Minglong

Chapter 403 Me, the Mouse, I'm afraid...

"Beware!"

A familiar male voice came from afar, and Ye Yunchi's eyes instantly turned to horror. Without hesitation, he thrust the Netherworld Sword at the wandering swordsman in front of him.

Sa——

However, the price of the 'Ignore the Pill' is that without the antidote, one cannot circulate internal energy; this sword strike relies solely on limb strength and is therefore not very powerful.

Upon realizing he had been exposed, the wandering swordsman in front of him was enveloped in a dazzling array of colors, his body collapsing as he landed. As he did so, a tentacle wrapped around Ye Yunchi's ankle and lashed him to the left and right with all its might.

wow...

bang bang bang-

In the blink of an eye, two large craters were smashed into the grass on the left and right.

Ye Yunchi was thrown around in a daze, his hair disheveled. He gritted his teeth, swallowed the antidote, and slashed at his feet, only to see an octopus disappear into the darkness at lightning speed, its six legs flying away. Two of its claws were still holding up a beautiful shoe, as if it were holding up a treasure to show off.

"Bold monster!"

Ye Yunchi looked down and saw that her right shoe was gone and there were blood spots seeping from her ankle. She was so angry that she almost exploded. She immediately gathered her strength and chased after it, but the Heavenly Thunder Firebird appeared again from afar. She could only quickly swallow the pill and fly to the side to dodge.

Boom——

The lightning and fire instantly tore the earth apart, raising towering clouds of dust.

Ye Yunchi landed on her feet and returned to a state of calm. She looked up to find the beast that had ambushed her, but instead saw a cold and aloof swordsman appear beside her once again.

? !
Ye Yunchi instinctively wanted to raise his sword, but fortunately he reacted in time and stopped to check:
"Have you not seen this?"

Xie Jinhuan rushed over to provide assistance, but was nearly cleaved in two by a sword upon seeing the attack. He was startled and quickly received the coded signal:
"The Yellow River's waters come from the sky. It's me, it's me. Are you alright?"

"I……"

Ye Yunchi wanted to say that he was fine, but a piercing pain shot through his ankle. He pulled up his trouser leg to check and saw marks and blood spots on his fair skin. His calf quickly turned bruised.

Xie Jinhuan hadn't expected the baby octopus to be poisonous, so she quickly pressed acupoints on its thigh to help block the flow of qi and blood.

While they were busy, footsteps came from not far away again, and a little girl with braids walked up cautiously.

Xie Jinhuan was afraid of being deceived again, so he immediately asked:
"Don't move! What did you call Lord Guo?"

"Lao Deng."

Jiang Xian had overheard the conversation but dared not make a sound. Now, she leaned closer and asked:
"What should we do now?"

Ye Yunchi felt that if he wasn't attacked by the formation, he should be able to escape. However, with his energy channels sealed, he was still vulnerable to a sneak attack from that beast. He then looked around at the boundless black domain:

"If we get angry, the formation will attack us. Why is that beast unharmed?"

"It's in cahoots with Yang Huaxian; its qi characteristics must have been recorded beforehand, and it was classified as an ally..."

As Xie Jinhuan finished speaking, his gaze suddenly sharpened, and he had come up with a brilliant idea!
Because of differences in cultivation methods and physical constitution, the fluctuations of qi produced by cultivators vary greatly. Even among those from the same sect, no two are exactly the same.

Most magic arrays that can distinguish friend from foe rely on this to determine if an outsider has intruded.

Under normal circumstances, fluctuations in Qi cannot be faked. Even the Eight Directions Illumination Array used for exploration can distinguish between water and fire magic.

However, Xie Jinhuan's unique skill, "alternating pouring candles upside down," allows him to adjust the proportion of the five elements, thereby unleashing the magical powers of various schools of thought!
If that's the case, then with some fine-tuning, one can make the energy fluctuations generated when making a move exactly the same as the movements of the opponent casting a spell.

Since the Devouring Light and Severing Spirit Array is unmanned, if you want to prevent it from attacking friendly forces, you must first add friendly forces to a whitelist...

Although Xie Jinhuan had never been in close contact with the baby octopus and could not capture its aura, and the spirit beast probably could not imitate it either, there was another unassailable target here!

Thinking of this, Xie Jinhuan was deeply moved:

"You guys stay away."

Ye Yunchi and Jiang Xian were puzzled, but they still carefully kept their distance.

Xie Jinhuan swallowed the antidote, made hand seals, and attacked the array veins again with the 'Sand Transformation Divine Incantation'. The earth began to tremble, and distant lightning and fire lights also lit up, but the array patterns began to flicker.

As he expected, the dead rat lurking deep underground discovered that he had damaged the array veins, and it sneaked back to the vicinity to begin condensing sand into soil to repair it, in order to prevent the array from being broken.

Rumbling--

Lightning and fire poured down in the extremely dark space.

Xie Jinhuan navigated the bombardment alone, relentlessly attacking the array veins, and soon found the location of the dead rat.

They were about sixty feet apart, separated by the earth, so he couldn't attack them at all, but they were already within the ghost's detection range.

Even though both sides were casting spells with great energy, Ah Piao could feel the residual energy from underground without Ah Piao having to make a move.

Earth seven and wood three, concealing a hint of bloodlust...

After carefully sensing the other party's aura, Xie Jinhuan quickly separated the balanced aura within his body, changing it to 70% earth and 30% wood, while also releasing a trace of blood energy, and then carefully adjusted the proportions.

It turned out to be simpler than he had thought. To prevent the formation from misjudging and causing injury to teammates, Yang Huaxian left a lot of leeway. As long as it was 80% similar, the formation would not be activated again.

Moreover, after being included in the whitelist, he was no longer restricted by the formation when he borrowed the power of heaven and earth, and he could almost turn the tables!
Xie Jinhuan was overjoyed at the sight, but he did not reveal it. Instead, he continued to spread the strange energy, deliberately attracting the lightning and fire techniques. However, the margin for error was a hundred times higher, and it was almost impossible to be hit again.

Rumble…

The ground continued to tremble, but the lightning and fire radiance emanating from the eight phantom figures slowed down.

Ye Hongshang was quite surprised to find that Xie Jinhuan had actually found a way to break the formation on his own.
"I thought you could only get through this thanks to the Purple Perilla Fairy, but I didn't expect you to be able to break through on your own. You've grown into a mature little rascal. It seems I'll have to reward you handsomely tonight..."

"Shh, don't disturb my Dao heart..."

Meanwhile, underground.

Zitong went around repairing the damaged formation, only to find Xie Jinhuan violently dismantling it while carrying the large formation. He thought the boy had run out of tricks.

After all, Yang Huaxian's grand formation uses the local mountains and waterways as its core, and it can last for several days if it is not destroyed.

Xie Jinhuan fled in panic, forcibly breaking the formation. One mistake would mean certain death. Even without making a mistake, and despite his constant attempts to repair it, Xie Jinhuan would eventually be killed by the force of his Qi Sea being exhausted.

Zitong wasn't in a hurry, but simply followed along, repairing the places Xie Jinhuan had damaged, waiting for the righteous old demon to come to his doom or for Xie Jinhuan to die suddenly.

However, Xie Jinhuan deliberately activated the array everywhere, not to destroy the array veins, but to sense the location of the underground rats and lead his opponent into the mountain!
While being skilled in earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a type of technique that allows one to move underground), moving through soft sand and moving through solid rocks are clearly not the same level of difficulty.

This place is located in a mountainous area. The surface layer is soil, but the hills are made of granite. He didn't believe the other party could avoid it.

Rumbling--

After oscillating back and forth for a while, Xie Jinhuan found a suitable position, suddenly turned back and rushed towards a hill, shaking the soil and rocks below.

The hill looks like a large mound of earth, but there is a mountain underneath, and the soil layer is only about ten feet deep.

The dead rat that was lurking below, which had been diving very deep, did indeed avoid the difficult-to-escape rocks after hitting the rock strata. It began to rise along the mountainside and, once it reached the earth's surface, began to repair the shattered array veins it had created.

Xie Jinhuan's eyes narrowed slightly upon seeing this. His hands suddenly changed into hand seals, and his aura surged as he slammed his fist into the ground with all his might.

"Wake it up for me!"

Boom——

Ye Yunchi and Jiang Xian followed behind to investigate. They didn't understand what Xie Jinhuan was doing at first, but when Xie Jinhuan slammed his fist on the ground, dust suddenly billowed up from the hill in front of them, and a wall with a Qilin beast head on it rose from the ground!

The earthen wall was over ten zhang high, but not wide. It didn't look like a protective gate, but more like a yellowish-brown pillar pulled up from the earth with great effort.

At the very bottom of the Qilin Pillar, there was a figure wearing a black cloak with shifty eyes, half of his body stuck in it. He looked around in horror, clearly caught off guard, and then tried to break free and escape.

However, the 'Qilin Protective Curse' has extremely strong protective power, capable of solidifying sand into iron and stone. Even Ye Yunchi's full-force sword strike could not destroy it. Being trapped inside is no less than being stuck in solidified concrete.

Upon seeing the dead rat, Xie Jinhuan feared it would burrow underground and escape, so he dared not utter a word. He suddenly sprang up like a taut bow, and then his Heavenly Mace, carrying waves of earth, transformed into a yellow dragon, instantly tearing apart the earth and mounds, and crashing into the Qilin Pillar!

Boom——

This move is not a martial arts technique, but rather a miscellaneous folk technique that Xie Jinhuan uses to imitate the opponent's energy fluctuations. Although it has great energy, its power is mediocre, and it will not trigger an attack from the formation.

Zitong is a rat spirit. Standing at 1.4 meters tall, she is not known for her physique. She is only good at reconnaissance, roaming, poisoning, and casting spells. When facing attacks from cultivators at the fifth realm, she cannot withstand them even if she does not go all out, let alone be immobilized by an accident and become a target.

Seeing the yellow dragon hurtling through the air, Zitong could only muster all his strength to defend himself using earth magic, while shouting:
"Immortal Ancestor, save me..."

Boom——

The hastily formed Qilin Pillar was struck by the Yellow Dragon, instantly sending up a shower of debris. Then its roots collapsed, raising a cloud of dust on the hill.

Having landed a successful blow, Xie Jinhuan grabbed the battered and bruised earth rat and slammed it down the hillside. A surge of bloodthirsty energy erupted from his body as he roared in fury:

"You audacious fiend, you dare to fight back?"

Rumble…

Ye Yunchi and Jiang Xian were standing behind the hill. As Xie Jinhuan crashed into the hill, they lost their view and could only see churning dust and towering blood-red aura.

Ye Yunchi thought it was a demonic cultivator launching a desperate counterattack, and her eyes tensed up. However, she knew that getting angry would trigger the formation's attack, and getting close would only cause trouble. So she shouted:
"Xie Jinhuan, do you need our help?"

"No need, I can handle it. You monster! You even dare to use the Yuan-stealing technique..."

"Thank you... Waaah—"

……

Jiang Xian, carrying his horse-slaying saber, watched the scene unfold. For some reason, he felt a sense of déjà vu, but he was still very nervous as he waited for Master Xie to return victorious.

Meanwhile, on the distant mountains...

The mountains were shrouded by the Light-Swallowing and Spirit-Severing Array, and outsiders could only see the hazy wilderness, unable to perceive anything inside.

A white-haired wandering Taoist priest sat cross-legged atop a mountain, holding a sanxian (a three-stringed plucked instrument) in his arms, and casually plucked it:

"Clang clang~..."

Not far away, an old swordsman dressed in a scholar's robe, carrying a three-foot-long sword on his back, took a sip of wine from a gourd in his hand, and sighed:
"This kid is indeed extraordinary. Not only can he break through formations, but he can also use the momentum to turn defense into offense. If he is not eliminated, he will surely become a great threat in the future."

Yang Huaxian surveyed the situation within the formation and casually replied:
"Then you may give me a sword strike, but remember to stay far away and don't let the blood splatter on me."

Kongkong Daoren can be considered the only sword cultivator in the world, with his killing power reaching its peak. Now, if he wants to kill Xie Jinhuan, it's just a matter of throwing a sword.

But he had already tried it last time. The monk Wuxin jumped out, and then two juniors chased after him and beat him for a long time. In the end, he could only say that youth has the upper hand.

In this battle at Beiming Lake, Huang Lin Laodao and Qixia Zhenren must be present. If the Valkyrie is alive, she will definitely be there as well, along with the current leader of the Ascetic Sect. Xie Jinhuan dared to come here, so it's impossible that there was no one above him.

Yang Huaxian set up a deadly trap for Xie Jinhuan so that before the opportunity appeared at Beiming Lake, he could find out the general situation of the righteous path, who had come, what their current cultivation level was, and see if there was a chance to steal it.

Since none of his opponents have shown themselves yet, he jumps out to finish them off. If he's lucky enough to run into one, he'll have to pay a price for going out in the open against someone in the shadows.

If you're unlucky, you might run into three or four people, and Yang Huaxian will turn around and leave, and he'll be expelled on the spot.

After taking a few sips of wine, the Taoist Kongkong abandoned the idea of ​​avenging his disciple, closed the wine gourd, and turned to leave...
-
I just finished writing it. I've been writing during the day these past few days, so I can only update at night. Once my sleep schedule goes back to normal, I'll be updating in the morning.
(End of this chapter)