The Sacrificial Relay

Layers of water walls rose up, one after another, as the Water-Fire Lotus bloomed fully.

The seventy-two flying swords, forming a massive arc from multiple directions, pierced through the layers of water walls, tore through the Water-Fire Lotus, and shot straight toward Ji Ning.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! A cascade of metallic sounds rang out. Ji Ning held his Northsea swords in both hands, executing his sword art. Instantly, a watery curtain of condensed sword-light formed around him. Despite being besieged by the flying swords, he focused entirely on defense, using only those two blades to block all seventy-two flying swords.

Whoosh!

A flying sword sliced across Ji Ning’s thigh, splattering blood.

Chi!

Another flew through his abdomen.

“Ji Ning, pull back! Now!” The clan leader, Ji Jiuhuo, who was personally controlling the Blackflame Dragon Prison Formation, transmitted his voice urgently.

“No.” Ji Ning refused, unwilling.

“Quickly! Your life is more important than all of ours combined. Stop pushing and come back!” Ji Jiuhuo’s voice carried a mix of anxiety and pain.

Ji Ning gritted his teeth and ignored the patriarch. He had to keep pushing, had to fight with everything he had for one last chance… because he truly did not want to fail.

He didn’t want to fail!

He didn’t want to watch them die!

He couldn’t!

…

In the distance, Immortal Xu Li’s expression shifted. “He has comprehended the Dao Domain. No wonder his swordplay is so fierce. He defends himself so perfectly that even a single drop of water couldn’t leak through. Those wounds I’ve inflicted on him are only what he allowed me to take.”

After all, the pressure of seventy-two flying swords pressing the attack was immense. Ji Ning was forced to occasionally use his body or the Dharma Treasure wings behind him to deflect the blades.

“Kill!” Ji Ning, who was straining to hold back the seventy-two flying swords, suddenly let a fierce light flash through his eyes.

Of the six hundred-plus flying swords floating behind him, more than five hundred suddenly lit up. A sword-beam coalesced in front of him, radiating a sharp, penetrating aura.

Swoosh!

The sword-beam shot through the air like a meteor.

This was the seventh layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation. While maintaining the Water-Fire Lotus, the water walls, and his sword art, Ji Ning could only split off a small portion of his mental energy to control the formation, limiting it to this level.

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” Ji Ning looked almost frenzied. Beams of sword-light coalesced before him again and again, streaking toward his opponent like falling rain.

“Die!” Ji Ning’s eyes burned with both desperate hope and a deep, gnawing fear—the terror of failure. When he found himself trapped by the seventy-two flying swords, unable to even get close to Immortal Xu Li, he realized… he was likely going to lose. The greatest advantage in his fight with Xu Li had been his movement technique!

If he couldn’t get close now, how could he win?

Was he about to fail?

If even he failed, then the Ji Clan had no more shields. They would have to meet the enemy with their very lives—his father, Ji Yichuan; the patriarch, Ji Jiuhuo; Granny Shadow… every one of them would have to charge into a suicidal battle.

“Die! Die! Die!” Ji Ning’s eyes were filled with pure killing intent.

He had to fight!

One final push!

The rain-like streaks of sword-light shot toward Immortal Xu Li.

Immortal Xu Li stood there, laughing coldly. “So stubborn.” The black rope hovering around him instantly began to circle rapidly, wrapping around his body in layer after layer. The thick, coarse coils nearly filled the air around him. When the rain of swords arrived, the black rope shifted only slightly, easily scattering the sword-rain.

Bang! Bang! Bang! With simple, subtle movements, the rope knocked aside each incoming attack.

The Earth-ranked Dharma Treasure, the Black Serpent Rope, was far too powerful. It shattered the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation’s beams with contemptuous ease.

“Go!”

The final streak of sword-rain arced through the air, suddenly changing direction to strike toward Nong Zidao, who was protected by the group of cultivators.

“If I kill Nong Zidao, it’s still a victory!” Ji Ning’s eyes in the distance were wild with frenzy.

ROOOAR~

The white flood dragon descended gently, enveloping Immortal Xu Li, Nong Zidao, Lu Huang, and the other nine cultivators. They were all now within the body of that snow-white dragon.

Just as Ji Ning and the others could hide within the dark dragon of the formation, Xu Li and his group could now take shelter inside the white dragon.

Bang! The final strand of sword-rain stabbed fiercely at the white dragon’s scales.

The dragon’s scales trembled slightly, and the sword-rain dissipated instantly.

Failed.

“Hahaha,” laughed Nong Zidao from within the white dragon’s body. “This Flood Dragon Formation was set up by Uncle-Master Xu Li and the nine of us together. Even if you had Uncle-Master’s strength, you couldn’t break it. How could you, with far less power?”

The dragon coiled in the sky.

All of them were safe inside, and Immortal Xu Li, positioned in the dragon’s head, stared coldly at Ji Ning from afar.

“My Snowdragon Mountain is famous across the boundless lands for our ‘Snowdragon Soars the Heavens Formation’,” Xu Li said, his eyes brimming with pride. “This Flood Dragon Formation is a simplified version, but once it is set up, the nine of us are as one. Even I cannot break it with all my strength. What hope do you have?”

…

Far away, Nong Zidao and Xu Li were speaking smugly. Ji Ning listened, but his mind was churning: “Is it… is it really forcing me to take that final step?”

“Do I really have to let my father and the others throw their lives away?”

Swoosh!

A sudden spatial fluctuation pierced through the air. Although Ji Ning could not see it with his naked eyes, he could sense it through his Rainwater Sword Domain. A spindle-shaped, peculiar object had crossed through space and was right in front of him.

“No!” Ji Ning was instantly jolted awake. The Dharma Treasure wings behind him flapped, and he immediately executed the Windwing Evasion technique, desperately trying to gain distance. However, the Northsea swords in his hands were currently occupied with blocking the seventy-two flying swords. The moment he relented in his defense, those seventy-two swords would chop him into meat paste.

Pu!

Despite his desperate dodge and intentional redirection, the spindle-shaped projectile pierced straight through his abdomen.

BOOM!

Ki erupted.

Ji Ning’s incredibly tough Fiendgod body was blasted open, leaving a wound larger than a human head in his side. His left waist was completely severed, held on only by the muscles of his right side.

“Heal.” Ji Ning continued using the Windwing Evasion to pull away, while simultaneously directing his divine power. Flesh and blood rapidly grew, and the massive hole in his waist closed up in the blink of an eye.

“Come back! Now!” Ji Jiuhuo transmitted furiously. “Ji Ning, if you don’t come back right now, we will all die with our eyes open!”

The old patriarch was truly panicked. He had urged Ji Ning to retreat before, but the boy had insisted on struggling. If this continued… Ji Ning was going to die.

Ji Ning clenched his jaw in agony.

Go.

Whoosh. With a flap of his wings, he plunged into the miasmic black aura nearby. The darkness was thick, and Xu Li and the others could only watch from a distance, not daring to enter.

“Ji Ning! You’ve been hit by my Blackblood Needle!” Immortal Xu Li called out loudly. “I can sense your location now. If you dare come close again, do not expect to leave alive.”

At the halfway point of Oxhorn Mountain.

Figures flew over one after another, turning into streaks of light. Ji Liuzhen, Granny Shadow, and the others all arrived, gathering together.

Swoosh. Ji Ning arrived as well.

“Ji Ning.” Ji Jiuhuo looked at this young man—the same young man who had risked his life again and again. He let out a long sigh. “Our Ji Clan has failed you.”

“Patriarch.” Ji Ning’s eyes reddened.

“You have done more than enough, and better than anyone could have asked.” Ji Jiuhuo gently patted Ji Ning on the shoulder. “In any large tribe or powerful clan, a peerless genius like you would never be forced to fight like this. It is our Ji Clan that has failed you. You alone killed Tongyu and a group of Zifu Disciples—that is already more than enough.”

“If we truly cannot survive this calamity, then it is Heaven’s will that our Ji Clan must fall.” Ji Jiuhuo’s voice grew soft. “Do not be angry. Do not be pained. A tribe has its rise and its decline. All we can do is exhaust every ounce of our strength, and that is enough. That Heaven allowed you to descend upon our Ji Clan is already a boundless grace.”

Ji Jiuhuo looked at Ji Ning. “I know that with you here, our Ji Clan will surely rise again!”

Ji Ning bit his lip, his heart trembling.

“Now that things have come to this,” Ji Jiuhuo said, his gaze sweeping over Granny Shadow, the old servant A Xing, Ji Liuzhen, Ji Yichuan, and the Earth Dragon and other spirit-beasts, “you all already understand the severity of the situation. There is a sealing formation outside. We have no path of retreat.”

“Today, we fight to the death.” Ji Jiuhuo’s voice was calm, but his eyes burned with fierce light.

“Fight to the death!”

Ji Yichuan, Ji Liuzhen, and the others each had a look of final resolve in their eyes.

None hesitated.

None feared.

If they had been afraid, they would not have come to Oxhorn Mountain.

“Listen to my orders,” Ji Jiuhuo said directly. “We must do everything in our power to prevent Nong Zidao from focusing on breaking the formation. We have to delay them as long as possible. So, Earth Dragon, you go first. Lure them and hold them off. When you die, the White Crane will take your place.”

The Earth Dragon and the White Crane—the two Zifu-level spirit-beasts who had transformed into a blue-armored giant and a white-robed girl—looked at each other, bitterness in their eyes.

“The two of you are simply out of luck. Go and fight with everything you have,” Ji Jiuhuo said. “If you die for our Ji Clan, you will still be able to enter the cycle of reincarnation. If you resist… I will annihilate your souls right now.”

“We obey.”

The blue-armored giant and the white-robed girl both lowered their heads.

Once a contract was signed, they had to obey their master’s orders absolutely. Otherwise, the master could have their souls destroyed with a thought.

“After the White Crane dies, Yichuan, you go up next.” Ji Jiuhuo looked at Ji Yichuan.

“Mm.” Ji Yichuan nodded.

He could only maintain Zifu-level strength for half an hour, making him the least valuable contributor to the Blackflame Dragon Prison Formation. He had to be the first of the Ji Clan to charge in.

“After Yichuan dies, Liu Xing, you go up.” Ji Jiuhuo looked at the old servant A Xing.

A Xing nodded.

“After Liu Xing dies, Ji Ying, you go up.” Ji Jiuhuo looked at his younger sister.

Granny Shadow nodded.

“After Ji Ying falls, Liuzhen, you go up.” Ji Jiuhuo looked at Ji Liuzhen. “I will follow immediately after.”

No one raised any objections.

Ji Ning watched this scene, his heart aching with unbearable pain. He quickly said, “Patriarch, I am the strongest. I can go and delay them too. I can launch repeated sneak attacks, keeping Nong Zidao distracted so he can’t focus on breaking the formation.”

“Did you not hear what Immortal Xu Li said?” Ji Jiuhuo shouted. “You’ve been hit by his Blackblood Needle. He can sense your location. If you get close, he will have every trap ready for you. If we die, it doesn’t matter. But if you die, you are not letting yourself down—you are letting down the entire Ji Clan! Do you understand?”

Ji Ning clenched his teeth.

“Ji Ning.” Granny Shadow’s voice was hoarse. “If you dare go again, I will kill myself right in front of you right now.”

“Granny Shadow…” Ji Ning felt his heart tear apart.

“Ji Ning.” Ji Yichuan looked at his son, entrusting him with his final words. “Don’t make our deaths worthless.”