Chapter 127: The Blood-Slaughter Formation

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All around her was darkness. Ji Jiuxuan climbed to her feet and extended her spiritual sense. She discovered that the ground was covered in stark white bones, whose structure made it clear that they belonged to beasts.

“Anytime, are you there?”

In such surroundings, she was not exactly afraid, though she did feel helpless.

Almost instinctively, she called out the phantom’s name. The system concealed itself the moment it heard her call for him, remaining utterly silent.

Even now, she still called for that man on a subconscious level. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing was impossible to say.

Within the void of the ring, the phantom appeared beside her. The radiance emanating from his body illuminated the space around Ji Jiuxuan.

“Don’t be afraid. The formation here cannot harm you.” The phantom’s spiritual power enveloped her, and Ji Jiuxuan immediately felt more at ease.

After examining the formations around her, Ji Jiuxuan discovered that this was actually an ancient and murderous formation.

Its structure belonged to a vicious formation, yet it also seemed to be a variation of some other formation.

The spirit beasts within it had all been drained of their spiritual energy and vital force by the formation.

Sensing the presence of living humans, the formation suddenly lit up. In an instant, the entire formation turned blood-red.

At that moment, Ji Jiuxuan noticed dozens of young earth beasts sitting not far away, utterly devoid of energy or spirit.

She finally understood why so many earth beasts—who had always avoided conflict with the world—had appeared here, and why they had become so frenzied after killing the Profound-Heaven Spirit Ape.

The young earth beasts had been made part of the formation. The key point was the Profound-Heaven Spirit Ape above them.

The earth-beast clan was extraordinarily long-lived, yet bringing even one of their young into the world was exceedingly difficult.

This time, the entire earth-beast clan must have come out in force.

For a spirit-beast race so fiercely protective of its young, having so many offspring trapped here was enough to drive them mad.

“Were you captured too?”

The Profound-Heaven Spirit Ape above had died, and the formation instantly absorbed the remaining vitality and vigor of the earth beasts. They now appeared extremely weak.

Facing the friendly earth beasts, Ji Jiuxuan nodded and asked, “What about you? Were you captured as well?”

Though she asked the question, she already understood what had happened. She simply did not know who had created this formation—or how they had managed to capture so many earth beasts.

The earth beasts were so protective of their young that stealing one from them was practically the same as plucking whiskers from a tiger: pure suicide.

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“Yes.” The earth beast was even weaker now, yet it managed to smile at Ji Jiuxuan. “Someone dressed in black captured us and brought us here. The formation restrained us, and we could not break free.”

After sensing the entire formation, Ji Jiuxuan realized that escaping would inevitably require breaking it.

This was the first ancient formation of its kind she had ever seen.

She studied the arrangement of the entire formation and discovered that, with her current cultivation, even if she had Spirit-Replenishing Pills, she simply lacked enough spiritual power to break it.

Moreover, the formation was currently absorbing the earth beasts’ spiritual energy, causing it to grow stronger by the moment.

She recalled what the system had said when it told her to retrieve the spirit cores: this place was connected to the disappearance of her parents.

“System, you said earlier that this was related to my parents’ disappearance. What exactly is the connection?”

She examined the ancient formation. It resembled something both demonic and immortal, making it impossible to determine which side had created it. She could not detect anything else, either.

Standing within the void, the phantom sensed the energy surrounding them. The aura was exceedingly familiar, yet it was filled with murderous intent.

Struggling to suppress the killing intent surging through his mind, the phantom did his best not to release even the slightest trace of his aura, lest it affect Ji Jiuxuan.

“Long Xuan, can you sense whose aura this is?”

Having lost his memories, he could not recall whose aura it was, nor what earth-shaking hatred lay between them—hatred so deep that merely sensing the aura made him want to kill its owner outright.

“An enemy. He killed the person you cared about most—the only person in this world you ever cared about.” Long Xuan’s voice was filled with chilling severity. Compared with the amnesiac phantom, his emotions were far calmer.

“Your voice doesn’t sound like mine.”

“I am you, and you are me. Why that is so, you understand better than anyone.” Long Xuan replied with perfect calm, his voice cold and sharp.

The phantom fell silent. His gaze hardened as he looked toward the formation. If he intervened this time, his existence would be exposed, and the little girl would never again enjoy peaceful days.

Yet if he did not act, he was deeply worried that Ajiu would be unable to deal with the formation.

After Ji Jiuxuan asked her question, the system stopped pretending to be dead.

“There is information related to it. Once you bring those spirit cores back, you will know.”

“Do you know how to break this formation?”

As far as Ji Jiuxuan knew, her own strength was completely insufficient. If her Little Martial Uncle were here, she would have nothing to worry about.

“Use the puppets. The puppet figures your martial uncle gave you possess enough spiritual power. The only drawback is that all of them will be destroyed.”

The moment the system finished speaking, the puppet figures appeared in Ji Jiuxuan’s hands.

One had been helping tend the spirit plants in the spatial cultivation scroll, while another was a chef who helped prepare meals. Eight still remained in the box.

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Eight was exactly enough.

Ji Jiuxuan looked toward the young earth beasts, which were already on the verge of losing consciousness. If they all lost their vitality, the earth beasts aboveground would certainly sense it. Once they erupted into a frenzy, her martial uncle and the others would find them even more difficult to deal with.

Furthermore, the formation was growing stronger by the moment. If all the young earth beasts died here, breaking the formation would become even more difficult.

Ji Jiuxuan hesitated no longer. She summoned all eight puppets according to the method, set them to operate at maximum spiritual power, and directed them to break the formation.

The phantom looked toward Long Xuan, whose eyes had already opened.

“You can lend a hand.”

Long Xuan’s soul resided within the black dragon. If he cast a spell, there was little chance that the enemy would discover him. With the puppet figures present as well, there would be no problem with his joining the effort.

Without the slightest hesitation, an enormous black dragon surged into the sky and flew toward one of the puppets. The entire puppet formation was strengthened at that instant, and the blood-red formation was dismantled even more rapidly.

Long Xuan’s arrival eased part of the pressure on Ji Jiuxuan.

The beast bones within the formation began to glow red. Harsh, mournful roars issued from them and reverberated throughout the entire Qiuying Ancient Forest. The sound carried a bone-chilling coldness that made one’s blood run cold.

Upon hearing it, Nie Xingyuan and Meng Jiao grew even more anxious.

The earth beasts seemed to sense something as well. They frantically clawed at the ground, apparently searching for something, while some of them launched desperate attacks at Nie Xingyuan and Meng Jiao.

A bloody aura continued to rise from beneath the earth. Seeing this, Nie Xingyuan felt a sinking sensation in his heart.

A formation within a formation—and both were ancient formations. Their interlocking mechanisms were so intricate that even after the initial Five Slaughtering Kui-Extinction Formation had been neutralized, the interior of the entire formation remained exceedingly complicated.

Spiritual power surged violently. At that moment, Nie Xingyuan hovered in midair, his sword continuously drawing strands of spiritual light as he worked to dismantle the ancient formation.

Because the formation beneath the earth had been activated as well, a gigantic blood-red ancient formation appeared within the Qiuying Ancient Forest. Its murderous aura was completely undisguised, causing the cultivators who hurried over to investigate to halt involuntarily.

Two figures continued forward without the slightest hesitation. Some of the others followed them, while several felt that the situation was not worth the risk and turned back the way they had come.

Ji Jiuxuan, who was breaking the formation below, sensed the disturbance above and felt a surge of delight.

“It must be my martial uncle and the others breaking the formation up there.”

This relieved her considerably. At the same time, the rate at which the young earth beasts were losing their vitality slowed.