Chapter 280: Consecutive Blows
Centered around Yu Feng, a cold and eerie grand formation spread out before Daoist Tongchen, extending in all directions like the envoys of the underworld’s black and white guardians descending upon the mortal world to claim souls.
Daoist Tongchen couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Yu Feng had just reached the Golden Core Stage and hadn’t even stabilized his cultivation yet—how could he possibly lay down such a powerful formation?
It defied all logic.
A formation from someone at the Golden Core Stage should never be able to threaten a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Even Fifth Senior Brother had spent seven painstaking years to set up the Spiritual Plant Formation, and that only served to weaken his own talismans—it posed no direct threat to him.
Daoist Tongchen forced a smile. “Good disciple, what are you doing? Quickly take down the formation. It wouldn’t be good if your master got hurt by mistake.”
“Just now, your master was only joking to lighten the mood because it was so tense. Good disciple, your alchemy can heal your master’s wounds, and Wu Lian—she’s someone I’ve raised since she was a child, like my own daughter. How could I ever harm her?”
Yu Feng gently shook his head and slowly walked toward Daoist Tongchen.
“Master, I once thought you were a good person. I risked my life to save you. Sadly, I was wrong.”
At this, Yu Feng found it almost laughable. He’d believed that as long as he dealt with Third, Fourth, and Fifth Senior Brothers, he could help his master and senior sister survive their death tribulations.
He never imagined that his senior sister’s calamity not only came from the three senior brothers, but also from their master.
When Senior Jiang revealed their master’s true face, he was still half-believing, unwilling to accept it.
One could imagine: if he hadn’t met Senior Jiang and had dealt with the three senior brothers alone, only to face the fangs of his own master—what a hopeless sight that would’ve been.
“Why don’t you explain how Fourth Senior Brother knew about my cultivation technique? Wasn’t it because you wanted to use his hands to take it from me?”
“And why didn’t you tell Senior Sister that she has an Innate Body? Afraid she’d grow suspicious?”
“Those herbs in your cave—besides being ingredients for Human Pills, what other purpose do they serve?”
“Why was the technique Senior Sister cultivated an incomplete version that can’t break through to the Nascent Soul Stage? Wasn’t it because you were afraid she’d advance beyond your control?”
Wu Lian stared at her master in shock. She had never known she had an Innate Body. She’d always been stuck at the late Golden Core Stage, unable to break through. She thought the problem was with herself. Never had she imagined that the technique was incomplete from the start.
“And where did Second Senior Brother get his Devouring Technique? Didn’t you teach it to him in secret, hoping that once he became powerful, he’d turn around and devour you instead?”
“Master, can you explain any of these things?”
Daoist Tongchen had no words. Everything Yu Feng said was true.
But he couldn’t understand—how did Yu Feng know all of this?
“I can explain everything—just listen, let me explain slowly…” Daoist Tongchen’s voice trailed off as he turned into a flash of lightning and struck toward Yu Feng.
“Xiao Feng, look out!” Senior Sister Wu Lian cried out in shock.
Yu Feng’s expression didn’t change. He calmly uttered one word: “Suppress.”
In an instant, the surrounding spiritual energy was sucked away, turning into chains that connected to the spiritual energy inside Daoist Tongchen, pinning him tightly in mid-air.
Daoist Tongchen stretched his neck, screaming hysterically, “How can a formation like this exist?! How is this possible?!”
Yu Feng smiled. “If talismans can borrow the power of heaven and earth, why can’t formations?”
“If I weren’t heavily injured, this kind of formation wouldn’t be able to trap me!” Daoist Tongchen raged with unwillingness.
“Master, how can you be sure that your injury wasn’t something I planned?”
“You know talismans, you know alchemy, you know formations too! How can one person know so many things?! Where did you learn it all?!” Daoist Tongchen’s eyes were bloodshot as he roared.
In truth, he was terrified, bluffing to hide it.
This young disciple was like an abyss. You never knew what else he could do, what he was thinking, or how far ahead he had calculated.
Yu Feng didn’t answer. He just smiled and looked up at the sky.
…
“The formation performed exactly as I expected,” Bai Hongtu nodded lightly, satisfied with his calculations.
He had come specifically to observe the effectiveness of the grand formation he had instructed Yu Feng to lay down.
As things stood, it was barely acceptable. If Bai Hongtu had been the one in Yu Feng’s place, he could have deployed a formation capable of directly annihilating an uninjured Daoist Tongchen.
But Yu Feng couldn’t be faulted. With his level of talent, being able to set up a formation of this caliber was already quite impressive.
After all, Yu Feng’s strength lay in knowing “many” things, not necessarily mastering them.
…
The chain-formed spiritual energy bound Daoist Tongchen as Yu Feng slowly made a twisting motion, crushing his physical body and Nascent Soul together.
Senior Sister Wu Lian looked despondent. She bowed toward Daoist Tongchen, then stepped into her role as the eldest disciple. “Let’s go find Third and Fourth Senior Brothers. With all that’s happened, I wonder how they’re doing.”
“Alright.” Yu Feng acted as if he didn’t know what had happened to them.
Naturally, Third and Fourth Senior Brothers had already been poisoned to death.
“What happened to Third and Fourth Senior Brothers…” Wu Lian covered her mouth in shock, her whole body trembling.
Yu Feng growled, eyes reddening.
“Fourth Senior Brother was poisoned by pills—he’d been consuming Fifth Senior Brother’s spiritual plants for a long time. Third Senior Brother was very close to Fifth; only Fifth could have silently poisoned him.”
“It must’ve been Fifth Senior Brother who poisoned them—both of them! Third and Fourth were such good people, yet they died so unjustly, betrayed by that b*****d Fifth Brother! Despicable!”
Wu Lian had been picked up by Daoist Tongchen when she was young. She had never seen the schemes and backstabbing of the Tongu World. She never imagined her master had always intended to refine her, or that Fifth Brother had been a mole all along.
She had suffered a string of devastating shocks tonight. Her eyes glazed over, and her body gave out. Just as she was about to collapse, Yu Feng rushed forward and caught her.
“Senior Sister, are you alright?”
Seeing her little junior brother’s face gradually losing its youthful innocence, Wu Lian gently shook her head, trying to get up with forced strength, but her body wouldn’t cooperate. She had no choice but to let Yu Feng support her.
Yu Feng deliberately distanced himself from the situation and pinned everything on Fifth Senior Brother. If he told Senior Sister the whole truth—that not a single person in their sect was decent—she might break down completely.
“Right, Senior Sister, I got this from Master—take a look. Is it the continuation of your cultivation technique?” Yu Feng tried to distract her and pulled out a slightly worn manual from his robe.
“‘Innate Creation Art’? That’s the same name as my current technique.” Wu Lian flipped through it and realized it really was the continuation of her technique.
“This second half is much more profound than the first.” Wu Lian was shocked. She had thought her technique only reached the Soul Formation Stage. Now it looked like it could go as far as the Fusion Stage—or even higher.
Yu Feng thought to himself that this was the version supplemented by Senior Jiang—it was definitely better than the original.
By the next morning, Senior Sister Wu Lian had shattered her core and formed a Nascent Soul—an Innate Nascent Soul of the highest grade.
The joy of reaching the Nascent Soul Stage dulled her sorrow, but Wu Lian was still haunted by a hard-to-express melancholy.
“Little Junior Brother, we’re all that’s left of our sect.”
Suddenly, a voice echoed from the sky: “Has the sect really fallen so far in just over ten years?”
A man’s loud voice rang out from above: “The Heavenly Lord has decreed that an Immortal Dynasty shall be established. All cultivators of the Tongu World must become citizens of this dynasty. You are no exception.”
Wu Lian suddenly looked up, pupils contracting: “Second Brother?”