Ninth Lady looked at the chancellor and said, "Lord Chancellor, you said that day... you would catch every demon and monster coveting the Ji River in one net... how do you intend to deal with that Malevolent Flood Dragon outside?"
Lying on the ground, Cui Jiuyang interrupted, "That wasn't what he said... his exact words were, 'Catch all those turtle bastards in one net.' Who knows which of us he meant by turtles?"
The Turtle Chancellor rolled his eyes at Cui Jiuyang.
He cleared his throat. "Chief Sacrificer, have you sensed... the power of the Jidu Shrine's Magic Formation? I don't mean that defensive mist... I mean the true power of the Jidu Shrine."
Chapter 47: Slaying the Flood Dragon
Puzzled, Ninth Lady focused her mind on the knowledge that had just appeared in her head. Sure enough, she found information about the Jidu Shrine's Magic Formation.
Eighty-one basalt pillars lay buried beneath the Jidu Shrine, each engraved with the incantation "Clear Source and Deliverance from Calamity." Together, they formed the Vast Marsh Jidu Heavenly Cycle Formation.
Once activated, this formation could gather the Ji River's spiritual energy into a single whole, greatly strengthening their side.
Within this Grand Formation, Ninth Lady could wear a more powerful Nuo Mask to battle the Malevolent Flood Dragon. She might even be able to wear the final mask, the Ghost-Mask Chi Dragon.
There was just one condition: someone skilled in formations had to direct it from its core. Otherwise, the Grand Formation could not be activated.
Ninth Lady explained the formation's intricacies one by one, and everyone fell silent.
The Turtle Chancellor said, "If my demon body were here... with my mastery of formations, setting up another Heavenly Cycle Formation would be simple. But... with only a wisp of divine soul left, how could I direct a Grand Formation?"
A hand slowly rose from the floor. Everyone turned to its owner, Cui Jiuyang. He smiled, bloody foam still wet at the corner of his mouth. "My talents are humble, but I do know a thing or two about formations."
Ninth Lady could not help worrying. "Are you still up to it?" she asked with concern.
Bracing his hands on his knees, Cui Jiuyang slowly struggled upright and declared firmly, "A man never says he can't."
Before his words had faded, a dragon's roar descended from the sky, followed by a tremendous crash.
With a Chief Sacrificer now presiding over the Jidu Shrine, its automatically operating Magic Formation gradually grew stronger. The Malevolent Flood Dragon had nearly worn away all the mist, only to watch it thicken again.
The sight drove the Malevolent Flood Dragon into a frenzy. It plunged from the sky, shaking the Jidu Shrine.
The guards from both merchant associations broke into a panic.
When had they ever witnessed anything like this?
First, a burst of lightning and thunderous fire had killed two Japanese men. Then some ceremony of shimmering water had invested someone as a priest.
There was also that talking turtle, and the ghost the two Japanese men had brought...
Every single thing made these men from the merchant associations feel as though they were dreaming.
Now there seemed to be an enormous beast outside. They had not seen how big it was, but anything that could ram such a huge shrine hard enough to shake it had to be enormous!
Even though they were sturdy men carrying guns, their legs went weak before such uncanny happenings. One by one, they crouched or sat on the ground with mournful faces.
As Cui Jiuyang passed them, he found them amusing and deliberately frightened them. "See that statue? Hurry over and kowtow. Pray that the Malevolent Flood Dragon outside doesn't eat me. If I die, it'll come for you next!"
With that, he strode off to find the Heavenly Cycle Formation's core.
The men no longer cared who belonged to Shengdelong and who belonged to Fortune and Auspice. Though they had been fighting moments earlier, they now scrambled into a disorderly heap before the Clear Source Statue, kneeling with all the devotion they could muster.
Cui Jiuyang covered his mouth to hide his laughter, suppressing another bloody cough along the way.
Damn it. I should've known opportunities like this weren't so easy to get mixed up in.
Even Great-Grandfather, with all his cultivation, ended up stuck at home after chasing a chance at ascension.
Have I fucking bitten off more than I can chew this time?
Amid his wandering thoughts, he arrived beside a slab of pure white jade flooring. He extended his hand, and the slab rose straight up. It was actually a white jade pillar buried underground.
The Malevolent Flood Dragon launched another frenzied barrage of blows, making the Jidu Shrine shudder again and again. The Turtle Chancellor clung to the statue and cursed at the top of his lungs.
As the first pillar at the formation's core rose, the other basalt pillars rose as well.
A mysterious, unfathomable pulse rippled through the Jidu Shrine.
Ninth Lady stood at the center of the formation, holding the three-foot Autumn Rainbow Sword.
Through the rows of basalt pillars, Cui Jiuyang saw her smile at him and mime lifting a cup to drink.
Ever since he had carried Ninth Lady out of the collapsing Divine Tomb that day, she seemed less prone to shyness. Sometimes, she even teased him a little.
Cui Jiuyang mimed raising a cup back to her, signaling, "Once this fight's over, we'll drink until we're good and drunk."
The shaking grew worse. Fine cracks had even begun to appear in the blue-black stone walls.
He could wait no longer. Cui Jiuyang sat cross-legged beside the white jade pillar at the formation's core, drew a deep breath, and steadied his mind.
His consciousness sank into the Vast Marsh Jidu Heavenly Cycle Formation.
Uh... have I been... showing off a little too much...?
This formation far surpassed anything he had imagined. While studying some simple formations in The Eight Extremes, Cui Jiuyang had thought himself a genius at the art.
He could casually set up formations beyond the limits of his cultivation. He could even use formations to imitate techniques, casting spells above his level.
Yet only now, faced with the vast marsh within his consciousness, did Cui Jiuyang understand what a truly great formation was...
The formation opened a space of boundless expanse.
The water here was less a vast marsh than an endless ocean.
Above the water lay the sky.
Between sky and water, there was nothing but Ninth Lady floating in the air with her sword.
Cui Jiuyang and Ninth Lady now shared a mental link, their thoughts connected through the Grand Formation.
"Well? Can you make sense of this formation?" Ninth Lady's thought carried a hint of teasing amusement.
Cui Jiuyang sent back a thoroughly confident reply. "Of course. Child's play."
Ninth Lady was puzzled. "What's child's play? You really do say a lot of strange things."
Cui Jiuyang replied mysteriously, "I'll explain when we go out drinking."
Having gained a basic understanding of how the formation operated, Cui Jiuyang moved the basalt pillars into a looping configuration, concentrating the spiritual energy accumulated throughout the Ancient Ji River Course into Ninth Lady.
As the Jidu Shrine's Chief Sacrificer, she accepted and controlled this spiritual energy as naturally as moving her own limbs.
The iron box flew out of the Treasure Bag at the back of her waist and opened by itself. The Nuo Masks lit up one after another.
They continued lighting up through the hundred and third mask, the River-Swallowing Alligator. The hundred and fourth, the Wave-Turning Wind, flickered once but ultimately remained dark.
"What, is that all?" Ninth Lady sent through their link.
Cui Jiuyang received the message but did not reply. With his current cultivation, gathering spiritual energy on this scale already took everything he had. He did not even have the strength to form a thought.
Ninth Lady picked up the River-Swallowing Alligator. Her lovely face disappeared behind a crocodile's enormous maw of jagged fangs. The scales covering the Nuo Mask gleamed like iron, shimmering with a dazzling watery sheen.
This Nuo Mask originated in the lakes and deep pools, large and small, throughout the Ji River basin. Of these, Alligator Dragon Pool was the most dangerous. The mighty aquatic alligators dwelling in its depths often followed the waterways into the Ji River's shipping channels, causing alligator dragon disasters-the largest could bite an enormous three-masted cargo ship clean in half...
"I'm ready."
The instant after Ninth Lady's thought reached him, Cui Jiuyang opened the Grand Formation.
The dragonlike Malevolent Flood Dragon broke through layer upon layer of clouds beyond the sky and descended into the Grand Formation's space.
The Malevolent Flood Dragon roared in fury. It recognized this as a Grand Formation and knew it should not have entered, but its frenzied nature and the patience worn away by its prolonged assault on the Jidu Shrine no longer allowed it to remain cautious.
It roared without restraint, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws in the sky. Its body, thick as a colossal beam spanning the sea, and its peerless scales and fangs proclaimed its majesty and might.
Chapter 48: Striking Again
The Malevolent Flood Dragon coiled among the clouds within the formation's space, its scales gleaming with a dark metallic luster. It looked down at the tiny Ninth Lady below, its slit pupils filled with savagery and... contempt.
With a furious roar, the Malevolent Flood Dragon charged straight at Ninth Lady.
Ninth Lady stood on the water, her eyes beneath the River-Swallowing Alligator Nuo Mask as resolute as iron.
Beneath the water, Cui Jiuyang's consciousness remained present, doing everything it could to guide the flow of spiritual energy while keeping watch on the battle above.
The three-foot Autumn Rainbow Sword in her hand shone azure. She strode over the waves, its tip aimed straight at the Malevolent Flood Dragon.
A rank wind swept through the clouds as the Malevolent Flood Dragon's claws collided with the Autumn Rainbow Sword.
Sparks flew. One landed in Ninth Lady's hair, only to be extinguished by the dense water spiritual energy.
Binding the Malevolent Flood Dragon's foreclaw with her sword, Ninth Lady activated the Nuo Mask. A vast torrent of spiritual energy poured into it, and its enormous, fanged maw swelled into being, opening a full ninety feet wide.
River-Swallowing Alligator: Current-Severing Bite!
The crocodile's immense jaws snapped down, about to catch the Malevolent Flood Dragon's body.
The Malevolent Flood Dragon roared and raised a towering wave.
Using the wave as cover, it shifted sideways to evade the maw. Its tail tip whipped through the wave and swept toward Ninth Lady.
Ninth Lady moved nimbly, tapping lightly against a wave's crest. Her blade turned as she sidestepped the dragon's tail, slicing through its scales and leaving a two-foot wound on the Malevolent Flood Dragon, pouring blood.
Yes!
Directing the formation, Cui Jiuyang could not help cheering inwardly.
He sat cross-legged beside the white jade pillar, fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead.
The Vast Marsh Jidu Heavenly Cycle Formation far exceeded the limits of his cultivation. Every moment he maintained it felt like bearing an immense weight.
Even so, he could not resist watching the battle. It was simply too magnificent and thrilling, and he also feared that Ninth Lady might suffer some mishap.
Now wounded and in pain, the Malevolent Flood Dragon's savagery erupted.
It opened its bloody maw and spewed a torrent of foul-smelling, venomous saliva.
Ninth Lady danced aside. The venom struck the water, immediately sending up clouds of green smoke. Ugly green bubbles rose across the surface, only to be swallowed by the water a moment later.
Ninth Lady retreated several hundred feet, and the Nuo Mask blazed with light.
In that instant, Cui Jiuyang felt the spiritual energy flowing through the Heavenly Cycle Formation surge like a flood crest, each wave higher than the last. He was the reef dividing the raging waters, while Ninth Lady was the dragon maiden dancing atop the waves.
She formed a hand seal with one hand and pointed her sword. The water suddenly swelled upward, carrying ten thousand tons of yellow sand. Sand and water surged into the sky, blotting out the heavens and the sun.
River-Swallowing Alligator: Turbid Waves Strike the Sky!
Within the Vast Marsh Grand Formation, water and sky turned upside down. Yellow sand pounded against water overhead, and the thunder of the waves sounded like a divine being shouting from beyond the heavens.
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