The opening scene reveals the story of Yao Lao, alarming the Soul Emperor.

First breath.

The cracked mask's gaze swept back and forth between the soul feather and the array patterns beneath its feet twice.

He didn't believe it.

How could someone with no fighting spirit kill three Dou Zong with a formation set up using a broken fan?

He has lived most of his life, roaming freely in the Central Plains and the Northwest Continent. He survived being hunted by the Soul Hall for three years. Is he really going to die at the hands of a sickly person?

Second breath.

Don't be fooled by him.

The cracked mask winked to the left and right, its voice kept extremely low.

"He's bluffing. Can you feel it? Although his formation can drain our battle energy, the speed is slowing down."

The Third Elder frowned and sensed it for a moment. "Now that you mention it... it seems so."

"His body can't withstand this formation," the cracked mask stared at the hand that Soul Feather had tucked into his sleeve. "His hand was shaking just now."

The fourth breath.

The Seventh Elder chimed in, "Then what do we do? Just tough it out?"

"No need to carry it. Third, do you still remember the Blood Fiend Sect's secret technique? Soul-Locking Earth Escape."

The Third Elder was taken aback. "At most, one can escape fifty feet, and one will have to burn ten percent of their lifespan."

"Fifty feet is enough. His formation is set up close to the ground; if you move downwards for fifty feet, you'll be outside the range of his formation. This canyon is hollow underneath; there's an underground river."

The sixth breath.

The three exchanged a glance.

The Cracked Mask bit his tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood onto his palm. The Third Elder and the Seventh Elder did the same at the same time.

Three beams of blood converged, forming a swirling crimson vortex beneath the three people's feet.

Earth Escape.

The seventh breath.

"Time is up."

Hunyu's voice came from the carriage shaft.

The cracked mask sneered and ignored them. The crimson vortex spun faster, and the three bodies began to sink into the ground.

"Who told you my formation only exists on the ground?"

The smile on the cracked mask froze on his face.

All three of them simultaneously felt a sharp pain in the soles of their feet.

After descending less than three zhang, golden patterns appeared.

It wasn't the patterns on the ground, but the light emanating from the cold iron ore veins deep within the cliff face. The veins stretched from the cliff face into the ground, intertwining like tree roots, each vein covered with golden patterns resembling the Eight Trigrams Formation.

Mineral vein guidance.

The array's coverage area wasn't just the ground level, but the entire canyon's mineral vein network, from the cliff top to the underground river; all the cold iron ore veins served as the array's foundation.

The crimson vortex collided with the golden patterns, like mud hitting an iron wall, shattering instantly.

The three were thrown back to the ground by the force of the impact, and were left dazed and confused.

Eighth breath.

"The Gate of Shock closes."

The tip of Hunyu's fan turned in a different direction.

The golden patterns at the bottom of the valley underwent a dramatic change.

The feathers in all eight directions hummed simultaneously, and countless golden light spots rose from the array patterns, weaving into layers of superimposed three-dimensional array patterns in mid-air.

What was originally just a two-dimensional array pattern covering the ground expanded into a three-dimensional array space that filled the entire canyon from the inside within two breaths.

The golden dots were densely packed, like fireflies filling the sky.

Each point of light is a miniature array eye.

Illusionary arrays superimposed on killing arrays, two levels of authority, fully deployed.

The ninth breath.

The terrain of Soul Valley began to distort in the eyes of the Cracked Mask.

The cliff face was deforming, stretching, and bending. The cliffs on the left and right sides slowly closed like two hands, completely blocking the only sliver of sunlight overhead.

The gravel ground beneath their feet cracked open, the gravel receding to both sides to reveal a bottomless abyss.

An unknown, fiery liquid surged in the abyss, its scorching heat rising from below, making one's skin feel tight.

The sky turned into an inverted sea of ​​fire.

The ground turned into an endless abyss.

The cliffs on the left and right meet.

There were golden barriers in front and behind.

They were stuffed into a huge coffin.

"Fifth Brother! It's fake! An illusion!" the Seventh Elder roared.

Of course, the cracked mask knew it was fake.

But is it useful to know it's fake?

The illusion array was superimposed with the killing array.

What you see is fake, but the knife that falls on you is real.

The golden light spots began to rotate.

Points of light connect to lines, lines connect to surfaces, and surfaces connect to solids, forming one rotating golden wind blade after another.

Wind blades surged in from all directions, without any pattern or direction, like a torrential downpour covering the sky.

The Third Elder was the first to be hit.

A wind blade sliced ​​across his left shoulder, cutting through his protective battle aura and leaving a half-inch deep gash on his shoulder.

Blood spurted out.

"Ah!" he screamed, instinctively slapping his palm in the direction from which the attack was coming.

The palm strike went out, but missed.

The wind blades are formed from the illusion array and have no physical origin. If one is shattered, the next one will immediately appear from another angle.

Moreover, the fighting spirit he unleashed was absorbed by the formation.

The three Dou Zong were struggling in the golden storm, like three fish thrown into a meat grinder.

The tenth breath.

"The gate to death is open."

Hunyu's voice faded.

The innermost layer of the formation lit up.

That's the core formation added after unlocking the second level of the Eight Trigrams Formation.

Golden patterns drew a circle under the feet of each of the three people.

The three people were separated by three circles.

Extremely dense golden runes appeared on the edge of the circle, and the direction of the runes' rotation was exactly opposite to that of the outer illusion array.

Suddenly, the man with the cracked mask realized that the Third Elder to his left had disappeared.

It wasn't that they were killed, it's that they've lost their sight.

All he could see was an endless abyss, an inverted sea of ​​fire, and golden wind blades surging in from all directions.

"Third brother! Seventh brother!" he shouted.

no respond.

The Third Elder did not hear the Fifth Brother's voice.

He heard a series of hurried footsteps coming from the direction of the abyss.

A black figure burst out of the abyss and delivered a heavy blow straight at his face.

The Third Elder instinctively blocked the attack, and their palms collided.

He sensed something was wrong as soon as he touched it.

"Seventh brother?"

The way that power was used, and the angle at which it was unleashed, were clearly the Seventh Elder's style.

But what he saw was not the Seventh Elder, but a twisted black figure, unrecognizable.

The core effect of the illusion array.

Segmented perception, distorted recognition.

The three people are isolated in their own death gates, unable to see each other's true appearance, but they can sense that "someone is attacking them".

Their survival instinct drove them to fight back with all their might.

They are attacking each other.

The three Dou Zong were killing each other.

On the other side of the canyon, on the carriage shaft, Hunyu pulled his left hand out of his sleeve and used the fan to block a muffled cough.

The golden lines on his palm had burned through the skin, and beads of blood were seeping out.

His gaze shifted from the three black figures fighting each other to his palm.

The law load of the two-layer array was more intense than he had anticipated.

But it is not important.

His gaze returned to the formation, watching the three Dou Zong members unleash their fists and killing moves at their companions within the illusionary array.

"kill."

The lips moved slightly, but only a breathy sound was heard.

The golden storm suddenly tightened.