Chapter 4354: It Wasn’t Using Its Full Strength

Even though they were suffering under the effects of the poison, the disciples of the Lady of Dao Sea were still stunned by the blinding formation that dyed everything within sight crimson. It actually made them mistakenly believe that another even more formidable demonic being was about to descend to the world.

However, when they took a closer look, they realized that it was actually a formation instead.

At the center of the blood-red light was a massive blood-red formation. The pulsations of spirit energy that they could feel from within verified their conjecture.

“This fellow…”

This powerful formation didn’t pose any threats to cultivators, but it had the ability to suppress the demonic being.

They would be lying if they were to say that they weren’t shocked by the grandeur of the formation, and they couldn’t help but see Chu Feng in another light.

However, Chu Feng had no spare attention to care about how others were looking at him.

There was a time limit to how long he could keep the formation activated. He had to try his best to subdue the black flame within the given duration.

Boom!

A dense outpour of blood-red smoke poured out from the formation, reminiscent of the eruption of a volcano.

The blood-red smoke rose all the way up to the air with airs even more imposing than the black flame itself.

In the blink of an eye, everything within a radius of tens of thousands of meters around Chu Feng was covered in the blood-red smoke, and they were gushing swiftly toward the black flame.

Awooo!

On the other hand, the black flame was no pushover either. Instead of cowering in the face of the blood-red smoke, it fought back with all its might.

Soon, two forces, one red and one black, were intertwined with one another in a furious clash of power. Rather than a battle between cultivators, it looked more like a war between two vile demons.

Just the might that they were displaying was already inhuman,

Yet, this was a fight that was controlled by a human. It was Chu Feng who was manipulating the formation to subdue the black flame.

Under the ferocious onslaught of the blood-red smoke, Chu Feng soon gained the upper hand in the fight. Through the overwhelming prowess of the offensive formation, the blood-red smoke morphed into a sharp claw that swiped toward the black flame.

As soon as the black flame was caught, it began to dissipate in the air amidst cries of agony.

“His attacks are working?”

Wang Yuxian had been enduring the poison in her body to pay attention to the fight that was going on around her.

She did manage to sever the black flame into two with her attack earlier, but the black flame simply joined back together a moment later as if nothing had happened. Her offense wasn’t able to deal any tangible damage to the black flame at all.

Yet, whenever an attack from Chu Feng’s formation fell on the black flame, the latter somehow wasn’t able to recover from it. Moreover, the black flame even cried in agony under his onslaught, seemingly suffering great pain.

“You brat! This isn’t over yet!” a furious roar sounded.

Following that, a black streak darted out from the black flame and fled as fast as it could away from the scene.

The black streak was extremely small, spanning at around several meters in length and width. Compared to the black flame, it looked no different from a speck of dust.

However, Chu Feng still noticed it, and he knew right away that it was the main body of the item he was seeking.

The black flame was nothing more than the manifestation of its power.

Chu Feng observed the black streak carefully, and he noticed that it was mainly an accumulation of some sort of black energy. It didn’t appear to have a fixed form, but there was a pair of scarlet eyes on it.

“Thinking of leaving?”

Naturally, it went without saying that Chu Feng wouldn’t allow his target to get away. So, he immediately maneuvered the offensive formation to hinder its escape.

The speed of the blood-red smoke was even faster than the black streak. Not only did it catch up with the black streak, under Chu Feng’s delicate control, it even encircled the black streak, sealing off all of its path of escape as it continued to whittle it down.

“What formidable control over the formation he has!” 

Seeing this sight, Wang Yuxian found herself deeply impressed with Chu Feng.

Even though this formation seemed to be built specifically to deal with the demonic being, there was no denying that it was an extremely formidable formation.

And the more formidable a formation was, the more difficult it would be to control it.

Yet, Chu Feng was able to drive the energy within the formation as he willed.

This made her realize that Chu Feng was a particularly outstanding world spiritist.

… 

It was just that even though Chu Feng had managed to seal off the black streak’s path of escape, he was still unable to curb it entirely.

As the main body of the black flame, the black streak was much more powerful than the black flame. It thrashed around violently within its encirclement, trying desperately to escape. 

Chu Feng couldn’t help but feel deeply pressured by it.

The black streak turned out to be far stronger than Chu Feng expected. At this rate, he felt like the black streak would really break free from the encirclement of the blood-red smoke.

“This won’t do!” Chu Feng murmured to himself.

Ultimately, formations were limited to the area they were constructed in. The further and longer he tried to channel the blood-red smoke away from the offensive formation, the weaker it would be.

And this was precisely the situation he was facing at the moment.

As time ticked by, the pressure on Chu Feng grew swiftly. He could feel that the energy of the formation was starting to seep away.

If the black streak were to really break free, the one who would suffer would be no other than Chu Feng and the others.

Shoosh!

It was at this moment that a loud explosion sounded.

The blood-red smoke that was encircling the black streak suddenly got blasted into bits.

Making use of this opening, the black streak immediately darted away and vanished by the horizon.

In the end, after all of the effort Chu Feng had put into this, the item still ended up escaping.

Seeing that it was too late to do anything, Chu Feng quickly stopped the formation and retracted the Celestial Master’s Horsetail Whisk. Every second that the formation remained activated took a huge toll on Chu Feng.

Since the item had already run away, there was no need for him to expend himself more than what he already had.

He turned to look at the disciples of the Lady of Dao Sea, who had pained expressions on their faces, and he couldn’t help but feel a little infuriated.

If not for them barging in recklessly, he wouldn’t have been forced to activate the formation prematurely. If so, perhaps the item might have already been caught by him by now.

But of course, it was just a possibility.

When he clashed with the black streak earlier, he realized that its strength surpassed what he had expected.

Even if the black streak had fallen for his trick and approached the offensive formation, allowing Chu Feng to exert its full prowess, he still didn’t have the absolute confidence to capture it.

For some reason, he felt that the black flame hadn’t gone all out earlier. It seemed to be reserving its strength for something, or else there was a good chance that the battle would have ended in Chu Feng’s defeat.

Chu Feng shook his head and sighed deeply. He was the one who had made up his mind to save them in the first place, so he shouldn’t childishly blame his own failure on those women.

Taking another look at their pained, disfigured faces, Chu Feng couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for them, especially for Wang Yuxian.

After all, Wang Yuxian was different from those domineering seniors of hers.

So, after keeping the Celestial Master’s Horsetail Whisk, he helped those women out of this world. It wouldn’t be wise for them to stay here as there was no guarantee that the item wouldn’t return to exact vengeance for its earlier defeat.

Now that he didn’t have the offensive formation anymore, he didn’t have anything to deal with that item anymore. Facing it in their current state would lead to certain death.

He helped them to a place where he thought was a safe distance away from the scene before he finally slumped to the ground too.

With the tension that had been pushing him on finally released, he suddenly found himself utterly exhausted, reminiscent of a deflated balloon.

He suddenly began retching violently, and what he vomited out was a gooey clump of black blood.

Every single time he vomited some black blood out, he would grow weaker by quite a bit.

It didn’t take him long before his condition worsened to the point where it looked as if he had been afflicted with some sort of terminal illness. The violent yet frail coughing from him sounded so painful that one couldn’t help but feel pity for him.

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