The broken formation turned into motes of golden light that fell onto Little White, making its black fur even darker.
The light from the fire filled the opening in the stone wall, and the glow spilling out of the cave shone in harmony with the brilliant stars above.
Specks of silver light slowly drifted through the entrance and into Shi Qingyun, coating him in a silver radiance. The formation beneath him further heightened his sacred air.
Gradually, the silver light turned into reddish gold. The beasts' roars outside slowly weakened, and the formation beneath him withdrew into his body.
The moment Shi Qingyun opened his eyes, Little White's face filled his vision.
Just as Little White stuck out its tender pink tongue to lick him, he deftly caught it by the scruff of its neck.
Suspended in midair, it flailed its four legs wildly. He tossed it in front of him, and it rolled across the ground before getting up and running around Shi Qingyun on its little legs.
"Little bootlicker."
Muttering under his breath, he took several pieces of precious medicinal herbs from his storage pouch and placed them on yesterday's stone slab.
At the sight of food, Xiaobai abandoned its circles around Shi Qingyun and ran over to the herbs to eat.
After keeping Little White occupied, he left the cave and went to a small river.
He found a pool and jumped in, burying his head beneath the water as the cool river flowed over it.
His mind felt much clearer.
"The Myriad Net Formation? It really is vast and profound."
The so-called Myriad Net Formation had been imparted to him yesterday by the Dao Diagram within his body. He suspected that the Ten Thousand Net Formation was the foundation upon which the white-robed youth had achieved immortality.
All methods converged within this formation, allowing countless formations to arise with every gesture. It was a terrifying concept.
As expected of someone who had entered the Dao through formations. This formation truly lived up to its name, encompassing all things and combining trapping, killing, defensive formations, and many others into one.
Studying the Ten Thousand Net Formation had given him plenty of ideas, and he now had a clear understanding of his own path through the Formation Arrangement realm.
He thought again of the river that had entered the Dao Diagram. It contained many of the white-robed youth's insights. Though fragmented, it was still an immense mass of memories.
Thankfully, he had the Dao Diagram. Otherwise, if such a torrent of memories had poured into his mind...
It might have overwhelmed him and turned him into an idiot. Or perhaps, beneath that vast torrent of memories, his own mere twenty-odd years of memories would have been washed away. Would he even have known who he was afterward?
Keeping that torrent of memories inside the Dao Diagram was ideal. It protected him while allowing him to draw upon them, even though many of those memories had been lost in the long river of time.
Still, he now had a guide to the domain of immortality, one who could offer considerable help with his future cultivation.
Chapter 74: Echo
A splash snapped Shi Qingyun out of his pleasant daydream.
An inky-black "dog's head" emerged from beneath the water right before his eyes. Golden eyes stared at him as its paws paddled through the water.
It circled Shi Qingyun nonstop, its black fur becoming sleek and glossy after being soaked.
After playing with Little White in the water for a while, Shi Qingyun grabbed it and leaped out. Divine power surged, sending a warm current around his body.
The water on him instantly evaporated beneath that warm current, and wisps of steam rose from his body.
His clothes dried in an instant. After drying Little White as well, he deposited it on the bank.
"Time to try the other technique."
Shi Qingyun rested one foot on the water's surface, held one hand behind his back, and slowly closed his eyes.
His spiritual power extended beyond his body. In his mind, he saw the ripples raised by droplets striking the water and the paths traced by the wings of the butterfly Little White was chasing in the distance.
Every minute change appeared in his mind. Then, a black rune manifested there.
An ominous aura seeped from the black rune. It was deeply uncanny.
A strange fluctuation rose from his body and spread into the water beneath his foot. Rings of ripples radiated across the surface from where he stood.
"Echo!"
As he whispered the word, a dim gray thread formed in the void and slowly attached itself to him.
The instant the gray thread settled on him, his body shuddered, and his soul felt as though it had been struck by lightning.
Just then, a stream of Yin-Yang Qi rose from his body and clung to the gray thread. Under its corrosive force...
The gray thread immediately dissolved into flecks of black mist and vanished into the void.
As Shi Qingyun's divine power surged, the blood at the corner of his mouth turned into wisps of bloody vapor and dissipated.
"Terrifying, just as I thought."
He had created this rudimentary Echo technique based on a technique called Foresight, which the Dao Diagram had imparted to him. He had merely added a few ideas of his own to Foresight's foundation.
Foresight also belonged to the white-robed youth. It could instantly strengthen one's spiritual power, pushing perception beyond its threshold to sense that elusive "one."
"Heaven unfolds forty-nine, while the one slips away."
"No wonder that youth managed to escape while surrounded by so many people. What a terrifying Dao technique."
He recalled how, when the youth had passed beside him, he had felt that the youth glanced at him. Perhaps the youth had truly "seen" him.
He shook his head. Until he reached that realm, who could say?
"Thoughts that never cease are bound to find an echo! I hope I can reach such heights one day."
He touched the corner of his mouth, feeling somewhat dejected again. Perhaps the youth had also thought of this step, but simply failed to make it work.
That made sense. Merely letting a simple question "echo" in his mind had nearly left him seriously injured. However he looked at it, this Dao technique seemed like a chicken rib-too meager to savor, yet too valuable to discard.
After a moment's thought, however, he set those notions aside. Ultimately, it was only an experiment. Whether it succeeded or failed did not matter.
Besides, perhaps it would produce some unexpected effect at a critical moment.
He pressed his left foot against the water, sending tiny ripples spreading outward. His body shot into the sky as divine power surged through his hand.
He reached toward Little White on the bank. In the blink of an eye, Little White, which had been basking on a rock, was drawn into his hand.
"Let's go!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he streaked forward. Like a phantom, he wove through the dense forest, stirring up beastly roars wherever he passed.
With each step, runes appeared beneath his feet and remained behind.
Lines of Dao patterns slowly spread from those runes toward the others nearby, but before they could connect...
The runes abruptly collapsed, vanishing where they stood and turning into specks of golden radiance that sank into the earth.
Yet as Shi Qingyun continued stepping forward, the Dao patterns extending from those runes gradually drew closer together.
Shi Qingyun and Little White, one human and one beast, traveled like this for several days. They had no idea how far they had gone, but they were still within the dense forest.
During those days, they drank dew whenever they were thirsty. When they were hungry, the forest was full of ferocious beasts; finding any unlucky one would solve that problem.
Shi Qingyun found the journey tolerable. Though somewhat dull, the quiet cultivation along the way had advanced his cultivation a little further.
His proficiency with formations had also improved, giving him more ways to deal with enemies.
The journey was not entirely peaceful. As they traveled, all manner of ferocious beasts would suddenly attack from unseen places.
Fortunately, Shi Qingyun's spiritual power had grown considerably. Under his perception, no hidden ferocious beast could escape detection.
Moreover, with his current strength, he could thoroughly overwhelm enemies in the same realm. Dealing with those ferocious beasts required nothing more than a wave of his hand.
Chains appearing out of thin air were enough to slaughter them, allowing him to collect quite a few valuable ferocious beast pelts and Precious Bones.
The little creature sprawled on Shi Qingyun's head looked rather wilted and listless.
Little White had lost its initial excitement. As the journey continued, the light in its eyes gradually faded.
It lay dispiritedly on Shi Qingyun's head, yawning at the endlessly repetitive scenery.
Whoosh, whoosh! Thud!
An ink-black chain pierced an enormous tree and skewered the ferocious beast hiding behind it.
Blood flowed along the chain, but before it could touch its surface, it froze into crimson icicles that fell to the ground with sharp cracks and shattered.
"Why are there more and more ferocious beasts here? Has something happened up ahead?"
As though hearing Shi Qingyun's puzzlement, Little White tilted its head from its perch atop him and gave a little howl, then looked up at the ferocious beast frozen into an ice sculpture.
It howled again and lowered its head.
Runes flashed beneath Shi Qingyun's feet, and he gave a low cry.
"Reverse Eight Directions Step, speed!"
The runes beneath his feet flashed once, and he vanished from the spot, his figure flickering through the dense forest.
He hovered above a treetop, facing the wind with his robes fluttering as he watched the dust rising over the ground ahead. His senses told him that people were fighting there.
Joy immediately welled up within him. After wandering through this dense forest for so long, he had finally found someone. It had certainly not been easy.
He desperately needed someone to lead him out of here. Otherwise, there was no telling how much longer they would remain trapped in this place.
His figure moved like a bird, his feet tapping repeatedly against the treetops as he swiftly approached the place where dust billowed.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Thrusting, lifting, sweeping, blocking-the spear-wielding War Goddess used nothing more than simple moves, yet in her hands, those simple moves reached divine perfection.
Every spear strike landed on the ferocious beast before her.
Chapter 75: Phoenix Dance Scorches the Plains
Facing the enormous ferocious beast, the War Goddess swiftly drew back her spear. Divine power surged through her body as she roared:
"Phoenix Dance Scorches the Plains!"
Runes drifted from her body and rapidly gathered together. In an instant, a fire phoenix radiating imposing might appeared behind her.
Blazing flames wreathed the fire phoenix's entire body. The scorching heat instantly blackened the surrounding vegetation, reducing it to falling flecks of ash in the blink of an eye.
The fire phoenix raised its head toward the sky and cried out. The sound waves shook the mountain forest, while powerful gusts set the nearby giant trees rustling.
The next moment, the fire phoenix became a red ribbon and coiled around the spear in the War Goddess's hand.
Within that red ribbon, a fire phoenix could faintly be seen crying out. In an instant, the spear in her hand seemed to have been imbued with a soul.
It became fiercely sharp, and even the blazing heat radiating from it could not conceal the chill that pierced straight into the soul.
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