"How is it?" Tianyi asked his mother. Currently, the group of five were flying above the grotto where the divine artifact rested.
Mengfei shook her head. "I can't sense it at this distance."
Tianyi raised an eyebrow in surprise. If even an immortal empress couldn't sense the divine artifact at this distance without entering the grotto, no wonder it was hidden so long. "Then let's enter, even I was able to sense once we were in the grotto."
Mengfei nodded, and the group of five entered the formation and into the underground grotto. Immediately after entering, the dense and divine pressure was immediately felt by everyone. Tianyi, Daoyi, and Elder Meng were fine since they had expected it, but Su Bojing suddenly kneeling was out of Tianyi's expectations.
"Are you okay?" Tianyi asked, bewildered as to why Su Bojing was so affected.
"My apologies, Young Master." Su Bojing said as sweat started to drip down his face. Even his voice held slight trembling despite his best efforts. "Every moment I'm here, I feel as if my mind is going to go blank forever at any moment."
Tianyi frowned. Did the divine artifact have such a feature? "Then go guard the cave in case someone chances upon the grotto."
Su Bojing saluted before leaving in relief. Before leaving, he gave a deep look at Daoyi. He wasn't surprised Tianyi was able to withstand it. After all, he was a literal monster. But Daoyi being able to withstand it at the Core Formation Realm really surprised him. Su Bojing chalked it up to her clan being in close proximity to the shattered divine artifact. After all, the Xu Clan's ancestor must be special if he was able to near the divine artifact fragment before it broke apart.
"Junior Sister, are you okay?" Tianyi asked in concern.
He hadn't thought much about it since it hadn't impacted him and Daoyi before. Still, after seeing Su Bojing's reaction, he realized that for a Core Formation Master, a divine artifact must be exerting even more pressure on them. The distance between her and the divine artifact was between two great realms. In fact, it wouldn't be weird for some true immortals to be affected by the pressure. Tianyi realized how abnormal his group was. Elder Meng was expected since she even made immortal monarchs wary of her.
Daoyi shook her head. "Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother, but I'm fine. Really." Daoyi added at the end after seeing Tianyi's suspicious look.
"If something were to occur, make sure to leave immediately. If you can't, tell us as soon as possible." Tianyi reminded her, his face extremely serious.
"Understood," Daoyi cupped her fist in a mock salute, causing Tianyi to roll his eyes. But it also settled his anxiety. If Daoyi could still afford to play around, then it shouldn't be affecting her much.
After Mengfei returned from investigating the grotto, Tianyi asked, "How is it? Can you sense it more now? Is it really related to the Queen Mother of the West?"
Mengfei nodded, her eyes shining. "This is indeed a divine artifact related to the Queen Mother of the West. Specifically, it's one related to the Queen Mother's Dao of Life."
Tianyi frowned. If he recalled correctly, Jade Peak's cultivation method should be closer to the Dao of Yin and Death of the Queen Mother of the West. But since his mother's eyes were shining so brilliantly, it should be a good thing. "Are you able to refine it?"
"Normally, no. But since it's been damaged and its integrity been eroded, I should be able to barely refine a divine artifact like before." Mengfei said. She was delighted with the discovery. Before Tianyi appeared in her life, her only goal was towards the Dao and becoming a divinity.
The Queen Mother of the West lineage was comprised of two lineages, one death and one life. The death lineage had been converted towards the modern main method of Jade Peak, shying away from death and leaning towards yin. But it was only half of the Queen Mother's method. The latter half, the lineage concerning the Dao of Life, had been lost. If she wanted to become a divinity, she would have to ruminate her own method, and that would take hundreds of thousands of years if she was unlucky, or perhaps she might fail. But with the divine artifact before her, although it wasn't good as the direct cultivation method, it was like a lamp on the endlessly dark paths.
"I don't know how long it will take to refine the divine artifact. Although it is related to the Queen Mother's lineage, it is the polar opposite of the Queen Mother's early half. But there should still be a connection, so I should be able to refine it." Mengfei said. "But all my focus will be placed in refining the divine artifact. I won't be able to protect you if anything happens. I should send you back to the sect first."
Mengfei reached her hand to lovingly stroke Tianyi's head. Tianyi rolled his eyes and blocked Mengfei's attempt to rub his head. After repeating two more times, Tianyi spoke, "Mother, you said that you need to place all your attention on refining the divine artifact. I'll stay behind and be your guardian."
Mengfei blinked before smiling happily for a reason unknown to herself. "It should be the other way around. I'll guard you for the rest of your life."
"What? No way, I'm a man, so I should protect you." Tianyi said, his eyes glazing as he remembered the words of his mother from Earth. "Soon, I'll grow strong enough to protect you."
Mengfei blinked, not understanding the sudden seriousness in Tianyi's voice. But she relented to Tianyi's request. Before she started to refine the divine artifact, she sent a glance at Elder Meng. There should be no trouble for Tianyi with Elder Meng here, but she did worry about Daoyi. Elder Meng would prioritize Tianyi's safety above all else, so Mengfei gave Daoyi a lifesaving talisman.
Elder Meng held a special position in the Buzhou Immortal Sect. No one could order her around, not even the sect master. Mengfei had heard rumors that Elder Meng had existed since the creation of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. There was only one person who could command Elder Meng in the whole sect. That's why she was surprised when Elder Meng came to protect Tianyi on the order of the Concealed Sovereign.
Sitting in a lotus position at the location emitting the heaviest pressure, Mengfei closed her eyes and began to refine the divine artifact. First, she had to reach out and establish a connection. Silence descended onto the group as Mengfei delved deep into the process, ignoring the outside world.
After a while, Tianyi suddenly jerked his head up and looked outside the cavern with a serious expression.
"Is there something wrong?" Daoyi asked. Tianyi's reaction had been too abrupt, so she couldn't help but think that something had happened.
"The puppets I left around Paradise Sand City were destroyed," Tianyi said. Although the Core Formation Realm puppets weren't as strong as the Nascent Soul Realm puppet, they were harder to destroy than the Nascent Soul puppet due to being created from higher quality materials. But they were destroyed in quick succession.
The Nascent Soul Realm puppet had enough power to fight with all the four original Nascent Soul Grandmasters of Paradise Earth City and still hold the advantage. Tianyi wouldn't be surprised if Lei Jingye was able to destroy it since he was the chosen one who went back in time. But to destroy all the Core Formation puppets, Lei Jingye must have enough power to release attacks at the Unity Realm threshold continuously.
"I'm going out to see if Lei Jingye really appeared again. You stay here." Tianyi said. He didn't want Daoyi to see Lei Jingye. It was better for her to stay here.
"I'm coming along. I'm pretty useless here. Better to follow Senior Brother and stop anyone who wants to disturb master." Daoyi said as she followed Tianyi. Tianyi didn't put up much resistance. In the end, it was her choice.
"Young Master, where are you going?" Su Bojing, who was at the cave entrance, asked in surprise.
"Someone destroyed all my puppets around the city. It must be Lei Jingye." Tianyi said. He didn't forget to add, "See, I told you so," at the end.
Su Bojing's eyes widened in surprise. He sighed at Tianyi's predictive abilities. Although he had gotten used to Tianyi's true personality, he had also forgotten how talented Tianyi was. To be able to predict Lei Jingye's appearance and his next course of action, as expected of a genius to be so farsighted. Su Bojing inwardly praised Tianyi.
"You stay here and control the formation. You can add some formations yourself, but don't bother with any defensive or attack formations." Tianyi said. In his eyes, Su Bojing may be able to battle with Lei Jingye, but he would definitely lose. Of course, Tianyi never planned to let Lei Jingye get past him in the first place. He was just preparing for the worst-case scenario.
"Understood." Su Bojing accepted his order. He had seen Tianyi fight with Longwei, so he was completely confident in him, not to mention his insane cultivation method. Even if Tianyi didn't use any techniques, just a regular punch from him would threaten many peak nascent soul grandmasters.
Lei Jingye immediately noticed something was wrong when he should have arrived at the location of the divine artifact according to the information presented to him, but he didn't. Scanning the surroundings, Lei Jingye discovered that the environment became indistinct with no clear direction. Everything looked the same. He couldn't even find the direction back to the city.
"Hmpf, just a mere illusionary formation. Did you really think it could hold me?" Lei Jingye said, his voice booming in all directions. But the illusionary formation was extremely insidious, if he hadn't realized what was going on, he would have been trapped with him none the wiser.
"Not speaking, are you? Fine, I'll see how long your silence can last once I tear down this formation." Lei Jingye growled, his teeth showing through his lips.
He unsheathed his saber and struck out several times, seemingly at random. But wherever his saber light struck, space would distort and tremble. Lei Jingye frowned when he saw that space didn't shatter, or rather the formation didn't shatter. It seemed the formation master who constructed the formation was more skilled than he thought.
Formation masters were terrifying to fight. Their combat strength usually wasn't anything noteworthy, but on their home ground with a formation constructed, they could display strength surpassing their realm. It was much like how an immortal emperor, say from the Eight Pillars Sect, wouldn't directly engage with the sect master of the Eternal Night Sect at their home base even if they only had an immortal monarch guarding it. With the sect formation, the immortal monarch could repel the immortal emperor, so it would only result in a waste of time. A foreign dragon couldn't suppress a local snake.
So far, Lei Jingye could only detect the illusionary formation, but only a useless formation master would construct a single purpose formation. He was proven correct when the space around him froze, greatly restricting his movements. Lei Jingye grunted, and he was covered in a golden light, removing the influence of the sealing formation. But he found it difficult to distort and tear space even with a Void Escape Talisman.
But Lei Jingye didn't have time to think as he moved to dodge a spear of flame piercing towards him. After dodging the flame spear, a frosty water spear pierced toward him. Lei Jingye snorted and swung his saber, destroying the water spear and reverting it to liquid.
But that wasn't the end as spears made of metal, rocks, and wood also pierced towards him. When the first round of attack was done, another set of spears were unleashed towards Lei Jingye. But although they were filled with true qi of all five elements, Lei Jingye was easily able to deflect or dodge them. It only served to annoy him as the attack came from all directions.
"Enough! Do you only know how to use these little tricks, not even daring to show your face!" Lei Jingye howled at the sky, cursing at the cultivator controlling the formation. But the only reply was silence and the onslaught of elemental spears.
Lei Jingye scowled as he continued to be on the defensive. He directed all his focus towards finding the formation's anchor or core parts. If he could not exit the formation or deal with the formation, he could only resign to being attacked without being able to retaliate.
Suddenly the onslaught of spears stopped, causing Lei Jingye to be surprised. Not only did it not cause Lei Jingye to breathe a sigh of relief, but it made him raised his guard even more. Soon, he discovered that the remnant spears on the ground releasing elemental qi.
Wood feeds fire, fire feeds earth, earth feeds metal, metal feeds water, and water feeds wood. The five primary elemental qis formed the wu xing cycle, and the final output was greater than the sum of all its parts. Lei Jingye's eyes could faintly discern a five-pointed star-shaped formation.
"Five Element Annihilation Formation!" Lei Jingye growled out as he descended onto the desert floor. Like a raging beast, he swung his saber like mad, destroying the spears and elemental qi as much as possible. The formation master was even more powerful than he thought.
All things in the world were created with the foundational elements of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Just as the five elements created all things, so could they destroy. This was the concept behind the Five Element Annihilation Formation created by a major divinity of the Immortal Court. But only the Buzhou Immortal Sect and Eight Pillars Sect were rumored to possess the legendary formation. Usually, only those in the Immortal Realm and higher were able to unleash this formation, but Lei Jingye didn't discount a simplified version. But it mattered not as the end result was still detrimental to him.
Lei Jingye's eyes were seeped in hatred as his thought turned toward the Buzhou Immortal Sect. His saber-light became even more ferocious and destructive, increasing the rate of destruction of the elemental qi. But there was too much elemental qi created from the spears. By the time Lei Jingye realized the formation master's plan, it was far too late.
The cycle of five elements abruptly halted and began to clash against each other. The clash of elements created a grey gaseous and corrosive qi. It was a qi of chaos. As more and more chaos qi emerged, Lei Jingye's sphere of defense began to shrink. Soon, it filled the entire space and ate away at Lei Jingye's body and soul.
It was like an ant trapped inside a pressurized tank being filled with acid, Lei Jingye was the ant, and the qi of chaos was the acid. But Lei Jingye knew that this was only a side effect. The actual attack had yet to come.
Gathering towards the surface of his body, golden scales began to appear over Lei Jingye's body. Horns began to grow out of his head, and his incisors and nails elongated, giving him the appearance of a humanoid dragon. And not a moment too soon as his world was enveloped in light. Even his scream of pain could not be heard in the absolute explosion that had just occurred.
When the light died down, the desert land below had turned into shiny glass due to the sheer heat, not to mention the gaping hole in the land. And Lei Jingye wasn't any better. All of his scales were charred black and dropping off like flakes of skin. Blood continuously dripped down from the wounds all over his body.
"What was that? The Five Element Annihilation Formation should not be so destructive at that level." Lei Jingye gasped out. His body was in near tatters. The last attack had seriously harmed the foundation of his martial body. Recovery would be hard without any special methods.
"The first time we met, you tried to give me a new orifice in my head. Unfortunately, before I could retaliate, you decisively used your talisman and escaped." The voice was pleasant, still bearing some hints of tenderness.
"The second time we met, well, it was a clone you created through special methods, so let's not count that." There was a hint of humor in the voice, but there was no hiding the dense killing intent in the voice. "Our official second meeting was in the ruin in the Immortal Court, but you managed to escape again, thanks to that red light."
A figure appeared in the air, leisurely walking towards Lei Jingye. The figure appeared to be in his teens, his face handsome, but the most bewitching features were those beautiful eyes that resembled the night sky. Wearing a purple robe and gold coronet, who else could it be?
"Xi.Tian.Yi." Lei Jingye growled out each syllable of Tianyi's name through gritted teeth as his eyes burned with hatred.
"But you know what they say, third times a charm." Tianyi gave a slight smile at Lei Jingye, but cold murderous intent filled his gaze.