Chapter Forty: Mixing Pearls with Fish Eyes (Part Two)

A strange smile touched the corner of Lei Yan’s mouth. Judging from what had happened earlier, he had already determined that the Heavenly Thunder Nine Devourings was far beyond what anyone at the Golden Core stage could unleash. At first, he had assumed that the Hall Master of Full Moon Hall would be drained into a withered corpse by the technique. He had never expected it to be broken so easily. Almost instinctively, he turned his gaze toward the place where dust was billowing into the air.

A blurred figure slowly emerged from the dust, becoming clearer with every step.

“A woman?” Lei Yan discovered that the person walking out was actually a woman. A skin-tight blood-red outfit completely encased her graceful figure, while a red sash cinched tightly around her waist, accentuating her curves. Only when she had fully emerged did Lei Yan see her face clearly. Her brows were cold as frost, her expression icy, and a chilling glint flickered in her eyes. The fiery allure of her body contrasted so sharply with the frostlike coldness of her face that Lei Yan found himself momentarily unaccustomed to it.

The woman slapped Lei Yan across the face. The blow nearly distorted his features.

A mouthful of blood spilled from Lei Yan’s lips. He stared coldly at the woman before him, and the fury in his heart suddenly erupted. The killing intent in his eyes was revealed without the slightest concealment.

“What? You want to kill me?” The woman looked at Lei Yan with disdain. “With your mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation? Do you believe I could erase you right now?”

“Heh heh heh… Hahaha…”

Lei Yan’s shoulders began to tremble. His face was filled with a sinister smile. He clapped several times and said, “Good.”

He paid the woman no further attention. Turning around, he walked toward the dozen or so Blood Moon Cult disciples.

Although the woman’s words had been filled with intense contempt, they had made Lei Yan realize something important: cultivation was the key factor determining victory or defeat. After all, he was not the only person in this world capable of merging the Dao into his attacks. Perhaps, relying on the defensive power of the demon weapon Earth Origin, he could kill one or two Golden Core cultivators, but such cases were rare. If he truly wished to become powerful, he had to raise his cultivation.

The woman frowned deeply as she watched Lei Yan’s back. His cruel, half-smiling expression filled her mind. It was even more terrifying than a face full of killing intent. To her surprise, a trace of fear arose in her heart. She shook her head.

“Damn it. What’s wrong with me? Am I afraid? Why should I be afraid? He’s only a brat at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment.”

A soft sound of surprise drifted over from the distance and entered the ears of Lei Yan and the others. Lei Yan did not raise his eyes. His special ability had already detected a gaunt man drifting toward them like a leaf.

“Rona, did Gang Xing go berserk again?”

As the voice reached everyone’s ears, the gaunt man had already arrived beside them.

The woman called Rona nodded coldly.

“That fellow…” The gaunt man sighed helplessly. Then, as if he had thought of something, he turned his gaze toward Lei Yan, who was sitting on the ground nearby with his eyes closed.

“Could this be the work of our newly appointed Hall Master of New Moon Hall?”

As he spoke, he slowly walked over to Lei Yan.

“You’re Duan Hong, right? I’m Qi Da, Hall Master of Crescent Moon Hall.”

Lei Yan said nothing. He did not even open his eyes. He did not know how to respond, since he knew nothing about these people.

“What an indifferent fellow.” Qi Da smiled. Then he suddenly turned toward the surrounding Blood Moon Cult disciples and said coldly, “The Deacon has issued an order. Bring that batch of treasures back at all costs.”

The Blood Moon Cult disciples answered in unison.

“Rona and Duan Hong will form one group. Gang Xing and I will form the other. Move out.”

“You want me to team up with that brat?” Rona asked, evidently displeased.

“What? Would you rather team up with Gang Xing? It seems you were the one who knocked him unconscious just now. And the one who drove him berserk seems to have been that fellow…” Qi Da did not continue. He merely looked at Rona with a meaningful smile.

“I understand.” Rona sighed. What Qi Da had said was true. This was indeed the best arrangement. She slowly walked to Lei Yan’s side and said coldly, “Duan Hong, you’d better not hold me back. Otherwise…”

Lei Yan, who had been advancing with his eyes closed, suddenly opened them. A flash of killing intent passed through his gaze.

“Otherwise what? Kill me?”

The instant he finished speaking, Lei Yan’s figure suddenly blurred and vanished from where he stood. At the same time, his laughter rang out through a voice transmission.

“Hahahaha…”

“So fast.” Rona’s heart tightened.

Just as she was about to circulate her true essence and pursue him, she heard Lei Yan’s unrestrained laughter. The sound unsettled her mind and sent her into a rage.

“Duan Hong!”

She unleashed her movement technique to its limit and chased after him.

“Ah… Our composed Rona has finally met her natural enemy.” A strange smile appeared at the corner of Qi Da’s mouth. He raised his foot and kicked Gang Xing.

“You’re still not getting up?”

He kicked him several times, but Gang Xing did not react. Helplessly, Qi Da took a pill from his waist and stuffed it into Gang Xing’s mouth.

A moment later, Gang Xing abruptly sat up and shouted, “Brat, you’re dead!”

“Huh? Where’s that brat?” Gang Xing looked around, muttering when he failed to see Lei Yan. “Oh, right. I remember now. Someone knocked me unconscious. Where is he?”

Only then did he notice Qi Da standing nearby with a smile on his face.

“Good fellow, so it was you. No, that’s not right. I remember the person who knocked me out was a woman. Hey, Qi Da, when did you become a woman?”

He stared at Qi Da with an odd expression.

“Damn you! You’re the one who became a woman! It was Rona who knocked you out!” Qi Da roared. The moment the words left his mouth, he realized he had misspoken and hurriedly tried to persuade him. “If Rona hadn’t knocked you unconscious, you would be finished by now. Can’t you give everyone a little peace of mind? Every time you lose your temper, you use the Heavenly Thunder Nine Devourings. Is a technique that risks your life really something a Golden Core cultivator can use?”

Seeing Gang Xing lower his head in thought, Qi Da waved his hand.

“Forget it. The Deacon’s order has already been issued. We must seize this batch of treasures at any cost.”

Gang Xing seemed to have forgotten what had just happened. He split his huge mouth into a grin.

“Is there anything the three Hall Masters cannot handle once we take action?”

With that, he headed toward the Medicine Sect.

Lei Yan stepped on the Hidden Dragon Wandering Technique and pushed his movement speed to its limit. He shot toward the Medicine Sect like a black shadow, while Rona followed behind him, shouting furiously. Her roar sounded as if Lei Yan had committed some unforgivable crime against her.

In the blink of an eye, Lei Yan arrived at the outskirts of the Medicine Sect. The great formation surrounding the sect had long since been broken. Broken stones and weeds lay scattered everywhere, while the valley itself was already packed with people. The various cultivation sects and independent cultivators had gathered there.

Among them, the Blazing Willow Sect was the most prominent. Not only had they arrived first, but they also had the largest number of people. Rows of Blazing Willow disciples blocked the sects that had come rushing to the Medicine Sect, keeping them outside.

“What sect are those people from?” an independent cultivator asked unwillingly.

“You don’t know? Look at that banner. It bears the mark of the Blazing Willow. They should be disciples of the Blazing Willow Sect.” The cultivator beside him smiled bitterly. “All the major sects have arrived now. I’m afraid there’s no chance left for us independent cultivators.”

“Rona, I don’t mind fighting you to the death, but take a look ahead,” Lei Yan said coldly through voice transmission.

Rona looked ahead. The entire valley was filled with nearly a thousand people. The sheer number finally brought her back to her senses. She snorted coldly and flew down beside Lei Yan.

“Let’s go.”

Lei Yan had already begun walking into the crowd. Rona followed him, and the dozen or so Blood Moon Cult disciples behind them finally followed as well.

Before long, Lei Yan and the others reached the interior of the valley. A yellow warning line separated the cultivators from the area ahead. More than a dozen Blazing Willow disciples stood within the line, keeping watch. Above them, another dozen or so cultivators stood on flying swords, blocking the way.

The moment Lei Yan and the others arrived beside the warning line, a Blazing Willow disciple standing ahead of them shouted, “Stop! Take one more step and you will be killed without mercy!”

“How damn arrogant,” Lei Yan thought.

His body blurred, and he punched toward the Blazing Willow disciple.

Bang!

A transparent membrane appeared before Lei Yan. His fist struck it directly, and the tremendous rebound force forced him back one step.

“That’s a Celestial Barrier Formation!” Rona cried out in surprise.

The Blazing Willow disciple looked at Lei Yan with a mocking smile.

“Idiot. You can’t even sense the Celestial Barrier Formation, yet you dare come here and cause trouble?”

“So it’s the Celestial Barrier Formation.” A smile touched the corner of Lei Yan’s mouth.

He closed his eyes and used his special ability to sense the energy fluctuations within the formation. Inside the transparent membrane, which rippled like water, streams of energy were moving at incredible speed.

To break the formation, he had to destroy those rapidly moving streams of energy. If he failed to eliminate them, the formation would continue to exist indefinitely.

At this thought, Lei Yan could not help sighing.

“Looks like breaking this Celestial Barrier Formation won’t be easy.”

“Of course not. To break the Celestial Barrier Formation, you must reach the Nascent Soul stage. Even a Nascent Soul expert wouldn’t dare claim it would be easy,” Rona said coldly.

Lei Yan snorted.

“If you could get everyone behind us to attack together, then we could see whether it would be easy or not. Unfortunately, these people clearly don’t understand cooperation. They’ve been blocked outside by the Blazing Willow Sect for so long, yet they still haven’t thought of joining forces.”

Lei Yan suddenly turned around and called out loudly, “Everyone, don’t you think the Blazing Willow Sect’s actions are far too overbearing? The treasures do not belong to one sect or one person. They belong to all of us. Don’t any of you have something to say about that? As long as we attack the barrier formation together, it will naturally be broken.”

“Another idiot,” someone suddenly called out from within the crowd.

“Young brother, we’ve already tried that method.” A burly man standing before Lei Yan spoke with an unwilling expression.

“You tried it? That’s impossible.”

Lei Yan turned around and looked at the barrier formation again.

“Feeling embarrassed now?” Rona said with a smile. Seeing Lei Yan suffer a setback inexplicably pleased her.

“Brat, stop staring. I’ll tell you plainly. This formation was jointly established by thirty-six people. Each of us carries a spirit stone, and those thirty-six spirit stones are the foundation of the formation. Unless you destroy all thirty-six spirit stones at the same time, we can replace them whenever we wish. Hahaha…”

The Blazing Willow disciple within the formation laughed arrogantly.

“Thirty-six spirit stones?”

Lei Yan’s heart jolted. His special ability once again spread over the transparent membrane. His expression changed as he thought, “Thirty-six streams of energy. No wonder. No wonder.”

Only then did Lei Yan understand the true strength of the formation. All thirty-six streams of energy had to be destroyed simultaneously before the formation could be broken. Yet those thirty-six streams moved far too quickly. Even if one happened to be struck, the spirit stone could be replaced at any time.

“Arrogance requires capital,” Lei Yan said coldly. “Rona, protect me while I work.”

Without waiting to see whether Rona agreed, he sat down cross-legged.

“Oh? You want to break the formation? You?” Rona mocked. “Then I’ll see how exactly you plan to do it.”

She folded her arms and watched him.

Lei Yan sat cross-legged as his special ability spread outward like a vast net. Every formation had a formation core, and that core was the formation’s weakness. As long as he found it, he could break the formation.

However, the formation core of the Celestial Barrier Formation before him was clearly shifting. Lei Yan therefore had to discover the pattern behind its movement. Once he found that pattern, the formation could naturally be broken.

An hour passed.

Lei Yan remained seated there, motionless, as if he were cultivating.

Qi Da and Gang Xing had already arrived inside the valley. After hearing Rona’s account, they also understood what Lei Yan intended to do, but hesitation appeared on their faces.

A mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator was trying to break the Celestial Barrier Formation.

News of Lei Yan’s attempt spread through the entire valley like the wind. Most people mocked him for overestimating himself. A mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator actually intended to break the Celestial Barrier Formation? Even when all of them had attacked together, they had failed to break it. How could a mere brat at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment succeed?

Still, a small number of people secretly hoped that the formation would be broken.

“Could this fellow be playing us?” The corner of Qi Da’s mouth twitched. An entire day had already passed, yet Lei Yan remained seated there, as if he had entered meditation.

Gang Xing snorted.

“If this brat dares play us, I’ll tear him apart.”

Rona said nothing. She looked at Lei Yan, and a strange feeling suddenly arose within her heart. That feeling told her that Lei Yan would certainly be able to break the formation.

The cultivators in the valley who had originally held some hope gradually lost faith in him. He had sat there without moving for an entire day. Was this what he called breaking a formation? Wasn’t he obviously just making fools of them?

If Lei Yan had been a Golden Core cultivator, they might have been willing to believe him. After all, Golden Core cultivators possessed spiritual sense, and they could imagine that Lei Yan was using it to study the formation.

But Lei Yan was merely a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Thus, they all lost confidence in him.

Inside the formation, several men wearing azure robes stood within a damaged palace. The man at the head was none other than the Sect Master of the Blazing Willow Sect, Liu Qing. Standing beside him were four elders and Li Lie.

“The map clearly marks the location here. Why can’t we find the entrance?” Liu Qing said angrily. “It seems we still need to think this through carefully. Li Lie, go outside and check the situation. The four elders and I will study this place for a while.”