Chapter 665: Breaking Through the Formation

Boom! Boom!
Inside the Yellow Wind Soul-Annihilating Formation, Lin Jiu shattered the last two tornado columns and flew swiftly in a certain direction. Though what he saw through his vision and spiritual sense was still the illusion of an endless desert, eliminating all the wind columns meant he had grasped the full structure of the formation, and he now knew exactly where the exit lay.

At the same time, within the Immortal Prison, the Lord of the Fire Realm also roared, “I found it! It’s this!”
He held in his palm a mutated spiritual flame with blue-violet outer flames and orange-yellow core flames—precisely the kind he had chosen to completely counteract the Woodification Aurora.
An immortal-grade mutated spiritual flame!
“What are we waiting for?”
Lao He shouted, “That bastard is about to emerge! Hurry up!”
The Lord of the Fire Realm didn’t dare delay. In a flash, he sucked the flame into his mouth, and instantly, his entire body transformed into the characteristics of that spiritual flame.
As the ruler of a realm, he could temporarily transform into any kind of spiritual flame existing within the three layers of the Fire Realm.
To cure Su Che’s Woodification state using the method of burning with spiritual flames wasn’t as simple as just heating or scorching him. As the saying goes, destruction is easy, but creation is hard; injuries are easy, but healing is difficult.
The current situation could be understood as the Lord of the Fire Realm attempting to treat Su Che’s illness, especially since it was caused by a powerful Xuanxian.
After transforming into a spiritual flame form and emerging from the Immortal Prison, he attached himself to Su Che’s body, aiming to remove his Woodification state without causing burns from the spiritual flames.
Although Su Che specialized in fire elements and had high immunity to fire-based damage, this was still a mutated spiritual flame never seen before in the immortal realm, so it was hard to say what kind of harm it might cause.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh…
On the surface, Su Che was engulfed in blue-violet flames several feet tall. With crackling sounds, the layer of bark-like scabs covering his body burst as it burned, creating a terrifying sound, as if burning a dried corpse.

On the other side, Lin Jiu had already found the exit of the Yellow Wind Soul-Annihilating Formation. Relying on his expertise in formation art, he quickly succeeded in opening the exit and, under the protection of his defensive techniques, effortlessly escaped from the formation.

However, this killing formation was merely a sub-formation within the Qianyuan Dual-Pole Mysterious Formation, just one of its components. Lin Jiu breaking through the Yellow Wind Killing Formation did not mean he had fully deciphered the Qianyuan Mysterious Formation. At this moment, he could not see Su Che, who was hundreds of feet away, only Guangqi, who was still trapped in the endless waters just dozens of feet away.
The water illusion was also a sub-formation of the Qianyuan Mysterious Formation. Since Lin Jiu was outside this water illusion formation, the Guangqi he saw was not sitting on the water’s surface but floating a dozen feet above it in mid-air.
The endless waters that Guangqi perceived were actually just a formation space with a radius of ten feet. For Lin Jiu, who had some knowledge of formations, breaking this water illusion formation from the outside was thousands of times easier than for Guangqi to break it from within.
Swish swish swish…
Lin Jiu did not simply use force to break the formation. Instead, with a wave of his hand, he scattered dozens of differently shaped formation tools around the ten-foot-radius water illusion formation, arranging them according to certain principles.
Using one formation to break another!
First, he set up a formation he could control to isolate this water illusion formation from the Qianyuan Dual-Pole Mysterious Formation, so that breaking it would not trigger unpredictable chain reactions.
These were basic principles of formation magic, requiring no further explanation.
Once everything was ready, Lin Jiu silently recited a few spells before infusing his newly created simple formation with massive amounts of spatial slaughter power—his most proficient technique.
Hiss hiss hiss hiss…
As soon as the formation activated, it emitted a dozen very faint sounds, almost imperceptible. Lin Jiu’s spatial slaughter technique, amplified by the formation’s power, was directed in multiple directions simultaneously at the water illusion formation.
Each direction corresponded to a weak point in this small illusion formation. Of course, these weak points could only be detected from outside the formation; Guangqi, who was inside, could not perceive them.
At that moment, Guangqi, who was still emitting the Wood-Transforming Aurora, suddenly felt the thick mist surrounding him vanish instantly, as if sucked away by an invisible giant mouth.
Without opening his eyes, he could guess that Lin Jiu must have successfully escaped and was breaking the illusion formation he was in.
A faint cold smile appeared on Guangqi’s lips, perhaps because he had successfully outwitted Su Che, or for some other reason…
Just after a dozen breaths, Guangqi slowly opened his eyes. The endless waters were gone, replaced by Lin Jiu’s figure before him.
“It worked.”

Lin Jiu transmitted his thoughts, “Your plan really worked.”
“Not necessarily.”
Guang Qi’s expression remained calm as he replied through telepathy, “Anything can happen until we catch him. Don’t forget, there’s also the rather mysterious Meng Luo outside the Xuan Array. I reckon he might show up at a critical moment to cause trouble.”
“I understand.” Lin Jiu nodded and asked, “Can you still determine the exact location of that kid Tian Yu?”
Guang Qi was able to pinpoint Su Che’s location and launch a precise ambush thanks to the miraculous effects of a special magical artifact.
There was only one such artifact. Without it, Lin Jiu wouldn’t have been able to locate Su Che, who was already lying motionless on the ground, within the Qianyuan Dual-Pole Xuan Array.
For this reason, he had to rescue Guang Qi from the illusion array first and then search for Su Che together. Otherwise, not to mention rescuing Guang Qi, even backstabbing would be possible.
When interests are at stake, human hearts are unpredictable!
As for whether Guang Qi had planned all of this, only he himself knew best…
At that moment, the dark green wood-ified aurora continued to glow between Guang Qi’s right palms, having persisted for over a moment already.
“The end of that aurora is where that kid Tian Yu is.”
Guang Qi said calmly, “However, the Qinglong Breakthrough Aurora can penetrate through directly, but neither of us can.”
As he spoke, a lifelike miniature Qing dragon appeared in his right hand. The dark green aurora emanated from the dragon’s eyes, condensing into a beam of light.
Among the Four Symbols Sacred Beasts, the Qing dragon represents the elemental force of wood. This Qinglong magical artifact must have some direct connection to the sacred beast itself to possess such power, allowing it to penetrate the spatial realm of the Qianyuan Dual-Pole Xuan Array.
Legend has it that the Four Symbols Sacred Beasts—Qing dragon, White tiger, Vermilion bird, and Black tortoise—possess the formidable strength of late-stage Immortal Emperors, second only to the top dozen Immortal Lords in the immortal realm.
What Guang Qi meant was that the Breakthrough Aurora of the Qinglong artifact could penetrate the array’s spatial realm and reach Su Che’s location directly, but their physical bodies couldn’t follow that aurora to get there.
In actual distance, they were only a few hundred zhang away from Su Che, but in terms of the array’s spatial realm, it seemed endless, as vast as the universe and stars. Without proper guidance, one might wander in the maze for a lifetime without finding Su Che, who was already lying motionless on the ground.

Guangqi continued, “Guided by the Barrier-Piercing Aurora, I’m sure Tianyu is only a few hundred zhang away from us… I estimate it will take at most twenty minutes to find him.”
“Then let’s hurry up.”
Lin Jiu was extremely anxious and urged urgently, “I’m worried—he has the ability to break free from the woodification state. By now, I really can’t underestimate him anymore.”
Previously, in the Yellow Wind Killing Formation, Lin Jiu’s arrogance and recklessness were just pretenses, meant to impress Su Che. In reality, he had long regarded Su Che as a formidable opponent on par with himself and held no contempt for him at all.
Guangqi nodded gently. The Azure Dragon Magic Artifact in his palm continued to emit the Barrier-Piercing Aurora. Guided by this aura, the two of them moved through the Qianyuan Dual-Pole Mysterious Formation, turning left and right, flying up and down, as if they had to traverse countless mountains and rivers just to cover those few hundred zhang.
This Azure Dragon Magic Artifact couldn’t help them break through the Qianyuan Dual-Pole Mysterious Formation and return to the giant furnace where Meng Luo was, but it could locate Su Che and find him completely immobilized within the formation.
Finding Su Che meant taking control of the entire formation, and all troubles would be solved.
Guangqi predicted they could find Su Che within twenty minutes. In fact, the process was smoother than expected—after just a little over fifteen minutes, they broke through the thick mist and saw Su Che lying motionless on the ground after being woodified.
It was only a distance of a little over twenty zhang. Even with the most basic teleportation techniques in the mortal cultivation world, which would allow them to cover that distance with a single step, Lin Jiu and the others still didn’t dare be careless. They stayed in place and carefully checked Su Che’s condition.
They saw that Su Che was indeed still in a woodified state, his body stiff and motionless. However, his entire body was engulfed in a strange blue-purple flame that crackled as it burned away the layer of withered, hard crust on his surface.
By “woodification,” it didn’t mean Su Che’s flesh had truly turned into wood. Instead, he was trapped inside that thick crust, unable to move, and his mental energy could not be released either.
As long as that layer of withered crust was removed, he would be freed from the woodification state.
“Mutated Spirit Fire?”
Lin Jiu immediately realized that Su Che was using the method of burning wood with fire to break free from the woodification state. He transmitted a message to Guangqi, “Don’t forget—this kid has the ability to create Mutated Spirit Fire. Clearly, this kind of fire can counteract the woodifying effect of the Azure Dragon Barrier-Piercing Aurora…”
“Yes, we must stop him!”

Guangqi nodded and replied, “Fortunately, we arrived in time.”
Swish!
With a twist of his wrist, the wood-converted aurora emitted by the Green Dragon magic weapon struck Su Che’s chest, further deepening his woodification state.
Of course, this was just the first step…