Unnoticed by any of the many pilgrims climbing the stairs, there was a woman in a cloak who would stand still for almost a minute after every 100 steps she took. Cade was making her preparations. Although the structures of the Lower Sect to the left and right of the stairwell were protected, there were no safety measures on the stairs themselves, as far as Cade could judge.
She decided to take advantage of this to prepare a little surprise. She took about 2 hours to climb the stairs and prepared 100 little surprises that would pull the attention once she started. Now, at the top of the stairs, she stood at the foot of the giant Huddba statue.
Despite his hunger-marred and desiccated body, he wore a kind, warming smile on his face. As the legend goes, this guy had actually given away all his possessions and starved himself to reach enlightenment, or something like that. Something these monks would never do.
On the plaza surrounding the Huddba were a couple of monks looking out for people making it all the way up or supervising teams of young monks in prayer or cleaning up the place. Nothing differed from when Cade came here the other day to scout the place.
The rakshasa, still unnoticed by the monks who were in the Qi Gathering Realm at best, walked around to the back of the statue. The gap between the Huddba's pedestal and the mountain wall was quite narrow, just enough for one person to walk through.
Lifting one of the stone tiles placed on this path, she found the roughly evened stone below. There it was. The other day, she had carved a hole into the ground, using her claws, which had little difficulty cutting the rock. In there, she had placed the seed of the Guardian Tree.
At this point, the burl she had placed here had already vanished. All that was left was a shallow hole in the rock and an exposed root at the bottom. Perfect. The tree sapling had already taken root in the spiritual vein of this mountain.
All it was waiting for to break out and become a majestic tree was Cade's signal. The rakshasa closed her eyes, checking the magic circles she just cast, before nodding. Everything was in order. The next moment, the cloak and robes that covered her body vanished, switching places with her Demon Dragon Armor Set. In her hand appeared Niwal's Spear.
"Go for it, Tree. Feast to your hearts' content, " Cade gave the command. Her blood started pumping. She always tried to keep a rational mind, and her
At her command, the tree drilled out of the mountain and straight into the sky. The trunk shot up right behind the emaciated Huddba and swallowed the statue as it grew thicker and thicker. In mere moments, a might crown spread out, smashing all adjacent barriers.
Instantly, the temple turned into a beehive as all safety measures were alarmed. With the ordinary barriers temporarily broken, Cade was able to charge into the second level of the temple complex. Before she left, she activated her 100 presents.
Where she had chanted her spells, 100 humanoid shadows appeared, resembling her cloaked appearance. This was an advanced Illusion Spell, the Phantom Doppelganger. These copies actually have a certain physical impact and were able to show 65% of Cade's own power.
This meant she had just summoned 100 copies of herself with roughly the power of a fully equipped lv.80 sorcerer. They didn't have all the perks of her armor, but they benefited from the stat boosts it gave her.
Nothing in the outer sect would be able to stand up to those, not that they would have to do a lot. The tree's roots had already spread across the mountain, and the vines were also joining in to wreak havoc among the crowd. Her clones were a distraction to draw attention outside the upper layers.
While the tree got rid of the defense for her and kept drawing the attention together with her clones, Cade entered the second level of the temple complex. Even up close, everything seemed carved out of the mountain. She could even see the differing layers of stone material still preserved in the structures.
It was a shame to see it all thrashed by the roots breaking through the floor all over the place. The second layer was dominated by disciples in the Foundation Building Realm, with most cultivators being over lv. 40. Although they tried to fight the roots, scenes of cultivators being caught by the roots and being slammed into the adjacent architecture were everywhere.
At this point, the sky between the mountain and the crown was already filled with cultivators who sought safety from the roots in the air. Individuals were standing on all kinds of exotic flying devices or were outright floating. Groups were operating giant flying ships, like the ones that attacked Delta.
However, they only traded one danger for another, as they had to deal with the vines of the Hangingtree, instead of the Guardian Tree's roots. A quick scan was enough to tell her that none of those guys would pose a threat to the sapling.
Using her illusions to stay out of trouble, Cade easily reached the inner sanctum. This place was slightly different, as it was untouched by the raging tree. This place had double and triple defenses, to the point that even the tree had been unable to undermine the peak without being noticed.
Now, the tree was busy dealing with the squirming swarm of cultivators. Without focusing on breaking these defenses, the inner sect stayed safe, for now. That didn't mean the cultivators from inside had not already swarmed out.
Golden Core and Nascent Soul Realm experts were flying through the sky and descended to the lower levels to defend their disciples. However, the true powerhouses had not left the inner sect. According to the intel, there were originally 12 Guardian Monks and one Abbot.
The Guardian Monks were in the late Spirit Severing Realm or early Dao Severing Realm. The Abbot was presumed to be an immortal. This would have been too much for Cade, even with the tree helping; this might have been dangerous.
That was if it wasn't for the fact that more than half the Guardian Monks actually died during their attack on Little Gamma. The 8 Chakra Temple was one of the three biggest factions of the Southern Sect Alliance, together with the Silk River Sect and the Serene Lake Palace.
According to their standing, they had the greatest stakes in the attack on Delta and the second greatest losses. So far, they were able to hide the fact that they lost 8 of their 12 guardians, just like they were able to dissuade the information about the attack on Little Gamma.
It also explained why none of them had come out yet. They would need all twelve and the Abbot to take care of the tree in a show of overwhelming strength, but what if the Abbot appeared with just four? Cade was betting they were currently worried about how to act without showing their weakness.
And the Rakshasa intended to take advantage of this. Until the tree broke down the defenses of the inner sect, these guys would not come out. She would take care of the 5 old geezers and then hunt down any strong disciples left.
But how was she going to get in if the tree was not going to help? When Cade reached the entrance to the inner sect, she faced a glowing, milky white shield that had activated the moment the tree rose. This was just one of three layer and it made it hard to see anything inside it.
Cade had learned that there were no perfect barriers on the Voracious Cloud Continent; it was simply a weakness of formations. No matter how strong they were, they would have points that were weaker than the rest. This was where Niwal's Spear could shine.
With arcane sparks and bolts crackling, she struck the tip of the legendary spear against the milky white barrier and then simply let it glide across the surface. The Spear of Niwal was a legendary weapon that always struck true, as it would find the chinks and gaps of its victim's armor.
Faced with this completely different power system, it became an absolute weakness detector. Cade just had to follow the spear.