txolops Chapter 60 Breaking the Formation
Chapter 60 Breaking the Formation
Two months later, on the open sea, seven cultivators sped across the water, piloting magical artifacts.
Mu Chunfeng was dressed in a black outfit, his face covered with a black cloth, and he was standing on a cloud-piercing shuttle with flowing spiritual light. The Snow Demon stood quietly behind him, his aura completely concealed.
Not far from him were five Foundation Establishment cultivators under Cao Lu's command. They were traveling together on a standard flying boat. The leader was a burly man surnamed Wang with a full black beard, as strong as a bear, and possessed the cultivation of the late Foundation Establishment stage. The remaining four, two of whom were in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage and two in the early Foundation Establishment stage, all looked sharp and capable.
At this moment, a slightly younger-looking mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator leaned close to the burly man with the black beard and whispered, "Boss, are we almost there?"
Upon hearing this, the burly man with the black beard lowered his head and carefully scanned the animal hide map in his hand. Then he looked up at the distant horizon and replied in a deep voice, "That's right, only a few dozen miles left. We'll be there soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, he turned to Mu Chunfeng, cupped his hands and smiled, "Master Mu, we'll be relying entirely on you to break the formation later."
Mu Chunfeng nodded slightly, his voice steady: "I will do my best and will never let Manager Cao down."
As soon as he finished speaking, the two early Foundation Establishment cultivators at the stern of the flying boat exchanged a glance, then glanced at Mu Chunfeng with disdain, whispering among themselves, "What kind of master is he? Putting on such a high-profile act, he's just a blind man with his eyes covered. It's hard to say whether he can even break the formation in a moment."
The two spoke in very low voices, but everyone present was at the Foundation Establishment stage and their senses were far beyond those of ordinary people, so they naturally heard what they said clearly.
The burly man with the black beard suddenly turned pale, turned his head and glared at the two men. The two men immediately shrank back and lowered their heads, remaining silent.
The burly man with the black beard then turned to Mu Chunfeng, cupped his hands again, and said apologetically, "Master Mu, please forgive me. My two subordinates are young and have been quite tactless with their words. They have offended us greatly. I hope you will not take it to heart."
Having said that, he turned back and coldly shouted at the two of them, "Hurry up and apologize to Master Mu!"
The two dared not disobey, and reluctantly bowed and offered a hasty apology.
Mu Chunfeng sneered inwardly. How could he not see through such a trick? Ostensibly, it was an apology, but in reality, it was a warning shot, subtly questioning his abilities. If anything went wrong on this trip, all the blame would be thrown on him immediately.
He originally claimed that his "eye disease" and "lack of fighting skills" were a way of showing weakness, but unexpectedly, he was actually easily bullied.
However, he remained completely calm and said indifferently, "Fellow Daoist Wang, there is no need for this. Although I have an eye ailment and cannot see with my naked eyes, my ability to probe with my divine sense is no less than that of ordinary cultivators. Even if there are key points that are difficult to detect with divine sense, Brother Xue will fill in the gaps and will not delay the matter of breaking the formation."
Upon hearing this, the burly man with the black beard chuckled and said, "Of course I trust Master Mu's abilities, but these two brats don't know their manners and have disturbed the master's peace. I will definitely teach them a lesson later."
After this incident, the atmosphere among them became somewhat somber, and no one spoke much, focusing only on activating their magical artifacts to continue their journey.
Before an incense stick could burn, the group finally arrived at the target location marked on the map.
The burly man with the black beard gripped the map, glanced around, and said with certainty, "This is it, there's no mistake, it's exactly the same as when I came here last time."
Following his gaze, everyone saw a small island not far below, only a few dozen miles in circumference. From the air, it looked no different from any other nameless island in the open sea. The island had ordinary vegetation and thin spiritual energy, with only a few low-level demonic beasts wandering and dwelling in the forest.
Mu Chunfeng's divine sense quietly spread out, encompassing almost the entire island, but he couldn't detect anything unusual on the island, let alone any trace of an ancient cultivator's cave.
The burly man with the black beard turned around and saw Mu Chunfeng tilting his head, intently using his divine sense to explore. He immediately smiled smugly: "Master Mu, the hidden location of this cave cannot be found by the naked eye and divine sense alone. If it weren't for the map, our group would have searched here carefully for more than ten days and still would never have found the entrance."
"Oh?"
Mu Chunfeng feigned doubt and replied, "It's hidden to such an extent? Then it really could be an ancient cultivator's cave that has never been discovered before."
"Of course!"
The burly man with the black beard laughed heartily: "Master, please wait a moment. I'll show you right away."
After saying that, he took the lead and led the group to slowly descend to the foot of an ordinary low hill on the island.
The surface of this mountain wall is covered with uneven black rocks. Unless you look closely, you can't see that there is a slightly darker area in the center of the rock wall, which has faint traces of being buried by humans.
The burly man with the black beard pointed to this spot and explained, "We dug in from here back then, but we sealed it off with rocks and mud when we left. We didn't use any other magical methods, so you can't detect it with just your divine sense."
He continued, "Further in from here is an extremely deep downward passage. At the end of the passage, it is blocked by a protective array. The array is extremely strong. We tried everything and struggled for several days but couldn't break through it. That's why we had to go back and ask Manager Cao to ask for help again."
It turns out it was buried deep underground; no wonder the island's surface looked completely ordinary.
A sense of understanding flashed through Mu Chunfeng's mind.
After the burly man with the black beard finished his introduction, he raised his hand and patted the spirit beast pouch at his waist.
Suddenly, a flash of light appeared, and a magical beast that resembled both a pangolin and a large rat flew out.
Its entire body is covered with jet-black scales that gleam like metal in the sunlight. Its forelimbs have five sharp, gleaming claws, and its small eyes dart around.
"My black-armored scale rat lives underground year-round and is best at digging and exploring. Its teeth and claws can easily pierce through ordinary rocks."
The burly man with the black beard proudly introduced, "This will lead the way, saving us the trouble of going through the trouble."
No sooner had the words left its mouth than the black-armored scaled rat squeaked twice, wriggling its plump body as it climbed to the rock wall. Its forelimbs suddenly extended their sharp claws, slashing fiercely at the buried rock.
There was a crisp "snap" sound.
Hard rocks are as fragile as tofu under its sharp claws, and pebbles fall down in a flurry.
It moved extremely fast, its front paws twirling, and in the blink of an eye, it opened up a passage ten feet wide.
"Walk!"
With a wave of his hand, the burly man with the black beard led his four henchmen into the cave in single file.
Mu Chunfeng walked at the back, raised his hand and took out a spirit-sealing talisman. With a flick of his fingertip, he affixed the talisman to the rock wall at the cave entrance. Then, he waved his hand and released a burst of spiritual energy, using a pile of rubble to completely block the cave entrance.
After doing all this, he took the Snow Demon and followed at a leisurely pace.
The group followed the black-armored scaled rats deeper and deeper, traversing downwards.
About fifteen minutes later, as the scaled rat extended its last claw, the rock wall in front of it collapsed with a roar.
Suddenly, a dark and deep cave appeared before them, with its entrance extending diagonally downwards. The ground was paved with neat rows of long stone bricks, clearly not a natural formation.
"arrive!"
The burly man with the black beard's eyes lit up. He immediately put the black-armored scaled rat back into his spirit beast pouch and said to the others, "Follow this passage for another quarter of an hour, and you'll see the array light screen!"
Upon hearing this, the other four cultivators all revealed an undisguised excitement.
These four people were all sent by Cao Luxin. They had never seen the true appearance of the cave before. Now that they were about to see the legendary ancient cultivator's cave, none of them could suppress their excitement, and they unconsciously quickened their pace.
Seeing this, the burly man with the black beard smiled slightly, said nothing more, and led the group down the stone steps.
The stone steps meandered down, and as you went further down, a faint smell of sulfur began to waft through the air, and the temperature gradually rose.
Sure enough, a quarter of an hour later, the group walked up the long stone steps and stepped into an exceptionally spacious underground space.
Not far in front of them, a crimson array barrier blocked their path.
On the light screen, countless complex golden spirit patterns slowly flowed, radiating a blazing aura.
Inside the light curtain, the entrance to an ancient cave dwelling, several meters square, stood quietly. On the rock wall above the entrance, four powerful characters were carved: Pure Yang Immortal Abode.
Mu Chunfeng's gaze fell on the light screen, and he was immediately shocked: This was actually the Xuanhuo Locking Yang Formation!
He learned about this formation from ancient texts on formations he collected from the markets of Kui Xing Island after arriving in the Chaotic Star Sea. It was an ancient formation that had been lost in the Chaotic Star Sea for many years.
This formation is not for defense or killing enemies. Its core function is to continuously draw on the power of earth fire and lock it within the formation. At the same time, it automatically absorbs the spiritual energy of the surrounding heaven and earth to maintain the yin-yang balance within the formation and prevent the locked yang energy from becoming too intense and going out of control and exploding. It is a top-level auxiliary cultivation formation that fire attribute cultivators dream of.
However, the one before us is certainly not the complete Locking Yang Formation. According to ancient records, for a complete formation to exert its miraculous effect of gathering Yang energy, it must be built on a large fire vein with abundant fire-attribute spiritual power, which is definitely not something that can be supported by the underground of this desolate island.
As his thoughts raced, Mu Chunfeng had already devised a solution.
Since mastering the Inverted Five Elements Formation taught by Xin Ruyin, he had long since grasped the core logic of this formation, which involves the continuous generation of the five elements and the cyclical balance of yin and yang. The solution was simply to counter the five elements with the five elements, and to reverse yin and yang with yin and yang.
Moreover, this formation is not a defensive or killing formation. Not to mention that a Core Formation cultivator could break it by bombarding it with all his might for several months, even an ordinary formation master could easily break it by finding the right spiritual energy node and disrupting its operation.
With the dual enhancement of his divine sense and double pupils, seeing through the nodes of the formation was effortless for him.
At this moment, the burly man with the black beard turned to look at Mu Chunfeng, his face full of anticipation, and asked, "Master Mu, are you confident you can break this formation?"
Mu Chunfeng pretended to ponder for a moment before slowly speaking: "It can be broken, but this formation is quite ancient and the array patterns are complex. It will take at least half a month to completely break it."
He could have broken the formation in three days at most, but he deliberately prolonged the time.
If he breaks the formation in the blink of an eye, these people will inevitably feel that he didn't put in much effort when they see how easily he did it, and they will have less say in the distribution of the treasures in the future.
The burly man with the black beard, unaware of Mu Chunfeng's thoughts, was overjoyed to learn of his confidence in breaking the formation. He exclaimed, "Breaking the formation in just half a month? Master Mu's mastery of formations truly lives up to its reputation! The matter of breaking the formation will depend entirely on you, Master! As long as we enter the cave, you will certainly receive your share of the treasures! I will also put in a good word for you with Manager Cao!"
Upon hearing this, Mu Chunfeng's previous scheming thoughts vanished instantly: "Damn, I still didn't say enough."
The burly man with the black beard led his men back dozens of feet, giving Mu Chunfeng enough space to cast his spell. They all watched with bated breath, their eyes filled with anticipation.
Mu Chunfeng nodded slightly, took out a array flag from his storage bag, and began to pretend to wander around the outer perimeter of the array. Sometimes he would release his divine sense to explore the flow of array patterns, and sometimes he would calculate the direction with his fingers, looking like he was completely focused on breaking the array.