Fortunately, Zhu Erniang's demon immortal body shielded him firmly, and fortunately he wore the lightning-ward tablet, or he would have been ground to dust and scattered to the winds long ago.
As for how the immortals of antiquity pitted their sole strength against the heavens and the earth, only today did He Lingchuan catch a small glimpse of it.
Braving the might of the lightning, the spider immortal's colossal frame wedged its way into the restriction by sheer force.
And then, forced its way through!
When Zhu Erniang leaped into the formation core, He Lingchuan breathed a long sigh of relief as well.
If she hadn't made it through, he would have been dragged into the grave with her.
This formation core likewise possessed an entirely transparent glazed surface, with a holy relic resting right in its center.
In the old core, what served as the holy relic was the star chart on Zhu Erniang's belly; here, it was actually a tortoise shell!
This tortoise shell was larger even than the shell of the old tortoise He Lingchuan had seen at the bottom of Xianling Lake, measuring roughly three zhang across. It wasn't a leatherback turtle; its surface was faintly brownish and extraordinarily smooth, and surprisingly, it too bore a star chart!
"Hah!" He Lingchuan inwardly marveled. "The Heavenly Palace really did use this thing as a replacement. Their methods are truly boundless!"
Such star charts were born naturally. If Zhu Erniang could have one, why couldn't other monsters?
Yet with rarity of this degree—tsk, tsk—it was clear Beijia had spared no effort.
"Nothing more than a useless fake!" Zhu Erniang sneered. "Even if it serves as the core, this grand formation won't last two months."
The star chart on this shell was faint and indistinct, lacking order, lacking color, lacking brilliance—it paled far beside the chart on her belly!
Shoddy rubbish unfit for the light of day. Bah, no wonder it could only be a spare.
Moreover, this tortoise shell had no transparent glazed sphere to protect it, merely illuminated by an Everlasting Lamp. Evidently, the standard of a spare truly fell short of the genuine article.
The star chart drifted off the shell and circled slowly in midair.
Clearly, it was seeking the right alignment.
Once found and locked into place, the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation might reactivate.
The time left for He Lingchuan and Zhu Erniang was running out.
By now, avian demons were flying in from all sides. Their reaction could hardly be called slow, but hampered by the turbulent currents outside the formation core, they were unable to descend here.
Juju paid no heed to the surrounding foes, continuing to hurl massive fireballs to bombard the formation core.
By now it also felt it had been somewhat reckless rushing back in such haste. But since it was already here, it might as well concentrate fire alongside its allies.
Between the formation core and Zhaixing Tower, it had to take down at least one.
As a backup, this new formation core in the sky was inherently limited in resilience. Every time it took a hit from a firebomb, He Lingchuan felt as if he were standing at the epicenter. Under Juju's relentless, intense barrage, two pieces were knocked loose from the base of its star ring, and a fracture spread out from the breach.
The spider immortal couldn't care less what Juju was doing. Stepping forward, she was about to sweep her claws to swat the "fake" away, when unexpectedly a creature lunged out in front of the tortoise shell, so swift it blurred into afterimages.
This thing had originally blended completely into the glazed ground; even Zhu Erniang's twelve eyes hadn't spotted it.
When flattened against the floor, it was merely a thin puddle, less than a foot thick. The ground of this formation core was uneven, unlike the level plane of the previous one, and Zhu Erniang hadn't paid much attention. As a result, this creature seized the tip of her front-left leg in its jaws and tore at it relentlessly.
It stood barely over a zhang tall, far smaller than Zhu Erniang, yet its movements were shockingly agile, its attack frequency rivaling a woodpecker.
With its limbs clasped around her leg, Zhu Erniang hissed in pain.
The spider immortal's legs were covered in sharp spines harder than steel needles. The monster was pierced until its mouth bled profusely, yet it had also gouged a gouge into Zhu Erniang's leg. Shuddering in pain, she shook it off with force.
A demon immortal's body was nigh indestructible; this monster's strikes were far from ordinary.
He Lingchuan got a clear look at its appearance. Flattened against the ground, it resembled a crocodile, its flat frame suited for ambushes, but upon standing, it swelled as if inflated, its build shifting instantly to something resembling a human—yet capable of crouching and crawling, far more agile than any human.
It had four forelimbs and two tails behind it, one long and one short. Pustules covered its entire body like a toad, but the sharp claws on its limbs were a foot long and barbed.
Such a discordant appearance immediately reminded He Lingchuan of Dong Rui's demon puppets.
Right after that, a word surfaced in his mind:
Ji beast.
Back in the military camp by the Han River, Elder Liang of the Chuanyun Pavilion had mentioned that in the Middle Antiquity era, numerous monsters appeared, devouring commoners at will and ambushing immortal house disciples, which led the immortal sects into massive clashes with the demon race. Only later did people discover that those monsters were demons modified by celestial gods, known as ji beasts.
Afterward, hunted jointly by immortals and demons, the ji beasts dwindled until they vanished completely.
Dong Rui himself had admitted that his inspiration for creating demon puppets came from ji beasts.
This monster had a mismatched exterior and formidable power, but acted purely on instinct, looking nothing like a natural creation.
From the looks of it now, the so-called ji beasts hadn't vanished from the mortal realm after all—at least this one had been kept in secret by Lingxu. Furthermore, Dong Rui hadn't been entirely correct: this ji beast could act upon orders from the Heavenly Palace, rather than being a senseless brute unable to distinguish friend from foe as he had claimed.
Perhaps over all these years, the celestial gods had refined their research on ji beasts?
The ji beast was astonishingly agile, while Zhu Erniang, burdened with her massive abdomen, had trouble keeping pace—her sheer bulk worked against her. But as a long-renowned demon immortal, she had her own tactics: you fight your way, I'll fight mine.
Fast as the beast was, it wasn't adept at supernatural arts—a common failing among demons. Zhu Erniang's demon immortal body was exceedingly tough, making it hard for her opponent to pierce her defenses. Moreover, her regenerative power was astonishing: whenever it managed to open a wound on her, it would heal completely within twenty breaths.
Zhu Erniang employed the old method she had used against King Siwen in the Demon Nest Swamp, spewing webs as she fought.
Spider silk drifted on the wind, falling either to the ground or tangling around her foe.
Consequently, the ji beast soon began to stumble; the more webbing clung to its body, the more restricted its movements became.
Enraged until its eyes turned bloodshot, it spat torrents of saliva onto the webbing binding it. Its thick spit was violently corrosive; droplets falling to the glazed floor pitted it with small craters.
Only Zhu Erniang's silk remained undamaged.
Even the webbing of her present-world incarnation was impervious to blade and spear, unaffected by fire or water, and immune to corrosive acids—let alone this ancient demon immortal vessel!
He Lingchuan, however, kept his eyes fixed on the tortoise shell in the center of the formation.
Watching the star chart above the shell spin slower and slower, he knew its calibration was almost complete.
Once the formation core took effect, Juju would be suppressed once more.
The giant fire monster was crucial to the success of He Lingchuan's venture; they couldn't afford to sit idly by.
"Erniang, smash that fake!"
"I know!" Hadn't she just lacked the opening to free a hand? Taking advantage of the ji beast's slowed pace, Zhu Erniang turned and shot a spray of webbing at the core, intending to drag it out by force.
If the tortoise shell had other restrictions, she would adapt as they came.
Yet the webbing passed straight through the tortoise shell without the slightest resistance, sticking directly to the floor.
"Fuck!" He Lingchuan stumbled to a halt, cursing aloud.
It was an illusion? A lifelike, flawless illusion!
Even a mirage demon would have bowed in defeat.
Then what the hell was that ji beast protecting earlier?!
Right then, Juju's earth-shaking roar came crashing down: "Smash the core, hurry, hurry!"
The star chart was nearing the end of its calibration. Was the hard-won freedom it had struggled for about to slip through its fingers?
He Lingchuan's face darkened, thoughts racing wildly.
The real body of the tortoise shell wasn't on the ground at all. Was it sunken beneath the star ring?
Judging by the gods' usual trickery when laying formations, that was highly likely. What was more, they could easily have slapped an invisibility spell on it to ensure intruders couldn't spot it.
That would drag out the clock as long as possible, buying time for Heavenly Palace reinforcements to arrive.
What to do now? What could they do?!
If they fell short at the final hurdle, Juju wouldn't even have it the worst. At most, it would be imprisoned again, whereas He Lingchuan and Zhu Erniang would be ground to bone-dust and cast to the wind!
What other way was there to disable the core?
Zhu Erniang asked He Lingchuan, "Are we leaving or not?"
Having retrieved her molt, she should have departed Mount Xu at once. She had only stayed to lend a hand for He Lingchuan's sake.
Of course, that was also the agreement He Lingchuan and the eyeball spider had reached beforehand.
I help you once, so you return the favor once, right?
Now that the favor seemed beyond saving, she was beginning to get cold feet.
Yet He Lingchuan wanted to make one last push, so he pointed at the star ring. "See that crack? Help me pry it open! Juju—you help too!"
Bombarded earlier by Juju's indiscriminate strikes, the core had sustained a two-foot-wide fissure. He Lingchuan already had a plan in mind, but his own strength alone wasn't enough.
Without a second word, the rock-fire colossus slammed several more massive fireballs upward, heating the base of the core into a glowing fiery red, melting stone until it dripped down like water.
Zhu Erniang braced her eight legs against the edges of the fissure, dark light shimmering across her body as she heaved outward with all her might.
The ji beast seized the opportunity to attack, and Zhu Erniang gritted her teeth to endure it.
Among demon immortals, brute strength was not her forte, especially compared to Juju. Yet her sheer mass and tier remained formidable. Muffled cracking sounds echoed ceaselessly as the fissure in the star ring was forced wider and wider.
Just at that moment, however, the star chart above the tortoise shell suddenly went still.
From down below came Juju's grief-stricken howl: "No—!"
The formation core had taken effect; the Spirit Gathering Grand Formation activated.
The collar reappeared around the rock-fire colossus's neck.
Once more, the Mount Xu mountain spirit was suppressed.
He Lingchuan smacked his right fist into his left palm with a heavy sigh. "I told you earlier, you shouldn't have come back here!"
If Juju had kept storming Zhaixing Tower from beginning to end, it might have conquered it by now, rendering the formation core's existence completely irrelevant.
The little fire figure on his shoulder roared in fury, "I shouldn't have trusted you!"
It had seen how confident this fellow was, how meticulously he planned, and thought this rebellion would surely succeed. Alas!
In all its six hundred years of shrewdness, Juju had never imagined that a day would come when it misjudged a person and backed the wrong side.
The guy had clearly looked somewhat reliable, and yet...
...
Seeing the Splendid Picture of Mountains and Rivers glow once more, everyone inside Zhaixing Tower breathed a massive sigh of relief.
The Spirit Gathering Grand Formation had restarted smoothly. Thank goodness, thank goodness!
Even if the tortoise shell star chart was only a substitute, it would last for a while, allowing them to capture the spider immortal and deal with her properly.
Everyone knew that the ji beast Xiaori placed inside the core was no match for the spider immortal, yet it had successfully bought some time.
Whatever trouble arose then could be handled then.
"One great crisis averted—splendid!" With the battle inside the formation core still raging, Chief Duyun Emissary said with a solemn expression, "Xiaori cannot stall the spider immortal for long. We must not allow her to escape! I ask Celestial God Baizhan to dispose of her!"
Chapter 690