Chapter 27: The Thousand Mountains Joint Killing Array

The two ancestors of the Xiao family, Xiao Du Bing and Xiao Du Han, had been using their spiritual senses to monitor the entire area where the family’s competition took place. Even when Qu Yi appeared and killed one of the Xiao family’s disciples with a spear, the two ancestors still did not intervene, confident that they could leave it to the few powerhouses at the scene. However, when Qu Yi spoke to Shan Meng, the two ancestors realized that Shan Meng was actually a powerhouse in the early stages of the Tribulation Phase. Unable to remain calm any longer, they immediately stepped in to control the situation—otherwise, if the Xiao family’s powerhouses were killed, the family would be weakened for a long time.

Realizing he had been tricked by Qu Yi, Shan Meng was furious but also understood that he must escape from the pursuit of the two Xiao family ancestors if he wanted to take revenge on Qu Yi later.

“Both of you, this is all a misunderstanding. I came to your Xiao family not to fight against you, but to catch that Li Mu who flew away just now,” Shan Meng said calmly, not even drawing any magical artifacts to show his goodwill.

Xiao Du Bing snorted and shouted angrily, “Fellow cultivator, as a powerhouse in the Tribulation Phase, you sneaked into our Xiao family. How can you claim you have no ill intentions? If it weren’t for us two in the Tribulation Phase, you could have wiped out our entire family. How dare you say you have no malicious intent? Do you really think we’re fools?”

Xiao Du Han’s gaze turned icy as he drew out a ten-meter-long blue ribbon that moved like a dragon when in motion and was as still as a gentle stream—this was his life magic, Man Tian Ling. By drawing out his life magic, he made it clear that he was ready to fight, with no room for negotiation. Whether intentionally or not, sneaking into the Xiao family’s headquarters meant violating their dignity, which was a capital offense.

Shan Meng’s face turned red with anger, and he cursed Qu Yi inwardly. It was he who had planned to trick Qu Yi, only to be exploited instead.

“Since you two don’t believe me, I won’t argue further. Let’s settle this with real power,” Shan Meng said angrily before drawing out his own life magic, the Hook Dragon Sword.

Xiao Du Bing promptly drew out his own life magic, the Tide Sound Ring—a blue ring about the size that could be held in both hands.

The auras of the three powerhouses in the Tribulation Phase spread out, causing the disciples participating in the Xiao family’s competition to flee in terror, retreating to various peaks of the Xiao family’s headquarters to wait until the battle was over before returning.

Meanwhile, Qu Yi, who was in the magic artifact vault, had already instructed the Golden Qilin to infuse true energy, activating the entire “Thousand Mountains Joint Killing Array.”

The Golden Qilin represents a late-stage cultivation level where all the vital energy in its body is poured into that blue rhombus crystal, instantly activating the Xiao family’s mountain protection array. However, this can only unleash the power equivalent to the early stage of the tribulation phase. If the Golden Qilin possessed the cultivation level of the middle stage of tribulation, it would be able to unleash the array’s full power at the late stage of tribulation.

The “Thousand Mountains Massacre Array” takes Xiao Zushan as its core, with a thousand surrounding mountains serving as the array nodes. Drawing energy from the spiritual energy in the entire space, it unleashes various powerful spells. Once activated, the entire Xiao Zushan glowed with a silver light, as if silver were pouring down, creating a world bathed in silver radiance. Soon, this “silver flow” spread from the base of Xiao Zushan, rapidly spreading to the surrounding mountains within a hundred miles, covering every part of the Xiao family’s headquarters. At that moment, the entire headquarters became a world of silver light.

“What’s wrong with Xiao Hantian and the others? How could someone in the early stage of cultivation overwhelm so many people and even activate the mountain protection array?” Xiao Dubing was about to attack Shan Meng when he suddenly noticed the array being activated and began cursing in anger.

Xiao Duhuan’s face tightened, and he immediately shouted, “Brother Bing, I’ll go kill that kid in the cultivation stage of fusion. I leave this bastard to you.”

Then, Xiao Duhuan vanished in a flash and headed straight for Xiao Zushan. Because once the “Thousand Mountains Massacre Array” was activated, it could continuously cast spells using the spiritual energy in the surrounding space. Only by removing the rhombus crystal that controlled the array could it be stopped. Thinking that the endless spells would destroy the entire Xiao family headquarters, Xiao Duhuan had no time to deal with Shan Meng. His top priority was to stop the mountain protection array and avert the impending disaster for the Xiao family.

Shan Meng, seeing the silver light flashing throughout the space and Xiao Duhuan leaving, felt relieved. With only Xiao Dubing, who was at the middle stage of tribulation, he still believed he could escape.

……

A silver energy stream spread throughout the entire Xiao family headquarters. Instantly, the thousand mountains that served as the nodes of the “Thousand Mountains Massacre Array” exploded like volcanoes, turning into flat ground. The Xiao family members around these mountains didn’t even have time to react before being crushed to death.

As these thousand mountains exploded, the shapes of the thousand array nodes became visible—some shaped like swords, knives, spears… Various shaped nodes simultaneously emitted silver light beams that shot into the air. These thousand light beams, each imbued with spiritual energy, instantly unleashed a variety of powerful spells.

Rows of silver swords fell from the sky, patches of silver knives shot everywhere, silver spears rushed in like locusts, and streams of silver arrows rained down… The entire Xiao family headquarters was immediately enveloped by waves of silver magic.

“Ah, my hand!”

“What is this? What kind of formation is this? I never knew the Xiao family had such a formation!”

“Run fast! So many silver swords are coming!”

“Mommy! Swords on the left, spears on the right—which way should I fly?”

“You… you actually used me, your own brother, as a shield!”

“Ancestors, clan leader, save us!”…

In an instant, the entire Xiao family headquarters was filled with cries of pain and agony coming from all directions. This Thousand Mountains Combined Killing Formation, driven by the golden qilin in its later stage of fusion, possessed the power of the early stage of tribulation. No one in the entire Xiao family headquarters, except Xiao Du Bing and Xiao Du Han, could resist it.

All the Xiao family disciples who had taken refuge inside the headquarters, no matter where they hid, were attacked by these silver magic spells. They couldn’t even resist a single spell and were instantly destroyed.

The Xiao family’s protective formation not only failed to protect its members but instead killed everyone within it.

However, in the Xiao family headquarters, only Xiao Zu Shan was unaffected by this protective formation. This was because the founder of the Xiao family had considered that if the family ever had to rely on such a formation to defend itself, there would already be few members left. Only Xiao Zu Shan would be enough to ensure the survival of the family lineage. By directing the attack range of the protective formation to eliminate the enemies, the continuation of the Xiao family could be guaranteed.

Thus, at this moment, in the entire Xiao family headquarters, except for Xiao Du Bing, Shan Meng, and those who remained on Xiao Zu Shan, all other Xiao family disciples were dead.

And this “Thousand Mountains Combined Killing Formation” still hadn’t stopped, continuing to cast spells endlessly, as if determined to turn the entire Xiao family headquarters into a wasteland.

Xiao Du Bing used the Tidal Sound Ring to generate streams of water to block the attacks while cursing angrily, “Xiao Du Han, you’re only at the early stage of tribulation—how come you still can’t defeat someone in the early stage of fusion?”

Meanwhile, Shan Meng continued to defend against the spells while quickly flying toward the exit on Xiao Zu Shan, looking for a chance to escape.

But how could Xiao Du Bing let Shan Meng go? He didn’t know Shan Meng’s identity, his purpose, or his relationship with Qu Yi—so he definitely couldn’t let him leave.

“If you want to escape, you need my permission. Here goes!” Xiao Du Bing promptly created a water-based energy shield to block the various spells shooting from all directions, while simultaneously using his Tidal Sound Ring to strike at Shan Meng’s head.
The Tidal Sound Ring was a mid-grade spiritual artifact, and in Xiao Du Bing’s hands, who was at the middle stage of the tribulation phase, its full power was unleashed. Suddenly, a blue water dragon emerged from the ring—like massive ocean waters condensed into a hundred-meter-long blue dragon—that rushed toward Shan Meng’s head and bit down.
Shan Meng also erected a golden shield around himself to defend against spells, while wielding his Hook Dragon Sword. With golden energy activated, a golden dragon appeared at the tip of his sword—like a majestic dragon soaring through the heavens. It immediately attacked the blue dragon, and its tail suddenly slashed at the blue dragon’s waist, severing it in half.
“Heh, it’s hard for you alone to stop me,” Shan Meng laughed before flying toward the exit of Xiao Zu Mountain.
Xiao Du Bing was furious. He, who was at the middle stage of the tribulation phase, couldn’t even stop someone at the early stage—it was extremely frustrating. However, he also knew that it was all because Shan Meng possessed a top-grade spiritual artifact.
The Taiyuan Sect had a Star Luo Ding that could enhance the quality of crafting materials, allowing them to have many more top-grade spiritual artifacts than other sects. Thus, once a disciple reached the tribulation phase, they would be given a top-grade spiritual artifact.
Seeing Xiao Du Bing chasing after him, Shan Meng wasn’t anxious. He wasn’t afraid of Xiao Du Bing’s attacks; he just needed to wait for Xiao Family’s protective formation to stop before looking for an opportunity to break through and leave Xiao Family’s headquarters.
Meanwhile, in the treasure cave of Xiao Zu Mountain, Qu Yi and Jin Qilin were simultaneously activating the protective formation while resisting the attacks from Xiao Family’s skilled warriors.
It turned out that once the “Thousand Mountains Joint Attack Formation” was activated, it created an extremely strong energy shield in the cave where the formation was controlled, fully protecting Qu Yi and Jin Qilin.
This was because the founder of the Xiao Family had planned that once the formation was activated, its descendants shouldn’t be disturbed by enemies. Therefore, he also added a defensive formation to protect them while the main formation was in use.
This defensive energy shield had the power equivalent to that of someone at the early stage of the tribulation phase.
As a result, when the nine clan leaders and elders of the Xiao Family arrived at the cave, they couldn’t do anything to Qu Yi and Jin Qilin. Even when Xiao Du Han came, he couldn’t break through the energy shield and could only curse from outside.

Inside the light barrier, Qu Yi kept taking out spirit stones, allowing the Golden Qilin, whose vital energy had been depleted, to absorb the spiritual energy from the stones to restore its vital energy as quickly as possible. At the same time, Qu Yi also took out pills, having the Golden Qilin hold them in its mouth; whenever the absorbed spiritual energy became insufficient, it would swallow the pills to immediately restore its vital energy. As long as its vital energy remained intact, the Golden Qilin could continuously activate the “Thousand Mountains Massacre Formation,” dealing devastating blows to the Xiao family’s headquarters. Xiao Duhan, Xiao Hantian, Xiao Hanlin, Xiao Hansen, Xiao Hanpo, Xiao Hanjin, Xiao Han Gong, Xiao Hanlie, Xiao Han Yu, Xiao Han Lan, and Xiao Han Fen—these members of the Xiao family watched the Golden Qilin continuously activating the protective formation and absorbing spirit stones and pills inside the light barrier, their eyes blazing with anger, yet they were unable to attack Qu Yi or the Golden Qilin.