C322 The Destruction of the Formation
Deep within the Forgotten Ruins, amidst a range of steep mountains, stood a grand and majestic formation against the night sky. The square formation was supported by four thick marble pillars, gleaming with a crystalline sheen under the moonlight. This sheen caused the surrounding space to ripple incessantly.
Nearby, rows of modest wooden huts housed a dozen disciples of the Ethereal Void Sect. Seated on meditation mats, they clutched soulstones, drawing in the spiritual energy to further their cultivation.
In front of the rune circle, a compass linked to the formation served to pinpoint direction and target. A middle-aged man, his cultivation at the middle period of the Lunar Spirit Realm, donned a black robe and a crest upon his head. He sat tranquilly above the compass, conversing with several individuals beside him—cultivators from the Thunder Sect, Winter's Bite, and various other sects.
"Fen Gu, is there truly a Mysterious Realm here?" inquired a female cultivator from the Cloudwater Sect, her colorful attire adorned with patterns resembling flowing water. She had only recently entered the Lunar Spirit Stage and carried herself with a certain lightness. While speaking, she playfully exhaled in the direction of the man from the Ethereal Void Sect.
Fen Gu spared her a glance, disinterestedly responding, "You should pose that question to someone from the Forgeroses."
"The Forgeroses didn't send anyone specifically to the Forgotten Ruins," Wang Yuan from the Cloudwater Sect remarked with a soft sigh. "That's the peculiar part. Everyone talks about Shen Feiqing's master discovering the Mysterious Realm here, but why is it that no one from the Forgeroses has shown up?"
The others shared her puzzlement. The seven great lower sects—Ethereal Void Sect, Starmoon Sect, Thunder Sect, Winter's Bite, Abyssal Dawn, and Cloudwater Sect—had all dispatched disciples and elders to some extent. Yet the Forgeroses, who should have been at the forefront, were conspicuously absent.
And what of Shen Feiqing, the forsaken disciple of the Forgeroses? Wasn't she supposed to be executed by her own sect?
"Shen Feiqing's master merely vanished into the extraterrestrial realm. There's no confirmation of his death," Fen Gu said, furrowing his brow as he regarded the teleportation circle that the Ethereal Void Sect had painstakingly constructed. "It seems the Forgeroses are still wary of his presence, hence why they've labeled Shen Feiqing a deserter rather than a traitor."
As he spoke, a contemplative look crossed the faces of those present.
The man in question had once been a formidable figure on the Euwrea Continent. Before his departure to the extraterrestrial realms, he had been embroiled in a fierce dispute with the current Sect Master of the Forgeroses over leadership of the sect.
His failure to secure the position led him to leave for the extraterrestrial in a fit of rage, never to return.
His absence dealt a significant blow to the Forgeroses.
Had he remained with the Forgeroses, had he still been alive, it was likely that the sect could have risen from the bottom of the seven lower sects.
The Cloudwater Sect, ranked just above them, had even braced itself for the possibility of being overtaken by the Forgeroses.
The power struggle between him and the current sect master had severely weakened the Forgeroses. When he left for the extraterrestrial, he took several of the sect's strongest members with him, none of whom returned.
Shen Feiqing, his most cherished and esteemed direct disciple, was left behind due to her insufficient cultivation level, which made her ineligible to travel to the outer realms.
The Forgeroses viewed the man as a traitor, and Shen Feiqing, being his direct disciple, would face more than just expulsion if his death were confirmed.
"Is he truly as fearsome as the rumors suggest?" a woman from the Cloudwater Sect whispered to herself.
Fen Gu let out a derisive snort and replied, "At our Ethereal Void Sect, he's considered a formidable rival. Your Cloudwater Sect should count yourselves lucky that he hasn't returned. Otherwise, the Forgeroses surpassing you would be a certainty."
With that, Fen Gu dismissed the woman from the Cloudwater Sect, who was not well-regarded.
He then bowed his head, manipulating an emblem in his hands, and murmured, "Odd, why haven't I heard anything from Jinlin?"
Wang Jinlin possessed an identical emblem, which allowed for communication and the exchange of messages across distances of up to ten thousand miles.
Yet, for some unknown reason, the last message from Wang Jinlin merely mentioned his visit to an unusual mid-lake island where he witnessed Shen Feiqing falling onto the island. Since then, there had been silence.
Despite repeated inquiries, Wang Jinlin had not responded, leaving Fen Gu increasingly anxious.
He was well aware that Wang Jinlin was the chosen successor of Chong Xiao, a Sage with the cultivation level of a Solar Spirit. Knowing he had no hope of fathering children, Chong Xiao had raised Wang Jinlin as if he were his own son.
In the Forgotten Ruins, his role was merely that of a supervisor, tasked by Chong Xiao with monitoring the teleportation circle.
In reality, the one with decision-making power was Wang Jinlin.
Chong Xiao believed that neither the Silvermoon Empire nor the Sunblessed Empire would dare to cross Wang Jinlin, which is why he had been sent there.
"Nothing must go wrong, or else..."
Fen Gu's anxiety grew as he stared at the still emblem, fearing that any mishap involving Wang Jinlin could provoke Chong Xiao, an elder with a fearsome reputation within the sect, to emerge from his seclusion.
"Look, an island floating in the sky!"
Someone exclaimed suddenly.
Snapped out of his reverie, Fen Gu hurried to see and immediately spotted an island drifting towards them in the moonlight.
The island exuded a familiar dragon's breath. Squinting, he could make out strands of silver dragon tendons and droplets of dragon blood seeping into the earth.
"The flesh of Bai Shuang!"
Fen Gu's face turned pale as he let out a cry of alarm, urging everyone to be cautious.
His warning sent a ripple of panic through the cultivators from the seven great sects gathered around the teleportation circle.
"Hu! Hu! Hu!"
A thick, rainbow-hued miasma burst forth from the island, surging towards them.
Within the miasma, a powerful surge of vitality was palpable, and seven massive pythons could be seen, their cold, murderous gazes fixed on the group.
Upon recognizing the seven pythons, Fen Gu's complexion shifted again as he bellowed, "Python Queen Xu Zixi!"
As a cultivator of the Ethereal Void Sect stationed at the teleportation circle in the Forgotten Ruins, he was intimately familiar with the cultivators from both the Sunblessed Empire and the Silvermoon Empire.
The Python Queen Xu Zixi was a figure he watched closely, her image etched deeply in his mind.
But hadn't she just recently been aboard the Golden Ship with Wei Wujiang?
What was Xu Zixi doing here?
Before he could make sense of it, the miasma and seven monstrous pythons had already launched their attack.
Simultaneously, the floating island moved into position above the teleportation circle.
Yan Qiling emerged abruptly from a tear in the space rift, a cold smile on his face as he looked toward Yu Yuan on the island. In an instant, he transformed into a black wisp of light and dove into the teleportation circle, a costly creation of the Ethereal Void Sect, supported by four massive pillars.
The square rune circle, constructed of jade, was a complex web of intertwining light patterns.
Within it, the golden light that emanated flowed like molten gold.
As Yan Qiling's black light touched the formation, the crisscrossing golden light was immediately tainted with darkness, and its flow was forcibly redirected.
"With his proficiency in space magic, constructing a teleportation circle is beyond him now," the High Oracle explained to Yu Yuan with a smile. "However, he's quite capable of simple destruction, rendering this teleportation circle inoperable for a short time."
"We're here to ensure he can sabotage the teleportation circle without interference," Xu Zixi stated.
Zhou Cangmin let out a soft laugh.
Then, in an instant, his overwhelming remnant soul swept down upon the island like countless razor-sharp blades.
"Puff! Puff! Puff!"
The cultivators present, Fen Gu among them, found their three souls extinguished in an instant.
