Controlling the Five Thunders and the Two Worlds

Chapter 203 A New Line of Defense for the Mountain-Protecting Formation: The Zhou Tian Star Lamp

Instead of facing retaliation from Huangtiantan in Shanglin County, Daoist Yansong was met with several monks who pledged allegiance to him.

One was a fisherman who formed a bond with a drowned female ghost and became her husband. He offended a snake demon in the Biyu Pool of Baishi Prefecture and fled to Changping Prefecture. Daoist Yansong casually lifted the curse in his body, and out of gratitude, he became a disciple of the Daoist sect.

One of them fell in love with a roe deer that unexpectedly came to visit their home. The other person kindly introduced them to the cultivation world. The two stumbled and fell for several years, constantly getting injured, but they unexpectedly survived. In the end, they were almost devoured by an evil spirit when they were saved by Daoist Yansong, and thus joined the Great Luo Palace.

There were also two solitary monks who were not particularly outstanding, but not bad either. They would lend a hand to those they could, and run away when they encountered opponents they could not defeat. When they arrived in Shanglin County, they happened to meet Wu Ming and Duan Yang, whom they had known before but had been captured by the Golden Wind Sect and had now joined the Daluo Palace. So they were also brought into the Daluo Palace as temporary disciples.

These people are not highly skilled, do not possess deep magical power, and even lack potential. They are certainly not qualified to be the combat force of the Great Luo Palace. However, they are just right to be assigned to counties and villages as grassroots disciples to deal with wandering ghosts and pacify the local area.

……

Cuiluo Mountain, Daluo Palace.

Gu Zhao found that his days were becoming more and more leisurely, but the development of the Daluo Palace was becoming more and more rapid, and it was growing at a visible speed.

He opened his fan, fanned himself, drank a cup of tea that the embroiderer had just poured for him, then leaned back in his recliner and looked up at the warm sun through the gaps in the branches of the old rosewood tree overhead.

"The weather's getting hot pretty quickly," Gu Zhao said, glancing at the embroiderer beside him. "Anything interesting happening in town lately?"

The embroiderer shook her head. "Nothing new."

Bai Ke chimed in from the side, "Everyone in the Great Luo Palace is working hard to cultivate. As the Palace Master of the Great Luo Palace, you spend your days either accompanying Sister Zhuo on spring outings or lying here sunbathing. Don't you feel embarrassed?"

Gu Zhao nodded and said to the embroiderer, "Let's eat something light tonight, and don't cut the chilled watermelon from the cellar."

Bai Ke was so angry that three strands of hair stood on end. "I was telling the truth, and you actually took revenge on me!"

Gu Zhao shook his head, "This is not revenge; it is punishment for your slander and defamation."

Bai Ke glared, "How did I spread rumors and slander?"

Gu Zhao reached out and drew a circle in the air, then moved in a serpentine motion from top to bottom. Finally, with a flick of his wrist, the water and fire within his body transformed, and the true yin and yang qi surged in, actually drawing a tai chi diagram in the air.

The Tai Chi diagram was brimming with yang energy on one side and shrouded in yin energy on the other. They were intertwined and merged, simultaneously demonstrating the effect of yin arising from yang and yang arising from yin.

Just looking at it gives one a sense of mystery and unpredictability.

But what's important isn't the Tai Chi diagram itself, but rather the Taoist cultivation and magical power that Gu Zhao displays within it.

Bai Ke could sense that Gu Zhao had made further progress since the New Year, with higher cultivation and deeper magical power.

The little fox was shocked. "These days, you've either been out for walks with Sister Zhuo, reading and painting, or lying here drinking tea and basking in the sun. How come your cultivation is progressing so quickly?"

Bai Ke and Xiu Niang cultivated together at a rapid pace, successfully transforming into human form in just over half a year. They now possess several decades, nearly a hundred years, of cultivation, several times faster than the Heavenly Fox bloodline cultivating on its own.

Even so, their cultivation speed could not match Gu Zhao's, and there was even a trend of them falling further and further behind.

“Even if the cultivation methods of the Great Luo Palace can eliminate evil and accumulate merit, you haven’t gone down the mountain to do chivalrous deeds, have you?” Bai Ke felt she couldn’t accept it. Gu Zhao glanced at Bai Ke, “That’s talent, you can’t be jealous of it.”

Just kidding, now there are eight Taoist priests helping me collect evil energy.

Even though he was lying in the Great Luo Palace serving as a tool for the Two Realms Gate, his cultivation level was still soaring, and even the second Thunder Seed was slowly taking shape.

Bai Ke tilted her head and looked at Gu Zhao. Although she couldn't see any talent in Gu Zhao at all, and apart from occasionally going into seclusion, he didn't even have much time to cultivate, his growth in cultivation was real.

With a sore mouth stuck in her throat, Bai Ke could only turn around and look at Zhuo Qingyan walking towards her, changing the subject, "Where did you go, Sister Zhuo?"

"Testing the formation." Zhuo Qingyan smiled faintly, then said to Gu Zhao, "The Five Thunder Dragon Imprisoning Formation has been repositioned and is now compatible with the Zhou Tian Star Lamp."

"Is the Zhou Tian Star Lamp working?" Gu Zhao asked.

Zhuo Qingyan nodded, "The people are devout, and the incense in the palace is thriving. Daoist Mingyu and Daoist Mingchong gathered the incense fire stars and focused them on the lamp wick, placing the main lamp in the Sanqing Hall, which can control 365 star lamps."

Moreover, the star soldiers within the lamps possess keen senses and even rudimentary intelligence, enabling them to fight independently. This can compensate for the drawback of the Five Thunder Dragon-Trapping Formation, which can only be fully activated.

At this point, Zhuo Qingyan sighed, "The incense in the palace is extremely strong. The main lamp absorbs the incense and distributes its energy to the other star lamps, which allows those star soldiers to fight for a long time. Their power may not be inferior to the Five Thunder Dragon Imprisonment Formation."

Bai Ke snorted, "I've never seen a sect like the Da Luo Palace that is so chivalrous and righteous, acting on behalf of Heaven. They not only deal with those mountain kings who occupy the mountains, but they even take care of those rich and heartless guys."

The common people of Changping Prefecture are living very comfortably these days; it would be unreasonable if they weren't even willing to contribute some offerings.

The embroiderer nodded repeatedly upon hearing this, "That's right, that's right!"

"Great, double insurance."

Gu Zhao was also very satisfied. "The Great Luo Palace is our base, and we can't move it, so the mountain-protecting formation must be able to defend against opponents who are much stronger than us, otherwise what kind of mountain-protecting formation is it?"

Zhuo Qingyan couldn't help but laugh, "With the power of the Five Thunder Dragon Imprisoning Formation and the Zhou Tian Star Lamp, I'm afraid even if the White Bone God himself came, he wouldn't get the better of him."

She said she couldn't get away with it, not that she couldn't escape it, which shows that she was quite wary of the White Bone God.

Gu Zhao did not answer, but simply invited Zhuo Qingyan to sit down and have some tea.

Zhuo Qingyan took a sip of tea, sat down with the embroiderer, and asked Gu Zhao, "Is there any news from Huang Tiantan?"

“Weasels are indeed very cautious. Uncle-Master Yansong didn’t find them in Shanglin County,” Gu Zhao replied. “Changping Prefecture is not completely pacified yet, so I don’t plan to go looking for them for the time being.”

“They will never let this go,” Zhuo Qingyan warned. “Be careful that they don’t form an alliance with White Bone Mountain and Green Pool.”

Gu Zhao also took a sip of tea, and then said calmly, "With no worries about the future, time is on our side. If they form an alliance with White Bone Mountain and Green Water Pool, then we will eliminate them all at once."

(End of this chapter)