Chapter 1195

Well, although we now know many secrets of the Stone Clan, if we want to act against them, the Stone Clan's clan-protecting grand formation is a problem.

Afterwards, Lin Feng shook his head, his eyes unconsciously sinking a little.

After all, he would not forget that in the original story, during the Medicine Clan war after the Medicine Canon, the Medicine Clan's highest strength was only at the Seven-star Dou Saint level, yet after activating their clan-protecting formation, they managed to exchange several blows with the Nine-star Dou Saint level Wu Nie Tun Yan.

If it weren't for Wu Nie Tun Yan taking advantage of the Medicine Clan's delayed reaction, first repelling the remnant soul of the Medicine Emperor, then, while the Medicine Clan was pouring Dou Qi into their clan-protecting formation, forcibly absorbing the Dou Emperor bloodline of the Medicine Clan's descendants to break the formation, who knows how much longer the fight would have lasted.

Like the Medicine Clan in the original story, or the Stone Clan now, they have both built spatial passages with several other great clans.

Once the spatial passage disappears, there is always a risk of being discovered.

Therefore, when acting, we must be as quick as possible, after all, every extra second adds to the risk of exposure.

Thinking this, Lin Feng immediately turned to Qing Lin beside him and said, "Hey, ask him if we can find a way to make contact with the Stone Clan's clan-protecting formation and then secretly tamper with it."

Okay.

Hearing that, Qing Lin immediately nodded slightly, then her green eyes turned to that Stone Clan Dou Saint and asked, "Do you have any way to destroy your clan-protecting formation?"

"No, the protection of the clan-protecting formation is extremely tight; aside from the guards specifically assigned to the formation under the Great Elder, nobody in our clan, including us Dou Saint Elders, can come into contact with it."

Upon receiving the order, that Stone Clan Elder immediately replied with a blank expression.

"Like that?"

Hearing the former's explanation, Lin Feng immediately reached out and lightly rubbed his chin, speaking with a thoughtful expression.

But soon he continued, "Then can you arrange for one of the guards protecting your Stone Clan's clan-protecting formation to come out, preferably someone who can come into close contact with the formation."

Seeing this, Qing Lin immediately conveyed the former's words to the other party.

"No, any guard who can approach the clan-protecting formation is absolutely forbidden to leave the Stone Realm, not even their family members are allowed. If there is truly something that must be dealt with, the chance that the clan leader handles it on their behalf is greater than the chance they go out."

As soon as the former's words fell, that Stone Clan Dou Saint mechanically shook his head and said.

Hearing that, Lin Feng's brows instantly furrowed.

He hadn't expected the Stone Clan's vigilance to be so high; not only are the guards protecting the clan-protecting formation forbidden to leave the Stone Realm, even their family members are strictly restricted.

"This way, wouldn't I be unable to send someone to make contact with the Stone Clan's clan-protecting formation and destroy it at a critical moment?"

Thinking about the strictness of the Stone Clan formation's defense, Lin Feng's mind was now frantically thinking of ways.

However, since those who can come into contact with the clan-protecting formation cannot come out, he likewise cannot enter.

Thus, after thinking it over, he could not find a solution for the moment.

Then he continued to ask, "If your Stone Clan encounters danger, do you have any response methods or backup plans?"

Seeing that it was impossible to act against the Stone Clan's clan-protecting formation, Lin Feng then tried to look for loopholes in their system or in their emergency response plans.

Hearing that, the Stone Clan Dou Saint nodded and replied, "Yes, in our clan, basically every generation of young people, regardless of gender or talent, must enter the clan's martial army for five years of training. During those five years, everyone lives together, eats, wears, resides, and travels together; while cultivating, they also undergo organizational and disciplinary training."

"Thus, whenever the Stone Clan faces a crisis, if there are teammates nearby, we can immediately form squads to launch a coordinated counterattack. Some combat squads can cooperate with other squads to form a combined-assault battalion to encircle the enemy. Of course, if the enemy is too strong, these battalions can quickly coordinate with other battalions, pouring Dou Qi into the clan-protecting formation, uniting the whole clan, and unleashing the full strength of the entire clan to the extreme."

"Furthermore, our clan conducts a crisis emergency drill every ten years. Of course, we Dou Saints may not participate, but every hundred years the clan leader personally leads us in a separate drill, so that if the clan encounters danger we won't be at a loss and miss the best chance to counterattack."

After hearing the former's account, Lin Feng nodded, then recalled the scene when he was ambushed by the Stone Clan Great Elder and his men.

At that time, aside from the Stone Clan Great Elder who fought him alone, the other few indeed had joined forces to deal with Zi Yan.

However, since Lin Feng and Zi Yan were too strong, that Stone Clan Great Elder could not quickly defeat him, and the other Stone Clan Dou Saints could not defeat Zi Yan either; moreover, the Stone Clan had two Dou Saints who were only Two-star Dou Saints, far inferior to Zi Yan, so in the end the prolonged defense inevitably failed, and Zi Yan seized the opportunity to break through.

If it weren't for the fact that his situation exceeded the Stone Clan's expectations, causing the scene to stall, the Stone Clan's strategy of first killing him to obtain an opportunity and then surrounding and beating Zi Yan to death would indeed have been quite correct.

Moreover, although that Stone Clan Great Elder outwardly held an absolute advantage, he still sealed off space, cutting off Lin Feng and Zi Yan's escape routes.

But unfortunately, he encountered someone who does not follow common sense.

"Sigh, it seems that the martial Dou Emperor family, even if its overall strength cannot match that of the Medicine Clan, has an attitude toward war that the Medicine Clan cannot compare to. If the Medicine Clan had this mindset, Wu Nie Tun Yan would likely suffer even more under the combined assault of the Medicine Clan, Xiao Yan, and Shen Nong old man, etc."

Thinking this, Lin Feng also helplessly tugged at his mouth.

These ancient races, indeed worthy of being ancient great clans that have endured tens of thousands of years of wind and rain, are truly not easy to deal with!

Thinking this, Lin Feng unconsciously scratched his head, feeling rather helpless.

After all, over ninety percent of the Stone Clan's people are muscular body cultivators, born warriors.

In terms of combat attitude, they are not lazy like the Medicine Clan.

"Qing Lin, go ask him what exactly that so-called Heavenly Gang Stone God Formation clan-protecting formation he mentioned earlier is, where it comes from, and what abilities it possesses."

Seeing that it was also hard to find many loopholes in the system for him to exploit, Lin Feng had no choice but to start asking about the effects of the Stone Clan's clan-protecting formation.

And Qing Lin, upon hearing her young master's order, naturally quickly passed on the question.

"The Heavenly Gang Stone God Formation was created by our clan's Dou Emperor ancestor after founding the Stone Clan, after a hundred years of research, and then further refined through many improvements into an exquisite grand formation. When setting up this formation, one can directly lay out a regular grand formation, or separately lay out multiple small formations; when necessary, the energy of multiple small formations can be merged, thereby condensing the energy of other small formations."

Saying this, the Stone Clan Dou Saint's face also unconsciously showed a hint of excitement and confidence.

"And when this formation is activated by a person possessing the Stone Clan Dou Emperor's bloodline, it can combine the strength of all participants in the formation and summon a wisp of martial soul of our clan's ancestor stored within it; together with that energy they form an energy stone man possessing tremendous power capable of destroying heaven and earth."

"As I mentioned earlier, laying out the formation as multiple small formations, in this way, if the person maintaining the formation is suddenly killed midway or encounters any other accident, the people of the other small formations can immediately execute the backup plan, reselect the formation's leader, to keep the grand formation from collapsing."

After hearing the Stone Clan Dou Saint's description of their clan-protecting formation, the Heavenly Gang Stone God Formation, Lin Feng unconsciously reached out and rubbed his chin, lost in thought.

He felt as if he had encountered something like this somewhere before.

He then slapped his own palm in astonishment, "Damn, how did this come full circle back to my own specialty? This thing is just like a master-slave architecture. When a master server crashes, it immediately, according to preset configuration, selects another slave server as the main weapon—damn, isn't this exactly my field as a certain mediocre 211 computer science graduate?"

"'Eh, young master, what's wrong?'"

Seeing Lin Feng suddenly become agitated, Qing Lin beside him scratched her head, looking completely puzzled.

When did her young master ever specialize in researching formations?

Well, upon careful thought, the formations her young master plays with, in an era where formations hardly see any innovation, do actually have a bit of novelty.

And Lin Feng, upon hearing Qing Lin's call, also quickly snapped out of his agitation.

"'Cough cough'"

Immediately after, he hastily forced a stern cough, then said to Qing Lin, "Hey, ask him when he can bring out the stuff for us. After all, we've come all this way; not taking something from the Stone Clan would be unjustifiable."

Okay.

Hearing that, although Qing Lin did not understand Lin Feng's earlier reaction, she still promptly agreed.

As soon as her words fell, she quickly conveyed the order.

"I still need to go to various places to collect the taxes that my clan's subordinate forces have been collecting on my behalf. At the fastest, it will take three or four months to complete the whole process. Of course, the main delay is with the clan leader. Because I used to have the subordinate forces' tax documents passed to him via his servants, but he is currently almost always in seclusion, so there's a high chance he will delay some time before approving the documents as correct."

Having received the order, that one-star Dou Sheng blurted out the whole matter.

"Three or four months. Taxes"

Thinking of the good things the Stone Clan's subordinate forces had extorted, Lin Feng pondered briefly, then said: "Qing Lin, I've asked enough for now; let him continue gathering things, and we'll follow him."

"'Young Master, are you planning to take those things over?' Hearing that, Qing Lin scratched her head in puzzlement and said: 'But didn't he say earlier that there was a list? If you take them now, when this guy returns to the clan, the numbers won't match. By then, will he expose himself?'"

"'Don't worry, little girl. When the time comes, we'll give him our things to take and see if we can find a shoddy substitute. If we can't substitute, we'll let him wait until after the storage is returned and then bring them out, hehe.'"

Hearing the worry in the former's tone, Lin Feng gave a wicked smile and revealed his plan.

"'Alright, I'll follow the Young Master's lead.'"

Upon hearing that, a flash of excitement instantly appeared in Qing Lin's emerald-green eyes, and she quickly conveyed the order.

At the same moment, a thought moved her heart, and the green light emanating from her eyes suddenly flared brightly.

The next instant, a series of settings, following the light, rapidly entered the mind of that Stone Clan Dou Sheng.

Once the information transmission was complete, the light in Qing Lin's eyes also vanished.

Meanwhile, as the light in the former's eyes no longer enveloped that Stone Clan Dou Sheng, the latter's previously scattered gaze began to show a hint of emotion.

"'Heh heh.'"

Soon after, that Stone Clan Dou Sheng's throat emitted a few meaningless sounds, apparently due to the earlier loss of consciousness, causing a need to re-adapt to the body.

"'Master.'"

After fully regaining his senses, that Stone Clan Dou Sheng immediately bowed respectfully to Qing Lin.

Hearing that, Qing Lin casually waved her hand and said: "Alright, go attend to your own affairs. Once you've gathered everything, come here and we'll pick out what we need."

"'Yes.'"

Upon hearing that, the Stone Clan Dou Sheng turned his body without hesitation and sped off toward the distant Yan Sect.

"'Um, we can't just idle here, and the Stone Clan isn't an easy opponent to deal with. At least, that's how it is for me. After all, I'm not a Nine-Star Dou Sheng-level expert. Fortunately, I obtained quite a few things from Lue Feng Zunzhe earlier, which I can now use. Since we currently lack the means to break the Stone Clan's protective grand formation, we can only think of ways to oppose it.'"

Seeing that Stone Clan Dou Sheng depart, Lin Feng immediately turned his gaze to the storage ring on his finger and murmured softly.

As he spoke, he lightly moved his palm, and subsequently a multitude of miscellaneous items appeared in the sky before him.

Scanning these items with his gaze, there were some metals previously taken from the Tai Xu Ancient Dragon Clan, as well as some stone objects that looked extremely sturdy at first glance.

Of course, besides these, there were also various other sundry items.

Although these items are all sorts of oddities, they share one trait: at a glance, you can tell they are extremely precious objects.

At the same time, he looked toward Qing Lin beside him and said: "Little girl, you should also find something to do; you can't just stand around doing nothing."

While speaking, Lin Feng waved his hand, quickly forming a spatial barrier around them that ordinary people could not detect at all.

"'Hmm, then I'll study my Soul-Control Technique a bit more; during its practical use just now, I happened to discover some problems.'"

Hearing that, Qing Lin obediently nodded, then quickly sat cross-legged, closed her eyes, and began to recall things in her mind.

Seeing that, Lin Feng then directed his gaze at the pile of materials before him, sat cross-legged, and casually summoned the alien fire within his body,

While the two of them each researched their own interests in this way, time slipped away silently from their fingertips.

In the blink of an eye, about a month's time flowed by hastily.

As for that Stone Clan Dou Sheng who went to various subordinate forces to collect the taxes they had gathered on behalf of the clan, he also returned to this place once again.

After examining them, Lin Feng's heart was stirred by the vast quantity of good stuff; without further ado, he took many items that interested him.

Especially after he learned that the Stone Clan collects once every ten years, and each time, due to the large quantity of items, they only roughly record the materials for refining Nine-Grade Treasure Pills, or low-tier Heaven-rank cultivation methods, the Nine-Grade Treasure Pill Prescription, etc., he became even more unscrupulous.

Of course, he didn't take them for nothing; after taking the items, he also took something similar in return, but of much poorer quality, and placed similar items on top.

At least, it counts as giving something back to the Stone Clan, so it's not taken for nothing.

After finishing that, Lin Feng promptly produced a series of red-and-brown strange stone pillars; just a glance could even startle a person.

These stone pillars have a brown core, seemingly made by fusing multiple materials, resembling stone yet not stone, extremely extraordinary.

However, if that were all there was to them, they wouldn't be startling at all.

But on the bodies of these 'stone pillars,' there are etched individual mysterious symbols that cannot be seen.

And within the grooves of these symbols, a layer of pigment identical in color to fresh blood has been applied.

These pigments left no groove untouched; every single one was coated with the blood-red pigment.

At the same time, a ferocious aura that makes one's heart tremble emanates from that red pigment, making people dare not stare too long.

Lin Feng roughly counted the stone pillars he produced, and there were over a hundred of them, many bearing different blood-colored symbols.

Looking at them, these hundred pillars appear to have been divided into several different functions.

"'Qing Lin, ask him when he returns whether he can possibly insert these pillars as far as possible from the Stone Clan's center, especially places far from the protective grand formation, and not require him to put them in any crucial spots— the more ordinary the location, the better; they can be driven underground to avoid detection. Also, try to place them as much as possible in areas where Stone Clan descendants and Dou Sheng-level or lower cultivators reside. The more people, the better!'"

While speaking, a wicked smile also appeared on Lin Feng's mouth corner.

These treasures are what he painstakingly refined day and night over the past month.

Afterward, it remains to be seen whether they can play a crucial role.

"'All right, Young Master.'"

Hearing that, Qing Lin didn't waste words and directly conveyed Lin Feng's earlier statement.

"'Yes.'"

As soon as the former's words fell, that Dou Sheng dared not delay even a moment and directly took over the order.

And seeing that this Dou Sheng did not refuse, Lin Feng felt a great relief in his heart, then smiled and waved his hand, telling Qing Lin to have him hurry back to the Stone Clan.

Seeing this, Qing Lin immediately gave the order without further ado.

"'As you command.'"

Faced with Qing Lin's order as her master, that Stone Clan Dou Sheng had no doubts, immediately rose up and rushed explosively toward the Stone Realm's gate!

"It will take three or four months to get out; looks like I need to find something to kill time."

Watching the direction in which that Stone Clan Battle Saint departed, Lin Feng immediately reached out and grasped the void, and a gray ancient scroll appeared in his palm.

Upon seeing this, Lin Feng immediately unfurled the gray scroll in his hand.

"Phoenix Chant for a Hundred Days is one of our clan's most profound sound-wave Dou techniques, ranked as a high Heavenly Rank. When this technique is unleashed, all beasts submit and the souls of living beings scatter. Those with insufficient Phoenix bloodline cannot unleash its full power!"

After reading the introduction above, Lin Feng slightly twitched his mouth, unsure what to say.

As for those other techniques, their creators would love to stuff all kinds of self-praising words into them.

But this technique scroll is so brief.

"Forget it, I don't care about it; the content is what's real."

Immediately afterward, Lin Feng did not hesitate, directly turning his gaze toward the scroll, and then his soul power instantly entered it. (End of Chapter)