The fourth round turned out to be less difficult than I thought. My opponent was someone from the Dragon Phoenix Sect, which meant his golden dragon and crimson phoenix clashed against my Shadow Dragon. For a moment, I thought there would be some problems because the golden dragon and crimson phoenix appeared to be winning the fight.
Fortunately, my superior amount of qi won out, and the Shadow Dragon devoured both the golden dragon and crimson phoenix before charging toward the poor guy, who was named Long Feng.
"No way!" He shouted, distraught at how easily I appeared to have blown away his techniques. Then my Shadow Dragon crashed down upon him and basically…wiped the floor with him.
And thus I made it to the fifth round, as did Bai Ning Shuang and Chi Yan. As for the others, I didn't know who they were and I didn't care.
The fifth round was against somebody called Xing Ling from the Astral Star Sect. This match proved a little more interesting because she was someone who used formations and arrays instead of actually fighting. For her to advance this far into the tournament relying almost solely on formations spoke highly of her ability.
Unfortunately, she had to run into me.
When I first strode onto the stage, she lowered her head and cupped her hands. I responded similarly, bowing respectfully as well. Then Xing Ling raised her head to narrow her eyes at me.
"Whatever tricks you use, it's useless against me. I'll acknowledge that you have a higher cultivation realm, but all those gaps in cultivation and strength are useless before well placed arrays. I'll prove it to everyone!"
"I don't think you need to prove anything," I said dryly. "Everyone knows the incredible potency of spirit arrays and formations. Even a Foundation Establishment Realm operator will be able to fight on par with an Innate Realm cultivator with the help of an array."
Spirit arrays and formations didn't just rely on the strength of the operator – though the operator's skill was undoubtedly required, of course. But a skilled operator would be able to draw upon the natural qi from the heavens and the earth in order to wield the formation, thus making up for the gap in strength between him or her and the enemy.
This was why I had to explain that absolute strength wasn't everything. Preparation mattered. Strategies were important. You could be a Saint Realm cultivator, but if you went up against a high ranked spirit formation, you would get killed no matter how low the cultivation realm of the array operator was.
Just look at the Demonic Emperor Butler (or Magic Emperor according to some translations). A Bone Tempering/Forging realm protagonist could fight against a Divine Realm (Tian Xuan Realm) cultivator with nothing but spirit arrays. Of course, it helped that Zhuo Fan was a super genius who could still fight against Divine Realm opponents despite his Bone Tempering Realm after he absorbed the indestructible sand or whatever it was called, but the point was that anyone could fight a superior and stronger opponent off as long as he or she had certain competency with spirit formations.
Ah, I understood. Someone in the past must have mocked Xing Ling or the Astral Star Sect for relying too much on spirit arrays. So now she felt like she had something to prove.
There were arguments against spirit arrays, after all. They took a while to set up. Of course, if you prepared beforehand and set them up in your home or fortress, they made you practically invincible. On the other hand, they weren't very practical on an actual battlefield unless you were able to lure your enemies toward a location where you had already set up a formation.
However, for obvious reasons, your opponent wasn't going to wait for you to set up a formation if you were meeting them in, say, a tournament match or in the middle of a battlefield. If you were attacked in the middle of nowhere, they certainly wouldn't be kind enough to patiently wait for you to set up an array because they knew they would be dead the moment you did so.
I wondered how Xing Ling was going to overcome that obstacle. I realized I should have paid more attention to the other matches in the previous rounds. My lack of interest might cost me dearly.
Then again, I had already advanced to the fifth round, which was my goal, so I wasn't that invested in winning the whole thing. Nonetheless, I did want to win. There was nobody who wanted to deliberately lose in a tournament. I wanted to see how far I could go.
But I also was curious to see Xing Ling's fighting style, so I readied myself while the referee signaled the start. Then I immediately rushed forward.
It wasn't that I wasn't nice enough to wait for her to set up an array, but I simply wanted to see how Xing Ling would overcome this impracticality, and perhaps learn from her. Let it not be said that I was too arrogant to learn from people who had lower cultivation realms than me.
Xing Ling, predictably enough, didn't stand still and wait for me to attack. She was immediately moving, but not to attack. To evade. While she evaded, she was already beginning to set up her formation, using her shoes to dig into the dirt to draw runes. Her fingers moved swiftly, tossing the required spirit materials as well, such as flags, to embed themselves deeply into the ground. Already I could feel the flow of qi move through them.
Then I understood. Most opponents would go straight for Xing Ling, attempting to take her out before she could finish deploying her formation. However, while Xing Ling didn't seem physically strong, she was fast. She was making use of her speed to avoid direct blows, even weaving through the storm of shadow swords that I hurled at her.
"Not bad," I murmured, and glanced at the flags. If that was the case, it would be easier for me to disrupt the formation before she could finish it. So I turned away and kicked at a flag.
"No!"
Xing Ling realized what I was up to, but she had prepared a contingency for it. As expected – someone who made it to the fifth round wouldn't be a pushover. She must have been countless battles and went through every scenario to ensure she was ready for whatever might happen in a match.
So she drew a talisman and launched lightning strikes upon my location, forcing me to swerve away from the flags.
That was how she also fended off other opponents. Not just evasion, but also the ability to attack with her talismans. Honestly, talismans, spirit artifacts and other types of charms were related to spirit arrays. The runes drawn on talismans and paper charms were essentially very basic versions of spirit arrays, just on a much smaller scale and simpler too. That was why their power was lacking when compared to a true formation, but that didn't mean they didn't have any uses.
"Hmm…"
I drew Abyssal Edge from my spatial pouch and cleaved apart the lightning. More firebolts and thunderbolts from Xing Ling's talismans blasted toward me, but they were mostly scattered and imprecise. I didn't blame her – she was focusing more on setting up her formation than actually intending to get in a hit with her talismans. They were here to buy time, nothing more.
If that was the case…
Making use of the smoke that was thrown up by the fire and lightning, I hid at the back and did something of my own, waiting patiently. Then the smoke cleared, only for a shimmering barrier to manifest itself around the stage.
"It's over," Xing Ling declared, standing at the center of the stage and surrounded by runes. "I've successfully set up my formation. There's no way for you to escape my killing array."
Lightning danced about the formation, a miniature storm in captivity that was the operator's to unleash at will. Xing Ling was holding back, but from past experience she knew that her opponent wasn't going to surrender until they had been hit hard. No one would give up without at least putting up a fight and experiencing the sheer firepower of her formation for themselves.
I was the same…with some difference.
Holding Abyssal Edge, I charged toward Xing Ling. She narrowed her eyes and sighed, thinking that this was the same as before.
"They never learn," she muttered under her breath. I shrugged, but continued to charge. As I expected, the divine thunderbolts descended upon me, converging with devastating effect. Unlike the clumsily wielded talismans from before, the lightning struck with deadly precision, scorching the ground I was on. I was practically keeping one step ahead of the electricity, and I could feel my body grow numb from being so close to such powerful strikes.
There were times when I had to cleave apart a lightning bolt or two with Abyssal Edge. Even so, I knew that Xing Ling could theoretically draw upon an infinite amount of qi from the surrounding heavens and earth, whereas my qi was limited no matter how much higher my cultivation realm was above hers. There was only so long I could fight off her lightning before I was blown apart.
However…
"Let me teach you something, as a fellow array user," I said, reaching the place I intended to go to from the beginning by using Shadow Step. Vanishing into the shadows, I emerged at my destination.
"What?" Xing Ling demanded, puzzled. Then her eyes widened when she understood. "NO!"
She was too late. Even as she directed lightning bolts toward me, I was plunging Abyssal Edge into the eye of her formation, which I recognized by virtue of the flags and the runes. Unleashing Shadow Dragon at pointblank range, I destroyed the eye of her formation.
Then the lightning bolts stopped several millimeters away from me before dissipating harmlessly. I breathed a sigh of relief.
"You destroyed my formation by locating its eye," Xing Ling said, impressed. Then she narrowed her eyes. "But did you really think I would stake everything on a single formation?"
"No," I replied, already moving. The second formation had already been activated, and meteors were crashing into my previous positions and leaving craters. I shook my head and retreated using Shadow Step, only to appear in the place where I had been when smoke obscured her view of me.
Xing Ling snorted. "It doesn't matter where you go! This whole place is within range of my killing array!"
"I know," I agreed, staring up at the fiery meteors that converged on my location, leaving crimson contrails across the air. It almost looked as if the heavens were weeping. Then I tapped my foot against the spirit runes I had scrawled on the ground and activated my own formation.
"What the?!" Xing Ling could scarcely believe her eyes when she caught sight of the shimmering barrier I had conjured. The flaming meteors battered against the black translucent force field before shattering and breaking apart ineffectually.
"You're not the only one who can create arrays," I replied with a shrug. Then I flipped a couple of martial coins and tossed them in place of a second formation. Golden dragons surged from within my barrier and lunged at Xing Ling, but she also had a barrier formation in place. Damn, but she was really prepared for everything.
"You…are you really from the White Herb Sect?" She demanded, her eyes wide. "I've never heard of any of those healer-alchemist-priests being able to use formations! Not even their Blood Blades!"
"I've only just joined the White Herb Sect recently," I pointed out. "I wonder where I was before I joined them? Nah, that's a secret."
Under the cover of my golden dragons, I stepped out of the barrier and spotted the eye for the Heavenly Flaming Meteor formation. Using a combination of Shadow Steps and my golden dragon formation, I reached the eye and destroyed it, sending precious flame crystals and yang gems into the air. I wasn't a thief, so I tossed them back to an astonished Xing Ling.
"You…" she began, but I was already seeking the location of the eye of her barrier formation. Before I could find it, however, she raised her hands. "I surrender."
"What? Are you sure?" I was taken aback. She nodded and smiled.
"My only goal was to show everyone the power of spirit formations, and to demonstrate the pride of us array users. For me to lose to a fellow array user…it doesn't feel like a defeat at all. More like a vindication." She then pointed at me. "You had best win the intersect tournament!"
"I'll do my best," I said with a laugh. "But no guarantees."
And with that, my match in the fifth round was over.