A Sect from a Spirit Vein

Chapter 61: Chapter 58: The Grand Array Is Broken

The two groups clashed instantly, unleashing their full abilities. The explosive sounds of magic techniques, the shrieking of magical artifacts, and the crashing of talismans mixed together. Various spiritual powers filled the sky over Spirit Snake Peak with dazzling colors.

The Chaosheng Sect had a slight numerical advantage, but the three sects here were led by their respective Sect Leaders, offering formidable battle strength, so the confrontation was balanced with both sides evenly matched, full of murderous intent. Occasionally, a cultivator would let out a miserable scream, drop their magical artifact, and fall, shattered to pieces.

Now, it was soldiers against soldiers, generals against generals, and only Lu Qian and Master Xuan Ji were left to confront Qian Ruyi.

Lu Qian, fueled by desperation, actually managed to control the three command banners of gold, wood, and water, urgently saying, ”Elder Zhou, take a break; let me handle this alone. I’ll use the Triple Transformation of gold, wood, and water!”

Since letting go of his last bit of resentment and taking on the role as Honored Guest Elder of the Yunshan Sect, Master Xuan Ji spared no effort, dedicating significant time each day to impart the essence of his array formations to Lu Qian.

Through deep study, Lu Qian understood that although Master Xuan Ji boasted of 325 combinations and transformations of the Five Elements Grand Array, half of them were actually useless combinations. Moreover, Master Xuan Ji came from a loose cultivator lineage, his ancestor was merely a Foundation Establishment Feather Scholar, and the Five Elements Grand Array transformations passed down only reached the Triple Transformation. He knew no more advanced mantras.

However, after six generations of inheritance, each generation continued to build upon it. By the time it reached Master Xuan Ji, though his spiritual root wasn’t ideal, he possessed Consciousness Collection. Through a century of meticulous sorting and gathering, he compiled all the single, dual, and triple transformation mantras of the Five Elements Grand Array.

Though there was no formal master-disciple relationship, he genuinely treated Lu Qian as his true successor, and since Lu Qian promised to pass on the essence of his arrays in the Yunshan Sect through generations, Master Xuan Ji was even more motivated, incorporating Li Zhenru’s array insights as reference material.

Lu Qian’s Consciousness Collection was powerful, his mind agile, enabling him to infer many things from one and his learning speed was rapid. Within a few short days, without mentioning anything else, he had memorized most of the array mantras.

At this moment, the Triple Transformation of gold, wood, and water proposed by Lu Qian was a rather low-consumption transformation, mainly focused on trapping the enemy.

The Zhou Family, for some unknown reason, failed, allowing a Foundation Establishment Feather Scholar to come through! The grand array would eventually be breached by him; it’s better to first try to trap this person, then retreat immediately and reconsider plans. As for the three sects’ cultivators on Spirit Snake Peak, they would have to fend for themselves.

But hearing Lu Qian controlling the Triple Transformation alone, Master Xuan Ji was shocked and exclaimed, ”No! Your Consciousness Collection may be stronger than mine and even comparable to Foundation Establishment, but your divine sense is already greatly depleted. It’s absolutely impossible to support this alone. If you forcibly activate your divine sense, it will inevitably damage your foundation, hindering any future growth of your Consciousness Collection, leading to ruin!”

Lu Qian knew this well, but the Foundation Establishment from Chaosheng Sect was about to break through the array. Once he escapes, the three of them would have no chance to flee.

Master Xuan Ji sighed deeply and took out an elixir from his bosom, swallowing it, ”Alright, I’ve taken the secret medicine, which will help restore my divine sense. Don’t worry, Lu the Kid, you control the gold-water array base, and I’ll handle the wood element array base.”

No time left, Lu Qian could only follow the advice, controlling the Gold-Water Command Banner as they injected their remaining divine sense. Master Xuan Ji’s face bulged with veins, revealing his pain.

Hang in there, hang in there!

No one spoke, but this mantra echoed naturally in their hearts.

”...Add seven parts gold, add two parts wood, add two parts water and draw gold, draw water and add one part wood each, add three parts gold, add five parts each of water and wood...”

With all their might, gold spiritual qi, wood spiritual qi, and water spiritual qi interacted in an exquisitely precise order, mutually generating and overcoming each other. Amidst the extraction and addition, the array map greedily absorbed the newly generated stone milk spiritual qi and spirit crystals gradually.

In a daze, Lu Qian seemed to return to the first encounter with Master Xuan Ji, back then Xuan Ji was dominant, and he assisted; unexpectedly now, their roles have switched.

The unchanged aspect was the seamless and precise cooperation.

Inside the grand array, large swathes of spiritual mist were cleared away, and the dizzying sensation affecting divine sense finally faded. Qian Ruyi discerned the direction, and with his flying sword, was about to break out of the array.

Suddenly, the crashing sound of chains rang out in the sky!

As Qian Ruyi looked up, twelve cyan chains shot out from all directions, arriving in an instant. Each chain ended with an exceedingly sharp spike, reminiscent of a serpent’s head, fiercely lunging at him.

This was the Triple Transformation of gold, wood, and water, the ”Earthly Branch Xin Metal Divine Lock”!

Qian Ruyi braced his longsword, roared furiously, and spun his body around, cold winds surging, akin to a tornado, as icy spikes howled towards the surrounding chains.

The crackling echoed in the clouds, dense ice spikes causing the chains to stall slightly, and white frost covered the chains’ original cyan.

Qian Ruyi snorted, about to retreat from the enclosure, when he heard the chains clatter again. With a shake, breaking through multiple layers of frost, they closed in rapidly, with the sharp ends snapping towards him.

Startled, Qian Ruyi raised the sword to his chest and began casting, the sound of freezing crackling as a cubic barrier of triple-layered cold ice formed, securely enclosing him within.

But before he could catch his breath, he heard the escalating sound of ice shattering, twelve chains entangled as if a giant serpent constricting the ice barrier firmly. As force was applied, ice shards flew about, seemingly unable to hold for much longer.

This was another attack comparable to Mid-Stage Foundation Establishment! Though not as fierce as the Gui Water Divine Thunder before, it was both soft and hard, difficult to break.

Seeing the ice barrier about to shatter, Qian Ruyi gritted his teeth and reluctantly took out the jade ring. At the moment the ice barrier fragmented, the Cyan Simurgh danced out, screeching loudly, and with a powerful struggle, broke open a gap in the chains, carrying Qian Ruyi in flight to escape.

Qian Ruyi retracted the jade ring, noticing it now covered in cracks, with only one use left.

No time for regret, the twelve chains shot over again, Qian Ruyi harnessed the flying sword, dodged swiftly, and began maneuvering through the grand array.

No, no, he escaped again, how could this Foundation Establishment be so slippery? Almost had it!

Lu Qian grew increasingly anxious, suddenly feeling the fierce tremor of the three spiritual qi types, the ratio shifting imbalance in an instant. With a boom, the three command banners flew high, and the twelve chains disintegrated instantly.

Then Jiang Qingfeng shouted, ”Elder Zhou!”

Lu Qian turned abruptly, seeing Master Xuan Ji fallen heavily to the ground, blood dripping from his eyes and nose.

Master Xuan Ji couldn’t hold on!

”Hurry up!” Lu Qian pulled Master Xuan Ji’s body onto his back, sensing the warm blood dripping on his back, ”Quickly go! The Foundation Establishment is getting in!”

But failing to trap him, could they still leave now?

In the grand array, Qian Ruyi looked at the suddenly collapsing cyan chains. After a brief pause, he laughed out loud. Though unsure of what happened, such an opportunity couldn’t be missed; his flying sword flickered with escape light as he swiftly broke out of the grand array, flying above Spirit Snake Peak.

Staring coldly at the few Spirit Snake Peak disciples left on the ground in panic and disarray, he sneered, raising his flying sword high!