Chapter Forty-Five: Seeking the Formation to Trap the Enemy

After a day of rest, the spatial rift was restored to its original state, but everyone remained seriously wounded. Most notably, the Battle King—after his immortal leg was severed, no matter how he tried to reattach it, he could not restore it to its former condition.

In the end, he still had a broken leg, though now it was much longer than before!

“Why are you crying? The thigh bone’s become a shin bone, but it’ll still do for banging a drum or a gong!” Wuyun, tired of his complaints, brushed him off impatiently. Then, all of a sudden, he ordered Long Yi to summon the ancient yellow broken blade.

“Ah, oh!” The Hexa-Talent Ancestral Dragon let out a satisfied belch, but his dragon belly was obviously bulging.

Now that the Hexa-Talent Ancestral Dragon had exchanged his old shears for a new lair, his spirits soared. He glanced at Long Yi, spat a mouthful of saliva, drenching him from head to toe, then circled Wuyun, saying, “Little brother, does it feel as though you can’t control me anymore? Ha! A divine artifact, a true divine artifact—even if ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine parts in ten thousand are damaged, that last fraction is still beyond your power to resist!”

Swollen with pride and his strength surging, the Hexa-Talent Dragon could sense that this cracked ancient yellow blade had reached the level of a supreme Dao artifact, and within it slumbered a divine might, not inferior to imperial power itself!

Wuyun glanced at the darkness behind the spatial rift and asked offhandedly, “If that cat demon came here, could you cut him down with one stroke?”

“One stroke?” The Hexa-Talent Dragon released his grip on the blade, measured with his claws, then shook his head. “At least two. The first would match his imperial might; the second would sever his feline head!”

Before the dragon could continue, Wuyun shouted loudly at the darkness behind the rift, “Did you hear that, cat demon? Two strokes. You’re doomed. Wash yourself and hide well—cling to life while you can!”

“Hmph!”

A floating bubble appeared on the far side of the rift, defying the tremendous gravity. It glared at Wuyun, then fixed the Hexa-Talent Dragon with a stare before slowly fading away.

Just before, the Tiger-Faced Immortal had been hiding not far from Wuyun, a mere kilometer away—close enough to strike in an instant. But because of this blade, he hesitated.

“Why do I have to attack that cat demon? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, I—”

Suppressing his injuries, Wuyun soared into the air. The little hawk handed him the precious cord meant for binding hair, which he fastened over the dragon’s mouth.

The Hexa-Talent Ancestral Dragon struggled a bit, snapped the cord with ease, then lashed out with his tail, sending Wuyun’s hair flying in disarray.

The artifact spirit itself was not particularly strong offensively; this move was purely to make Wuyun look ridiculous!

“Hmph!” The Hexa-Talent Dragon fell silent, hiding within the broken blade with no further movement. Wuyun, exasperated, pointed at the gradually healing cracks above and shouted, “You old loach, you’re finished! How could a spirit of such a divine artifact be yours to consume? Spit it out while you still can!”

The ancient yellow broken blade remained utterly still. This time, the spirit’s hiding was even more resolute than when it was in the Hundred-Rainbow Demon Shears. Even the little hawk’s threats with dung had no effect.

The spirit had hardened its resolve—it would bite back if pushed.

With the loss of the Hundred-Rainbow Demon Shears and the damage to the Nirvana Wolf Fang, their many treasures and battered Dao artifacts were powerless before the Tiger-Faced Immortal. The most urgent task was to subdue the ancient yellow broken blade!

As they walked, the group discussed their options. Long Yi’s expression was dark, his teeth grinding every time Old Bear Third called the dragon “old loach” to the left and to the right.

When they reached the surface, Long Yun suddenly turned back. Liu Ruyan, puzzled, whispered a question, and Long Yi replied, “The Tiger-Faced Immortal might have an ambush waiting outside. He has so many treasures seized from the Kun-Rat lair. If he detonates a few, and we reveal our weakness, with our current strength, he’ll unleash his imperial power and strike mercilessly!”

This time, instead of heading deeper into the rift, they had the little bug open the way partway through. Now in the Spirit Condensation stage, the bug was helpless—once he had envied metals, but chewing them now was like gnawing on flavorless wood. Yet he could not refuse.

He grew larger, gnawing through several hundred meters, the group following after. By the end, his wounds reopened, and he gulped down several spare pills, sighing all the while.

At that moment, the little hawk stepped forward. Having failed to coerce the spirit with dung, he pondered, then saw the bug exhausted and tried hacking at the rock with the broken blade. Unexpectedly, the ancient yellow blade sliced through the metallic strata like cutting a watermelon—eight times faster than chewing!

With this digging tool, their pace increased. Taking turns, they pressed on. Half a day later, they broke into a massive hollow space.

Unlike the other tunnels, this chamber was empty within. Countless round stones spun inside, each carved with complex runes and patterns. On closer inspection, these runes and patterns shifted and changed, unpredictable and impossible to fathom.

The Battle King was about to probe with his shinbone club when Wuyun stopped him, shaking his head. “This is a great formation. Its spirit is within the spatial rift, much like the wolfhound’s head—constantly replenished with energy. If you blunder in and are ground down, you’ll lose your physical body.”

Wuyun’s deep gaze tracked the formation’s operation. If he were still a cloud, he could have understood everything in a blink—but the gap between heaven and earth was too great. Several times he stood on tiptoe, always feeling not quite tall enough.

Nearby, the little hawk toyed with the green feather he’d won from the jade table, restlessly flicking the broken blade. Growing impatient, his eyes suddenly brightened, and he made as if to fly into the formation. Old Bear Third quickly bound him with silken threads.

Now, Old Bear Third’s thread was no longer the basic treasure it once was. After refining the demon core, his body was undergoing constant change; the threads now shimmered with a hint of thunder, gleaming silver.

“What’s wrong with you?” When asked, the little hawk looked aggrieved. “I saw my father inside, calling me, so I couldn’t help but want to go in…”

Smack!

Wuyun, suddenly realizing, slapped the hawk on the head and scolded, “I saw that old bird die with my own eyes. Do you dare seek him even in the underworld?”

The little hawk, disgruntled, was about to retort when Wuyun cut him off, “He had many offspring, but you were always the most outstanding. If you want to deliver yourself as food, I won’t stop you!”

This mention of “delivering food” left the group speechless. Clearly, Wuyun understood what was inside—so why was he still hesitating, waiting? Was he not afraid the Hexa-Talent Ancestral Dragon inside the blade would recover and turn on them?

Time dragged on. Eventually, the ancient yellow broken blade began to slip from Long Yi’s control, floating three feet above the ground, trembling and radiant.

A vast imperial might slowly spread outward, and it was clear the spirit within the blade was rapidly recovering. At this moment, the little hawk, the bug, and Old Bear Third all retreated, leaving only Long Yi and Wuyun at the center.

Then, Wuyun uttered a sentence that almost made Old Bear Third burst out laughing.

“Old loach, if you don’t come out, the blade spirit you can’t digest will devour you instead. Then you’ll truly die and never again see the world’s wonders!”

The Hexa-Talent Ancestral Dragon had just poked his head out, shouting about who would triumph, when something like a ghostly hand below snatched him back down.

After several such rounds, the dragon’s wailing grew desperate, crying for help, even swearing to his own offspring, Long Yi, that he would forgive everything.

Long Yi looked pleadingly at Wuyun, but Wuyun shook his head; it was not enough. Only when the dragon’s voice grew faint did Wuyun look once more at the formation ahead.

At this crucial moment, what was it inside the formation that so enthralled him?

As the ancient yellow broken blade rose, breaking through the surrounding tunnel walls, Long Yun seemed to glimpse something. He snatched the blade, then hurled it with all his might. The blade became a torrential current, smashing through the layers of suspended stones around the formation and vanishing from sight.

“Elder! Elder!” Long Yi was stunned. Was he really going to abandon the only treasure capable of opposing the Tiger-Faced Immortal?

Then, in the formation, silent for so long, as the blade entered, it began to spin faster and faster. In the end, the suspended stones and runes disappeared, and in their place appeared a resplendent, radiant palace.

Was it that the runes, spinning so fast, created this dazzling illusion?

Just then, Old Bear Third, standing closest, was marveling at how this speed could form such a pattern when Wuyun kicked him in, sending him screaming into the heart of it.