Deadlock on the Seventh Floor

Within the seventh-floor formation domain, spiritual light blazed from flying swords that filled the sky, dazzling and harsh.

Flying sword puppets, nearly thirty percent beyond the prescribed number, hovered in midair. Their sharp blades reflected icy light, and their shrill cries tearing through the air echoed across the entire space.

Xiao Wuji worked the formation mechanism's lever. The additionally connected high-grade spirit crystals continuously poured out violent spiritual power, pushing the seventh-floor sword formation's might to a terrifying level.

Every hair on Shen Yuan's body stood on end. The true qi of the Meridian Opening Realm Initial Stage circulated throughout his body, silver-white true qi flowing over his skin and forming a thin protective barrier.

Bzz—!!

Flying swords descended upon him like a torrential downpour.

"Come on!"

Shen Yuan did not dare withstand the entire assault head-on. He pushed his footwork to its limit, relying on the movement technique honed through countless simulated formation runs in the Martial Arts Simulation Space as he frantically darted and dodged through the gaps in the dense rain of swords.

Clang, clang, clang!

Countless flying swords slammed viciously into the bluestone ground. Stone fragments flew everywhere, and the floor was riddled with densely packed sword holes.

Even with his movement technique pushed to its utmost limit, there were simply too many flying swords, and the formation domain had sealed off the space. Completely evading them was fundamentally impossible.

Several flying swords curved around his evasive angles and hacked viciously into Shen Yuan's true qi barrier.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The true qi barrier shuddered violently, ripples spreading across it. The true qi reserves of the Meridian Opening Realm Initial Stage were limited after all. Under successive heavy impacts, cracks instantly appeared across the barrier.

A flying sword pierced through the shattered true qi screen. Its sharp blade sliced across his upper arm, opening a wound so deep that bone could be seen. Scalding blood streamed continuously down his arm.

"Cough!" Shen Yuan grunted dully, agony surging through his entire body.

The flesh wounds were secondary. His true qi was being consumed at a frenziedly escalating rate. At this rate, he would not last a hundred breaths before his true qi was completely drained. Then, he could only helplessly await being ground apart by the flying swords.

[Current Martial Dao Points: 4.]

The phantom of the Heavenly Stele in his sea of consciousness glimmered faintly.

Shen Yuan rapidly ran through three contingency plans in his mind.

Plan one: endure until the formation's time limit ended—now that the flying swords' power had been forcibly raised, his true qi reserves could not possibly last until the stipulated completion time. This path was blocked.

Plan three: crush the danger jade token to trigger an alarm, directly declare the trial a failure, and forfeit his qualifications as an inner sect disciple. This was his final lifesaving trump card, but he could not use it unless driven to the brink.

That left only plan two: find the weak point of the formation core and concentrate his strength to forcibly break the deadlock.

"I have to find the flaw in the altered seventh-floor formation core!"

While continuously evading the sword rain filling the sky, Shen Yuan mobilized his remaining Martial Dao Points.

"Consume all 4 Martial Dao Points to temporarily analyze the formation core's weakness in the current mutated sword formation!"

[Confirming consumption of 4 Martial Dao Points. Martial Dao Points reduced to zero. Temporary analysis activated. During the analysis process, the soul will endure backlash from the Dao of Formations.]

Bzz!

Within his sea of consciousness, the Heavenly Stele flashed with golden light, and countless formation patterns unfurled wildly in Shen Yuan's mind.

Every streak of spiritual light flowing through the formation domain and every energy conduit was dismantled within his mind.

It felt as though his head had been smashed by a heavy hammer. Waves of tearing, swelling pain crashed over him—this was the soul backlash from deducing a mutated formation. A vast flood of chaotic formation information surged madly into his consciousness. Veins bulged across Shen Yuan's forehead, and a trace of blood foam seeped from the corner of his mouth.

Outside, the flying swords still charged at him with reckless abandon.

Two more flying swords tore through his armor, stabbing into his ribs and shoulder respectively. Blood swiftly dyed his blue martial outfit red.

"Found it! The northwest corner!"

Amid the searing pain, Shen Yuan caught the crucial clue.

Because Xiao Wuji had only connected the extra spirit crystals later on, rather than completely recasting the formation patterns, the joint where the newly added spiritual power conduits connected to the original formation core was the greatest weak point in the entire mutated sword formation.

At that location, a semi-transparent orb of light hanging in the air at the northwest corner was the connecting seam. As long as he shattered that node, the entire tampered seventh-floor sword formation would suffer massive paralysis.

Target confirmed!

But that weak point in the formation core was guarded in layers by more than a dozen high-grade flying swords. To rush over, he would inevitably have to withstand several waves of sword rain head-on.

Shen Yuan clenched his teeth, his resolve already set.

He no longer focused solely on weaving about and evading. He mobilized every last shred of Meridian Opening true qi within his body without reservation. The force of the True Subduing Tiger Fist erupted at full strength, silver-white true qi coiling around his fists as his fist wind howled and shook the air within the formation.

"Ha!"

With a loud roar, Shen Yuan no longer avoided injury. Using his fleshly body to block part of the flying swords, he charged fiercely toward the weak point in the formation core at the northwest corner!

Several flying swords stabbed viciously into his shoulders and back, their pain piercing to the bone. He endured the tearing agony from the wounds all over his body, ignoring his ever-growing injuries. His eyes held only that semi-transparent orb of light—the formation core.

Outside the formation, in the plaza.

Above the Azure Cloud Sword Formation, azure spiritual light churned violently, so dazzling that it was nearly impossible to keep one's eyes open.

Elder Zhang could no longer remain seated on the high platform. He rose directly from his chair, his brows tightly furrowed and his expression incomparably grave.

"Something is wrong! The spiritual light intensity on the seventh floor far exceeds the standards of previous years!"

The other elders beside him also revealed alarmed, suspicious expressions.

Within the crowd, Wang Dong fought with all his strength to squeeze beneath the steps of the high platform and shouted, "Elder Zhang! The formation may have been secretly tampered with! Please keep a close watch!"

Elder Zhang's gaze sharpened as he turned toward Xiao Wuji by the formation mechanism platform.

Xiao Wuji appeared calm on the surface, but inwardly he was anxious. The abnormal spiritual light within the formation had already aroused the elders' suspicion. He had to use the flying swords to dispose of Shen Yuan as soon as possible. His fingers pressed down on the lever again, and the flying sword assault surged sharply once more.

Inside the formation domain, the sword rain grew ever more violent.

Shen Yuan was already wounded in many places, blood continuously dripping from his body. Yet he was drawing closer and closer to the weak point in the formation core at the northwest corner.