Within the maze of jagged rocks, a huge figure suddenly appeared, clad in heavy, bright-red armour and wielding a strange sword. He studied the surroundings. It was Li Qingshan.
In the centre of the forest of stone were three Foundation Establishment cultivators and several dozen Qi Practitioners. They were all disciples and subordinates of Si Qing, Jia Zhen, and E Dan. As Li Qingshan pacified several battlefields for the bigger picture, these people had all been forced here.
“He’s come! I can sense his aura!”
“Don’t be afraid. We’ll operate the formation from here. He definitely can’t reach us!”
That was what they said, but fear filled everyone’s faces as if it were not a human, but a monster that wanted to rush over and tear them apart.
In the maze, the directions were mixed chaotically, such that even a person with the greatest sense of direction in the world could not distinguish north, south, east, and west. Even though there was a sun overhead, it was probably an illusion and trick as well. Looking for people in a place like this was even more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack for Li Qingshan.
He arrived before a strange rock, raised the Traitorous Demon sword, and swung down. He did not understand the yin, yang, and the five elements, nor did he know any special techniques of deduction. He tried to break through it with brute force.
Clang! The Traitorous Demon sword bounced off the strange rock, failing to even leave a mark behind. The formation that stretched several dozen kilometers was one integrated mass. The entire place would respond even if he attacked a single point. Even with the sharpness of the Traitorous Demon sword, he could not cut through it so easily.
Li Qingshan frowned. He held the Traitorous Demon sword in his right hand laterally as he stroked the sword with his left hand. The Traitorous Demon sword produced a gentle thrum, and the evil eye stared straight at the strange rock.
With a slash, the strange rock was split into two!
Li Qingshan’s frown remained. The surroundings twisted and changed, but the formation remained. Meanwhile, the demon heart that served as the pupil was only half of its original size, having been depleted quite a lot through these battles.
Every battle spanned several dozen kilometers across, so there were probably thousands of these strange rocks. If he cut them down one by one, he was confident he could disrupt the formation in the end, but when was he supposed to cut them until? It would definitely take up a tremendous amount of time and effort, and he had to deplete the powers of this demon heart too.
If I had known earlier, I should have brought a few people from the school of Yin-yang with me to get through the formation!
Li Qingshan thought, but he also understood that this would only remain as a thought. Although he seemed like a hero that had saved everyone, he was also a madman who had completely fallen out with Si Qing. There probably were not a lot of people who were willing to be associated with him, standing forward to oppose Si Qing.
Even if they were unable to turn him down and came to help, they would be extremely uneasy. After all, Liu Zhangqing and the others had clearly almost died, yet they kept it all to themselves, unwilling to utter a single word of complaint. This was the helplessness of the weak. Li Qingshan could not be bothered with forcing them to do something against their will either. This had always been his battle alone.
The spirit turtle can forebode and divine fate, so I might as well try it and see if I can get through this formation!
Li Qingshan remembered. The figure of the spirit turtle in his sea of consciousness suddenly began to move. The profound glyphs on its back criss-crossed, each producing a strange, ripple-like light that all melded together. It was as profound as it could get. In the end, it gathered into a huge ripple, spreading out into the surroundings from Li Qingshan.
The ripple was invisible. It was neither light nor soul sense, but it did possess the mysterious principle of the world.
Right when Li Qingshan felt rather confused, specks of light were suddenly reflected in his mind. It was a virtual arrangement of the formation.
Those who understood formations could rely on this virtual image to calculate the location of the crucial points across the entire formation, the operating pattern, and so on. They would be like tourists with a map. It would be extremely simple no matter where they wanted to go.
However, Li Qingshan was still stumped. I don’t understand this at all! As a result, he continued to urge the spirit turtle. The profound glyphs on the spirit turtle’s shell began moving again.
Li Qingshan became rather dazed. He would nod at times and murmur to himself, “Oh, like this… I get it now…”
A while later, he opened his eyes again, and a smile was already stretching across his face. He advanced forward confidently, making his way towards the depths of the maze. He would move to the left, move to the right, advance, and retreat at times, without the slightest hesitation at all. However, he steadily approached the centre of the maze, without taking a single unnecessary detour.
The centre of the maze suddenly entered a flurry of confusion and alarm. “Oh no, he’s getting closer!” “Don’t panic. He’s probably just roaming around blindly in the maze. He won’t be able to reach here through luck alone.” “No, he’s approaching us very quickly, basically making a beeline for us. He’s already seen through this formation. We have to change our position quickly!”
Everyone scattered like birds and beasts. Before long, Li Qingshan arrived there and smiled. “They sure do flee fast!”
During that moment earlier, he used the power of the spirit turtle to deduce the operation patterns of the entire formation, clearing away all obstacles. This was something unbelievable to regular cultivators, but it was nothing difficult to the spirit turtle that could even stand among the ranks of gods.
From the moment it was born, the spirit turtle possessed the form of the supernatural, rounded at the top like heaven, flat at the bottom like the earth. Its back rose and fell like hills, layered with profound inscriptions of all kinds of colour that were constantly at work. It knew when to advance and retreat, and it foretold the good and the ill with utmost confidence.
Spirit turtles would never learn things like formations or divination. All formations and divination were later inventions and creations. Instead, it only studied and learned from nature. The existence of the spirit turtle itself conformed with nature. It was born with knowledge.
This was also thanks to the Great Banyan Tree King’s Fruit of Wisdom. Although it could not allow a person’s cultivation to advance at once and make them wise, it unconsciously influenced everything, giving Li Qingshan a deeper comprehension of the powers of the spirit turtle.
At the centre of the maze was a small clearing. There was an extremely-large strange rock that towered in the centre, coated in light that flowed like water.
Li Qingshan understood that the strange rock was the central crucial point of the formation. As long as he destroyed it, the formation would be completely deactivated, and it would turn into a regular forest of stone.
Destroying such a large and tough rock clearly was not an easy feat, but why did he have to destroy it?
Li Qingshan placed his hand on the strange rock and sent in his soul sense. The strange rock shone brightly, producing a power that contended against him, but he suppressed it very soon. He forcefully claimed control over the maze. The entire maze began to operate.
The three Foundation Establishment cultivators fled through the maze swiftly, refusing to remain for even a moment longer. As for the Qi Practitioners, the three of them had left them all behind. If they could buy some time, then it would be fantastic.
They understood the maze extremely well. As they advanced and retreated along the way, they did not hesitate at all. They calculated that if they took a few more steps, they would arrive at the entrance of the maze, but when they made their way around a strange rock, they all paled in fright.
Before they knew it, they had returned to the centre of the maze again, and their nightmare currently stood there with a sword in hand, his lips curling into a vicious smile.
He swung his sword!
