OBS Chapter 1991 Blood-Red Eyes Approaching
Chapter 1991 Blood-Red Eyes Approaching
Chapter 1991 Blood-Red Eyes Approaching
"break!"
A frenzied roar exploded inside the Five Elements Formation.
Lian Lichuan, the demonic cultivator trapped in the formation by Chen Fei's thunderous methods, clearly sensed the suffocatingly powerful force and the flawless cyclical barrier around him the moment the formation descended.
As a battle-hardened late-stage 15th-level demonic cultivator, he immediately realized the terrifying predicament he was in, where any hesitation or probing would be fatal.
Therefore, without any hesitation, and without even thinking about who his opponent was or why such a powerful formation existed, he made the most resolute, yet helpless, choice in an instant: to ignite all the demonic essence within his body.
"boom!"
A fierce, domineering, and destructive demonic flame erupted from Lian Lichuan's seven orifices and even from every pore of his body.
His aura surged wildly in an instant, reaching a peak far exceeding his usual level, but the price was the rapid burning of his very essence—a true art of mutual destruction.
A pitch-black demonic sword, wreathed in the wails of countless vengeful spirits, appeared in his palm. The sword trembled and emitted a piercing shriek.
"open!"
Lian Lichuan's eyes were bloodshot as he poured all the power he gained from burning his source into the demonic sword without reservation. It transformed into a violent sword intent and pitch-black sword essence that tore through the void, like a destructive demonic dragon that devoured its prey, and fiercely attacked the seemingly weakest point of the array wall in front of him.
His only thought at that moment wasn't to kill the enemy, but to create a crack. Even the slightest crack would be enough for him to break through.
In the instant he unleashed his full power, endless regret and anger flashed through Lian Lichuan's mind.
He did not enter this place blindly; in fact, he had been observing cautiously from a distance.
However, the illusion array that Chen Fei set up on the outermost edge was too ingenious. It not only perfectly concealed the terrifying energy fluctuations of the inner complex array, but also simulated the illusion that the place had just experienced a great battle, the array was broken, and there was an opportunity to take advantage of it.
It was this clever illusion array that deceived Lian Lichuan's senses, causing him to misjudge the danger level of this place and think that he could come and take advantage of the situation, or at least get a glimpse of the truth from afar.
Little did they expect that one wrong step would lead to an abyss.
Now, trapped deep within this deadly formation, he truly understood just how exaggerated the power of this interconnected formation was.
"Boom!"
Lian Lichuan's powerful strike, achieved by sacrificing everything, even his life, slammed into the array wall that shimmered with five-colored light.
The anticipated violent explosion and shattering of the light shield did not occur. The destructive sword energy that embodied all his hopes struck the array wall, only causing ripples like waves on the surface of the light shield, which rippled slightly.
The entire formation didn't even shake violently.
It was as if his desperate attack, which was enough to shatter planes and make cultivators of the same level avoid his edge, was nothing more than a small pebble thrown into a vast lake, causing only a few insignificant ripples and having no other effect.
"How...how is it possible!"
The madness and determination on Lian Lichuan's face froze instantly, replaced by a deep-seated despair and disbelief.
He stared wide-eyed at the rapidly subsiding ripples on the array wall, feeling his life force rapidly draining away as his origin burned, and a chilling coldness instantly swept over his entire body.
The power of this grand formation was far greater than he initially sensed, even beyond his worst-case scenario. It was so powerful it was despair-inducing.
At the core of the formation, Chen Fei stood still, expressionless, watching Lian Lichuan struggle in vain.
The complex array under the command of the Myriad Manifestations Returning to Flow Array has long surpassed the defensive capabilities of ordinary fifteenth-tier cultivators. Even if a late-stage fifteenth-tier demonic cultivator were to burn their source to forcibly increase their power, they would still be unable to break through it.
Seeing that Lian Lichuan's momentum was starting to decline, Chen Fei raised his right hand, made a simple hand seal, and gently pointed in the direction where Lian Lichuan was.
"Clatter!"
In an instant, the sky above the great formation changed color, and countless dazzling golden rays converged, transforming into a torrential downpour.
This is no ordinary rainwater, but a product of the fusion of pure metal-elemental sharpness and water-elemental power. Every drop of rainwater contains a terrifying power that can penetrate metal and stone and dissolve all things.
The golden rain, like a celestial river pouring down, instantly submerged Lian Lichuan, who was still trying to gather a second wave of attacks.
Lian Lichuan let out a final, furious roar filled with resentment and unwillingness, desperately wielding his demonic sword, stirring up streaks of black light in the golden rain, attempting to resist.
However, his resistance seemed so pale and powerless in the face of this attack that was as powerful as heaven and earth.
The protective demonic light melted away rapidly, like ice and snow under the sun. His demonic body was pierced by countless tiny holes by golden raindrops, and the demonic energy within him was frantically strangled and purified by the sharpest and gentlest force.
The roar lasted only a few breaths before abruptly stopping, as if someone had grabbed its neck.
Immediately afterwards, the life force on his body was extinguished like a candle flickering in the wind, and finally disappeared completely without a trace.
A powerful demonic cultivator at the late stage of the fifteenth level was annihilated, body and soul, and perished in Chen Fei's formation.
Throughout the myriad realms, any sect or power of any size and with an orderly lineage, regardless of whether its foundation is righteous or demonic, or whether it is good or evil, will almost always devote massive resources and effort to setting up layers upon layers of incredibly powerful protective formations in its sacred mountain gates and core areas.
This is the cornerstone of survival and inheritance, and it is also a consensus in the spiritual practice community.
Ultimately, the essence lies in the art of formations, which, to a certain extent, can indeed enable the weak to overcome the strong.
Even if the cultivator's cultivation level is slightly lower than that of the invading enemy, if they can rely on a carefully arranged array that connects the earth's veins and the heavens, they can often deal with them, or even win the battle, thus protecting the peace of the region.
Even if it's impossible to fight across levels, when both sides have similar cultivation levels, the side with a powerful formation protecting them will undoubtedly have an absolute advantage.
The difference in offensive and defensive strategies is immediately apparent.
Invaders must use their own cultivation to directly confront the power of heaven and earth condensed by the entire formation. Given this imbalance, their chances of victory are naturally slim.
Therefore, a powerful formation is not merely an embellishment for a force, but a strategic barrier that is essential for survival.
Even a behemoth as powerful as the Yan Yang Immortal Dynasty, which dominates a region and is renowned throughout the world, still has its outermost perimeter filled with a dense array of terrifying killing formations and defensive arrays when facing the endless demonic cultivators at Tianhai Pass.
These formations are not set up once and then shelved.
Tianhai Pass has invested heavily in supporting a large and highly skilled team of array repairers who work day and night to maintain, inspect, and optimize every array formation in front of the pass.
The slightest negligence or slackness is absolutely unacceptable.
Because everyone knows that these layers upon layers of magic arrays are the first line of defense for Tianhai Pass against the surging tide of demonic cultivators, and are an extremely important cornerstone.
Once the formation is broken, the consequences will be unimaginable. Its importance is thus evident.
However, an interesting phenomenon is that in the face-to-face battles or encounters between cultivators and demonic cultivators, the cultivators who are truly at the forefront and fighting as the main force are rarely seen among the array cultivators.
This is not because array cultivators are weak in combat. On the contrary, an array cultivator who is well-prepared and within the range of his own array can exert terrifying destructive and defensive power.
The fundamental reason lies in the unique and limited nature of the formation-based combat method.
The power of a formation cultivator depends heavily on a pre-arranged formation. And setting up a formation, no matter how skillful or sophisticated the technique, requires a certain amount of time, even if it's just a few breaths.
But in life-or-death battles between top experts, victory or defeat is often decided in the blink of an eye.
The mere few breaths it takes to set up the formation is enough for the opponent to launch dozens of fatal attacks, and the battle for survival may already be decided.
Faced with a sudden battle, array cultivators often find themselves in a very passive position. Lacking the support of array formations, their strength is greatly reduced, making it difficult for them to perform at their full potential.
Array cultivators naturally carry array plates with them, as these items can indeed greatly shorten the time required to set up an array, even achieving a near-instantaneous effect.
However, the complexity and power limits of arrays that can be pre-recorded, stored in array plates, and activated at any time are often strictly limited by the material, volume, and crafting method of the array plate itself.
In most cases, the array plate can only support relatively simple or reduced-power versions of array formations.
This type of formation may be more than enough to deal with opponents whose strength is far inferior to one's own, but if it encounters a true expert of the same level, its power may not be enough to form an absolute suppression, and it may even be forcibly broken by the opponent in a short time with its overwhelming strength or special formation-breaking methods.
Once the array plate is broken, the array cultivator will also fall into a brief state of stagnation or weakness due to the backlash of the array, and will instantly fall into an extremely dangerous situation.
The risks involved are somewhat similar to those of using a large number of talismans; both have certain limitations and uncertainties. Therefore, array plates are more of an auxiliary or emergency measure and are unlikely to become the core reliance of array cultivators on the main battlefield.
Furthermore, even if a formation cultivator is exceptionally talented and successfully sets up a complete formation in an encounter battle, the power they display may not guarantee victory.
Temporarily set up magic arrays are like rootless duckweed or water without a source; they often cannot achieve a perfect and deep connection with the surrounding mountains, rivers, and the spiritual energy of the earth's veins.
A significant portion of the energy required for its operation relies on the cultivator's own Yuan Power.
This is fundamentally different from the protective formations of sects that have been passed down for thousands of years.
The latter, through the continuous refinement and nurturing of countless generations of array masters, has long been deeply integrated with the spiritual veins, terrain, and even the rules of the local world, with an inexhaustible energy supply and immense, overwhelming power, making it almost unshakeable.
In comparison, temporary magic arrays appear much more superficial, with inherent deficiencies in stability, sustained combat capability, and energy level.
Facing a strong opponent of the same level with a solid foundation and ruthless methods, the outcome is still uncertain.
It is precisely because of these insurmountable limitations and difficulties that it is rare to see truly powerful array cultivators shine on the vast and brutal battlefield.
They prefer to strategize behind the scenes or safeguard a region's foundation.
However, Chen Fei is clearly an exception, an anomaly that defies conventional understanding.
Having cultivated the Myriad Paths of Heavenly Decree to the Great Perfection, this technique endowed Chen Fei with a profound understanding and control of the Dao of Formations that far surpassed that of his peers, reaching the pinnacle of mastery.
In Chen Fei's eyes, the mysteries of a fifteenth-order formation were almost impossible to hide. Setting up formations was as natural to him as breathing, and his efficiency and sophistication far surpassed those of ordinary formation cultivators.
Of course, the most crucial point is the rules of this special battlefield, the Thousand Lotus Realm.
This realm forcibly suppresses the souls and cultivation levels of all entrants, putting everyone on a level playing field. Those who could originally unleash terrifying combat power only through higher realms or special bloodlines are severely restricted here.
However, Chen Fei's mastery of formations was relatively highlighted and amplified under this suppression.
By leveraging their profound understanding of array formations and skillfully utilizing the rules of this realm, they transformed the disadvantages of array cultivators into advantages, thus demonstrating a formidable combat power that array cultivators should not possess in conventional environments.
Inside the grand formation, the golden rain gradually subsided, and the world returned to its former clarity.
At the spot where Lian Lichuan last disappeared, a lotus seed radiating a soft light and containing a pure, primordial aura gently undulated. This was clearly the primordial lotus seed that Lian Lichuan himself had harvested in this realm.
Immediately afterwards, the rules of the Thousand Lotus Realm manifested, and another brand-new primordial lotus seed condensed and floated to the side. This was the reward from the realm's rules for Chen Fei's successful slaying.
Chen Fei casually flipped his right hand, and an invisible suction force was generated, drawing the two primordial lotus seeds, along with a wisp of pure demonic cultivation essence belonging to Lian Lichuan that had not yet completely dissipated in the air, into his palm.
As Chen Fei skillfully operated the Myriad Paths Judgment Decree, he began to peel away the fragments of rank and fortune contained in the demonic cultivator's origin. At the same time, he sensed that the suppression of his soul in his sea of consciousness had eased noticeably again due to the newly acquired Origin Lotus Seed.
In just over ten breaths, Chen Fei had finished processing that wisp of demonic cultivation essence, perfectly extracting the precious fragments of his rank and the power of his destiny.
"The suppression of the soul has been further reduced, and it should be barely able to support the setting up of a new magic array, which can be nested into the existing system."
Chen Fei's gaze swept over the already enormous complex array beneath his feet, and he pondered:
"However, the scale of this new formation cannot be too large, nor can its structure be too complex, otherwise it will still exceed the current control limit of the divine soul."
As Chen Fei successfully nested and integrated one formation after another into the complex array system beneath his feet, this interconnected array based on the Five Elements Array had actually become extremely complex.
Because controlling such a vast and complex power comes with a burden far greater than one might imagine.
Each additional nested formation has a subtle yet crucial impact on the operating rhythm, energy distribution, and even the mutual generation and restraint relationships among all other existing formations.
To maintain the perfect balance and efficient operation of the entire system, the mental and computational resources required are constantly increasing.
It's like a skilled chess player; with each additional piece on the board, the number of possible moves to calculate multiplies several times over.
What Chen Fei was facing at this moment was a vast chessboard composed of countless energy nodes and rule runes, which was constantly changing.
"With the current remaining power of my divine soul, I can only support setting up one more small auxiliary formation at most."
Chen Fei pondered, "With an array of this scale, it's clearly impossible to significantly increase the power of the entire complex array."
"Its role is more about supplementing certain specific functions or optimizing certain details." Chen Fei's thoughts raced as he weighed the various possibilities.
"Is it to further strengthen a weak link in the defense? Or to add a means of interfering with or deceiving the enemy? Or perhaps, to slightly improve the efficiency of energy conversion?"
Every choice has its advantages and disadvantages.
"Wow!"
Just as Chen Fei was deep in thought, a clear and magnificent roar, seemingly from the heavens above, resounded throughout the entire Thousand Lotus Demon Realm.
Chen Fei looked up and saw a dazzling golden ripple at the very top, like the ripples stirred up by a boulder thrown into a calm lake, suddenly spreading out and instantly washing over half the sky.
A powerful, upright, and righteous energy wave spread out, illuminating the dark world below.
"Vast and radiant, reflecting the sky!"
Chen Fei's eyes flickered slightly, and another cultivator had successfully killed twenty fifteenth-level demonic cultivators.
"Buzz!"
Before the golden ripples had completely dissipated, a second golden ripple of the same size and brilliance erupted in another direction in the sky.
Two golden canopies reflected each other, illuminating the entire Thousand Lotus Demon Realm in a magnificent light.
"Another one!" Chen Fei's eyes lit up slightly.
Including the one who initially caused the strange phenomenon, there are now three level 15 limit cultivators in this Thousand Lotus Demon Realm who have successfully achieved a record of twenty kills.
"It seems that in this world, the cultivators are not entirely at a disadvantage?"
"clang!"
The moment this thought crossed Chen Fei's mind, a buzzing sound, far deeper and more violent than the previous Hao Ran Ying Kong, seemingly originating from the deepest part of the Nine Nether Hell, suddenly exploded from the very center of the sky.
The next moment, an extreme, chilling dark red patch, like a drop of ink into clear water, or like a bloodthirsty demonic eye suddenly opening in the sky, appeared abruptly at the highest point of the heavens.
"Sizzle!"
Immediately afterwards, the blood-red patch seemed to come alive, spreading and expanding wildly. In the blink of an eye, the sky, which had been rendered by golden aura, was completely covered and swallowed by this boundless crimson blood.
The magnificent and dazzling phenomenon that had just appeared in the sky was instantly extinguished and dissipated without a trace under this overwhelming demonic power.
The entire world seemed to be submerged in a thick sea of blood, exuding a nauseating aura of blood and violence.
"It's that demonic cultivator!" Chen Fei's gaze fluctuated violently, and his expression instantly became extremely solemn.
This aura belongs to the demonic cultivator who first triggered the Blood Fiend Reflection and was the first to kill twenty level 15 cultivators. Not long ago, this cultivator had just reached the thirty-kill milestone, but now he has reappeared with forty kills!
This number means that forty cultivators at the fifteenth level have already perished at the hands of this demon.
What alarmed Chen Fei was that, judging from the speed at which this strange phenomenon appeared, the speed at which the opponent was killing cultivators was not slowing down, but rather accelerating.
But the changes in the sky have not yet stopped.
Beside the massive blood-red patch that occupied the entire sky and represented forty kills, a slightly smaller but still shocking second blood-red patch appeared out of thin air.
Immediately following, as if by a chain reaction, the third, fourth, and fifth blood-red patches appeared one after another in the sky in less than half a breath.
Chen Fei held his breath, staring intently at the sky, until the sixth bloody patch appeared.
Finally, six blood-red demonic spots of varying sizes, all radiating an overwhelming murderous aura, hung high in the sky like six ferocious blood-red eyes, coldly overlooking this world shrouded in blood.
Among them, the two largest were the demonic cultivator who completed forty kills and another who completed thirty kills.
The appearance of the other four means that in that extremely short period of time, four more powerful demonic cultivators successfully completed the brutal process of killing twenty level 15 cultivators.
There were only three instances of the magnificent golden light, and the earliest one had not yet achieved a higher record of thirty kills.
However, six blood-red demonic spots already hung high, one of which had even killed forty fifteenth-level cultivators.
Such a stark and brutal contrast instantly shattered the glimmer of optimism that had just risen in Chen Fei's heart.
The cultivators were not just at a disadvantage; they were practically in dire straits!
After all, the more Origin Lotus Seeds one obtains, the more one's strength will be unlocked.
One can imagine the immense pressure and slaughter that the Tianhaiguan cultivators are facing in other areas of the Thousand Lotus Realm at this moment.
Chen Fei frowned, slowly withdrawing his gaze from the suffocating blood-red sky and returning it to the complex array beneath his feet.
A strong sense of urgency had quietly crept into Chen Fei's mind.
"My speed in killing demonic cultivators is already quite fast, but compared to such demons, it is undoubtedly much slower!"
The root of this difference lies in the level of cultivation.
Those demons who can slaughter their peers so efficiently must have already reached the true limit of the fifteenth level in terms of cultivation, and may even have forged a terrifying foundation such as the Heavenly Origin Dao Foundation.
Even though they are suppressed in this realm, their combat power is still extremely strong.
Chen Fei, after all, was only at the late stage of the fifteenth rank, and before that, he was only at the middle stage of the fifteenth rank.
His current achievements are due to his superior array formation skills and careful planning, which far surpass those of his peers. However, the objective difference in their realms prevents him from crushing and quickly eliminating them with absolute power like those demons.
"Insufficient cultivation level is an objective fact..."
Chen Fei took a deep breath, suppressing his agitation: "Within this realm, there's simply no way to change things in the short term."
"And those demonic cultivators will never show mercy to me just because my cultivation level is low. On the contrary, the fluctuations of my primordial lotus seed are the most tempting prey to them."
Reality is cruel; it shows no mercy because of your weakness, but only invites stronger plunder because of your value.
In an instant, Chen Fei's mind raced with thoughts, and he made his final choice.
"Buzz!"
Chen Fei suddenly formed hand seals in front of him, his ten fingers flying like lightning. The array runes that he had already deduced were continuously condensed and soared into the air as his fingertips moved.
(End of this chapter)