Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 543 Countermeasures
The five ancient clans' Great Saints, along with the Great Saints Xuanji, Qianxuan, and Lingyun, quietly approached each other to prevent being divided and suppressed by the Holy Master of Lingguan using the protective array. They planned to join forces for a final desperate attempt.

Even if they cannot escape, as long as they can protect themselves from being killed, they still have a chance.

After all, their original plan was that when they used that great formation to sever the connection between the Lingguan Holy Land formation and the Ziwei Star formation, the four quasi-emperors outside Ziwei Star would weaken the formation from the outside and take the opportunity to lead a large army to invade from the weak points of the Ziwei Star formation.

Although the grand formation has been disrupted and the attack has deviated from its course, the fluctuations generated by its direct collision with the Ziwei Star grand formation are enough to give the four quasi-emperors outside Ziwei Star an opportunity to invade the interior of Ziwei Star.

In other words, as long as they can protect themselves under the suppression of the Holy Lord of the Spirit Observation, four quasi-emperors and the ancient army will soon come to their rescue.

Therefore, they were eager to say a few more words to the Holy Master of Lingguan to buy time.

Then the Great Sage Xuanji said, "Ancestor Lingxu, Yun Xian, you have hidden yourselves so well that you have deceived everyone. It is truly terrifying."

"I want to know, how exactly did you do that?"

The Holy Master of Lingguan said, "Regarding the first question, that is, why we know your plan, the answer is actually very simple, because there is one of our people among you. It was he who informed me and Ancestor Lingxu about this great formation and your plan."

"Your quasi-emperor's array pattern skills are extraordinary. Even the Venerable Lingxu, who has studied array patterns for many years, would not dare to say that he is slightly better. If we were to fight openly, the outcome would be uncertain. However, Venerable Lingxu is in the dark, while your great array is in the light."

“Without your quasi-emperor’s continuous improvements, and instead just a fixed array diagram, the Lingxu Ancestor could naturally find flaws in it and use special methods to change the effect of the array patterns so that even you Great Saints would find it difficult to detect.”

"Even so, all he could do was develop methods that allowed us, the younger generation, to influence the direction of the great formation's attack through some minor changes."

“It’s not just that the array patterns you set up in the Spirit Observation Holy Land have been tampered with by us and are no longer effective; when you secretly inscribed the array diagrams, many of the runes that were separated out were also affected.”

"That's why your great formation attacked the Ziwei Star Guardian Formation, resulting in a backlash and heavy damage; that's why you're all trapped here, like turtles in a jar."

Upon hearing this, the five ancient clans' Great Saints immediately became vigilant, subtly forming a group to keep Xuanji Great Saint, Qianxuan Great Saint, and Lingyun Great Saint out, and showing a hint of wariness towards them.

Seeing this, the Holy Master of Lingguan laughed and said, "It seems that although you have done your best for them, you are still not considered as one of your own."

The Great Sage of Mystery said, "Things have come to this point, why do you still want to sow discord? I think you don't want to reveal who this person is, or even that this person may exist, right?"

The Holy Master of Lingguan laughed and said, "Think what you want. But you guessed right, I will not reveal his identity yet."

The Great Sage Xuanji transmitted his voice to the five ancient clansmen: "Everyone, we are now in the same boat. Fighting amongst ourselves will only bring disaster. Please calm down."

Immediately, he said to the Holy Master of Lingguan, "Holy Master, you have already gained the upper hand. Why don't we discuss the terms?" The Holy Master of Lingguan smiled and said, "Since you know I have the upper hand, what terms are there to discuss?"

The Great Sage Xuanji said, "Holy Lord, your advantage is only temporary. Once those quasi-emperors from outside Ziwei Star arrive, we will have the advantage. So, let's make a deal: you release us, and I will persuade those seniors to spare the Lingguan Holy Land. How about it?"

The Holy Master of Spiritual Observation said, "I know you want to stall for time, but do you think we would be completely unprepared for this situation?"

As they were talking, the incarnation of the Holy Master of Lingguan and Chen Chong had already returned to the Holy Land of Lingguan.

Upon seeing that there were two Holy Masters of the Spiritual Observation, and that their auras were identical, both being Great Saints, the Great Saints all showed expressions of surprise.

The Holy Master of Lingguan withdrew his clone and said, "You probably guessed it just now. That's right, Ancestor Lingxu has never revealed his full strength from the beginning. He only used his main body to fight against you four quasi-emperors with the help of the great formation, but in fact, he has always mastered a secret technique and cultivated an avatar that is basically the same as himself."

"That's why he was able to confront your four quasi-emperors while also finding time to arrange some countermeasures against you."

Lingxu Ancestor once traveled through the starry sky and is now a rare and knowledgeable great cultivator on Ziwei Star. During his travels, he obtained a fragment of the numerical secrets and used them as the foundation to create this secret technique. It can condense a special avatar with similar strength to the original body through various means and can act independently.

When the alien races launched a massive invasion, he used a grand formation to keep the four quasi-emperors out, but he never revealed his avatar and did many things in secret.

Therefore, he frequently monitored the subtle movements within the Lingguan Holy Land and discovered many suspicious points early on. After all, it would be easy for a quasi-emperor with extremely strong control over the protective array of the Lingguan Holy Land to monitor the members of the Holy Land silently.

However, even if he were to take action and capture these people, it would be difficult to obtain the full picture of the ancient clan's plan, and most importantly, it wouldn't be of much use in severely damaging the ancient clan.

However, even the Quasi-Emperor Lingxu felt somewhat disheartened. After all, upon closer examination, the problems within the Lingguan Holy Land were indeed quite serious. Therefore, he chose only the Lingguan Holy Master, a seasoned and absolutely trustworthy junior, as his assistant and successor.

Subsequently, he and the Holy Master of Lingguan arranged for a fake spy to contact the ancient clan, thereby gaining knowledge of their plans and devising a counterattack plan.

The collision between that grand formation and the Ziwei Star Grand Formation caused significant losses to the ancient clans, and the current capture of these ancient clans' Great Saints, as well as their own internal traitors, is a phased achievement of the plan.

During this period, Lingxu Quasi-Emperor helped Lingguan Holy Master conceal his aura, raise his cultivation to the Great Saint level, and began learning how to master the Lingguan Holy Land's protective array, thereby activating the power of the Ziwei Protective Array.

After figuring this out, the Great Sages became even more uneasy, losing all their confidence. Was the Spirit Void Quasi-Emperor, with his unknown avatar, truly dead?
Although that aura of Dao transformation was virtually impossible to fake, they still couldn't help but feel suspicious.

Moreover, even if he truly transcends the Dao, what contingency plans would he leave behind? They couldn't even imagine what a quasi-emperor without supervision could accomplish.

(End of this chapter)