Endless Vast Skies

A single ship was tearing through the skies of the endless void.

The Loose Immortal Xuli, Dong Fanyu, and Wu Qi were all aboard the ship. Suddenly, Dong Fanyu pointed into the distance in surprise. "That's Junior Apprentice-Brother Lu." In the distance, a streak of light was flying, but its speed was clearly far inferior to their own.

"Seems to be heading toward the Yan Mountains as well?" Wu Qi said in surprise.

"Apprentice-Nephew Lu?" The Loose Immortal Xuli revealed a rare hint of a smile. The ship immediately shot toward that streak of light, closing the distance in a few short breaths and appearing directly in its path.

Standing atop the streak of light was a middle-aged man.

There was a look of urgent anxiety in his eyes. When he saw the ship blocking his path, he was forced to slow down. But upon seeing the figure of the Loose Immortal Xuli on the ship, he immediately bowed respectfully. "Lu Huang pays respects to Uncle-Master Xu. I didn't expect to run into you here, Uncle-Master."

When his gaze swept past Dong Fanyu, who stood beside Xuli, Lu Huang's eyes instantly turned red with fury. "Dong Fanyu, you old villain!"

"Why is Apprentice-Nephew Lu so angry?" Xuli asked.

"Junior Apprentice-Brother Lu, we were having a perfectly pleasant chat when I visited you before. Why the cursing the moment you see me? I brought your Lu Clan a great opportunity," Dong Fanyu said, confused.

Lu Huang was enraged. Pointing at Dong Fanyu, he said urgently, "Uncle-Master Xuli, this Dong Fanyu came to me earlier and told me about the elemental ore vein. As a result, our Lu Clan and the An Clan of the Tongshui Branch each sent out a Zifu Disciple. But just a short while ago, the life-tablets of the Zifu Disciples sent by our Lu Clan and the An Clan suddenly shattered. The one who died was my own little sister! Dong Fanyu talks about a great opportunity, saying the Ji Clan is nothing to worry about. But now? The two Zifu Disciples sent by our Tongshui Branch are both dead! I was heading to Snowdragon City to get to the bottom of this and demand an explanation!"

"What? Both dead?" Dong Fanyu was greatly shocked.

"What is the meaning of this?" the Loose Immortal Xuli frowned as well. Wu Qi's face also darkened.

If the matter was this thorny, it was no longer an opportunity. It was a disaster.

Dong Fanyu hastily and anxiously said, "I'm not lying. It's just a Ji Clan. There were no other enemies. Our Yanshan Branch also invited fellow disciples; there are definitely many Zifu Disciples arriving. How could this be... how could this be..."

"But the fact is that the two Zifu Disciples from my Tongshui Branch are both dead!" Lu Huang roared.

"I, Dong Fanyu, swear by the heavens, if I deceived Junior Apprentice-Brother Lu, may my soul be scattered and never enter reincarnation again!" Dong Fanyu said urgently.

Only then did Lu Huang's expression improve slightly after hearing this oath.

A cultivator's vow was not something to be taken lightly.

"Hmph." Lu Huang let out a cold snort.

"It seems Fanyu wasn't lying," the Loose Immortal Xuli said calmly. "Then something must have happened over at the Yan Mountains. Apprentice-Nephew Lu, come with me."

The Loose Immortal Xuli's earlier casual demeanor was gone, replaced by a hint of seriousness.

Swoosh!

The ship immediately tore through the air, rapidly speeding toward the Yan Mountains.

...

Within the Blackflame Dragon Prison Formation on Oxhorn Mountain.

Ji Ning sat cross-legged.

Flying swords hovered around him. He had carefully searched through the storage treasures of the eight Zifu Disciples he had just killed... and had obtained a total of fifteen flying swords. What delighted Ji Ning the most was the cultivator with the aquiline nose. Inside his storage treasure, there was actually a full set of nine flying swords... These nine flying swords clearly came from the same source, all emanating a cold, icy aura.

The moment he discovered them, Ji Ning was overjoyed. "Excellent, excellent, excellent. A set from the same source! This will make the formation matrices far more powerful. This aquiline-nose cultivator... he was the hardest one to kill among the eight, but it seems he had the most treasures."

Ji Ning didn't know the aquiline-nose cultivator's name. In his initial assassination attempt, he had planned to strike this man first. But the cultivator seemed to sense the danger and had suddenly protected himself with a large umbrella, forcing Ji Ning to abandon that target and switch to another. In the head-on assault that followed, Ji Ning had to use three sword-light beams to finally kill him.

"Earlier, I had thirteen graded flying swords. Now I have fifteen more, for a total of twenty-eight graded flying swords... I can now form three formation matrices."

Ji Ning naturally seized the time to refine these flying swords.

Without a doubt, the current Lesser Thousand Sword Formation would use the set of nine icy flying swords, all from the same source, as its core.

"Whew." Ji Ning opened his eyes. "Done."

He had successfully refined all fifteen newly acquired graded flying swords.

"Let's try it out."

Ji Ning willed it.

Swoosh~~~

Over seven hundred flying swords appeared in the air, twenty-seven of which were graded flying swords, forming three formation matrices! The nine icy flying swords served as the core, driving the entire Lesser Thousand Sword Formation.

"Oh?" Ji Ning's expression changed as a splitting headache tore through him.

Controlling so many flying swords with his divided attention while arranging them into the ninth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation placed an enormous strain on his soul. Graded flying swords were especially difficult to control; a single graded sword was harder to manage than ten ungraded ones!

"I can't set up the ninth layer?" Ji Ning had failed in his first attempt. He hadn't been able to fully activate it. "Just adding eighteen graded flying swords, and I can't set up the ninth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation anymore?"

"That's not right."

Ji Ning continued to experiment.

The flying swords around him drifted and shifted, changing their positions.

"Yin and Yang transform into each other; from genesis, endless life is born!" Ji Ning suddenly thought of the bottleneck he had encountered when trying to break through to the seventh stage of the Crimsonbright Diagram. The manual had mentioned 'Yin and Yang transform into each other; from genesis, endless life is born.' Now, while studying this formation... this insight was suddenly triggered, and he vaguely began to understand this principle. If he were to carefully meditate on it now, he could probably break through to the seventh stage of the Crimsonbright Diagram in as little as an hour or as long as a few days!

But Ji Ning did not choose to meditate on it. Because even if his Fiendgod Body Refining improved, it wouldn't increase his combat strength by much!

With his current power, aided by the Blackflame Dragon Prison Formation, his Yuan power was already far stronger than even a peak Zifu Disciple's. By combining his Sword Domain and the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation, he could achieve such devastating power. Even if his Fiendgod Body Refining improved a bit, it truly wouldn't help his combat effectiveness. Besides, there was no time for leisurely meditation right now.

"Yin and Yang transform into each other; from genesis, endless life is born." Ji Ning looked at the twenty-seven flying swords before him.

The nine icy flying swords were the core.

The flying swords of the other two formation matrices revolved around these nine icy swords, slowly rotating, even crossing each other. The formations resonated with one another, and the two matrices vaguely merged into one.

"Yes."

"The mutual transformation of Yin and Yang..." Ji Ning's eyes lit up. "One is the core. Two are the assistants. Three are the ten thousand things."

Swoosh~~~

Over seven hundred flying swords floated around Ji Ning. An incredibly powerful wave of energy began to coalesce. A sliver of sharp sword-light congealed before Ji Ning. This sliver of sword-light was vividly clear, forming the exact image of a flying sword. It was simply a flying sword made of pure light.

"Ah!" Ji Ning felt a sharp, piercing pain in his head. But a look of excited joy appeared on his face. "Haha, I did it, I did it."

Even with the insight of 'Yin and Yang transform into each other; from genesis, endless life is born,' he had only barely managed to execute the now far more powerful ninth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation. It had pushed him to his absolute limit; his soul was clearly straining under the immense pressure.

"The eighth layer is better." Ji Ning immediately severed the connection to eighty-one of the ordinary flying swords, keeping them in a simple floating state.

"Sword-light."

Ji Ning once again condensed a sliver of sword-light.

This was the sword-light formed by the current eighth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation. It was still shaped like a flying sword, but it wasn't as clear as before.

"It feels a bit more powerful than the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation I used when I killed Dong Ziqi and the others." Ji Ning revealed a joyful expression. When he killed Dong Ziqi, his formation had nine flying swords. Now he had twenty-seven flying swords... At that time, it was the ninth layer. Now, it was the eighth layer.

His current eighth layer was even more powerful than his previous ninth layer.

The main reason for this massive improvement was one thing... the addition of the nine icy flying swords, all from the same source.

"Swoosh!" Ji Ning withdrew his flying swords and immediately rushed toward the Patriarch's location.

He arrived shortly.

"Ji Ning." Ji Jiuhuo and Ji Yichuan both looked at the suddenly arriving Ji Ning.

"Patriarch, these are some of the magic treasures, Dao talismans, and pills I obtained from the Zifu Disciples I killed earlier," Ji Ning said. "I kept a few things, but the rest aren't very useful to me. I'll give these to the Patriarch... especially the medicinal pills. Some of them can replenish Yuan power, which will be of great use to us."

Ji Jiuhuo nodded and, without any false modesty, directly accepted the storage bracelet Ji Ning handed over.

"Then I'll go deal with that Tongyu," Ji Ning said.

"Be careful," Ji Yichuan warned from the side.

"Don't worry, Father." Ji Ning grinned, then turned and, following the path through the black mist that Ji Jiuhuo had parted for him, quickly rushed toward Tongyu's location.

...

Within the mist of the Blackflame Dragon Prison Formation.

"Why hasn't he come yet?" Tongyu stood like a demon god, his aura vast and overwhelming. His cyan hair drifted in the air, waves of divine power faintly surging. Being inside the enemy's grand formation, he had to keep his divine power moving, ready to unleash his full combat strength at a moment's notice.

"Elder Apprentice-Brother Tongyu, that Ji Ning is only sixteen years old. He must have used some dirty tricks to kill the other junior apprentice-brothers. But you, Elder Apprentice-Brother, are a Fiendgod Body Refiner with a divine ability. Tricks are useless against you. He's probably scared."

"That must be it. He's scared."

The other Zifu Disciples were also talking.

Tongyu stood silently, his gaze sweeping across the darkness before him. He couldn't help but wonder... was Ji Ning really afraid? Otherwise, given that Nong Zidao was studying the formation's weakness, why hadn't Ji Ning come to face him yet, even after all this time since killing Dong Ziqi and the others?

He had no idea that Ji Ning was busy refining his new flying swords.

"Hmph. The longer he delays, the more confident Junior Apprentice-Brother Zidao becomes. Once the Blackflame Dragon Prison Formation is broken, if this formation falls, you're all dead." Tongyu was confident.

Suddenly...

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~ A drizzling rain fell from the void. The rain was cold, descending like silk threads and a mist, spreading through the entire area. It was blocked by their protective grand formation and could not seep in even a little.

"Rain!"

"It's rain!" The other Zifu Disciples all revealed looks of terror. Dong Ziqi's group had warned them earlier; this rain... was a precursor to death and crisis.

"Rain!" Tongyu's eyes flashed with golden light. He let out a thunderous roar. His body instantly began to emit a dazzling golden light as he started to grow larger. Rumble~~~ He transformed into a giant that was two stories tall. The other Zifu Disciples only came up to his knees. The wind from his breathing caused the air around him to explode. His footsteps made the entire earth tremble and shake.

Divine Ability — Heavenly Transformation!

The giant Tongyu's eyes shot out golden rays as he bellowed, "Ji Ning, come out and fight!"

His voice was deep and resonant, echoing within his own chest cavity as it rolled outward.