Chapter 559: What Is Meant by

The blood cloud, several kilometres wide, finally came to a halt.

Crimson blood banners snapped in the wind — three men for a small banner, six for a medium, thirty-six for a large — and dense formation patterns spread across dozens of kilometres.

Every moment drew in a sea of world spiritual energy, and every Jin Dan cultivator was in high spirits, confident they could fight across realms.

Yet now their faces were full of gloom, their heads hung low.

Several days later,

a Bagua-shaped meteorological cloud drifted over from afar.

Its blazing might swept across dozens of li; phantom images of fire, wind, water, marsh and the like flickered one after another, effortlessly suppressing the blood cloud formation's domain, forcing it to shrink until it barely covered a few li.

They were the same number of people, and they were still an elite force, long-trained, with formation tools refined for over a hundred years.

Why were they so far inferior to a rabble?

This should not be.

Many blood cloud officers looked with complicated eyes at the ordinary-faced, expressionlessly cold youth within the rising Bagua meteorological cloud.

Six Dao Holy Son Yin Dao and many Northern Plains Jin Dan great bandits and heroes stood at his side, yet could not dim his brilliance in the slightest.

All stood respectfully, hands at their sides, ears pricked, every moment ready to receive orders — just like children.

"Greetings, my lord of Mount Tu!"

Below the blood cloud, the many Jin Dan cultivators put away their blood banners and formation tools, put away their respective magic treasures, and bowed respectfully in salute, without a trace of defiance.

"Greetings to you all, fellow cultivators."

Jiang Ding silently surveyed this cultivator army.

Over a hundred Jin Dan cultivators — this was not its final form.

Its final form would be filled with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators, each unit relying on formations, drilled with strict discipline, gathering the strength of the masses.

In a single thought, myriad formation patterns would rise and fall, blood light of creation would spring forth on its own, drowning the enemy in a sky-full blood river, dissolving flesh and magic treasures alike.

Such inheritances were generally the heavy weapons of great sects; loose cultivators could never come into contact with them.

Even if obtained by chance, the vast resources needed to refine formation tools, and the enormous quantity and quality of cultivators required to form the army array, would make anyone balk, afraid to set foot in it.

But the present Northern Plains was just right.

After two hundred years of bloody war with the Dari Sect, the Northern Plains clans' Jin Dan and Nascent Soul cultivators had withered in great numbers, and they could only rely on the great might of Nascent Soul cultivators to hold the core lands; the more remote regions were already beyond their power to control.

Hence, prodigies and heroes rose together, beacons of war lit everywhere.

At this moment, the Northern Plains had no shortage of Jin Dan and Foundation Establishment cultivators seeking the Dao — they feared death for the sake of longevity, and given a single spark, they could set the prairie ablaze.

So long as Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun could raise his great banner and keep it standing, even briefly, a steady stream of loose-cultivator Jin Dan would gather from every region.

"You there, dismiss the formation."

"Obey my command, and abide by the two articles of Mount Tu I have set down."

Jiang Ding did not waste words on pleasantries, and ordered.

The Eighteen Riders of the Blood Cloud stood motionless, looking at Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun.

It was clear their cohesion was strong; even at this moment they still maintained a highly disciplined order — not a mere union of interests, but bound by feeling and trust.

Jiang Ding placed his hand on his sword hilt.

"My lord of Mount Tu."

Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun, his hair grey-white and his face lined with wrinkles, bowed respectfully and said: "We have long admired you, my lord. Might you instruct us with even a single move or half a form? So that in the future we may look back and remember?"

Jiang Ding silently watched him, saying nothing.

Every hair on Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun's body stood on end.

Vaguely, it was as if he had returned once more to several hundred years ago, when he was still a mortal.

Back then he was a horse-slave of the Yin clan, and he had once seen a strange blue wolf on the plains; the situation then was the same as now — his whole body stiff.

Yet from beginning to end, even though he was only a mortal with no power to resist, he did not retreat a single step, nor expose his back.

Back then, the blue wolf was already sated and uninterested in him; it merely locked eyes with him for a moment, then went on its way.

Now, Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun still did not yield, staring fixedly at the man before him.

If it truly meant surrendering without a fight, he would rather die!

"My lord, this humble one asks for a lesson or two."

Under the immense pressure, Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun spoke again.

"Very well."

Jiang Ding nodded.

Boom!

Bai Mei True Person, Six Dao Holy Son and the other Jin Dan cultivators suddenly felt a vast attractive force from the great array, driving them to perform certain Qingfeng Qingfeng Beidou steps and drawing on the magic power within their bodies.

The intricate Bagua formation patterns flowed; fire, wind, water, heaven-and-earth, marsh, lake — the eight Bagua forms shifted, and the Zhen trigram blazed with light, transforming into the blazing might of Lei Ting, condensing into a sword of thunder imbued with a sword intent of annihilation.

Six Dao Holy Son could not help being horrified.

This was mastery of formations taken to an extremely deep level — using the array to command people, rather than people forming the array. Any ordinary cultivator who tried to sabotage it from within was absolutely deluding themselves; the moment they moved, they would be ground to bloody foam by the humming formation patterns around them, not a drop remaining.

With only a few hundred years of Jin Dan lifespan, his sword Dao was already at the pinnacle — why was his formation Dao the same?

This made no sense!

Could some Tiangui Tiangui Laoguai have broken the restrictions of the Luo Xu Order and entered through an external incarnation?

Six Dao Holy Son fell into deep suspicion.

The Zhen-trigram thunder sword, the moment it appeared, sliced through deep spatial rifts and vanished.

The eyelids of Bai Mei True Person and the other Jin Dan cultivators twitched.

Space!

This was a true Nascent Soul-level attack, not some mere claim!

For a moment, many thoughts stirred; the Jin Dan cultivators who had made promises instantly forgot everything before, focusing wholeheartedly on cooperating with the Eight Trigrams formation, with no other distracting thoughts.

Compared with their complicated thoughts, Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun was trembling, a chill running down his spine.

Beneath this Lei Ting, he felt an overwhelming sense of death.

Clearly, the instruction he needed had truly descended, arriving as scheduled, but perhaps at the cost of his life.

"Kill!"

Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun roared loudly, bit through his tongue, spat out a mouthful of essence blood, gripped his Ben Ming Fa treasure Blood Nan Yunqi tightly with both hands, and swung it violently, rolling up a skyful of blood clouds to meet the descending sword of Lei Ting.

The Blood Spear generals Hei Lou Cheng and the others were extremely dissatisfied with his rash action, and countless cursing voices were transmitted through divine sense.

But between life and death, they actually did not abandon their support of him, nor sit idly by watching him die.

"Kill!"

"Blood Kill!"

All eighteen riders of the Blood Cloud cavalry formed hand seals, stepped on formation patterns, responding to the waving of his blood banner; streaks of blood-light formation patterns arose on their own, coordinating with Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun's attack, inhaling and exhaling the spiritual energy of heaven and earth over dozens of li.

Boundless blood light gathered together, and under the waving of the Blood Nan Yunqi in Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun's hand, streaks of blood-colored blade-light were born, covering the sky like swimming fish.

Gathered by the blood-path formation patterns, the foremost several blood blades emitted endless bloodthirst and sharpness, and wherever they passed, dark black cracks appeared in space.

It had likewise reached the level of a Nascent Soul strike!

In army formation combat, there was no room for maneuver; in the blink of an eye, the sword of the Lei Ting Zhen Trigram had already descended, slashing down upon several blood blades.

Boom!

A world-shaking great sound.

Beneath the sword of Lei Ting, several blood blades were destroyed in a single strike, their spiritual light collapsed, and the skyful of fish-scale blade-light vanished entirely.

"Puh!"

Dong Xue Dong Xue Liuyun revealed a look of terror, vomited blood, and was sent flying backward, crashing heavily onto the ground.

Around him,

The Blood Cloud army formation shattered and disintegrated; over a hundred Jin Dan cultivators of the eighteen Blood Cloud riders scattered in all directions like an explosion, collapsing in a single strike, their will and morale utterly useless.

(End of this chapter)