The All Formation Breaking Array

The patterns exuding from his body moulded with the forest's essence, imprinting itself on the ground where they stood as a magical formation in the form of a lotus shape appeared beneath his feet. the sharp edges curling and snaking their way around his feet.

Lilling could tell that casting such formation required a great deal of essence and could drain his cultivation in no less time.

She couldn't even begin to understand why Shufen would cast such a deadly spell for her sake, he grunted, his face twisting in pain as he struggled to implant the pure Qi flowing in abundance with his essence but he had to break the restricting array casted on the town to hide its spiritual elements and disrupting the balance and order of things like Shufen did, came with a bigger price to go.

Ducking from the flying objects that rose into the air with the gust of wind, his array illuminating the plains and causing an unusual surge of energy, she shouted out, trying to move closer to him but stopping in her tracks upon realizing that it was a bad idea to jump straight into another spellcaster's array on a whim.

"Enough, Shufen! The enchantment is too strong! If you insist on breaking it, you'll lose your Qi!"

Either her words could not get through to him, or he pretended not to hear them, he continued to infuse the spell with more of his magic. Shufen was stubborn and wouldn't budge, the scowl on his face signs that he would not give up.

"Heaven Infinity Dew, obey!"

He weaved threads of fresh spells through several hand seals and bursts after bursts of magic seeped through his fingers and into the All Formation Breaking Array to strengthen it.

She gasped, noticing the protective enchantments hiding the Tenggong Sect's anchor points caving and exposing pure, refined Qi.

The earth beneath her feet parted, rumbling when a part of it shifted and bucked she leaped in the air just in time to save herself from reeling backwards when a mass of mountain lifted with her stuck on top of it.

Shufen heaved when the array finally stabilized and from the part where the earth had shifted came a bright glow, gold, luminescent light seeped through it, gathering the forest's essence into a small, golden core.

"Tenggong Sect's core!" He exclaimed, his breathing harsh and ragged.

Sweat beads broke from his forehead, his hair wild, and untamed, cascading down his shoulders. He squinted his gaze with his lips lifting in a small smile when he noticed Liling and the floating rock mid-air.

Leaping further up to meet her, she heaved a sigh of relief, smacking his arms when her face  held worry, "Don't ever do that, again!"

"Worry not, it was such a piece of cake. Didn't you see how awesome I was?"

She still grew more restless by the minute, hating his nonchalance  and how he had taken the whole life-threatening situation for a joke. Shufen winced, holding onto his sides she quickly held onto him. "Shufen! What's happening?!"

He feigned a laughter to distract her from the fact that he had just depleted hundred's of cultivation to break a barrier just because he had wanted to help her refine her Qi, the drastic drawback slamming into him like a cannon ball. She scowled at him when he moved away from her.

"I am fine, okay? I did not think that I would be needing to infuse the All Formation Breaking Array with a spell of my own to make it work."

"You've never tried the All Formation Breaking Array before this?!"

She yelled out, her voice echoing throughout the forest, appalled by his recklessness behaviour and his nonchalant knack for diving head-first into danger without thinking about its resulting outcome.

I never thought that I would use it. Sealing it in my body was something that I did on impulse,"

"Why does your life hold no meaning to you? Why do you  treat it like it's worthless and of no value?"

Shufen leaned forward to face Liling, a ghost of a smile forming on his lips before morphing into something cold and calculating his gaze hardening and his voice frigid.

"If you have lived for as long as I have, life no longer holds meaning. I do not hold onto existence, Liling. All I seek is an honorable death and a worthy opponent to bring said death to me."

The woman standing before him could not begin to fathom the kind of man he once was; he had fought toomany wars in his lifetime, the cries of battles and carnage etching itself on his mind, he had lost allies, scavenged the realms, met gods and demons.

There was nothing left for him and his last act of chivalry would be to restore the stolen seals back to their rightful clans. But as for bringing peace, he had no interest in.

Peace was nonexistent and as long as the seals continued to remain in the hands of lower beings filled with the greed of power, there was always bound to be war and from its ashes, would rise another hero to salvage was what left, but that hero, wasn't going to be him.

"Shufen,"

She muttered his name, fearing the sudden shift and coldness in his demeanor but he hid it all with a smile, turning her back to himself, liking how her shoulders tensed and softened under his touch.

He motioned his hand right in front of her, revealing the core he kept hidden in his palm.

"This is the Tenggong Sect's Core. They imbued the core with their soul as a way to place the enchantment on the town and suppress the flow of Qi. With good intentions though, all they wanted was to keep it out of the wrong hands,"

She nodded, listening to his teachings that were unprecedented, but helpful at the same time. "How is it going to be useful to me if it still has a seal on it?"

"Even without your Qi, you can steal break the seal. Only a soul wielder like you, can."