Shattered Formations

The corners of Li Guanqi's mouth curved slightly upward. Ye Feng was still the same Old Second Ye who always put people at ease... Li Guanqi tightened his grip on his sword, his gaze solemn as he watched Lu Tian, around whom demonic qi surged. A cold sneer tugged at Lu Tian's lips. Raising his head toward the heavens, he murmured, "So be it, then... I have to leave anyway." The moment the words fell, before Li Guanqi could fathom their meaning— Lu Tian's body began to swell at an alarming speed, growing towering and colossal. His muscular physique burst through his robes, and bizarre black patterns spread across every inch of his skin! Li Guanqi stared blankly at the sight... "These patterns... look somewhat like the ones on Zhuang Yan!" "Is this the Heavenly Demon Physique?" BOOM! The moment those pitch-black, mysterious patterns covered his entire body, a horrifying, boundless pressure erupted from Lu Tian! Surging demonic flames raged wildly, as if bent on destroying heaven and earth. Demonic qi billowed, rotting all the space in its path! That decay... was as if the surrounding space had lost its vitality, or as though its very life force had been plundered, draining it of all color. The surrounding space faded into an ashen white. The withered void would crumble at the slightest touch, just like the ashes of burned paper. Leave it untouched, and it remained intact; disturb it even slightly, and it would disintegrate into nothingness. The terrifying pressure crashed down toward Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu in an instant. Both of their expressions grew solemn to the extreme. Back to back, they combined their strength to resist, yet it was like mayflies shaking a tree, or a mantis trying to stop a chariot! In virtually a split second, that horrific pressure crushed their auras! Towering high, Lu Tian looked down with aloof arrogance, his deep eyes filled with disdain as he gazed at the two. At the same time, Lu Tian's gaze flickered with an inscrutable light as he fixed his eyes on Li Guanqi. He murmured inwardly, *Could it be you?* *If it really is you... I'm afraid you'll have to play your trump card this time if you hope to survive in my hands!* BOOM! Li Guanqi frowned deeply. Without the slightest hesitation, as the primal energy roared within him, he instantly drove his cultivation method, Divine Punishment, to its third layer—the Deep Resonance Realm! The technique's boost to his power reached a staggering eighty percent! BOOM! Li Guanqi's aura instantly surged to the peak of the mid Mahayana realm. Although his realm had not changed, the strength wielded by Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu was not the least bit inferior to any cultivator in the late Mahayana realm. In fact, it could even be said... They were only a hair's breadth away from the strength of the Eight Generals. If Ye Feng could destroy the two grand formations, their prowess would undoubtedly rival the lowest-ranked of the Eight Generals! "Old Second Ye! Put some back into it!" Li Guanqi's roar echoed across the sky as the sounds of formations cracking rang out incessantly below. With eyes wide in fury and demonic qi surging sky-high, Ye Feng's eyes nonetheless remained lucid. Anxious desperation flashing in his gaze, he bellowed back, "I'm giving it everything I've got!" "Give me a little more time!" As he spoke, the demonic qi around Ye Feng intensified even further. The sword light in his hand expanded to a full hundred zhang as he slashed wildly at the formations below. By now, nearly a fifth of the grand array had been destroyed, yet he still hadn't located the formation cores. The suppressive power of the formations lingered, the fluorescent glow wrapping around Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu's bodies like chains. Without destroying the formation cores, the recovery rate of the grand arrays was terrifyingly swift. Furthermore, within this branch hall at Xiantu Cliff, demonic qi was exceptionally dense, replenishing the formations at high speed. Cold sweat seeped from Ye Feng's forehead. He knew that the longer this dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would be for them. His eyes darted back and forth while his divine sense surged forth overwhelmingly, trying to locate the formation cores. Yet the cores of these two formations were concealed so deeply that even after so much time, he hadn't detected the slightest anomaly. Li Guanqi's eyes flickered, having clearly realized Ye Feng's predicament. Perhaps Lu Tian was exceedingly confident in his formation mastery; after all, he and Youming were twin souls. The Dao of formations that Youming cultivated was something he knew as well. The only reason he had never displayed it before was for fear of arousing Li Guanqi's suspicions! After all, Youming still needed to keep his identity hidden among the Eight Generals. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to clear Youming of suspicion. Lu Tian sneered, "If you could find the core so easily, wouldn't my study of the Dao of formations have been in vain?" Meng Wanshu's solemn voice sounded beside Li Guanqi's ear. "I can't find it either. It's too well hidden." Li Guanqi's eyes narrowed slightly. He exhaled a breath of stale air, his gaze flickering. Looking up at Lu Tian, who radiated immense pressure not far away, he said coldly, "Sha, what is your true goal?" "Or should I ask... ever since you breached the third layer of Purgatory Abyss, laying out schemes across the Six Domains and unleashing the Abyss Demons to slaughter all living beings—what was it all for?" As Li Guanqi spoke, he utilized his Ethereal Dao Physique to resonate with heaven and earth. In an instant, every minute detail and hidden thing across the realm unfolded before his vision. Wherever his thought reached, his perception spanned a hundred li! Soon, Li Guanqi spotted two specks of spiritual light—one purple, one blue—darting erratically through the formations! These two points of light did not move in an orderly manner; rather, they rapidly shifted positions in chaotic patterns along the formations' glowing runes. No wonder Ye Feng couldn't find them and had been wasting his efforts all this time. Lu Tian tilted his head slightly toward Li Guanqi, murmuring with an enigmatic look, "Because you are simply too conspicuous..." "Neither the Eight Generals nor their reserves are as dazzling as you." "If they are fireflies in the dark night, you are a blinding torch!" "As for the reason... you should know." That final sentence was entirely Lu Tian bluffing Li Guanqi. In truth, not even Lu Tian knew what the figure above was actually searching for. That person had merely said they were looking for a sword, yet from beginning to end, Li Guanqi had possessed only Red Lotus. It was merely a longsword imbued with divinity. Lu Tian couldn't understand why the person above cared so deeply about it. After observing for so many years, he had merely felt that Li Guanqi broke through in strength comparatively fast. Such figures had certainly existed over the course of ten thousand years; some had even possessed greater talent than Li Guanqi. Yet a Thunder Master... he was the only one! Including... the Frost Master! Lu Tian's eyes flickered. By all reason, the Human Spirit Realm shouldn't have produced a Frost Master and a Thunder Master. Meng Wanshu had originally possessed a Saint Grade spiritual root; that she became the Frost Master after receiving Bingqi's legacy was something he could understand. Yet Li Guanqi... to this day, Lu Tian still didn't understand how he could have become the Thunder Master. Just what kind of unfathomable stroke of fortune could have allowed Li Guanqi to break through and become the Thunder Master? During the conversation, Li Guanqi's divine sense crept silently onto Ye Feng. In an instant, Ye Feng's pupils constricted—he clearly captured the location of the formation cores in his sight! The moment Ye Feng's gaze swept over, Lu Tian snapped to alert realization, but it was already too late to shift the cores' positions again. Ye Feng narrowed his eyes and, without hesitation, slashed out two terrifyingly ferocious sword lights with the blade in his hand! "Nu Sha: Heavenly Demon Slash!" BOOM! BOOM! Lu Tian roared in fury, "Li Guanqi! You were stalling for time!" CRACK-BOOM! The terrifying sword lights struck the two specks of spiritual light in an instant. In a breath, the colossal array radiance that covered a hundred li across the entire domain shattered with a tremendous crash. Ye Feng panted heavily, his face slightly pale from the immense drain on his primal energy. The pressure weighing on Li Guanqi and Meng Wanshu vanished abruptly! The aura around the pair surged once more, faintly seizing their own small world out from under Lu Tian's overwhelming pressure! Li Guanqi raised his sword and sneered, "Fool." Lu Tian's gaze grew cold, yet immediately afterward, his expression settled into an eerie calm.