Ruuussstle! Black qi rays filled the air, and endless black light spread out from the Featherwood Guard. In an instant, the stronghold had become a pavilion of light. The Taiyi Everlasting Array was different from the Featherwood Guard’s cheap preinstalled formation. At this moment… the Xingtian Legion seemed to become a lair growing all over with barbed tips! It firmly blocked the center of the Linghu Clan’s charge!

There onwards, everything within the array sunk into darkness. The inside could still be seen clear as day from the outside, however.

“Grand mountain-protector array!” Outside, the cold smile on Linghu Chaofeng’s face instantly froze over. He looked at the scene before his eyes incredulously! No one understood the might of a grand array more than he did. The White Tiger Hall itself possessed a supremely large grand array! Any stronghold that seemed so weak that it couldn’t even take one strike… once equipped with a grand array… would promptly become a flesh grinder!

He feared that the Linghu Clan’s 3,000 demon cultivators would be grievously harmed!

Good… Good! Very good!

You actually had a grand array? You think that by drawing into this tortoise shell you’ll be able to struggle on your last legs?

That’s right… A grand mountain-protector array really can turn this place into a hell of flesh and blood, but… you’ve also let go of your last way out at the same time!

To have the Linghu Clan’s scant-remaining battle power die here… you will not escape ten thousand deaths!

Nonetheless… once in flight, an arrow could not turn back! It was now that the tide of Linghu legions charged towards the Featherwood Guard with maximum strength!

Buzz… In front of them, a several-hundred-meter-sized black screen of light swiftly unfurled. Strange talismans flashed and flickered and slowly bobbed up in down in the screen. Like an enormous beast in the night, it callously observed them.

An alternating black-white tide frantically swarmed to the center. Between the finger bones of the very first row of demon cultivators, three bone claws grew out with a squelch on both hands! Under the moon’s glow, the first line of several hundred people had already leaped up. The roars of tigers quaked the sky. With boundless killing intent, they directly pounced at the deep and mysterious stronghold in front of them!

“Move aside!!!” Linghu Qian bellowed loudly. Against reason, she was oddly hovering in midair with her Qi Condensation cultivation. Her right arm had already become over a meter long, the hand of a demonbeast. All of a sudden, she exploded with a deafening roar!

In moments, she transformed into a stream of light. As a loud crash rang out, all the cultivators and things in her path of advance were pushed aside! As if water was separated, all that remained at the center was a white sword! A vast amount of rubble began to collapse behind her. In the sky, her white right arm wielded five snow-white scars!

“Secret Art of Cleaving Wind… Tiger Dominates The World!”

Last to set out but first to arrive, she took the lead to attack the Taiyi Everlasting Array. Her five white lights were like five heavenly blades descending upon the world! Without the least bit reservation, she made use of her total strength! The surrounding air grew fuzzy!

BOOM!!! Inside the Featherwood Guard, a loud bang came from outside, the sound of several hundred people purely using their physical bodies to slam into a great formation. Hundreds of talismans glimmered, and silence returned afterwards. Less than a second later, however, a second noise resounded! The sound of rumbling! The entire light screen revolving around the Featherwood Guard quaked!

The rumbling was ceaseless, the sound of endless Linghu Clan cultivators battering like ocean waves one after another! Nonetheless, the screen barely swayed, and the talismans became increasingly realistic, a kind of formless oppressive sensation continuing to intensify!

No one spoke whatsoever. All of the Xingtian Legion’s cultivators were tightly gripping the weapons in their hands and waiting for combat. Through the course of several battles, they were no longer the unskilled neophytes of the past. Even if some people’s complexions were already pale and cold sweat dripped down their foreheads, no one fled this time. [1]

“Fellow Daoist Xu?” Lord Zhao’s expression was grave. In his nearly hundred years of life, he had witnessed sieges several times. He clearly understood now was far from the moment of danger. Concerning this grand array that was barely 500 meters in radius, he still couldn’t help but inquire, though.

Xu Yangyi’s face was heavy like water. In his hand, dozens of black lights circled. The Taiji in front was ever flaring out. He said in a low tone, “Nothing.”

“You want to rely on a lot of people to pile down the grand array?” His hand slammed down on the Taiji, and he sneered, “Dream on!”

Just as his voice fell, the Taiji exploded with intertwining black and white light. Very shortly, a giant image of the Eight Trigrams appeared in front of everyone.

Qian, Kun, Xun, Zhen, Kan, Li, Gen, Dui! [2]

On each trigram were countless floating seals that only he could see as the formation’s controller.

“The Taiyi Everlasting Array is always written from the top of the web… Among grand mountain-protector arrays, some have defenses that are extremely robust. Some are centered on attack. Some have outstanding illusory capability. And there are some that take the middle ground…” Xu Yangyi gazed over the almost ten-meter-sized Eight Trigrams of golden qi and said coldly, “But regardless of any lower-level grand array, all of ‘em have a counterattack function.”

“Now, just let them see…” He licked his lips with a thirst for blood and bit his finger. A drop of blood flew out and landed on the face of a trigram. “How strong the counterattack of the Taiyi Everlasting Array is.”

Swish! A ray of golden light and a trigram swiftly flew out. Without warning, they became an endless number of light dots and sunk into a chain, and the chains instantly shook together! At both side palaces, the eyes of cultivators brightened, and they freely shoved in spirit stones into their respective coiling dragon pillar in front of them. Over a dozen cultivators were seated around at both sides and making the same hand seal, all of them perfectly adjusted.

The Kun trigram!

Qian was heaven, Kun was earth, Xun was wind, Zhen was thunder, Kan was water, Li was fire, Gen was mountain, and Dui was lake.

Qian, Zhen, Li, and Dui were the four great trigrams of attack. Kun, Xun, Kan, and Gen were the four great trigrams of defense. The Taiyi Everlasting Array… was a formation that possessed both offensive and defensive qualities!

A strange wave imperceptibly passed through the black screen of light. At this moment, Linghu Qian’s giant claw had just pulled out of the screen, and a ripple fluctuated. The screen was completely undamaged. She wasn’t the slightest bit discouraged, however, and a savage smile perked up at the corner of her mouth instead.

Her experience was very rich against grand arrays. First of all, she wanted to feel how powerful this formation was. Yet through her contact just now, she gained a clear understanding…

It wasn’t strong! The formation’s defense was in no way strong!

“Black Sparrow Becomes Shadow…” Her left hand weaved seals at a dizzying pace, and her right hand actually began to hollow, turning into a tiger’s claw seemingly cast out of ink. It appeared rather lithe and graceful, yet its powerful spiritual pressure was unexpectedly clambering up little by little!

It was then… that her complexion abruptly changed!

Being so close, she clearly sensed a gentle wave coming from inside the formation!

It was gentle, very gentle, yet it was extremely dangerous!

Rumble… Absent of the slightest warning, the ground outside started to tremble. She looked below her feet in shock, suddenly looming danger causing her entire body to shake. She had no time to cry out, barely relying on instinct to somersault back to leap over a dozen meters away!

“RETREAT!!!”

Meanwhile, at the army’s rear, Linghu Chaofeng’s furious roar to withdraw had just come.

However, it was already too late!

Crack crack crack! Just as his voice faded away, a chunk of earth besides the Featherwood Guard bulged up like lightning. The demon cultivator above it was attacking the Taiyi Everlasting Array with all his might. He hadn’t reacted whatsoever, his awareness sunk into darkness.

Yet what welcomed him… was a razor-sharp stone caltrop.

Crack crack crack… Sound continued to rain down on the ear. In that instant, a second caltrop rumbled out from the earth! Soon… a third came! A fourth! The four-hundredth!

“Puh!”

“ARGH!!!”

“How could…”

The counterattack was sudden and bereft of the slightest omen! The land around the Featherwood Guard quickly transformed into a hell of sharp thorns, and mercilessly reaped the lives of the demon cultivators in the vicinity. Black spirit light rumbled and turned the area into a region that forbided life! A black heavenly moat was outlined!

“This…” Linghu Qian’s eyes were bloodshot. In the blink of an eye, their barely remaining battle strength had been cleanly wiped out around the Featherwood Guard! Countless ten-odd-meter-tall stone caltrops skewered the corpses of numerous demon cultivators!

“It’s an array with both offense and defense!” Linghu Chaofeng clenched his fist in a death grip, veins clearly bursting through the surface of his skin.

They had been deceived.

No one would expect that the 500-meter-sized Featherwood Guard would actually have a grand array! When they attacked, there was basically no time to sound a retreat!

A knife seemed to twist in his heart as he stared at the jagged stone forest outside the Featherwood Guard. There were also cultivators, who’d been heavily wounded but not died, miserably wailing inside. He didn’t continue looking, but instead turned to the devil-like Featherwood Guard inside the black light, as if he wanted to eat it.

“Xu Yangyi…” he spat out these several characters from between clenched teeth. “I’m going to rip you apart into a thousand pieces!!!”

“From now on, the words ‘begging for forgiveness’ do not exist for you… Even if you kneel down and ask me, or kiss the mud under my feet, I’m still going to hang you alive… Hang you over a cliff and let demonbeasts feed on your body for forty-nine days!”

He flung his head back and yelled angrily, “Qian’er!”

“Present,” Linghu Qian gritted her teeth and answered. In kind, blood was almost gushing from her eyes.

“Break through it.” Linghu Chaofeng closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “I’m giving you half an hour.”

There was no asking whether she could accomplish it or not.

She had to!

The explosive rage in their hearts could only be quenched by the Xingtian Legion’s blood!

“Yes!” An ear-splitting roar came from Linghu Qian’s small frame. Her body fell back like a kite and steadily fell to the ground. Afterwards, she took a heavy breath and roared like a fierce tiger. “Retreat!”

Even though the monochrome tide facing the Linghu army had just killed at least 300 or 400 via the Kun trigram, the army was still numerous as before. Upon hearing her command, everyone spread out in a line, tides rising and fall. The black flood slowly subsided to a large empty plot ahead.

At this moment, the wind was still. Even the moonlight hid behind the clouds. Abrupt yet not sudden, a mood that could be called somber rose up in front of the Featherwood Guard.

Linghu Qian’s face was like cold ice, and she alone strode out ahead. Her two hands, like white silk, sparklingly rose up. Her expression was grave as she cast a gentle spell.

Buzz… The magik art descended, and space seemed to oddly resonate with her. Weak prismatic rays surfaced all over the ground.

Shortly, her hands became faster and faster. Bean-sized pearls of sweat slid down her head, and her red lips were tightly scrunched. In the wake of her movements, fifteen massive formations appeared and circled around the Featherwood Guard!

“Activate… Demon-Exemplar Puppet!” Her gaze was crimson, glaring daggers at the Featherwood Guard. “Just let them see how weak their invincible egg shell invincible is.”

Swoosh swoosh swoosh! White light shimmered on the formations. The radiance started fairly light, but went straight to the horizon in a matter of seconds!

Crash… The ground bulged little by little, and chunks of dirt were ever swirling in the air. Following a peal of thunderous cracks, fifteen immense coffins, all of them no less than tens of meters in size, rumbled out from underground!

Two jade hands formed a final seal, and Linghu Qian took a long and deep sigh. Her lily-white finger pointed to the Featherwood Guard like a battle-axe, and she rasped out, “Massacre artifacts…”

“Kill them all!!!”

1. “Unskilled neophytes”. The specific text here is 吳下阿蒙, which doesn’t make much sense by itself. It is called General Lu Meng’s Letter, originating from the Three Kingdoms period. The gist of it is that a person can diligently learn to better themself. More modern usage is to mock scholars that are learned, yet in some sense these teachings are still shallow. That’s why practice is needed.

2. These are the names of the individual trigrams. There are a total of eight. I thought about giving them english names, but each trigram represents many things (elements/planets/etc), so it depends on context.