CHAPTER 38: 038 BATTLE FORMATION

Shi Feiyang flew incredibly fast, and in an instant he was a thousand miles away.

Lady Bao Xiang, together with Zhuge Jingwo, was hell-bent on retrieving the thousand-year Purple River Grass and pursued him relentlessly.

Zhuge Jingwo knew the Wuxing Sword Escape from the Taiqing Mysterious Sect, and needless to say, his speed was astonishing.

Lady Bao Xiang’s father, Elder Xue Xue, held a position in the Spiritual Space Immortal Realm, working in the Heavenly Emperor’s Langhuan Book Library. He managed part of the Heavenly Books and Secret Manuals and had secretly learned quite a bit, which he passed on to his daughter. Among these techniques was one called "The World Within a Pouch, Thousand Miles in the Courtyard," which also allowed her to fly incredibly fast. Given her profound power, she managed to get ahead of Zhuge Jingwo.

No longer using the clouds for invisibility, Shi Feiyang directly employed the Escape Technique from the Heavenly Book Supplement and sped northward. In the blink of an eye, he had traversed over three thousand miles. Sensing someone approaching from behind, he looked back and saw Lady Bao Xiang in her pink dress, her chest exposed.

Originally a fox spirit, although she had mimicked human behavior for two or three thousand years, she had never truly devoted herself to cultivation or sincere relationships, instead seducing men at random. Now, consumed by rage and without any sense of shame or decency, she came at him, her hair and bare feet revealed, her left hand wielding the Rainbow Chain and her right the Red Cloud Needle, furiously shouting, "Monster, return my Magical Treasure!"

Shi Feiyang expelled his inner core and engaged in a magic duel with her. As they were evenly matched, Zhuge Jingwo also caught up, desperate to retrieve the Purple River Grass to atone for his own faults. He had arrived so hastily that he was only wearing shorts, his chest partially covered, his hair and feet bare, and his red mandarin jacket hanging around his ankles. He rapidly advanced and attacked with the Invisible Sword.

Unable to withstand both of their attacks, Shi Feiyang managed to hold them off for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before diving headfirst into the vast ocean.

Lady Bao Xiang and Zhuge Jingwo, relentless, also employed Sword Control spells and pursued him into the sea.

Shi Feiyang led them into deep waters, where he engaged them once more, using his Dan Qi to manipulate vast amounts of seawater into forming stealthy currents that crashed into them like mountains.

Zhuge Jingwo split the waves with his sword, seemingly unaffected, while Lady Bao Xiang found her Rainbow Chain limited here and retracted it for self-protection, furiously urging the Red Cloud Needle forward and launching the Pure Yang Heart Lock, which Shi Feiyang countered with his inner core.

After another fierce battle that lasted the duration of a meal, Shi Feiyang once again fled, continually rising until he broke the water’s surface, determined his direction in the air, and headed toward the northeast.

This pattern of fighting and fleeing continued until Shi Feiyang flew over an island strewn with bizarre rocks. As the two pursuers caught up, he suddenly turned and cast a spell. The island immediately erupted with "bang, bang, bang," and several plumes of colored smoke shot straight into the sky, forming a yellow cloud. In an instant, the sky darkened and winds whipped up sand and stones.

Caught directly above the island, Lady Bao Xiang and Zhuge Jingwo found themselves trapped by an array and struggled to break free. Shi Feiyang returned and expelled two inner cores: the Divine Fire Inner Core struck Zhuge Jingwo, and the True Water Inner Core hit Lady Bao Xiang, thrusting both into the formation.

"The Ten Thousand Miles of Yellow Sand Array!" With her extensive knowledge, Lady Bao Xiang, and Zhuge Jingwo, a direct descendant of the Mysterious Sect, exclaimed the name of the array in unison.

This was the very array once used by Wei Fengniang, later seized along with the formation flag by Shi Feiyang, who had prepared the fifteen small flags in advance, lying in wait to lure them here when they pursued too fiercely. Triggering the array, he trapped them both inside.

In the formation, they were surrounded on all sides by a dusky yellow, without a second color in sight, as thousands of sand particles filled the air. Lady Bao Xiang used the Rainbow Chain to protect both herself and Zhuge Jingwo, "This array originates from the vast deserts of Xinjiang and deploying it in the middle of the ocean lessens its effectiveness. We cannot force our way through, or we will be buried by the Earth Qi. Stay calm, I have a way to break it!"

Before Lady Bao Xiang could finish her sentence, Zhuge Jingwo became one with his sword and flew out of the Rainbow Chain. The Invisible Sword Light swirled a few times in the yellow sand and then vanished.

At this moment, Zhuge Jingwo had mixed feelings about Lady Bao Xiang. He hated her for seducing him and ruining his Dao Level, but he was also indulgently fond of the previous experiences, as they say, once you’ve savored the marrow, it’s hard to stop. He didn’t particularly hate Lady Bao Xiang, instead, he reflected on himself, feeling that the greatest responsibility was his own shallow Dao and weak effort. When faced with calamity, he lost his composure at the critical moment, leading to major mistakes. Of course, there was still some resentment—without Lady Bao Xiang’s initiative to seduce him, none of this would have happened.

However, regardless, he was unwilling to rely on Lady Bao Xiang’s strength, hence he flew out with Sword Control, intending to break the formation on his own.

While he maneuvered the Flying Sword, Shi Feiyang couldn’t see him, only sensing an invisible fish threading through the rolling yellow sand, aiming for the center of the array.

Zhuge Jingwo was a disciple of the Mysterious Sect, where he had rigorously studied the Dao, Laws, and Techniques. Although he had never encountered the Thousand-Mile Sand Array, it adhered to the principles of Yin Yang, the Five Elements, the River Map and Luo Book, and the Eight Diagrams; he tried several times and soon deciphered the key points, making effortful attempts to break the array with Sword Control.

Shi Feiyang continued to cast spells in the sky, constantly shifting the array’s gates, causing Zhuge Jingwo to find nothing each time he charged at the array’s center.

Lady Bao Xiang was also trying to break the array. She was highly experienced with various arrays. Her approach was different from Zhuge Jingwo’s, but their goals were aligned—they both searched for the array’s key point.

Both parties were casting spells, one setting up the array while the other attempted to break it.

Shi Feiyang had previously engaged in academic-style strategizing, a theoretical exercise akin to military chess, which also required high capability.

After arriving in this world, having inherited the memories of the Black Dragon, and subsequently studying several Daoist books, he primarily gained Mana, and started practicing real-world application, studying mathematics, and experimenting with predictions, still exploring and applying these techniques.

Previously, he had trapped Wei Fengniang and the two ladies from Immortal City using the Counteracting Five Elements Technique. Wei Fengniang, being a peripheral practitioner, only knew how to follow the methods taught by her master, while the two ladies from Immortal City were even less skilled than Wei Fengniang, hence he succeeded entirely.

Today, faced with Zhuge Jingwo, a practitioner of authentic Mysterious Sect Immortal Technique, and Lady Bao Xiang, a cunning and sly old fox with a heritage from the Immortal Realm, the two collaborated efficiently, always precisely locating the center of the array.

Shi Feiyang continuously adjusted the array, matching wits with them. After battling for half an hour, Zhuge Jingwo suddenly bellowed in anger and struck furiously, his Invisible Sword entwined around one of the yellow sand flags used for the formation, which, with a tearing sound like ripping silk, dispersed into a puff of dust.

With one of the fifteen flags destroyed, the entire formation was broken. Zhuge Jingwo and Lady Bao Xiang soared out from the billowing yellow dust, both seething with anger. They roared in unison and launched their needle and sword simultaneously.

Shi Feiyang, seeing the flag being shredded and knowing the formation was about to be broken, readied the Black Crow Needle. Before the two emerged, he locked onto Lady Bao Xiang, who was the more adept in Daoist arts, and struck.

Lady Bao Xiang also shared a similar thought and launched three of her self-forged White Eyebrow Needles.