After finishing all this, Li Fan was pale and panting for breath.
"Fellow Daoists, please lure these beasts near the formations I have laid out," Li Fan transmitted with his divine sense.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator named Huan Sui nodded. "Thank you for your hard work, Fellow Daoist. Leave the rest to us."
As was widely known, the Dao of Formations was arduous and obscure, requiring immense amounts of time to study. It was perfectly reasonable that someone with high formation mastery might be somewhat weaker in actual combat. Besides, they had never expected this outside helper to do much in the first place; for him to set up so many remarkable formations all at once was already an unexpected pleasant surprise.
Huan Sui produced a small drum and struck it forcefully.
A roar akin to that of an ancient vicious beast erupted from the drum, propagating in all directions.
Across Wanlai Island, the headless abnormal beasts lounging lazily on the ground all rose abruptly and turned toward Li Fan and the others.
Then, thumping their chests in apparent excitement, they surged forward like a raging tide, scrambling over one another.
Standing by the formations, Huan Sui and his four companions remained calm and composed in the face of the encroaching horde of abnormal beasts.
Their Foundation Establishment wonders manifested simultaneously—five swords of distinct shapes.
Sword lights intertwined, seeming to form a kind of sword formation.
Any beast that stepped inside was instantly annihilated by the sword light.
Under the scorching breath of the fire dragon conjured by the Heavenly Spirit Fire Dragon Formation, they were reduced to ashes.
The drumbeats sounded ceaselessly like a death knell, drawing the beasts to rush in waves to their doom.
Meanwhile, the five members of the Tianbian Squad operated like a meat grinder, ruthlessly and efficiently harvesting their lives.
Gradually, the slaughter of so many beasts stirred unease among the horde.
They began to fight back.
"Roar!"
The headless beasts thumped their chests in unison and opened their gaping maws, releasing an earth-shattering roar together.
Invisibly coalescing sound waves converged above Wanlai Island, condensing into the nearly solid phantom of a fist.
In an instant, the red phantom fist blasted toward the five cultivators' sword formation.
*Bang!*
Huan Sui and the other four spat out a mouthful of blood simultaneously, their faces filled with shock.
The five swords trembled slightly, throwing the sword formation into disarray.
Instantly, numerous red-furred beasts seized the opening to breach the perimeter and charge right in front of the five.
Though they were swiftly butchered, the five no longer looked as relaxed as before.
Seeing this, Li Fan knew he couldn't slack off too egregiously.
With a solemn expression, he retrieved several beast bones from his storage ring and set up another formation.
This time, just as the fist phantom formed from the red-furred beasts' howling was about to take shape, harsh, grating sounds of metal scraping together suddenly rang out, intermingling with their cries.
Like mud polluting pure water, the sound became chaotic and turbid.
Diluted by these dissonant noises, the fist phantom formed of the red-furred beasts' roars grew hazy, its power drastically reduced.
The five easily deflected it with their sword formation.
Huan Sui and the others looked delighted. "Fine methods, Fellow Daoist!"
Li Fan merely waved his hand, looking pale and thoroughly exhausted, as if he could barely hold on.
The scales of victory tilted back toward the Tianbian Squad.
Hundreds upon thousands of headless beasts were slaughtered one after another.
Yet their numbers were simply too great.
Compared to the total horde of red-furred beasts across the island, the amount the Tianbian Squad had slain was a mere drop in the ocean.
Perhaps if things simply continued like this, with the Spirit Gathering Formation replenishing their spiritual energy, they could eventually complete the mission given enough time.
However, after nearly half a day, once their fallen kin reached a certain order of magnitude and the red-furred beasts realized their roaring fist was ineffective, they ceased their howling.
Even their fearless charges came to a halt.
Huan Sui, bewildered by this development, struck the small drum repeatedly in an attempt to draw the beasts' attention once more.
Yet the drumbeats, which had previously held an irresistible allure, were now completely ineffective.
*Thump!*
*Thump!*
*Thump!*
They halted their attacks and began rhythmically beating their chests in unison.
The sound grew louder and louder as it resonated and echoed across the island.
Li Fan sensed that something was amiss. Though he promptly activated the previously laid Entangled Murky Water Formation, its cacophony could do little in the face of this magnificent chorus.
Fortunately, Jiang Zhengji and Du Xingchang, who had been watching from above, finally ceased standing idly by.
Goose-feather snowflakes once again began drifting through the heavens and earth.
The rustling snowflakes absorbed the intensity of the resonating sound, dulling it considerably.
A gust of wind swept across.
Even as it whipped up mounds of snow, it blew down petals from the crimson plum blossoms that bloomed in radiant defiance against the blizzard.
Dancing with the wind like deadly blades, the petals quietly claimed the life of every beast they drifted past.
It was evident that against two mid-Golden Core cultivators joining forces, these red-furred beasts—possessing only Foundation Establishment strength and acting purely on instinct—stood virtually no chance.
Yet Jiang Zhengji and Du Xingchang seemed content to exercise restraint.
Instead of slaughtering them wholesale, they merely dampened the power of the beasts' resonant harmony without fully stopping its culmination.
Thus, amidst the increasingly rapid and booming thuds, the phantom of a colossal red-furred beast slowly coalesced.
The faint aura of oppression emanating from the phantom was only slightly weaker than Jiang Zhengji's.
"Golden Core stage!"
Li Fan and the five members of the Tianbian Squad grew solemn.
Though it seemed somewhat weaker than a genuine Golden Core cultivator, it definitely far exceeded the bounds of Foundation Establishment.
However, once the Golden Core behemoth manifested, it did not rush to attack Li Fan and the others.
Instead, it scooped up its kin from the ground with a massive hand, stuffed them into its maw, and began chewing voraciously.
Far from being terrified at the sight of their kind being devoured, the countless red-furred beasts across Wanlai Island let out excited, bizarre shrieks.
The Golden Core beast showed no mercy, gorging itself on its weaker brethren one after another.
Gradually, its phantom began to solidify.
It seemed that as it devoured more of its kind, it could actually transition from an illusion into physical reality!
Jiang Zhengji and Du Xingchang stood with arms crossed, their expressions cold as they calmly watched events unfold.
Huan Sui, however, grew anxious. "If that behemoth turns from illusion into reality and attains power comparable to a true Golden Core cultivator, even if the five of us fight to the death together, we won't stand a chance!"
Another member chimed in, "He's right, we can't wait any longer!"
Li Fan nodded as well. "I can lay down one final formation—the Last Stand Formation—to lend you all a helping hand!"
He then withdrew array materials from his storage ring.
Within moments, the Last Stand Formation was complete.
The aura of the Tianbian Squad's five members surged dramatically.
"The formation will only last for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea," Li Fan said weakly, his face as pale as paper, looking thoroughly drained mentally.
The five exchanged glances and nodded.
"If we can't defeat that behemoth, even if we escape with our lives, we'll lose our chance at promotion."
"There's no retreat—we must fight!"
"Kill!"
With resolute expressions, relying on one another like a single sharp blade, they thrust fiercely toward the Golden Core behemoth.
Chapter 185