Chapter 119: Setting Up the Formation

Such heavy corpse qi.

Liu Tianhong frowned and said.

Following the trace of corpse qi they had detected, the two quickly arrived at a huge and steep canyon.

It was to be expected; with such strong corpse qi, even without demonic cultivators, after some time it could possibly give rise to some evil entities.

"Senior Sister Liu, should we wait here for Senior Brother Chi?" Yunhe suggested.

Liu Tianhong looked around.

"This place, although the corpse qi is heavy, we cannot be certain it is the work of demonic cultivators; Senior Brother Chi is still investigating the Fan family. Once we are certain, it won't be too late to inform him."

"That's what we say, but if it truly turns out to be the demonic cultivators' doing, we might end up having to fight by then; would it still be timely to notify him then?"

Now Yunhe is not afraid of demonic cultivators; as long as it's not suddenly a Golden Core demonic cultivator appearing, he believes he can at least escape even if he can't win.

But the problem is.

In his previous two sect missions, everyone who accompanied him besides Hu Lin died.

If Liu Tianhong runs into trouble again this time, having Hu Xin protecting him would mean we don't have to worry about the sect punishing him, but since every mission he gets a reputation for dying alongside fellow sect cultivators, he probably can't escape that.

After thinking it over, Yunhe said: "Senior Sister Liu, for safety's sake, why don't we take this place as our center and slowly investigate the surroundings? Once we confirm the demonic cultivators' whereabouts, we shouldn't act rashly; we should notify Senior Brother Chi immediately."

After a pause, he added:

"After all, Senior Brother Chi is the person in charge of this mission."

"Haven't we already killed late-stage Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators before?"

"Why are we still being so cautious?"

This made the hot-tempered Liu Tianhong feel somewhat speechless.

However, she couldn't help but admit that Yunhe's suggestion was indeed more prudent.

"Alright. I'll head east for thirty li, then turn north; you, Junior Brother, go south then turn west. Once we've finished investigating the vicinity, we'll gradually expand the search radius. Keep in touch."

After speaking, she slapped her storage bag and launched the Qingxuan Boat, heading east.

Watching her departing figure, Yunhe secretly shook his head.

"Being careful is never wrong."

Immediately he also launched the Wind-Fire Boat and flew south.

Originally his Wind-Fire Boat had been damaged in the explosion of the Imprisoned Beast Pillars, but later, as he made minor progress in the Dao of Artifacts, and since he couldn't buy a better flying vessel in the short term, he undertook repairs himself.

Refining a low-grade Spiritual Artifact was somewhat challenging for him, but merely repairing minor damage was not a big problem.

Since they were scouting, the flying vessel didn't fly high, nor was it fast.

But after Yunhe had flown about three or four li, he landed.

He lightly flicked his storage bag.

He took out the formation he had just bought from the Shen siblings.

"Safety always comes first."

Yunhe muttered softly, as if consoling himself and also admonishing himself.

He then immediately took out the formation implement and infused it with magical power.

Hum—

Dozens of small flags trembled slightly and rose into the air; as Yunhe poured successive incantations into the formation implement, the flags descended one by one, becoming invisible upon contacting the ground.

After studying formation arts and getting started, the biggest benefit for him now is that it greatly reduces the time needed to set up a formation.

Although he doesn't know why certain nodes of the formation are arranged this way, at least the placement of some directions gives him a rough idea.

Shen Xingrui's set of the "Little Sumeru Profound Thunder Formation," although it is a standard killing formation, it is its auxiliary functions that satisfy Yunhe.

The formation is not easy to set up, the formation flags can conceal and mask aura, and they also have a certain trapping function.

Of course, even if it were easy to set up, being a second-stage upper-grade formation, the required time is not short, but it doesn't hinder Yunhe's investigation of this place; he lightly patted his insect bag, and dozens of Red-Ring Gold-Spotted Bees, at his gesture, began scouting.

After a while.

"Only three poles left and the formation will be set."

But just as his spiritual sense twitched slightly and he swept out his divine sense, his brow rose slightly.

He turned his head to look.

He saw amidst the wind and sand, the outline of a flying vessel faintly appearing in the air.

What eased his expression a little was that the newcomers were not demonic cultivators, but a few Qi Refining stage bandit cultivators.

The Gobi Desert already had many bandit cultivators, yet despite him and Liu Tianhong having been here for a while, this was their first encounter.

But each of them carried a strong smell of blood and killing intent, evidently they had slain not a few people.

"Big Brother, what are we doing out here so early? Even the corpse-eating lizards on the Gobi haven't gotten up yet."

"Didn't Big Brother say last night? The nine sect cultivators seem to be locked in fierce battle with the demonic path cultivators; we ought to seize this opportunity to make a bit more profit? Let's go early to watch outside the market town; we might run into a fat sheep!"

"Keep your eyes peeled; we only handle the interception and killing, the distribution is still left to them."

"Big... Big Brother, what is that?"

Just as the few were discussing how to act today, one of them suddenly cried out in alarm.

Immediately after.

In their sight, a large swarm of gold-and-red intertwined bees appeared.

"What kind of bees are these?" The leader of the bandit cultivators slapped his storage bag and took out a magical artifact.

He had been active in the Gobi Desert for so long, yet this was his first time seeing such bees.

"My magical artifact!"

As one of them just unleashed his magical artifact, he discovered that as the bee swarm swept past, his magical artifact had vanished without a trace!

"Run! Hurry up!"

The leading rogue cultivator's face changed drastically, and he shouted urgently.

In an instant, the flying vessel's escape speed surged to the extreme as they fled backward.

But just then, the bee swarm also moved.

The bee swarm, covering sky and earth like a cloud that blocked the sun, easily caught up with them.

Under the terrified gazes of several machine cultivators, they were completely engulfed by the swarm before they could even utter a sound.

In less than a few breaths, the swarm dispersed and fell downward.

And amazingly, the several rogue cultivators who had been in the air vanished completely—not only the people, but even the flying vessel left not a scrap behind.

Below.

The swarm of Red-Ring Gold-Spotted Bees burrowed into the spirit insect pouch, leaving only a few somewhat tattered storage bags.

"No wonder the rogue cultivators are so poor."

Yunhe silently muttered a complaint.

Killing a few Qi Condensation rogue cultivators caused no ripple in his heart.

Their flight path was likely to pass right over his head, so he might just get to see them setting up their formation.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, it was simplest just to kill them.

After a moment.

Buzz—

"Done."

Afterwards he cast his final seal, the last banner fell, and the formation emitted a soft buzz—signifying its completion.

He took out several medium-grade Spirit Stones, placed them in the formation device's grooves, then set it on the ground where it slowly merged into the earth.

"This way, even if we encounter a Golden Core cultivator, we can buy ourselves considerable time."

He clapped his hands in satisfaction.

He glanced at the still-howling wind and sand, and a faint light appeared on the eastern horizon.

Suddenly.

The stone toad in his bosom trembled slightly.

He hurriedly took it out to look, and found it was a message from Liu Tianhong; though its content let him relax a little, it was not a plea for help but a notice that she had made a discovery.

Yunhe immediately summoned the Wind-Fire Vessel again and rushed toward the direction.

Since no further searching was needed, his speed was naturally not slow.

Soon after.

He arrived at the depths of a dark canyon.

On some rock faces, even faintly visible were layers of white bones buried deep in the strata, indicating that this place likely once witnessed an earth-shattering battle; otherwise, even natural burial would hardly have interred these remains so deep.

Moreover, on one rock face there was a large cave.

The ground showed clear signs of having been moved, and with a massive stone beside the cave, it was easy to infer that someone had pushed it open.

The cave was pitch black, a cold wind blew out from within, and the interior was utterly dark, with extremely low visibility.

Yunhe paused at the cave entrance, furrowed his brows, took out the stone toad, and cast a seal.

"Senior Sister, I've arrived—where are you?"

Buzz—

Soon the communication stone toad glowed faintly again.

"I'm inside the cave; come in."

Instinctively, Yunhe felt something was off.

Because according to their prior agreement, if they found any clues they were not to act on their own, but now Liu Tianhong was not waiting for him outside the cave.

With that thought, he lightly patted his storage bag.

Several Red-Ring Gold-Spotted Bees flew out, reducing their vibration speed, and silently drifted inside.

And as they entered, Yunhe's divine sense also slowly extended inward.

The cave was deep but not complicated, with few branching paths.

Left with no choice, Yunhe employed the Earth Escape Technique to follow.

After about half an incense stick's time, his divine sense revealed a staircase, and shortly thereafter his "vision" widened, presenting a stone chamber large enough for over twenty zhang before his "eyes".

However, as soon as the Red-Ring Gold-Spotted Bees flew into the stone chamber, Yunhe immediately felt their condition change—their movements became slow and stiff, and their feedback turned intermittent.

"Huh?"

A somewhat hoarse voice tinged with surprise echoed from within the hall.

Upon hearing that voice, Yunhe's heart jolted.

However, now that he was skilled and bold, he did not immediately retreat but continued forward for a while until his divine sense fully encompassed the entire underground stone chamber.

Afterwards.

He then noticed.

In the hall, Liu Tianhong stood there with a dazed expression, holding the communication stone toad, as if waiting for Yunhe's message.

Obviously, Liu Tianhong had fallen into a trap, seemingly temporarily ensnared by illusion or control.

At the same time, Yunhe also sensed two figures.

One was a thin, stooped figure carrying a stone coffin.

And there was a corpse refinery exuding a sinister aura, its body faintly shimmering with a silvery-white hue.

Silver-Armored Corpse!

A cultivator from the Demon Path sect's Corpse Clan?

And at this moment, Hei Mu, who was hiding in the underground stone chamber, was actually somewhat surprised.

He could sense that a divine sense had swept over him, but when he extended his own divine sense to pursue it, he could not lock onto the other's position.

This could only mean one thing: the other's divine sense was stronger than his, and possibly much stronger!

He was at the late Foundation Establishment stage, yet the other's divine sense surpassed his—could it be that the other had reached perfected Foundation Establishment, or perhaps

This made Hei Mu's expression tighten involuntarily.

But upon further thought, the orthodox sects would not send Golden Core cultivators to deal with them, these Foundation Establishment cultivators, so it was likely still a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

"Perhaps it's just that his divine sense is relatively strong."

If the other side truly had the strength, they should have already stormed in?

Moreover, he had already laid down Corpse-transforming Powder in this place; if the other dared to enter, they would inevitably come into contact with it.

By then, anyone contaminated with the Corpse-transforming Powder could possibly be refined into a corpse puppet.

Thinking of this, Hei Mu lightly licked his dry lips, his eyes flashing with excitement.

Even if worst came to worst, he only needed to guard the entrance; waiting for Wu Ying and the Blood Phoenix Pavilion to finish setting up their devices, once they noticed no movement here, they would naturally rush over immediately.

Therefore, all he needed to do was to guard this place well.

But the next second.

He had just let out a breath.

Boom!!

From the stone wall beside him suddenly came a chilling aura, and immediately he saw a bright red sphere, followed by one after another of Bath Fire Li Birds flying out amidst clear chirping sounds.

When did this happen?!

His divine sense had been fully extended without a moment's lapse—how could this cultivator silently approach him without him noticing?

Fortunately, his Silver-armored Corpse reacted quickly even without his control, forcefully kicking off the stone tiles on the ground and rushing straight up to block the surging Li Birds.

But before Hei Mu could act, he suddenly heard a buzzing sound.

Immediately afterward, he saw a water-wreathed bracelet appear in his field of vision.

Water and fire, which should be mutually antagonistic, were somehow forced together at this moment.

"Roar!!!"

The Silver-armored corpse suddenly cried out in pain and roared.

Its prized silver armor actually burst open explosively!

————

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(End of chapter)