Qi Wu raised his hand, condensing an exceedingly thin arc of blue-gold light at his fingertips.
The arc was only as thick as his little finger. It neither spread nor built up power; it was simply an exceptionally precise Cursed Technique, compressed to its absolute limit.
He fired the arc toward the intersection of the four patterns.
The arc passed through Taotie's devouring zone, Qiongqi's reflection zone, Hundun's distortion zone, and Taowu's severing zone.
As it approached that "needle's eye," the arc began to veer slightly, as though four forces were pulling it in different directions at once.
But Qi Wu's Six Eyes had already predicted the direction of that deflection. Just before the arc could stray off course, he made a minute adjustment with his fingertips, correcting its trajectory.
The next second, the arc struck the overlapping point.
The four formation patterns suddenly stalled for a beat, like gears caught in a vise.
Taotie's devouring was delayed by half a second, Qiongqi's reflection briefly lapsed, Hundun's distortion lost its support, and a gap appeared in Taowu's severing.
The synchronization of the four formation patterns was briefly interrupted.
Di Tian's projection stirred slightly.
Qi Wu noticed the faintest blur along the edges of his projection.
Qi Wu lowered his hand and watched the formation patterns' slowly recovering cycle, speaking calmly:
"There's a time lag in the energy exchange channel between Taotie and Taowu. The junction between Qiongqi and Hundun has the same structure."
"The Four Fiends Formation operates by overlaying four cycles."
"As long as their synchronization is interrupted, gaps will appear in their suppressive effect."
Di Tian said, "You figured out the structure of the formation patterns faster than I expected."
"But figuring it out and destroying it are two different things."
"That strike did indeed stall the formation