Chapter 40: Brother is here!
Mist Veil was there, where the earth’s spiritual energy was in utter chaos, presenting a challenging situation.
Feng Yudie and her companions not only faced obstructed visibility but also struggled to match Liang Zhu and others in terms of spiritual awareness, finding themselves in a constantly defensive position.
In this environment, if they couldn’t find a way to break free or ascend into the sky, they risked being worn down by their adversaries. Inside the hall, the rhythmic sound of hammering echoed.
Feng Yudie and Pei Lianxue now appeared agitated, their foreheads covered in sweat. They had no clue from which direction the next attack would come. Continuously fending off attacks from foundation-building cultivators while safeguarding Xiao Yunluo significantly drained their energy.
On a nearby elevated area, Ye Anping, seated with closed eyes, observed them with his spiritual awareness, feeling a twinge of anxiety.
Unexpectedly, Xiao Yunluo was by Feng Yudie and his junior sister’s side.
Xiao Yunluo, being Master Danyue’s only daughter, carried a personal protective spell. Once activated, Master Danyue would immediately sense it and come to her help.
Ye Anping swallowed hard, taking out a whistle from his storage bag, preparing to lend a hand. However, before he blew the whistle, something seemed amiss on Feng Yudie’s side.
…
Swish—
The sound of a blade piercing flesh and blood sprayed.
As “Fifth Brother” thrust his sword towards Xiao Yunluo, Feng Yudie, who had been using her sword to block, suddenly changed tactics, using her body to intercept the attack. The collision of flesh and blade resulted in her left shoulder being pierced. Caught off guard, the assailant momentarily lost focus.
Seizing the opportunity, Feng Yudie clenched her teeth against the pain, reaching out to grab the sword blade with one hand and the assailant’s wrist with the other. She urgently signalled Pei Lianxue,
“Junior sister Pei!”
In response, Pei Lianxue swiftly arrived at “Fifth Brother’s” side.
Snap—
In a flash of cold light, “Fifth Brother” was beheaded.
In the next moment, the “Fourth Brother” from another direction witnessed the scene and couldn’t help but shout, “Fifth Brother!”
However, this uncontrolled cry exposed his position.
Upon hearing it, Feng Yudie immediately released the sword held in her right hand. She raised her sword fingers slightly, using her spiritual energy to control the sword, transforming it into an arrow that flew in the direction of the sound.
Swish—
“Fifth Brother” didn’t anticipate that his position would be exposed with just one sound. He didn’t even have time to shield himself with spiritual energy and was pierced through the abdomen by the sword thrown by Feng Yudie.
“Cough—”
Sensing the hit, Feng Yudie turned her hand, raising her fingers. Her spiritual sword instantly rotated, directly slashing upwards and cleaving the other person in two.
“Now! Let’s go!”
Gritting her teeth, Feng Yudie pulled the sword from her shoulder. She then grabbed Xiao Yunluo’s hand and rushed towards the direction where the person had spoken.
“Junior Sister Pei, follow us! There is no one here!”
In the recent skirmish, Feng Yudie had figured out that there were four attackers, each hiding in one of the four directions, southeast and northwest.
Now that two of them were dead, the encirclement was halfway broken. Feng Yudie’s only regret was that the two killed were the two early-stage foundation-building cultivators.
But if they could take down a mid-stage foundation-building cultivator, they could break through.
“Tsk…”
Feng Yudie clicked her tongue softly. Leading the two forward for twenty feet, a sudden red light shot from the right front, breaking through the mist in “Veiled Tranquility.”
Seeing the red light, Feng Yudie immediately realised that they had fallen into a formation set by the attackers. The four attackers had only been buying time. There must be a fifth person secretly setting up the formation.
“Hiss—formation?!” Feng Yudie couldn’t help but curse, “You foundation-building cultivators are making such a fuss against us, three Qi-refining cultivators! Do you have too much money and nowhere to spend it?”
“Hehe, little friend. If you weren’t so valuable, I wouldn’t have prepared such a formation…”
The man’s voice echoed from all directions, causing Feng Yudie’s eyebrows to twitch.
At this moment, Xiao Tian also emerged from her mind. It glanced at the towering red light pillar at the centre of the formation and immediately took out the scroll of heaven, flipping it open.
“Yudie, that is the Seven-Star Suffocating Spirit Formation. It can trap enemies and consume the spiritual energy of those within the formation. It’s a single-eye formation for foundation-building cultivators, and breaking the main eye will dismantle the entire formation.”
“Where is the formation eye?”
“There are four locations in this formation that can serve as the formation eyes, which can be placed at ‘Tianxuan’, ‘Tianshu’, ‘Kaiyang’, and ‘Yaoguang’.”
Xiao Tian read the Heavenly Dao scroll, and simultaneously, Xiao Yunluo recognised the formation and repeated Xiao Tian’s words, “Formation eyes can be set at Tianxuan, Tianshu, Kaiyang, and Yaoguang! I’ve seen this formation before!”
“Four positions?!”
Feng Yudie gritted her teeth, realising that these four positions were in the southeast, northwest, and east-west directions within the formation. They didn’t have time to search for each formation eye one by one systematically. Even relying on luck, the chances were not high.
“Let’s go separately. I’ll go to the east and south. You and Senior Sister Xiao are responsible for the west and north eyes,” Pei Lianxue quickly suggested. “Break the formation, and you two head north. I’ll catch up.”
“We split up, and we’ll be individually targeted. Moreover, I can’t use my left hand now, and I can’t protect Senior Sister Xiao alone,” Feng Yudie argued.
“… …”
Hearing this, Xiao Yunluo couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt. She had been initially disarmed, and now she was burdening these two. After a moment of thought, Feng Yudie said, “Let’s stick together. We’ll search one by one in the order of southwest and northeast. If we’re lucky, we might break the formation directly.”
With that, she carried Xiao Yunluo and ran westward. However, just as they were about to leave, a few birdcalls sounded in the woods.
Jijijijijijiji
Listening to the calls, Pei Lianxue hesitated for a moment, quickly stopped, and signalled the two in front to listen.
“Wait a moment!!”
“Ah?!” Feng Yudie turned her head with a puzzled look, “What’s wrong?”
“Do not talk!”
The next moment, repeated birdcalls echoed in the forest.
Jijijijijijiji
As they were in a forest, the birdcalls seemed natural, and Feng Yudie paid no attention. However, Pei Lianxue immediately caught on after the second sound.
Senior brother is here!
This wasn’t the sound of birds but an imitation produced by her senior brother’s iron whistle.
“One short and one long, two short and one long,” Pei Lianxue whispered, “The formation eye is at the ‘Kaiyang’ position, to the north! Let’s go!”
“Ah?!”
Feng Yudie looked confused, but seeing Pei Lianxue heading towards “Kaiyang,” she didn’t hesitate and quickly followed, carrying Xiao Yunluo on her shoulders.
…