to let us go!"

"Yes, I really regret robbing his things. If only we'd known, we should have made friends instead. This kind of righteousness is rare these days. How precious it is!"

Even Elder Bai Li Shanpu Ding, who had nearly been moved to tears, rallied himself and took the lead as an example. Bare-chested, he stood before the similarly bare-chested crowd and raised his arms high, shouting, "Fellow Daoists, to have fallen to this point today is also a kind of fate. This old man believes none of you are cowards afraid of death. If we are to die, then let us die in battle. So once we go out today, let us stand with our fellow Daoists and fight to the end, refusing to bow to evil power!"

"Refuse to bow to evil power!"

"Refuse to bow to evil power!"

A band of bare-chested men waved their arms and roared.

Meanwhile, Lin Zhan was using telepathic transmission to leave each of the overbearing black-clad men with a single sentence:

"Do you really think this isn't a trap? Heh..."

The smile at the corner of his mouth remained as it was, but this time Lin Zhan's grin carried a distinctly sly edge.

Then, with a movement of divine sense, he completely lifted the seal upon the white bone tower.

The tower gave off a deep booming resonance, carrying a faint majesty as boundless as the great Dao. Under the black-clad men's stunned gazes, the tower body rose swiftly, and more than one hundred naked men, wearing nothing but assorted shorts, appeared without warning in the courtyard, filling it to the brim.

The instant those more than one hundred bare-chested men appeared, the black-clad men were still reeling in shock. Lin Zhan had already leaped silently onto the roof of a stable in a corner of the courtyard, quickly sat down to regulate his breathing, and tucked the white bone tower away into his spatial treasure without a trace.

For a heartbeat, the courtyard was quiet.

Then the bare-chested men discovered the black-clad figures lurking among them, weapons in hand, and instantly the situation exploded.

"Brothers, beat the ones wearing clothes to death!"

"Fellow Daoists, fight for honor and kill the black-clad men!"

"Resist with everything you've got. Take out these heartless bastards!"

At first, the six black-clad men from the Wei household were completely dumbfounded. Faced with more than a hundred bare-chested ambushers, their tightly wrapped black garments felt as though they had walked into the wilderness of savage beasts.

When the bare-chested men unleashed their human-level inner power and began shouting for blood, the black-clad men had no time to respond.

By the time each black-clad man had been struck dozens of times in rapid succession, they finally regained their composure. Whether the other side was bare-chested or not, whether they held weapons or not, there was no doubt now: they were Lin Zhan's ambush.

That white bone tower must be some sort of storage treasure belonging to Lin Zhan, one that could carry more than a hundred bare-chested brutes at his side. Naturally, these brutes had to be killed.

The black-clad men finally sprang into action, and the moment they did, the bare-chested crowd was in trouble.

Most of the men among the bare-chested group were only at the human level, while the black-clad disciples at the black level were crushing opponents of the human level with irresistible force.

But there were also dozens among the bare-chested crowd who stood on the brink of breaking through from the peak of the human level toward the barrier of the black level. Their fighting strength was formidable indeed, and they had the advantage in numbers.

Thus the chaotic melee between more than one hundred bare-chested men and six black-clad experts at the black level became an extraordinarily grand spectacle, and one evenly matched as well.