A Clash with Luohou for Blood Fiend Qi-the Twenty-Four Star Lodge Killing Formation Was Complete!

Penglai Immortal Island.

A pavilion beside a cascading waterfall.

Li Yi lifted a Jade Cup and sipped his Clear Tea. Yuanfeng had yet to speak, but he had already guessed why she had come.

Sure enough, after a few sips of tea, Yuanfeng got straight to the point.

"I came today because there's something I'd like to ask you..."

Over the years, Li Yi had not spent every moment refining treasures in his Cave Abode. Yuanfeng and Yang Mei occasionally visited his island to discuss the Dao, and he had grown close to them both.

Otherwise, Yuanfeng would never have brought such an important clan matter to him.

As Yuanfeng finished recounting the grievances among the Three Clans, Li Yi nodded slightly. He immediately suspected Luohou had been stirring up trouble behind the scenes.

Of course, that was only the surface cause. At heart, the Three Clans were fighting to rule the Primordial World. Luohou had merely fanned the flames. Even without his interference, war between them would have been hard to avoid.

Though Li Yi knew words alone were unlikely to change anything, he still told Yuanfeng what he thought.

"The affairs of the Three Clans have likely been manipulated by a Great Supernatural Being seeking to profit from the Calamity Cycle..."

Yuanfeng's heart tightened. She understood at once what Li Yi meant.

At her level, she had vaguely sensed that someone was pushing events along. But caught within the calamity, with the Heavenly Secrets obscured, she could not divine who it was. She had clung to the hope that she was wrong.

"Who is behind this?"

"The Demon Ancestor!"

Li Yi's answer left Yuanfeng feeling powerless.

Demon Ancestor Luohou was a Late-stage Quasi-Saint. When he had roamed the Primordial World, he had wielded the God-Slaying Spear and crushed the Fierce Beast clans until they could barely breathe. His bloodlust was unmatched.

Though Yuanfeng had advanced in her cultivation, she did not believe she could defeat him.

And even if she somehow did, it would not stop the Three Clans from going to war! Luohou's schemes had only hastened the conflict.

"Then do you think I could avert this disaster by recalling my clansmen and withdrawing from the world?"

Li Yi said nothing. He simply looked at Yuanfeng.

Cultivation meant advancing or falling behind. She might control her clansmen for ten thousand years, even a hundred thousand—but could she do so for a million? Ten million?

Her clansmen had yet to suffer the near-extinction that awaited them. However great Yuanfeng's authority, she could not persuade every one of them to withdraw and avoid the calamity.

Besides, the Three Clans had long considered themselves rulers of the Primordial World and had caused no small amount of bloodshed. Now Calamity Qi clung to them and clouded their Dao hearts. How could they withdraw so easily?

Yuanfeng met Li Yi's gaze and knew his answer. A bitter smile crossed her face. She knew she had asked a foolish question.

Looking at his old friend, Li Yi offered his advice in all sincerity.

"If the situation can't be salvaged, gather a group of talented juniors and send them away early. At least your clan won't be wiped out!"

Yuanfeng lowered her head slightly, her beautiful eyes resting on the Jade Cup in her hands. She said nothing.

After a while, she rose and smiled at Li Yi.

"Sorry for troubling you today. Thank you for clearing up my doubts!"

Li Yi knew he could do no more. He nodded, rose, and saw Yuanfeng off.

Watching her depart, Li Yi sighed inwardly.

That was the price of leading a great power. Ordinarily, it made things easy: give an order, and subordinates would rush to carry it out.

But when a Calamity Cycle began, it was all too easy to be swept up in it.

Tongtian, in later ages, was a Heavenly Dao Sage, yet he could not stand by while his disciples and their descendants were slaughtered. He entered the fray himself and was drawn into the calamity.

Li Yi shook his head and returned to the Immortal Island.

Several hundred thousand years passed in the blink of an eye.

Throughout those years, the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Clans fought until the world seemed to go dark.

Still, what Li Yi had told Yuanfeng had not been for nothing. Of the Three Clans, the Phoenix Clan suffered the fewest casualties.

A hundred thousand years after the war began, Yuanfeng even selected three exceptionally gifted young Phoenix Clan women, each with the potential to reach Peak Great Firmament Golden Immortal, and sent them to Li Yi's Penglai Island as attendants.

They were attendants in name, but the arrangement also carried an unspoken plea that he look after them.

For the sake of their friendship, Li Yi did not refuse. He took in the three women to keep Yuanling company.

As the killing calamity raged, Li Yi had no intention of venturing out. He spent his days refining the All-Heavens Twenty-Four Star Lodges Killing Formation he had envisioned.

One day, Li Yi sat in a sealed chamber, watching the Cosmos Cauldron before him. Sensing the glimmers of light within it nearing completion, he felt a surge of excitement.

This secret treasure had taken even longer to refine than the Twenty-Four-Petal Pure World White Lotus!

The Pure World White Lotus had already been a Supreme-grade Innate Spirit Treasure. He had simply used a vast amount of Merit to refine it into an Innate Supreme Treasure, turning accumulated quantity into a leap in quality.

This Array Diagram, by contrast, had been built from nothing. He had transformed even the essence of the Twenty-Four Sea-Calming Pearls, adding the Fiendish Qi he had gathered while traveling the Primordial World. Their power had grown far beyond what it had been!

Sensing that the Spirit Treasure was about to emerge, Li Yi poured more Magic Power into the refinement.

At once, boundless Fiendish Qi gathered through the void around Penglai Immortal Island. The Blood Fiend Qi accumulated from the slaughter among the Three Clans also converged there!

Meanwhile, in a distant part of the Primordial World.

Four Long Swords stood around a black-robed man in a blood-red valley. Each radiated heart-stopping Fierce Fiendish Qi. Listen closely, and one could hear demonic whispers ringing from the blades. Anyone with an unsteady Dao heart might fall to demonic influence the moment they heard them.

The black-robed man seated in the void suddenly opened his eyes. Anger flashed across his face.

"How dare they!"

He had spent years pushing the Three Clans Calamity Cycle along, largely so he could use the Three Clans' Blood Fiend Qi to refine the First Killing Formation he had obtained from Chaos!

But just now, he had clearly sensed some unknown thing siphoning away the Blood Fiend Qi accumulated by the calamity. Someone was snatching his prize from under his nose!

At that thought, Luohou immediately began to divine who was responsible. He intended to find the culprit and kill them himself!

With Karma on this scale, even Hongjun and Yang Mei could not have hidden from his divination. Yet no matter how he calculated, he could learn nothing at all about the person behind it!

Luohou was so frustrated he could have spat blood. He abandoned his divination and drove the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation to seize the Blood Fiend Qi faster. To his dismay, the unknown thing continued absorbing it at a furious pace even against the formation. It looked as though they might split the Blood Fiend Qi evenly!

Luohou seethed, but there was nothing he could do. Only after several days did the siphoning force gradually fade.

At the same time, within Li Yi's Cave Abode, a vision of Blood Lotuses appeared in midair. Twenty-Four Blood-Colored Stars rose from the Cosmos Cauldron, their crimson light arraying itself according to the star lodges. In an instant, Li Yi felt as though he stood alone amid the stars of Chaos.

Sensing the terrifying power that sealed off the space and the deadly force within it, Li Yi smiled.

The Twenty-Four Star Lodge Killing Formation was complete!