Chapter 24: Ji Ning Battles the Wanxiang

The moment Xu Li, Nong Zidao, and the other seven entered the Nether Dragon Locking Heaven Formation, Xu Li shouted, “Dragon Formation!”

As his voice fell, Nong Zidao, Wu Qi, Lu Huang, and the other Zifu cultivators each condensed a phantom dragon above their heads. The eight phantom dragons swiftly flew toward Xu Li, above whom a massive phantom dragon appeared. After merging with the other eight phantom dragons,

a white dragon with visible scales materialized, hovering and encircling the nine of them.

The Snowdragon Mountain’s most famous formation was the ‘Snow Dragon Soaring Heaven Formation’, the sect’s supreme formation. It could be formed by a Primal Daoist leading a group of Wanxiang Adepts and thousands of Zifu cultivators, transforming them into a single white divine dragon… possessing earth-shattering power, enough to contend with an Immortal!

Apart from the supreme ‘Snow Dragon Soaring Heaven Formation’, the sect also had various simplified versions, all collectively called ‘Dragon Formations’.

All simplified formations were named with ‘Dragon’.

Only the supreme sect-guarding formation could be named with ‘Snow Dragon’. The formation Xu Li and his eight companions were now using was one of these Dragon Formations.

…

The white dragon hovered around them, exuding a powerful pressure.

Xu Li and the other eight advanced steadily.

“Stop.” Nong Zidao gave the order, pointing ahead. “Please, Uncle-Master, use your dharma seal. Make it ten zhang long and wide, and smash this mountain area into a ten-zhang-deep pit.”

Xu Li nodded. A seal flew from his palm, growing as it flew until it was ten zhang long and wide. A dense yellow aura clung to its underside. He pointed downward, and with a rumble, the seal pressed down, crushing trees and rocks, directly forming a ten-zhang-deep pit.

“Smash another ten-zhang pit here.” Nong Zidao continued forward, giving directions.

Boom! Boom! Boom! With each strike of the seal, pits formed in a strange pattern, rapidly taking shape.

They smashed over a hundred pits.

“Done.” Nong Zidao smiled. Some of the yuan force channels flowing underground were blocked and forced to change course. Instantly, the surrounding nether qi dissipated, and the area cleared to a bright sky.

“Impressive.”

“Brother Zidao is formidable.”

The Zifu cultivators rejoiced. The surroundings became clear; part of Oxhorn Mountain was revealed, and the trees and vegetation were visible to the naked eye. In the distance, a huge black dragon claw could be seen, and then the coiled Nether Dragon on Oxhorn Mountain shifted its position, the claw retreating into the nearby nether qi.

Nong Zidao laughed. “The nether qi of the Dragon Claw Formation is gone. Only the nether qi of the Dragon Pearl Formation, Dragon Head Formation, Dragon Tail Formation, and Dragon Body Formation remain.”

“Which sub-formation do we enter now?” Xu Li’s face already bore a smile.

“We broke this formation so quickly because I had pondered it for a long time,” Nong Zidao said quickly. “The other four sub-formations… will probably take a bit longer.”

Xu Li asked worriedly, “How long?”

Nong Zidao smiled confidently. “With the experience from breaking the Dragon Claw Formation, the other four will be faster. At most half a shichen each.”

“Good!” Xu Li was overjoyed.

At most half a shichen?

The remaining four sub-formations together would take at most two shichen! As long as they dispelled all the nether qi, the Ji clan would have nowhere to hide and would have to fight head-on…

“The Ji clan is doomed!” Xu Li’s eyes were full of anticipation. If they really obtained this yuan stone mine, as the one with the greatest merit, he would surely receive a great reward.

“Let’s go!”

Xu Li gave the order. The nine of them, protected by the hovering white dragon, entered the Dragon Body Formation.

…

“The nether qi of the Dragon Claw Formation has dissipated!” The Ji clan members were all panicked.

It was precisely because of the nether qi that the Ji clan held the initiative—they could attack when they wanted and retreat when they didn’t. The enemy, on the other hand, was forced to be passive, with no escape!

Ji Ning grew anxious. He understood the Nether Dragon Locking Heaven Formation well and was quite knowledgeable in formations. He said, “The Nether Dragon Locking Heaven Formation is extremely powerful and also has a maze effect. Breaking the entire formation is very difficult, but breaking just the maze nether qi is relatively easy. Since Nong Zidao broke the Dragon Claw Formation, and the five sub-formations are very similar, the other four will be quick.”

Ji Jiuhuo, who controlled the formation, nodded. “Yes, we can’t just watch them break the nether qi. We must stop them.”

“We must stop them.”

Granny Ying and the others all looked anxious.

“Ji Ning, only you can go,” Ji Jiuhuo said to Ji Ning. “You are the only one among us who has hope of stopping them. If even you cannot stop them… then the rest of us can only fight desperately to delay them as long as possible.”

Ji Ning nodded gently. “Alright.”

This calamity was full of twists and turns! After killing Tong Yu and the others, they thought the Ji clan had won, but Xu Li’s arrival brought an even more terrifying danger.

“In this battle, I must win.” Ji Ning’s heart surged with boundless fighting spirit.

Must win!

He was the only one who could possibly stop Snowdragon Mountain!

If he failed, he would have no choice but to flee, while the clan leader, his father, and the others, trapped by the ‘Sealing Formation’, could not escape and could only use their lives to delay and fight!

“Xu Li, I want you dead!”

“All of you must die!”

Ji Ning had only one conviction—to kill the enemy. To survive, for the Ji clan, for his family, to avoid fleeing alone in sorrow… he had to kill the enemy!

"Be careful." Ji Yichuan looked at his son.

"Stopping them is important, but staying alive is even more important." Granny Ying's hoarse voice urged.

Everyone looked at Ji Ning.

Ji Ning nodded slightly, then along a path where the Nethermist automatically parted before him, he swiftly streaked like a phantom, closing in on the enemy.

…

A moment later.

Ji Ning stood beside an ancient, gnarled tree. Around him hovered densely packed seven hundred-plus flying swords, forty-five of which were Mortal-ranked flying swords. After killing Tong Yu and the other Zifu cultivators, Ji Ning's number of ranked flying swords had increased to forty-six, enough to form five formation bases.

"Humm～" The hovering flying swords each emitted a hazy light.

Ji Ning frowned, sweat beading on his forehead. He struggled to control them; the flying swords around him rose and sank erratically.

"No, still no good." Ji Ning shook his head. "Last time when I fought Tong Yu, I had twenty-seven ranked flying swords among my sword artifacts… I could barely execute the ninth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation. But now with forty-five ranked flying swords, the ninth layer is completely impossible."

"The eighth layer!"

Ji Ning attempted it.

The flying swords around him bobbed up and down, flickering with hazy white light, still with great difficulty.

"Rise!" Ji Ning gritted his teeth, his head splitting with pain. Before him, he barely managed to condense a flying sword radiating white light.

"Disperse." With a thought, Ji Ning withdrew all the hovering sword artifacts.

Ji Ning pondered: "At most I can now execute the eighth layer of the Lesser Thousand Sword Formation, and it's very strenuous. I estimate that simultaneously controlling three sword beams of the eighth layer is my limit."

Although he could only execute the eighth layer, its power was thirty to forty percent stronger than the ninth layer he used when killing Tong Yu.

"Patriarch, where are they?" Ji Ning spoke. "I'm ready."

"Right ahead. I'll guide you." Ji Jiuhuo transmitted mentally.

"Good."

Ji Ning held a pair of Northmoon swords in his hands, his eyes filled with killing intent, and swiftly advanced forward.

…

A snow-white flood dragon swam gracefully, its scales pure white and flawless, breathtakingly beautiful. Xu Li the Daoist, Nong Zidao, and the other seven were within the circle encircled by the snow-white flood dragon. Nong Zidao was immersed in deducing the formation, trying to uncover the mysteries of the Nethermist's movement within this Dragon Body Formation.

Suddenly—

Whoosh whoosh whoosh～ The surrounding Nethermist gave rise to a light rain. The rain drifted down, cool and refreshing, covering everything. It was a pleasant drizzle, but the nine cultivators of Snowdragon Mountain all changed expression.

"It's the rain!"

"The rain! That Ji Ning's rain!"

"The Rainwater Sword Domain! Ji Ning has deployed the Rainwater Sword Domain; he's about to attack!" The Zifu cultivators were all tense. Even Nong Zidao, who had been deducing, stopped, a grave look on his face.

This rain was like a summons from death. Earlier, Dongzi Qi, Tong Yu, and the other Zifu cultivators had all perished, and now the rain had descended again.

"Rainwater Sword Domain?" Xu Li the Daoist, clad in a magnificent black robe, narrowed his eyes like a viper's pupils, scanning the surroundings. He was the calmest among them, but he too was on high alert. After all, he was still some distance from attaining the 'Dao Domain' in his insights into the Dao.

"Hmph." A cold snort rang out.

In the surrounding Nethermist, brilliant stars suddenly appeared, along with a bright moon. The watery moonlight enveloped Xu Li and the other eight Zifu cultivators, covering the area encircled by the snow-white flood dragon. The moonlight forced the rain away.

"Ji Ning, skulking around is truly contemptible." Xu Li the Daoist stood in the moonlight, surrounded by the snow-white flood dragon, and said coldly, "If you want to fight, come out and fight."

"Then I'll grant your wish!"

A shout like a spring thunderclap suddenly exploded.

Boom!

A streak of light shot out abruptly from the black Nethermist in the distance. A fiery red roc, surrounded by blooming water-and-fire lotuses, struck in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the fiery red roc, encircled by water-and-fire lotuses, had already reached Xu Li the Daoist. Its speed was so astonishing that even Xu Li was shocked.

"Roar～" The snow-white flood dragon's tail lashed out like a phantom, striking at the fiery red roc.

But the fiery red roc was too fast; the flood dragon's tail struck empty air!

"This is…" Xu Li the Daoist saw at a glance that this was no fiery red roc—it was a youth! The youth's entire body blazed with flames like a demon god, his wings of a magic treasure fully spread, also covered in a layer of fiery red light. His speed made Xu Li's heart tremble.

Divine Ability—Windwing Evasion!

Once a Fiendgod Body Refiner learned a divine ability, they could unleash power beyond their cultivation level. Although Ji Ning had just entered the seventh level of the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens, he already possessed the strength of an ordinary Fiendgod Body Refiner at the late Zifu stage. By using the divine ability 'Windwing Evasion,' which specialized in speed and agility, his speed instantly soared several levels, surpassing Xu Li the Daoist.

"Ji Ning?" Looking at the youth bathed in Crimsonbright divine power, holding twin swords, with speed that even made him tremble, Xu Li the Daoist's expression finally changed. "Is that Ji Ning? On par with Tong Yu? Ridiculous! Tong Yu was never this strong!"

"Die!"

A shout!

Sword light flared!