Chapter 844: Set Up An Illusion Formation
The next day, the heavy snow that had been going on and on finally stopped. A ray of sunlight shone on the earth, where thin and small cylindrical ice crystals refracted it into colorful lights that filled the air. It looked magnificent from afar.
Nonetheless, the sun only looked the part in winter; it was not warm at all.
Ou Yangming walked next to Xue Xuanle and asked softly, “Young Lady Xuanle, where are we going now?”
Xue Xuanle glanced at him and held the corner of her shirt with her right hand while she answered, “Huixun City—the biggest city in Zhangzhou.”
Ou Yangming was overjoyed. He wielded his fists and responded, “Really? I heard that Zhanghou’s biggest city is extremely bustling, but I’ve never been there.”
Xue Xuanle kept observing him through the corner of her eye as though she wanted to figure out something from his face, but she could not notice anything apart from his joy.
On the other hand, Xue Yuan took a few steps then waved his sleeves gently. He looked at Ou Yangming on purpose and asked provokingly, “Brother Tianrui, have you met any senior masters back at home?”
Xue Haiya and Xue Xuanle kept quiet as if there was a tacit understanding between them. In fact, they lagged a few steps on purpose and pricked up their ears. In particular, the former was afraid of missing even the slightest detail. After all, the more honorable Yu Tianrui’s identity was, the more helpful he would be to the Xue family. The middle-aged man was only certain that the young fellow had an unordinary identity, but he could only pinpoint how “unordinary” he was.
Ou Yangming’s eyes flickered as he smiled bitterly and answered, “I’ve been staying at home all this time, so how could I have met any master?”
Xue Yuan reacted as if he had expected this answer. He showed off to the young fellow. “Yesterday, I was lucky enough to watch a senior master display his abilities. With a single word, he made the blizzard flow backward to condense a giant golden hand that comprised snowflakes. The ground shook while the universe rumbled. When the master pinched with his hand, a gorgeous red flower appeared in the sky, but it was actually dripping blood…” The young man looked like he yearned for the moment as though he shared the person’s honor, and he appeared to be incredibly impassioned.
“When are you going to change your temper?” Xue Haiya looked helpless. He sighed and did not say anything else. He had been suppressing his emotions after being hunted down for so many days, hence he needed to soothe his emotions.
“Yes! Sadly, we didn’t get to meet him in the end.” Xue Xuanle was in admiration as well. The scene was deeply engraved in her mind. If the senior had not made a move, she probably would have been killed.
“Such a senior master must be used to not having a fixed place of abode, so it’s naturally hard to meet him in person.”
“Yes. He’s a master, after all!” Even Xue Haiya was deeply moved too.
Ou Yangming had a strange look on his face when the 3 of them spoke one after another. He thought, ‘If they find out that I’m the senior that they’re talking about, I wonder how they’ll feel. Especially Xue Yuan, who even looked like he was proud of me.’
Seeing as Ou Yangming had a ghastly look on his face, Xue Xuanle thought that he was shocked by Xue Yuan’s description, thus she quickly comforted him, “Brother Tianrui, don’t be dispirited. Given that you’re already a Rudimentary Spiritualist at such a young age, you’ll surely be able to grasp the technique of forming things with your bare hands. In fact, you might become a top-grade Spiritualist too. At the end of the day, it’s very important to be confident in the path of cultivation.” From her point of view, a top-grade Spiritualist was already considered a superb master. After all, the Xue family only had one such powerhouse.
Ou Yangming sighed internally, but he played along and asked, “The master showed up at where we met yesterday?”
“Yes!” Xue Xuanle answered. She had a fervent look in her eyes as she thought, ‘That senior’s a true master indeed!’
Ou Yangming nodded. While he coped with conversing with his companions, he was distracted as he visualized his sea of consciousness.
The snow mountain in his spiritual world had become more majestic as though it was changing all the time.
Its peak was fully covered with snow, so one could imagine how earth-shattering it would be if it exploded.
At the spur of the moment, 4 purple light spots appeared in Ou Yangming’s senses. The light spots were slightly dark red, which was evident that there were 4 people with strong killing intents. There were 3 Rudimentary Spiritualists and an Intermediate Spiritualist.
Ou Yangming pondered for some time and sighed. ‘Zhangzhou’s Li Xin’s territory, and there are many followers here. If I make myself known as a smithing master here, people with motives will definitely be suspicious. If Li Xin finds out, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to escape at all. Since that’s the case, I should disguise myself as a formation master.’
He made up his mind after a brief moment, where he approached Xue Haiya and asked, “Senior Xue, may I ask if you’ve offended anyone? Why… Why do I feel like someone’s pursuing us?”
Xue Haiya was taken aback at first, then he was dubious. He immediately released his mental power but did not spot anyone as there was only snow around them. The middle-aged man questioned with a grim look on his face, “Tianrui, I think you’re mistaken. This place is desolate, so how can anyone be out there?”
“You’re just mystifying us. Big Uncle Xue’s an Intermediate Spiritualist. If he didn’t find anything, how could you have noticed anything?” Xue Yuan scoffed.
Ou Yangming seemed like he did not hear Xue Yuan’s scornful tone. He added with a grave expression, “I’m certainly not mistaken; they’ll reach us within 15 minutes at most.”
Following that, Ou Yangming turned his wrists. A sound was heard coming from his interspatial bag as numerous Illusion Formation Boards flew out. Ever since he obtained Qiu Chengwang’s memories, he had a more profound understanding of formation boards. The formation boards connected smoothly, then the tadpole-like runes on them lit up and emitted red lights. They looked like the most splendid flowers in summer, and they spread in all directions when the blizzard blew.
Xue Haiya was elated. ‘This young fella’s a formation master. Given how shocking his inheritance is, could he be from Reborn in Paradise that has Venerable Ones? If he’s from that sect and if we use him well, the Xue family’s crisis can be solved! We might even be able to advance.’ His eyes gleamed brighter, and he kept shouting internally, ‘A formation master—a formation master!’
On the other side, Xue Xuanle’s lips parted, making her look particularly sexy. Matched with her dainty features, she looked exceedingly charming. The young lady was also amazed. ‘Yu Tianrui’s a formation master…’
She could not help but wonder, ‘Is he the one that helped us yesterday?’
Xue Xuanle would not have thought about this if Ou Yangming did not set up the formation. Since he could set up a formation so skillfully, what else was impossible?
Nevertheless, Xue Yuan was the most dumbfounded, such that he almost lost all of his thoughts. He was only left with one thought, ‘How’s this possible?’ The young man rubbed his eyes and thought that he was mistaken, but the blizzard was very real. He initially thought that Yu Tianrui was merely a Rudimentary Spiritualist, thus he could not accept it when the young fellow turned out to be a formation master.
With that, a roughly 333-meters Illusion Formation was set up after a brief moment.
The Illusion Formation enveloped Xue Haiya and his juniors. The middle-aged man’s face changed because he was terrified when he sensed the spiritual power fluctuation inside the formation. It would be fine if that was all, but the most frightening thing about the formation was the fact that the whole world inside seemed to have changed. The sky, the ground, and the boundless snowfield… Everything disappeared and was replaced by endless mists—no, seas of mist. It was as if a ferocious beast that chose its prey was approaching from afar.
Xue Haiya was appalled. ‘Who exactly is this person? How can he have such a high level of attainment in formations?”
When he finally came back to his senses and realized that he and his companions were trapped inside a formation, he instantly questioned furiously, “Yu Tianrui, what’s this about?” At the same time, he held the handle of his saber with his right hand. If anything were to go wrong, the middle-aged man would pull out his saber. After all, being inside a formation master’s formation meant that one’s life would be controlled by the master. Unless one could break the formation with force as the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One did, one would be fraught with danger if one was evenly matched with the formation master.
Xue Yuan uttered coldly, “Big Uncle, look—I knew he’s not a good person!”
The young lady had a cold look on her face too. She brushed her fingers across her longsword, causing a clear ring to echo in the air.
Despite that, Ou Yangming was not enraged. He slapped his thigh instead and apologized, “Senior Xue, I’m sorry for being negligence.”
Subsequently, he pointed at a spot in the air with his right index finger. The space beneath his palm glowed, then the misty world in front of them disappeared as it was substituted by numerous white threads and rune nodes.
Xue Haiya’s killing intent faded away as soon as he saw this. He let go of his saber as well and smiled embarrassedly. “Tianrui, I’m sorry for overreacting!”
The young man and lady put their weapons away too and smiled apologetically.
As long as a formation master displayed the rune nodes in a formation, even an inferior powerhouse would be able to break the nodes to get out of the formation. Therefore, the people from the Xue family acted differently from before.
Ou Yangming took a deep breath and responded, “I neglected this, so it’s not your fault.” He even smiled apologetically and flushed.
“They’re here!” All of a sudden, Ou Yangming’s eyes flickered as he warned the rest.
Sure enough, before his voice had even died away, 4 figures appeared about 333 meters away!
The person that led the group was a black-clothed man. He carried a 3-meters-long sword. The man carried a cold intent and was an Intermediate Spiritualist, but his Qi and blood were in abundance, which was clear that he was more potent than his peers.
Behind him were 3 green-clothed men that carried a saber each!
One of the green-clothed men pressed down his cap and noted softly, “Brother Teng Tian, as long as we capture those evil surviving members of the Xue family, it’ll be considered great merit. If you exchange it for a spiritual pill, you might be able to become an Advanced Spiritualist.” He cast a flattering look at the black-clothed man and smiled.
The 2 other green-clothed men quickly nodded in agreement. “Yes, Brother Teng Tian’s exceptionally gifted and is considered the top 3 powerhouses among the younger generation in the Teng family.”
Upon hearing what they said, the black-clothed man, who was addressed as Teng Tian, was overjoyed. Even so, he still put up airs and replied to them with a straight face, “How can that be done so easily? Quick, we mustn’t let those surviving members of the Xue family escape.”
Xue Haiya breathed quickly when he looked at the men outside the Illusion Formation. ‘An Intermediate Spiritualist and 3 Rudimentary Spiritualists—ah, this is going to be tricky.’ He later stole a glance at Ou Yangming and sighed as he thought, ‘He was right that some people are heading in our direction. I didn’t even notice when I’m slightly superior to him, so how did he notice those people? How exactly powerful is his mental power?’
“Brother Yu, can this formation trap those men?” Xue Xuanle had turned pale, but her voice was moving.
Xue Yuan turned to look too as he was anxious.
Ou Yangming smiled as he answered calmly, “Of course!”