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Su Yi swept his gaze around the air. “Are you telling me someone put you up to this?”
Lei Feng bitterly shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that. Rather, someone exploited us…”
Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. “Let’s hear it.”
“Last night, a man who called himself Chu Xiu came looking for Junior Apprentice Brother Ting He and I…” Lei Feng took a deep breath, but just as he was about to tell the whole story, cold laughter filled the distant night skies.
“Spiritual Manifestation cultivators of the Qingyi Dao Sect are really this wimpy?”
Before the voice finished echoing, the entire stretch of heaven and earth shook violently.
Immediately afterward, the blood-red power of a restriction formation surged from the surrounding mountains, becoming an enormous, unearthly crimson lotus platform.
A tall, thin figure stood proudly on his surface. He wore jade robes and a wide belt. His face was handsome, but his eyes were an eerie shade of green, like ghostly flames.
“Chu Xiu! So, you were hiding here this whole time!” Lei Feng’s eyes bulged.
“If I hadn’t laid a trap here in advance, if I’d relied solely on the two of you, how could I possibly deal with Su Yi?” jeered Chu Xiu.
He then fixed his eerie green eyes on Su Yi and smiled faintly. “Su Yi, we last saw each other on the Sea of Chaotic Spirits. We finally meet again.”
“So it’s you, you Possessed,” Su Yi’s eyebrows rose in mild surprise.
Back in the Great Qin’s Sea of Chaotic Spirits, Chu Xiu led a group of Possessed into the ruins of the Immortals’ Sword House to set a trap for Su Yi and the various cultivators traveling with him.
In the end, Su Yi used the ruins’ Heaven-Sealing Formation of the Nine Absolutes to obliterate the entire group.
Only then did Su Yi learn that the Chu Xiu he’d just “killed” was just a demon puppet, not his real body.
He certainly wouldn’t have expected to encounter Chu Xiu again here.
Su Yi examined him briefly, then laughed. “Another demon puppet? Where’s your real body? Why keep hiding? Too afraid to appear in person?”
Chu Xiu’s eyes flashed. “I’m just here to kill you. What need is there for my true body to get involved?”
Then, he laughed. “Actually, I didn’t set a trap this time because I wanted to kill you. Rather, there’s something I wish to discuss with you.”
“Say it,” said Su Yi.
Chu Xiu said solemnly, “Fellow Daoist, as you’re well aware, I am one of the Possessed. I am not from the Azure Continent, and my faction of origin is interested in cooperating with powerful cultivators such as yourself.”
“Cooperating?”
Chu Xiu nodded. “That’s right. If you work on our behalf, you’ll receive an endless supply of resources. Furthermore, when our forces cross the boundary between worlds and occupy the Azure Continent, you’ll have an important role. You’ll wield vast power and authority!
“With your talent and foundations, if we put our all into training you, never mind stepping into the Spirit Dao—breaking into the Imperial Realm is well within the bounds of possibility!”
“Where is your faction from?” asked Su Yi. “And what is it called?”
After a moment’s silence, Chu Xiu said, “There’s no harm in telling you. We’re called the Celestial Prison Demon Court. We come from the Xuandu Continent, and we’ve been its strongest faction throughout antiquity, the unquestioned hegemon of the entire continent!”
He spoke with obvious pride.
“Oh?” said Su Yi before asking yet another question. “Does your sect have any Imperial Realm experts?”
“....” Chu Xiu didn’t respond.
Su Yi frowned. “You don’t even have a single Emperor, but you still call yourselves the hegemons of an entire continent?”
The corners of Chu Xiu’s lips twitched imperceptibly, and he felt deeply uncomfortable. What does this guy think the Imperial Realm is? Does he think just every faction can have an Emperor?
Chu Xiu took a deep breath, then said, “What is the Imperial Realm? Emperors can rebuke the heavens and wander the void. They’re like true gods and immortals, with all-encompassing power. How could people like that be found just anywhere? Look at your Azure Continent. Has it ever had any Imperial Realm cultivators?”
Su Yi was starting to lose interest, “I understand the strength of the Imperial Realm better than you. I just wouldn’t have thought that a faction without so much as a single Emperor would dare be so brazen as to occupy the Azure Continent and try to take over the world. This is really… an enormous joke.”
“You…” Chu Xiu was so angry that he almost laughed. “Su Yi, you’re only the Origin Palace Realm. How could you possibly understand how powerful Imperial Realm experts are? Besides, even if the Celestial Prison Demon Court lacks an Emperor, we have mighty Spiritual Revolution Realm cultivators to hold down the fort. What faction of the Azure Continent can compare to us?”
“That so?” said Su Yi. “Then how do you think your Celestial Prison Demon Court compares to the factions from other invading worlds?”
Su Yi had long since learned that the damaged spatial barrier around the Azure Continent connected to multiple planes, not just one.
For instance, the Crimson Peng Monarch’s Incarnation of Stars Sect was from a plane known as the “Darksky Continent.”
Chu Xiu furrowed his brow. “I know little of other planes’ factions. All I know is that as of now, paths to nine other worlds have opened on the Azure Continent. This means that cultivators from at least nine different worlds will cross over after the spatial barrier surrounding the Azure Continent disappears.”
“Nine?” said Su Yi. It seemed he was thinking something.
He could see it already: when the Radiant Epoch descended, the cultivators of the modern day wouldn’t just have to compete with monsters of the ancient era; they’d have to ward off the mass invasion of cultivators from numerous planes of existence at once!
It was easy to imagine how much unrest would result from this.
“Su Yi, I’ve already made myself perfectly clear. So long as you agree to work with the Celestial Prison Demon Court, I guarantee the day will come when you can command the wind and clouds of the Azure Continent!” Chen Xiu said gravely.
“And if I refuse?” asked Su Yi.
“Then tonight, this place shall become your burial ground,” said Chu Xiu solemnly.
“You plan to kill me with just that formation?” Su Yi’s eyebrows shot up.
Chu Xiu laughed. “Su Yi, oh Su Yi. Should I call you arrogant, or just ignorant? The formation I’ve placed here is called ‘the Blood Dragon Spirit-Slaughtering Formation.’ It’s one of the Celestial Prison Demon Court’s three great killing formations. It perhaps cannot compare with the Nine Tripod Suppression Barrier Formation, but it can kill Spiritual Manifestation cultivators with ease. Do you really think… you can still leave this place alive?”
“I can,” Su Yi said casually.
“.....” It was just two words, but they left Chu Xiu feeling too stifled to even speak.
His expression darkened, and with a wave of his sleeves, he shouted, “You insisted on doing this the hard way! Fine, I’ll just have to show you how strong the Blood Dragon Spirit-Slaughtering Formation is!”
Boom!
Unearthly, blood-colored light surged into the heavens and shook the mountains.
Dense runes of power surged into the air, each clearly discernible. They transformed this entire stretch of heaven and earth into a vision of purgatory. One blood-colored dragon after another threw back their heads and roared, and a terrifying wave of destructive power permeated the surrounding area.
Chu Xiu had already disappeared into the formation, leaving only Su Yi and Lei Feng behind.
“We’re doomed!” Lei Feng paled, his eyes full of dread.
Su Yi glanced at him, then ignored him and proceeded into the distance with big strides.
Boom!
A dragon manifested of the formation’s power charged at him, vicious and terrifying, bringing with it appalling baleful energy. It could indeed kill a Spiritual Manifestation Realm existence with ease.
Su Yi didn’t meet its power head-on.
It was just a formation. There was truly no need to waste energy clashing with it directly.
Whoosh!
Su Yi shot forward with the Controlling Currents Evasion Art, dodging the attack with ease before continuing ahead.
Rumble!
The formation rumbled and boomed as if it were boiling over. One dragon after another charged relentlessly at Su Yi.
The sight would have struck terror into the heart of any Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivator.
But how fast was Su Yi’s movement technique? As he forged his way ahead, he dodged each and every explosive attack by a hair.
Watching from a distance, it was as if he’d become an ethereal streak of flowing light or electricity. Sometimes, he shifted. Sometimes, he took a detour. Sometimes, he dodged. Regardless of what he did, he was unbelievably quick.
In truth, the power of this formation wasn’t much to Su Yi. So long as he could take advantage of its gaps, he could dodge with power to spare; it was as if the formation were just for decoration.
Before long, Su Yi waved his sleeves.
Boom!
A streak of misty light transformed into unstoppable sword qi, cleaving through a distant, crimson patch of the formation’s power.
Amidst a burst of sparks, a rift suddenly appeared in the crimson power of the formation. Su Yi shot ahead and slipped right through it.
“No—!”
Just as Su Yi broke out of the Blood Dragon Spirit-Slaughtering formation, a piteous shriek of despair rang out from inside.
Su Yi turned and saw that most of Lei Feng’s short, fat body was missing. A blood dragon had taken a huge bite out of him.
He was dead. Another early-stage Spiritual Manifestation cultivator had fallen!
“You brought this upon yourself. Who else is there to blame?” Su Yi sighed to himself and shook his head.
He quickly looked away. Chu Xiu stood beneath the night sky, on the peak of a nearby mountain. He held a black formation disc in his hand, and he was using it to control the grand formation.
When he saw Su Yi emerge, he reacted as if he’d been struck by lightning. He couldn’t help but blurt, “How… How did you get out?”
Su Yi said casually, “I walked, of course.”
Chu Xiu’s eyes widened in apparent disbelief. “That’s impossible! Not even a Spiritual Manifestation Realm cultivator could have escaped the bounds of the Blood Dragon Spirit-Slaughtering Formation. You couldn’t possibly have escaped!”
Su Yi laughed, “But I went ahead and did just that. Tell me, is it strange?”
As he spoke, he walked into the air and toward Chu Xiu.
How could Chu Xiu dare to hesitate? He immediately turned and fled. He’d come here relying on the Blood Dragon Spirit-Slaughtering Formation, yet it couldn’t threaten Su Yi at all. There was no way he’d stick around!
“You’re just a demon puppet. This isn’t even your real body. Don’t tell me you’re still afraid of death?”
As Su Yi’s calm voice rang out, a streak of sword qi shot forth, tearing through the night sky. It was headed right toward Chu Xiu.
Boom!
Dense sword qi illuminated the mountains.
Even the Spiritual Manifestation cultivators like Huo Tiandu and Zhou Fengzhi were no match for Su Yi, much less Chu Xiu’s demon puppet!
As the sword qi descended upon him, Chu Xiu didn’t even have time to struggle before it enveloped him. He burst into pieces with a boom.
Su Yi drifted down to earth, stretched out his hand, and picked up the fallen formation disc. After looking it over, he nodded.
Fortunately, the formation disc hadn’t broken.
Although tonight’s incident had been a bit annoying, claiming the Blood Dragon Spirit-Slaughtering Formation soothed his negative emotions, albeit just barely.
As he pondered, Su Yi got to work.