Gods: Start with Goblins

"No wonder my Seven Star Sword suddenly malfunctioned yesterday. It turned out that the sword core was replaced with a defective one!"

Several servants who had been silent in the corner suddenly knelt on the ground, crying and accusing:

"They even took a cut of the firewood from the woodshed, saying it was 'necessary for maintaining the formation'..."

At this moment, the rosewood screen suddenly moved without wind, revealing three white-haired elders sitting behind it.

Sparks flew from the emerald pipe in the leader's hand, illuminating the old centipede-shaped scar on his left cheek:

"How dare you! More than half of the disciples who were guarding the formation yesterday were killed or injured. Instead of mourning in the funeral hall, you are here to slander the Elders Council?"

The black-robed old man beside him said sinisterly:

"Withholding spiritual stones? Where's the evidence?

Don't think that you can lie just because there is no evidence against you! "

Luo Dan suddenly chuckled, and several image stones flew out from his sleeves, floating in the air and projecting a distorted picture:
In the picture, an old man in gorgeous clothes is pouring a whole box of spirit stones into a secret compartment in the ground. Deep in the secret compartment are the remains of dozens of disciples. The ties of the storage bags around their waists are unnaturally broken.

The temperature in the hall dropped suddenly. Someone knocked over the Ice Soul Lamp. The dark blue flame made everyone's faces look distorted like those of evil spirits.

“Look at these remains!”

Luo Dan shouted so loudly that the dust on the beams fell down.

"They clutched the formation talisman until they died, not knowing that the spiritual stone they were protecting had already turned into a night-shining pearl on someone's bed!"

The young man in green clothes suddenly jumped up and pointed the broken porcelain pieces in his hand at the old man in black robe:
"When I was keeping vigil last night, I heard the night watchman say that he saw the Seventh Elder go to the Rebirth Hall.

What is enshrined in the Hall of Rebirth is the sect's magic weapon left by the past masters!

Suddenly there was a thunder outside the window and heavy rain poured down.

The candlelight in the meeting room was flickering in the strong wind. The huge black shadows projected on the wall seemed to come alive, rising and falling with the sound of the quarrel.

No one noticed that another photo stone in Luodan's sleeve was quietly recording everything, and in a corner reflected on the stone, the corner of the seventh elder's clothes was disappearing at the entrance of the secret passage leading to the forbidden area.

Heavy rain washed over the jagged cliffs of Tianque Peak, and the bronze candlesticks in the meeting hall made harsh noises in the strong wind.

Luo Dan stood in front of the mottled black iron map, his fingertips running over the gap torn by the monster's claws. That should have been the most solid hub of the mountain protection formation.

The damp night wind, carrying the smell of blood, penetrated through the window lattice, blowing his black hair against his sweaty face.

The young man in green shirt curled up in the shadow of the carved wooden chair, his right hand unconsciously stroking the storage bag at his waist——

Half of a bloodstained breastplate was hidden there.

Last night, at the moment when the monster broke through the formation, he saw with his own eyes the photo stone that slipped from the sleeve of the seventh elder flash with a faint light. The crystal stone that was supposed to record the operation of the formation instead reflected the distorted smiling faces of the elders as they divided the spoils.

A sweet and fishy taste surged in his throat, he bit the tip of his tongue tightly, and the taste of blood spread between his teeth.

"Forty thousand spirit stones!"

Suddenly, a woman's trembling voice with tears came from the corner.

"My father mortgaged the entire mine to get that share..."

Before she finished speaking, a crisp sound of porcelain cups exploding came from the west. The burly man with a full beard pointed at the chief elder while holding the broken porcelain cups:
"You used our hard-earned money to fatten the fangs of the monster!"

On his exposed right arm, the throne mark was oozing with black blood, which was the poisonous curse left behind by the backlash of the formation last night.

The black-robed elder behind the rosewood screen suddenly stood up, and his jade ring hit the table with a dull sound:
"How dare you! Do you know what the crime is for slandering others?"

His dry branch-like finger pointed at the young man in green clothes.
“Especially you, Lin Jiu!

If you hadn't secretly hidden the magic weapon last night, how could the formation be like this? "

The temperature in the hall dropped suddenly, and the thirty-six Ice Soul Lamps suddenly dimmed. Only the shadow stone in Luodan's sleeve emitted a strange green light.

"Private collection?"

Luodan's wide sleeves fluttered, and three shadow stones floated in the air.

In the picture, the seventh elder was pouring a whole box of spirit stones into the secret compartment with the Taotie pattern, and deep in the secret compartment were the remains of dozens of disciples. The storage bags around their waists were cut open by sharp blades, and the spirit stone fragments and bones were mixed into a shocking white-gray color.

“Look at these remains!”

His voice suddenly rose.
"They clutched the formation talisman until they died, not knowing that the spiritual stone they were protecting had already become a night-shining pearl on someone else's bed!"

The chief elder suddenly laughed sinisterly, his haggard face looking like a ghost under the candlelight:
“Even if the formation is flawed, the monster tide is a natural disaster that only occurs once in a hundred years.

But you, Luodan, why weren't you in the formation last night? "

Half of a blood-red jade slip slipped out from his sleeve.

Do you want to hear what your personal maid has to say?

In the dead silence of the hall, the jade slip suddenly projected a distorted image: in the secret compartment of Luodan's study, there was a secret box with the same pattern as the monster's scales!

Lin Jiu suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck, and a crack appeared in the storage bag on his waist.

He took a half step back, a cold light flashing from his sleeves.

The half heart-protecting mirror automatically floated in the air, and the mirror reflected the afterimage of the Seventh Elder disappearing behind the screen.

The rainstorm became more severe, and the copper bells on the eaves made a shrill wail, mixed with the roars of beasts coming from outside the hall, as if the tide of monsters from last night had come again.

And in Luo Dan's sleeve, the fourth image stone was quietly recording the stains on the corner of the Seventh Elder's clothes...

Gold powder with Taotie pattern?
The heavy rain pierced through the dark clouds like silver arrows, and the bronze dome of the meeting hall on Tianque Peak emitted a teeth-grinding buzzing sound.

Eight ice soul lamps flickered in the strong wind, making the faces of everyone in the hall appear pale and blue.

Luo Dan sat alone in front of the black iron desk. The broken formation diagram on the desk was soaked with undried blood, which was the mark of the monster's sharp teeth biting him last night.

He looked at the hundreds of people sitting or standing in the hall, and a bitter feeling rose in his throat.

These monks who escaped from the claws of monsters no longer had any fire in their eyes.

The young man in blue shirt clutched his blood-stained cuffs, his knuckles turning white from the force.

He remembered clearly that last night when the Seventh Elder exchanged the entire box of spirit stones for stones, the half heart-protection mirror that he had hidden in the storage bag in the dark was getting as hot as a branding iron.

At this moment, he looked at the gloomy faces of the three elders sitting in the main seat, and suddenly thought of his fellow disciples who were devoured by monsters. Those figures who had fought side by side with him had now turned into white bones outside the mountain protection formation.

"Everyone!"

The young man suddenly stood up, knocking over the table and causing the jade slips to scatter all over the floor.
"When the formation collapsed last night, did you hear human voices mixed in with the roars of the monsters?"

He opened his shirt to reveal the hideous scar on his heart.
“It was the thrones that fed the monsters with our flesh and blood!
They exchanged 40,000 spirit stones for a bed full of night-shining pearls, and used more than a thousand magic weapons to cast a coffin of greed! "

The meeting room was in an uproar.

The female cultivator on the west side suddenly dropped her sword to the ground. The East China Sea mermaid pearl on the sword tassel rolled into the brazier, emitting a faint blue flame.
"My Meteoric Shuttle!

They said the formation needed to be smelted…” She suddenly choked up. When the monster broke through the formation yesterday, she clearly saw the light of a magic weapon flashing from the sleeves of the Seventh Elder.

The chief elder suddenly jumped up and smashed the emerald pipe towards the photo stone, but Luo Dan easily caught it with two fingers:
"Why are you in such a hurry? There are more exciting things to come——

For example, the soul-guiding lamp made from the remains of his disciples that the Third Elder left in the Hall of Rebirth last night?

"That's enough!" the black-robed elder suddenly shouted.
All the candles in the hall went out immediately.

The sound of a jade slip breaking came from the darkness, but Luo Dan could see clearly with the help of the green light of the image stone -

On the jade pendant on the waist of the chief elder, the family crest of a super-class family was clearly engraved.

He heard the throbbing sound of his own temple, the heavy rain washing the bronze dome of the meeting hall, and suddenly there was the muffled sound of a mechanism turning in a corner.

Heavy rain washed over the jagged cliffs of Tianque Peak, and the bronze candlesticks in the meeting hall made harsh noises in the strong wind.

The eight Ice Soul Lamps made the faces of the people in the hall flicker. Luo Dan sat alone in front of the black iron table. The broken formation diagram on the table was soaked with blood that had not yet dried. It was the mark of the monster's sharp teeth biting it last night.

He looked at the hundreds of people sitting or standing in the hall, and a bitter feeling rose in his throat.

These monks who escaped from the claws of the monsters no longer had any fire in their eyes, only the copper bells on the eaves made broken sounds in the strong wind.

“Now is a matter of life and death.”

Luo Dan suddenly chuckled, and his fingertips stroked the blood-stained formation diagram on the table.

“Has anyone calculated it?

Last night, there seemed to be millions of monsters, but in fact, 70% of them were low-level monsters.

If all 40,000 spirit stones were used, more than a thousand magic weapons would be deployed to form a Zhoutian Star Fighting Formation, and even super-class monsters would have difficulty breaking through the defense.

His wide sleeves were rolled up, and the exquisite nine-turn bracelet glowed faintly in the darkness.

"Do you know?
Back then, the head master only used 3,000 spirit stones to protect the entire city from the beast tide.

As soon as these words came out, a gasp suddenly came from the dead silence in the hall.
"My father said before he died... there is a secret cave under Tianque Peak..."

Before she finished her words, the door to the meeting room burst open, and dozens of soaking wet figures stood in the heavy rain.

The swords on their waists were all wrapped with white silk; they were the family members of the disciples who had died in battle last night!

The leading old man held a bronze box in his hand, and inside the box was half a broken heart-protecting mirror, with Luodan's astonished face reflected on the mirror.

(The following is the expanded text, which focuses on adding details of environmental descriptions, character portrayals, dialogue conflicts, and array operation. The number of words has increased by about three times)
The waning moon was like a hook, and bloody miasma was surging on the edge of the cliff.

More than 300 monks huddled in the temporary Liuhe Black Turtle Formation. The formation pattern flickered on the ground, and every flicker was accompanied by a harsh buzzing sound.

This is a sign that spiritual power is about to be exhausted.

From outside the cliff came the sound of monsters' sharp claws scraping against the rock wall. A fishy wind carrying rubble rushed into the formation, and a jade hairpin inserted in the hair of a female cultivator suddenly broke.

“We can’t delay any longer!”

The white-bearded old man, who smelled of medicine, suddenly pounded the ground, and the seven animal leather bags on his waist jingled.
"I finally used the Third Transformation Return to Origin Pill to keep this innate Qi alive. After half an incense stick of time, I won't even have the strength to stand up!"

Opposite him, a young man in a blue shirt was kneeling, pouring the last bottle of rejuvenation powder into his mouth. As his Adam's apple rolled, the powder slid down his neck into his clothes and formed a dark green stain on his collarbone.

When that long sigh filled with sorrow tore through the silence, everyone's neck began to tremble.

The gray-robed man who was sitting cross-legged in the corner slowly stood up. The corners of his robe were stained with years of gray. When his fingers brushed over the storage bag at his waist, blue veins throbbed under his withered skin.

What he pulled out was not a spirit stone, but half a broken jade token, with the word "Murong" on it cut by a burn mark.

This is clearly a token of the direct lineage of the Xuanyang Murong family.

"Father always said that there were no deserters in the Murong family."

He suddenly pressed the jade token heavily on the center of the formation. The bluestone ground suddenly cracked into spider web patterns, and a torrent of 10,000 medium-grade spirit stones poured into the formation.
The originally dim shadow of the Black Tortoise suddenly raised its head and roared, and the scratching sound of the monster outside the cliff was obviously three times weaker.

"Hey, the Qilin child of the Murong family is really good at winning people's hearts!"

The young man in brocade clothes sitting in the southeast corner of the formation sneered. There were nine blood jade beads on his waist, each with a ferocious ghost face engraved on it.

If you pretend to be a hero by using your family background, you may not even have a place to stand at the clan meeting.

"It's better than some people talking nonsense with nothing in their hands."

Murong, a man in gray robe, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and the cinnabar seal "Murong Family Sutra Library No. 1" was faintly visible on the lining of the storage bag.

He suddenly turned his head and looked at the edge of the crowd.

My fellow Taoist wearing indigo shorts, your fingers have turned white from holding the storage bag.

The cultivator who was named shuddered all over, revealing half of his dirty toes from his coarse cloth shoes, and three withered soul-guiding grasses were inserted in the bamboo tube around his waist.

His throat moved, and he suddenly knelt down in front of Brother Murong:
"The small one only has fifty spirit stones..."

Before he finished speaking, the young man in brocade clothes suddenly swung out a dagger. The cold light brushed past the cultivator's ear and pierced into the rock wall. The gold paint on the handle of the dagger peeled off.

“You want to set up a formation with fifty spirit stones?
Today, Han will teach you what the rules of the cultivation world are!

He stood up suddenly, and the ghost-faced jade pendant on his waist made a crisp sound. The green flame condensed from his fingertips instantly wrapped around the storage bag on the cultivator's waist.

Monk Murong's pupils suddenly shrank, and seven silver needles flew out of his sleeves, but were bounced away by an invisible energy before they touched the young man in brocade clothes.

He groaned, blood foam oozing from the corners of his mouth:
"Young Master Han is so majestic, is he going to repeat the annexation of your clan thirty years ago?

The old story of Xuanmen?

These words were like boiling oil poured into a pile of snow.

Suddenly, there were shouts of curses from the crowd. A purple fire suddenly rose from the southwest corner. It was a one-eyed old woman who had sacrificed her life essence:
"My husband died in the Han family's corpse refining formation!"

She slapped the ground with her dry palms, and eighteen copper nails stained with black blood formed an evil formation, corroding the blue bricks under Master Han's feet, leaving charred holes.

The pile of spirit stones at the center of the formation suddenly burst out with a blinding light. Monk Murong made a prompt decision and bit his tongue, and drops of blood fell accurately into the gaps between each spirit stone.

The spiritual power flows that were originally fighting each other suddenly began to intertwine, and the Zhoutian Star Map appeared above the head of the Xuanwu phantom. The roar of the monster outside the cliff suddenly turned into terrified whimpers.

But before everyone could relax, dark red lines suddenly appeared on the edge of the formation diagram.

This is a sign of overload.

"Twenty thousand short!"

The scholar who was setting up the formation suddenly opened his collar, revealing his chest covered with runes.

If you stop now, everyone will be corroded by the miasma and turned into blood! "

Before he finished speaking, Monk Murong suddenly pulled off the jade pendant from his neck. A drop of golden blood was sealed in the jade core:

"This is the essence of the good corpse I cut out when I broke through the Nascent Soul stage. It is worth 20,000 spirit stones!"

The moment the jade pendant touched the formation diagram, the entire cliff began to tremble.

Gold powder suddenly oozed out of Monk Murong's seven orifices, which was a sign of the backlash of the good corpse.

He staggered and grabbed the formation flag, but heard the cries of the casual cultivators one after another -

Mr. Han had taken out a compass at some point, and the needle was spinning wildly, pointing to an abyss shrouded in miasma somewhere at the bottom of the cliff.

“Something is coming out from down there.”

His face turned pale, and the ghost-faced jade beads under his feet suddenly lit up, casting a huge shadow on the ground.
"One hundred thousand spirit stones... are not enough to fill the gaps between our teeth!" (End of this chapter)