Chapter 297: Heaven and Earth Inverted, Dragons Rising from All Directions!

"Lu Xing, it's my fault I didn't retrieve the Heart Consciousness, but you can't send me to my death!" Qiu Ren never expected Lu Xing to push him forward at a time like this. He looked at me, trapped in the Seven-Star Labyrinth Array, his eyes filled with fear. "I can't go in there. He'll kill me."

With both arms broken and blood running down his shoulders, Qiu Ren looked utterly pathetic, but not a single person present felt any sympathy for him.

He had brought everything that happened today upon himself.

"You lost the Heart Consciousness. If you don't retrieve it, am I supposed to? If I leave, who will control the array? Or do you want to vie with the Buddha for that sliver of heavenly providence?"

"I wouldn't dare!" Qiu Ren's knees gave out and he dropped to the ground. In truth, he had been struggling to hold on for a while; the gaping wound on his stomach was constantly draining his life away. "Lu Xing, for the sake of our twenty years as fellow disciples, don't force me. I know you have a way. Gao Jian is trapped in the array—you definitely have a way to get the Heart Consciousness."

With his senior brother kneeling before him, the expression on Lu Xing's face was unreadable. He stroked Qiu Ren's hair. "Senior Brother, why go to such lengths? Missing one of the Eight Consciousnesses isn't a big deal. I've already thought of a replacement for the Heart Consciousness."

"That's good. That's good." Qiu Ren swayed as he tried to stand. He looked dazed, badly shaken by what Lu Xing had just said.

"Senior Brother, look at yourself. You've cultivated for so many years, yet you can't even compare to that layman. Your heart is in chaos." Before Qiu Ren could fully stand, Lu Xing tightened his grip on his hair. Forcing him down, he slammed Qiu Ren back onto the ground. "Why don't I enlighten you on behalf of the Buddha today? Let me open your heart and clear your mind, so you may see your true nature."

A sharp knife suddenly appeared, its blade gleaming ruthlessly in a flash of lightning.

"What are you doing?! Lu Xing! I am a disciple of the Buddha, I—"

Driving the blade straight through Qiu Ren's chest, Lu Xing patted his cheek. "Senior Brother, your heart is in chaos. I'm just helping you find peace."

The blade slid downwards. Qiu Ren's agonized screams grew louder and louder; Lu Xing was actually trying to carve out his heart!

"Since you lost the Buddha's Heart Consciousness, we'll use your heart as a replacement. It might create a slight flaw, but I already control the entire situation. The Seven-Star Labyrinth Array holds forty-nine variations of heaven and earth; no one can break out and step within three paces of me."

Ribs snapped as Lu Xing extracted a beating, bloody red mass from Qiu Ren's chest.

"Senior Brother, you won't die in vain. The Buddha's grand scheme is about to be realized!"

The expression on Lu Xing's face grew increasingly crazed. With the array laid out across the dam's top corridor, neither I nor Tie Ningxiang could get close enough to stop him. It seemed as though everything was already set in stone.

Scalding heart blood poured over the Double-Faced Buddha Statue. The blood condensed at the center of the Buddha's chest into a still-beating bead of blood. With all eight consciousnesses gathered, the Double-Faced Buddha Statue's facial features actually shifted, slowly revealing a faint smile. Upon closer inspection, its expression was now identical to Lu Xing's.

Forming hand seals, Lu Xing stood at the center of the dam and chanted an incantation. "Arouse the mind without resting it upon anything; to depart from all forms is to be a Buddha!"

A faint rumbling echoed from within the dam. Looking down from above, the locations of the eight different functional buildings perfectly matched the positions of the Eight Treasures on the mural at the Bridge No. 3 Crematorium. The eight internal buildings corresponded respectively to the parasol, goldfish, treasure vase, lotus, conch shell, wheel, endless knot, and victory banner.

The Eight Treasures were laid out to form a cohesive whole, resembling an Eight Treasures Wheel capable of twisting destiny.

"You want to use the Eight Treasures Wheel to destroy the dam?" Everyone standing on the dam could feel the structure trembling beneath their feet. Being so close to Lu Xing, I felt it especially clearly.

"Destroy the Lanjiang Dam? Gao Jian, your vision is too narrow." Lu Xing carried the sharp knife over to Xiaofeng, slowly pressing the blade inch by inch into the skin above her heart. A similar scene had once played out with Tie Ningxiang; he wanted to extract Xiaofeng's heart blood.

Her frail body struggled amidst the torrential rain and floodwaters, battered by the crashing waves. Xiaofeng's agonized expression was deeply seared into my mind.

"Don't worry, I won't kill her. She will be of great use later."

Lu Xing took out his Octagonal Token and let Xiaofeng's heart blood drip onto it.

The faint cry of a phoenix echoed from within the black token. When the sound faded, two ancient seal characters had appeared on one of the token's corners—Red Luan.

"Only the last one remains. Twenty years... I spent twenty years to finally gather all of you!" Lu Xing laughed maniacally at the churning river, slowly raising the knife and plunging it into his own chest.

Without any hesitation, the blade sank through his ribs. Lu Xing didn't seem to feel the pain; instead, his laughter grew even more unhinged.

He yanked the knife out. When Lu Xing dripped his own heart blood onto the Octagonal Token, ancient characters began to emerge on the final blank corner—tribulation fiend!

"You really are one of the Eight Characters Divine Fiends." I could no longer feel the heavy rain washing over me, and my body had long gone numb. A bitter smile touched my face; as it turned out, Lu Xing's Fate Pattern was also extraordinary.

The eight characters tribulation fiend represented injury, unexpected disaster, and plunder; it was the symbol of an ominous spirit.

Supporting the Octagonal Token with one hand, Lu Xing turned his head and glanced at me. "First fate, second luck, third Feng Shui. A person's Fate Pattern is decreed by heaven. Actually, I am more curious about you. With an ordinary Fate Pattern, why are you endlessly tangled up with the Eight Characters Divine Fiends? Like an ant gazing at the sky, your fate is likely far from simple. It's just a pity that you arrived too late!"

With the eight characters gathered, the black token began to transform. The black exterior continuously peeled off in Lu Xing's hand like a layer of rust, revealing two starkly contrasting colors inside: black and white.

There were no other impurities. It looked entirely natural, as if bestowed by heaven itself rather than carved by human hands.

One side was yin, the other yang. The front and back were engraved with the words "Usurp" and "Fate," respectively. Its age was impossible to tell, but it seemed to have been passed down from thousands of years ago.

"So this is the key's true form."

"Key?"

"That's right, the key to opening the Jiangcheng Great Tomb!" Lu Xing had gone completely mad. He sliced open his own wrist with the sharp knife. The gash was incredibly deep, exposing stark white bone.

Yet he paid it no mind, using his mutilated wrist to grip the Octagonal Token, letting his blood soak into every inch of it.

As the blood gradually covered it, a shocking transformation occurred on his half-fair, half-hideous face.

On the scar-covered half of his face, the burn marks actually began to fade, revealing complex, ferocious dragon patterns hidden underneath!

Patterns typically carved onto ancient ritual vessels were now etched right onto a human face.

'Did he leave those scars on that half of his face just to hide these dragon patterns?' I suddenly recalled the old man at the Anxin Hotel; Lu Xing's father also had a massive scar on his face. 'Why did they need to hide them? What do the dragon patterns signify?'

I found it increasingly difficult to see through Lu Xing. The Two-Faced Buddha had yet to appear, but Lu Xing was already bringing me layer upon layer of doubt.

"Twenty years, haha!" Lu Xing's maniacal laughter echoed over the surging river. The token in his hand was completely drenched in blood.

"I've finally lived to see this day."

His calm eyes concealed ultimate madness. Standing at the edge of the dam, right beside the forty-one-meter sheer drop, Lu Xing raised the Eight Characters Token with both hands and pointed it toward Jiangcheng. All of his calmness and years of waiting transformed into a single roar.

"Heaven and earth inverted, dragons rising from all directions!"

Invisible ripples swept across the sky. First, the Double-Faced Buddha Statue emitted a blinding light. Then, within the dam, the eight main functional buildings completely ceased operation.

The floodwaters raged, and the pent-up water level began to rise at a terrifying speed.

The invisible ripples continued to spread, flying over Jiangcheng. Every blade of grass, every tree, every brick, and every stone in the ancient city resonated with them. The feng shui grand formation left behind from a thousand years ago was activated!

Eight massive booms rang out consecutively from the eight directions of Jiangcheng. The Anxin Hotel, Xinhu High School, Bridge No. 3 Crematorium... Eight buildings constructed on feng shui nodes, corresponding to the Eight Characters Divine Fiends, were forcibly triggering this thousand-year-old array!

The torrential rain smashed down, and dark clouds pressed heavily overhead. Heaven and earth seemed to have inverted, yet this disaster was only just beginning.

With his scars entirely gone, Lu Xing held the Eight Characters Token above his head. By now, his blood had blurred all the characters on the token.

"The heavens are dead, Trapped Dragon Emerging from the Abyss. By the command of the eight directions, open the Heavenly Gate!!"

Ferocious cracks appeared all over the token, but Lu Xing didn't care in the slightest. The moment he finished speaking, an earth-shattering boom erupted from beneath Jiangcheng, sounding just like the roar of an ancient, ferocious beast.

The entire city heard it crystal clear, and a look of sheer disbelief crossed my face. "Could this be a dragon's roar? Is Lu Xing trying to release the flood dragon suppressed beneath Jiangcheng?!"

I turned my head to look. The sun and moon had lost their light, plunging the whole city into darkness. Only the rushing floodwaters were violently smashing against the Lanjiang Dam.

Gazing into the distance, my expression drastically changed. The hand gripping the Deer-Slaying Dao couldn't stop trembling. Upstream of the dam, a massive, hundred-meter-long shadow was slowly emerging from beneath the water!