Inside Zhaixing Tower, at the exact instant Juju's fireworks flared, the Chief Duyun Emissary—who had been kneeling before the Celestial Book, chanting in silence—suddenly opened his eyes and pointed into midair. "Guards! Reinforce the formation core!"
Footsteps resounded as more than ten guards inside Zhaixing Tower sprang into action immediately. Instead of rushing toward Kaiyang Peak, they bolted toward the room behind the shrine.
The room itself was a formation. All six surfaces were etched with runes. Once someone ran inside and properly triggered the mechanism, the runes blazed to life at once, teleporting them directly into the formation core!
In truth, the incident had erupted so suddenly, accompanied by a blinding skyful of fireworks, that nobody could clearly tell whether the silhouette leaping toward the formation core had made it inside or died in the attempt.
Exceptionally cautious, the Chief Duyun Emissary still dispatched men to teleport into the formation core and inspect it.
Just as the guards were rushing into the teleportation formation one after another, large characters manifested upon the Celestial Book:
*Enemy inside formation core. Intercept and attack!*
Catching sight of this, the Chief Duyun Emissary's heart sank. The celestial god had already confirmed that the enemy was not dead and had successfully breached the formation core.
That meant neither the turbulent currents outside the core nor the defensive formations had stopped him.
Most crucially, the intruder had already pinpointed the core's position and grasped the patterns of its movements; otherwise, he would never have leaped with such resolute decisiveness!
Prepared. The enemy had come fully prepared.
Although layers upon layers of warding restrictions protected the interior of the formation core as well, the Chief Duyun Emissary could not bring himself to feel optimistic right now.
Who knew what other hidden cards this intruder possessed?
When several lamp wardens hurried over, he assigned them to reinforce the formation core as well: "Take the lamp spirits with you!"
"Summon the garrison at the foot of the peak up the mountain to guard Zhaixing Tower!"
"Activate the restrictions on Juju! Quickly!"
With this flurry of orders handed down, the entire Zhaixing Tower bustled with urgent activity.
At that moment, however, the Chief Duyun Emissary hesitated, looking as if he wanted to speak but held back.
The very next second, a line of characters appeared upon the Celestial Book:
*Awaken Chenyuan and Xiaguang!*
Every character was blood-red, striking terror into the heart. Clearly, even the celestial god deemed this a dire emergency.
*As expected, the celestial god wants to deploy Chenyuan as well?* That alone showed how grave the situation was. Startled, the Chief Duyun Emissary hastened off to see to it.
Waking Chenyuan alone required several preparatory procedures.
If foreign enemies invaded, Lingxu City had no shortage of reliances to fall back on. After all, the last time the great demon Chifeng had infiltrated Mount Xu, it had tangled with the Heavenly Palace for over four whole shichen before numerous mighty figures from Lingxu City arrived one after another, easily settling the matter.
Yet this time, from the moment the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation came under attack until now, merely a few breaths of time had passed!
Merely a few breaths! In the span of a few sneezes, the enemy had already penetrated the formation core.
Even with thousands of ingenious methods at its disposal, the Heavenly Palace simply had no time to employ them.
How on earth did he get in? Truly, an utterly bizarre thing had occurred today!
By now, Juju had also arrived in response to the bell toll, rearing its colossal body up from the magma pool.
Bai Ziqi had already reached Zhaixing Tower. Rushing out onto the overhanging gallery, he was positioned perfectly to look down upon it:
"Who was it that leaped into the formation core?!"
Juju scratched its head. "I don't know what you're talking about."
This was lying through its teeth. To tell the truth, the moment Bai Ziqi had seen it launching fireballs into the sky, he had understood everything. Treacherous, ungrateful wretch!
"Where are his accomplices?" Infiltrating Mount Xu and sabotaging the formation core was an enormous undertaking, by no means something one person could accomplish alone. Bai Ziqi warned the mountain spirit, "Your betrayal of the Heavenly Palace will certainly meet with severe punishment. As long as you turn back from your error now and confess who the enemy is, I can still put in a good word for you before the celestial god."
"I haven't seen his accomplices." Juju grinned widely. "Who knows? Maybe they're already inside the core?"
The Chief Duyun Emissary hurried over from behind. Hearing this, he rushed into the shrine, thrust his long staff into the sand table, and gave it a few stirs.
This sand table occupied an entire long table by itself, effectively serving as a three-dimensional miniature map of all Mount Xu. Even the formation core, now that its cloaking ability had been removed, was displayed on the sand table in real time.
It could be said that whatever happened on Mount Xu in reality was fully reflected within the sand table. Even a miniature Juju had appeared inside the sand table, standing right before Zhaixing Tower.
In truth, this treasure possessed another name: the "Splendid Picture of Mountains and Rivers," an immortal sect magic artifact left behind by the Dahuan Sect. Using it as the foundational nexus of the entire Spirit Gathering Grand Formation had been a suggestion proposed personally by Holy Venerable Lingxu.
It was also part of the grand formation itself, or more accurately, its command platform.
Through this "Mountains and Rivers Map," Zhaixing Tower could exercise real-time control over the entire grand formation.
The Duyun Emissary magnified a section on the sand table, allowing everyone to clearly see that there was indeed someone inside the core—a living, kicking human being!
But there was only one, and he was wearing a mask.
Trying to sabotage the grand formation with just one person? It was truly preposterous.
Back when the great demon Chifeng broke into Mount Xu, it had accomplices as well.
No, that wasn't right. The current intruder had an accomplice too: Juju!
The Chief Duyun Emissary did not know what method the intruder had used to persuade the cunning Juju, but now was hardly the time to ponder such things. He raised his long staff, thrust it directly into the bottom of the magma pool within the Mountains and Rivers Map, and jabbed forcefully twice.
This was punishment for Juju defying the Heavenly Palace.
Writhing in agony within the magma pool, Juju roared repeatedly, "Stop! Stop!"
Twice it involuntarily struck the natural bridge before the tower, but the bridge surface shimmered with light, turning back all of its force.
As long as the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation endured, Juju could not damage the structures or terrain of Mount Xu, nor could it harm anyone from the Heavenly Palace.
It glared toward Zhaixing Tower, fire spouting from its eyes.
Literally spitting fire.
The Chief Duyun Emissary did not miss the venom in its eyes either. Ungrateful creature. Lingxu City had made offerings to it for centuries, yet failed to earn even a shred of its loyalty.
Truly an ungrateful wolf.
"I'll ask you one more time: how do these people plan to sabotage Mount Xu?!" the Chief Duyun Emissary roared in fury. "Confess now, or I will lock you inside the magma pool, forbidden from taking a single step outside for ten years!"
The magma pool looked vast, but that was only from a human perspective. To Juju, it was merely a bathtub.
Being trapped in a bathtub for the next ten years would be far more miserable than rotting in prison.
Agony unbearable, Juju hastily pleaded for mercy: "Fine, fine! I'll talk, I'll talk!"
It rose again from the magma pool and slowly edged closer.
"Not good!" Bai Ziqi suddenly shouted at that moment. "Something's happening in the formation core!"
He had always been exceptionally composed, rarely losing his composure like this.
The Duyun Emissary looked down at the Mountains and Rivers Map, only to see something completely beyond imagination. "This..."
***
As the turbulent currents faded, He Lingchuan held the Wind-Fixing Pearl tightly in one hand while pinching a seal with the other, his mind still as water.
At the very fraction of a second before impacting the defensive array, Sacrifice the Plum to Preserve the Peach activated right on time.
He and the ghost shadow cicada slough that had fallen into the formation core swapped places.
This step had been perilously close; had his calculations been off by even the slightest fraction, he would be charred cinders right now.
Yet throughout the entire process, He Lingchuan's heart had remained like an ancient well, his mind lucid and serene.
The greater the danger, the calmer he grew;
The greater the danger, the better he performed.
Phase two of the infiltration plan: accomplished!
He Lingchuan tumbled upon landing and sprang to his feet. This was already inside the formation core, an environment completely different from the outside world. Even though Juju had described it beforehand, his first glimpse upon entering the formation still filled him with astonishment.
It wasn't overly complex; rather, it was extraordinarily simple.
The formation core was shaped like Saturn: a gigantic sphere in the center, encircled completely by a wide planetary ring.
Crafted entirely from colorless glaze, it was completely transparent from inside out, without a speck of impurity.
Aside from that, there was nothing else. The planetary ring was utterly barren, devoid of even a single piece of clutter.
A formation of such minimalist design truly did not look like a product of this realm. Over a decade had passed; had the Heavenly Palace never added anything onto it?
At this moment, He Lingchuan stood on this very ring.
And right in front of him, dead center in the giant sphere, was one of his objectives for this journey: Zhu Erniang's—demon immortal shed husk!
Yes. As he looked up, his eyes met the gaze of that magnificent shed husk, standing four zhang tall.
It stood there quietly, lifelike as though still alive.
The last time he had seen it seemed to have been in the subterranean cave of the Ghost Needle Stone Forest within the Panlong world.
A peculiar light source was installed inside the sphere, surprisingly able to shine right through the spider husk's thick abdomen, casting light directly upon the star chart on its belly!
Consequently, this star chart projected outward, hovering in midair like a slide projection, magnified several times over.
The dark clouds in the sky had parted at some unknown point. Now, there were two star charts in the night sky: one inside the formation core, and one across the nocturnal firmament.
The stars in both star charts were identical, flickering in unison.
At a glance, a sudden realization dawned in He Lingchuan's mind.
*So that's how it is.*
Through the chart on the spider immortal's husk, the Heavenly Palace had effectively shaped the stars above and the grand formation below into a symmetrical mirror.
The Big Dipper Nine Peaks formation core on the ground was an exact mirrored replica of the ten Big Dipper stars in the heavens—simply put, it was as if the Big Dipper constellation were gazing into a mirror.
By constantly shifting the position and angle of the formation core, the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation could achieve complete synchrony with the stars in the heavens.
What it sought to achieve was the synergy of heaven and earth united in force, which alone could continuously draw in spiritual energy for the capital city's use.
Furthermore, the spider demon husk was completely secured inside the sphere by eight colossal glaze pillars.
These glaze pillars had likely been melted and wrapped around its eight legs, then fused securely to the interior of the sphere. No matter how the sphere tumbled or rotated, the shed husk and the projected star chart remained rock-steady.
Now, what He Lingchuan needed to do was extract the shed husk.
From the looks of it, as long as the husk was removed from the sphere, the formation would lose the power to harmonize heaven and earth, automatically collapsing.
It sounded simple enough.
At this point, He Lingchuan also heard the tolling of the bell from afar.
In the dead of night, Zhaixing Tower would not ring its bells without cause. It could only be that the commotion he and Juju made had alerted the enemy.
After creating such an enormous disturbance, it would be strange if they *hadn't* been alerted.
In other words, guards would arrive at any moment. Time was of the essence.
The little spider had been screeching continuously against his chest, urging that they were too far from the husk—closer, get closer!
Seeing its most prized treasure right ahead, it could no longer keep its cool either.
He Lingchuan deployed the Returning Swallow movement technique, but after darting forward barely two steps, the ground beneath his feet turned soft, his boots mired as if sinking into a bog, utterly unable to pull free.
Looking down, he saw that the previously solid glaze ground had liquefied into a molten solution, thicker than water and radiating terrifying heat. Other tiny debris resting on the ring hissed with a puff of white smoke and vaporized before his eyes.
With a foreign intruder present, yet another layer of defensive formations within the core had triggered automatically.
However, wearing the divine bone necklace, he remained unharmed.
At that moment, transparent beasts began emerging one after another from the ring: some possessed large heads and fins like sharks, while others resembled giant morays, their maws lined with razor-sharp fangs.
The ring seemed to have transformed into an ocean of colored glaze, and they were the predators swimming within it, closing in with ferocious momentum.
And He Lingchuan? The prey.
Chapter 684