by RWX
“I only need as much time as is needed to boil a kettle of tea to break this formation.” The black-haired elder smiled.
“Then we’ll have to trouble you, senior apprentice-brother Zha.”
“We will first break this bewildering formation. There is no need to rely on senior apprentice-brother Zidao to deal with these small formations. We are enough.” These Zifu Disciples clearly felt quite relaxed now. When first entering the black fog bewildering formation, the short line of sight made them grow wary, but upon understanding how simple this formation was to break, they clearly were starting to feel more confident.
The black-haired elder nodded. “I will analyze this formation. Everyone, please stay on your guard.”
“Leave it to us. Senior apprentice-brother Zha, focus on breaking this formation.” Dong Ziqi and the others said.
Moments later.
“Right up ahead.” The black-haired elder’s eyes lit up. He was completely confident. “I’ve already seen through this formation.”
“Excellent.” All of them grew excited.
Dong Ziqi continued to maintain his Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation, and the group of Zifu Disciples advanced at high speed. The fog up ahead seemed to be a bit thinner, and Dong Ziqi’s group saw, not too far away, a flag planted into the ground. The flag was grey, and covered with many black diagrams.
“The formation flag!” They revealed looks of delight on their faces.
……
“Truekeep, just wait there quietly.” Ninefire sent mentally. “In a short period of time, those Zifu Disciples of Snowdragon Mountain will arrive at your position. When I give the order, kill them.”
“I’ve been waiting for this the entire time.” Truekeep’s eyes were flashing with cold light.
“Excellent. Just listen to my orders.” Ninefire was eager as well.
….
As Dong Ziqi’s group of twelve Zifu Disciples saw the distant flag, they failed to notice that within a hundred meters of them…an enormous draconic head was staring directly at them.
“The formation flag!”
The twelve Zifu Disciples were all wildly overjoyed, and the black-haired elder couldn’t help but reveal a hint of smugness.
Right at that moment…
“Attack!” Truekeep, who had been hiding there for quite some time, finally heard the Patriarch’s voice.
Whoosh!
Just as the group of Zifu Disciples saw the formation flag and were feeling overjoyed, an enormous draconic head suddenly emerged from the nearby dense black fog. The draconic head was incomparably large; in the black fog, they were only able to see several draconic whiskers and scales. The Netherwyrm’s head opened its maw, chomping down towards them.
“Careful.” Dong Ziqi, being in control of the Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation, was the first to notice it, and he hurriedly called out in surprise and fright.
It was too late.
It came too fast!
The distance at which one could see within the black fog was simply too short. The Netherwyrm was ten kilometers long. How enormous must the head thus be? As the draconic head charged towards them…it moved at a speed that was probably more than ten times faster than that of the Zifu Disciples. The draconic head, with a rumble, blasted into and broke through the Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation. With a crunch, rumble, boom, and terrifying roar…the Netherwyrm’s head came howling towards the enemies!
In that howling instant…
Truekeep was right in the center of the head. As the Netherwyrm’s head bit down, Truekeep seemed to have gone berserk as the nine sharp awls hovering around his body were filled by the draconic energy generated by the formation. Those sharp awls moved at an astonishing speed, attacking at three of the Zifu Disciples were were closest to and caught offguard by the Netherwyrm’s frontal attack.
Supported by the formation, Truekeep’s current level of power was even more powerful than that of most peak Zifu Disciples.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Simply too fast. Two of the Zifu Disciples had giant holes blasted through their chests and their corpses fell into the Netherwyrm’s devouring mouth. As for the other Zifu Disciple who had been attacked, he kicked backwards, his body flashing like azure light and instantly moving tens of meters away.
A single sudden ambush had killed two Zifu Disciples. The primary reason was that the Netherwyrm Heavenlock Formation itself was simply too powerful. In addition, all five of its formations had a Zifu Disciple standing guard at the center, making it so that this Netherwyrm seemed to have sentience, making it all the more incomparably, astonishingly powerful.
“While they are ill, go for the kill!” Truekeep then moved towards and attacked two other Zifu Disciples who had somewhat pulled away from their comrades.
“Kill.”
The sharp awls howled!
The black draconic head was like a nightmare.
“Assemble the formation.”
“Assemble the formation.” As the howls rang out, Dong Ziqi and the others had already begun to prepare their formation. These Zifu Disciples were no fools; they knew that they couldn’t move too far away from their comrades. This was because once they moved too far away from each other within this bewildering formation…they would be separately defeated by the Ji clan.
But the problem wasn’t that they moved too far away; it was that the strike of the draconic head had knocked some of them flying!
The power of the Netherwyrm’s attack was simply too great!
“Formation, link.”
“Formation, link.”
A white light suddenly sprang up, instantly circulating around the bodies of each of the Zifu Disciples. Soon, eight enormous trigrams made of white light had appeared out of nowhere, with the eight Zifu Disciples separated in each part. Actually, this technique of Snowdragon Mountain’s only required six Zifu Disciples to be completely linked up.
“Where is senior apprentice-brother Zha?”
“Where is senior apprentice-brother Fang?”
Dong Ziqi and the rest of the eight, after setting up the formation, discovered to their amazement that although they had previously numbered twelve Zifu Disciples, only eight now remained. The other four could not be found.
“Senior apprentice-brother Zha.”
They all called out loudly, and their voices echoed within the formation. If the other four were still alive, they would be able to reply verbally.
“Dead. The four of them are all dead.” Dong Ziqi gritted his teeth.
“Too terrifying. Too powerful.” The silver-haired cultivator had a look of disbelief on his face. “Prior to this, I vaguely saw some draconic scales. It was the head of an incomparably large dragon. How could the Ji clan have access to something so powerful? Could that have been a true dragon?”
“There’s no way it could have been a true dragon. If it was a true dragon, we would have discovered it long ago! In addition, how could a true dragon be so enormous? It must be a formation!”
“But how could the dragon produced by a formation be so powerful?”
This group of Zifu Disciples were still in a state of shock. That earlier attack had simply been too powerful. Although they had all been overjoyed upon seeing the flag and had relaxed slightly, they were still within the Eight Trigrams Blood Dragon Formation, after all. In their hearts, they also remained vigilant. Who would have imagined that this sudden ambush would have blasted through them, forcing them all to retreat and knocking some of them flying!
This ambush had killed four of them!
“We can no longer see the formation flag either.” Dong Ziqi swept the surrounding area with his gaze. He was now unable to see the formation flag. “When we were struck by that enormous black dragon, we were all knocked backwards and driven farther away from the formation flag.”
“The illusion isn’t that important. That enormous black dragon is the true disaster.”
“We must have senior apprentice-br
others Jadechild or Nong Zidao come.” The silver-haired expert flipped his hand and retrieved a jade seal. This was the seal Nong Zidao had given him. He clenched it. Crunch! The jade seal disintegrated.
….
On the outside. Jadechild and Nong Zidao, along with the other five Zifu Disciples, were waiting. They were in no rush to enter the formation.
“What sort of techniques could this sort of small clan have?” Jadechild laughed. “Our twelve Zifu Disciples of Snowdragon Mountain have entered, and they have access to a combination formation technique…that is more than enough to utterly sweep and dominate the enemies.”
“Right. The formations of a small clan like this can’t possibly be very powerful. Our fellow apprentices also have studied formations. They, too, are capable of breaking formations.” Nong Zidao felt relaxed as well. As he saw it, the combined power of those twelve fellow apprentices….should indeed be more than enough to easily dominate this sort of small clan.
Suddenly…
Nong Zidao’s face changed.
“What happened?” Jadechild immediately asked.
“The jade talisman I gave him.” Nong Zidao said in a soft voice. “One of them was just crushed. It seems they encountered some sort of danger. Otherwise, they wouldn’t ask us to save them.”
“This puny little Ji clan was able to force them to beg us to save them?” Jadechild couldn’t believe it. Prior to this, Nong Zidao had given them a jade talisman…primarily because this was a habit of the disciples of the sect. None of them actually thought it would be used.
“Come, let’s enter the formation.” Nong Zidao said.
The other five nearby Zifu Disciples had heard their conversation. They, too, were surprised. The twelve comrades who had entered had actually been forced to shatter a jade talisman? Still, upon seeing Jadechild and Nong Zidao by their side, they felt completely confident.
“You wait here. If any comrades of our Snowdragon Mountain comes here, tell them that we have already entered the formation.” Nong Zidao waved his hand, then produced a wooden golem. The wooden golem had a green light within its eyes, and it just listened, then nodded obediently. “Yes, master.”
“Let’s go.” Nong Zidao said.
Immediately, Jadechild, under Nong Zidao’s guidance, led the group of seven Zifu Disciples and two Zifu-level spirit-beasts into the black fog that surrounded Oxhorn Mountain.
* * *
Book 6, Chapter 12 - The Secret Killer Weapon Ji Ning
The enormous scales atop the draconic tail were all incomparably clear. Ji Ning sat within the draconic tail, surrounded by those enormous scales.
“Hrm?” Ning suddenly heard the sound of explosions and angered shouts.
“Assemble the formation!” “Formation, linked!” Cries of surprise and terror rang out from afar. Ning’s ears twitched, and he laughed. “IT has begun.”
Per their original strategy, Ning was in the strongest position of all, out of the various experts of the Ji clan! He would only be unleashed at the critical moment…there was no need for him to engage yet.
Moments later.
“Whoosh!”
A figure flew over. It was Ji Yichuan, dressed in a white fur robe.
“Father.” Ning rose.
“Take it!” Yichuan produced six flying swords out of nowhere, which hovered there above his palm. “These were acquired by your Uncle Truekep after executing four Zifu Disciples. One of them was a Zifu Disciple who controlled multiple flying swords; we acquired five from him alone. Thus, the four of them had a total of six flying swords.”
Ning didn’t hesitate, immediately accepting them.
“Perfect timing.” Ning was incomparably excited. Prior to this, everyone had already traded for some magic treasures. Some of them were useless to him, but were very important to others! At such a crucial, life-and-death juncture, nobody would be shy; everyone acted quite forthrightly. For example, Ning gave the venomous bugs he had acquired from Bei Zishan to Ji Ninefire, while Ninefire, upon learning that Ning desperately needed ranked flying swords, had managed to scrape together five of them.
Bei Zishan had left behind two; combined with those five, Ning had seven. That wasn’t even enough for a single formation base of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]! But now that he had six more…he had enough.
“These six flying swords are all ranked magic treasures.” Yichuan said.
“Right.” Ning nodded. “With these six ranked flying swords, my power is going to rise significantly. Later, I’ll have to have a nice little ‘battle’ against these Zifu Disciples of Snowdragon Mountain!”
Yichuan had a rare look of delight on his face as well. “This has truly been wonderful. And it is all thanks to the Netherwyrm Heavenlock Formation you brought out! In a single ambush, we killed four enemy Zifu Disciples. Without the aid of this formation, we would probably lose someone on every attack.”
“Right.” Ning nodded.
The Netherwyrm Heavenlock Formation had been acquired by Ning from the Aquatic Estate. Naturally, it was quite powerful.
“Make your preparations. Once you are needed, the Patriarch will immediately notify you mentally.” Yichuan instructed, then transformed into a ray of light and left.
Ning immediately filled his elemental energy into the flying swords, seizing every moment of time and hurriedly binding them. Although it was true that, as the spirit of the Aquatic Estate had said, it would be best if the flying swords which served as the core of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation] all came from the same source, the current Ning, unfortunately, had no right to be choosy. It was already quite good for him to even be able to have enough ranked flying swords.
……
The black fog hung everywhere.
Nong Zidao, Jadechild, and the others were advancing carefully through the black fog. The Fairy Crane and the Landwyrm were all in human form now, accompanying Nong Zidao and Jadechild.
“This black fog bewildering formation isn’t even worth discussing.” Nong Zidao finally spoke. “I’ve already completely seen through its mysteries. I can sense the direction in which Dong Ziqi’s group lies as well. Now, act according to my instructions…and we will soon reunite with them.”
“We will listen to you, senior apprentice-brother Zidao.”
“Senior apprentice-brother Zidao is as formidable as ever.” The other Zifu Disciples previously had ugly looks on their faces, but now they finally looked pleased.
Prior to this, upon entering the formation, they had immediately shouted, and the distant voices of Dong Ziqi and the rest of the eight Zifu Disciples had naturally responded to them…and through the discussion, Jadechild and Nong Zidao learned that four of their comrades had actually died! This caused Jadechild and Nong Zidao to become incomparably enraged and cautious.
Nong Zidao said in a clear voice, “Junior apprentice-brother Ziqi, we are coming over right now. We will soon arrive.”
“Boom!”
“Kill!”
“Kill that old bastard of the Ji clan!”
A series of angry roars rang out from afar, causing Jadechild and Nong Zidao to be startled. But then, the warcries and sounds of battle came to a halt.
Jadechild shouted with a frown. “Dong Ziqi, are you alright?”
“We are fine.” The voice came from far away. “The eight of us stayed in formation the entire time, not relaxing at all. Just now, an enormous draconic claw attacked us…it was even more powerful than the first attack. We were at a slight disadvantage, but by joining forces, the eight of us were able to defend well enough that none of us perished.”
“Alright. We will immediately come over.” Jadechild said.
“Let’s hurry over.” Jadechild looked towards Nong Zidao by his side. “Prior to this, it was the dragon’s head. This time, it was the dragon’s claw. This puny little Ji clan actually has access to such a technique…”
Nong Zidao said solemnly, “Most likely, in the past few thousand years, the Ji clan
must have acquired this formation through a stroke of great fortune. It seems to be quite powerful. Let’s quickly reunite with them.”
Right at this moment…
Whoosh!
The surrounding black fog suddenly grew denser, and a bone-piercing, insidious cold seemed to fill it.
“Go forward. Stop. Turn left…stop.” Nong Zidao guided them easily, but then his face suddenly changed. “Eh?”
“What is it?” They all looked towards him, awaiting his directions.
“It changed.”
Nong Zidao had an ugly look on his face. “There are multiple layers of formations, formations within formations. I’ve become baffled by an even more powerful formation.”
“Can it be that even you can’t break it?” Jadechild looked at him.
“It will be very difficult.” Nong Zidao looked at the surrounding area. Waving his hand lightly, he could sense that insidious, bone-piercing chill within the fog.
“How long will you need to break it?” Jadechild asked.
“I don’t know!” Nong Zidao shook his head. “If I’m fast, an hour. If it takes a long time, one or two days.”
The faces of the surrounding Zifu Disciples all changed. Jadechild said, shocked, “That long?”
……….
Ning sat in the lotus position within the enormous tail of the Netherwyrm. Around him, more than seven hundred sword-type magic treasures were floating about, nine of which were particularly dazzling to behold. The white light covering those nine was much stronger. The hazy white light continuously thrummed through the swords, quickly coalescing into a sword light in front of Ning.
“Right. With these nine ranked flying swords as a formation base, they can now serve as the core for the other seven hundred-plus flying swords of my [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]. The power clearly has grown dramatically.” Ning revealed a look of delight. “Only, the ranked flying swords put a lot of pressure on my soul as well.”
Unranked flying swords made up the majority of the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation].
The difference between using them and using ranked flying swords in the [Lesser Thousand Swords Formation]…was quite significant and apparent. The difficulty in controlling them rose dramatically, but so too did the power!