Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
The Primordial Age was the era when the Demonic Clan ruled the world, and the Humans were weak. Since the First Emperor, the Humans have been slowly growing through constant work and effort.
During the rise of the Humans, generations of leaders and masters have put themselves on the frontlines of the effort selflessly. From the first of the Emperors of Man, the First Emperor, to the last Emperor of Man of the Primordial Age, Emperor Tai, every single generation of the Emperors of Man have fallen to the Demons. However, there was no lack of great masters deserving of a place in the history books amongst them.
One of these Emperors of Man was known as the Emperor of Culture, and his name rang loud even today. The First Emperor passed away before he could complete the Immortal Dragon City, and the Immortal Dragon City was lost as well. The Emperor of Culture’s Yellow River Map and Lo Shu Square, meanwhile, was the first completed Destiny-realm magic treasure in the history of Humanity. Although it was later destroyed along with the Emperor of Culture himself at the hands of the Primordial Holy Demonic Emperor, Emperor Jue – Xuan Shang, it still left an inerasable mark on the history of the rise of Humanity.
At the same time, the Emperor of Culture was the father of human formations. Even today, he was still widely recognized as one of the strongest masters in terms of formations in the entire history of human cultivation.
Although the mantle of the Emperor of Culture was already almost completely extinct, his prowess for formations has always influenced human cultivators for posterity.
In its long years of lying low, the line of the Emperor of the Dead has also secretly recruited many Satanic Way cultivators and independent cultivators. The current King Pingdeng – and once, the Miaoyin Lady – was once a mere independent cultivator. Through chance, she received an unthinkable opportunity, obtaining the fragmented inheritance of the Emperor of Culture’s mantle and starting her cultivation.
After joining the Hall of the Dead, she converted her cultivation to the line of the Emperor of the Dead. After corroborating and co-referencing, she eventually succeeded in attaining Immortal Soul.
Although she was Cultivation of Avatar-level, King Pingdeng’s mastery of the way of formations was rivaled by little even in the entire Hall of the Dead. The ex-Hallmaster of the Hall of the Dead, Xu Anda, was once quoted as saying that, disregarding the strength of Mana or Abhijnas and merely considering formations, this woman was stronger than even the Leader of the Path of Hell of the Samsara Sect, the Cultivation of Virtual Entity-level Ming Zun.
The black-awning boat beneath her feet, meanwhile, was forged with a treasure forging technique of the Primordial Age inheritance of the Emperor of Culture’s mantle. Its name was the Boat of River Luo, and it specialized in resolving the formations of others, and could even analyze the formation and identify the principles and mechanisms within.
Back in these years, the Emperor of Culture has forged an even stronger Boat of River Luo. It was used to analyze and solve all kinds of ancient formations, so as to turn them into formations that can be more easily mastered by human cultivators.
It did not have any special powers in terms of combat, but its power to resolve formations was famous in the entire history of human cultivation.
However, the Emperor of Culture’s Boat of River Luo was destroyed long ago, and the technique for its crafting was long since lost as well. Hence, cultivators now have largely forgotten about it.
However, right now, Li Yuanfang sensed the arcane air of power within that little black-awning boat through his Formation of Nine Bends of the Heaven River and immediately knew that it must be the Boat of River Luo that King Pingdeng forged.
Although it was still a Gestation-realm magic treasure, its profound capabilities were already showing. Bearing King Pingdeng, it traversed Li Yuanfang’s Formation of Nine Bends of the Heaven River far more easily than the other Hall of the Dead cultivators, and headed right for the eye of the formation, where Li Yuanfang stood.
King Pingdeng was a loyal confidant of the Emperor of the Dead as well. Her personality was more distant and indifferent, but she was extremely loyal to the Emperor of the Dead. Right now, guarding the Emperor of the Dead, she was putting in every effort as well.
“This one has not yet attained Immortal Soul, but the formation he laid seem to be in no way weaker than that old ghost, Ming Zun…” King Pingdeng was constantly calculating the transformations of the Formation of Nine Bends of the Heaven River as well. Although the anti-formation power of the Boat of River Luo was strong, it depended on the level of the magic treasure itself as well. In addition, it needed to work together with the line of the Emperor of Culture’s special calculation Abhijna to unleash its power.
If the cultivator’s own skill of formations and talent were not enough, it would be hard to even command the Boat of River Luo. King Pingdeng’s talent for formations and strength was extraordinary, and could naturally traverse Li Yuanfang’s formation on the Boat of River Luo. However, it was hard for her to break the Formation of Nine Bends of the Heaven River as well.
Therefore, King Pingdeng explored all the way towards the eye of the formation, to find Li Yuanfang and attack his person directly.
Looking at Li Yuanfang, she shook the Soul-Amassing Lamp in her hand lightly. The green ghostly fire started to flash intensely, and a strange attractive force extended from the lamp.
Li Yuanfang frowned slightly. His body felt nothing out of the ordinary, but his Soul started to become unstable – as if his Soul has left his body, and was sucked into that green flame.
Once his Soul became unstable, the entire Formation of Nine Bends of the Heaven River started to shake slightly, as if it was about to become sluggish and delayed.
Li Yuanfang’s gaze fell on King Pingdeng a swell. With a flip of his palm, a rusty, ancient brass bell appeared – the Soul-Repressing Bell.
The bell rang continuously, immediately neutralizing the attacks from King Pingdeng’s Soul-Amassing Lamp.
He has not yet attained Immortal Soul and could not yet unleash the full power of the Soul-Repressing Bell, and by right, should not be able to hold up against King Pingdeng’s Soul-Amassing Lamp. However, as long as he could slightly mitigate the Soul-Amassing Lamp’s evil magic, Li Yuanfang could stabilize his Soul himself, such that it would not be attracted by the Soul-Amassing Lamp.
Under the black robe, King Pingdeng said emotionlessly, “This magic treasure of yours used to belong to the Hall of the Dead. Don’t you feel it’s funny that you’re using it to battle us?”
Her other hand extended out from the black robe and knocked on the Soul-Amassing Lamp once, lightly.
The lush-green flame trembled, and a line of fire shot out from within, straight at the Soul-Repressing Bell.
The line of fire landed on the Soul-Repressing Bell, and numerous currents of gray light suddenly surged, enveloping the Soul-Repressing Bell. The sound of the Soul-Repressing Bell instantly faded, and the evil power of the Soul-Amassing Bell started to take effect once again.
However, Li Yuanfang seemed to ignore all of this. His right hand was still controlling the Formation of Nine Bends of the Heaven River as it switched through arcane gestures, and the gesture of his left hand suddenly became peculiar as it tapped in the direction of the Soul-Repressing Bell.
With this light tap, the Soul-Repressing Bell shook thunderously, and jet-black light lit up on the Soul-Repressing Bell. Indistinctly, the sound of wind sounded from within.
Although the black light appearered ordinary, it caused King Pingdeng to feel fear. Instinctively, she could sense enormous danger within.
The next moment, countless black wind suddenly expanded outwards, with the Soul-Repressing Bell at their center, forming a gigantic formation. It swept towards King Pingdeng along that green line of fire instead; the result of Li Yuanfang’s Heluo Heavenly Gate Formation opening the West Gate, the Black Nightmare Saint-Trapping Formation.
At this moment, the sound of the Soul-Repressing Bell became lower and lower, almost disappearing. However, the strength within became stronger instead, freeing itself from the green line of fire. The sound of the bell became lower, because its strength merged completely with the Black Nightmare Saint-Trapping Formation.
Seeing the Black Nightmare Saint-Trapping Formation sweeping towards her, beneath the black robe, King Pingdeng’s body shook slightly.
Suddenly, the black robes came loose, and from within, currents of gray light shot out. The light currents became a wheel-like entity in the Void; as the wheel turned, it resembled the cycle of life and death, the alternation of the Yin and the Yang.
The Immortal Soul Avatar obtained when one of the line of the Emperor of the Dead attained Immortal Soul.
After King Pingdeng materialized her Immortal Soul Avatar, gray fog sprayed out of the center of the wheel, falling onto the Boat of River Luo below.
The Boat of River Luo, which looked like a little black-awning boat, did not change in terms of external appearances. However, it became even smaller in size, traversing the Void with King Pingdeng’s Immortal Soul and evading Li Yuanfang’s Black Nightmare Saint-Trapping Formation.
Simultaneously, gray currents of light surged out from King Pingdeng’s Immortal Soul, rapidly forming an arcane and complex formation, resembling the Nine Halls of the Lo Shu Square. From it, great waves of strength emitted, sweeping towards Li Yuanfang.
Li Yuanfang’s expression was unchanged as he let out a low yell. As light flashed above his head, a giant with four faces and eight arms appeared in the Void. The eight arms stirred the Eight Trigrams, while the four faces each corresponded to a large door glowing with light.
The Cosmic Form he mastered after attaining Advanced Nascent Soul.
Above Li Yuanfang’s Cosmic Form, purple light flashed, becoming mysterious runes that arranged themselves in a unique pattern. They formed a small, but incredibly intricate and complex circular formation, resembling a round mirror – Li Yuanfang was unleashing his own Dongzhen Treasure Mirror Spell Formation.
The runes of the Spell Formation shined with blinding light together, merging into a beam of light and shining onto King Pingdeng’s formation.
King Pingdeng instantly realized that in terms of principles and Concept, Li Yuanfang’s spell was somewhat similar to her Boat of River Luo. Although he could not break the formation directly, at this moment, Li Yuanfang was observing and analyzing the profundities of her formation with the Dongzhen Treasure Mirror Spell Formation.
“How beautiful is the profundities of the inheritance of the Emperor of Culture? To be ruined to this extent…indeed, waste.” Suddenly, the Cosmic Form above Li Yuanfang’s head let out a low, deep sigh.
In the door one of the faces corresponded to, huge fires burned fierily. They were filled with the destructive power Concept of annihilation and killing, aggressive to the extreme, as if they were about to incinerate, destroy, and massacre all with raging fire.
As the Void shuddered, outside the Formation of Nine Bends of the Heaven River and the Black Nightmare Saint-Trapping Formation, yet another formation started forming rapidly.
The raging fire became lines of fire, drawing one formation pattern after another in the air. They gathered, forming a massive formation; although they started off later, the speed of forming was even faster than King Pingdeng’s Heluo Nine Palace Formation.
Created by Li Yuanfang, when the Heluo Heavenly Gate Formation opened the South Gate – the Heavenly Fire God-Slaughtering Formation!
This formation was the strongest formation in terms of pure attack power among the four formations formed by the Heluo Heavenly Gate Formation. When it was created, apart from Li Yuanfang studying mantras and formations himself, the top formation he referenced was none other than the Heaven-Destroying Formation of his master, Lin Feng!
With Li Yuanfang’s mental command, fiery, raging fire surged, and the boundless sea of fire expanded in the Void. Indistinctly, the fiery fire coagulated into the shape of a sword; slashing down, it directly shattered the Heluo Nine Palace Formation that King Pingdeng only just formed, and has not yet activated!
The violent raging fire did not halt its momentum, and continued charging towards King Pingdeng’s Immortal Soul. The Boat of River Luo was swept up by the Black Nightmare Saint-Trapping Formation, and could not help King Pingdeng to extradite herself, and she could only watch as the fire neared her body.
However, at this instant, the Heavenly Demon Ape puppet, who has been engaging the Cang Heaven Spell Blade, suddenly ignored the Cang Heaven Spell Blade completely. Despite taking a direct hit, it did not resist and instead, charged at the battlefield of Gu Peng, Li Yuanfang, and co.
The Cang Heaven Spell Blade wanted to give chase. However, it was as if Mo Xiuluo and the Bastille Black Dragon puppet were already prepared for this, and they preemptively blocked the path the Heavenly Demon Ape passed through, intercepting the Cang Heaven Spell Blade.
The Heavenly Demon Ape puppet suddenly intervened in Gu Peng and co.’s battlefield, its violent strength breaking into the Formation of Nine Bends of the Heaven River with brute force and attacked towards Gu Peng and co.
While his opponents were guarding against the Heavenly Demon Ape’s surprise attack, King Zhuanlun abruptly extracted himself and, with a flash, instantly charged before Li Yuanfang. A claw, cold and savage, slashed towards Li Yuanfang directly!
