Daoist Competition

These over two hundred thousand demon soldiers of the Lu Mansion usually hide within the Ten Thousand Beasts Sleeping Moon Banner, deeply asleep, unaware of the passage of time.

While in the Zhao You Mansion, every month, Zhang Yan would release them to feed and practice, regulate breathing and essence, and the Array Sect Master would also hand down Elixir Pills to help them increase their cultivation.

After these years of training, this Great Array has long since been performed adeptly, no longer as unfamiliar and flawed as when they first trained.

However, just having come out of the banner, most of them are still dazed and not fully awake, unaware of where they are.

Only the Demon General Lu Changsu, being a Hua Dan Cultivator and the person replacing Zhang Yan in leading the formation, has some degree of freedom, and even while in the Water Mansion, he can meditate and cultivate as usual.

At this moment, as he just regained consciousness, he immediately realized they had encountered a formidable enemy. He hurried to the Dharma Platform, picked up the Array Flag, and with a single shake, the over two hundred thousand demon soldiers were forced by his command to move involuntarily.

In just a moment, banners rose from all the platforms, responding simultaneously. When Zhang Yan ascended the Dharma Platform, Lu Changsu had long been standing ready with the Array Flag in hand.

Zhang Yan nodded to him, encouraged him with a few words, and then stood firmly at the main position.

This "Six Reversal Earth Coffin Formation" is not inferior to the arts used by a Nascent Soul Third Realm Cultivator to confine the heavens and earth. But to extinguish a Nascent Soul True Master protected by a Supreme Treasure, it still requires the aid of the mountains and earth veins.

In fact, if the Mountain and River Map were used to suppress, even if Zhou Qingyun’s Daoist cultivation was a few degrees deeper, she could easily be eliminated in a short time.

Just like back then, when the Bijiao Prefecture’s Pavilion Master Lu Yuanxing, with the cultivation of a Nascent Soul Second Realm Cultivator, met his end under this formation in an instant, completely unable to resist.

The pity is, now at the Sword Fighting Conference the noble family disciples from all sects are not allowed to use True Artifacts. If Zhang Yan rashly uses one, it wouldn’t be surprising if the elders from the Yuxiao Sect step in to intervene, or even find an excuse to eliminate him, forcing him to toil on his own for a while.

He took out the Mountain and River Map from his sleeve, and as it unrolled slowly, he cast a spell, and in no time, he extracted a portion of the Essence Qi stored within the Mountain and River Map, directing them into each Array Gate.

Following his spell, hundreds of beams of Spirit Light flew out, and from the array, towering peaks gradually emerged, reaching into the clouds. Though not as grand as when the Mountain and River Map manifested, capable of towering over valleys and piercing the heavens, it was sufficient to deal with a Nascent Soul First Realm Cultivator.

At first, Zhou Qingyun, upon seeing Zhang Yan release the banner, thought that he was using some formidable Daoist Skill again, causing her heart to tense up.

Considering his previous two actions, both earth-shaking, with astonishing power, she remained extremely cautious, releasing both protective Mystical Artifacts and gathering the Dharma Cloud, preparing carefully and not daring to act rashly.

However, when she came to her senses, she was shocked to find herself trapped within an array, her face paling with dismay.

She only knew that within the Mingcang Sect, Luo Qingyu seemed adept at arranging Array Diagrams, but had never heard of Zhang Yan being capable of the same.

Zhang Yan, within less than a hundred years of cultivation, had already entered the Nascent Soul realm, possessing remarkable Divine Passage Skills, leaving no time to dabble in Array Diagrams, so she had never considered it possible.

No matter how powerful a cultivator, one cannot fight against an array set by a peer cultivator with one’s own strength.

Generally, breaking an array involves finding its veins, devising a way to escape or break its pivot; directly confronting a great array, unless the difference in Daoist cultivation is too great, only leads to death.

With this realization, Zhou Qingyun gritted her teeth, unsure of what Divine Passage Skill she used, as a cloud of smoke rose beneath her feet, her figure flickered, and in a single step, she arrived at one side of the array, her figure flickering again, she moved to another corner.

This skill, named "Complete Heaven Square Inch", is somewhat akin to the Mingcang Sect’s "Little All Heaven Moving Technique", said to "step across the starry sky in one step, circling All Heaven in a hundred days."

If used well, understanding the array, following its pathways, and seizing the moment before the great array’s power fully displays, escape might be possible.

But Zhou Qingyun, as a disciple of the Zhou Clan and a disciple of the Xuanmen Family, only focused on practicing Mysterious Skills and Daoist Skills. Cave Mansion prohibitions, Dharma Chariots and Flying Boats, were all set up by others for her, like many other cultivators in her clan, having never studied formations, nor knowing the methods to break them.

She stepped three times around the array, merely hoping to break free, but her luck was truly lacking, unable to find a path of escape on several attempts.

At that moment, a surge of rebellious blood rose to her throat, stalling her steps, forcing her to stop and catch her breath with her hand on her chest. Upon discreet examination, she found that the talisman within her Life Pearl had already disintegrated, rendering her unable to use this Divine Passage Skill any longer.