Chapter 121: Eight-Directional Bewildering Array

Now that Elder Ning and Fatty Duan were dead, and six others had left for the north, only seven people remained at Stone Lake. This number was manageable for Wang Yu.

He took out the high-grade formation flags Elder Ning had acquired. This formation was different from the Blood Mist Concealment Formation he had bought to guard his temporary cave dwelling; it was a confinement formation.

It was called the Eight Directions Bewildering Spiritual Sense Formation. The "spiritual" in its name referred to spiritual sense, not deities. It had the effect of confusing a Qi Cultivator's spiritual sense, making anyone caught within the formation unable to distinguish directions.

It was essentially an illusion-type confinement formation.

Wang Yu flicked his wrist, skillfully casting eight forearm-length flags around Stone Lake. After ripples stirred in the air, everything fell silent.

The formation was completely invisible to the naked eye.

After confirming the setup, Wang Yu tore his ordinary clothes into rags, then rubbed his cheeks to create a horrified expression before beginning to gasp for air.

Moments later,

The night grew even more desolate. Wang Yu descended from mid-air onto the surface of Stone Lake, his voice echoing into the water below.

"Trouble! Big trouble! Daoist Ning has been discovered by the righteous cultivators!"

"Quick, come! Quickly..."

The surface of Stone Lake immediately began to ripple as seven black-robed figures burst out of the water and stood upon it. Seeing the dishevelled Wang Yu, they anxiously asked, "What happened? Where's Boss Ning?"

"Quick, follow me. Daoist Ning sent me for help."

"Speak as we go."

"Alright—"

At that moment, the situation was urgent. There was no time to verify the truth of Wang Yu's words; they had to make a swift decision, which was undoubtedly difficult. No one could have imagined that Elder Ning had been directly killed by Wang Yu's audacious move.

Once everyone had entered the formation's range, Wang Yu approached the cultivator with the highest cultivation, who had just entered the ninth level of Qi Cultivation, and spoke rapidly.

"The Stone Lake City Lord was captured by members of the righteous sects! Daoist Ning was just discussing this year's spiritual slave pricing, and then a fight broke out. So many people... so many cultivators!"

"And then?"

The man couldn't help but grasp Wang Yu's shoulder. Before he could hear the reply, his body involuntarily began to tremble, and he stared at Wang Yu with a look of astonishment and despair!

Casually, Wang Yu, a master of surprise attacks, pulled out a still-warm heart. He would never forgo such a prime opportunity. Even if he could win in a direct fight, why not opt for an easy one-hit kill?

Having done this many times, his skill had naturally become refined.

"Wang Yu!"

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"He killed Senior Brother Li, the traitor... kill him!"

"Heh heh—"

The remaining six were all elites at the late stage of Qi Cultivation, but everything happened too quickly. Under normal circumstances, Elder Ning would not return to assign their next tasks for at least three days.

They were aware of the dangers of infiltrating the Taihu Spiritual Domain and were constantly on guard against exposure. Even bribing the cultivators stationed at Heishan Pass didn't allow them to lower their guard.

This was because, regardless of whether it was the righteous or demonic path, internal factions always existed.

Within the righteous sects, there were both corrupt individuals colluding with the demonic path and upright, noble cultivators filled with integrity. Being caught by the latter meant certain death.

Wang Yu's actions adhered to the principle of "speed." Everything happened before they even had time to consider if it was "reasonable."

The Eight Directions Bewildering Spiritual Sense Formation silently activated. The six, with perfect coordination, unleashed a combined attack. The chaotic, explosive spell energies all slammed into Wang Yu. When the colors faded, Wang Yu stood unharmed, a mocking expression on his face as he looked at them.

"It's useless. You can never kill me."

With that, he pointed his right hand forward.

A colossal ice sword suddenly materialized and thrust violently towards a Qi Cultivator at the eighth level. His two companions nearby, seeing this, grew grim-faced and simultaneously activated their defensive magical artifacts to help him.

Strangely, the ice sword suddenly warped through space, impaling two of the three from behind and splitting them in half. The ice sword was so immense that although it was a thrust, it achieved the effect of a cleave.

The magical artifacts, now devoid of spiritual power, plummeted towards the lake's surface, and four halves of bodies splashed into the water.

Of the original seven, four remained, and their faces all changed.

Fear, terror, shock, anger, and suspicion—a variety of emotions—all surfaced as exaggerated expressions on their faces.

"Impossible... impossible!"

"You're just a Qi Cultivator! How can you possess the ability to traverse space, let alone apply it to a spell... No, this is an illusion!"

As expected of a disciple from a major sect, after just one attack and a heavy price, they immediately understood the reason.

But—what did it matter?

On the other side, out of the four's line of sight, Wang Yu had just collected his spoils. In this area along the edge of Stone Lake, the eight formation flags were emitting a faint glow.

Eight ancient characters, representing the eight directions, appeared on a complex spiritual pattern array diagram. The spiritual energy consumed to power this formation was much higher than he had anticipated.

Meanwhile, the four men were still furiously cursing at the sky, standing back-to-back, more than five meters apart, completely disoriented. What they saw and heard was entirely different from Wang Yu's reality.

The formation's effect was a bit too outstanding.

Was this truly a high-grade Qi Cultivation formation? A sliver of doubt appeared in his mind, but he wasted no time and mercilessly delivered the killing blow.

The ice sword continued to sweep, effortlessly eradicating all seven individuals.

The murderous aura in Wang Yu's eyes grew even more intense.

After gathering all the spoils, he deactivated the formation and landed by the Stone Lake to carefully examine the eight formation flags.

"East, South, West, North, Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest."

These were the traditional eight directions, like a character for "rice" dividing the world. However, moments ago, apart from the spiritual pattern array diagram, only eight ancient characters served as the core.

Wang Yu took out the Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest flags from the set and quickly noticed signs of repair on them.

If the original patterns on the flags were exquisite works of art, then the later repairs were clumsy childish scribbles. Even someone unfamiliar with formation arts could discern the difference.

"So the four flags for East, South, West, and North were reforged and are only first-tier. The other two-character eight-direction flags were merely repaired..."

Based on this assessment, Wang Yu felt that this was likely a heavily damaged third-tier set of formation flags, making them quite valuable.

No wonder the effect was so good. Strictly speaking, it should have reached the peak of the first-tier, capable of being effective even against Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Its only drawback was the need for pre-arrangement. This flaw was common to all formation flag artifacts; during intense battles, few could set up formation flags midway unless an opportunity arose.

"Indeed, Elder Ning had been in this line of work for a long time; his face was aged. He should have accumulated some wealth."

Fortunately, he chose to attack directly. If he had waited a while for Elder Ning to finish his tasks and turn his full attention to him, Elder Ning might have made the first move.

(End of Chapter)