Guo Xingyue attempted to channel the lightning orb to her fingertips, and soon a small lightning sphere crackled with energy at her touch. She flicked the orb gently toward the hall's wall, where it exploded with a thunderous boom, creating a massive dent in the hard stone and sending dust and debris flying everywhere. Guo Xingyue quickly retreated over ten zhang, staring in disbelief at the results of her light flick. This power is incredible! What exactly is this lightning orb? How could it have such tremendous force?
After searching through the hall, Guo Xingyue found no valuable clues other than the door through which she had entered. However, she did discover a storage room filled with various minerals. The sheer quantity of different crystals made her ecstatic, and she collected them without hesitation. She also recovered her golden sword, only to find it significantly damaged from the encounter with the celestial formation. This treasure is certainly not on par with a celestial artifact. If even an uncontrolled celestial artifact can easily injure a top-grade treasure, I can only imagine what would happen if a celestial being wielded a celestial artifact. My sword would be utterly destroyed!
Guo Xingyue took out Xuanjin, Haininsha, Jinjing, and Lvqinjing from her storage ring and reforged her damaged flying sword with their aid. With the help of the lightning orb, the repairs were completed in no time. She then examined the strange mirror again but found nothing conclusive. She realized it was indeed a celestial artifact, a powerful one at that. However, lacking celestial essence, she could not operate the mirror, so she stored it back in her ring, planning to inquire about its origins and functions from the four loose immortals when she had the chance.
After tidying everything up, Guo Xingyue calculated the time and couldn't help but chuckle wryly. She had spent over a hundred years in this underwater chamber! In her nearly six hundred years of cultivation, she realized that most of that time had been devoted to practice. Cultivation truly consumes an incredible amount of time. In a few days, it would be the calm period of the sea, and she needed to prepare thoroughly to settle the score with the demonic beasts that had dared to chase her. This time, she would set up a formation and then seek out trouble with them.
In a flurry of days, the calm period arrived, and Guo Xingyue emerged from the Kun Yuan Maze. With a single teleportation, she arrived at the sea, where she scouted a relatively flat seabed to set up her formation. Afterward, she mounted her flying sword and swiftly navigated through the ocean, continuously using her spiritual sense to probe her surroundings. Within half an hour, she detected a powerful demonic aura over a hundred zhang ahead. Guo Xingyue piloted her sword quickly toward the beast. Upon getting within forty zhang, she could clearly see the creature: it looked identical to the one that had chased her previously, measuring about twenty zhang in length, and it appeared to be at the early stage of Spirit Division.
The demonic beast sensed Guo Xingyue's approach and quickly turned toward her, its eight enormous tentacles rising high as its gaping mouth unleashed a beam of white light toward her. Now at the early stage of Spirit Division herself, Guo Xingyue wanted to test her attack power. Seeing the beast launch its white light, she had no intention of dodging; instead, she formed a sword technique and directed her golden sword at it. The golden sword transformed into a dazzling beam, slicing through the seawater and vaporizing it in its path, creating a vacuum several feet wide. With a resounding crash, the golden light not only shattered the demonic beast's white beam but also continued its unrelenting advance.
The white light dissipated, and the demonic infant inside the beast sustained injuries. With the golden sword rapidly closing in, the beast, unable to evade, hurriedly retracted its outstretched tentacles to brace for the impact. Although the beast was at a similar cultivation level, Guo Xingyue had attained her power through countless battles, resulting in a much denser true essence compared to ordinary cultivators of the same level. The beast's demonic essence simply could not match Guo Xingyue's true essence, especially while it was injured.
The golden sword struck the gathered tentacles with a resounding explosion, sending shockwaves through the surrounding seawater and forming a vacuum several tens of zhang wide. The beast's tentacles were severed, and dark green blood gushed from the wounds. The creature opened its massive mouth and spat forth a large quantity of black demonic essence, indicating its serious injuries. It let out a piercing shriek that echoed through the sea.
Guo Xingyue knew the beast was calling for help, but she intended to lure the group of demonic beasts into her formation. Therefore, she was in no hurry to finish off the now defenseless creature. Instead, she circled leisurely around the injured beast. Several times, the creature attempted to escape but was no match for Guo Xingyue's speed. Frantic, it darted around, but Guo Xingyue simply used it as bait, ensuring it could not flee.
Before long, distant roars of demonic beasts reached her ears as a powerful aura surged toward her position. The incoming beasts were formidable and moved with great speed, quickly closing the gap to over a hundred zhang. Guo Xingyue used her spiritual sense to scan and found that the approaching beasts were around the mid-stage of Fusion. Realizing she was no match for these creatures, she quickly mounted her flying sword and sped toward the location of her formation.
The pursuing demonic beasts were relentless, and soon various roars filled the underwater environment as the ocean seemed to boil with activity. More and more beasts joined the chase, each one varying in size but all boasting significant cultivation levels. Guo Xingyue increased her speed to the maximum, merging with her sword to become a streak of golden light as she weaved through the water, frequently changing direction to avoid the beasts that sought to obstruct her.
In just a short while, Guo Xingyue arrived near her formation and came to a stop. Seeing her halted position, the demonic beasts released a myriad of beams of light toward her. Guo Xingyue quickly slipped into the formation, and the various demonic beasts followed suit, rushing in after her. With a series of hand seals, she activated the formation.
The formation she had set was the Golden Lock Killing Formation, one of the three ultimate killing formations. As soon as it was activated, the area surrounding the formation erupted with lethal intent. The demonic beasts that had not yet entered the formation, mostly of lower cultivation, were shocked by the killing aura and quickly scattered. Those that entered the formation found themselves in dire straits, with a large number of lower-level beasts being severely injured, their agonized cries filling the water.
More than a dozen powerful demonic beasts, sensing the dire situation, immediately encircled the weaker beasts to shield them from the formation's onslaught, desperately trying to withstand the attack.