424: Chapter 424 Attacked on the Way

Luo Li's zither music shifted to the "Armor-Breaking Melody," the sharp sound waves piercing straight into Cang Song's eardrums, causing a slight hesitation in his movements.

Tian Xin threw several "Explosive Talisman"s behind Cang Song, the shockwave from the Talismans' explosion restricting his movement space.

Su Ning's Space Cutting laid down an invisible barrier around Cang Song; it was not meant to trap him, but to create spatial misalignment whenever he moved, causing him to be teleported to an off-target position every time he tried to approach Gao Feng.

Master Cangsong's expression grew increasingly ugly. He realized that not only was he unable to take down Gao Feng in a short time, but he was also being dragged into a difficult situation bit by bit by this group of young people.

His death warriors were also trapped in a bitter fight—Lin Jingyu and Situ Lan charged into the enemy ranks with swords drawn, their sword light as fast as lightning, making it impossible for the death warriors to get close.

Lin Jingyu's flowing cloud sword traced silver-white trajectories in the air, each strike precisely piercing the throat of a death warrior. His sword was so fast it was almost impossible to see, with only the sharp whistling of the blade cutting through the air audible.

Situ Lan's azure phoenix sword carried the Sword Intent of frost; every strike she made caused ice crystals to form on the wounds, slowing down the death warriors' movements. The two of them, one on the left and one on the right, supported each other, tearing the death warriors' Formation to pieces.

Yao Guang stood within Lin Yue's defensive Formation, holding a rejuvenation pill and a pulse-continuation pill, ready to treat anyone at any time. Her gaze remained fixed on Gao Feng, the green light in her palm never extinguishing; should Gao Feng be injured, she could deliver healing energy into his body instantly.

Chu Lan's array-breaking vine had already destroyed all dozen or so nodes of the Dragon Trapping Array, reducing the Formation's suppression power to less than thirty percent. Tian Xin had run out of array-breaking Talismans, so she switched to using "Explosive Talisman"s in coordination with Su Ning's Space Cutting, the two working together to destroy the last few core nodes of the Formation one by one.

"Boom!"

The Dragon Trapping Array collapsed completely, the red Formation patterns shattering into countless points of light that dissipated into the night sky. Lin Yue's Rock Demon Phantom surged abruptly, recovering from one zhang high to three zhang high, arms spread wide to protect the nine people behind him.

Master Cangsong's face turned ashen; he knew the situation was lost. Yet, unwilling to give up, he condensed all his spiritual energy into his right palm and unleashed a full-powered strike toward Gao Feng. That strike carried the full force of the sixth level of the Golden Core; wherever the palm wind passed, the air was compressed into visible ripples.

Gao Feng did not retreat. He took a deep breath and concentrated all the spiritual energy within his body onto his vajra sword—the seventh style of the Nine Styles of the War God, War God Shatter. The power of the Five Elements circulated and generated each other within the sword blade, pushing the power of this strike to the extreme. The golden sword light collided with Master Cangsong's palm wind, erupting with a thunderous roar.

"Boom—!"

Master Cangsong was sent flying several zhang by the sword light, crashing heavily into the mountain wall, blood spraying wildly from his mouth. His right palm was sliced by the sword light, leaving a wound deep enough to see the bone, and spiritual energy leaked crazily from the wound.

Gao Feng also retreated several steps, the web between his thumb and index finger splitting, blood flowing down the sword hilt. However, his injuries were much lighter than Master Cangsong's, merely superficial; Yao Guang's healing energy had already flooded into his body, and the wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Master Cangsong struggled to stand, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield—more than half of the thirty death warriors had already fallen, and the rest were retreating steadily under the siege of Lin Jingyu and Situ Lan. He knew he had lost; if he continued to fight, not only would he fail to seize the secret techniques, but he might even lose his life.

He gritted his teeth and used his last bit of spiritual energy to activate a teleportation Talisman, silver light enshrouding him. The moment he escaped, Su Ning formed hand Seals, and an extremely concealed spatial mark attached itself to Master Cangsong's robe. This was the Space-Time Deduction Technique she had newly comprehended; the spiritual energy fluctuation of the mark's landing point was almost invisible, and Master Cangsong was completely unaware.

"I will not let you off," Master Cangsong's voice came from within the silver light, carrying bone-deep hatred. With a flash of silver light, his figure vanished into the desolate mountains.

Seeing their leader flee, the morale of the remaining death warriors collapsed, and they were all killed by Lin Jingyu and Situ Lan. The desolate mountains returned to silence, the night wind blowing past with a heavy scent of blood.

Gao Feng sheathed his vajra sword and turned to look at Su Ning. Su Ning nodded at him, signaling that the mark had been left. Gao Feng did not say much more, only saying, "We will settle the score with him after we return to the sect."

The nine of them re-established the teleportation Formation. This time, Su Ning carefully checked the Formation patterns, confirming there was no interference, before activating the teleportation.

Amidst the flashing silver light, the valley of the Meteor War God Realm unfolded before their eyes. The lights of the Spirit Plant Garden were glowing warmly, and the silver light of the Time Holy Vine shimmered with a faint, cold hue under the moonlight.

They had finally returned.

The next morning, Gao Feng led the team back to the Wuxiang Sect.

The landing point of the teleportation Formation was set on the square below the main peak. The morning mist had not yet dispersed when the mountain-guarding Disciples saw Gao Feng's figure and hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

Gao Feng did not say much and walked straight toward the main hall. Venerable Xuan Yang had already received the message and was waiting at the entrance of the hall. His gaze swept over the nine people, and seeing that everyone was safe and sound, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"I already know about the matter with Master Cangsong," Venerable Xuan Yang's voice was very low. "He did not return to the sect last night. I sent people to search his Immortal Cave and found some evidence. He had long been secretly colluding with external sect forces, intending to usurp the position of Sect Master. The Formation of the Spiritual Vein cracks is also related to him. He had ways to predict the movements of those Void Realm creatures in advance—he possessed a 'Void Attractor' obtained from beyond the realm, which can attract Void Realm creatures. He had also been using certain means to cover up the true cause of the cracks, delaying the repair progress. Your experiences have confirmed my suspicions of many years."

Gao Feng took out the space-time sealing Talisman: "Let's discuss Master Cangsong's matter later; let's repair the Spiritual Vein first. Void Immortal Master said that there might be Void Realm creatures trying to drill into the cracks, and we need to Seal them as soon as possible."

Venerable Xuan Yang's expression was grave as he led the nine of them through the secret passage behind the main hall and walked deep underground. The stone walls of the secret passage were engraved with anti-vibration and protective Formation patterns; the further down they went, the cooler the air became. After walking for about a quarter of an hour, a huge stone door appeared ahead, with the three characters "Spirit Source Cave" engraved on the lintel in a simple, ancient style.

Venerable Xuan Yang pressed his palm against the stone door, injecting spiritual energy, and the stone door slowly opened.

The space behind the door suddenly opened up. It was a naturally formed underground cave, the dome about ten zhang high, with glowing crystals embedded in the cave walls, illuminating the cave as if it were daylight. At the bottom of the cave was a huge Spiritual Vein pool; the liquid Spiritual Qi that should have been flowing in the pool had currently receded, and the dry, cracked mud was exposed at the bottom of the pool.

Five cracks were distributed in different locations of the Spiritual Vein pool. The largest one was in the center of the pool, about three zhang long and one zhang wide, with gray-black mist gushing from the crack, thick and carrying a trace of a rotten, sweet smell. The Spiritual Vein stones at the edge of the crack were charred black, and the spiritual energy fluctuations were chaotic, like a giant beast panting from a serious injury.

The Spiritual Qi in the pool was extremely thin, so thin that Gao Feng needed to concentrate to perceive it. And in the shadows at the deepest part of the crack, something was writhing, like a mass of black mist without a fixed form, squeezing through the crack little by little, trying to drill over to the Human Realm side.

Void Realm beast. Sixth level of the Golden Core.

"It hasn't fully drilled through yet," Su Ning squatted at the edge of the crack, probing into it with the Space Power to sense it for a moment. "The crack is too small; it can only send a portion of its energy over first, while its main body is still beyond the realm. But the crack is expanding. If we cannot Seal it as soon as possible, at most in three days, it will be able to fully enter the Human Realm."

"Three days is enough." Gao Feng took the five Jade Slips from his bosom and laid them out on the ground. Sword Intent Spirit-Guiding Technique, Five Elements Return to Origin Method, Core Array Technique, Green Wood Pulse Continuation Technique, Space-Time Deduction Technique. He quickly sorted through the essence of the five sect secret techniques, combined with the diagrams of the Ten Thousand Spirits Gathering Yuan Array, and deduced the order of the Formation and the positions of the nodes in his mind.

"Lin Yue, you are responsible for the array bases. Using the methods of the Core Array Technique, set up five array bases around the five cracks. The array bases must be buried three zhang deep underground so they cannot be destroyed by the energy impact of the Void Realm beast."

Lin Yue nodded, took out the Formation Plate and Formation stones, and walked toward the largest crack.

"Su Ning, you set up a Spatial Barrier around the crack to temporarily prevent the Void Realm beast from continuing to drill in. We don't need to Seal it completely; as long as you can slow down its speed, that will be enough."

Su Ning formed hand Seals, and the silver-white Space Power wove into a fine, dense net at the edge of the crack.

"Tian Xin, use Talismans to suppress the Void Realm aura. The Void Realm beast's energy will pollute the Spiritual Vein; we cannot let it spread before the Seal is completed. Chu Lan, plant Spirit Grass around the Spiritual Vein pool to replenish the spiritual energy needed for the Formation. The Spiritual Qi in the pool is too thin; the operation of the Formation cannot rely solely on Spirit Stones."

Chu Lan took out a large handful of silver-white Spirit Grass seeds from her bosom and activated them with spiritual energy; the seeds broke through the soil and grew rapidly. The leaves of the Spirit Grass shimmered with a faint silver luster under the light of the crystals, and their roots dug into the dry, cracked mud of the Spiritual Vein pool, drawing up the remaining spiritual energy from deep underground bit by bit.

"Luo Li, your task is to coordinate the operation of the Formation. The five secret techniques have different attributes and different spiritual energy fluctuations; forcing a Fusion will cause conflict. Use music to find the resonance points of the five spiritual energy fluctuations and let them fuse together smoothly."

Luo Li sat cross-legged, the flowing sound zither across her knees, her ten fingers resting on the strings, plucking a low and slow melody. That melody was not any existing piece of music, but her attempt to find the common frequency of the five secret techniques' spiritual energy fluctuations, using music to bind them together.

"Yao Guang, you are responsible for healing. The consumption of spiritual energy during the Formation process will be great; if anyone is injured or their spiritual energy is exhausted, you must handle it immediately."

Yao Guang distributed the rejuvenation pills and pulse-continuation pills to everyone, then condensed the green healing light in her palm, ready to act at any time.

"Jingyu, Situ Lan, you guard both sides of the crack. The moment the Void Realm beast drills out, someone must block it so it cannot interfere with the Formation setup."

Lin Jingyu and Situ Lan drew their swords, standing one on the left and one on the right on both sides of the crack. The sword light of the flowing cloud sword and the ice-blue sword light of the frost sword were particularly striking in the gray-black mist.

"I will preside over the Formation eye." Gao Feng walked to the center of the Spiritual Vein pool, plunged the vajra sword into the ground, pressed his hands on the hilt, and simultaneously injected the intent of the five sect secret techniques into the depths of the Spiritual Vein.

The Formation setup began.