88: Chapter 88 The Lu Family Treasure Pavilion

Li Xuanji waved his hand, ordering the Golden Feather Eagle to stand guard before the Lu Family mountain gate to prevent any stragglers or other forces from spying. Immediately after, he, along with Clan Leader Li Huaming and Li Changqing, led five clansmen of the Qi Refinement Stage to begin a carpet-like search and cleanup of the Lu Family grounds.

The five clansmen of the Qi Refinement Stage were responsible for searching all residential areas of the Lu Family's outer perimeter for Qi Refining Cultivators. These places generally lacked powerful Formation Restrictions and were within their capabilities to handle, focusing mainly on scavenging for low-grade Spirit Stones, miscellaneous items, and Cultivator relics.

Meanwhile, the three Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators—Li Xuanji, Clan Leader Li Huaming, and Li Changqing—headed straight for the key core locations of the Lu Family, such as the Treasure Pavilion, Spirit Medicine garden, and Spirit Beast Farm. These places often held the Lu Family's true Legacy and wealth.

Everyone passed through the ruins of the outer courtyard together. Li Xuanji and the other two traveled by controlling their Qi, flying toward a mountain peak where the Spiritual Qi was most dense, finally stopping in front of an ancient and magnificent cyan pavilion.

This was the Lu Family's Treasure Pavilion.

The structure was built from precious thousand-year-old agarwood, hard as iron, emitting a faint, lingering fragrance, which could prevent insect damage and erosion by time.

The pavilion was covered by three layers of Restrictions, its entire body shrouded in a pale cyan light curtain. The light curtain flowed ceaselessly, with mysterious runes faintly flickering and moving; this was the second-order Medium Grade Formation, the "Green Wood Spirit-Locking Formation."

For ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivators, this Formation was as solid as a rock; breaking it by force would require consuming immense Spiritual Qi and could easily trigger a Formation backlash, injuring oneself.

But for Clan Leader Li Huaming, who was proficient in the Dao of Formations, this was a puzzle waiting to be solved, a stage for him to display his attainments in the Dao of Formations.

Clan Leader Li Huaming stood about a zhang away from the Treasure Pavilion, his expression calm as water, as if the murderous Formation before him were merely an ordinary view.

He did not rush to attack; instead, he narrowed his eyes, his Divine Sense spreading out quietly like a tide, carefully sensing the flow trajectory and node changes of every wisp of Spiritual Qi on the Formation's light curtain.

In his vision, the originally seamless and airtight cyan light shield now presented countless tiny nodes and lines, intricate like a spider web, yet operating according to a specific pattern.

This was the unique insight he had gained from years of studying the Family's inherited second-order Medium Grade Formation classic, the "Five Elements Formation Canon," allowing him to see through appearances to the Origin of the Formation and find those fleeting flaws.

"The Spiritual Qi in the Kan position is slightly stagnant, the Zhen position node is weak, and this place is the Bottleneck where the earth vein Spiritual Qi converges..." Clan Leader Li Huaming recited silently in his heart, his fingertips gently calculating, rapidly deducing the weak points of the Formation in his mind, calculating the most effortless and efficient method of breaking it.

After a moment, his gaze locked onto an inconspicuous ripple in the southeast corner of the light shield like a hawk.

That was the key node where the "Green Wood Spirit-Locking Formation" absorbed the earth vein Spiritual Qi, and also the most fragile "Qi Eye" in the entire Formation's Spiritual Qi circulation. As long as he destroyed this place, it would trigger a chain reaction and dismantle the entire Formation.

After confirming the target, Clan Leader Li Huaming slowly reached his right hand into his Storage Pouch, his fingertips touching the array-breaking bead.

"Rise."

Clan Leader Li Huaming let out a low shout, and the pure Spiritual Qi of his Foundation Establishment Stage surged like a river, continuously pouring into the array-breaking bead.

In an instant, the array-breaking bead vibrated violently, and a heart-palpitating, violent fluctuation emanated from it, as if a Vicious Beast were sealed inside.

He flicked his wrist, and the array-breaking bead turned into a streak of black light, shooting with extreme precision toward that Qi Eye, moving so fast that it left an afterimage in the air.

"Puff!"

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a muffled, unsettling sound.

The moment the array-breaking bead collided with the cyan light curtain, it did not explode directly but instantly disintegrated into countless purple-red Spiritual Qi threads as thin as silk.

These Spiritual Qi threads seemed to possess life, spreading and drilling wildly along the flow of the Formation's Spiritual Qi, emitting teeth-aching "hissing" friction sounds wherever they passed, like a swarm of ants gnawing on a giant tree.

The light curtain shook violently, and the originally smooth Spiritual Qi circulation was forcibly interrupted and disrupted by these sudden purple-red threads, even beginning to flow in reverse.

The balance within the Formation was completely broken, and the Green Wood Spiritual Qi began to run wild and out of control, the originally stable defensive structure instantly becoming precarious.

Clan Leader Li Huaming's eyes narrowed, his hands quickly forming complex Dharma Seals, while he chanted: "Qian is three continuous lines, Kun is six broken lines, Zhen is an upward-facing bowl, Gen is an inverted bowl... Use the Bagua positions to guide and disrupt its Foundation!"

He was not relying solely on the brute force of the array-breaking bead but was using his deep understanding of Formations to guide the chaotic force generated by the array-breaking bead, striking in reverse along the texture of the Formation, just like injecting a deadly poison into human Meridians to dismantle its vitality.

"Crack."

A crisp cracking sound rang out, like ice breaking. One could see a small crack appear on the light curtain around that Qi Eye; immediately after, the crack spread rapidly like a spider web across the entire light shield, and wherever it passed, the cyan light dissipated completely.

The pale cyan light dimmed sharply, and the originally stable defensive structure, under attack from both inside and out, finally could not bear the burden and emitted a mournful cry.

"Break!"

Clan Leader Li Huaming exerted force again, and the final Dharma technique containing the true meaning of breaking Formations was accurately struck in. At this moment, the array-breaking bead also detonated completely, the final straw that broke the camel's back had fallen.

With a deafening boom, the cyan light curtain shrouding the Treasure Pavilion shattered completely, turning into dots of fluorescent light across the sky, dissipating into the morning breeze, leaving only a few wisps of residual Spiritual Qi.

As the Formation shattered, the thick bronze door of the Treasure Pavilion also swung open with a bang under the impact of the Spiritual Qi, emitting a dull roar.

An extremely dense Spiritual Qi, mixed with the scent of aged medicine, the metallic aura of gold and iron, and the vicissitudes of time, rushed toward them, assaulting the three men's senses.

Li Xuanji and Li Changqing exchanged a glance, then strode straight inside.

Looking around, the first floor of the Treasure Pavilion was quite spacious, with light streaming down through the high glazed windows, illuminating the dust motes dancing in the air.

In the center stood more than a dozen specially made rosewood shelves, displaying hundreds of Jade Slips of various colors and some ancient books made of animal hide.

The area on the right held various low-grade Magical Artifacts and standard equipment, gleaming with cold light; the area on the left was filled with some miscellaneous low-grade supplies, piled up like a mountain.

Before long, the first floor of the Lu Family Treasure Pavilion had been roughly searched by the three of them, and the list of spoils was as follows:

There were a total of thirty-six first-order Cultivation Techniques, nine of which overlapped with the Li Family's Legacy. Among the remaining twenty-seven first-order Cultivation Techniques, there were eight Gold-attribute Cultivation Techniques, three Wood-attribute Cultivation Techniques, four Water-attribute Cultivation Techniques, five Fire-attribute Cultivation Techniques, five Earth-attribute Cultivation Techniques, one Dark-attribute Cultivation Technique, and one Ice-attribute Cultivation Technique.

These classics greatly enriched the Li Family's Cultivation Technique library, especially the Dark-attribute and Ice-attribute Cultivation Techniques, which were relatively scarce for the Li Family.