The Formation

With a sharp swish, Li Huowang, hurled into the air by Peng Longteng, slammed heavily into the crowd.

With Li Huowang at the center, a wave of fire erupted. Everything caught in the fiery surge became a blazing torch alongside him.

At that very moment, Peng Longteng, her entire body ablaze, charged in as well, her massive halberd raised as she bore down on the Fa Sect worshippers.

The heavy armor on her body had been completely heated to a dark red by the flames. Amidst the crowd, she slaughtered with god-like ferocity, unstoppable.

Many attacks struck Peng Longteng. She suffered fatal wounds, yet she simply refused to fall. The last weakness of the military path had been filled by Li Huowang’s ability.

“Die! Every last one of you, DIE!”

At this moment, Peng Longteng felt the sensation of galloping across the battlefield return to her. She loved this feeling. She loved killing. She loved the sight of living people being crushed and mangled beneath her horse’s hooves.

Clearly, these men had been caught off guard by Li Huowang and Peng Longteng. Many of them, covered in flames, collapsed to the ground without moving before they could even react.

Yet, facing Li Huowang’s ferocious assault, they were also clearly well-prepared.

“Qian Jing Yao Hui Yu Chi Dong, Meng Wei Sheng Zhe Ming Qing Tong! Zhi Huo Wan Li Kan Zhen Gong, Yu Qi Xun Fa Lai Tai Meng, Mu Lang Tai Yi San Shan Xiong, Pi Li Po Shi Quan Yuan Tong! Yi Sheng Si Hai Gai Hun Meng, Yu Zhen Suo Zhi Chuan Liu Hong!”

With a trio of peachwood swords embedded with purple talismans pointed at the sky, dark clouds gathered overhead. As the clouds pressed down, a torrential downpour poured forth to drench the fully engulfed Li Huowang.

The heavy rain falling from the sky could not extinguish the great flames on Li Huowang, which came from Bashe, but it could suppress the fire’s spread.

In the driving rain, a Wu Minister wearing a mask inscribed with the character for “shaman” emerged from Li Huowang’s shadow, an obsidian dagger in hand, ready to strike at his calf.

But in that instant, a tentacle shot out, firmly entangling the hand. “You are NOT allowed to touch my father!”

Turning his head, the Wu Minister saw even more black tentacles surging towards him.

The tentacles, made even more slippery by the rain, slid smoothly in from the edges of his mask, rapidly burrowing into his seven orifices.

Once Li Sui had quickly adapted to this new body, she immediately turned, raising the obsidian dagger to help Li Huowang.

Under the assault of Li Huowang, Suisui, and Peng Longteng, body after body fell. Yet the distant Taishan Shi showed no sign of urgency, his hands clasped behind his back as he silently calculated something.

As his fingers behind his back rapidly made divination gestures, the Fa Sect followers around Li Huowang began to move in a specific pattern around him.

“This Taishan Shi seems to be the one in charge! A few months gone, and this guy from the Great Qi has managed to worm his way up here too!” Li Huowang thought, glaring intently at Taishan Shi.

“Killing these cannon fodder is useless! I need to take that bastard out first!” With that thought, Li Huowang shot Peng Longteng a meaningful glance.

The battle-hardened Peng Longteng instantly understood. She raised her massive halberd with both hands. Whir, whir, whir… The flaming, heavy halberd spun as it hurtled towards Taishan Shi.

Seeing the heavy weapon flying towards him, the sleeve of an old man beside Taishan Shi suddenly moved. Several shadows emerged from his shadow, leaping towards the weapon.

But just as the shadows were about to strike the giant halberd, Li Huowang’s brow furrowed in the distance. The halberd instantly transitioned from reality to illusion, passing straight through the shadows.

The halberd, now an illusion, did not stop. It continued hurtling towards Taishan Shi at its original speed.

At this moment, apart from Li Huowang, no one else could see the halberd.

Just as the illusion was about to smash into Taishan Shi’s face, with Li Huowang’s intense focus, the halberd turned solid once more.

At such close range, even a descending Immortal wouldn't have been able to dodge. The halberd struck Taishan Shi squarely.

However, the fate that had befallen Jin Shan earlier did not repeat itself. The halberd hitting Taishan Shi produced a dull thud that no ordinary human body could ever make.

Then, Taishan Shi reached out and steadily caught the halberd. Under the watchful eyes of Li Huowang and Peng Longteng, he grabbed the weapon with both hands. With a screech of grinding metal, he forcibly bent and snapped the bowl-thick halberd in two.

Taishan Shi tossed the broken halberd to the ground and stared coldly at Li Huowang. “Formation!”

The moment the words left his mouth, the Fa Sect worshippers surrounding Li Huowang, in perfect unison, tore off their clothes, revealing the dense tattoos covering their bodies.

The tattoos were strange, unlike ordinary script, more like some bizarre characters formed by a series of large and small circles.

In the pouring rain, the worshippers, their faces hidden behind masks inscribed with the character for “shaman,” twisted their bodies and began to move rapidly.

These contorting bodies, along with their tattoos, formed a massive, living formation. Li Huowang was right at its center. Unlike the bait back in the swamp, this formation was clearly larger and deeper.

Strange sounds followed, emanating from their mouths. It seemed to be some kind of scripture, but interspersed within it were sounds an ordinary human mouth would find very difficult to make.

“Om na li lo hum dha ma sa ha, the Heavenly Gate opens from this. Om ma ri dha du du lo sa ha, the Dark Portal never closes. Om dha su ri dha ma ji sa ha, fate flows beyond life and death…”

Gradually, these sounds began to harmonize, and a faint crane’s cry began to appear within the chant.

Li Huowang didn’t know what they were doing, but it was clear that if he didn’t stop them immediately, the trouble would be enormous!

He drew his spine-sword. Cracks of light flew out, slicing into the flesh-and-blood formation, cutting some of the Fa Sect followers who seemed to be trying to dodge in two.

But even so, the formation was unaffected. Even when a person died, their tattoos strangely peeled away from their skin, still floating in mid-air, connecting with the others.

A blurred crane call rang in Li Huowang’s ears. He felt a gaze fixed upon him from above his head.

This familiar feeling made Li Huowang’s heart sink. “No way? To deal with me, they’re trying to summon Yuer Shen down to the mortal realm?!”

Back in the Great Liang capital, Li Huowang remembered the terrifying power of the Yin-Yang Doumu. And that was only an avatar. Even Zhuge Yuan couldn’t withstand it back then.

If this Yuer Shen really did descend to the mortal realm, even if he was Ji Zai’s Heart-Pan, he was definitely dead!

Li Huowang knew this. Peng Longteng knew this. Even Suisui knew this. They quickly slaughtered most of the people within the formation, but the crane’s cry only became clearer.

Li Huowang raised his sword, trying to slash at the strange tattoos floating in the air. The tattoos were easily cut, but as soon as the sword blade passed, they reconnected.

“Li Huowang, since you refused a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit, today is your death day!” Taishan Shi shouted at Li Huowang, his expression gloomy. “You should feel honored! Not just anyone gets to see the true face of Lord Shidu!”

“You want me to just lie down and die? Dream on!” Li Huowang, his heart hardened with resolve, tossed his longsword aside. He kicked off from Peng Longteng’s palm, leaping high into the air.

High in the air, Li Huowang hung upside down, his eyeballs bleached white by the flames, looking down at the living formation below.

The saying goes, the higher you stand, the farther you see. At this moment, Li Huowang took in the entire formation at a glance. The twisting, writhing formation seemed to form a huge character: 滇 (diān).

The crane call in his ears was becoming increasingly distinct. With a twisted expression on his face, Li Huowang reached one hand out to grip the upper half of the character, and the other hand, to grip the lower half of the character.