393: Chapter 387 What is the True Dao of Array Formations?

"These hicks from the Southern Wilderness will never understand what true Formation Mastery really is."

"That Old Dog Xueming thought he could defile my Formation core with the resentful blood of three thousand Mortals? He was wrong. I never placed the Formation eye of this Tianluo Vajra Array underground; instead, I connected it to the over one million living Souls in this city!"

Chen Zhiwen's words were like a bolt from the blue, exploding in Chen Zhengchu's mind.

"Con... connected to living people?" Chen Zhengchu sucked in a breath of cold air, his voice trembling.

"Correct." A trace of icy indifference flashed in Chen Zhiwen's eyes. "At this moment, those one million plus Mortals in the city are in a state of extreme fear and despair. When humans face the threat of death, the will to live and the desire for survival that erupts is one of the purest and most massive forces in this world."

"The Formation absorbs all the survival will and panic of these million-plus people, turning it into the most perfect shield against that blood-colored resentful Qi. That Old Dog Xueming is attacking with the resentment of three thousand dead, while I am defending with the Yang Qi and fear of over a million living Souls."

Chen Zhiwen turned his head to look at Chen Zhengchu, his gaze reflecting a logic and ruthlessness that made one's Soul shiver.

"To break this light barrier, he would need to unleash a force exceeding the sum of over a million Mortal lives in a single strike. Otherwise, the resentment in that blood-colored pillar will only become nourishment for the Formation's operation."

"In this world of cultivation, the sharpest blade is the one that kills without shedding blood. And the human heart is the best weapon."

As Chen Zhiwen finished speaking...

The massive blood-colored pillar in the sky, after half an incense stick's worth of frenzied impact, finally exhausted its last shred of power. It let out an unwilling wail, like a vengeful ghost at death's door, and turned into a sky full of foul-smelling bloody rain. It scattered over the golden light barrier and was completely evaporated.

The wind continued to howl. The rain continued to fall.

But Heavenly Sword City remained like an insurmountable monument, firmly anchored amidst the storm, without even a single flake of wall plaster falling.

...

Outside Heavenly Sword City, in the sea area thousands of miles away.

A deathly silence hung over the giant black bone ship.

The thousands of demonic Cultivators who had been cheering wildly for the terrifying power of the Blood Sea Nether Cannon were now as if an invisible giant hand had collectively seized them by the throat; all sound stopped abruptly.

They stared with bloodshot eyes, blankly watching the distant island that still shimmered with a faint golden light, completely unharmed. Their eyes were filled with unmaskable shock and disbelief.

"This... how is this possible..."

"The Blood Sea Nether Cannon... didn't even manage to strike a single crack in that Formation?"

Whispers of fear began to spread through the demonic Cultivator ranks.

On the blood-colored throne at the very front of the bone ship.

Xueming Old Ancestor still maintained his posture, hands clawing forward into the void. The ghostly green fire deep within his skeletal eye sockets had frozen, as if it had forgotten even how to flicker.

A gust of sea wind mixed with icy rain blew past, billowing his wide blood-red robes, yet it couldn't mask the aura of extreme irritability and fury radiating from his entire body.

*Crack!*

Xueming Old Ancestor suddenly clenched his fist, and the throne's armrest beside him, carved from thousand-year jade bone, was instantly crushed into powder.

"Chen—Zhi—wen!"

A shrill roar, so piercing it seemed capable of tearing apart one's Soul, rolled out from Xueming Old Ancestor's withered throat. The Nascent Soul Stage pressure contained in this voice sent dozens of low-level demonic Cultivators in the front row of the deck vomiting blood and collapsing to the ground.

"Old Ancestor, please calm your anger! Old Ancestor, please calm your anger!"

The Late Golden Core Stage Ghost Bone elder's legs went weak with fear. With a *thud*, he knelt on the water-logged deck, nearly dropping the spinal bone staff in his hand. Fine beads of cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he didn't even dare to raise his head.

"Calm my anger? How do you expect me to calm my anger?!"

Xueming Old Ancestor spun around and kicked Ghost Bone heavily in the shoulder. With a crisp *crack* of breaking bone, Ghost Bone, a grand master at the Late Golden Core Stage, was sent flying like a ragdoll, slamming heavily into the thick mast and coughing up a large mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.

But Ghost Bone didn't dare to have the slightest complaint. Enduring the agonizing pain, he scrambled back to crawl and kneel at Xueming Old Ancestor's feet, his body shaking like a sieve.

"That was the resentful blood of three thousand Mortals! That was the Blood Sea Nether Cannon that I spent three whole months refining! And yet it didn't even scratch the surface of his wretched Formation?!"

The ghostly fire in Xueming Old Ancestor's eyes flickered wildly. It was a sign of extreme rage, even tinged with a hint of unbelievable madness.

"Old Ancestor... that... that Formation is strange!" Ghost Bone explained desperately while coughing up blood. "I just used a secret technique to investigate. When that Formation took the hit, it didn't use the island's leyline Spiritual Qi. Instead... it released an extremely vast and chaotic life aura! It was like... like a massive living creature was swallowing our resentful blood!"

"A living creature?"

Xueming Old Ancestor was momentarily stunned.

He was, after all, an old monster who had lived for over a thousand years. Though furious, his mind wasn't completely gone. He closed his eyes, and his vast Divine Sense spread out toward Heavenly Sword City like a tide.

A moment later.

Xueming Old Ancestor snapped his eyes open. Deep within those skeletal sockets, a flash of profound wariness and an unmaskable trace of jealousy flickered.

"What ruthless methods... what a fine Grand Elder of a righteous sect!"

Xueming Old Ancestor gnashed his teeth and let out a cold laugh, his voice as unpleasant as an owl's screech.

"He actually forcibly linked the panic and survival will of those million Mortals in the city to the Formation! He is using the lives of his own people to block my cannon! When I kill, I have to refine them personally; he, on the other hand, just treats millions of people as consumables for his Formation!"

"This little bastard, after staying in that hypocritical place called the Central State for so long, his methods are even more demonic than our Demonic Path!"

Hearing this, Ghost Bone also sucked in a breath of cold air. He had thought that they, as demonic Cultivators, were cruel enough, but compared to the rumored decisive and ruthless Grand Elder of the Heavenly Sword Sect, they seemed somewhat lacking.

"Then... Old Ancestor, what should we do now? If that Formation isn't broken, our bone ship can't get close at all," Ghost Bone asked cautiously.

"Break it? Since he wants to play, I'll play with him!"

Xueming Old Ancestor violently waved his wide blood-colored sleeve, pointing toward the distant Heavenly Sword City, his voice filled with endless cruelty and madness.

"He can use the panic of Mortals to block resentful blood, but I want to see if he can block a real fight with blades and spears!"

"Pass down my decree!"

Xueming Old Ancestor's voice instantly echoed across the entire massive bone ship, drowning out the deafening thunder.

"Release all five hundred 'Blood-Slaying Evil Hounds' imprisoned in the bottom hold!"

"Order the two thousand Qi Refinement Stage Disciples of the 'Black-Robed Vanguard Battalion', plus fifty Foundation Establishment Stage deacons, to leave the ship immediately! Charge onto the outer reefs of Tianjian Island and forcibly uproot the external foundations of the Tianluo Vajra Array!"

"Whoever can cut off the head of a Chen family Cultivator will be rewarded with ten Blood Spirit Pills! Whoever dares to retreat half a step will have their Soul extracted and refined, never to be reincarnated!"

"Boom—!"

As Xueming Old Ancestor's order was given.

The massive hatch at the bottom of the bone ship slammed open. Accompanied by waves of hair-raising, shrill beastly roars, five hundred monsters—each the size of a calf, covered in dark red scales with blood-red eyes—surged out from the hold like a tide.

Immediately following them, two thousand black-robed demonic Cultivators with fanatical and cruel eyes summoned various flying Magical Artifacts emitting sinister auras. They were like a swarm of locusts that had caught the scent of blood, taking to the air in a dense mass.

"Kill—! Trample Heavenly Sword City!"

The sky-shaking battle cries merged into a terrifying sound wave in the storm, sweeping toward Heavenly Sword City.

Xueming Old Ancestor stood at the bow, coldly watching this vanguard army of cannon fodder, a bloodthirsty sneer curling on his lips.

"Chen Zhiwen, don't you like to defend? I will use lives to fill your Formation foundations! I want to see if you will open the Formation to face us, or watch helplessly as I tear your Formation apart piece by piece!"

...

At the same time.

To the east of Heavenly Sword City, the camp of Loose Cultivators, which was already a muddy mess, had now completely turned into a living hell.

Even with the protection of the city-guarding Formation, the shockwaves from that terrifying impact just now still caused catastrophic damage within the camp.

Countless crude shacks collapsed in the tremors. Among the Loose Cultivators already weakened by hunger and cold, some had their spines snapped by falling wooden pillars, while others were trampled to death in the panic or drowned in the foul-smelling mud pits.

"Enemy attack—! The Demonic Path is launching a full-scale assault!"

No one knew who shouted it, but the entire camp instantly boiled over in chaos.

Fear spread like a plague through everyone's hearts.

"Run! The Formation is about to break!"

"I don't want to die! I don't want to die here!"

Hundreds of Loose Cultivators ran around frantically like headless flies in the mud. They tried to find a place to hide, but besides the cold city walls and the glinting blades of the Chen family enforcement team, there was nowhere to run.

"Shut the hell up! Anyone who dares to take another step, I'll hack them apart right now!"

A thunderous roar of anger erupted over the chaotic camp.

Commander Chen Jiao, his body wrapped in dazzling lightning, landed heavily like a ferocious butcher in front of a Loose Cultivator who was fleeing in a frenzy.

He didn't even look at the Loose Cultivator as he violently swung the deep blue electric whip in his hand.