chapter 32

Outside of Jinzhou Town.

"Can it succeed?" Bai Shi asked.

Heishi replied, "Hard to say."

Bai Shi pondered for a moment upon hearing this. Regardless of success or failure, there was still a possibility of success.

He stopped talking to his brother and instead made a respectful bow to Elder Qi.

Elder Qi understood his thoughts and immediately instructed all the cultivators to move onto the Qi family's spirit boat. The guardian of the Su family's boat could both defend and attack, and weakening the formation would require the use of spirit boat techniques.

The other cultivators were slightly surprised to see these three high-level cultivators suddenly taking action.

An older cultivator aboard the spirit boat explained, "The Black Envoy of the Loose Cultivators Alliance… He is naturally gifted with insight, which is a type of innate ability."

In the world of cultivation, there are many sons of heaven, gifted individuals who can attune themselves to the forces of heaven and earth. While they are not born with a Dao body, they stand out among countless abilities, sensing spiritual energy. It is said that in the Eastern Huán North Realm, only cultivators from the Cangxue Sect's astrology branch, the Buddhist Mountain Sect's divine powers lineage, and the Tianluo Mountain Sect— the number one sect in the world— possess this type of ability to cultivate.

At the ultimate level, this becomes the spirit eye.

"Since it is a gift, doesn't that mean there are innate spiritual eyes?" a cultivator asked.

"Indeed, there is one," Bai Shi suddenly said, "but that was a thousand years ago."

The cultivator was taken aback and wanted to ask more, but Bai Shi had already walked off. The Su family's spirit boat aimed at the city wall of Jinzhou Town.

With their combined power, they couldn't break the formation, but they could weaken it.

As for external attacks or internal breakthroughs... the key was whether the people inside could break it.

Heishi's eyes never left the formation, as though he was observing it through the technique.

Such sacrificial formations could only be broken by a formation master. If the elder from the Loose Cultivators Alliance were here, he should have some understanding of the formation... But from the current situation, this attempt to break the formation did not seem to be his doing.

Hidden within the layers of the Jinzhou Town formation, sword energy, spiritual energy, and life force seemed to blend together. Yet, even so, these things had not completely extinguished, suggesting that the internal struggle was evenly matched or still undecided.

Given that it had lasted this long, the formation master's ability must have been extraordinary.

Bai Shi looked at Elder Qi. "What should we do next?"

Once all the cultivators had transferred to the other spirit boats, Elder Qi finally set aside his concerns. Hearing Bai Shi's question, he casually responded, "What else can we do?"

Bai Shi asked, "?"

"Naturally, we ram the entire spirit boat into it!" Elder Qi said.

As soon as Elder Qi finished speaking, the entire spirit boat suddenly accelerated, charging towards Jinzhou Town.

When the massive light collided, the formation of Bai Yue above Jinzhou Town shook, and a few people within the town looked up. They saw a series of loud crashing sounds, resembling fireworks, which immediately attracted everyone's attention.

"Outside!" Qi Liu saw the light flickering outside Jinzhou Town. "It looks like the Su family's spirit boat!"

Gu Qi narrowed his eyes. That was the Su family's guardian boat.

…The people outside were weakening the formation.

"Even if it's a spirit boat, they can only weaken the defensive formation, slowing down the Giant Tree Formation's activation speed," the cloaked man spoke heavily. "We are within the Giant Tree's domain. They're outside and cannot assist us in breaking the formation."

On the Giant Tree, an increasingly strong sucking force began to cover the area, and much of the Yin Qi was being absorbed.

In the Evil Abyss, the ink beasts and Zhang Fugui were too occupied with their own matters to worry about the spirit boat outside that was relieving some of the pressure. As they saw the tree's hand stretch towards the Evil Abyss, the ink beast was the first to object. Its primordial spirit flicked its tail, immediately erecting a barrier at the entrance of the Evil Abyss.

"Su Yu, hurry up! This thing is stealing the Yin Qi!" the ink beast shouted.

Su Yu did not respond. Or rather, all of his focus was on the Giant Tree. The gradually clearer meridians pointed him in the right direction.

The living corpse jumped higher and higher, and the surrounding vines grew more and more, blocking the way between the person and the living corpse.

It was too far. The core should be closer. He had to get closer.

Su Yu wanted to get closer, not stay on the outskirts, but enter the deeper areas.

Sword techniques continued to fall, severing the Giant Tree's ever-growing roots. The ground had already been completely transformed, with only a few places left to step on, and countless bottomless cracks everywhere. The life force of the entire land seemed to have been devoured by the Giant Tree.

The cultivators hanging from the tree crown seemed to have withered as time passed.

Gu Qi frowned, sensing something unusual.

It had not been long, yet the growth rate of the Giant Tree's branches and roots had accelerated. The demon blood within it had already broken through his earlier restrictions. Beneath the mask, his pupils had completely turned into those of a beast, his canines transformed into sharp demonic fangs. The demonization could no longer be suppressed.

Once the sword was drawn, it would tear apart the suppression of his bloodline.

The longer he wielded the sword, the harder it would be to reverse the demonization. The clash between demonic energy and spiritual energy would worsen his condition.

Recalling the many cautions Jiang Xingfeng had given before his departure to the Divine Doctor Valley, Gu Qi lowered his gaze for a moment, then forcefully sealed several acupoints on his body with his fingers, trying to accumulate spiritual energy... He could only hope to hold on a little longer.

Suddenly, Su Yu, led by the living corpse, felt something. He looked up and saw the sword techniques beside the sword cultivator multiplying again. The sword techniques fell fiercely once more, driving back the roots blocking his way and exposing the formation core.

Taking advantage of this powerful attack, he finally saw the location of the formation core. Inside the Giant Tree's trunk, there was a hollow tree cavity, and the formation core, a giant stone emitting spiritual energy, was embedded inside, continuously supplying spiritual energy from above to below, as though drawing the life force of the cultivators hanging from the tree crown into the formation core.

These spiritual energies resonated with the formation core!

Su Yu didn't hesitate. The moment the sword cultivator broke through, the living corpse took him and forcefully jumped into the tree hollow.

"He jumped in!" Qi Liu was stunned when he saw Su Yu directly leap into the tree hollow at the formation's core.

Inside the tree hollow, Su Yu's eyes were filled with golden threads. He immediately instructed the living corpse to tear apart the invisible veins surrounding the giant stone near the formation core. But as soon as the living corpse approached, a large number of strange plants suddenly sprouted from the hollow, rapidly growing toward Su Yu.

The living corpse pulled the strange plants apart with one hand. It was like the strange plants that had densely spread over Jinzhou Town earlier, but now they were rapidly growing and covering the original tree bark inside the narrow tree hollow, twisting and wrapping as if trying to squeeze them out of the hollow.

The ink beast urgently warned, and the living corpse took a few steps back, but the strange plants began to wrap around its legs, making movement difficult.

With its range of movement restricted, the vision in front of them became muddled again, as the energy of the strange plants tangled with that of the formation core.

Su Yu frowned. This was troublesome.

The exposed vines outside the formation core were severed by the sword techniques, but the formation showed no signs of slowing down.

Cultivators bound to the tree bark seemed to be sacrificed one by one, entering the formation. The formation core on the Giant Tree had already turned dark, and the entire formation seemed to be nearing completion, with spiritual energy continuously being absorbed.

The cloaked figure looked up, noticing that the life force around him was dwindling. Not sure if it was because the life force was running out, but he seemed to see more clearly—he saw the strange plants emerging from the formation core's tree hollow.

The people inside were in danger!

"There's no time… it's regenerating too fast."

The formation core continued to supply spiritual energy, and with the elder's self-detonation earlier, it was clear that the sword cultivator had been targeted.

That person had deliberately self-detonated to kill them all. If this continues, it will be too late…

Half of the cloaked figure's body had already disintegrated, and he was barely clinging to life. His gaze swept around, looking for a way to resolve the situation. Suddenly, he saw Qi Liu.

"Earlier, the fire you set, right?" the cloaked figure gasped, "Do you know how to gather fire energy?"

For cultivators of the Dao, the most basic technique for fire-type cultivators was to gather fire energy.

Qi Liu looked around anxiously, "Can it work with something that disperses easily? Gathering spiritual energy is a bit hard for me."

The little brother's formation is gone! He can't gather it!

"This formation core is not an ordinary one. I'll set up a formation for you, and you continue to release the fire," the cloaked figure looked like he was barely holding on to life, almost unable to stand. He could only manage to sit. "Try to burn the tree, the more you burn, the better."

"But you might…" The cloaked figure noticed the demonic seed on Qi Liu's body. It was a miracle that he was still standing and conscious.

Qi Liu looked at the little ginseng in front of him, its once-beautiful skin now charred, and at the half-dead cloaked figure. When he looked up, he seemed to see so many familiar faces hanging from the tree crown. Counting them, he realized he was the only one left capable of fighting. The demonic seed on his body had already reached his face. The only reason he could retain some consciousness was because of the fire-type spiritual energy leaking out of him uncontrollably.

"I'll burn it," Qi Liu said, with an unexplainable, carefree energy. At that moment, he was fearless. "If worst comes to worst, I'll go down with them, all in one place."

The cloaked figure was speechless: "…This person isn't afraid of death?"

Qi Liu had a resolute look, "But wasn't the small courtyard formation already destroyed?"

The cloaked figure's eyes gleamed with determination as he bit his fingertip again. "Our sect doesn't only have the birthing formation."

High up, around Su Yu and the living corpse, more and more strange plants appeared. The plants emerging from the formation core carried a faint aura, which was undoubtedly a burden for Su Yu. His spiritual eye could only see the "aura." It would have been fine if it were just the energy feeding the core, but these strange plants' aura was too similar to the energy sent to the core.

Having seen through the sacrificial formation, sweat beaded on Su Yu's forehead. He said, "Can you grow two more hands?"

The living corpse tilted its head, seemingly not understanding the order.

Su Yu gave up: "Forget it."

Ink beast: "…"

What do you mean, forget it? It's impossible to grow two more hands!

They needed to figure out how to get rid of these strange plants, or it would be impossible to locate the formation's veins.

As Su Yu was deep in thought, he suddenly turned his head and saw something. "It's coming."

What's coming!?

The ink beast quickly looked back and saw a light, like a fireball, speeding toward them!

On the ruined ground, Qi Liu was now standing in a certain formation. The spiritual energy in his hand seemed to be enhanced by some force, and the fire-type spiritual energy he gathered formed into a fireball. As he threw it upwards, the fireball seemed to lock onto something, heading straight for the Giant Tree core where Su Yu was.

It was the cloaked figure! The cloaked figure had marked the core's location using a spiritual plant formation, allowing Qi Liu's fireball to land precisely on the outer rim of the core.

The core was filled with the strange plants that had once covered the streets. Qi Liu's fire-type spiritual energy had some restraint on them, and as soon as it landed, several plants were burned, alleviating the difficulty surrounding Su Yu.

One wasn't enough to burn, so he threw more!

"Take a few more!" Seeing that it was effective, Qi Liu didn't slow down. Without thinking about the consequences, he continued to gather the most basic gathering fire technique, throwing fireballs one after another at the Giant Tree. Boom! Boom! They smashed into the tree!

However, the cloaked figure saw something strange. He saw the fireballs being blocked by the strange plants outside the formation core. "It's not working. The vines outside the formation core are closing in again—"

Before he could finish speaking, sword techniques flashed in the air. Several sword techniques struck the Giant Tree, tearing open a new crack.

It was the sword technique of the sword cultivator from high above!

This time, the fireballs weren't obstructed anymore.

Countless fireballs fell into the giant hollow at the formation's core, burning away the layers of strange plants. Su Yu's vision was once again filled with red firelight. The strange plants were destroyed, and the spiritual veins transmitting cultivator's spiritual energy to the formation core became clear once more.

This formation was indeed about to succeed... but what would happen once it succeeded?

The formation core was certainly important, but even the strongest core required resonance with various formation patterns to maximize its effectiveness... As long as the core couldn't function, the formation could be broken!

"Move forward!" Su Yu shouted.

The living corpse, fearless of the fierce flames, jumped into the fire. At this moment, the yin energy within Su Yu's body rotated and covered both him and the living corpse, shielding them from the fireball technique's burning.

The crackling sounds of the flames echoed, and the pure energy of the Abyss wrapped around the two figures. The man and the living corpse rushed straight toward the formation core. The strange plants burned away no longer posed an obstacle, and in a brief moment, the living corpse's powerful arms became a key weapon in tearing apart the formation's spiritual veins.

The outermost spiritual veins of the formation were the first to be torn apart.

The ink beast realized what was happening: the person was cutting off the connection between the formation core and the formation!

The invisible spiritual veins were severed by the living corpse. At the same time, the vines that had been binding the cultivators atop the tree crown seemed to stop moving.

Gu Qi was the first to notice the anomaly in the tree crown. He didn't know what the young man who entered the formation core had done, but he could confirm that the other party was breaking the formation, and he had already torn a significant gap in it.

At that moment, the living corpse suddenly increased its speed, and Su Yu, too, began to change along with it.

In the high sky, Gu Qi noticed Su Yu's footwork. Although he couldn't see which technique he was using, he realized that as the opponent moved, the sword technique's strike position was also changing. The longer this continued, the more cleverly he realized that the blind person was using the living corpse's shifting position to alter where his sword techniques would land.

The sword techniques cut through the vines and fell into the core, seemingly working in sync with the other, chopping away at something.

… This person was using him.

Gu Qi's demonic blood was nearing its limits, but at this moment, he felt a ridiculous sense of cultivation. He had dealt with countless evil spirits and malevolent ghosts, and many evil cultivators, but this was the first time he encountered someone who dared to openly manipulate him.

Su Yu remained unmoving, but the sword techniques behind him didn't change in position; instead, they became even more rapid.

It was clear that the sword cultivator had figured out his role.

Relying on the living corpse's two hands was too slow. The sword techniques, however, were too valuable to waste.

The Giant Tree seemed to be choking on its life force, crazily manipulating the vines in an attempt to pull Su Yu out of the tree hollow where the formation core resided. But Gu Qi would not give it this chance. One sword technique after another severed the vines trying to rush in, blocking the Giant Tree's counterattack.

"Faster... faster with the gathering fire technique..." The cloaked figure's chest heaved violently.

Qi Liu's face turned red, and the demonic seed crawled up his face, but he didn't stop. "It's squeezing out!"

The ink beast suddenly realized something. "Su Yu, it's regenerating!"

The spiritual veins torn by the living corpse were slowly moving after being destroyed. The regeneration speed was slow, but it was still regenerating!

The ink beast, anxious, reached out with its claws to try and help, but since its primordial spirit hadn't fully solidified yet, the small fire on the outside nearly burned away its skin. It had miscalculated. This Giant Tree had been altered. With its strong regenerative power, even if Su Yu tried another approach, dealing with a Giant Tree that was several times stronger than him felt like trying to smash an egg against a rock.

Blocking it wasn't enough; the veins would regenerate, though slowly.

The sword techniques couldn't sever them all, and the gathering fire technique couldn't burn them all.

But Su Yu's mind remained extraordinarily calm. Whether it was an illusion or not, after the strange plants were no longer in the way, the veins became clearer, and the method to block them in his mind became more apparent... It was as if he had seen even more dangerous and complicated formations before.

This Giant Tree wasn't as formidable as them.

"Prepare yourself," Su Yu suddenly said.

The ink beast anxiously responded, "Even if you tear it all apart, you still won't break the formation! It will regenerate!"

"But what if there's no place left for it to grow...?"

The ink beast was stunned. "What!"

Without warning, Su Yu leaped off the living corpse and into the sea of flames.

His hands moved in intricate patterns, as if forming a specific hand seal. Mysterious symbols appeared as his hand gestures shifted.

The hand seals were fast, deep, and complicated.

"South Wu Mountain's seal!" Zhang Fugui suddenly realized and shouted. "It's the hand seal above the living corpse's head!"

The hand seal was strikingly similar to one from South Wu Mountain. When Su Yu bit his fingertip, the blood seemed to trigger the Giant Stone of the formation core's alert. The veins that had been regenerating seemed to sense something special, and suddenly, they rushed toward Su Yu.

In the high sky, Gu Qi's body swayed, and veins popped out on his neck.

A madman! The ink beast smelled blood, its entire body tensing. This person was using his own blood to attract beasts!

Above Jinzhou Town, in the flashing sword shadows of lightning, a massive hand seal appeared.

The hand seal appeared faintly above the Giant Tree, invisible to ordinary people. However, the three highest cultivators present could see the profound and mysterious techniques hidden beneath the hand seal, as if it were on par with the Giant Tree itself.

"The formation... something's wrong. It's like a hand seal," said Elder Qi.

Bai Shi's mind was racing with thoughts. "I've never heard of any Daoist or Buddhist expert residing here."

The Black Envoy, standing on the spiritual boat, slightly swayed. Using his insight technique, he seemed to see something deeper. In the dimness, with lightning flashing, he saw a figure appear in the innermost part of the formation core... The Black Envoy only glanced at it briefly but immediately felt an intense sense of fear, as if he shouldn't delve any further.

It maintained its orthodox stance, yet was full of malevolent energy... This was a hand seal he had never seen before.

The Black Envoy concluded firmly, "No! Something's wrong!"

At that moment, the blood and hand seal combined. The hand seal, originally used against the living corpse, dissipated as it scattered from above. When the hand seal descended upon the formation core, the blood and hand seal covered the giant stone, quickly spreading dark energy to block it.

At the same time, the living corpse reached the giant stone, using its immense strength to embrace the stone that was filled with spiritual energy. During the brief interruption caused by the hand seal, the spiritual veins connecting the stone and the Giant Tree were torn apart inch by inch. The living corpse forcibly lifted the stone.

"Keep going—!" Su Yu shouted.

As the last spiritual vein was severed, the living corpse carried the stone and charged into the Abyss of Evil!

Zhang Fugui: "!"

Ink Beast: "!!!!!!"

The moment the giant stone entered the Abyss of Evil, the Giant Tree, no longer supported by the formation core, seemed to be struck a heavy blow. The entire tree body vibrated with a deep hum, causing the earth and sky to shake. Gu Qi's demonic pupils contracted, sensing the countless spiritual energies in the Giant Tree that hadn't fully formed, leaking out like air from a deflated balloon, surging outward in all directions.

Gu Qi forcefully broke open the blocked apertures within his body—

The sword in his hand transformed into a giant sword formation, appearing above the Giant Tree. In a critical moment, the sword formation spread around the tree crown, enveloping the cultivators hanging from the tree, including Qi Yan and Su Yi. The next moment, the impact of the Giant Tree's formation shattering hit the sword formation.

Outside Jinzhou Town, the Black Envoy, observing the situation inside, saw his insight technique shatter in an instant. He hurriedly took a step back.

"Brother!" Bai Shi exclaimed.

The Black Envoy paid no attention to the pain in his eyes. "Defend!! Quickly, defend!!"

The cultivators on the spiritual boat looked in the direction of the shout, only to see the wave of spiritual energy rushing toward them!

"!!!"