The formation gate opened.
The Daoist stepped inside.
The next moment.
The Heaven-Absolute Formation unleashed its full killing intent!
Boom!
Lightning crashed down from the heavens.
Countless fierce and baleful auras attacked from every direction.
Yet the Daoist merely raised one hand.
Jade Clarity Immortal Light formed an immense inverted bell, completely shielding his body.
The first wave of lightning struck it.
It only sent a few ripples spreading across its surface.
Qin Wan's pupils contracted slightly.
Strong.
When the previous testers faced the Heaven-Absolute Formation, their first thought had been to evade.
But this second-generation disciple of the Elucidation Sect—
He did not evade at all.
He took it head-on.
Then he continued forward.
As though the surrounding lightning was no more than ordinary wind and rain.
Outside the formation.
Lin Yuan's expression had turned completely solemn.
The gap in cultivation was far too great.
The coordinated Ten Ultimate Formation could improve their margin for error.
But it could not allow Qin Wan to bridge such an enormous gulf in cultivation out of thin air.
"Lend your strength."
Qin Wan clearly understood that as well.
He immediately activated the Formation Talisman.
All nine great formations lit up at once.
Streams of transformed Upper Clarity Dharma Power rapidly flowed into the Heaven-Absolute Formation.
The formation, which had seemed somewhat strained, instantly stabilized.
The lightning's power increased accordingly.
Boom!
The second wave of attacks descended.
The Daoist's steps finally paused.
"Just as I thought."
"All nine formations are supporting you."
He was not surprised.
He had already seen everything clearly over the past two days.
The next second.
A jade mirror flew from his sleeve.
Its light shone upon the Heaven-Absolute Formation.
Qin Wan's brows immediately furrowed.
Wherever the mirror light swept.
Formation patterns appeared one after another.
The formation's structure, originally concealed within the sky-filling killing intent, was forcibly revealed.
"A formation-revealing treasure?"
Zhao Jiang's expression changed slightly.
The enemy had clearly come prepared.
Yesterday, the ordinary Qi Practitioners who entered the formation had been helping the Twelve Golden Immortals probe its depths.
Now that they had truly entered the fray.
They naturally would not foolishly retrace the same path.
The jade mirror moved continuously.
The Daoist advanced step by step.
He did not waste his strength clashing with the lightning.
Instead, he specifically sought out the Heaven-Absolute Formation's most vital formation-pattern nodes.
Qin Wan changed the formation repeatedly.
Yet he still found it difficult to completely shake off that jade mirror.
"Found it."
The Daoist suddenly raised his head.
A jade-colored immortal sword flew from above his head.
Whoosh!
The sword light was so fast that it was almost reduced to a single white line.
It struck the Heaven-Absolute Formation's southeastern side dead on!
Boom!
A vast stretch of formation patterns shook violently.
Qin Wan's body swayed with them.
"Lend your strength!"
Zhao Jiang and the other nine immediately supported him.
Nine streams of power poured in.
The formation patterns, which had been about to shatter, rapidly stabilized.
But the Daoist seemed to have anticipated it long ago.
His second sword strike immediately followed.
The location remained unchanged.
Boom!
The formation patterns shook violently once more.
Standing outside, Lin Yuan's Innate Spiritual Perception began issuing frantic warnings.
Something was wrong.
The enemy was not targeting the Formation Eye alone.
He was targeting the channel through which power was lent!
He was deliberately forcing the nine formations to continuously send power into the Heaven-Absolute Formation.
Why?
Lin Yuan's gaze rapidly swept across the ten formations.
His Battlefield Killing Intent Perception was pushed to its limit in that instant.
Amid the countless chaotic killing intents.
There was an extremely concealed sharpness.
It was not aimed at the southeastern Formation Eye.
Instead, it was aimed at—
Qin Wan!
Lin Yuan's pupils abruptly shrank.
"Senior Brother Qin!"
"Leave your current position!"
Upon hearing him, Qin Wan almost instinctively tried to move.
But at that moment.
The Daoist suddenly smiled.
"You only noticed now?"
The jade mirror abruptly turned!
The mirror light that had been shining upon the southeastern Formation Eye instantly illuminated the core formation position where Qin Wan stood.
Qin Wan's face changed drastically.
He finally understood.
The repeated attacks on the Formation Eye earlier.
Had merely been intended to force him to continuously mobilize the power of the nine formations.
Once the power of all ten formations poured into the Heaven-Absolute Formation in great quantities, the formation did indeed become more stable.
But as the master of the main formation, Qin Wan likewise had to devote more attention to regulating the incoming Dharma Power.
At this moment.
It was precisely when he had the greatest difficulty leaving his position within the main formation!
"Cut it off!"
Lin Yuan shouted.
"Sever all nine formations!"
Zhao Jiang and the others hesitated visibly.
If they severed them now.
The Heaven-Absolute Formation would immediately lose its support.
"Cut them off!"
Lin Yuan roared again.
"His target isn't the formation!"
"It's Senior Brother Qin!"
Zhao Jiang's expression changed drastically.
He no longer hesitated.
The Earth Inferno Formation was the first to disconnect!
Dong Quan.
Yuan Jiao.
Golden Light Holy Mother...
The support from all nine formations ceased simultaneously.
The pressure on Qin Wan immediately lessened.
But the Heaven-Absolute Formation abruptly weakened as well.
The Daoist had been waiting for precisely this moment.
"Break!"
The jade-colored immortal sword soared into the sky.
The true killing move finally appeared.
It was not the southeastern Formation Eye.
Nor was it any other formation pattern.
The sword's edge shot straight at Qin Wan!
At that moment, the system in Lin Yuan's mind even began trembling in advance.
Death Node!
Now!
If events followed their original course.
Qin Wan would die!
Lin Yuan had no time to think.
Wind Thunder exploded beneath his feet.
Boom!
He did not charge directly into the front of the Heaven-Absolute Formation.
That would have been suicide.
Instead, he followed the outer route he had grown familiar with over the past dozen days while watching the Ten Heavenly Lords modify their formations every day, racing straight toward the linked Formation Talisman.
"Junior Brother Lin!"
Zhao Jiang and the others were all startled by him.
"What are you doing?!"
"Give me some Dharma Power!"
Lin Yuan roared.
"Don't worry about compatibility!"
Though the Ten Heavenly Lords did not know what he intended to do.
Over this period, they had long grown accustomed to Lin Yuan's judgment in moments of danger.
Zhao Jiang was the first to pour his dharma power into the Formation Talisman.
Dong Quan and the others struck at the same time.
The nine streams of power were no longer sent to Qin Wan.
Instead, they all entered the Supreme Clarity Formation Talisman before Lin Yuan, which was responsible for relaying them.
Lin Yuan pressed both hands directly onto it.
Over the past few days.
He could not understand the profound formation principles the Ten Heavenly Lords discussed.
But he had watched the most basic operations of the first version of the linked formation hundreds, even thousands of times.
Relay.
Conversion.
Reroute!
"Go!"
Lin Yuan forcibly altered the flow of power.
The nine streams of Upper Clarity Dharma Power did not enter the core of the Heaven-Absolute Formation.
Instead, they all surged toward an ordinary formation position behind Qin Wan.
Boom!
That formation position instantly erupted with power far beyond normal levels.
Qin Wan reacted at the same moment.
He took one step forward.
His body instantly shifted from the core formation position to the rear!
Whoosh!
A jade-colored sword light swept past his chest by a hair.
The spot where Qin Wan had originally stood was completely pierced through by the sword!
The faces of the Ten Heavenly Lords outside the formation turned pale.
So close.
Just that close!
With its core formation position destroyed, the Heaven-Absolute Formation began to shake violently.
Yet Qin Wan had not died.
He was even remarkably intact.
The Daoist clearly froze for a moment as well.
The killing trap he had prepared for so long.
Had actually had its formation power route forcibly altered from outside by a True Immortal junior?
"Withdraw the formation!"
Lin Yuan gave no one time to stand around in a daze.
Upon hearing this, Qin Wan immediately waved the formation flag.
The Heaven-Absolute Formation rapidly contracted.
He took the chance to withdraw as well.
The Daoist did not pursue forcefully.
After all, once he left the range of the Heaven-Absolute Formation, the other nine formations could envelop him at any time.
The two sides temporarily pulled apart.
Qin Wan had barely landed.
When Zhao Jiang and the others had already surrounded him.
"Old Qin!"
"How are you?"
"I'm not hurt."
Qin Wan shook his head.
But his gaze fell on Lin Yuan at once.
Even now, recalling that sword strike from moments ago.
He still felt a chill run down his back.
If Lin Yuan had shouted half a breath later.
He might not have been standing here anymore.
And Lin Yuan had no time to speak at all right now.
The system notifications had already fully unfolded within his mind.
[Target: Qin Wan.] [The predetermined Death Node has changed.] [The original death trajectory has been severed.] [Fate Reversal successful!] [Inheriting the target's strongest ability...]
Boom!
The next second.
An immense flood of insights about formations surged wildly into Lin Yuan's mind.
Over the past dozen or so days.
The formation patterns, formation foundations, and aura nodes that had sounded like incomprehensible gibberish whenever Qin Wan and the others discussed them suddenly all made sense.
Why a formation pattern had to run that way.
Why the Heaven-Absolute Killing Force erupted from that formation position.
Where the nine formations' power suffered the greatest loss after entering.
Which places did not need to take such a long route at all.
Lin Yuan suddenly raised his head.
When he looked at the Ten Ultimate Formation before him again.
It was as though the entire world had changed.
[Congratulations, Host, for obtaining—Heaven-Severing Formation Insight!]
Zhao Jiang was still rejoicing over Qin Wan's narrow escape from death.
When he saw Lin Yuan suddenly take two steps toward the Ten Ultimate Formation.
He stared at the formation patterns they had altered countless times.
For a long while.
Qin Wan could not help asking:
"Junior Brother Lin."
"What is it?"
Lin Yuan slowly raised a hand.
He pointed at the several dharma power routes between the nine formations and the Heaven-Absolute Formation that the Ten Heavenly Lords had spent more than ten days determining.
"Senior Brother Qin."
"These routes..."
"They take the long way around."
The Ten Heavenly Lords fell silent at once.
Before you continue