Gods, demons, and mortals unknowingly arrived here with one common purpose, and the true nature of all living beings began to reveal itself.
“Ahh, this is a maze! Without a map, how can we enter?” a cultivator let out a helpless sigh.
“Don’t panic. As long as we follow the footsteps ahead, we won’t get lost. Which fellow cultivator has a magical treasure to assist us?”
At this moment, the cultivators displayed unprecedented unity. An elderly layman flicked his sleeve and released a sable mouse. The magical little creature sniffed around in all directions before joyfully darting forward.
Without hesitation, hundreds of cultivators followed, vanishing one after another into the formation, none of them realizing a crucial fact: the immortal they were pursuing was someone they should have revered.
Guided by the sable mouse’s supernatural instincts, the group wove effortlessly through the maze. As the sound of wind from the core of the formation grew closer, suddenly the formation began to rotate like a spinning windmill.
Spinning wildly around the central pivot point, the formation suddenly surged. A Daoist with weaker magical powers saw stars before his eyes, and before he could react, a stone wall slammed violently into him.
A dull thud and a scream echoed instantly through the passage. Blood splattered, and illusions twisted the spinning space into a hellish battlefield.
Within the same formation, at another location, Qiao San instinctively spread his arms and hugged Twelve, who had been caught off guard. The young couple rolled like gourds on the ground. As the stone wall came crashing toward them like a demon, the man turned his body, using himself as a cushion to protect Twelve.
Man and demon, their hearts connected, tightly embraced each other and rolled into a corner, not moving again. Amid this sudden change, they seemed to detach from reality, quietly savoring the warmth nestled together.
The Dragon Mother and Xuan Nu, of course, could not roll on the ground like common ruffians. With a flick of their divine arts, their graceful figures rotated along with the formation. The ruler of the Four Seas even casually pulled the Book Spirit into her protective glow.
“Ahh—” Still within the formation, at yet another location, a trio of people let out a frightened scream.
Yu Shan would not suffer the slightest injury, and Bei Gong Zhen could protect herself in time. But the Empress, a mere mortal without cultivation, was powerless to resist. Her delicate body was thrown into the air, and she watched helplessly as her head hurtled toward the stone wall.
“Hmph, don’t waste my time,” Bei Gong Zhen rushed forward to save her mother, but Yu Shan, true to her demonic nature, had no intention of engaging in pointless actions. She grabbed the beautiful woman’s figure firmly.
“Mother—” Bei Gong Zhen’s eyes nearly burst with rage, yet she could not escape Yu Shan’s grip.
Among the cultivators, after several screams, the group finally steadied themselves. The drifting souls of the fallen could not halt their determined advance.
Moments later, the maze formation finally quieted, but a greater danger followed swiftly—a sea of fire erupted wildly from the center.
A wandering immortal, confident in his profound cultivation, activated his protective magic and summoned heavy rain to extinguish the flames.
It was rare for cultivators of various sects to act in unison, and soon torrential rain poured down. But when the water touched the flames, it only fueled the fire. Dozens of cultivators were instantly reduced to ashes without even a scream. The flames surged again, devouring dozens more lives in an instant.
“Ahh! Ancient divine fire! Retreat quickly—” A few lucky cultivators at the wandering immortal level immediately pulled their disciples and fled, completely forgetting about fellow cultivators from other sects.
Figures scattered in panic, fleeing helter-skelter. Hundreds had entered, but only dozens emerged. The righteous path of humanity suffered an unprecedented blow.
“Oh?” Yu Shan was about to take a step forward when an unexpected change made her pause—against all odds, the mortal Empress had survived.
At the most perilous moment, a red glow burst from the Empress’s body, halting her miraculously just three inches from the wall. No matter how violently the formation spun, it could no longer touch the suspended royal matron.
“Kek kek… the Ten Yang Body is truly amazing!” Yu Shan, her demonic form flickering, turned to Bei Gong Zhen with a tone of both envy and jealousy, “Did you see that? That’s all thanks to the bold San. I’m sure he’s released his Ten Yang essence into your mother more than once.”
Changing her tone, the mischievous妖 girl playfully teased the Empress, “When you see the bold San again, you really ought to thank your wonderful son-in-law, kek kek… Your Majesty the Empress, are you with child? If you truly bear San’s baby, what shall you name your daughter then? Hmm, certainly something to anticipate…”
Before Yu Shan’s teasing words had even finished, the formation suddenly changed again. A strange sound came from the core ahead, and the maze corridors suddenly shattered outward. As the dust and rubble hit the ground, they instantly burst into flames.
“Hoo…”
In less than the blink of an eye, a demon and two humans were surrounded by a sea of fire. The unusual flames startled Yu Shan, who quickly unfurled her jade fan, wrapping herself inside it. As she flew forward, the Princess of the Earth hesitated briefly before rescuing the mortal mother and daughter together.
These two women still had temporary value and could not be wasted so easily.
Qiao San and the others rushed into the core of the formation. Suddenly, the space before them transformed. A vast underground expanse unfolded, and in the center of a space spanning thousands of zhang, a dragon-shaped mountain stretched across the landscape. At the dragon’s head, a miraculous orb-like object flickered and danced within a mass of flames—the legendary “Nine Heavens Divine Flame Pill.”
The Dragon Mother extended her jade-like hand, elongating swiftly to grasp the Divine Flame Pill. As for the divine barrier surrounding it, it was beneath the notice of the ruler of the Four Seas.
Sure enough, layer upon layer of tangible barriers shattered one after another, scattering countless glowing particles. At that moment, the flames surrounding the Divine Flame Pill suddenly blazed brilliantly, rising into the air and igniting the entire fiery formation.
This was the most powerful trick of the formation. Even the Dragon Mother, with her Golden Immortal body, instinctively withdrew her hand swiftly.
Among the group, except for Qiao San, everyone else was highly knowledgeable. Xuan Nu, directly affected, cried out in alarm, “No good! The Divine Flame Pill is about to hatch a spirit!”
“Twelve, what hatching? Can that stone hatch a chick?” The possessed rogue, even more shameless, pointed deliberately at the divine pill to twist the facts and mock the Dragon Mother and Xuan Nu.
“Master San, it’s not hatching a chick. The Divine Flame Pill is being reborn in flames—it’s about to become the ancient divine bird, the immortal Fenghuang!”
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