Red Light Breaks the Formation, Wuchen and Qingwan Counterkill Together

I landed back on the stage, my wooden sword still lodged in a crack in the ground. Golden light still weaved between the bricks, tearing at the remaining red patterns like a spiderweb. The air was thick with a mixed scent of scorching and rot. The tremors from underground had yet to subside, and dark currents still writhed within the fissures.

Ye Qingwan stood half a step beside me, her medicine pestle resting on the ground, the warmth in her palm fading. Her breathing was slightly heavy, her brow furrowed – a sign of backlash from forcefully activating the Blood Phoenix Body. I raised my hand, my fingertip brushing the inside of her wrist, and channeled a thread of the Heaven-Slaying Origin into her.

She didn't dodge or speak, only tightened her grip on the medicine pestle.

The power circulated through her meridians once, causing her shoulders to tremble slightly. Then, she exhaled a breath of stale air, and the golden light in her eyes re-condensed. She looked down at the ground – several broken blood threads were slithering out from beneath the shattered bricks, like dying vipers trying to coil around her shoes.

She stepped forward and crushed one of them. As another began to dart up, it was engulfed by a crimson flame and instantly turned to ash.

"How much is left?" she asked, her voice not loud, but sharp as a blade.

"Seven of the eight array eyes are destroyed," I replied, staring at the rift on the west side. "The last main artery is hidden beneath the entrance to the secret passage, and it hasn't been severed yet."

Before I finished speaking, a dark figure leaped from the edge of the stage and lunged towards the collapsed stone wall on the west. It was Ji Hantian. The sleeve of his left arm was torn, revealing exposed Blood Crystals that pulsed with an eerie, dark red glow. He stumbled into the fissure, his right hand swiping across the rock face, and a stone slab slid open, revealing a dark passage.

He wanted to escape.

I didn't pursue.

Instead, I turned to Ye Qingwan. "Can you hold him for three breaths?"

She looked up, her gaze meeting mine. Without hesitation, she simply nodded.

The next moment, she tapped the ground with her medicine pestle and formed a hand seal. The Phoenix Mark on her brow flared brightly, and intense heat erupted from within her. Crimson flames cascaded like a waterfall, racing along the ground and instantly covering the entire western section of the stage. The flames spread along the surface, consuming all the remaining bloodstains, and then flowed into the secret passage entrance through the fissure.

The tongues of flame curled and formed an arc-shaped barrier at the passage entrance, like a curtain falling.

"Three breaths," she said.

I moved.

Taking a step forward, I pushed off the ground and soared into the air. My Pseudo-Primordial Body operated at full speed, the Heaven-Slaying Origin surging through my meridians like a tide. I twisted in mid-air, forming my right hand into a sword and thrusting it directly at a hidden rune mark above the stone beam – the load-bearing point marked on the Jade Slip last night.

The moment my fingertip touched the carving, golden light exploded.

BOOM!

The entire stone beam vibrated violently, and debris rained down. The rock layer above cracked several feet, and a large amount of rubble fell, sealing the exit at the top of the secret passage. As the dust billowed up, the flame barrier extinguished.

Ji Hantian's figure stopped deep within the passage, his back to us, his shoulders heaving. He hadn't completely escaped and could only press further in.

"He can't get away now," I said.

Ye Qingwan walked to my side, gazing at the crack half-hidden by rubble. She reached out and brushed a strand of hair from her face. The tips of her hair had returned to jet black, with only a faint residual warmth of crimson on her fingertips.

"Aren't you going after him?" she asked.

"Chasing him now would be like sending him to a safer place," I shook my head. "The secret passage leads to the underground altar, full of traps. Rushing in would put us at a disadvantage."

She was silent for a moment, then suddenly crouched down, her fingers brushing over a broken piece of the array core. A pool of dark brown blood stained it. The substance was viscous, unlike ordinary blood.

"This isn't his blood," she said softly.

I moved closer to examine it. The edges of the bloodstain glowed faintly purple, felt chilling to the touch, and showed signs of distorted patterns spontaneously reforming. It wasn't left by a living person, nor was it something a normal cultivator would bleed.

"Demonic Cultivator Essence," I said. "And... a very high level one."

She didn't speak again, instead following the bloodstain into the pile of rubble. Beneath the debris lay half a torn strip of cloth, belonging to a standard Blood Demon Sect robe. Further down, a metal token, shaken loose and embedded in a crack in the stone, was covered in grime.

She scraped away the dirt with her fingernail, revealing a twisted blood mark.

It was a black token, with chain totems carved into the four corners and a scarlet imprint in the center, shaped like a dried heart.

The Blood Demon Sect Leader Token.

She held the token in her palm, a small flame igniting and slowly sweeping over its surface. Wisps of black energy seeped out, consumed by the flame. The token regained some of its luster, but its edges showed signs of corrosion.

"This shouldn't be here," she looked up at me. "Not even an outer collaborator like Ji Hantian should possess it."

I stared at the token, my gaze growing cold.

This wasn't a simple ambush. Nor was it a mere power-grabbing conspiracy.

Someone had given the Sect Leader Token to Ji Hantian – either as a test, or as part of a pawn strategy.

"Do you recognize this mark?" she asked.

I nodded. "Three years ago, the night my Dao Bone shattered, someone burned the same kind of talisman outside my door."

Her pupils contracted.

I had never told anyone the details of that night. She knew I had been ambushed, but she didn't know the mastermind had already used a token of Sect Leader level.

"They wanted you dead, more than once," she said.

"But they didn't expect me to still be alive," I said, looking into the depths of the secret passage. "And they certainly didn't expect someone to break the array with me today."

She didn't respond to that, instead carefully putting the token into her Treasure Pouch, as if afraid it might ooze something else. Then she stood up and surveyed the surrounding ruins.

The stage was completely ruined, all eight array eyes destroyed. The red light had dissipated, and the sky had returned to its usual gray-white. The wind swept dust across the ground, lifting the corner of her Black Cloak.

Footsteps could be heard in the distance; clearly, the family guards had noticed the commotion and were approaching. But neither of us moved.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Wait," I said. "Wait for him to come out on his own, or... wait for someone to come for him."

She frowned. "Aren't you worried he'll report to them?"

"He can barely protect himself right now." I raised my left hand, and a thin golden thread flashed across my palm. "The Origin I transferred to you just now had a sliver that followed the bloodline back into the core of the formation array. As long as he's within this geomorphic range, I can sense his location."

She paused for a moment. "You can track him?"

"It's not tracking," I corrected. "It's 'tethering.' He used my Remnant Dao as the formation base, which is like tying himself to my life force. The further he runs, the heavier the backlash."

She suddenly understood something. "So you didn't chase him just now—you let him go on purpose."

The corner of my mouth curved up. "He set up the killing formation, but the rules... I set them."

She looked at me, her gaze complex for a moment before turning clear. She gripped the Medicine Pestle, her tone calm. "Then I'll wait with you."

We stood side-by-side amidst the ruins, the collapsed arena behind us and a dark, winding passage before us. The wind blew from the cracks, carrying the mixed scent of underground dampness and rust.

Time ticked by.

Suddenly, her brow twitched, and her right hand quickly pressed against her chest. I immediately noticed—the Blood Phoenix Body within her stirred again, as if sensing something.

"What is it?"

"Something... is calling to it," she whispered. "It's not malicious, but it's ancient, like an echo from the depths of the earth."

My expression grew stern.

Qing Ming had said that beneath the Northern Wasteland's earth lay an ancient seal. He had warned me with a wager: if it wasn't necessary, don't go below the third level underground.

And now, this passage was the only entrance to the third level.

She stared into the darkness, a faint golden light flickering in her eyes. "I can feel its direction."

"Don't go," I said, reaching out to stop her. "Going in now means stepping into someone else's game."

She didn't insist, merely slowly closed her eyes, suppressing the restlessness within her. When she opened them again, she had regained her composure.

Just then, a muffled thud echoed from the depths of the passage.

It sounded like some mechanism being activated.

Immediately after, a faint red light rose from the bottom of the crack, flashing and disappearing in an instant.

Ye Qingwan and I looked at each other simultaneously.

She spoke, her voice very soft. "There... shouldn't be any light down there."

I tightened my grip on the wooden sword stuck in the ground and pulled it out with force.

As the sword left the crack, the last trace of golden light extinguished.