The next moment, Ji Nanjue was sent flying backward, crash-landing with a thunderous roar and smashing a gigantic crater hundreds of feet wide into the ground. ᴛhis chapter is ᴜpdated by 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖑~𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖾~𝖓𝖊𝖙
Ji Nanjue’s complexion suddenly turned pale. She let out a muffled groan and violently spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, her body’s Supreme Yin Qi becoming chaotic.
Her icy blue hair, now stained with blood, fixed a cold, phoenix-like gaze on the crowd before her.
However, her gaze drifted towards her center of gravity, which had shifted slightly southeast. She pondered the significance.
Beneath the raging blizzard, even she could feel its bone-chilling cold.
But it was precisely during this collision that she suddenly discovered a flaw in the Blood Refining array!
The Blood Refining array was formed by seventy-two Earth Sha Pearls, corresponding to the seventy-two Earthly Fiends. Theoretically, a cultivator trapped within should have no chance of escape.
The Spiritual Energy impacts from all directions should have been roughly identical; there was no way her trajectory should have been offset so significantly!
Then there’s only one possibility, she thought. There’s a flaw in the southeast, whether it was created intentionally or by accident!
Once this Big Array was laid out, it was theoretically impregnable. Its only negligible weaknesses were that it was time-consuming and resource-intensive to set up, and it could only target one person.
So why is there a loophole in the southeast corner!? Ji Nanjue wondered.
But now, the icy chill within her body left her no time to ponder if these fiends had intentionally created this fault.
Mustering the Spiritual Energy around her, she blasted an attack towards the southeast corner!
The raging blizzard enveloped the blood beads that had crystallized into Ice Crystals at the corners of her mouth. Blood seeped from her lips. Her body’s Spiritual Energy crisscrossed violently, resembling an unfathomably deep Spiritual Energy Vortex.
In her haste, she grabbed a handful of Extreme Fire Golden Pills from her storage ring and stuffed them into her mouth.
She tried to balance the Supreme Yin Qi within her body. However, as the scorching Extreme Fire Golden Pills took effect, the suddenness of it all made her vomit blood again. It spilled over her increasingly swelling chest, a shocking, bright crimson.
The color drained from her face until it was as pale as paper. Her exhalations grew more frequent while her inhalations became shallower; her breathing grew increasingly labored.
Besides suppressing a cultivator’s cultivation base, the Blood Refining array had another, more crucial function: it continuously siphoned their Spiritual Energy and disrupted the circulation pathways in their meridians.
For someone with an ordinary constitution, this minor effect wouldn’t have had a more profound impact.
Unfortunately for Ji Nanjue, her constitution was particularly susceptible to disruption, making a bad situation worse.
But she was, after all, a Tribulation-Crossing Cultivator. Even in such dire straits, she maintained control over her Spiritual Energy and kept blasting the southeast corner.
Seeing this, the leader of the group, a masked cultivator with a scar on his arm, frowned and asked, "Why is one Earth Sha Pearl missing from the Big Array?"
A masked cultivator beside him, eyes downcast, said grimly, "It’s Dongting Stream. Yi Er hasn’t returned." He added, "The southeast corner is in that direction."
The black-clad man’s face instantly darkened. Damn it, where on earth did that Yi Er go!? How could an Earth Sha Pearl not have been planted at Dongting Stream!?
Another deafening explosion resounded.
Ji Nanjue relentlessly bombarded the southeast corner. The Blood Refining array wasn’t rendered useless just because it lacked one pearl!
Nevertheless, this gave Ji Nanjue a sliver of hope. If I can just break through, I can escape... And that direction... it should be Dongting Stream!! Perhaps—
The air above Azure Cloud Mountain echoed with incessant, noisy discussions. Numerous Sect Disciples watched everything unfolding before them with complex emotions.
"Elder Su has done very well indeed."
"Yes, after all, the difference in realm compared to Elder Tong is just too great..."
"But it seems neither side has used their full strength yet."
Key Smoke looked thoughtfully at Su Bei on the high platform, then glanced at Queen Lin, whose anxiety was plain to see. Ji Nanjue has been missing for a day and a night, Key Smoke mused. What on earth could have happened?
Wenren Pingxin watched Su Bei on the Ascension Platform, her face etched with worry. He had adopted an opening stance, ready to attack at any moment. I really don’t want to see him get hurt again, she thought.
Su Bei raised a hand, twirling a lock of hair at his temple. The Qingping Sword instantly appeared, held horizontally before his chest. The sky was as dark as ink, the earth as black as charcoal, and their surroundings as pale white as joss paper burned for the dead.
Although it was the first time Su Bei had encountered such a situation, he wasn’t overly surprised. He surmised that Tong Xiu had constructed an illusion array, leveraging the prevailing forces of heaven and earth.
Su Bei snorted coldly. Wind rose.
Instantly, one after another, azure lotuses appeared before Tong Xiu, blooming with pure golden radiance.
Carried by the gales sweeping in from the horizon, they gradually scattered—a rain of flowers spanning ten li, dreamlike and illusory!
Azure lotus petals appeared without warning on Tong Xiu’s shoulder. The world dimmed, as if the sun itself had been enveloped.
Qingping Sword Qi surged. A dense, dark wave swept overhead, covering the entire sky, as if to bury Tong Xiu then and there.
The blossoming lotuses intertwined, forming arrays like a thousand knots in a woman’s silken hair.
Enduring his injuries, Su Bei struck out with his sword. "Sword Four! Dusk After Rain!"
A flicker of emotion crossed Tong Xiu’s face as he watched Su Bei’s sword strike. With a wave of his horsetail whisk, for a moment, the sky filled with dark flames, pressing down in concert with the sweep of his whisk.