Chapter 296: Trying

Lu Ye, hidden in the shadows, felt quite helpless in response to the opponent's actions.

After a period of observation, Lu Ye realized he couldn't replicate his previous actions at Wind Blossom Pavilion, so he simply revealed himself.

News spreads too quickly among cultivators; his actions at Wind Blossom Pavilion had clearly reached Radiant Sun Mountain, otherwise, they wouldn't have made such meticulous arrangements.

Lu Ye sighed inwardly, realizing that this method of infiltrating enemy strongholds and seizing jade tokens could no longer be employed in the future.

Under the command of Gu Canyang and Zhou Pei, forces from Divine Concealment Palace and Soaring Cloud Hall were fiercely attacking the grand formation, creating an astonishing booming sound.

Lu Ye emerged from the darkness and approached, step by step.

Zhou Pei's heart skipped a beat when he saw this, and he quickly went to meet Lu Ye.

"Brother Yi Ye, you couldn't get in?"

Lu Ye shook his head.

He couldn't get in, and even if he did, he couldn't accomplish anything by himself. The reason he managed to snatch the jade token from Yuemei was primarily because such an act had never been attempted before, leaving Wind Blossom Pavilion completely unprepared. This allowed Lu Ye to brazenly approach within three zhang of Yuemei.

If Yuemei hadn't been cautious and reacted quickly at the last moment, she might have lost her life.

The situation was different now. After news of his ability to infiltrate protective formations spread, Radiant Sun Mountain had implemented strict precautions. The commander even had several cultivators gathered around him. Given these circumstances, it was impossible for Lu Ye to seize the jade token again.

"Ah..." Zhou Pei's expression turned bitter.

If they could successfully capture Radiant Sun Mountain's stronghold, Soaring Cloud Hall's future would be much easier. For comparison, when Wind Blossom Pavilion's stronghold was captured this time, although cultivator casualties were not significant, the loss of the Heavenly Mechanism Pillar's blessings was irreparable in the short term.

With insufficient blessings, the spiritual energy within the stronghold would be weak. Even if Wind Blossom Pavilion rearranged its protective grand formation, its power would not be as strong as before.

In other words, Wind Blossom Pavilion would only be suppressed when facing Divine Concealment Palace in the future and might never recover. Divine Concealment Palace would certainly never give Wind Blossom Pavilion another chance to rise again.

Wind Blossom Pavilion had been dealt with, and Zhou Pei had hoped to handle Radiant Sun Mountain in a similar fashion. To his surprise, things didn't go as planned, which left him feeling a little disappointed.

"If it doesn't work, we'll attack directly!" Gu Canyang spoke from the side.

With 800 people from both sects, a direct assault was feasible, but it would take time. It might take several days to slowly break through Radiant Sun Mountain's grand formation.

In the past, this would have been impossible, as nearby Myriad Devil Ridge forces would surely have come to offer support or made other moves. But now, which Myriad Devil Ridge force would dare to act so rashly?

With Wind Blossom Pavilion as a precedent, no one dared to sally forth recklessly. They all retreated to their own strongholds to guard against the unexpected, fearing that if Lu Yi Ye stole their home while they were helping others, they would have nowhere to cry.

"There is still another way."

Lu Ye slowly spoke.

Zhou Pei's eyes lit up, and he quickly asked, "What method?"

"I cannot guarantee this method will succeed," Lu Ye said, "but I can say there's a certain chance."

"A chance is enough," Zhou Pei replied. "Please arrange the specifics, Brother Yi Ye."

"Then find ten... no, nine body cultivators," Lu Ye instructed. "I need the strongest body cultivators from both your sects. Have them wear all defensive spirit artifacts they can."

Although Gu Canyang and Zhou Pei didn't know Lu Ye's exact intentions, since he had made a request, they naturally complied.

Soon, nine body cultivators selected from both sects stood before Lu Ye. He surveyed them, noting that all nine were powerfully built and brimming with vitality, and two were even demon cultivators.

At that moment, these nine held defensive spirit artifacts and wore protective treasure armor, each looking formidable.

Lu Ye summoned Ju Jia.

When Ju Jia stood to the side, the nine body cultivators looked at him with fervent admiration. In terms of physique, Ju Jia wasn't the largest among the ten, but his vitality was the most abundant. Even the strongest among the nine had significantly less vitality than Ju Jia.

A person of Ju Jia's renown naturally received high regard from the body cultivators of the nearby major sects. No one would belittle him because of his background as a rogue cultivator.

A saying circulated within a thousand li radius: "If not for Ju Jia, Sima Yang would have died countless times already." It was precisely because of Ju Jia's powerful protection that Sima Yang lived so comfortably.

Many now knew that Sima Yang was dead. Even cultivators from the Haotian Alliance, many celebrated, rejoicing that Ju Jia had shed this burden.

The only minor regret was that Ju Jia had followed Lu Ye and wasn't recruited by their sects.

Leading the ten body cultivators, including Ju Jia, Lu Ye walked directly to a node of the grand formation, positioned them nearby, and gave them detailed instructions.

Everyone quickly acknowledged, and Ju Jia even lowered his body slightly, adopting a charging stance.

Lu Ye glanced at him but didn't stop him. Then he raised a hand and placed it over the grand formation's light barrier in front of him.

His movements were so obvious; how could Radiant Sun Mountain not be on guard?

Immediately, over eighty cultivators, under the command of Radiant Sun Mountain's garrison commander, rushed to the location. Separated by the grand formation's light barrier, they confronted Lu Ye and his group from a distance. Each of these dozens of cultivators secretly channeled spiritual energy, their spirit artifacts gleaming, ready to unleash their strongest attack at any moment.

Seeing Lu Ye place his hand on the grand formation's light barrier, the cultivators of Radiant Sun Mountain's hearts leaped into their throats.

They had all heard that this person named Lu Yi Ye could stealthily infiltrate others' protective grand formations. Seeing Lu Ye act in this manner, they all wondered if he was about to use that strange technique.

Feeling nervous and uneasy, they were also intensely curious about how Lu Ye could possibly infiltrate, so they watched without blinking.

Outside the grand formation, ten body cultivators were poised and ready, while inside, eighty cultivators stood by in strict readiness. Compared to the booming commotion on the other side, this silent standoff felt even more oppressive.

Spiritual energy gathered in Lu Ye's eyes. With the Insight spirit pattern active, the world in his vision instantly changed. The flowing and shifting Yin-Yang fundamental elements on the grand formation before him became clear at a glance.

As spiritual energy surged from his body, centered on where Lu Ye's hand covered, fundamental elements quickly connected and spread out, in a blink covering a three-zhang radius in front of him. It looked as if Lu Ye had spread a layer of spiritual membrane on the grand formation's light barrier.

Upon seeing this, the Radiant Sun Mountain cultivators' hearts beat even faster as they all exclaimed inwardly, "Is this the method Lu Yi Ye uses to infiltrate protective grand formations?"

A nervous cultivator even directly activated his artifact, transforming it into a streak of light and launching it, blasting it onto their own protective grand formation.

His action caused a series of chain reactions. At least half of the eighty cultivators followed suit, attacking. Streaks of light assailed them, creating ripples across the grand formation's light barrier.

Lu Ye expressionlessly watched the cultivators opposite him and dispersed the spiritual energy in his hand.

Those Radiant Sun Mountain cultivators who had attacked in haste also realized their mistake and looked embarrassed.

The first attempt failed.

Precisely because he wasn't confident in breaking the formation this way, Lu Ye hadn't given Zhou Pei a guarantee earlier.

Strictly speaking, what Lu Ye was doing now was truly breaking the formation, which was also his original research direction. However, during his activities at Divine Concealment Palace, his research direction changed. It eventually evolved into a method of deceiving the grand formation and infiltrating by disguising himself, without destroying the formation. Compared to the former, the latter was undoubtedly easier.

Although the research direction changed, this method was not flawed. It was just that Lu Ye couldn't seize the brief window of opportunity because the fundamental elements on the grand formation's light barrier were constantly changing. The more fiercely the grand formation's power was activated, the faster the frequency of changes.

Taking Radiant Sun Mountain's current grand formation as an example, it had undoubtedly been pushed to its limit.

The frequency of changes had reached the point of one change every three breaths!

In other words, if Lu Ye wanted to achieve his objective, he needed to, within three breaths, clearly see the composition of the fundamental elements at the grand formation's node, then activate his own spiritual energy to construct completely opposite fundamental elements and integrate them. This way, he could directly break open a hole at the node, thus achieving the goal of breaking the formation.

Within three breaths, he not only had to clearly see the composition of hundreds or even thousands of fundamental elements but also construct completely opposite ones. Such a task was incredibly difficult.

Even with Lu Ye's extremely strong control over his spiritual energy and exceptional talent in the path of spirit patterns, achieving this would still require some luck.

Of course, having the Insight spirit pattern empower his eyes was his greatest confidence. Without it to discern the grand formation's various changes, with his current mastery of formation arts, he would need to cultivate for several more years to break such a protective grand formation.

One failure didn't matter; there were always second, third attempts...

He could fail countless times without suffering any loss, but if he succeeded just once, utter destruction awaited Radiant Sun Mountain.

After slightly calming his spiritual energy, Lu Ye continued to observe the grand formation's changes. A moment later, he tried again and failed once more.

The time left for him was too short.

Initially, every one of Lu Ye's attempts made the eighty Radiant Sun Mountain cultivators nervous. But as the attempts increased, they had almost become numb. It wasn't that they believed Lu Ye couldn't break the formation, but rather that this kind of torment was simply too unbearable.

Their hearts leaped up and down with each of Lu Ye's movements; their mental state had long since crumbled.

As Lu Ye failed to break the formation once more, Ju Jia, standing nearby, slowly straightened up. He had been bent for too long and was a bit tired. However, he quickly bent down again, adopting his charging stance.

Perhaps because he had followed Sima Yang for too long, he generally didn't have many opinions of his own. However, if someone gave him clear instructions on what to do, he could execute them flawlessly and meticulously.

Lu Ye tried a few more times but still did not succeed. He had reached his limit and simply couldn't meet the requirement of breaking the formation within three breaths.

Perhaps he would be able to do it after cultivating a Heaven-grade cultivation method in the future, as cultivators who switch to such methods experience a remarkably enhanced control over their spiritual energy, which is also why their strength surges.