Chapter 139: The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

Senior Longque, that vine dragon has appeared. It is time for you to make a move.

Xu Zhong said this as he looked at the evergreen vine dragon stretching across a thousand miles.

Surging waves of Major and Minor Wood Qi billowed from the body of the vine dragon, extending in all directions and transforming into flora essence that rapidly catalyzed the growth of trees, flowers, wild grass, and creeping vines.

These plants condensed into a vibrant shade of green that blotted out the sky, overflowing with lush vitality. The Major and Minor Wood Qi gushing from within it rivaled the foundation of a Wood-element hidden storehouse belonging to an External Scenery Qi-refiner. It was formidable indeed.

Fire is born from wood yet restrains wood.

Yet at this moment, Xu Zhong's Three-Purity True Fire was suppressed by this dense concentration of Major and Minor Wood Qi.

The cultivation realm of this vine dragon had likely already surpassed the External Scenery realm.

Xu Zhong spoke for quite a while, but Longque still showed no signs of moving.

Damn it! Xu Zhong summoned the Purple Jade Gourd, grasped the Cloud-Swallowing Sword, and seven hundred and twenty flying swords fluttered back and forth behind him.

Longque probably was not going to make a move; he would have to rely entirely on himself for everything.

Fellow Daoist Shiyue, let us attack together! Xu Zhong made a sudden grab, and his flying swords danced unceasingly as the starlight within a radius of a hundred miles was instantly drawn into his sword formation. Brother Yun, Brother Tang, I must trouble you both to guard our flanks!

After all, Shiyue's cultivation base was the same as his—both were in the True-Preservation realm—making her considerably stronger than Yun Yong and Tang Yuan.

Yun Yong and Tang Yuan did not waste words, knowing well that they would only be burdens at a time like this. Obeying orders and arrangements was the best choice.

He has already cultivated into the External Scenery realm, but his personal methods seem even more powerful than those of the External Scenery realm. Shiyue revolved the Book of Life and Death.

For a moment, lines of formation flags vaguely surged forth behind her.

These flags flew in all directions, encompassing an area of ten square miles.

The formation flags continuously aligned, combined, and derived. Tiny rays of spiritual light emerged within the void. Every single strand of spiritual light was as sharp as a sword or saber, slicing the demonic clouds of heaven and earth into the finest and most minuscule dust.

The formation flags acted like gear wheels, rotating and intertwining these microscopic rays of spiritual light into ripples that filled the sky, pressing downward with boundless might.

Who would have thought that when faced with this formation, the vine dragon merely flicked its tail gently.

Violent explosions roared before their eyes.

Those ripples were easily shattered into powder, and the formation flags along with them were sent flying far away.

Shiyue continuously summoned battle flags while revolving the Book of Life and Death.

Formations all borrow the momentum of heaven and earth. To Shiyue's naked eyes, the mountains, rivers, and streams of heaven and earth were all formation flags.

The core of a formation is borrowing the power of heaven and earth.

Otherwise, how could mere ordinary flags like these, combined with the meager magical power of the flag-bearer, unleash forces hundreds or thousands of times greater than the flags themselves and the bearer combined?

Such a thing was impossible.

Formations rely on the existing power between heaven and earth.

Borrowing the power of mountains and rivers to form the Myriad Peaks Divine Formation; borrowing great rivers to form the Myriad Waters Divine Formation.

Formation flags are merely a medium to graft the two together.

A brilliant formation master could discard the medium altogether, using mountains as banners and rivers as poles. With mountains and rivers as formation flags, heaven and earth itself becomes the formation.

Since this place is inverted, I shall borrow the momentum to set up a formation and create an opposition of Yin and Yang!

No sooner said than done; every blade of grass and tree in the Bronze Gorge now transformed into pure power.

Yet this power was not entirely pure, as inverted forces were mixed within it.

When the two combined, it produced the phenomenon of Hunyuan.

The opposition of Yin and Yang gives birth to the six qi, and this is the Hexagram Divine Formation!

The opposition of Yin and Yang gives birth to the six qi.

These six qi are Jueyin Wind-Wood, Shaoyin Monarch-Fire, Taiyin Damp-Earth, Shaoyang Minister-Fire, Yangming Dry-Metal, and Taiyang Cold-Water.

These six qi permeated heaven and earth, corresponding to Yin, Yang, wind, rain, gloom, and brightness; manifested in the human body, they became the six pathologies of cold, heat, dryness, dampness, wind, and fire; manifested in the mud-pill palace, they became the six tribulations of fondness, aversion, joy, anger, sorrow, and delight.

For a time, the wind, rain, brightness, and darkness in the Bronze Gorge shifted constantly, and the mud-pill palaces within their bodies did likewise.

The vine dragon before them was merely formed from a branch severed from the true vine dragon in the Demon Court, yet after practicing for many years, it also possessed a physical fleshly body and a mud-pill spirit.

At this moment, cold and heat alternated within the vine dragon's body, dryness and dampness opposed each other, and wind and fire collided, generating Hunyuan qi that weighed its body down so heavily that even the use of a golden core could not eradicate it.

As for its mud-pill palace, needless to say, it was already affected by inner demons, and these six tribulations instantly transformed into six inner demons clinging to its spirit, causing its consciousness to sink into depravity.

For a time, the Yin, Yang, life, and death within the vine dragon's body were inverted, and its Yin and Yang positions began to shift.

Even Xu Zhong and the others, who were not engulfed by the formation, had the Yin and Yang within their own bodies affected.

Behold my Creation Sword Formation!

Xu Zhong trod the Seven Stars pace, his seven hundred and twenty flying swords forming the Creation Sword Formation to control the transformation of Yin, blanketing an area of one mile.

The inner demons beneath this sword formation were slain and deterred by the sword qi, but the primary target was that vine dragon.

Even with its internal Yin and Yang inverted and life and death out of balance, its own body remained incomparably powerful.

It opened its mouth, concealing a sea eye within—a place populated by swimming fish, alligator dragons, and flood dragons. Like a whirlpool, it exerted a terrifying suction force upon everything before it.

With the appetite of a whale drinking water, it absorbed the six-qi of the hexagrams generated by the formation flags and Xu Zhong's Creation Sword Qi into one place, refining a sliver of spiritual light. It chewed on it crunchingly, just as one would eat sugar cane.

Xu Zhong knew this vine dragon was a formidable opponent and naturally did not think they could suppress and slay it by themselves.

The Creation Sword Formation shifted rapidly, forming a sword array.

The Four Auspicious Divine Beasts and the Yellow Dragon Divine Beast transformed into colossal divine swords that slashed downward.

Roar...

The vine dragon let out an angry roar, and the Major and Minor Wood Qi on its body surged forward like ten thousand galloping horses, connecting into a straight line. In an instant, the void was cleaved into two parts by this single line.

This was the Wood Emperor Qi, condensed from the purest Major and Minor Wood Qi in heaven and earth.

Similar to the Three-Purity True Fire, it was a primordial positional force.

It consisted of the Wood Emperor Qi, the Three-Purity True Fire, the Profound Origin True Water, the Breathing Soil Divine Earth, and the Kuigang Divine Gold.

Aside from the primordial source, these were the positional forces.

All spells other than the primordial source were variants of these positional forces.

The reason Xu Zhong could only cast thunder seals was because, apart from the Three-Purity True Fire, he had not yet cultivated any of the other positional forces.

This Wood Emperor Qi was terrifyingly powerful, capable of cleaving even the void, let alone the divine sword condensed from illusory sword qi.

Cracking sounds echoed incessantly as the divine sword shattered in an instant.

Fortunately, the quality of Xu Zhong's flying swords was high enough for them to survive under the impact of this Wood Emperor Qi.

Screech, screech...

The Wood Emperor Qi collided with the flying swords, producing harsh sounds and sending showers of sparks flashing with intense light.

Shiyue, standing nearby, was not so fortunate.

She was struck by the Wood Emperor Qi and cleaved in half, severed at the waist with her upper and lower body separated, blood splashing across the sky.

The vitality emerging from her wounds resembled lotus threads, stringing her upper and lower body together, and just as she was about to stitch the wound shut, a dragon claw reached out to grab her.

Upon this dragon claw rested a positional force. Evidently, what it wielded was a superior art.

Such an art was far too powerful compared to ordinary spells.

As soon as it struck, it reversed the situation of the Yin-Yang opposition in the Bronze Gorge.

In an instant, the mountain and river formation flags shattered. The mountain peaks cracked, and the river was severed right down the middle.

Shiyue first suffered from backlash, and then endured the impact of the spell.

Had Xu Zhong not rushed forward in time to block the attack for her, she would likely have perished on the spot, body and soul scattered.

Even so, Shiyue was still sent flying, though her lower body remained behind where she stood, landing in the gurgling stream.

Meanwhile, her upper body was shattered by the raging Qi generated by the spell, and cracks as deep as bone appeared across her skin, bleeding profusely.

Her mud-pill palace was also affected, and her spirit suffered damage.

Xu Zhong's Profound Origin True Water barrier was shattered directly, and the sky-full of Qi nearly riddled his physical body like a sieve, fragments falling from finger-width holes.

The Golden Tree of the Golden Core vibrated, the Wood-element hidden storehouse opened, and a robust wave of vitality washed over his physical body to repair his wounds.

Yet the vine dragon was not one to stop at a mere warning.

In a fraction of a blink of an eye, the Wood Emperor Qi on its body condensed into a gigantic saber encompassing thirty to forty miles of the void, causing the surrounding space to vibrate with a buzzing sound.

The surroundings seemed to grow quiet, space and time becoming slow and congealed, causing Xu Zhong and the others to move sluggishly.

This spell seemed to involve the powers of time and space.

What a formidable spell this was.

On the other side, Yun Yong's gaze flickered, and the zither string within his body materialized faintly.

He took a step forward, silver light flashing around his body, notes surging, and zither music manifesting; but before he could activate that zither string, he was interrupted by Xu Zhong.

Clenching his teeth, Xu Zhong deployed his sword pill, unleashing the most powerful sword formation he had comprehended thus far—the Jade Pool Sword Formation.

The Jade Pool Sword Formation appeared in the air, and what descended was the power of karmic tribulation.

Inner demons were the enemies of the Heavenly Dao.

The moment the karmic tribulation appeared, they were locked onto.

This wave of karmic tribulation spanned thirty to forty miles, completely incomparable to the six-thousand-mile thunder cloud when Longque underwent tribulation days ago.

This was mainly because Xu Zhong's own cultivation level was still insufficient.

The power of karmic tribulation suppressed the Wood Emperor Qi, slowing the speed of that divine saber until it abruptly came to a halt beneath the tribulation.

The vine dragon raised its head to look at the sky.

It saw Xu Zhong's sword formation transform into a jade pool, while he himself became the dragon-headed deity who carved out the Jade Pool.

Fall!

The sword formation merged into a single stream of Jade Pool water that poured downward.

The vine dragon bathed in the Jade Pool water, as karmic tribulation invaded, subverting its vitality and demonic nature.

Its body began to rot piece by piece, dripping with yellowish-green pus and emitting a sickeningly foul stench.

Under the impact of the karmic tribulation, the demonic nature within the vine dragon was suppressed, and its own unique consciousness was slowly awakening piece by piece.

The karmic tribulation was gradually dissipating.

And at this moment, Longque finally made its move.

It emerged from the shadows, shattered Xu Zhong's Jade Pool Sword Formation with a single finger, and reached out to grab forward.

Its palm grew boundlessly, becoming even larger than the hundred-mile physical body of the vine dragon.

It hoisted the physical body of the vine dragon, while Taiyin and Taiyang energies emanated from its body and fell onto its palm.

The body of the vine dragon was refined bit by bit within its palm, shrinking in size until it was finally refined into a medicinal pill only the size of a normal fingernail.

Within this pill, rich vitality was contained.

It swallowed the pill in a single gulp, and a massive surge of flesh-and-blood power immediately welled up within its body.

Then, it slowly looked toward the four of them, Xu Zhong and the others.

So, you had no physical body all along. Facing its gaze, Xu Zhong spoke: No wonder you needed to lodge within my shadow.

Because it had no physical body and only its spirit remained.

Collapse, severing of vitality, inability to heal wounds automatically, and failure to regrow the physical body. Thus, it had to be re-refined.

And to re-refine a physical body required a massive amount of flesh-and-blood essence; throughout the entire Dragon-Sleeping Valley, only the Flesh Swamp could provide a sufficient amount of such essence.

Without a physical body to shelter and protect it, the spirit was easily influenced by inner demons, especially the inner demon king within the Bronze Gorge.

Once it was affected and fell into the demonic path, thousands of years of arduous cultivation would become nothing more than wedding garments for another.

Therefore, it needed a host to bring it close to the Flesh Swamp, and to work hard along the way to restore its physical body.

The vine dragon had been influenced by the inner demon king, and had it acted rashly, it too would have been possessed by the inner demon king; hence, it could only choose the best possible timing, acting as the mantis stalking the cicada while remaining hidden in the dark.

You realized this far too late. Longque laughed proudly: Now, I shall send you on your way.

Just as it was about to initiate its spell, it saw the most brilliant white light surge from Yun Yong's body.