Breaking It
Boom! Boom!
The entire square seemed to tremble violently at that moment.
The tremor spread in all directions from the foot of the stone pillar that Lin Ming attacked, and wave after wave of violent impacts raged continuously. These impacts burst forth from the connection between the stone pillar and the corpse, like a wild beast struggling desperately with its throat being choked.
Huge cracks were torn into the ground, extending outward from the base of the stone pillars. In some places, a fist could fit in, and in others, a finger's width was as thick as a finger.
However, no matter how these cracks spread, they could not penetrate the area where the Spirit Formation was located; they could only meander and coil around it, like an angry dragon.
The cracks collided with an invisible barrier at the edge of the Spirit Formation, bouncing off to the sides like a flood blocked by a dam, only able to flow along the banks.
And it was under these waves of violent bombardment that the corpse beneath the stone pillar that Lin Ming had been attacking was trembling incessantly.
Under the continuous impact of Lin Ming's Spiritual Energy orbs, the skeleton was pushed to the right like a clay sculpture sitting on a skateboard.
Each falling orb of light causes it to tilt slightly; after the first one is pushed, the second follows, and after the second, the third arrives, like a fine and patient raindrop hitting a stone.
It began to move, bit by bit, gradually moving away from the stone pillar.
There was originally a grayish-white Spiritual Runes connecting the buttocks of the corpse to the base of the stone pillar, like a short rope tying the two ends together.
As the corpse shifted, the Spiritual Runes was stretched longer and thinner, from the thickness of a finger to the thickness of a hair, and its surface was covered with dense cracks, like an iron wire that had been twisted a thousand times and was about to break.
After this continuous bombardment lasted for more than half an incense stick's time, the area around the square was riddled with holes and in complete disarray.
The originally flat stone bricks were shaken and lifted up. Some flipped over to reveal the gray-white base layer underneath, some broke into seven or eight pieces and scattered all over the ground, and some were lifted into the air and then fell down, creating shallow pits.
The reliefs on the stone pillar were shaken so badly that most of them peeled off, revealing the rough stone beneath, like a skeleton stripped of its outer garment.
Lin Ming's gaze was fixed on the slowly moving corpse. He calculated the distance and narrowed his eyes slightly.
The corpse had now deviated from the base of the stone pillar by about half a foot. The Spiritual Runes connecting them had been stretched to their limit, becoming so thin that they were almost invisible, with only a faint grayish-white wisp of light barely holding them together.
Every few breaths, a surge of Spiritual Energy would flow from the corpse end to the stone pillar along the filament of light, like a heart still pumping blood through a nearly severed blood vessel.
"Just a little bit is enough to sever the connection between the corpse and that stone pillar," Lin Ming muttered to himself.
His voice wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear amidst the roar, like a craftsman taking one last look at the chisel before the hammer falls.
Then his body tensed up again, and a surge of violent Spiritual Energy swept out like Giant Dragon, slamming heavily onto the ground.
When that Spiritual Energy surged from his palm, it condensed into a ball of light the size of a fist. Fine four-colored Spiritual Runes flowed across the surface of the ball, like a Miniature Sun compressed to its extreme.
After the ball of light left his hand, it transformed into a streak of light and hurtled towards the target at incredible speed, leaving a straight, colorful trail in the air.
Thump!
The earth shook violently, and the corpse trembled again, moving forward slightly.
That slight movement was extremely subtle, but it was precisely that last bit that caused the Spiritual Runes connecting the corpse and the stone pillar to completely break.
The grayish-white filament emitted a very faint "pop" sound at that moment, like a string stretched to its limit finally snapping.
The light filaments at the break point bounced off to both sides. The light filament at the end of the corpse retracted into the bones, while the light filament at the end of the stone pillar drooped down like a vine that had lost its support, limply resting on the base, and the light on its surface quickly dimmed.
It's done! Lin Ming was overjoyed. Then he suddenly looked up and saw that the Spirit Formation was suddenly shaking.
The tremor was completely different from the previous regional shaking; it was more intense and widespread, like a building whose supporting pillar had been removed, swaying as a whole.
The originally balanced and powerful Spiritual Energy suddenly became disordered. The Spiritual Energy flowing in the Spirit Formation was like a river that originally flowed along a fixed channel, but suddenly a gap was dug in it, and the water rushed out from the gap, disrupting the flow of the entire river.
The perfect formation of the Spirit Formation began to waver at this moment. The arrangement of the Spiritual Runes changed from neat to crooked, and from crooked to distorted, like a painting that had been soaked in water.
The stone pillar he attacked instantly began to decay. The pillar was originally a calm grayish-white color, with dense Spiritual Runes engraved on its surface, like a jade pillar covered with carvings.
But now that it had lost the protection and maintenance of the corpse's power, a layer of yellowish-brown rust began to appear on the surface of the stone pillar. The rust spread rapidly, as if a piece of iron had been thrown into salt water.
Some cracks spread silently, climbing upwards from the base of the column and drilling inwards from the column body. Small pieces of stone kept falling from those cracks, like leaves falling from a dead tree in the wind.
Clearly, the stone pillar was already showing signs of collapse; its internal structure was disintegrating from the core outwards, like a bone with its tendons removed.
This Spirit Formation relies on these eight stone pillars as the power transmission channels. The eight stone pillars are like eight pillars supporting a giant net, each bearing one-eighth of the power.
Now that the stone pillar is malfunctioning, the originally perfect Spirit Formation has been exposed as flawed.
One corner of the giant net collapsed, forcing the remaining seven pillars to bear even more weight. But they too reached their limit, and the Spiritual Runes began to hum under the strain, like a group of laborers carrying an overloaded load, gritting their teeth and struggling to hold on.
Lin Ming gazed at the Spirit Formation before him, where spiritual light continuously surged and then violent Spiritual Energy swept across, his eyes flashing with light.
Having inherited the Lin Residence's legacy, he now saw the formation as even more incomplete. Although a terrifying storm of Spiritual Energy still raged within, it posed no obstacle to him anymore.
In his eyes, those Spiritual Energy storms were like a river marked with all the hidden reefs; he could clearly see where there were whirlpools and rapids.
Without the slightest hesitation, he flashed into the formation.
Lin Ming's figure was like a fallen leaf blown into the formation by the wind, lightly landing in a gap of a Spiritual Energy storm.
Then, he always managed to find a safe spot before the Spiritual Energy storm hit, stepping on the gap between the two storms with each step, just like a person walking through a downpour who can always find the gap between the raindrops.
In just a few breaths, he had already passed through most of the thousand-foot-wide Spirit Formation and arrived at the final stage unharmed.
Once he got here, the alluring Mandala Flower was almost within reach. He could even see the dark purple patterns on the petals and the flickering golden spots in the stamen.
Lin Ming did not relax; instead, he tensed up, his gaze fixed on the last stone pillar of the Spirit Formation and the corpse sitting cross-legged beneath it.
The stone pillar was no different from the other seven, but the corpse beneath it was somewhat different.
The skeleton was seated more upright than the other seven, and the mudras it formed with its hands were more complex. The surface of the skeleton had a faint, jade-like luster, like a piece of Ancient Jade that had been handled for a long time.
The corpse's energy had become connected with the Mandala Flower behind it, as if an invisible thread bound the two together.
Therefore, if you want to get to the rear, you have to pass through it.
Upon realizing this, Lin Ming stomped his foot without hesitation, creating a shallow pit in the stone brick beneath his feet. He shot out like lightning, heading straight for the corpse.
He was incredibly fast, appearing before the corpse almost instantly.
Then he struck the skeleton with a palm strike, the wind from which blew the dust off the surface of the corpse to both sides.
And at that very instant, the corpse's tightly closed eyes suddenly opened.
A spiritual light burst forth from the depths of those two empty eye sockets, like a pair of oil lamps that had been dormant for millennia suddenly being lit.
It stretched out its withered palm and clapped it against Lin Ming's palm.
A few strands of grayish-white tendons still clung to his palm, and his five finger bones resembled five withered branches, yet the force he unleashed was astonishing.
Boom!
The space itself seemed to shatter under their grasp, cracking open with countless fissures, and a terrifying burst of Spiritual Energy erupted.
The Spiritual Energy exploded outwards from between their palms like a detonated bomb, causing the surrounding air to whistle sharply.
However, Lin Ming used this force to First Revolution his body and shot out diagonally forward like a pebble launched by a slingshot, heading directly towards the Mandala Flower in front of him.
He tapped the ground three times with his feet, each time landing on the crest of a ripple of Spiritual Energy, using the momentum to propel himself forward.
In an instant, he rushed out of the Spirit Formation's range and landed at the end of the plaza.
Lin Ming landed at the bottom of the steps, his body frozen as he turned back to look at the corpse sitting cross-legged under the stone pillar.
After delivering that palm strike, the skeleton returned to its seated posture, its eyes closed again, and its hands fell back to its knees, like an old monk who had been disturbed for a moment but had returned to meditation.
But he knew about that previous palm strike; the person who delivered it must have been extraordinary in life.
The sheer force contained in that palm strike was far beyond what an ordinary Tier 9 Peak could possess.
"These eight corpses were probably all figures who had reached the Earth Sovereign level in life," Lin Ming sighed.
His voice wasn't loud, but it echoed at the end of the empty square, carrying a sense of awe for time and the powerful.
He was once again awestruck by the power of this Ancient Heavenly Palace.
In today's Sky Luo Continent, a Lower-Rank Earth Sovereign would be able to establish a top-tier power and become a hegemon, possessing vast territory and countless disciples.
However, within the Ancient Heavenly Palace, this was only considered a mid-to-high-level position, not even reaching the level of the Five Halls Hall Master, but merely the Lord of one of the Nine Residences.
Even the Ancient Heavenly Palace, with its formidable strength, was ultimately destroyed when the Extraterritorial Clans launched a massive attack.
This shows just how terrifying those Extraterritorial Clans were.
Lin Ming took a deep breath, suppressing the chill that rose up his spine, then turned around and walked towards the Mandala Flower that was so close at hand.
Lin Ming pursed his lips, his expression somewhat serious, but after a moment, he composed himself and looked up. At the end of the stone steps, on the Lotus Pedestal carved from Blood Jade, the Gu Yao flower, as black as ink, still stood quietly, its eerie light spreading.
As Lin Ming looked at it, his tense body finally relaxed completely. He took a deep breath and then exhaled with a sigh of relief.
"I've finally found you."