Chapter 383: Blindfold Technique

Nirvana fire… Soul-guiding Lamp…

These two things are mutually antagonistic, right?

What to do, what to do?

Although the Nirvana fire below isn't particularly large, if I were to damage the Soul-guiding Lamp, I'd be heartbroken.

Now my only option is to throw the Soul-guiding Lamp out before I completely fall into the Nirvana fire.

As for whose hands it will fall into after being thrown, I can't worry about that anymore.

First, I must keep it safe.

Moreover, the Soul-guiding Lamp also recognizes its master.

It had hung under the west corridor of the pawnshop for many years; Hui Moqiong once said that when he first followed the evil monk into the pawnshop, this Soul-guiding Lamp was already there.

But for all those years, the Soul-guiding Lamp never lit up.

Only after I truly took over the pawnshop did the Soul-guiding Lamp light up and begin to accumulate merit.

Thus I am the master of the Soul-guiding Lamp; ordinary people who obtain it may not necessarily be able to activate its power.

In the blink of an eye, I squeezed blood from my broken fingers, made a sword-finger gesture and pressed it against the lamp chamber, activating the ghostly face on the lamp chamber and shouting loudly: "Take it back!"

At the same time, I exerted force with my hand and flung the Soul-guiding Lamp upward.

The ghostly face raged, indeed carrying the Soul-guiding Lamp continually upward without dropping.

I felt a slight relief in my heart; the next moment, a heat wave surged, and I thought I would directly fall into the Nirvana fire, but instead I stopped a little over a meter above it.

I only felt a certain power suddenly appear around my body, controlling it and letting me hover suspended in midair.

Immediately afterward, the airflow below surged, and a pitch-black mass lifted its head from the Nirvana fire, staring straight at me with its face upturned.

Our eyes met, and my body shuddered violently.

It's it!

It's actually that huge black bird!

It was its sharp, long beak that gouged into my flesh and ripped out my pair of spirit bones!

It was only then that I clearly saw the Nirvana fire below… perhaps it cannot be spoken of in the same breath as the Nirvana fire of Cangwu Mountain.

It erupted from within that black bird's body, actually resembling the flame I shot out when I pulled Feng Wu earlier!

This flame originates from Cangwu Mountain, but due to insufficient concentration, it is far inferior to the power of Nirvana fire.

It stole my spirit bones and has been lurking here all along.

It resides within the 'Luan' Formation; what does it intend to do?

Undoubtedly, it is attempting to fuse with my spirit bones… and even more boldly, it might also seek Nirvana.

At this moment, I have reason to believe that the so-called Taotie Fiendish Formation is actually a blindfold, created for the 'Luan' Formation.

The 'Luan' Formation uses the Taotie Fiendish Formation to continuously devour all surrounding power, accumulate it, and supply it entirely to the 'Luan' Formation, aiding the black bird within it in its cultivation.

Moreover, I broke through the Taotie formation, sensed a connection with my spirit bones, and was drawn by them into the 'Luan' Formation—all of this was beyond the black bird's expectations.

Now, I am facing it directly, with a distance of just over a meter between us.

The 'Luan' Formation repels me, while the spirit bones attract me.

Two utterly opposing forces act upon my body, making me feel extremely uncomfortable, as if my body were about to be torn apart.

The more I struggle, the more evident this tearing force becomes.

After a few seconds, I ceased struggling, closed my eyes, and focused on sensing the attraction between my spirit bones and myself.

When I concentrated all my spirit, my body began to slowly descend.

The spirit bones are pulling me downward!

At that moment, a birdcall suddenly came from below.

That sound was loud and resonant, seeming to come from the depths, trembling everything around.

When I opened my eyes again and looked at it, I saw the black bird had lowered its head, its entire back arched high, and I was astonished to see that it actually had no wings!

No way!

When it first harmed me, it clearly had a pair of large black wings spanning wide, shielding above me, as if covering the whole sky and earth.

But now, the back of that black bird below has no wings.

The wing bases were cleanly cut off by some sharp weapon, leaving only two long scars.

At this moment, as it exerts force, those two long-healed scars actually split open, blood continuously oozing out; beneath its feet, blood mist rises from the soil and gradually condenses into the 'Luan' character totem.

Not long after, I seemed to see fresh buds of flesh sprouting from between the split scars.

I could hear the clamor of bird cries and fighting sounds coming from above my head.

Undoubtedly, this black bird is squeezing the last bit of power from the 'Luan' Formation, continually drawing energy from outside to help it grow new wing feathers.

But why would it cut off its original wings, only to now painstakingly strive to regenerate new ones?

Are its original wings damaged? Crippled?

No, obviously not.

It intends to use my spirit bones to grow new wing feathers—those of a golden phoenix!

It wants to transform into a golden phoenix!

Ha!

Just imagine, if Liu Junyan had not taken up residence in the pawnshop back then, allowing the Taotie Fiendish Formation to swallow the entire Zhu Pan River, Wufu Town, and even vast surrounding lands, absorbing massive energy, then by now this black bird might truly have, through the Taotie Fiendish Formation and the aid of my spirit bones, additionally drawn Chen Ping's half-body Dragon Qi, and successfully transformed into a golden phoenix!

Unfortunately, there are no 'ifs'.

It was first subdued by the pawnshop's Pixiu Formation, and not long ago suffered our heavy blow; it is now at the end of its rope!

Now, it has no choice but to make a final death struggle.

Regardless of whether it succeeds, one thing remains unchanged… it will destroy my spirit bones!

If it succeeds, my spirit bones will completely become its; if it fails, it will also destroy my spirit bones along with it.

I must retrieve my spirit bones as quickly as possible!

But in this situation, what should I do?

The odds of forcibly taking it are minuscule; what I can do seems to be only one thing—if I can't beat it, I'll merge with it.

I summoned the Dark Paulownia Dark Seal, and countless fine roots burst forth, instantly wrapping me into an egg; a large number of roots stretched downward, entwining everything they could, pulling this 'egg' steadily into that mass of flame.

As the roots receded, the moment my feet landed on the black bird's back, the black bird violently struggled, letting out continual shrill cries, and below there was the clanging sound of black iron chains striking.

It turned out that this black bird was actually locked by the black iron chains within the Luan Bird Formation!

That means it is also just a puppet.

I quickly sorted it out in my mind.

Compared to the Gluttony Beast Fierce Formation, the Chaos Beast Formation of Ox-Tiger Mountain is more recent, only a few decades old.

At that time, when we were breaking the Chaos Beast Formation, Liu Junyan said that beneath the Chaos Beast Formation there was another formation pressing down, the Lock Dragon Formation.

I remember asking him specifically at that time, does the Lock Dragon Formation contain a true dragon?

His answer was, there is no true dragon, but rather they are locking a strand of Dragon Qi; they use Dragon Qi together with Liu Junyan's Golden Scale to conceal the killing they have caused.

Now comparing, the formation layout of Ox-Tiger Mountain is remarkably similar to that of Pearl Plate River!

The Chaos Beast Fierce Formation of Ox-Tiger Mountain relies on the effect of Liu Junyan's Golden Scale, while the Gluttony Beast Fierce Formation of Pearl Plate River relies on the effect of my spirit bones… Then what about the remaining two fierce formations? What do they rely on?