On the western slope of the ridge, Tang Jie applied a final seal to the Heartbreak Saber, put it away, and quietly looked into the distance.
He had done everything he needed to do and prepared everything he needed to prepare. All that was left was to bravely confront his foes.
A tornado appeared in the distance, howling toward him in a whirl of fiendish and bloody energy.
Yiyi jumped down from a small tree onto Tang Jie’s back. Hugging Tang Jie’s neck, she stared with her large eyes.
The fiend wind drew closer and closer, and it was possible to see the savage and terrifying visages of the numerous fiends within.
As it drew close, the fiend wind turned into a mist and dispersed. The tornado was gone, replaced by numerous fiends.
There were also five humans: none other than Qin Zhou and company.
Qin Zhou’s eyes momentarily brightened upon seeing Tang Jie, but they soon dimmed.
On the other end, Yiyi shouted, “Sister Luo Yin!”
Luo Yin saw Yiyi and shouted with all her might, “What are you guys doing? Run!”
Yiyi shouted, “We’re not running! Sister Luo Yin, don’t worry. We’re going to kill all the bad guys and save you.”
The fiends laughed as if they had heard the best joke in the world. Their leader, the golden lion, heartily laughed and said, “This little sprite is quite amusing. I’ll take her and make her into my maid!”
It opened its mouth and spewed out a stream of white energy that acted like a rope, attempting to wind around Yiyi.
“Annoying!” Yiyi waved her hand, summoning a green rose to confront the white energy. It began to battle with the white energy, like a green snake and a white snake battling it out.
In a real contest, Yiyi was no match for the lion fiend, but this white energy was just a little trick, and the lion wasn’t really fighting her seriously. Thus, her green rose managed to fight to a draw.
The gray wolf fiend next to the lion said, “Vice King, be careful. I smell Red Eagle on that kid, so he probably killed Red Eagle. This kid isn’t as simple as he looks.”
The lion fiend’s pupils constricted as it stared at Tang Jie. “You must have some skill to kill two of my Fragrant Store Cave’s generals. Soldiers, go!”
The lion fiend waved its hand, and nearly a hundred fiends charged out.
While these fiends were of average strength, there were many of them, and even a Mortal Shedding Realm cultivator would be defeated by them. But Tang Jie merely grunted as this beast horde charged at him, and went up to fight them.
With a swing of the Heartbreak Saber, he unleashed a wave of red energy, and a tremendous shockwave sent two middle-grade and three lower-grade Spirit Sensing fiends flying outward.
This blow was so powerful that even the lion fiend was shaken. It blurted out, “Such strength! Is he a body cultivator?”
But a moment later, it realized that it was wrong.
This was because it saw the wounds of the injured fiends turn greenish-black—a sign that they had been poisoned. Tang Jie was already swinging his saber again. This time, the Divine Court Thousandshift turned it into thousands of blades that filled the area in front of him with saber energy.
But compared to before, this Divine Court Thousandshift was much more powerful. One swing had unleashed thousands of blades, and the Heartbreak Saber’s flame was also empowered. The flames swelled, producing an eagle of fire that soared into the sky.
The wolf, lion, and bull fiend were all startled. A moment later, Tang Jie made a snatching motion in the air with his left hand, and the eagle exploded into a giant torrent of flame. It swept down on the beast horde and caused them to howl in pain.
This was a tactic that Tang Jie had made up on the spot. By combining the Divine Court Thousandshift with the Heartbreak Saber’s poison flame, he created a wide-area attack. He didn’t need to kill them, but at least he wanted the poison flames to weaken them.
And this attack proved to be a success. More than half of the nearly one hundred fiends were struck by the flames, and bitterly howled. The rest, while unharmed, had been awed by Tang Jie’s heaven-shaking attack and did not dare to come forward.
Qin Zhou’s group was gobsmacked. What kind of Spirit Platform student was capable of unleashing such a powerful spell art?
In truth, not even Tang Jie had expected this attack to be so powerful. He had originally estimated that a third of the fiends would be injured by his attack, and that was on the optimistic side. But the power had been double what he had expected.
Tang Jie was delighted at the effect of his attack.
But a moment later, the black bull grunted, “Trying to show off with this puny poison flame?”
It opened its mouth, and an item flew out. As it tumbled through the air, it exploded with light, and wherever this light reached, the poisoned fiends began to recover. Tang Jie was left aghast by this sight.
This poison flame was the result of that one bottle of poison that had been absorbed, so its poison effect was rather average, but how could it be so easily undone?
The black bull laughed. “Was this how you killed Red Eagle and Lynx? Unfortunately, poison is useless against this general!”
It waved its hand, and that item dropped from the sky. It turned out to be a bezoar, and the bull swallowed it back up again.
Tang Jie shrugged. “It’s not like I was placing my hopes on it.”
He backed away.
“Trying to escape?” The black bull fiend laughed. “Kid, just sit there and wait to be captured!”
The black bull stepped forward and placed its hands on the ground. The ground trembled, and ten-some small hillocks rapidly rose from the ground behind Tang Jie. In a flash, they had transformed into armored soldiers with sabers.
The bull fiend pushed its hand forward. “Go!”
The ten-some soldiers lunged at Tang Jie while the hundred fiends came at him from the other side.
Tang Jie laughed. “If I want to go, none of you can stop me.”
As he spoke, Yiyi raised a hand, and numerous vines rose out of the earth, winding around the pursuing fiends. There was no way she could hold off all these fiends by herself, but she could hold them for a moment, giving Tang Jie time to create some distance with his speed.
Sure enough, a moment later, Tang Jie activated the Violet Lightning Lunge and instantly turned into a blur. He rammed into a soldier behind him. Ignoring its swinging saber, he sent the soldier flying and flew off.
“Impudence!” the lion fiend furiously roared, sending a howling gale at Tang Jie.
At the same time, the gray wolf fiend turned into a streak of light, moving even faster than Tang Jie.
In a flash, the three Mind Opening fiends and the hundred other fiends were converging on Tang Jie. Even a peak Mortal Shedding cultivator would not dare to face this force.
But Tang Jie remained cool and collected.
In the face of this frenzied pursuit, he simply called out in his mind, Closer, closer…
When a formation was laid, it would affect its surroundings. It might cause a shift in spiritual energy flow, alter objects in the area, or perhaps give off indicators unique to the formation, but regardless, they were all visible signs.
Any intelligent existence, whether fiend or cultivator, would sense these alterations and notice something, even if they didn’t understand formations.
This meant that laying down a formation didn’t mean that one could easily fool others, particularly in this situation. The more targets there were, the greater the chances of discovery. Luring enemies into the trap would require strengthening the View Gate so as to make the formation stealthier, or employing some other method to confuse the opponent and draw away their attention.
This was exactly what Tang Jie was doing. For him, the key to victory lay in how many fiends he could lure into the formation.
He could only hope that the fiends were as he had surmised, that they did not understand formations and that Fragrant Store Cave’s position on the land nexus was just a coincidence. This meant that they wouldn’t have the intelligence to react in time, even if they managed to figure out what was going on.
So long as these fiends entered the formation, their lives would be in his hands!
He rapidly fell back and the fiends pursued. Not far from him, on the ground, was a faint line of gray-green grass, and Tang Jie’s gaze was fixed on this line.
He accelerated and crossed over the grass line!
As he stepped over the line, there was a soft drone, and time and space seemed to freeze for a moment, everything instantly turning calm.
Tang Jie’s figure seemed to flicker for a moment, dazzling the fiends behind him. The non-Mind-Opening fiends had not noticed anything, and they continued to charge over the grass line.
Even the lion, wolf, and bull fiends were only momentarily taken aback, not noticing anything either.
While these guys were fierce, they had limited knowledge and experience. If they saw a problem, they couldn’t understand the nature of it.
Thus, the three of them charged toward the formation.
Thirty meters!
Twenty meters!
Ten meters!
Tang Jie barely blinked as he stared at the three fiends. The little fiends were nothing big, but he had to capture these three major fiends.
The lion, wolf, and bull charged forward without realizing a thing. As they drew close to Tang Jie, fiendish energy stirred, and spiritual light flashed in the air as if barely repressed and about to explode.
The first to enter the formation was the gray wolf. This wolf fiend was known for its speed, and moved even faster than the lion. It was the first over the line, and its vision momentarily blurred, its surroundings changing. It could no longer see Tang Jie, and even the number of fiends around it had dwindled. The world had become a much more open place.
“What’s going on?” the gray wolf said in shock.
As it was wondering, the lion charged up.
But it seemed to have sensed that the gray wolf’s behavior was peculiar, and just as it was about to enter the formation, it stopped and looked around.
Not good!
Tang Jie knew that this wasn’t good. The lion fiend seemed to have some experience and had noticed something.
He hastily rushed out of the formation and shot an Energy Needle at the lion fiend. The lion was caught off guard and howled in pain. It swung its mace while roaring, “Black Bull, don’t come! There’s a hidden formation…”
“Raaaa!” Tang Jie roared, drowning out the lion’s voice. At the same time, he swung his saber, releasing a fierce flame.
Despite his shout, the black bull fiend still managed to notice something. It hastily tried to stop, but its inertia carried it forward. It tottered forward a few steps and almost crossed the grass line before coming to a stop.
Whew! “I managed to stop.”
As it saw that flashing line of gray-green grass, the black bull fiend noticed something strange and wiped some cold sweat off its brow.
But as soon as it stopped, a vine suddenly reached out from the other side of the line, winding around its feet and giving a hard tug. Before the black bull could react, it was pulled inside the formation.
“No!” the golden lion furiously roared.
Tang Jie coldly said, “Don’t even think about escaping alone!”
“Seeking death!” The lion fiend swiped at Tang Jie’s chest, trying to scoop out his heart. But Tang Jie took the claw and opened his arms, embracing the golden lion and rolling into the formation.
Tang Jie put all his strength into this hug and roll, and not even the golden lion fiend could stop it. It knew that there was no stopping entering the formation, so its eyes surged with murderous intent as it shouted, “Die!”
It swung the mace in its right hand at Tang Jie’s head.
Given the strength of a middle-grade Mind Opening fiend, if this blow made contact, even Tang Jie’s Jewel Body would probably be smashed into a paste. But at this moment, Tang Jie thrust a palm on the ground and shouted, “Rise!”
The Yi Wood Azure Heaven Formation activated!