Formation cultivators used formations to temper their bodies and their bodies to cultivate the Dao. They based their formations on their own bodies, unleashing their destructive power. Their might was truly unimaginable. Once they merged with diagrams containing the evolution of formations, they could rapidly increase their magical power.
Yellow Springs and You Ming were among the very best of formation cultivators. They had fused their own laws into the formation, further unleashing its power.
Xuanhuang felt the formation shift. Boundless yellow-black energy emerged. He couldn't help feeling puzzled. Though it wasn't his own Xuanhuang Qi, it shared the same source, and his heart surged with excitement. This was the ideal place for him to cultivate. Before he could finish marveling, the yellow-black energy quickly vanished, converging in one place. His heart jolted. "Oh no!" A pressure from the Great Dao descended at once. His Xuanhuang Qi shuddered, then settled down. Thankfully, the two of them hadn't merged.
Because of the formation, Yellow Springs and You Ming felt as though they had moved a step closer to the Great Dao. They also sensed how closely they resembled Xuanhuang and the opportunity that might await them. They fell silent. After all, there were two of them. Even if they could take one more step forward, neither was willing to do so. If the two merged into one, they might both lose their memories.
Xuanhuang cast aside his pointless thoughts and quickly led Pangu left and right, weaving through the formation until they reached its eye. Yellow Springs and You Ming were already waiting there, gathering their strength.
Pangu looked at the two burly men, and a surge of fighting spirit welled up inside him. As the first living being born from Chaos, Pangu possessed pride, confidence, and the strength to brook no disrespect. He had only been caught off guard for a moment, nearly losing face completely.
The yellow giant held the Xuanhuang Banner and attacked Pangu. Pangu summoned power and an aura on par with Yellow Springs', then punched at the sweeping banner. His punch was fierce enough to split mountains and shatter rocks.
This time, Pangu wrapped his fist in the Rule of Strength. A glow appeared around it. The two met without a sound, and an invisible force spread outward. Xuanhuang's robe fluttered, while the Xuanhuang Banner was swept aside by the gust. Yellow Qi scattered in all directions. The punch had actually dispersed one corner of the banner. Yellow Springs rolled up the banner and swung its pole at Pangu. Pangu raised his arm to block it, and the pole bounced back. The Xuanhuang Banner was a formation artifact, after all, not a weapon for attacking. Even so, Pangu's golden body was undeniably powerful.
Seeing this, Yellow Springs threw a plain, unadorned punch at Pangu. Their fists collided, and each took a step back. It was a direct clash between the Dao of Strength and Great Dao Power.
Neither had gained an advantage, and both began guarding against the other. It turned out neither was an easy opponent. They quickly traded punches and kicks, their attacks simple and direct.
Pangu had tough, thick skin, while Yellow Springs could constantly condense more yellow energy to replenish what he lost. For the moment, they were evenly matched.
Pangu hefted the Pangu Axe and challenged his opponent. "Good! It's been so long since I've had this much fun. Come again!"
Pangu realized that whenever his golden body took damage, the Nine Revolutions Golden Body Art circulated faster, constantly repairing him. It even seemed on the verge of improving. Delighted, he put aside his weapon and fought with his bare fists and feet.
Yellow Springs, however, was secretly at a loss, feeling that Pangu had suddenly grown stronger.
You Ming was having a hard time, too. In his eyes, Xuanhuang was a strange Daoist who never attacked, only preventing him from getting close to Yellow Springs. His Light of Nirvana couldn't reach Xuanhuang at all; the Xuanhuang Qi emitted by the Exquisite Pagoda held it back, while also constantly absorbing the You Ming Qi drifting off him. What kind of fight was this? His opponent was like a turtle tucked inside its shell. Even with sharp fangs and claws, he had no way to get at him.
Yellow Springs thought, If this goes on, I won't be able to use the advantage of our strange formation, and we may even be picked off one by one. A thought struck him, and he came up with a plan. He quietly changed positions with Pangu as they fought.
Pangu threw another punch. This is my chance! Yellow Springs sent Pangu's force flying toward Xuanhuang and You Ming. Within this strange formation, Yellow Springs and You Ming were of one mind. They roared in unison, "Strange Formation, open! Yin and Yang, unite!" Yellow and black energy combined, forming a Two Forms Array that trapped Xuanhuang inside.
The moment Xuanhuang was caught in the Two Forms Array, he sensed trouble. The Exquisite Pagoda, which should have been able to absorb You Ming Qi, could no longer protect his Xuanhuang Qi, which the Two Forms Array kept refining.
Pangu immediately saw that things were going badly. He stopped holding back. He had mastered the Three Sky-Opening Axes but had never unleashed their full power—not for any other reason than that his body couldn't withstand the resulting damage.
Pangu didn't hesitate. He shouted,
"Sky Opening!"
"Earth Splitting!"
"Sky Rend!"
A succession of axe shadows followed profound trajectories and struck the Two Forms Array. A strange, black-hole-like force appeared and split the array apart. But before they could cheer, the strange formation replenished the yellow-black energy as quickly as the axe had advanced, wrapping Xuanhuang up again before he could escape. Even the strange force created by the axes was refined, rapidly dissipating.
Pangu was stunned. Both his hands were trembling now. Those three axes had carried eighty percent of their full power, yet they had only broken open the formation temporarily—and for no more than the blink of an eye.
"Attack the formation eye! That Eight Trigrams Platform is..." Xuanhuang's faint voice echoed in Pangu's sea of consciousness. Pangu knew Xuanhuang must have used one of his own divine abilities; in all these years, Pangu had never seen him use one before. "Water: six advances to two. Wood: three advances to five. Five is Earth, at the central palace. The palaces of the Eight Trigrams each return to the central palace after four steps."
Following the pattern of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams, Pangu took three steps and turned twice. Suddenly, he seemed to enter another space. An Eight Trigrams Platform stood amid swirling yellow-black energy. Two Daoists sat atop it, each at the center of one of the Yin Yang Fish. The fish rotated along a mysterious trajectory.
Perhaps sensing the danger, the black and yellow Daoists sent a stream of black and yellow spiritual energy from above their heads. The two streams twisted together, forming a god and demon resembling Xuanhuang. Yellow-black energy swirled around him, radiating supreme might.
Pangu saw this and was filled with fighting spirit. Another worthy opponent.
Just then, Xuanhuang's voice rang in his mind. "That god and demon is only for show. He can't move more than a foot away from the Eight Trigrams Platform. Don't get tangled up with him. I've already pinned down those two. Hurry and destroy the formation eye."
The god and demon glared at Pangu, who had kept his distance, seeming to understand his plan. He roared furiously.
Yellow Springs and You Ming, who were maintaining the formation, heard the god and demon's furious roar, but could do nothing. In a sense, they and Xuanhuang had trapped one another.
Knowing there was no time to waste, Pangu summoned the last of his Essence, Qi, and Spirit and swung the Sky-Opening Axe in the Three Sky-Opening Forms. Axe shadows filled the air, bearing the power of the laws as they struck the Eight Trigrams Platform. An invisible force protected it, but the first axe broke through that barrier, the second split the god and demon apart, and the third struck the platform.
"Boom! Boom!" The Eight Trigrams Platform shattered. The snarling god and demon vanished in an instant. Pangu was in no better shape. His body couldn't withstand the force of the Three Sky-Opening Forms rebounding against him. Cracks split his body, leaving shocking bloodstains, and half of his right hand—the one gripping the Sky-Opening Axe—was shattered.
Yellow Springs and You Ming, seated on the Eight Trigrams Platform, each spat out a mouthful of blood, their faces wan. They were about to speak when their expressions changed. They roared, "Xuanhuang, you bastard! How ruthless!" Their vitality then rapidly faded.
The god and demon at the Eight Trigrams Platform was connected to the energy of the two outside the formation. When one side grew stronger, the other grew weaker. Xuanhuang's greatest divine ability was defense. If not for the way You Ming, Yellow Springs, and he countered one another, almost no one could have broken through his defenses.
In the midst of the crisis, Xuanhuang had suddenly grasped an insight. Relying on the Dao of Nonaction he had studied for many years, he cast out a vast quantity of Xuanhuang Qi and let the Two Forms Array devour it. But things weren't as bad as they seemed: the vast amount of Xuanhuang Qi also devoured Yellow Springs and You Ming. The two sides countered each other. To suppress Xuanhuang, Yellow Springs and the others had no choice but to draw heavily on the Eight Trigrams Platform's energy, weakening its defenses considerably. This gave Pangu an opening. And Pangu wielded the indestructible Law of Strength—otherwise, the outcome would have been uncertain.
When Pangu shattered the Eight Trigrams Platform, the primordial spirits of Yellow Springs and You Ming on it lost contact with the ones inside the Two Forms Array. The Yin Yang Qi that had been suppressing Xuanhuang's energy became ownerless, and Xuanhuang immediately devoured a vast amount of it. Yellow Springs and the others could do nothing to reclaim it.
Xuanhuang felt that this battle had propelled his magical power past the Mid-stage Hunyuan and straight into the Late-stage Hunyuan. He even seemed close to breaking through the Late-stage Hunyuan realm. This was truly a blessing in disguise.
Xuanhuang entered the formation eye and saw Pangu recovering while seated cross-legged. He cupped his hands in salute. "Many thanks, fellow Daoist."
Pangu had also steadied his injuries. He replied calmly, "Thank you, fellow Daoist."
Xuanhuang looked at Yellow Springs and You Ming on the Eight Trigrams Platform and shook his head helplessly. Their vitality was gone, and the Primordial Violet Qi within them had dissipated. If not for the trace of spiritual energy remaining in the formation, their bodies would have vanished.
Xuanhuang felt deeply saddened. They had all been Chaos Demon Gods born of the Great Dao, so why had they ended up slaughtering one another here? He waved his sleeve, and Yellow Springs and You Ming instantly turned to ash. He murmured, "Dust to dust, earth to earth."
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