Chapter 46: The Character for Struggle (3)

“Hm?” Ding Wugu’s expression shifted abruptly.

But in the next instant, Ding Wugu realized that everything around him had changed.

He found himself standing amid a boundless sea of blood, the heavens and earth both awash in crimson.

Within that blood-red expanse, countless evil spirits writhed and roiled.

Wails and shrieks resounded: “Woooo!” “Aaaah!” “Hehehe!”

A horde of fiends surrounded Ding Wugu, lunging at him with gnashing teeth.

“An illusion? An illusory formation?” His face paled.

“Break for me!” Ding Wugu cried in alarm, forming a seal with his hands.

Yet his technique had no effect; the illusion held firm.

“How can this be?” His cry was filled with disbelief.

“A geomancer of the Refined Realm? Hmph!” From within the forest, Yan Chuan’s voice rang out once more.

In the vision, the number of evil spirits attacking Ding Wugu only grew.

“Argh!” “Screech!”

The fiends were relentless, each bite tearing a chunk of flesh from his body.

Hundreds of demons bit into him, rendering his body a bloody, mutilated mess. Though Ding Wugu knew it was but a vision, an illusion, he still screamed in terror.

“No!” he cried.

Elsewhere—

The words “Scatter” and “Gather” clashed.

Boom!

As the meanings collided, power surged—until the boulder could withstand it no longer and exploded with a thunderous roar.

When the stone shattered, the two characters lingered only a moment before neutralizing each other and vanishing abruptly.

“A draw?” Saintess Yu Xi exclaimed in surprise.

She was astonished that someone’s calligraphy could rival that of Master Wen Ruo. Was it that young man who had written it?

“What a pity this stone was so poor. The contest didn’t even finish properly!” Young Master Yang showed a trace of regret.

Only Master Wen Ruo wore a faint, bittersweet smile.

The stone? The outcome had nothing to do with the stone. In the end, the two characters had canceled each other, just as Yu Xi said—a draw. But Master Wen Ruo knew in his heart that this was no draw: he had lost. He had written with vermillion jade ink, while the opponent had used the most ordinary black ink. To tie, using such inferior ink against his finest, was as good as a defeat.

“What a domineering character!” Master Wen Ruo sighed, gazing at the word “Scatter.”

“No!” Suddenly, a cry of pain rang out from Ding Wugu in the distance.

“What?” All eyes turned, sensing something amiss—countless white mists swirling around them.

White mist?

“It’s a formation—a geomantic array,” Yu Xi murmured in surprise.

“Disperse!” Yu Xi’s subordinate, Azure Dragon, shouted in a thunderous voice.

Boom!

From Azure Dragon’s body erupted a violent gale, a storm that swept in all directions.

Sand and pebbles flew, and the powerful aura instantly tore the surrounding mist apart.

The all-encompassing formation of white fog was shattered by Azure Dragon’s might.

With the array destroyed, the true scene around them emerged.

In the distance, many wounded soldiers lay sprawled on the ground, and not far off, Ding Wugu had been completely subdued by two figures.

One, dressed in the garb of a court eunuch, had ensnared Ding Wugu’s neck with a horsetail whisk. The other, a general clad in silver armor, pressed the tip of a spear into Ding Wugu’s mouth, the point aimed straight at his throat.

Should the silver-armored general move even slightly, the spear would pierce right through Ding Wugu’s neck.

Astonishment swept through the gathered crowd.

Ding Wugu was of the Refined Realm, yet his captors were but two mortals at the Strength Realm. Strength Realm mortals? And yet they had subdued him completely. Mortals overpowering a master?

With the formation broken, the illusions melted away. Ding Wugu, too, saw clearly, but with the icy spear tip at his throat, for all his power, he dared not move a muscle.

Life and death now hung by a thread, his fate entirely at their mercy.

“Strength Realm? Only the Strength Realm?” Azure Dragon muttered in disbelief.

“Ladies and gentlemen, may I ask why you have injured my subordinates, disrupted my array, and shattered my monument?” From the bamboo grove, Yan Chuan’s voice drifted out.

Yan Chuan stepped slowly from the edge of the grove, brow furrowed, eyes grave as he regarded this unexpected company.