Chapter 223 : Third-Tier Broken Formation
Chapter 223: Third-Tier Broken Formation
“Crash!”
The waves surged and fish-beasts leapt out of the sea.
Golden Egg opened his mouth and activated All Rivers Embraced, swallowing all the First-Tier spirits that leapt out of the water.
Chen Beiwu narrowed his eyes, his vast divine sense sweeping unceasingly in all directions.
With Golden Egg’s Flood Dragon might, wherever he passed, Second-Tier lesser beasts with higher intelligence would all retreat.
Instead, some fish-spirits with low intelligence, driven only by instinct, launched suicidal attacks, providing Golden Egg with plump, fresh meat.
‘Golden Egg, speed up,’ Chen Beiwu commanded in his thoughts.
His divine sense covered two hundred zhang. While on the move, a casual sweep was enough for him to see that this sea region was poor in resources, mostly First-Tier exotic herbs, unworthy of lingering.
“Gulp.”
Flying southeast for over a hundred li, Chen Beiwu suddenly sensed a giant stone hall.
On the plaza outside the hall stood twelve obsidian pillars in a circle, supporting a dome over ten zhang high, glowing faintly.
‘A Third-Tier broken formation!’
Chen Beiwu frowned slightly, his gaze landing on two charred, shattered corpses and broken spirit artifacts in the plaza’s center.
Clearly, he was not the first cultivator to arrive at this stone hall.
Judging from the aura lingering on the corpses, two Foundation Establishment cultivators had already perished under this Third-Tier broken formation before Chen Beiwu’s arrival.
And in the hall’s center lay a fist-sized, irregular polyhedral ore, glowing faintly with flowing crimson-golden lines across its surface.
It was the Third-Tier Superior dual-attribute metal-fire treasure ore — 【Golden-Flame Crystal Marrow】.
This item could be used to forge a Third-Tier Superior artifact, or serve as the core of a Third-Tier treasure formation of metal and fire.
“Gulu?” Golden Egg looked toward Chen Beiwu.
He did not understand formations, but he could feel the oppressive aura pressing from the stone hall.
‘Give me a moment.’
Chen Beiwu formed hand seals, performing the formation-observing art recorded in the Star-Pivot Heavenly Record.
Boom!
It was as if the back of his head had been struck. His divine sense throbbed in pain as the plaza before him abruptly changed.
The twelve obsidian pillars linked together, transforming into an abstruse, intricate formation pattern — the kind only a Third-Tier treasure formation could have.
‘This formation melts metal with fire, binds fire with metal; metal and fire grind together like millstones crushing souls. The golden-burning runes engraved on the twelve obsidian pillars may look ordinary, but they can trigger the formation’s might at any time, unleashing a “Golden-Coffin Cremation” that could melt even a Second-Tier spirit artifact.’
“Fortunately, the formation’s setter deliberately left a flaw. One with sufficient formation mastery, if able to find the three foundation nodes, could break it with a Second-Tier water-element formation, causing the great formation to collapse on its own.”
“But choose wrongly, and one would die without burial.”
Chen Beiwu’s eyes glowed faintly. In just two hours, he had deduced the nature, type, origin, and effects of this Third-Tier broken formation.
‘The Heavy Abyss Water-Suppressing Formation would be the best counter, but it would take at least a month.’
After some hesitation, his eyes flickered. He chose not to break the formation, but instead to exploit its flaw and directly enter the hall.
And right now, a little test subject had delivered itself. Perfect to test his deductions.
“Swish!”
At that moment, a scarlet flying sword streaked in a flash of lightning, cleaving Chen Beiwu and Golden Egg in half.
Blazing flames consumed their bodies at visible speed, filling the air with the pungent stench of charred flesh.
“A mere Foundation Establishment mid-stage cultivator dares to enter the Tianyan True Realm?”
Looking at the terror frozen on the faces of man and beast before death, Feng Yuan could not help but smile with satisfaction.
Why risk exploring a secret realm, when killing and looting was so much faster?
Wisdom lay in self-awareness.
His cultivation was only late Foundation Establishment. He wasn’t even an inner disciple in the Blazing Flame Sect. How could he possibly compete with the prodigies of the Five Great Sects for True Monarch Tianyan’s inheritance and the Core-Forming Pill?
From the very beginning, Feng Yuan had entered the Tianyan True Realm with only one goal — to kill and loot, preying on the weak.
‘So poor!’
Picking up the storage pouch from the charred corpse, he sneered with disdain.
A mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, and he had only two thousand lower-grade spirit stones. Calling him a pauper would be too generous.
Fortunately, the spirit materials from a mid-stage Foundation Establishment beast would fetch a decent price. This trip was not a loss.
After collecting all the materials, Feng Yuan cast a wary glance at the stone hall, then turned and walked in the opposite direction.
He knew the hall surely contained treasures, perhaps even the inheritance of True Monarch Tianyan. But he felt no temptation.
For him, survival outweighed all else.
‘Not bad.’
Chen Beiwu nodded slightly, watching Feng Yuan tiptoeing across the plaza, pausing three times with each step.
He needed a guinea pig, and a Blazing Flame Sect cultivator had delivered himself.
‘Metal is yin, fire is yang. The life gate of this formation must be hidden at the junction of yin and yang.’
“To emerge safely from this Third-Tier broken formation, one must reverse the Five Elements and step the Big Dipper path.
First step on Dubhe, then past Merak, leap to Megrez. Only by surviving desperate danger can one avoid the tribulation of metal and fire in conflict…”
Each time Chen Beiwu spoke, Feng Yuan obediently stepped forward, inching through the deadly Third-Tier treasure formation.
“Buzz!”
When Feng Yuan had crossed the twelve obsidian pillars, breaking through the Third-Tier formation and reaching the stone hall’s gate, Chen Beiwu glanced at Golden Egg.
‘End him.’
Golden Egg nodded.
The next second, Feng Yuan dropped his storage ring, then turned to the great hall’s door with terror on his face. Spinning, he fled into the very formation he had just passed.
Without Chen Beiwu’s guidance, as soon as Feng Yuan stepped in, flames engulfed him. Under the might of the Third-Tier broken formation, he was reduced to ashes.
A late Foundation Establishment cultivator had thus perished under Golden Egg’s Truth or Illusion, never breaking free of Mirror Flower, Water Moon.
‘A pity,’ Chen Beiwu thought.
With a late Foundation Establishment cultivator clearing the way, he could have avoided many dangers within the stone hall.
But Chen Beiwu also feared the hall might contain part of True Monarch Tianyan’s inheritance.
If Feng Yuan had entered first and obtained it, Chen Beiwu would have been in real trouble.
So, no matter how slim the chance, he would never let Feng Yuan enter first.
‘Let’s go.’
Chen Beiwu stepped the Big Dipper path, leading Golden Egg across the plaza formation with ease.
Picking up Feng Yuan’s discarded storage ring with his divine sense, Chen Beiwu pressed his right hand to the heavy stone door.
“Buzz.”
The door bore no restrictions and opened with ease.
As it did, an ancient, desolate aura spilled forth. Chen Beiwu’s eyes flickered as he retrieved a Second-Tier talisman from the storage ring — 【Puppet Talisman】.