Chapter Seventy-Eight: The Secret Formation of the Witch Sect

That sudden, unprovoked statement left everyone momentarily stunned, but Lei Dong was struck with a start, snapping out of his fury in an instant. Though he didn’t fully understand what Shuiyao Xian meant, she alone held the secret arts of the Wu Sect and was currently the only companion capable of launching an attack—their team’s last hope for survival.

With this realization, Lei Dong made his decision: he would stake everything on her. He shouted, “Mouse!”

Luo Haoran, stationed at Shuiyao Xian’s three o’clock position, hesitated no longer and sprinted over in long strides.

Meanwhile, Lei Dong dashed forward to stand before Shuiyao Xian, shielding her frail body with his own. This was their final hope—no matter what she intended to do, he had to guarantee her safety.

Thick pillars of light, crushing with unyielding force, struck Lei Dong’s back one after another. His face twisted with pain, every muscle in his body tensed to the utmost, every trace of true energy within him flowing to his back as he gritted his teeth and stood firm, refusing to yield an inch.

A spurt of faintly golden blood burst from his mouth, again and again, splattering the earth, the grass before him, and even Shuiyao Xian beneath his protection, painting everything in a bloody haze.

Yet to Lei Dong’s mild surprise, these pillars of light, which seemed capable of destroying heaven and earth, were not as devastating as he had imagined. Each blow forced blood from his lips, but he could withstand them; in fact, the initial light sword attacks had posed a greater threat. In a flash, he understood—the light swords focused their power, easily piercing his defense, but while the pillars were more forceful, they lacked sharpness. His body, tempered through countless ordeals and brimming with true energy, could better withstand such blunt assaults.

Still, if things continued like this, he feared he would bleed to death before his true energy was spent.

In a brief daze, a particularly massive pillar of light slammed into his back. Blood spurted forth, but suddenly he sensed the tiniest thread of some unknown energy from the pillar seep through his skin and into his body. Startled, he discovered that this strange power circulated along the path of the Chaos Art within his meridians, making a full circuit before merging seamlessly with his own true energy, becoming indistinguishable from his original strength.

This discovery filled Lei Dong with both surprise and delight. Each increment of strength he gained could buy Shuiyao Xian a little more time to complete her preparations. Yet he still wondered: what on earth was she planning? What effect could the Wu Sect’s secret arts truly have?

At that moment, Shuiyao Xian sat cross-legged on the ground, eyes tightly shut—she dared not look at Lei Dong, could not bear to see him coughing up mouthfuls of blood. Her hands moved rapidly through a series of seals, her lips uttering incantations in quick succession. She knew that if her guess was correct, every second shaved off her preparations would lessen Lei Dong’s suffering under those dreadful attacks.

“Nine o’clock, twenty-seven meters!”

“Eleven o’clock, thirty-three meters!”

“Seven o’clock, forty meters!”

Shuiyao Xian’s incantations and gestures never ceased. With each command, her hands changed positions, and a silent, unseen cold crow formed by pure spiritual power flew from her fingers, tracing an uncanny arc through the air, circling before each team member as they moved to their designated spots.

Her crisp, commanding shouts, both sweet and unassailable, rang out across the battlefield. Bei Shiliang, Song Jingang, Lang Tianyu, and the staggering Wuyun—each was assigned a position.

As these warriors moved, Shuiyao Xian’s eyes grew ever brighter.

Despite the dozens of meters between them and the threat of sudden assaults, such a distance was but a matter of seconds for the world’s elite special operatives.

Yet within those few seconds, something occurred that left everyone dumbfounded.

They suddenly realized that the energy flowing through their bodies—the true energy and spiritual power they had summoned to withstand James Sam’s pillar attacks—was acting strangely. In a matter of seconds, it grew more and more active, as if each step, each breath, was like tossing a blazing log onto a roaring fire. By the time they reached their assigned spots, their true energy was boiling over, surging within them like a cauldron at full boil.

“Five Directions Gather Qi, Three Talents Suppress Spirits, by this command—merge!” With a clear, mysterious cry, a massive jet-black cold crow shot from Shuiyao Xian’s pale hand, circling the battlefield in a blur. Instantly, it and the five previous crows dissolved into nothingness, vanishing without a trace.

As the cold crows disappeared, each person within the circle was shocked to find their true energy drawn out, swirling and merging in midair. In moments, a vast dome of spiritual energy formed overhead, enveloping them all in its protection.

A colossal pillar of light crashed against the dome, causing it to tremble, but the pillar rebounded skyward, leaving everyone inside unscathed.

“Excellent!” Wuyun roared, but as his words left his mouth, Shuiyao Xian’s head drooped and her body slumped to the ground, limp and spent.

“Shuiyao—” Lei Dong cried in alarm, reaching to steady her, but she slowly opened her eyes and said in a weak, commanding whisper, “Sit… cultivate…”

Her voice was low and feeble, barely more than a breath, but carried an irresistible authority. Lei Dong paused, then sat cross-legged, palms up, and began circulating his true energy with the Chaos Art.

He gasped, back straightening involuntarily, shock written all over his face.

The instant he started his practice, he sensed a boundless influx of spiritual energy streaming through the crown of his head, surging into his meridians and flooding every limb and bone, to the point of nearly bursting.

“This is the Wu Sect’s secret Five Directions Spirit Gathering Formation…” Shuiyao Xian’s voice remained soft, but the exhaustion was already fading. “Our positions are the formation’s core. It draws in the spiritual energy within its range, reinforcing the formation and strengthening our defense…”

Her explanation was brief, but Lei Dong instantly understood: this was an intricate, interlocking array. It used the essence of heaven and earth to create a protective barrier, while its core gathered all surrounding spiritual energy, allowing the one at the heart to continuously draw from the surroundings, thus perpetually fortifying the formation’s defenses.

Compared to the legendary simple Spirit Gathering Arrays, this formation was far more sophisticated, its functions more complete—and most crucially…

Lei Dong looked up at James Sam soaring in the sky, his eyes bloodshot.

So what if you’ve become a birdman? So what if you rely on endless spiritual energy for power? So what if you no longer need that index finger as your supply line?

I’ll seize your logistics base for myself!

Lei Dong’s eyes were half-closed, lips slightly parted, tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth as he exerted the full force of the Chaos Art. The world’s spiritual energy, as if swept up in a colossal vortex, surged toward him in visible streams, flooding his entire being.

With each breath, immeasurable spiritual energy rushed through his meridians, converging in his dantian.

A crack sounded within—his nascent soul, nestled in the golden core, suddenly opened its eyes. Two golden beams shot skyward, and Lei Dong seemed to hear a thunderclap at that moment.

A look of ecstatic delight crossed the nascent soul’s face, like a ravenous child finally seeing its longed-for feast. Its tiny mouth opened wide and, in one gulp, consumed all the spiritual energy coursing through Lei Dong’s body.

It was the first time since its formation three years ago that his nascent soul had operated of its own accord!

What happened next left Lei Dong even more incredulous.

As the rare, dense spiritual energy of this era flooded in, the nascent soul seemed to savor the finest delicacy of the world. Within his inner vision, Lei Dong saw the tiny figure—his perfect likeness—wear an expression of satisfaction, yet mostly insatiable hunger. Its small white hands reached out, as if to embrace all the energy in the meridians, its mouth agape, greedily devouring the infinite “supreme tonic.”

To Lei Dong’s mingled joy and astonishment, the nascent soul transformed into a voracious black hole, endlessly swallowing the spiritual energy the Five Directions Spirit Gathering Array drew from the surroundings. The suction expanded, sweeping across kilometers, as if a hurricane were scouring the sea and sky. The world’s spiritual energy surged in waves into Lei Dong’s body, into his nascent soul.

Suddenly, a pillar of light descended from the heavens, crashing into Wuyun. He staggered, spit blood, but remained standing. Immersed in the pleasure of devouring spiritual energy, Lei Dong was jolted to his senses—James Sam had already approached the formation unnoticed, his wings spanning dozens of meters, fanning a violent tempest as he hammered down blow after blow with his pillar of light.

The protective array, once formed of dense spiritual power, was suddenly growing thin. Under James Sam’s assault, the entire formation began to totter.

“What’s happening?” Lei Dong had not yet cried out when Shuiyao Xian shouted, “Breathe, direct the energy out—stabilize the formation!”

In a flash of clarity, Lei Dong realized his nascent soul’s frenzied devouring had indiscriminately drawn in all the spiritual energy, including that forming the protective array. To his dismay, the Celestial Spirit Lock prevented him from utilizing any of his cultivation—he could not circulate, let alone direct, a single trace of spiritual energy outside his body.

In this respect, despite his advanced cultivation—golden core perfected, nascent soul revealed—apart from his abnormal physical resilience, he was actually inferior to the most basic novice.

“I… I don’t know how…” Lei Dong admitted, embarrassment forgotten.

His words nearly made Shuiyao Xian leap to her feet in alarm.