Chapter 678: Illuminating the Ten Directions

The moment I chanted the incantation, nearly half the light spots within the Ten Directions Talisman Order spawned pulsating ghost runes.

At the same time, dense malevolent yin energy surged out from the main hall of the Three Yin Sect, blending into the heavy fog and shrouding the entire Daoist temple.

Ye Qingqiu's offensive slowed for a moment, his expression shifting slightly. "Only the three sect masters of the Three Yin Sect can activate the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation. Did Qi Ying deceive me?"

He hadn't expected to encounter resistance. Perplexed, he chanted the incantation to open his Heavenly Eye, his gaze piercing through the dense fog like a sharp sword.

The Judging Eye I cultivated originally belonged to the Profound Truth Dao, sharing the exact same origin as Ye Qingqiu's techniques. Sensing something amiss, I looked up and met his eyes right through the thick fog.

"You?!" Ye Qingqiu's voice carried a trace of confusion. He hadn't expected that I also cultivated the Heavenly Eye, much less that I was bold enough to stand so close to them!

Controlling the grand array alone, I didn't dare let myself be distracted. I kept most of my attention focused on the talisman order, paying little mind to Ye Qingqiu.

So what if he knew I secretly learned the Profound Truth Talisman Methods? We were already locked in a struggle to the death anyway.

I raised a hand and dragged a thumb across my throat, showing no intention of backing down.

The foundation of the Ten Directions Annihilation Grand Formation set up by Ye Qingqiu was unstable. The main reason it held such massive power was that it drew upon Jiangcheng's thousand-year feng shui layout. As long as I kept stalling for time until the winds of fortune shifted, the backlash of Jiangcheng's feng shui grand formation would definitely fall squarely on his shoulders.

Blind Liu's ancestors had managed to suppress a flood dragon, proving their feng shui arts were absolutely superior to Ye Qingqiu's. Yet in the end, unable to withstand the backlash, their descendants were trapped in Jiangcheng to repay that karmic debt for generations. This clearly proved how extraordinary the backlash truly was.

I studied Ye Qingqiu with a cold eye. Rashly manipulating Jiangcheng's feng shui was his greatest mistake.

"I'll let you act smug for a little longer." Faint light flickered across my hands as the symbols representing the array's life and death gates burrowed into my flesh. In that split second, my consciousness could feel nearly seventy percent of the light spots within the talisman order.

I now controlled seven positions of the Ten Directions array. Throwing caution to the wind, I drove it with all my might.

An immediate chorus of ghostly wails and monstrous howls erupted within the fog-shrouded Daoist temple of the Three Yin Sect. The hanged ghosts on the outskirts of the pine forest, along with all the entities buried in the Yin Soil around the temple, crawled out and blindly launched an assault on the sect cultivators.

"The light of a firefly dares to compete with the bright sun?" An old man in coarse clothes strode toward the fog. Stopping at the edge of the mist, he silently recited an incantation and gently shook the Golden Bell at his waist. Instantly, the evil spirits and fierce ghosts fled in a panic, as if a true god had descended right before their eyes.

"Jumping clowns, unable to withstand a single blow." The Daoist administrator of the Golden Mountain Sect, Xu Yinglong, had originally intended to make a move, but he stepped back after witnessing this scene. "This Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation is nothing special. No wonder they lost to the Maoshan Upper Thirty-Six Grottos."

"Is there a hidden meaning in your words, Fellow Daoist Xu?"

"Don't overthink it, Fellow Daoist Mei. I merely feel it wasn't worth it for those few disciples of mine." Xu Yinglong put on a sorrowful act and sighed. "They didn't have to die either. It's just that they weren't as smart as your esteemed disciple. Their bones were too stiff."

Leng Qingxuan's Master furrowed his brows. He had no intention of arguing with Xu Yinglong, but Xu Yinglong refused to let go of the fact that Leng Qingxuan had let the murderer escape, clinging to it relentlessly. It was truly aggravating. "Unreasonable."

He swept his Daoist robe. Seeming to know that Leng Qingxuan would be very uncomfortable here, he signaled for him to leave first.

'The deaths of all his second-generation disciples have already clouded the judgment of the Golden Mountain Sect's Daoist administrator. He's somewhat losing his reason.' Hiding within the thick fog, I saw all of this clearly. Blinded by hatred, Xu Yinglong might just become my breakthrough point.

After the scrawny old Daoist casually scattered the ghosts that had first charged to the edge of the fog, I felt a twinge of regret. I could barely manage to drive the grand array, leaving me unable to spare any focus to direct those fierce ghosts. Otherwise, under my control, those captive entities never would have performed so terribly.

"This is still only the beginning." The true killing move of the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation was sacrificing the ten directions to summon Yanluo. The anomalies the array displayed right now were just petty tricks.

More and more yin energy surged out from the Three Yin Sect's Daoist temple. Because Henshan had been sealed off, this malevolent yin energy stagnated in the mountain hollow, resembling a grounded black storm cloud.

As the yin energy gathered, Ye Qingqiu's expression gradually turned grim. He was starting to feel the strain.

"This array isn't entirely useless." Standing on the ritual altar, Ye Qingqiu formed hand seals mirroring the deity statue and continued chanting his incantations. "Seventh rank circulation, knowing the vast flow and mechanism of heaven and earth, whether present or absent, near or far, completely free of obstacles."

He extended a finger and pointed directly at my location. This man had cultivated the Judging Eye; even shrouded in heavy fog, I had nowhere to hide.

Following his movement, hundreds of Command Flags snapped fiercely in the wind, like a coiled dragon awakening and opening its massive maw toward me.

The area covered by the fog shrank once more. The situation was growing increasingly critical.

'The sun hangs high right now, and yang qi is at its absolute peak. This group of sect cultivators holds the advantage of time; I can't clash with them head-on.' Controlling the grand array, I pulled back as much as possible, biding my time to strike.

Noticing my proactive retreat, Ye Qingqiu seemed to see through something and sped up his chanting. "Eighth rank circulation, the body abides in instant oblivion, form like the sun's shadow, perceiving all with absolute clarity."

As his voice fell, sunlight spilled across the edge of the ritual altar, making him look just like a banished immortal.

Divine patterns continuously flickered in his eyes, piercing through everything. At this moment, Ye Qingqiu seemed to merge perfectly with the Ten Directions Annihilation Grand Formation, transforming into a giant dragon coiled around the Three Yin Sect.

Golden light blazed, making it impossible to look at him directly. His voice echoed along the edges of Henshan, stirring up waves of reverberations until it felt as though his voice was the only sound left in the world.

'Is this the power drawn from Jiangcheng's feng shui layout?' I felt as if I were facing not a person, but the towering peak of Henshan and the rushing currents of a mighty river. It was an incredibly bizarre sensation, one that could easily induce negative emotions like dread and the urge to surrender.

Fortunately, I had endured the grueling trials of the Live Show for a long time and inherently possessed the potential of a fate usurper. Whenever fear began to well up inside me, a voice would echo in the depths of my heart.

'Even when the heavens want me dead, I still manage to survive. Compared to the heavens, what the hell are you, Ye Qingqiu?'

Clenching my teeth, I retreated further into the Daoist temple. While holding the line of the grand array, I sprinted swiftly toward the shrine in the main hall.

Before the sect cultivators arrived, I had made an agreement with Wang Shi: the moment I activated the grand array, he would assist me with everything he had. Yet right now, the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation was still only exerting seventy percent of its power. Clearly, Wang Shi hadn't done as I'd asked.

'What is this guy doing?'

Entering the main hall, I plunged into the subterranean ley lines. The malevolent yin energy here had grown even denser; the moment I stepped inside, pure malevolent yin energy flowed directly into my yin aperture without me even needing to circulate my cultivation technique.

I dashed madly all the way to the core of the grand array. The Filthy Ghost was still sitting dumbly by the stone bridge, not having moved an inch, while the aura radiating from the Desire Ghost was slowly undergoing a metamorphosis. It had reached its most critical juncture.

'I suppose that's a pleasant surprise.' I didn't pay any more attention to the Desire Ghost's changes. Directing the Filthy Ghost to move aside, I strode straight up to Wang Shi.

His body floated between the currents of yin and yang energies. After just a single morning, his form had become solid and textured. In a dimly lit place, anyone who didn't know better would probably mistake him for a living person.

"How much longer until you refine the Yang Talisman?" I asked, cutting straight to the point.

Wang Shi didn't seem to realize I would come. He looked at me with some confusion, as if freshly jolted awake from a dream. "Almost done. Give me a little more time."

"A little more time? I've already given you an entire morning. How much longer are you going to dawdle? The Five Great Upper Sects have gathered outside, sealing the mountain and locking down the forest. Right now, you and I are standing on the edge of a cliff." My voice was cold and steady. This was one of my better traits: I rarely lost my temper, always maintaining a clear head.

"A whole morning has passed?" Wang Shi was genuinely astonished. His expression didn't look faked.

"How much more time do you need? Give me a straight answer." Right now, I didn't care whether he was acting or not; I only wanted a definitive response.

"Almost, it really is almost done." Wang Shi pointed at his chest. That Yang Talisman had already taken the place of his heart, its divine patterns "forged" into a completely new symbol that resembled the growth rings of a tree. "This thing is embedded into my soul. I can't take it out even if I tried, so I can only rely on the two different energies here to refine it. I'm just passively enduring the process, so I can't give you a precise answer."

His reasoning was rock solid, leaving me with no way to argue.

"The sect cultivators have already arrived. We must act as one." I raised the talisman order in my hand.

Seeing the talisman order in my palm, Wang Shi finally seemed to remember something. "I felt a change in the grand array just now, and the yin energy in the Yin Meridian surged. So you're the one driving it."

He looked troubled. "I have some bad news for you. If I use this Black Chess Piece and the Mountain God Sculpture to help you run the grand array, my refinement speed will become even slower."

"Are you trying to negotiate conditions with me?" I raised an eyebrow and took a step forward.

"I'm just stating the facts. The two of us are grasshoppers on the same rope—why would I intentionally sabotage you?" I couldn't read anything from Wang Shi's expression, and he genuinely had no reason to harm me.

If I had Wang Shi cooperate with me to drive the grand array, his refinement speed would slow down even further. If it originally required two hours, it might now drag on until evening.

'Can the Ten Directions Ghost Refining Grand Formation stall them for that long?' Before I could make a decision, disaster suddenly struck. A tiny hairline crack snapped open on the Ten Directions Talisman Order in my hand!

I looked down. The crack had appeared on the section of the Ten Directions Talisman Order representing the north. Combined with the topography around the Three Yin Sect's Daoist temple, the tear in the grand array was coming exactly from the direction of Ye Qingqiu's ritual altar!

"Not good!" Gripping the talisman order, I sprinted desperately toward the surface. Before I even made it out of the ley lines, I heard a voice echoing throughout the entire mountain hollow.

"Ninth rank circulation, universally opening to the light, unleashing the brilliance within the body, illuminating all things in the Ten Directions!"

Ye Qingqiu's Ten Directions Annihilation Grand Formation had reached its final stage. Ninth rank circulation! It only lacked one final turn to achieve Ten Directions Complete Annihilation!

'It's too late.' I turned my head and roared toward the ley lines, "Wang Shi! Slow your refinement speed! Activate the array!"