Catching Monsters

Chapter 461 Eight Kill Extinction Formation
Looking at the old man sitting in the tree hollow with a chessboard in front of him, Jiang Yun frowned slightly. He scratched the back of his head, stepped forward, and asked, "Playing chess?"

"I didn't come here to play chess."

The old man's smile remained unchanged as he said calmly, "Once you enter this cave, you will have to go through three trials, and this game of chess is the first one."

"If you beat me, you'll pass the test."

"A test?" Jiang Yun was taken aback, and said in a somewhat conciliatory tone, "Senior, I'm here to get some weapons. I'm a terrible chess player, what's the point of playing chess with me?"

The old man's expression was calm as he slowly said, "Chess is like life. The small chessboard contains many mysteries. If you can understand it, you will benefit immensely."

Jiang Yun slowly walked forward, glanced down at it, and said, "Senior, is this Go? I don't know how to play..."

"If you don't know how, you can learn. I remember the last person who came here spent a whole year just learning the first hurdle of chess," the old man said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yun stroked his chin, then asked in surprise, "One year? What about the next two years?"

"It depends on your comprehension. If you have sufficient comprehension, you can pass the test quickly; if not..."

Jiang Yun quickly realized that the next two stages might also take a considerable amount of time.

He didn't have that much time to waste in this tree hollow. He took a deep breath and then said, "Senior, to be honest, I only have two or three years left to live. If I waste them all here, I'll die here."

"How about we skip the first hurdle and cut it short?"

Hearing Jiang Yun's words, the old man's expression faltered slightly, then he said, "Rules are rules..."

“If I waste too much time, it would be bad luck if someone died here,” Jiang Yun said, then added, “How about this?”

"Since it's the rule, I understand. I know the rules best."

"Let's keep it simple, how about rock-paper-scissors?"

"One punch decides the outcome."

Hearing Jiang Yun's words, the old man was stunned for a moment. Last time, a fool came and insisted on playing Go with him.

Here comes an even simpler one: they only want to play rock-paper-scissors.

The old man said calmly, "The outcome is determined on the chessboard; that's the rule, and it cannot be changed."

"Only if you beat me on the chessboard will it count..."

Jiang Yun had already placed his hands on the chessboard: "Simple, senior, let's just play rock-paper-scissors with our hands on the chessboard."

"You wouldn't want me to die like this in your tree hollow, would you?"

The old man stared intently at Jiang Yun for a long time before taking a deep breath and slowly saying, "Strictly speaking, it... doesn't violate the rules..."

Two figures, their hands resting on the chessboard, counting three, two, one.

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

Rock, paper, scissors, fist.

Jiang Yun quickly realized something was wrong. It was as if the old man knew what kind of punch he would throw, and no matter what he threw, he couldn't win.

The old man's eyes remained expressionless. Jiang Yun asked, "Senior, can you read my thoughts?"

The old man chuckled and said slowly, "Understanding people's hearts and knowing your thoughts is not difficult for me."

"Alright, next punch." Jiang Yun took a deep breath, raised his fist, and this time he was thinking about throwing a stone next.

But at the last moment before throwing the punch, Jiang Yun's mind flashed with the thought of throwing scissors.

The old man on the other side ultimately chose stone.

The old man smiled faintly and said slowly, "Your little tricks won't win against me. I know what you're thinking. If..."

"Old man, why don't you take a look at what I've drawn?" Jiang Yun asked with a smile.

The old man lowered his head slightly and saw that what Jiang Yun had given him was cloth.

"You can know what I'm thinking, but my thoughts can also be deceiving."

Simply put, Jiang Yun's punches were purely random; he didn't follow any preconceived notions at all.

"According to the rules, did I win?" Jiang Yun smiled, retracting his wrist, and asked, "What's the next challenge?"

The old man was silent for a moment, then a smile appeared on his face. He slowly stood up and led Jiang Yun deeper into the tree hollow. Along the way, he said, "Young man, you can take a shortcut in the first test, but the second test is impossible."

Soon, Jiang Yun followed the old man into an even larger tree hollow.

Inside the tree hollow stood a tree-man whose height, build, and appearance were remarkably similar to Jiang Yun's.

"What is this? Driving wooden stakes?" Jiang Yun asked in a low voice.

"This is the second challenge. This treant is as strong as you, and you need to kill it."

"After you kill him, two tree spirits with the same strength as you will appear."

"Then four will appear..."

"Eight."

Sixteen.

"Thirty-two."

Sixty-four.

One hundred and twenty-eight.

"Slay all 128 treants, and you will have passed the second level."

Jiang Yun was dumbfounded: "No, old man, are you joking? My current strength is at the third-grade Celestial Master level, with one hundred and twenty-eight tree men. If what you say is true, they are the same strength as me."

The old man remained calm and slowly said, "The strength of these tree people will not change after you entered the tree cave."

"But your strength will improve and you will become stronger."

"As long as you can cultivate to the extreme of Yang, you will basically be able to pass this test."

The ultimate expression of Yang?

"They will attack you as soon as you shout 'start,' and they will stop when you shout 'stop.'"

"You won't be killed by them inside this tree hollow, and your injuries will heal by the next day."

"So there's no need to worry about getting injured."

After saying that, the old man disappeared into the tree hole, while Jiang Yun's expression became completely solemn.

He stared intently at the treant opposite him, mentally assessing the situation. If the old man's assessment was true, this treant was roughly equal in strength to him. "Begin."

As Jiang Yun shouted, the treant instantly produced a yellow talisman, which burst into flames and shot towards Jiang Yun.

Jiang Yun hurriedly dodged to the side, but the tree man had already rushed up to him and slammed a palm hard into his chest.

With a bang, Jiang Yun was knocked back and staggered. Immediately afterwards, countless yellow banners bound him.

This rendered him unable to move. However, seeing that he was completely under control, the tree-man stopped attacking Jiang Yun and stood there motionless.

Seeing this, Jiang Yun couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "Am I really that powerful?"
Looking at the treant opposite him, Jiang Yun could only sigh slightly and close his eyes to rest.

For the next few days, Jiang Yun continued to try to fight this tree-man.

In terms of combat experience, I accumulate it very quickly, and I have a huge advantage in that I don't have to worry about being killed by the opponent.

Finally, on the fifth day, Jiang Yun, having exhausted all his strength, managed to kill the treant on the other side...

Immediately afterwards, the tree-man inside the tree hole turned into two.

This gave Jiang Yun a real headache. He needed to fight with all his might to defeat just one of them, let alone two tree men.

Don’t rush…

Jiang Yun's heart sank, but he also understood that continuing to fight the other party now was not very meaningful.

The most crucial factor in passing this second hurdle is personal improvement.

Because these tree-people will not progress.

First, improve your magical cultivation; second...

Jiang Yun took out the book of the Eight Trigrams of the Primordial Chaos that Liu Boqing had given him from his bosom.

These tree-people also know all the Taoist arts that I currently possess.

They can only learn other new Taoist arts.

Jiang Yun sat cross-legged on the ground quietly, meditating and cultivating. During this time, he also kept flipping through the book of the Primordial Eight Trigrams Edict to study.

Time passed little by little.

The spiritual energy inside the pot was extremely abundant, and Jiang Yun was completely focused on his cultivation throughout.

Before long, countless hours had passed, and Jiang Yun had already reached the peak of the third-grade Celestial Master realm.

He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze becoming more mature. Then he slowly got up, and suddenly the old man's voice came from beside him.

“You young man are quite interesting. It’s been four months, and apart from destroying the first tree man at the beginning, you haven’t made a move again.”

"Sharpening your axe won't delay your woodcutting," Jiang Yun said, then asked, "Old man, these tree-men won't move unless I say 'start,' right?"

"You have to shout 'start' and then kill them to pass the level, right?"

Hearing Jiang Yun's words, the old man nodded, looked at Jiang Yun with surprise, and asked in a deep voice, "You mean...?"

Could you provide some materials?

"what material?"

Materials for setting up the formation.

elder:"……"

Soon, Jiang Yun began to set up the Eight Killing Extinction Formation in the tree hole.

This Eight Killing Extinction Formation is extremely powerful and is a type of protective formation used by sects.

Once properly arranged, it is almost impossible for anyone trapped inside the formation to escape. Furthermore, as long as the caster has sufficient magical power to maintain the formation, they can completely annihilate anyone trapped inside.

However, despite its terrifying power, the Eight Kill Extinction Formation is not easy to set up, and the enemy will not be foolish enough to easily walk into it.

Therefore, it seems rather useless and can only be used as a mountain-guarding formation.

However, for the moment, this formation is perfectly suited for dealing with these immobile tree-men.

After setting up the formation, Jiang Yun quickly placed the two tree men into it.

Then Jiang Yun shouted, "Begin!"

"Hurry up as a law!"

The moment the two tree-men opened their eyes, they were instantly trapped by the Eight Kill Extinction Formation, with countless powerful spells attacking them relentlessly.

Even though the two treants had some talismans and fought hastily, they ultimately perished in the formation.

The old man's lips twitched when he saw this...

Those who reached the second level all fought bloody battles, flesh-on-flesh, constantly battling treants of similar strength before finally passing through.

But this kid named Jiang Yun, all he seems to be thinking about is taking shortcuts.

"Senior, is what I'm doing in accordance with the rules?" Jiang Yun asked, blinking.

"It's acceptable." The old man took a deep breath.

"That's fine then." Jiang Yun sat down cross-legged to rest and recover the magical power he had used to maintain the Eight Kill Extinction Formation.

After restoring it properly, the four tree people were put back in.

Then eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-eight...

This can be considered as Jiang Yun exploiting a bug in his own system.

His greatest skill was in talismanic arts, and since these tree-men were of equal strength to him, no matter how many there were, throwing them into the formation would catch them off guard and lead to an attack by the formation.

No matter how many come, they are unlikely to survive.

Just then, one hundred and twenty-eight tree people appeared in the tree hole. Jiang Yun followed the same method, first restoring the power in his body to maintain the Eight Kill Extinction Formation.

Then he activated the formation and shouted, "Start!"

Countless treants within the formation continuously cast spells in an attempt to resist the attacks of the Eight Kill Extinction Formation.

Despite the combined power of the 128 tree men, Jiang Yun's forehead was constantly beaded with sweat as he used his magic to maintain the formation.

These tree-men kept attacking the formation, and Jiang Yun used hand seals to maintain its power.

Finally, one after another, the treants were killed by the Eight Kill Extinction Formation and fell to the ground.

(End of this chapter)