“Eh? What’s that scream?” Tang Jie turned around.
But he saw nothing, so he kept on going.
He carefully surveyed the formation as he walked. Breaking through a formation, particularly without using force, required all of his concentration, and he couldn’t afford to be distracted.
“Fortunately I got away fast enough for him to not see, or I would have been humiliated.”
The crane spirit muttered to itself, having withdrawn back into the formation.
Just now, it had been charred from a white crane into a black crane. Thankfully, it was a crane spirit, so it went back to normal once it left its physical form.
Even so, the crane spirit was furious over what had happened, cursing, “This brat, daring to swindle this crane! I’ll teach you a good lesson!”
It looked back at Tang Jie and saw that he had yet to trigger a single trap, showing that he really did know some stuff. It snorted and said, “If that’s the case, have a taste of the true might of my Jade Fire Formation.”
It flapped its wings, upon which the formation rumbled.
The crane spirit had only required Tang Jie to get through the formation. Since normal operation couldn’t stop him, it decided to go for full operation. After all, it had only said to break through the formation, never specifying the state of the formation. Moreover, if he couldn’t get through the guardian formation at full operation, he had no right to talk about strengthening the formation.
As for the fact that the guardian formation was several thousand years old and far more complex than the Flame Yang Formation, it simply ignored that.
With this rumbling, Tang Jie immediately sensed the shifting of the formation.
The first to change was the scenery, the stone steps leading up the mountain disappearing. A dense fog descended, dropping his visibility to almost zero.
He then started to hear various strange sounds, the serene landscape instantly coming alive.
Tang Jie walked only a few more steps before a boulder plummeted out of the sky. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and managed to dodge it in time, as even he wouldn’t have fared well if struck by such a heavy rock.
“Full operation, is it?” Tang Jie casually smiled.
The biggest difference between normal operation and full operation was that all of the traps went from passive to active, seeking out openings to assault intruders. Breaking through the formation in such circumstances became much more difficult.
Tang Jie didn’t seem to mind, continuing his calculations as he pressed forward.
While the formation had many traps, Tang Jie was strong enough to hold them off. Moreover, as he was an expert in formations, he would avoid the most dangerous traps, going around rather than using force, and he would always take the safest and easiest path.
After all, he wasn’t here to cause trouble, and using force went against his purpose of showing off his formation mastery.
The crane spirit watched him traversing all those dangerous places as if he had been here many times, his every calculation proving correct, and it sighed in admiration, for this was a true formation master.
But it was stubborn, so it still sought ways to stop Tang Jie. “This kid really does have some ability, but if he gets through like this, won’t it seem like this crane is incapable? I have to make things difficult for him to show my power, and at the same time, it can vent a little of my anger.”
It seemed to think of something, and cackled. “Let’s use that.”
Meanwhile, Tang Jie estimated that he wasn’t far from the exit.
Just as he mentally sighed in relief, he heard the sound of something approaching.
Every blade of grass and pebble in this formation was a trap that was bursting with energy and was not to be underestimated. And this particular sound was on the louder end.
Tang Jie was surprised and retreated for the first time, at the same time focusing his vision into the distance.
Originally, his original body possessed the Celestial Eyes of Insight, but after reforming this body, it entered the state of going against the Dao, so he had lost all abilities associated with the Daos, much to his chagrin. Otherwise, he could have seen whatever was approaching with a single glance.
He was not able to see his hidden foe, only to hear the wind howling as if something was flying over. Tang Jie evaded, and only then did he see a tree branch flying through the air like a whip.
Tang Jie had just dodged when he heard another whip crack, but before he could do anything, he suffered a lash.
Fortunately, with his perfect body, the lash didn’t do much.
The problem was that the howling of the wind told him that even more branches were seeking to flog him to death.
Tang Jie immediately roared, “Open!”
With this roar, the surrounding fog rolled back, widening his vision. Tang Jie then saw four large trees, their branches extended.
These four trees were clearly thousand-year-old sprites, and they served as guards for the formation core that would not be mobilized unless absolutely necessary. In order to ensure obedience, the Great Sun Sect had wiped their minds, and they obeyed only the crane spirit.
Tang Jie was passing through the formation, not destroying it, so how had he provoked the four tree sprites?
Tang Jie swiftly realized what was going on and grunted, “Crane spirit, you liar!”
The crane sprite laughed. “I didn’t lie at all. The four wood sprites, as protectors of the formation, are a part of its power. There’s nothing wrong at all with using them against you. If you can’t break through, then you shouldn’t call yourself a formation master.”
Tang Jie replied, “But the wood sprites are supposed to guard the formation core and don’t usually move unless attacked. I know I haven’t triggered any traps, much less attacked the core, so why would they attack me? This kind of attack is no longer about testing my formation mastery, but my individual cultivation, so what’s the point?”
The crane spirit was unable to respond to this argument, so it simply ignored it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Anyway, if you can’t get through, it’s considered your loss.”
It proceeded to ignore Tang Jie.
Tang Jie was rendered speechless, and then he started to laugh in anger. “Fine, fine, since that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll get.”
He shot toward one of the trees.
The tree’s numerous branches flew at him, to which Tang Jie responded with a punch.
Devil Crushing Fist!
The punch was like a peal of thunder, the blast creating a small vortex in the air.
The tree branches were sucked into this vortex and ground to wood chips by the power within.
This was the full power of the new Devil Crushing Fist. A tree sprite with the power of a Heart Demon cultivator was stripped down without even the chance to resist.
Tang Jie lunged in and reached into the trunk of the tree, pulling out the sprite core.
Just like that, the thousand-year tree sprite was slain.
Tang Jie wasn’t being merciless here. It was just that Tang Jie wasn’t at all sure of his chances of victory against four Heart-Demon-level tree sprites attacking him in the formation, so he had to quickly kill one. He then charged out through the newly-created opening. The three remaining tree sprites couldn’t stop him in time, and he exited the formation in the span of a blink.
The crane spirit was dumbfounded. “You… you… you killed a tree sprite!”
“Hey, don’t act all innocent. You forced my hand. Besides, it was just a block of wood. It was dead the moment you lot wiped its mind,” Tang Jie impatiently replied.
He found himself on a mountain.
This mountain was so big that it had an entire city on it, with numerous people going here and there. Two guards stood at the gates to the city, startled by Tang Jie’s appearance.
Tang Jie casually walked over and said to the two soldiers, “Might I ask how I can get to the Spiral Flame?”
The Spiral Flame was the tower where Sect Master Yuan Tianzhong resided, so the two soldiers solemnly pointed inside and said, “Just follow that street.”
Tang Jie bowed and said, “My thanks.”
He walked into the city.
The two soldiers were so stunned that they didn’t dare to ask who he was or stop him.
But a moment later, the crane spirit emerged and angrily said, “Tang Jie, stop! Someone has broken through the formation!!!”
Alarms began to blare.