Published: March 3, 2025
Chapter 400: Heartless Turnaround
Just a breath after the formation was completely shattered, this person had transformed into an escape light, fleeing in the opposite direction of Liu Yu, Cao Yuanwu, and the others at a speed far surpassing that of foundation establishment stage cultivators.
In the spiritual herb garden, only five foundation establishment cultivators from White Cloud Temple and over forty qi refinement stage disciples remained.
They all wore expressions of shock, still unable to react to what had just happened.
In the midst of the rapid escape, seeing that no cultivators were pursuing them, Song Haocang finally felt a bit more at ease.
He began to contemplate the next steps.
“No, this won’t do.”
“I can’t just return to the sect like this.”
“If any of my fellow disciples manage to escape, wouldn’t I be burdened with the reputation of fleeing in battle and abandoning my peers?”
“Once the sect finds out, the lightest punishment will be the stripping of my cultivation, and the heaviest could be execution!”
“Right, I can’t just leave like this.”
A fierce look flashed in Song Haocang's eyes as he adjusted his escape light towards the main path leading to the mountain gate, intending to handle the aftermath of this incident properly.
The joy of having survived the ordeal entirely overshadowed the guilt and sense of wrongdoing in his heart.
Celestial Rampart City had become a "lonely city"; even if any fellow disciples had managed to escape, they could not enter the city to relay the news.
As long as he stayed at the main path leading to the mountain gate and silenced any fellow disciples who might escape, his actions would remain undetected.
After today, he would still be the admired figure in the sect, and he might even receive special training, with the hope of becoming a golden core seed.
“I don’t want to, but I have no choice.”
“Please don’t resent me.”
Song Haocang comforted himself in his heart.
Having betrayed once, making a similar decision again made the guilt and sense of wrongdoing much lighter.
“Song Shixiong?!”
“Song Shishu, are you really leaving us behind?”
The cultivators from White Cloud Temple, having reacted, were filled with shock and fury. Their faces flashed with emotions of anger, fear, and disbelief.
This was because Song Haocang usually had a good reputation and considerable prestige in Qianchang Spiritual Herb Garden.
They never expected that he would so decisively abandon his fellow disciples.
As great disciples of the sect, they naturally had their pride. Being bullied by loose cultivators to this extent, many were already prepared to perish together.
Even in death, they wanted to take someone down with them.
However, with Song Haocang's act of fleeing, the morale of the group was greatly shaken. After their blood courage cooled down, it became difficult to summon the will to fight to the death.
At that moment, two more cultivators took to their magical artifacts, wanting to escape.
In an instant, the morale of White Cloud Temple had completely dispersed, making it impossible to organize an effective resistance.
The qi refinement stage cultivators followed suit, showing a tendency to scatter wildly.
But Cao Yuanwu and the others would not let such a rare opportunity slip away.
The reason for letting Song Haocang go was that, as he had reached the peak of foundation establishment, pursuing him might not yield a good outcome, and he might even counterattack and bring them down with him.
Moreover, he had seized the initiative and activated his escape talisman, making it too late to pursue him now.
But now that they were prepared, the remaining foundation establishment and qi refinement cultivators from White Cloud Temple would not find it easy to leave.
These were all moving "storage bags," how could they let them go?
Therefore, apart from Song Haocang, Cao Yuanwu and the others did not intend to spare any of the remaining cultivators!
In the blink of an eye, Cao Yuanwu and another late-stage foundation establishment loose cultivator had already pursued the two fleeing foundation establishment cultivators from White Cloud Temple.