Just as Su Yu was holding the "hot potato," the others nearby were already preparing to follow the cloaked man's lead and escape.
"Why are you still here?!" Qi Yan hurried over and grabbed Su Yu's arm, tossing the other spirit stone bags at the cloaked man's feet. Without a second to lose, he instructed the little ginseng to clear the way. "Let's go!"
As soon as they exited the money house, they realized that the area outside had already been surrounded by alien plants, and they almost couldn't find the way they had come. Fortunately, it was only for a moment. Soon, a strange light appeared in the courtyard. The spirit stones left in the money house's hall were activated by the cloaked man, and a continuous flow of spiritual energy surged into the Spirit Gathering Formation beneath his feet, all directed toward him.
With the influx of spiritual energy, the cloaked man could control the courtyard's formation more smoothly. He waved his hand, pushing the alien plants blocking their way aside. "What are you standing there for?!"
"If you run out of spirit stones, go to the underground vault of the money house. Our young master said don't be polite. The spell to unlock the spirit stone box is—" Qi Liu called out while walking, glancing back. "Brother, take care! We'll come back to rescue you!"
Su Yi: "…"
What good was it to tell him the spell? Does he have hands to carry the stones?!
The cloaked man gritted his teeth. "Hurry up!"
The group hesitated no longer. Su Yu, afraid that Su Yi might lag behind, decided not to rely on the unhelpful young master of the Qi family, and stretched out his hand to pull Su Yi over. In just a few moves, he had lifted him onto his back.
Qi Yan, left behind: "…"
What does this mean? Is this person trying to take someone in front of him?!
The cloaked man watched as the figures of the others grew distant. He was already surrounded by spiritual energy, and the bark that had been stagnating on his body began to grow. The bark crawled up, slowly covering the remnants of his human skin. The withered bark seemed to regain vitality under this stimulation, and the evil seed hidden inside him began to stir.
Su Yi, feeling something on Su Yu's body, turned around to find that the person behind them was enveloped in a green light.
"I'm curious though," the ink beast asked. "You've always hated these things, right? Why agree to break the formation? Besides, does this human kid even know how to break a formation? His spirit stone formation was just something he recently figured out, right?"
Su Yu didn't look at the cloaked man anymore. "I'm interested in the formation's core."
He was also interested in the formation… His thoughts aligned with those of the cloaked man. Helping others was a win-win situation.
However… The entire sect now had only one person left, living in a form that was neither human nor ghost, and now he was going to become a banner.
For the dead? Was it necessary?
So strange.
Su Yu listened to the sounds around them, and when he looked down, countless green gases passed by their sides and began flowing toward the money house.
These lingering green gases… they felt more like something else, something warm and indescribable.
Outside the courtyard, the little ginseng took the lead, clearing the way. The giant-sized spirit beast and the cloaked man inside the money house coordinated perfectly. They quickly tore a gap in the surrounding alien plants, revealing the formation lines that had been concealed beneath the ground. Su Yu, being knowledgeable about formations, immediately led Su Yi to the formation lines and pointed out the location quickly. "Three steps ahead, can you see it?"
Su Yi didn't even need to be told. He could already see it, and being carried actually saved him the trouble of tripping. He immediately gave instructions, "Go forward."
The group had made their escape from inside, and the cloaked man's formation was indeed effective. With the help of the spirit stones, he pushed back the alien plants surrounding the money house and exposed a large number of formation lines hidden beneath the surface. They quickly realized that the cloaked man had not been bluffing them—
The lines were so chaotic and interwoven, almost like a ghostly scrawl, and it was impossible to determine where they began or ended.
Breaking the formation was far from as simple as they had imagined, or rather, the cloaked man had indeed opened up the formation in Gold State Town for them, allowing them to more easily locate the formation's key points. However, creating such a monstrous formation that had turned the town into what it was now was no easy feat.
There were just so many of them… The formation lines and points that were exposed were far too numerous. At a glance, it looked like a jumbled mess.
How could they possibly find the core of the formation within two hours?
Qi Yan didn't understand formations, and he, a sighted person, felt a headache coming on. How much harder would it be for his younger brother? He noticed that Su Yi had been silent and was about to tell him not to worry too much when he saw Su Yi with his head lowered, seemingly studying the direction of the formation lines.
It might not be accurate to say he was "looking," but it really seemed like he was looking.
A blind person… could see this?
Qi Yan knocked his head with his fan, wondering what he was thinking. There were so many talented and strange people in the world, and he had even heard of blind swordsmen, so maybe blind formation masters were possible too.
The surrounding alien plants were blocked by the formation and couldn't advance. Qi Liu scanned the area and, noticing the eerie situation behind them, suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
Upon focusing, he realized that the area behind them had inexplicably become empty.
"Don't you think there are fewer alien plants behind us… and they're dying really quickly?" Qi Liu murmured, but before he finished speaking, he turned around to see the alien plants at his feet suddenly vanish!
"Young master!!" Qi Yan shouted anxiously. "They're gone!"
The group turned around and observed for a while but saw nothing. They all looked at Qi Liu.
"I really saw something…" Qi Liu defended.
"Qi Liu, have you always been this timid?" Qi Yan didn't even look back as he continued to watch ahead. "Instead of making a fuss, why don't you help find the formation lines? Those tree-skinned creatures won't pose much of a threat for now."
But it was really strange! Qi Liu felt uneasy. Just as he turned around again, he saw an alien plant suddenly vanish before his eyes!
It was over. Had he been so deeply affected by the evil seed that his vision was starting to fail?
In the Abyss of Evil, the Ink Beast and Zhang Fugui were both holding onto the living corpse that was trying to crawl out, nearly exposing the Abyss of Evil while trying to scavenge.
The Ink Beast nearly choked on the fruit, gasping for air before saying, "Su Yu, at least make sure the living corpse doesn't cause trouble! It almost rushed out."
This damn living corpse only listens to Su Yu. One command and it follows rigidly, without any sense of flexibility.
Meanwhile, Su Yu remained silent, looking at the formation lines. His fingers, hidden in his sleeves, subtly moved, seemingly tracing something.
He had more or less figured it out by now. The growth of these alien plants was connected to the formation in Gold State Town. The spiritual energy generated by the courtyard formation came from the spirit stones uncovered by the cloaked man and the group. Only with enough energy could the spirit plants grow so rapidly… And similarly, the energy that stimulated the alien plants came from the Gold State Town formation.
So if they could find the root system of the alien plants, wouldn't that lead them to the formation's core?
Su Yu leaned against Su Yi's shoulder, gazing down at the chaotic "energy" around them. The more he delved into it, the more his spiritual sight was drained. If they were to rely on "looking" to find the formation's core, unless they were lucky and the formation's core happened to be nearby, two hours wouldn't be enough to explore all of Gold State Town.
What other way could there be? He was no longer focused on the complex formation of Gold State Town, but instead on the courtyard formation that he had already figured out in collaboration with the cloaked man.
The deeper he looked, the more an inexplicable intuition emerged.
When he looked at a certain part of the formation, Su Yu had a near-certain feeling: if he could control this formation…
The pace of breaking the formation over the past few hours was too slow. If they could move faster… Suddenly, he looked around at the red light flickering nearby. Qi Liu, in his Nascent Soul stage, had his fire-based spiritual energy uncontrollably leaking out under these circumstances.
"Mountain Beast Lord, look at the Taoist!" Zhang Fugui suddenly shouted.
The Ink Beast focused on casting a spell, noticing the unusual look in Su Yu's eyes.
The outer illusion was cast by the Ink Beast, but at this moment, it was nearly failing to conceal the oddity in Su Yu's eyes. A situation similar to the one at Nanwu Mountain reappeared. Crimson golden threads crawled across Su Yu's pupils—
He was using his spiritual sight!
He had told them not to use spiritual sight! The illusion might not cover it!
The Ink Beast shoved the living corpse towards Zhang Fugui. "Hold onto it."
Zhang Fugui: "!!!" He couldn't do that!
What exactly was this kid trying to do!? The Ink Beast didn't have time to worry. Just as he was about to strengthen the illusion, the strange look in the youth's eyes suddenly stopped.
Su Yu was looking at Qi Liu, or more precisely, at the energy on Qi Liu.
The fire energy was rising, burning brightly like a blooming red flower.
It suddenly occurred to him. The cloaked man had once commented on Qi Liu.
He had said that Qi Liu was a fire-element cultivator, which explained why the evil seed didn't affect him much.
"What's wrong?" Qi Liu suddenly felt scared.
Being looked at like this by a blind person was unnerving.
The courtyard formation… also had a fire-element cultivator.
Su Yu pondered for a moment, looking at the formation lines on the ground. It seemed like it might be possible.
Looking at the formation was taking too much time. There was a ready-made, energy-filled formation right in front of them. If they didn't take advantage of it, wouldn't that be a waste?
"Can you still use your spiritual power?" Su Yu leaned against Su Yi's shoulder, his sightless eyes looking at him, seemingly peering through Qi Liu to something deeper. "Qi Liu, can you still use your spiritual power?"
"I can, but…" Qi Liu, asked this, felt an indescribable sorrow. He smiled bitterly and said, "But I might not be much help."
As a fire-element cultivator, the fire techniques were the most aggressive among all elements. Common fire cultivators often used techniques like thunder and fire strikes, but for Qi Liu, these techniques seemed to be suppressed.
He was born with an inability to control the leakage of spiritual energy within his body. The techniques he used spread out even before reaching the target. Though he had diligently cultivated and reached the Nascent Soul stage, in actual combat, he could barely defeat a Golden Core cultivator, and often caused trouble for his colleagues.
If they needed his help, the most he could do was keep everyone warm before they died.
Qi Yan noticed Qi Liu's awkwardness and quickly spoke up to diffuse the situation. "If you need spiritual power, my condition is still decent, I can…"
But Su Yu simply stared at Qi Liu. "You can't. Only he can."
Upon hearing Su Yu's words, Qi Liu felt an overwhelming disbelief. What does he mean "only he can"?
After receiving Qi Liu's confirmation, Su Yu didn't waste any time. He immediately had Su Yi let him down, and as he fumbled along the formation lines on the ground, he retrieved the spirit stones that he had gotten from Qi Yan. This time, the spirit stones weren't activated. Instead, they were calmly embedded into the various parts of the formation, with no effect on the extended courtyard formation.
"What are you doing?" Qi Yan asked.
Su Yi observed for a while and then explained, "It looks like he's setting up a formation."
There were already two formations in Gold State Town, and now this young brother was trying to set up a third one!? Wasn't this getting a little too much? Could it really be safe with so many formations?
"Come in," Su Yu said.
Qi Liu walked into the formation in a daze, asking, "What should I do?"
"Just release your spiritual power towards the center," Su Yu instructed.
Qi Liu, who was at the core of the formation, hesitated for a moment. Looking at the strange formation embedded within, he thought for a second and decided to follow Su Yu's instructions. He gathered his spiritual energy in his dantian and let it flow from his palm into the formation. "My spiritual power isn't that strong…"
"Do you release fire?" Su Yu suddenly asked.
Qi Liu: "Huh?"
Everyone else: "?"
Su Yu lowered his head. "Like this—"
Before he could finish speaking, Qi Liu's spiritual energy, entering the formation, suddenly spread outwards. The fiery, vigorous energy of the fire element seemed to have received some kind of enhancement, and in an instant, it surged outwards with great force.
Qi Liu: "!!!"
Inside Gold State Town, Elder Liu, hidden in the shadows, remained calm and composed.
The cultivators outside wanted to break the formation, but it wasn't that easy. The alien plants throughout Gold State Town had all sprouted from the formation, with their root systems intertwined in a complex web. The plants in the southern part of the town had roots in the northern part.
Even the famous Black and White Envoys of the Loose Cultivator Alliance couldn't handle this. A mere medical cultivator who knew some sword techniques wouldn't be able to find the core of the formation unless they could quickly trace the roots of the alien plants to their origin. Otherwise, it was impossible to find the critical point of the formation.
This formation had been laid out over ten years, and to create this deadly sacrificial formation, he had even sacrificed the three sects under his command. It was now almost complete, and unless the grandmaster formation master from Tianlu Mountain arrived, no one could ruin his plan!
At that moment, a flash of fire appeared in the water mirror.
Elder Liu froze for a moment. In the next instant, the entire water mirror was suddenly filled with firelight, turning deep red.
"?"
"!!!"
Nearby Bai Yue Tower, Gu Qi, who had just slain a bark puppet, turned around to see the sky suddenly filled with fire. As the flames rushed toward him, he had to retreat several steps. He watched as the bark puppet was consumed by the fire, and even his usually calm face showed signs of surprise.
Outside Gold State Town, on the spiritual boat, the group trying to decipher the formation suddenly sensed something. Elder Qi, the guardian of the Su family's spiritual boat, raised his eyes. Just as he did, he saw a small crack appear on the otherwise impenetrable city walls of Gold State Town. The flawless full moon high in the sky flickered, and then a burst of fire shot into the sky. In an instant, Gold State Town was bathed in a crimson light!
Forget about the formation…
Gold State Town was burning!!