Breaking the Formation
Song Wen tidied up his cave abode dwelling hastily, then cave abode and arrived in Fangzhu City.
The Spell Arts Tournament is less than a month away.
The number of cultivators in Fangzhu City has increased so much that it's almost impossible to walk side by side with them.
Most of these cultivators came to participate in the Spell Arts Tournament.
Stones from other mountains can be used to polish jade!
These cultivators hope to find a breakthrough opportunity and improve their cultivation and strength by participating in or observing others' battles.
A small portion of the cultivators came to earn Spirit Stones.
With a large number of cultivators gathering on Fangzhu Island, it's the perfect time to do business.
Song Wen wandered the streets, trying to find a quick way to earn Spirit Stones.
After wandering around for half a day, Song Wen helplessly realized that he was no smarter than other cultivators. Those easy ways to earn Spirit Stones had already been seized by other cultivators or firmly controlled by the Xing Family.
That night.
Song Wen went to the Dark Star Black Market and bought 150 Dragon-Pattern Grass, enough for one Sacred Beetle Gu to advance.
In the days that followed, apart from feeding the Sacred Beetle Gu, Song Wen spent most of his time paying attention to the Spell Arts Tournament and occasionally scouting out the activities at Treasure Peak.
Song Wen discovered that the Treasure Gathering not held as scheduled.
On the night of the tenth, the maze of Treasure Peak was tightly locked, and no cultivators entered or left.
Outside the southern city of Fangzhu City, the Xing Family cleared out a flat area spanning dozens of miles as the venue for the Spell Arts Tournament.
Ten days before the start of the Spell Arts Tournament, the Xing Family arranged for people to register the names of cultivators who intended to participate in the Spell Arts Tournament.
At the same time, the cultivation levels of each participating cultivator were investigated to prevent anyone from falsely reporting their cultivation level and infiltrating the competition among lower-level cultivators for the sake of rewards.
Seeing this, Song Wen knew what was going on.
The Xing Family is searching for cultivators with a Soul Source Body.
From that day on, Song Wen never returned to his cave abode.
On a high mountain twenty miles away from Treasure Peak, Song Wen found a hidden beast cave and hid inside.
Song Wen released five Sacred Beetle Gu and one Shadow Gu.
The Shadow Gu is the new name Song Wen gave to the third-tier Gu Worm.
Six Gu Worms lurked around Treasure Peak. With their help, no cultivator could escape Song Wen's eyes and ears when entering or leaving Treasure Peak.
Seven days later, at the hour of Yin (3-5 AM).
Two figures appeared in the dense forest near Treasure Peak, rapidly approaching it.
One of the two had already fainted; he had been kidnapped by the other.
The kidnapper was Gan Hong.
He stealthily made his way to the foot of Treasure Peak, then soared into the sky, flew to the Treasure Peak, and entered the maze.
Half an hour later, another cultivator was abducted to Treasure Peak.
Treasure Peak was quite lively that night, as a total of nine cultivators were abducted there.
Hidden in the beast cave, Song Wen understood: Xing Liren had gathered nine cultivators with Qi Refining Stage Soul Source bodies and was about to begin refining the Heavenly Spirit Pill.
To ensure the vitality of the human medicine's physical body and soul, Xing Liren only acted swiftly after gathering nine suitable candidates, binding all nine of them simultaneously.
"Xing Liren should start Alchemy pills tonight!"
Song Wen thought to himself.
This means that the Heavenly Spirit Pill will be successfully refined in eighteen days.
Whether we can obtain the Heavenly Spirit Pill depends on this moment eighteen days from now.
Song Wen believed that he was the only one coveting the Heavenly Spirit Pill.
To his surprise, on the sixteenth day after he started Alchemy, three cultivators quietly arrived and hid in a mountain not far from Song Wen.
The three men were completely shrouded in black cloaks and wore masks representing sheep, horses, and Niu San, respectively. Their auras were extremely concealed, making them difficult to detect.
These three appeared here just as the elixir was about to be completed. Clearly, they possessed more accurate intelligence.
Two days passed quietly.
Six quarters past the hour of Yin (3:45 AM).
Three men in black arrived above Treasure Peak.
The minotaur took out four Formation Flags.
The Formation Flags were no more than a foot in size, with obscure and difficult-to-understand battle patterns drawn on them.
The minotaur threw out four Formation Flags.
Four Formation Flags slowly descended, hovering in mid-air around the summit of Treasure Peak.
The bull-headed man's hands moved erratically, forming Method Formula.
The four Squad Commander simultaneously emitted dazzling light, which intertwined and gradually formed a huge array, suspended above the summit of Treasure Peak.
"Break!"
The minotaur let out a low growl.
The formation emitted a blinding light, like a giant pillar of light, heading straight for the maze below.
The third-order maze on Treasure Peak was enveloped by this pillar of light and collapsed with a roar.
The thick fog that had been shrouding the mountaintop quickly dissipated, revealing the entire summit.
Use formation to break formation!
The minotaur seemed to have expended a lot of energy; he swallowed several pills, then stepped back and stood behind the goat-headed man.
On the platform at the mountaintop, originally used for Treasure Gathering, eleven figures stood prominently.
Xing Liren glared angrily at the three figures high in the sky and shouted loudly.
"Who dares to run wild on my Xing Family's territory?"
A mocking voice emanated from beneath the sheep's head mask.
"You, Xing Liren, cannot represent the Xing Family."
As they spoke, a long sword appeared in front of the ram-headed man.
With a flick of his wrist, the longsword shot out like a meteor chasing the moon, piercing straight at Xing Liren.
Xing Liren's expression suddenly turned serious.
The moment the opponent made their move, he could clearly sense that their cultivation level was above his own; they were a Peak Golden Core Stage cultivator.
Xing Liren was no ordinary person either.
He was the direct descendant of the Xing Family's patriarch, and even an ordinary Peak Golden Core Stage cultivator might not be able to defeat him.
Suddenly, a palm-sized ice mirror appeared out of thin air in front of Xing Liren.
As soon as the ice mirror appeared, it swelled in the wind and instantly transformed into a giant measuring ten feet in size.
The mirror was crystal clear, radiating a deep blue light, like a piece of ice, causing the surrounding temperature to drop sharply, and countless tiny ice crystals began to condense in the air.
The longsword was already within reach, and Xing Liren dared not be negligent in the slightest, quickly channeling his magic Law Power into the ice mirror.
As the Law Power was poured in, a dazzling blue light surged within the ice mirror.
One after another, ice spikes about a foot long shot out from the blue light, heading towards the incoming longsword.
"Clang, clang, clang..."
A series of crisp collision sounds rang out.
The ice spikes shattered one by one, and the power of the longsword gradually began to weaken.
The ram-headed man sneered contemptuously, "Hmph! The Coldlight Mirror? I'd like to see how many of my swords this mirror can block!"
After she finished speaking, her magical Law Power surged out like a flood, and the power of the longsword instantly increased dramatically. Countless Sword Qi burst forth from the sword, forming an incomparably fierce Sword Qi storm.
The ice spikes that had originally tried to block the flying swords were rendered utterly fragile by this storm of Sword Qi energy, shattering into dust and becoming completely incapable of stopping them.
The flying sword hurtled straight in, heading directly for Xing Liren.