Shi Zhu told Mingshu, "You needn't keep crying. Don't be sad. The reason your father sent me here was to have me take both of you away."
Mingshu thought she had misheard. "My father wants you to take me away? Where? You're trapped in this Great Asura Formation yourself. Even the god-demons my father and grandmaster nurtured for two or three thousand years can't get out once they're imprisoned here. How can you leave? And take us with you?"
Shi Zhu laughed. "This demon prison is fairly well crafted, but how could it hold me? Just because the god-demons can't escape doesn't mean I can't."
Mingshu had lived on Divine Sword Peak for years and rarely ventured out. She had only heard of Old Man Ku Zhu and knew even less about Shi Zhu, so she found it hard to believe he could break her father's formation.
Naturally, Shi Zhu did not argue with her. He told her to back away. "Farther! Farther! Go farther back!"
He kept having Mingshu retreat until she was out of sight in a corner of the corridor. Only then did he take out a bottle of elixirs and toss it to Ruan Zheng, telling him to take them and then crawl behind him.
Ruan Zheng's internal qi was weak, his hands numb and his legs limp. Even after taking the elixirs, he could not stand right away. He laboriously dragged himself behind Shi Zhu and barely managed to sit upright.
Shi Zhu first released nine Precious Pearls, transforming them into nine Banner Gates arranged in the positions of the nine palaces. Then he released the Xuanyuan Divine Sword, which became nine golden dragons that lunged at the surrounding walls.
As soon as the Vajra Wall came under attack, all its runes surged into view,