"No talking!" Fairy Qingxia flicked her sleeve. Before Li Xiaoya could finish his last word, his voice abruptly cut off, as though someone had suddenly seized him by the throat. His mouth moved desperately, but not a single sound came out.
Fairy Qingxia ignored Li Xiaoya's anxious, frightened gaze and slowly walked to her position.
"Hahahaha!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling burst out laughing off to one side, while everyone else looked as though they wanted to laugh but dared not, struggling desperately to hold it in.
Fairy Qingxia's cheeks reddened slightly at the sight. Arching a delicate brow, she said mildly, "Is calling me big sister so strange?" Although she seemed to be addressing everyone, her eyes remained fixed on Heavenly Venerable Daoling.
Heavenly Venerable Daoling stopped laughing and cleared his throat. "Not strange, not strange. All right, everyone, let's begin!"
"All right!" the other three and Fairy Qingxia answered.
"Begin!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling shouted. Forming a hand seal with both hands, he sent a streak of azure light shooting into the patterns on the floor. The others formed hand seals at the same time. The red-robed elder released a streak of red light, the man in brocade released yellow light, the black-robed man released orange light, and Fairy Qingxia released blue light. As though the five had planned it beforehand, all five colors struck the patterns on the floor almost simultaneously. At once, the patterns blazed with dazzling light, and the five colors surged like a tide along the floor toward the center. Seeing the light rush toward him, Li Xiaoya groaned inwardly. He had no idea what it would do to him or what consequences it would bring. Would it harm him? Yet he could neither speak nor move. Suddenly, he recalled something his late Liar Master had said: others held the knife and the chopping block, while he was the fish and meat upon it. This seemed to be exactly what that meant.
Leaving aside Li Xiaoya's wild thoughts, just as the five streams of light were about to reach him, Heavenly Venerable Daoling suddenly extended his other hand and performed countless hand seals in a dizzying succession. "Gather!" he commanded in a low voice. A streak of azure light shot out, striking the formation's center like lightning. The hand supplying magical power to the formation remained in its original position; Heavenly Venerable Daoling fed it power with one hand while controlling the operation of the Five-Element Formation with the other. As the azure light struck its center, the five previously separate streams of light began to change. At the heart of the formation, the five colors slowly began to swirl, as though stirred by an invisible hand.
Outside the formation, Heavenly Venerable Daoling's hand seals grew faster and faster, sending streak after streak of azure light into its center. As the light poured in, the five-colored whirlwind gradually swirled faster, revolving around Li Xiaoya until it formed a vortex of five colors. At first, it turned slowly, then faster and faster, until the colors became almost impossible to distinguish.
When the light first began to rotate, Li Xiaoya kept his eyes open to watch. But as it spun faster and faster, his vision blurred and his head swam. He could only resign himself to his fate and close his eyes.
"Keep the flow of magical power steady!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling instructed. His dizzying hand seals suddenly stopped. With his five fingers slightly spread, he aimed his hand at the five-colored whirlwind from a distance and slowly curled his fingers inward. As his fingers closed, the whirlwind gradually contracted around Li Xiaoya. Li Xiaoya began to feel something slowly squeezing his body, leaving him unbearably stifled. He opened his eyes a crack to take a look, and his heart sank into the depths. I'm done for, done for, done for! Are they going to shred me with this whirlwind? Am I going to be ground into scraps of meat? That single glance made his eyes ache terribly, and he helplessly closed them again.
The whirlwind slowly drew closer until it finally touched Li Xiaoya's body. Yet he was not ground into scraps of meat as he had imagined; it did not even lift the hem of his clothes. As though he did not exist, the five-colored whirlwind continued pressing inward. Li Xiaoya only felt the pressure grow stronger than before. Something also seemed to surge into him through the soles of his feet, giving him the sensation of blood rushing backward when he stood on his head. His head felt increasingly swollen, as though it had grown several sizes larger.
But to Fairy Qingxia and the others, Li Xiaoya's entire body was already enveloped in a layer of five-colored light. The colors constantly shifted across his face and every patch of exposed skin. This continued for about a quarter of an hour. Then Li Xiaoya, who had been unable to move at all, suddenly threw back his head and opened his mouth wide. With a spluttering burst, a great mouthful of white vapor shot out. The moment it reached the air, it began churning without pause.
"Gua-ji! Gua-ji!" Two familiar cries rang out in the air.
"Guagua!"
"The Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma!"
The two exclamations rang out almost simultaneously. One came from Fairy Qingxia; the other came from Li Xiaoya, who had suddenly regained the ability to speak.
"Withdraw!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling called out. Almost simultaneously, all five formed a hand seal, and the light from their hands immediately ceased. But the magic formation's glow did not fade; it continued shining.
The instant Fairy Qingxia withdrew her hand seal, she shot toward the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma. Raising one hand, she cast a glittering silver net over him. With her other hand, she made a pulling gesture toward him from a distance. The Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma faltered in midair and was caught in the net. With a soft thud, he fell to the floor, bouncing and struggling furiously.
"Got him!" Fairy Qingxia was overjoyed that the measures she had prepared in advance had succeeded in one stroke.
Seeing that Fairy Qingxia had caught the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma, Heavenly Venerable Daoling formed several hand seals with both hands and sent a streak of azure light toward Li Xiaoya at the center of the formation. Li Xiaoya felt the pressure on his body ease. The five-colored light dimmed abruptly, dissolving into specks of colored light that vanished. As the light disappeared, he felt the talisman on his head crumble to ash and vanish as well. He sprang to his feet and blurted out, "That nearly suffocated me! I thought I was going to be ground into scraps of meat! What have you done to Guagua?"
Fairy Qingxia had already picked up the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma, and the others gathered around her.
"Junior sister! This is the Five-Element Rainbow Ganoderma, isn't it?" Heavenly Venerable Daoling asked.
"Yes! This is the little fellow!"
"Hmm! How truly remarkable! Even with my divine sense, I can't detect his true body!" Heavenly Venerable Daoling said in astonishment.
(I was going to put together some exciting events, but it turns out you can't tip multiple times. ==)