Silence fell again.
"But, Bright Sword Master." Xiao Tingshu looked at her again. "Those words were not spoken by Senior Brother, but by someone else."
"Who?"
"A formation master from Joy-in-Death Tower. A dangerous, unfathomable, peerlessly gifted man," Xiao Tingshu said softly. "Every scheme of Joy-in-Death Tower was coordinated and supported by him, raising towers from level ground. When we first met twenty years ago, he wore only an ordinary Blue Face. We called him Qu Zhu. Now he is Joy-in-Death Tower's [Shadow-Faced Sima]."
"Thank you." Ming Qitian looked toward the stone wall, but this time she raised her sword. "Since everything concerns your sect master, why not meet him face-to-face?"
"...What?"
"We cannot simply sit here doing nothing. Since we cannot retreat, we might as well advance." Ming Qitian looked up at the mountain wall towering like a canopy of sky and stepped forward. "I ask the four of you seniors to lend your full support through the Star-Gathering Formation."
[Star-Gathering] was the most common formation passed down by Daoists for ordering Profound Qi. With relatively low efficiency, it could combine the Profound Qi of several Profound Gate cultivators into a single stream for the person at its heart to use.
"...Sword Master, are you going to..."
"There is no harm in trying."
In the silence, the four slowly took their positions. One at Body Recasting and three at Entering the Palace Gate joined within Star-Gathering, their Profound Qi connecting and flowing as one. What finally reached the person at the formation's heart amounted to no more than the full exertion of a single Entering the Palace Gate cultivator.
But this Profound Qi was hers to draw upon freely.
Ming Qitian raised a hand and plucked. As her cloudlike sleeves swirled, all the Profound Qi flowed into white clouds.