Morbid silence. The hush of death. As if Third Master seemed to mishear, he looked at Xu Yangyi in shock. After a short moment passed, he suddenly reared his head back and roared in laughter!

“Hahaha… hahahaha!” He appeared to cry tears as he laughed, and he covered his stomach and said, “Branchmaster Xu, I admire you. Someone able to leave Danxia Temple is no ordinary person. But anyways, how much DO you know about a war of cultivators?”

“A single person to destroy a formation? Hahaha! And even my Nalan Clan’s Hundred Gu Grand Formation?” He wiped his eyes exaggeratedly and sneered, “It’s not that I look down on you… but with this formation, ten people can kill half-step Foundation Establishment. And to deal with you, I specifically invited fourteen elites…”

His eight legs scuttled forward a couple steps. “Are you searching for the Nalan Clan’s weakness? At ease… you won’t have the chance to… Don’t tell me that you truly believe that the mysticisms of this formation are only so little?”

“Open wide your dog eyes and take a good look, dead man…” He cackled evilly and held his hands together. “I guarantee you won’t forget this even when you reach hell.”

Both of his hands formed a seal. Following the fall of this seal, the vast sky oddly trembled.

“Observe…” Both his hands intertwined, and at the same time that the second seal also fell, countless motes of qi suddenly appeared everywhere in the sky. “I’m not the only one waiting… Waiting for the moment that the qi of this great formation takes form…”

Xu Yangyi said nothing, only watching the man-spider calmly. The total sum of his spiritual force were like waves rushing and torrenting, akin to the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers! As his spiritual force became climbed higher and higher, the first node on his left arm became increasingly bright!

“Did you know…” Xu Yangyi calmly lowered his head and studied Third Master. “I have a move that attacks spiritual sense. This is one of my aces.”

Third Master’s compound eyes blinked. In his heart, a premonition of infinite doom arose for the first time. His hands froze.

“From the start, none of you had the chance to survive.” Xu Yangyi looked at his left arm as the first node finally exploded with an expanse of white spiritual light like a sun in the black night. Immediately, a white light followed along his arm and rushed straight to the elbow node.

Third Master breathed in heavily. A spiritual sense attack… The Nalan Clan… did not possess such a secret art! If Xu Yangyi had used a spiritual sense attack from the start… at least a fifth of his fifteen operatives would be down for the count! Nonetheless, Xu Yangyi hadn’t done so!

That was to say… the young branchmaster held the absolute confidence to defeat them! Not through the use of alternative methods but instead via a full-on crushing! Strength to break strength!

The leading man-spider said no more, and both of his hands weaved seals at a blinding speed! A bloody Taiji, the two colors of red and white, emerged on the ground less than five seconds later! The image was a thousand meters in size! Four booming noises followed in its wake. Four tremendous manifestations slowly materialized in the sky!

The second node on Xu Yangyi’s left arm began to shine. His left arm had already started to faintly tremble. Within the surrounding several tens of meters, space became blurred and fuzzy. 

A terrible spiritual pressure had already descended on all of them. Third Master abruptly stopped weaving seals, and his pupils shrunk. His heartbeat slowed down to half-beats.

“Third Master!” At his side, someone whispered, “No good! This spiritual pressure… is too strong! I-I suspect that it has already surpassed the Qi Condensation realm!”

“I know…” Third Master locked his molars together and grinded. It wasn’t that a Qi Condensation cultivator was unable to attain a Foundation Establishment magik artifact… but which such treasure didn’t ignite one’s life force as the price? And what of Xu Yangyi?

His compound eyes glared daggers at the sky. Xu Yangyi’s appearance hadn’t even changed, unruffled. Merely his complexion had become a few shades slightly pale.

“This son of a bitch…” He was no longer able to laugh. His hands had long since transformed into vague afterimages. The more complicated a formation, the more complex the seals. At this moment, he merely hated that his speed couldn’t be a little bit faster!

Because in the sky… Xu Yangyi’s qi was still soaring upwards without interruption!

Crack crack crack…

 Third Master looked to his side in alarm. To his astonishment, pebbles were floating upwards! This phenomenon didn’t originate from his formation! He glared straight at Xu Yangyi. This… was the minute weightlessness that accompanied the full liberation of Foundation Establishment spiritual pressure!

“Hundred Gu Grand Formation! FORM!!!” At last, he made a long sigh of relief, and both of his hands quickly pressed down towards the ground. In the wake of his action, four nebulous shadows vaguely emerged in the northern, southern, eastern, and western sections of his cast formation!

The Taiji divided into Yin and Yang, Yin and Yang gave birth to the Four Divisions!

[1]

Yet what ventured forth was not the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, and White Tiger, the holy beasts of the four directions. Instead… 

To the east was a gorgeously multicolored centipede with closed eyes. To the west was a vibrantly blue scorpion. To the south was a toad with shut eyes and barbs growing all over its back. To the north was a white snake with sealed eyes!

In addition to Third Master himself, the spider… This… was the Taiji divided into Yin and Yang, Yin and Yang giving birth to the Five Venoms!

[2]

These creatures were just so faint that they were almost invisible. Each manifestation was no less than twenty meters in size. By chance, Xu Yangyi was caged in at the center of them!

Buzz…

 Four streaks of terrible qi pervaded the entire sky in an instant! This qi did not hail from the Foundation Establishment realm, but rather… half-step Foundation Establishment!

The eyes of the four mythical beasts phantasms were still closed, but surprisingly overhead, an object was ceaselessly drawn from the qi of the four manifestations!

A scale, a tooth, a hook, and claw. Following the removal of these four objects, it felt as if they were gradually solidifying from their manifestations!

Buzz…

 At this time, a low and heavy droning was heard in the air. As if the the great door of death rumbled open, infinite black mist spread out at least several tens of meters all around with an explosive cry! It was a mystery as to where this gaseous death spewed out from! The mists wound around Xu Yangyi’s surroundings!

Swish!

 Scores of red talismans climbed along his left arm. The heart-shaking qi seemed to still be indistinct, moments ago, but it had now completely rumbled into existence!

Shhh…

 Soundless wind blew past Xu Yangyi who was at the heart of the circle. The grass all around leaned away, and that shiver-inducing spiritual pressure finally revealed its true face!

In the black mist, the manifestation of a man wearing ancient clothing slowly opened his eyes. He glanced down below, not the slightest emotion present in his eyes.

“PUH!!!” At this moment, everyone collectively sprayed out a mouthful of blood. Their limbs and bodies were completely pressured down, rigidly clinging onto the spider web formation beneath them!

Foundation Establishment!

True Foundation Establishment!!!

Furthermore, it was no ordinary Foundation Establishment!

Murderous aura… valor… penetrated through tens of meters and interred them all to hell!

“Five Holies Unite!!!” Bereft of further consideration, Third Master faced upwards and howled in fury. Although the Nalan Clan’s cultivators had spat out blood, not one of them fled! They held a clear understanding that in front of Foundation Establishment, escape was only a joke.

He didn’t wait for the solidification of the four objects to conclude. Following his cry, the quartet immediately darted towards him! Each one embedded into his four arms and formed four strange totems!

BOOM!

 His body radiated countless red talismans. Even his eyes had become scarlet! Abrupt in arrival, his body expanded dramatically! Ten meters… twenty meters… thirty meters! Fifty meters!!!

“HISS!!!” Following a heaven-shaking roar, a tremendous sixty-meter-tall four-armed man-spider faced the sky and screamed out. A visible qi wave emerged from his mouth! The valley surroundings resounded with the demon’s sky-quaking bellow!

In the sky, Xu Yangyi was no more than the size of a finger in comparison. In this very instant… Third Master had lifted his head, and Xu Yangyi was directly faced with a pale compound eye.

Across from the behemoth’s four eyes, Xu Yangyi said dimly, “You really don’t need to be so anxious.”

“I can wait for your completed form.”

The Third Master of the past was a different man. The body of Third Master now was covered with strange red talismans, and a gleaming blue stinger that was tens of meters long surprisingly grew out from his spinneret! His four arms had transformed into two gigantic claws! The lower half of his enormous spider form had scarlet bristles jutting out all over. He had no words for what Xu Yangyi had said and answered with a stinger. It carried the sound of a storm that mingled with his furious howl, madly piercing towards Xu Yangyi!

Power, grandeur, and circumstance. The situation was pressing. In the curling black mist, Xu Yangyi resembled a roaming fiend in hell. Not a single aspect of his essence, qi, and spirit had failed to reach the zenith. He was simply unable to abide this wait any longer!

“Is the circus performance done?” Xu Yangyi gazed dimly at Third Master, watching as the giant claw came closer and closer to him. Without warning, he thrust his left hand out!

This action was exactly the same as that of the man in the black mist. In this moment, the man also wielded the sword in his hand to thrust forward.

Now, all that existed in Third Master’s eyes was this sword. To be precise… it was the sword of the man in the black mist!

A sword comes west, an immortal soars beyond the heavens!

The move was executed in the simplest style, the purest of thrusts, yet it was also the most incomparable thrust!

In his compound eyes, all that existed was the silhouette of this thrust!

“ROOOAR!!!” He howled desperately, countless trees sent flipping and flying in the places where his tail swept across! A deep gorge appeared on the ground, facing the ordinary yet peerlessly exquisite thrust!

Squelch!

 He didn’t dodge or even defend. In the next moment, Xu Yangyi’s sword had already penetrated his forehead.

Time seemed to come to a stand still in this moment. Third Master’s enormous face was clearly written with an expression of disbelief. Slow in realization, his eyes began to come to somewhat because Xu Yangyi was standing on his forehead, looking at him without any expression.

“Spare…” Third Master croaked, his voice trembling. Not waiting for him to speak, the third node on Xu Yangyi’s left arm flared with cold qi. Following a heavy rumble, a large quantity of green ichor suddenly spurted out from the back of Third Master’s head, sprinkling down from the sky like rain!

“my life…” A sonorous crash echoed as his voice followed, and Third Master’s body, akin to a small mountain, collapsed with a rumble! Countless trees followed the devastating rupture of his massive body. The earth itself flew upwards.

Until he fell over, his eyes carried boundless confusion. Why… no… what had happened… He had clearly seen the other thrust… how… how could it be so fast… 

His consciousness gradually became fuzzy. In that instant of total darkness, he suddenly realized what it was.

Erased…

His awareness to dodge and defend had been completely erased… 

Terrible… What the hell is this thing… I have to… have to inform the clan… of this matter… 

In the next second, his consciousness returned to total darkness.

“Did you hear anyone else asking to be spared when you used the suicide puppet?” Xu Yangyi icily surveyed the gigantic corpse and indifferently pulled out his left arm from Third Master’s forehead.

He was none the wiser that at the same time he slew the giant spider—or perhaps it could be said before Third Master’s death, just as the Ketu-Rahu Sword has been activated—the surveillance monitors stationed outside the Tianzi Mountain scenery had already become a field of snowy static.

“No need.” The voice of the woman belonging to the Hidden Dragon Guard seemed to yawn with slight boredom, “Foundation Establishment spiritual pressure has completely detonated. It automatically rejects the wavelength of all surrounding qi that doesn’t belong.”

“Wait half an hour…” She was fairly overcome with boredom.” I truly did not expect… that this kid would actually have some skill… Realm can’t be sensed from the surveillance… but I’m still just at the initial stage…”

Nonetheless, following the dispersal of Xu Yangyi’s sword, the static-covered monitors finally returned to normal, a little short of five minutes. Yet at the same time, the woman exhaled coldly.

“This!” She looked at the surveillance monitor in shock. “The peak… of the initial stage?!”

“Heavens…” The military captain’s face was the color of earth. He looked at the screen incredulously, not daring to believe his eyes whatsoever!

This disbelief wasn’t exclusive to him. Not a single person inside the control center was able to believe in their eyes!

In the ground… a massive several-hundred-meter-long ravine had appeared!

So deep that the bottom was unseen… The scar was at least 300 meters long! At minimum… it was ten meters wide!

The power of a sword!

1. Reminder that Four Divisions are referring to the four celestial divisions in Chinese astrology.

2. Reminder: these listed creatures are considered 

the

 five poisonous creatures. Sometimes, the lizard is used in place of one of these creatures.

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