Silence. After several seconds, an explosive roar suddenly came from the crowd. “That’s right! Only we can!”

“The Xingtian Legion is going to win!”

“There’s nothing amazing about them! Didn’t we beat them?!”

“We’re gonna win! We definitely going to win!”

A single stone roused a thousand waves. The hot blood flowing through their veins from defeating the Screaming Wind Legion made them all scream at this moment. Between heaven and earth, the roar of shouts rose and fell in an instant. Perhaps there was no meaning, or perhaps it was just to vent their rage. Maybe they were simply consoling each other, but their mindsets now were many times better than the nervousness they’d felt before even entering Nanzhou. It was much, much better than when the enemy’s charge had completely crushed their line!

“Good…” Xu Yangyi nodded. As long as morale was still present, this war would be fought. He said lowly to everyone, “Clean up the battlefield. In thirty minutes… we’ll head straight to the Featherwood Guard!”

There was no answer, on the contrary just silence. A few seconds later, a Zhao Clan cultivator deeply cupped his fist towards him, and resolutely left afterwards. Next was the second and the third… Almost all of the Zhao Clan’s cultivators clasped hands towards him.

Silent gratitude.

If not for Xu Yangyi’s awesome sword, there would probably be an almost intact Screaming Wind Legion here right now, not corpses lying on their backs, submerged in the sand and halberds broken.

Everyone left. In the crowd, a fat, sneaky figure—more swine than dog—whooshed over to the side of his leg and used its plump body to rub against the meditating Xu Yangyi’s arm. “Spuuuuuuud~”

“What did you do in that battle just now?” Xu Yangyi watched people leave one by one, and asked flatly.

“I was answering nature’s call~” Mao Ba’er didn’t have the slightest knowledge concerning honor and shame. “You know a weak little doggy like me can't stand these kinds of manly-man exterminations~”

Xu Yangyi wanted to say something. Ultimately, the corner of his mouth merely twitched. Mao Ba’er could still say these kinds of things, even though so many years had passed. He was used to it… no, numb.

At this time, Li Zongyuan soundlessly walked over as well. The husky’s hair instantly stood on edge. “Lowly maid servant! Me and Spud are having some special one-on-one time! Why the heck did you come over! If I don’t flip over your signboard today… Woof! Woof! Let go! I’m warning you! I’ll report you to PETA!”

[1]

Xu Yangyi pulled at Mao Ba’er’s ear and turned him over. Upon looking at Xu Yangyi’s face, the familiar lowered his head and used his front paws to dig at the ground. “You’re cruel, you’re heartless, you stir up trouble for no reason… You don’t have one bit of love for a delicate, little doggy like me…”

If you didn’t eat so much, you wouldn’t have become pig!

 Xu Yangyi and Li Zongyuan silently added in their hearts. Xu Yangyi cleared his throat and picked up Mao Ba’er’s two resting ears. “Did you see?”

As they reached official business, the husky’s face finally became proper—although he did mumble for a few seconds, a few words coming from his unseen face. “I couldn’t understand… It was too complicated. This is definitely not a talisman that can appear in Qi Condensation, even hard to say for Foundation Establishment. You know, because of the nature of my job—alright, while I’ve never fulfilled my job… Didn’t I say that my job 

isn’t

 to be a human-shaped, self-walking familiar, woof?!”

Mao Ba’er’s hair inexplicably stood on edge again, and Li Zongyuan’s lips cramped. The half-hearted “yes” didn’t leave the toad-demon’s mouth. Instead, he cupped his hands towards Xu Yangyi. “Master… the following situation is fairly complicated. I recommend… you look for yourself.”

Finished speaking, Li Zongyuan left without even taking a glance at Mao Ba’er. The fat dog was like a mounted antenna for sensing deep malice, and the toad-demon threw over a knife-like look in his eyes.

Truly, Mao Ba’er was a three-headed dog. 

Who you fooling, little guy? You can’t take one speck of qi. A great lord like me has followed Spud for so many years. I’ve seen his naked body, and he’s seen mine too—although that was when he was helping me bathe, but that’s not important! You wanna fight favorites in front of me?

Li Zongyuan, a single-horned toad. 

Hehehe… this is how a servant should be. Aren’t your hood tricks to become the favorite just like a clown’s? Check out Grandpa Wei, he shouts out ‘an enlightened sage is no more than his master’ with a straight face. 

That

 is a high and stylish boot-licking method.

In any case, the two of them were familiars who had a life-death pact with him… no, servants… no, not that either, comrades-in-arms. Nevertheless, Xu Yangyi wasn’t the slightest bit aware of the blade and sword clashing within his mind. He simply furrowed his brows and mumbled, looking ahead of him.

His very first sword slash was deep, absolutely not limited to twenty meters. On the contrary… it was quite possibly close to fifty. But within the chaotic jumble of sword scars, 

it

 wasn’t conspicuous. 

And yet, there were some things under the gorge that left him with no choice but to care.

There was a screen of blue light. The light screen wasn’t odd, but it was very strange that it was over fifty meters underground. Moreover, there was a small cave below this screen… It wasn’t large; he could probably fit in if he bent over. Inside, there was even more glimmering light.

When he discovered this situation, a little force had just happened to push a rock onto the screen. Presently, Li Zongyuan was waving a rock and speed around. Without pause, Xu Yangyi’s finger used qi, and rumbled for a while, planning to cut down on the stone wall.

Boom!

 Who knew that just as the spiritual light on his finger neared the screen of blue light, a supreme countershock suddenly attacked. It forced him to retreat by several meters! As he flipped back and landed on the ground, solemness was revealed in his eyes.

This wasn’t Qi Condensation power. This… was undeniably beyond Qi Condensation! Even if it was a left-behind talisman, it continuously shook his chest with great jolts! And he had just only cut nothing more than a talisman!

His movement attracted quite a few surrounding people. Chu Zhaonan’s voice was heard. “What happened?”

“Don’t come over!” Xu Yangyi swung his arm. There was something wrong with this place!

“Mao Ba’er, go stop them. Don’t let them come.” Xu Yangyi waved, lifting his chin towards Li Zongyuan. “Come in with me.”

“Yes.” Li Zongyuan gritted his teeth, and two wind edges whirled to life in his hands. He struck out left and right, keeping away from the talismans. In a twinkling, a man-sized hole emerged. Shortly… a faint-blue flash flared out from inside with great vagueness.

“Not a speck of qi?” Xu Yangyi studied the light, stunned in his heart. Anything made from heavenly treasures would have qi, but the talisman before his eyes actually had nothing?

“It’s not that there isn’t… but it’s been sealed by someone with an extremely profound technique.” His gaze twinkled, and he walked in with Li Zongyuan.

Just as they entered, the duo almost gasped at the same time! This cave… was too huge! But that wasn’t to say that the area was large. On the contrary, the interior was no more than two meters wide and three meters tall. However, it could be said that the inside was accessible from all sides! Like a spider’s web! In addition… it was artificially cut! And perhaps not even too long ago! There wasn’t the slightest ancient mark that could be seen inside the cave!

There was nothing inside, only incomparably diverse runes that stretched all around! To the ceiling, the soles of one’s feet, the four walls… Someone had shockingly set up a massive array inside! 

“Could… Could this be some treasury?” Li Zongyuan looked around, dumbfounded. Even with a glance, the talismans made one feel dizzy, but for the two of them who had exited Danxia Temple’s depths and witnessed the violet sky that sealed Xiaoqing and the Five Phases Godseal Formation laid down by Jiang Ziya, while the talismans in front of them could be said to be stunning, they didn’t go so far as to lose themselves.

“No.” To say the least, Xu Yangi had received Heavens Law’s teachings. Although he didn’t understand talismans, there were some basic he could still make out, several major common points of talismans. At the minimum, his teacher had taught him that.

The demon slayer pointed at the node of several talismans. “This isn’t a drawing technique to seal something. It’s like its gathering something… Get Mo Yeyu over here. He has the inheritance of a noble clan. He should be able to understand some more.”

Li Zongyuan nodded and left, and Mo Yeyu quickly came down. And yet as he entered, he was put in a complete daze! He hadn’t gone into Danxia Temple’s depths, so he didn’t know of the formation sealing a 3,600-year-old greater demon, but everything before his eyes was enough to strike him dumb!

“My god…” After ages, he looked around in shock and warbled out, “How… How much manpower and resources did this need... This is too scary… Who could lay down a formation like this?”

“Recognize it?” Xu Yangyi asked.

“No… No, I don’t… I only know… that this formation is big… 

very

 big! The smallest of these talismans are almost one meter. And its not any talisman that I can learn! I’m not boasting when I say that while I’m not totally proficient in Qi Condensation talismans, it’s not a problem for me to recognize around seventy to eighty percent of them. These talismans aren’t among them!”

For a moment, he stowed his gaze and looked all around the cavern. “A formation drawn underground… This technique is known as “Mirror Yin-Yang Brush”, you see…” He pointed to the roof and pointed down at his feet again. “The top and bottom correspond like two sides of a mirror. The top and bottom talismans are exactly the same. This drawing technique can double the superimposition of a formation’s power. Even though there are so few written accounts, someone was actually able to set this up here… H-How much labor and resources did this consume?”

“And its function?” Xu Yangyi was cool and collected, continuing to raise questions.

“Not sure.” Mo Yeyu shook his head. “Who knows where the focus of this kind of formation is hidden. Without seeing the focus, there’s no way to know what formation it’s classified as. Nothing can be basically made out from an individual talisman.”

Xu Yangyi nodded, his questioning finished. It seemed that without finding the focus, he wouldn’t be able to find out this colossal formation’s purpose. Nevertheless, he couldn’t go searching for the focus now.

He laughed, “Let’s go. For the next part… we won’t be driving.”

“Won’t be driving?” Li Zongyuan fell into a daze, realization suddenly dawning on him. He involuntarily yelped out in alarm, “Mast… Branch Master! S-Sir, you want to go down?!”

Mo Yeyu was stunned as well, but almost clapped his hands and cheered! Before entering, nobody whatsoever had been able to sense spiritual force fluctuations, even if Xu Yangyi had discovered this little anomaly.

Someone was meticulously hiding it… and this technique absolutely wasn’t limited to the Qi Condensation realm. But if such a large formation could be concealed, then what about their dozens of soldiers?

“I’ll call Commander Chu and Lord Zhao to come down!” Li Zongyuan took a deep breath, his face flushed red. This truly was going to be an ambush! Who would expect that Xu Yangyi, who had vanished at Tianzi Mountain, would suddenly appear in Longsu? And who would imagine where they would come from next time?

The scales of war were shifting little by little!

1. Couple things here with Mao Ba’er’s speech. Some stuff I have mentioned in the past. “Lowly maid servant” originates from a Chinese drama that Mao Ba’er likes which I believe is 

Empresses in the Palace.

 “Special one-on-one time” has a more “illicit” nature to it in Chinese (苟且)”. PETA is an organization called “People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

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