Chapter Fifteen: The Array of Decaying Rivers

Seeing that all four members of Xia Han’s team had died, Tianyin Bug was overjoyed. It reverted to its human form and looked at the Golden Qilin happily.
“Golden Qilin, you came at just the right time. As soon as you appeared, you helped me deal with these four human cultivators,” Tianyin Bug said joyfully.
“Bug King, please forgive me. I had been sleeping in an ice pond nearby. If not for the earth-shaking energy fluctuations, I wouldn’t have even known that human cultivators had entered the Heavenly Punishment Mountains,” the Golden Qilin replied calmly.
Tianyin Bug laughed heartily and nodded, saying, “It’s fine. I don’t blame you for not joining the others. By appearing today, you’ve done me a great favor. Moreover, among all my subordinates in the Outward Emergence stage, you are the strongest. From now on, I declare you the leader of this stage.”
Hearing this, the Golden Qilin was overjoyed—now he was also the leader of over fifty beasts in the Outward Emergence stage.
“Thank you, Bug King,” it said immediately.
Then, the over fifty beasts in the Outward Emergence stage each paid their respects to the Golden Qilin, expressing their willingness to follow his orders.
Suddenly, Tianyin Bug’s expression turned stern, and he said coldly, “All my brothers, human cultivators always try to sneak into our Heavenly Punishment Mountains out of contempt for us beasts. Today, we’ll leave this mountain and destroy all the cultivation sects of cultivators and immortals, turning Tianhua Star into a world for us beast cultivators.”
“Yes, Bug King!” all the beasts shouted immediately.
Tianyin Bug looked at his subordinates with pride and shouted, “Brothers, get ready and head to the Immortal Slaying Valley!”
After saying that, he teleported away right away.
Feiying Black Panther and Tianyi White Tiger, two beasts in the Early Diversion stage, followed Tianyin Bug as soon as he left. The Golden Qilin, along with the beasts in the Outward Emergence stage, also flew quickly behind them.
Naturally, the Dimensional Sphere where Qu Yi and the others were still stuck attached itself to the Golden Qilin.
…
Tianyin Bug, along with his beast subordinates, had already arrived above the Immortal Slaying Valley.
“Panther and Tiger, take all the brothers into the underground rivers of the Immortal Slaying Valley. I’ll stay in the air and seal off the entire valley, killing anyone who tries to escape,” Tianyin Bug said indifferently.
Feiying Black Panther and Tianyi White Tiger replied affirmatively and immediately led over twenty beasts each into the desert. Ignoring the warning arrays set up in the valley, they broke through the desert and entered the underground rivers.
Boom! Boom! Boom!

In an instant, loud alarm sounds filled the underground rivers of the Immortal Slaying Valley, notifying all its disciples that enemies were approaching. At that moment, there were still tens of thousands of disciples remaining in the valley—only the deputy valley master, Shi Jin, was at the Divination Stage, nearly a hundred elders were at the Soul Emergence Stage, and nearly five hundred others were at the Nascent Soul Stage. As the alarms sounded, all the disciples immediately stopped their meditation and gathered at the Immortal Slaying Palace, waiting before Deputy Valley Master Shi Jin.

“Disciples of the Immortal Slaying Valley, over fifty beasts have attacked us. There’s no need to panic—work together to defend against these invaders. Elders, lead your disciples to kill the attacking beasts. The ten formation masters, stay behind and activate the valley protection formation,” Shi Jin quickly announced his decisions.

“Yes, Deputy Valley Master!” All the disciples replied in unison.

Then, the thirty palace masters at the Soul Emergence Stage led their disciples to resist the beast cultivators who had entered the underground rivers. The Shadow Panther and the Sky-Winged Tiger, as soon as they entered the underground rivers and opened their spiritual senses, detected that there was only one person at the early Divination Stage in the valley. Immediately, they split up and went to assassinate those palace masters at the later Soul Emergence Stage.

Meanwhile, the fifty-plus beasts like the Golden Qilin formed a single force, like a sharp sword, slashing through and turning the underground rivers red with the blood of the valley’s disciples.

All the palace masters realized that their locations had become the main targets of the Shadow Panther and the Sky-Winged Tiger, and they understood that it was impossible to defend against attacks from two sides alone. So, the remaining twenty palace masters immediately ordered their disciples to gather together, and the twenty masters also came together to jointly resist the ambushes by the Shadow Panther and the Sky-Winged Tiger.

Seeing that the twenty palace masters had united, the Shadow Panther and the Sky-Winged Tiger realized their assassination plan could not proceed. They then changed their strategy and turned to attack Deputy Valley Master Shi Jin. If they killed Shi Jin, the valley would no longer have any strong individuals at the Divination Stage, leaving everyone there vulnerable to being wiped out one by one by the beasts.

Soon, the Shadow Panther and the Sky-Winged Tiger arrived at the Immortal Slaying Palace. Shi Jin, hiding inside, knew they were coming but wasn’t nervous at all; instead, he wore a faint smile.

“The ten Array Elders activated the ‘River of Decay Array’ to trap these two demons at the Divided Mind stage,” Shi Jin said immediately upon seeing the Flying Shadow Black Panther and the Sky-Winged White Tiger land.

These ten Array Elders were all at the early stage of leaving their bodies. Upon receiving the order, they each formed a hand seal, and a wisp of true energy flew from their hands into the ten array nodes. The River of Decay Array was the protective array of the Immortal Slaying Valley. When fully activated, it equaled the strength of those at the mid-Divided Mind stage—extremely powerful.

In an instant, within a ten-mile radius around the Immortal Slaying Palace, dark water filled the air as if all the underground rivers of the Immortal Slaying Valley had converged, enveloping the entire area. This space of dark water was filled with endless chaotic and corrupting energy, causing those trapped in the array to be constantly eroded by it.

The Flying Shadow Black Panther and the Sky-Winged White Tiger suddenly found themselves surrounded by dark water, with countless mind-confusing auras invading their spiritual cores, making their willpower gradually weaken.

“Bad! We’ve fallen for a trap! This array confuses minds, and these layers of dark water prevent us from even flying. Now, we can only wait for the Worm King to come and save us,” the Flying Shadow Black Panther cried angrily in panic.

After a moment of chaos, the Sky-Winged White Tiger calmed down and sat in seiza position, focusing all his efforts to resist the invasion of the corrupting energy.

Seeing that the array had trapped the two, Shi Jin immediately flew out of the space filled with dark water to assist the disciples of the Immortal Slaying Valley in fighting those demons at the early stage of leaving their bodies.

Jin Qilin led the group of demons, sweeping through hall after hall with unstoppable force. Suddenly sensing Shi Jin’s presence approaching, he ordered all the demons to attack Shi Jin simultaneously.

Of course, Shi Jin wouldn’t engage in a direct fight with so many demons—he couldn’t handle them all at once. So he flew in the air, waiting for an opportunity to deliver a fatal blow.

Soon, the remaining five thousand disciples of the Immortal Slaying Valley also arrived, surrounding Jin Qilin and his demons.

“You demons dare to emerge from the Mountain Range of Heavenly Punishment? Hmph, today is the day you die,” Shi Jin declared coldly from the air.

Jin Qilin looked at Shi Jin and smiled, saying, “The Immortal Slaying Valley is doomed to perish today.”

Arrogant!

Surrounded by five thousand disciples of the Immortal Slaying Valley, Jin Qilin still dared to say such things—showing not only boldness but also utter arrogance.

At that moment, as Jin Qilin spoke, the Dimensional Sphere had already turned to dust and floated upward, heading toward the Immortal Slaying Palace.

Inside the Dimension Ball, Qu Yi asked happily, “Instrument God, you just said that the two monsters trapped in the formation are unconscious. Do you plan to capture them, right?”
Instrument God placed his hands behind his back and smiled. “Yes. Such a good opportunity—how could I not capture those two monsters? Oh, right. You need to kill the person controlling the formation first to break it.”
Qu Yi understood what Instrument God meant—he didn’t want the people of the Immortal Slaying Valley to discover that they had captured the two monsters. So, they wanted to destroy the formation first, then, in the chaos, capture the two monsters inside the Dimension Ball and implant soul shackles on them.
Soon, the Dimension Ball entered the Black Water Space and moved through it effortlessly, completely unnoticed by the ten formation controllers. Then, it arrived at the Immortal Slaying Palace and near one person.
Qu Yi suddenly appeared, wielding the Fulong Sword. As soon as he showed up, he struck one of them. Without giving the other nine formation controllers time to react, he activated his Golden Speed Secret Technique, swiftly approaching them and killing each one with a single sword strike.
Having reached the early stage of exiting the body, Qu Yi used “Ten Thousand Miles in an Instant,” allowing his speed to reach that of the later stage. Naturally, he was able to deal with each of the ten early-stage formation controllers before they could react.
With those ten dead, the entire “Ten Thousand Rivers of Decay Formation” stopped functioning. The endless black water rushed out in a loud gush, flowing rapidly in all directions.
Qu Yi then went straight to the Flying Shadow Black Panther and the Sky Winged White Tiger. His spiritual consciousness entered their primordial spirits and located their souls. Through Qu Yi’s spiritual consciousness, Instrument God immediately planted soul shackles in the souls of the Flying Shadow Black Panther and the Sky Winged White Tiger.
After finishing all this, Qu Yi vanished instantly and returned to the Dimension Ball.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. The people of the Immortal Slaying Valley and the fifty-plus monsters were hindered by the black water, so their spiritual consciousnesses couldn’t detect Qu Yi’s movements. Naturally, they didn’t realize that the two monsters had become someone else’s slaves.
Shi Jin, who had been proudly watching the fifty-plus monsters, realized that the valley’s protection formation had suddenly disappeared. Only then did he understand that the Immortal Slaying Valley was doomed.
Since even a mid-stage distraction formation could be broken, Shi Jin immediately deduced that there must be an extremely powerful being behind these monsters. Killing him would probably be as easy as blowing a breath.
Therefore, Shi Jin lost interest in surrounding and killing the monsters and instead tried to escape on his own.

Those who practice cultivation seek immortality, and sects exist to provide them with more opportunities to break through and advance. At this moment, Shi Jin realized his life was in danger, so he had no concern for the survival of his sect and only wanted to escape. In an instant, Shi Jin disappeared. Of course, the Tianyin Insects guarding above Shi Xian Valley immediately took action.