Chapter 256: Three Link Divine Array

On the summit of the small hill, amidst the chaotic rocks, Wu Tie gazed toward the direction of Three Link City.

His eyes blazed with light; although hundreds of miles away, he could clearly see the great battle unfolding above Three Link City.

As for Jin Man Cang…

This guy's eyes had turned into two tiny black‑and‑white vortices, with strange light constantly shooting out from the cores of the vortices; distance seemed to have no effect on him.

Wu Tie glanced at him with the corner of his eye.

An unfortunate fellow—a cultivator thug he had hired, cornered in an alley and interrogated; a companion traveling with him had been slaughtered and unable to resist—a 'low‑level' cultivator… you say he possesses such powerful pupil technique divine ability?

Heh heh!

A golden‑clad figure rode atop a wavering great peacock phantom and struck down again at Lin Dong with a staff.

Lin Dong let out a low growl, spraying cold light and Cold Qi from his whole body, and his long sword met the fiery staff smashing down from above head‑on.

Another thunderous boom; the ice layer several feet thick on the surrounding ground exploded violently, ice shards sprayed outward, and the ice within a hundred‑mile radius was swept clean by the aftershocks.

Lin Dong's body shuddered, then he was driven down another hundred or so meters by the staff's blow.

Inside Three Link City, another earth‑shaking cheer rose; the disciples of the Twelve Executor Families all flushed red, each excited beyond control.

"Too bad." Wu Tie's mind suddenly flashed with a record about the Great Peacock Bright King Sutra and the Twelve Forms Sutra.

Hua Yan's soul was crushed and exploded by the Ancestral Spirit Nüwa; part of his soul power became Wu Tie's spoils, and his memories and experience concerning those two cultivation classics also became Wu Tie's.

The Great Peacock Bright King Sutra is primary, the Twelve Forms Sutra secondary; these are two bloodline scriptures, usable only by those who possess a specific bloodline.

If the two scriptures form the complete 'Peacock Bright King Twelve Forms God‑Slaying Spirit Array', the great peacock beneath the golden figure should be substantive, its myriad tail feathers spread like a rainbow waterfall, dazzling and gorgeous, while billions of peacock eyes shock the soul and freeze the eight directions of void.

That peacock is the core of the twelve extraordinary powers of the Twelve Executor Families, the hub of the whole grand array; only the great peacock transformed by the Great Peacock Bright King Sutra can make the entire array function as one.

Without that great peacock, the array is incomplete, and mighty destructive divine abilities such as the 'Great Peacock Extinction Divine Light' cannot be unleashed at all.

The great array formed by the ancestors of the Twelve Executor Families looks immensely powerful, yet the golden figure gives an impression of overwhelming momentum that is merely superficial—too insubstantial, not sufficiently condensed.

Another boom; the golden figure's arm flicked, a curved blade spewing red‑red flames slashed down heavily.

Lin Dong was again cleaved, falling from the sky a hundred or more meters, his body spraying Cold Qi and cold light, and a thick layer of ice was reapplied on the ground.

"Demons and heretics, surrender quickly, or…" an elder of the Phoenix Clan shouted angrily.

"What is your origin, and what is your relation to that ice flood?" an elder of the Bodhi Clan pointed at Cang You, then at Lin Dong.

"Enough, stop wasting words—first inflict heavy injury, then capture alive." an elder of the Celestial Dragon Clan roared with fury; his brother had just been slain, weakening the family's strength was tolerable, but the point was, the Celestial Dragon Clan's face had been completely lost.

That lost face must be reclaimed from Lin Dong.

The golden figure descended from the sky, twelve weapons raining down like hail to slash at Lin Dong.

Lin Dong emitted a low, weird laugh; his chest suddenly split open, at the core of his cold‑light human form a fist‑sized, multifaceted, deep‑blue crystal spun rapidly, continuously spewing terrifying Cold Qi.

A strange sound.

An ice stream surged forth from Lin Dong's chest.

A glacier hundreds of zhang wide roared forth, a great wave rolled and swept the golden figure into it.

Heaven and earth turned bitterly cold; all things froze, as the glacier appeared, the trend of Three Link City within a three‑thousand‑li radius was instantly sealed by meters of deep‑blue ice; pale‑blue ice crystals drifted down everywhere, and the temperature in the air plummeted in a straight line.

Above Three Link City, several elders of the Phoenix Clan exerted all their power to release Phoenix True Fire; drifting ice crystals fell, the flames on their bodies dimmed point by point, Cold Qi continually invaded their bodies, freezing them until their faces turned bluish‑white, with ice crystals appearing on their eyebrows and hair.

The golden figure tumbled, struggled, roared, and bellowed within the glacier.

The great peacock phantom beneath him shattered explosively; the faint force that had maintained the twelve extraordinary energies and fused them into one vanished, and twelve streams of light shot out from the golden figure, rushing back into the bodies of the various elders.

The golden figure exploded, the earth violently trembled; several small mountain ranges near Three Link City boomed, their peaks shattered by an invisible shockwave, and dust filled the sky.

Over a hundred Fetal Storage Realm elders spurted blood simultaneously.

The blood they spat out mixed with blue ice shards; Cold Qi had already, at the instant the spirit array collapsed, entered their bodies along with the returning magical power.

A few elders who had just entered the Fetal Storage Realm trembled violently all over.

They could not resist the rapid spread of Cold Qi within their bodies; looking on, thin layers of ice began to appear on their arms and calves.

Lin Dong's armor re‑closed; he stepped on cold light and rose slowly into the high sky, looking down from above at the dozens of elders whose faces had turned ashen: "Mortals, you do not comprehend the greatness of the divine race… not even you of the present age, let alone…"

An extremely sharp, extremely high‑pitched, extremely high‑frequency whine rang out from a small seven‑colored crystal on Lin Dong's face mask.

That sound seemed to be scolding Lin Dong; his body stiffened slightly, then he gave a low chuckle: "Oh, this is a violation; many things, you mortals have no right to know."

"No power left to resist? Despairing? Then good—who can tell me, who… killed Lady You Jieya? No, her name here is Xuan Zhu… who killed Lady Xuan Zhu?"

Shaking his head, Lin Dong muttered indistinctly: "Sorry, I'm not good at your mortals' lowly language… not that I killed Lady Xuan Zhu, but who killed her incarnation?"

In the high sky, an elder of the Bliss Bird Clan suddenly fell from the air.

His whole body was covered in ice, ice crystals spraying from his seven orifices; behind him trailed threads of light mist, a huge bird with extraordinarily long tail feathers and breathtaking beauty angrily flapped its wings, emitting a supremely beautiful, melodious cry.

Cracks continually split open on the ice, yet ice crystals kept spraying out and the ice kept re‑healing.

The Bliss Bird Clan elder crashed heavily to the ground; his fellow clansmen and several other elders also had ice appear on their bodies, yet no one managed to rescue him in time.

Cang You, hanging halfway up the pyramid, lifted his head to the sky and let out a long, joyous howl: "Who… who dares to attack the venerable Lady Xuan Zhu? Come forward, confess voluntarily… you damned wretches, why can't I recall what just happened?"

From the moment the Ancestral Spirit Nüwa acted, from Wu Tie's escape, to You Jieya's request for a tactical strike, only a few short hours had passed.

Yet everyone in Three Link City had lost that segment of memory from the Twelve Heavenly Palaces.

They could not recall what had happened inside the Twelve Heavenly Palaces.

Hua Yan died, Xuan Zhu died—but who killed them?

Inside Three Link City, the whole city remained silent; many were so frightened their legs trembled, they actually wanted to confess, but they truly had forgotten everything, and even if they wanted to confess they didn't know what to say.

The elders of the Twelve Executor Families silently circulated their power, using divine abilities to resist the terrible cold within their bodies.

But the Cold Qi released by Lin Dong was horrifyingly abnormal; it incessantly eroded each of their cells, and in fact it was also eroding their souls.

Their magical power seemed like a frozen great river, gradually losing its vitality.

Lin Dong hovered in mid‑air, Cold Qi pouring from his whole body, coldly and mercilessly gazing at Three Link City and at everyone inside it.

He silently hovered there, saying nothing, as if waiting for the people of Three Link City to speak first.

"Thud"!

An elder of the Udumbara clan could not withstand the piercing cold inside his body; his whole body was also covered in ice, heavy as a stone, falling from high altitude.

Then another, another, and another…

The Tai Cang realm elders of the Twelve Executor Clans fell from the sky one after another.

The atmosphere in Three Link City became extremely eerie, extremely killing, as if everyone were prisoners awaiting execution on the guillotine, faces deathly pale, cold sweat continuously seeping from their bodies, then quickly forming ice scabs on their skin.

Hua Yuan, who had just taken the position of clan leader, suddenly screamed hysterically: "Activate the Three Link Divine Formation…… I propose, activate the Three Link Divine Formation!"

Hua Yuan hastily threw out a seal the size of a fist.

Mu Long roared: "Seconded!"

He also threw out a seal of the same size, only with a different surface pattern.

"Seconded!"

"Seconded!"

"Seconded!"

Clan leaders shouted one after another, as if to vent their inner fear with their loud roars.

The pressure Lin Dong brought upon them was too great, too terrifying.

Terrifying to the point that these usually high-and-mighty clan leaders were like flowers grown in a warm greenhouse suddenly encountering a cold snap; from body to spirit, they were completely cowed.

The twelve seals hung high in the air, simultaneously emitting dazzling light.

The seals whistled, rapidly expanding; in the snap of a finger they expanded to several zhang in size, then swiftly fell toward the four sides of the pyramid.

Twelve streams of light swiftly landed, sinking deep into the rock strata.

The towering pyramid's surface spewed forth strands of strange flowing light; the stone cavern within a radius of three thousand li trembled slightly. In the extreme distance, the twelve light pillars jetting from the twelve mountain peaks became increasingly blazing and dazzling.

In the sound of clang‑clang.

The twelve light pillars rapidly spread outward; twelve strange‑shaped four‑wheel war chariots, pulled by flaming majestic lions stepping on lotuses, condensed from the light pillars. These war chariots spewed blazing splendid light all over, each chariot fixed with a heavy bed crossbow.

The twelve bed crossbows were splendid in shape, their limbs formed from two intertwining flood dragons, radiating dazzling golden light over their entire bodies.

The huge stone cavern trembled slightly, massive golden patterns appearing on the ground; the thick ice layer melted and evaporated, filling the cavern with vast amounts of steam.

Lin Dong let out a low growl: "Danger level…… Black Nine Stars? No, no, far beyond Black Nine Stars……"

"Attention, attention, strike target here, suspected to be……"

Before Lin Dong finished his muttering, the twelve heavy bed crossbows simultaneously emitted a dull roar; dazzling golden arrows tore through the air, turning into streams of light that precisely struck Lin Dong.

The void was filled with intense, blinding light.

The tremendous sound shattered the eardrums of ninety percent of the people in Three Link City; blood spurted from their ears, the corners of their eyes were torn by the roar, and some had their alveoli shattered, continuously spitting out mouthfuls of blood.

Yet these people disregarded their bodily pain, madly and hysterically widening their eyes to gaze at the resplendent, blazing sky.

Even though the strong light almost blinded their eyes, they remained frenzied, waving their arms and kicking their legs.

This is the Three Link Divine Formation, the ultimate defensive measure of Three Link City.

Although, without the control of the Great Peacock King Clan, the Twelve Executor Clans could only activate the outermost restriction, yet how terrifying and magnificent its power is!

A terrifying roar came from the void.

The golden arrows turned into streams of light, piercing the air and exploding into individual vacuum holes.

The arrows heavily struck Lin Dong; his body swayed slightly, large ice crystals splashing onto his deep‑blue crystal‑stone armor, the arrows leaving fine traces on his armor, which, as countless arrows piled on, gradually widened and deepened……

Lin Dong let out a low growl, rays of cold light spewing from various parts of his body, turning into ice spears and golden arrows that struck with sudden force.

Golden and blue light burst in the air, emitting a tremendous roar that made the ground tremble violently.

The twelve light pillars propped up the entire stone cavern, the immense restriction power maintaining the cavern's stability.

From the extreme depths underground came an incomparably terrifying power fluctuation.

That feeling was like an ant standing on the nest of an earth dragon; if the earth dragon merely twitched, it could crush the ant to powder.

Compared to that immense underground power, Wu Tie is an ant, Jin Man Cang is an ant, everyone in Three Link City is an ant, the ancestors of the Twelve Executor Clans are ants…… even Lin Dong, because of the emergence of this power fluctuation, the cold light within him becomes unsettled.

"The power of Three Link City!" Jin Man Cang growled low beside Wu Tie: "This is the true power of Three Link City…… Within Three Link City lie endless treasures, endless primordial secrets…… transcending to sage, transcending life and death……"

Wu Tie clenched his fists tightly.

He stared fixedly at Lin Dong, who opposed the entire Three Link City's restriction with his own strength.

"What a pity, these fellows can only control Three Link City's outer restriction; otherwise they could kill Lin Dong…… but now it seems impossible."