Chapter 429: Formation Blockade, Gathering in One Place

"Useless! Truly useless!"

The moment General Ming broke away from the battle circle, the Dark King, sitting upon his luxurious throne, had already learned of this news through the panicked reply of a trusted subordinate.

Then the communication came to an abrupt end; at the very last, a scream seemed to be heard? The Dark King's expression turned gloomy.

The ministers and nobles of the Dark Kingdom, standing in the palace hall that was as bright as day as always, felt a chill everywhere and could not help but turn pale.

Even if they were foolish and arrogant, they should understand that if the city defenses collapsed and were breached, the Saint Kingdom's focus of attack would shift to the palace! It was not that they did not want to run, but their honor and disgrace were tied together; they could not run!

"Your Majesty! Has something gone wrong at the outer city?"

Although he already had a premonition in his heart, a minister of the Dark Kingdom still braced himself to ask.

The Dark King's gloomy expression flashed and vanished; he squeezed out a look of his usual rage, which contained confidence, and said sternly: "It is not that the outer city has fallen, but that Ming has fled!"

"The Great General, fled?"

The minister could not help but be somewhat surprised, and after the ministers exchanged glances, the tension and unease from just a moment ago actually dissipated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It was as if the departure of their own commanding general was not something that would affect the overall situation, but rather made them surge with confidence that this battle would be won.

Truly a bizarre affair.

"Hmph! This King has long known that fellow could never give his all. Now, with Yun having snuck in first, I fear the two of them have long been in collusion and plotting. Fleeing suddenly at the moment the enemy is attacking the city, they are mostly likely going to commit some nefarious act!"

The Dark King said this solemnly, and the ministers immediately responded with flattery.

"Your Majesty is wise!"

"Hmph! Those of lowly birth are, in the end, foolish people!"

"I long ago advised that such people should not be allowed to overstep their bounds!"

"Your Majesty saw far and wide that day; surely you have other countermeasures."

Facing these words, the Dark King raised his hand to press down, and the ministers immediately fell silent.

The person on the throne revealed a smile: "Hehe, since it was long anticipated, naturally there are preparations. This King long ago placed trusted aides among the garrison. Now that the handover is complete, there are other arrangements sufficient to repel the enemy!"

The ministers immediately launched into another round of singing praises.

"As for that fellow colluding from within to commit a nefarious act, although His Excellency there has vast supernatural powers and is surely prepared, this King naturally cannot be careless or negligent. I am now going to lead the guards and soldiers to the top level to stop such unscrupulous people and avoid disturbing the great His Excellency!"

Having said this, without waiting for the ministers to say anything, the Dark King pointed out military officers of the fifth rank and above, as well as several important civil officials. With a wave of his hand, two Nascent Soul guards of the Transformation stage appeared before the ministers and nobles, along with hundreds of elite Nascent Soul soldiers—the defensive force of the palace's upper levels.

Seeing their King above have such brilliant foresight and instantly gather such terrifying combat power, those who were not pointed out, while still trembling with fear, could not help but completely let go of their last bit of worry.

The Dark King rose to say something more, but standing on the high-reaching throne, he looked through the observation window and saw the massive, looming shadows emerging from the eastern horizon.

As they flew, they stirred up tidal waves of Qi, occasionally surfacing and radiating a heavy, immense might.

It was fine before they were observed, but once captured by the enemy's divine sense or other senses, it immediately triggered a targeted strike of great magic power. The Dark King felt his mind shake; had his royal robe not flashed with dark light, his head would have exploded by now. Naturally, he could not help but be terrified.

Thus, he dared not speak nonsense and hurriedly led his men away.

Walking into the upward passage behind the jade dais, taking one last glance at those ministers and nobles who had become cheerful, talking and laughing about their subsequent leisure plans, the Dark King could not help but sneer in his heart.

"Heh!"

"The ferocity of the Saint Kingdom's military is truly beyond this King's imagination. Clearly, they had already been crushed by the Great Plague once, but to be able to make a comeback so quickly is truly something I did not expect."

"Fortunately, since the last great war, this King has kept these fools in the dark, making it impossible for them to know the actual situation. Now, just stay behind and spread out for this King, and delay them for a little while!"

The Dark King thought this while running, and soon led his subordinates away.

Those ministers and nobles, in twos and threes, were just about to leave the hall.

And then, there was no then.

The tofu-dreg-like palace was directly smashed through by Du En. These fellows were swept up by the flow of magic power he carried, turning into dust on the spot, dead beyond all hope.

As for the innocent who could be saved, Yun had already organized them and was leading them in a rush out of the palace.

Amidst the swirling water clouds, she looked up and saw a figure streaking across the sky at high speed.

Their eyes met, both surprised; the one opposite even hid a trace of astonishment, as if they had not expected Yun to be involved in the palace affairs.

However, this color also flashed and vanished.

"Honored Ming..."

Yun murmured, her movements not slowing down as she hurriedly led the people away.

Then, after she moved through space several times and broke away from the buffer zone between the palace and the residential area, she looked up again.

This time it was Jiang Ying flying past, with a crowd of fifth-tier puppets behind her.

From all sides, one after another, they converged toward the very top level of the Dark Kingdom's palace.

Before the Divine Throne!

The first to arrive, without a doubt, was Du En.

Boom! He broke through the final dome.

Step.

He landed with extreme lightness.

With a hanging lamp floating above his shoulder, Du En raised his eyes to look ahead.

There was an ancient hall, not particularly magnificent, which stood out like a crane in a flock of chickens on this vast, plain-like top-level platform.

Behind it was a dark moon, exceptionally large and not very bright, hanging above the palace tower, making the hall look as if it were at the intersection point on its edge.

Du En's eyes narrowed slightly, then he suddenly looked up, only to see stars densely arrayed across the night sky, shining brightly and flickering in an orderly fashion, with faint starlight being drawn down from afar.

At the same time, pillars of dim light rose from all directions, within which flags were unfurled and fluttering, swallowing the drawn-in starlight.

Invisible fluctuations spread in all directions, and Du En's figure quietly shattered.

It was only an afterimage! The real person had long ago chosen to charge forward violently upon sensing something was wrong.

Snap, snap...

Invisibly, there seemed to be the sound of ropes breaking, dense and continuous. Those flags also trembled incessantly, as if being dragged by some terrifying force, wanting to break away from their original positions.

However, as that dark moon emitted a slightly higher brightness, these flags all quickly stabilized, and with a neat "thud," the situation on this large platform changed abruptly.

One could see the cave entrance that had been there just a moment ago instantly seal and mend itself, becoming as good as new.

The entire high-top platform suddenly became countless times harder than steel, comparable to a Grade 5 top-tier magical tool, or even a treasure tool.

So-called treasure tools, when it comes down to it, are just magical tools that rival magical treasures.

Because a cultivator's natal magical treasure is the most valued, those with talent above the norm can always find ways to cultivate it to a level even more formidable than a normal top-tier magical tool, so slowly, this specific term came into being.

And the reason it did not spread to become a completely new standard term naturally has its reasons.

Because only heaven-proud figures can break through to the Integration stage.

Magical tools correspond to this realm; at the seventh grade, it is a case of nested alignment, meaning only magical tools refined by such figures are seventh-grade magical tools.

In other words, the positioning of treasure tools is actually only in the small segment from the fifth to sixth grade; because some magical tools are too prominent to be included in conventional evaluation segments, this substitute term exists, which is why it cannot shake the existing theory of magical tool grading.

And right now, by secretly brewing it, once triggered, An Shen immediately granted the top layer of the luxurious palace, which was originally like dregs of tofu, a hardness comparable to a treasure tool.

This is still just a minor detail; the real key is the formation's killing power formed by drawing upon the power of the stars! Du En ultimately did not break free and was bounced back, but the veins reconnected one by one, and he recovered instantly.

He did not feel the shock or anger of falling into a trap; he remained very calm, because this situation was very normal and not worth making a fuss over. Rather, if An Shen had been careless and had nothing prepared, he would have had to ponder a bit more instead.

As for now, it is just breaking a formation.

Spirit Seeking.

Du En immediately began to observe and sense, while An Shen obviously would not just watch.

Chains corresponding to the number of stars in the night sky immediately descended from the high altitude, looping toward Du En's side.

The silver chains were manifested from the power of the stars; they did not look thick, but they contained the characteristics of various stars—some hard, some icy, some scorching. Combined with each other, they brought about even more wonders, the most direct of which was pressure, or rather, gravity! The heavy pressure of a thousand stars directly and invisibly shrouded Du En, suppressing not only his physical body but also his mana and primordial spirit. If it were an ordinary mid-stage Deity Transformation cultivator, their physical body would have already collapsed by now, their divine palace shattered, and even their primordial spirit would not have been spared, let alone being able to respond to the various formation wonders that followed one after another.

But Du En was different; silently, a dry wind blew up out of thin air around him, blocking the heavy pressure and resisting the chains, even bringing out specks of grit from within that reflected the light of a thousand stars.

It was precisely the Daoist technique, Killing Wind Turns to Sand! Although this Daoist technique at the perfection realm can only be blown by mana forms such as mana or demonic energy, logically speaking, it should not be effective against the stellar power drawn and manifested by these formations, and could only use wind to block, unable to turn it into grit.

But do not forget, An Shen, as the main formation controller, must drive mana to precisely control this formation.

His mana was mixed into the operation of the formation; although hidden very deep and shielded by the power of the stars, Du En's Spirit Seeking technique had long been perfected, and even without using the Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils, he could accurately capture this technique hidden within the spirit.

Thus, by blowing the wind again, he could hit them and turn them into sand.

Boom! The erupting sandstorm directly blew away and shattered the heavy pressure chains.

They had no power to resist, which is no wonder, because the tentacles controlled by An Shen had already had their deeply hidden mana severed. Relying only on the formation's own operation and changes, it still seemed a bit too simple and crude in Du En's eyes.

It seems it was a formation he figured out himself, not some precise and flawless great or strange formation he learned.

Du En had a speculation about this, and even more so, he captured the nodes of the formation's operation and immediately stepped forward again.

The scattered stellar power, amidst a buzzing sound, turned into rain-like star-steel blades, submerging toward Du En's side.

With a boom.

He just threw a punch, and it punched out a gap; the fist force did not stop, and as it swept past, it caused the air to vibrate and the formation to become unstable. If placed outside, it could easily tear apart the surface space.

Finally, it smashed into the node; although it did not break or shatter it, it made those flags tremble suddenly, and the entire formation stiffened.

By the time it recovered, Du En had already arrived before the node, used the Spirit Gathering technique to easily intervene and harvest it, plucked that node down, and then shook his arm, causing True Flame to spread out and erupt from within.

The flags immediately turned to ash in the dark annihilation, and the stellar power collapsed in all directions like fireworks.

This rare Grade 5 Star Killing Formation did not stop Du En for long, leaving the An King and his party, who had just run up here and appeared before the palace, dumbfounded.

Especially that An King; he was the first to step here and happened to see the scene of Du En being bounced back. At the time, his spirit was lifted, and he showed joy, intending to laugh out loud and express disdain after all his subordinates were in place.

Now his subordinates had arrived quickly, but Du En had already quickly broken the killing formation.

As a result, they were now blocking the middle of the road.

Facing those eyes as calm as an ancient well, the An King's brain almost went blank.

Fortunately, those eyes immediately shifted elsewhere.

Looking at the hanging moon behind the palace.

The Holy God's hanging lamp spun around, and also spoke in a deep tone: "My younger brother, who suffers from the entanglement and conflict between divine nature and self-will, go now and let yourself be liberated!"

Hm? Du En glanced over with some strangeness, weirded out by these words spoken by the Holy God.

He immediately shifted his eyes back.

Because a voice responded: "You really are as naive as ever!"

The voice of the Great General Ming.

Because of the obstruction of the killing formation just now, she had already arrived quickly! Upon hearing this, the An King was overjoyed, immediately came to his senses, and shouted: "Ming, you deserted in the face of battle and failed the divine grace; this is a great capital crime. As long as..."

Splat!

A figure fell with a boom, and the mere shockwave crushed the An King's hundreds of men, just like crushing ants with a casual wave, causing his words to come to an abrupt end.

Under the light of the Dark Moon, the wind swept on.

Because in the next instant, a blood-stained figure had already followed closely and landed not far in front of Du En, standing in sharp opposition to Ming.

"Cough!"

Jiang Ying could not help but cough, spitting out blood, but she did not care, staring fixedly ahead.

The dust and smoke shattered directly amidst the clash of energy; Jiang Ying squinted her eyes, feeling somewhat uncomfortable, but still stared fixedly at the great enemy in front.

Her long hair was pitch black, drifting and draped; her figure was tall, her jade face calm, her heroic arc containing stars; the fluttering long robe, however, leaned toward a female style, and those slender, white, delicate hands contained terrifying power.

That Great General Ming was a woman! And that was not all; she had the same face as Jiang Ying!

It just looked two or three years older, a fully adult state.

(End of chapter)