In front of the Five Origins Estate, the cultivators were still breaking down the seal.
The combined attack of the gathered Immortals was gradually making progress.
Just when the seal was about to break, it suddenly began to abnormally brighten.
Flowing Wind was startled, and then he shouted, “Not good! Retreat!”
He quickly backed away, with the others right behind him. At that moment, the curtain of light exploded, unleashing a destructive wave of energy that obliterated everything in its path.
The Earth Immortals weren’t fast enough to dodge, so they had to resort to other means to defend themselves. Mou Siming threw out his Blood Bodhi, Jade Truth used his Thousand Autumns Pearl, Origin Defender raised up his Lightfreeze Pagoda, and even the Flame Celestial Sovereign took out a divine treasure called the Pentaflame Barrier.
A moment later, the tsunami of light engulfed them. The Blood Bodhi instantly lost all its luster, the Thousand Autumns Pearl became covered in countless fine cracks, the Lightfreeze Pagoda toppled over, and the Pentaflame Barrier shattered.
As these four protective treasures were broken, the four Earth Immortals threw up blood, clearly badly hurt. When they saw that the wave of light was still coming, they paled. Although they were Immortals and could be reborn, there was no avoiding the pain that came from death, and rebirth took a lot of Immortal energy. Most importantly, Immortal energy rebirth was not uncounterable. Certain special energies, like the power of Destruction, could obliterate Immortals in such a way that it was very difficult for them to be reborn, and nobody knew what sort of consequences such a terrifying wave of light could have. Thus, it was better not to die if they could avoid it.
As the wave of light neared, Flowing Wind threw out his cloud.
As the cloud spun, the wave of light was neutralized, and the Immortals sighed in relief.
As they looked at the paradise again, they found that the seal had disappeared. It was clear that the previous attack had used the last of its power.
But this last assault had destroyed four divine treasures and injured four Immortals, so the losses were rather severe. Although Immortals didn’t fear injury, they still needed to use Immortal energy to heal them.
At this point, they could only count themselves unlucky and hope that they could recover their losses after killing Tang Jie.
The irascible Jade Truth was about to go in when Flowing Wind said, “Hold on.”
“Does Sir Flowing Wind have some advice?” Jade Truth turned to Flowing Wind.
He initially didn’t pay much mind to this genius of the Heaven’s Equal Sect, but from his reaction speed just now, Flowing Wind was clearly a cut above the rest of them. Moreover, his Genesis Cloud was a divine object from High Antiquity, and it had been immersed in the Dao when it had been owned by the Ageless Immortal Elder, so it could not be underestimated. If he hadn’t intervened just now, the four of them would have had to lose a life. Thus, he spoke in a much more polite tone.
Flowing Wind indifferently said, “When cultivating with the ancestor, I comprehended the principles of Heaven and Fate. Although I am not proficient in formations, I have some experience in the field. From what I can see, this seal primarily focuses on defense, warning, and intimidation. It shouldn’t have possessed this lethal move.”
“Sir, do you mean…”
“Tang Jie modified the seal.”
Everyone gasped.
Being able to modify a True Immortal’s seal meant one of only two things: one either was stronger than the True Immortal or possessed an unimaginable mastery of formations.
Tang Jie definitely wasn’t stronger than a True Immortal, so it had to be the second explanation.
Such mastery of formations made them shiver.
But a moment later, Mou Siming chuckled. “So what if that’s the case? Does that mean we shouldn’t go in? Five Earth Immortals are so scared of a single Soul Projection cultivator that they don’t dare to go in?”
Flowing Wind smiled. “Of course we’re going in, but we have to look at how we go in. Given how crafty this man is, since he has modified the seal at the entrance, he must have prepared beforehand. When one has reached the apex of formations, it becomes much easier to kill those above one’s level, so we can’t afford to be careless. On this matter, I must look to Junior Brother Origin Defender.”
Origin Defender belonged to the same sect, and he knew what Flowing Wind meant, saying with a smile, “It is my duty.”
He took out a jungle chess board. On the board were vermillion birds, white bulls, peacocks, bronze tigers, and other kinds of beasts—fourteen kinds of beasts totaling 58 in all. The weakest was lower-grade Divine Division, while the strongest were at Void Returning, a dragon and a phoenix.
(TN: Jungle chess is a Chinese board game where the board has squares representing different terrain features and the pieces represent animals rather than soldiers.)
Heaven’s Equal and Stellar Net dominated Vast Wilderness, so they could provide almost every Earth Immortal under their command with a pseudo–Dao armament.
The jungle chess board was Origin Defender’s pseudo–Dao armament. Fiends could be caught and stored within the board like the Myriad Immortals Cauldron, though it was a far inferior version. This was because it could only hold two fiends of the same level as the user, with the remainder of the spots being filled out according to the ranking of the chess pieces. With each two kinds of fiends, the permitted cultivation grade would be lowered by one and the number permitted would be doubled. Thus, there were four kinds of Soul Projection fiends, eight in total; four kinds of Deification fiends, with sixteen in total; and four kinds of Infant Tending fiends, with thirty-two in total. The dragon and phoenix occupied opposing sides of the board, serving as the respective kings. It was easy to see that it could hold far fewer fiends than the Myriad Immortals Cauldron.
But because of the Imperial Sky Stamp, Tang Jie refined all the fiends he caught, leaving nothing for the Myriad Immortals Cauldron. He had even refined the Spotted Char he had captured long ago. Thus, the Myriad Immortals Cauldron was empty, and when it came to actual use, it couldn’t even compare to this pseudo–Dao armament.
Origin Defender threw the board into the air, and the fifty-some pieces turned into fiends and charged out.
Origin Defender smiled. “These fiends will save us a lot of trouble.”
He raised the board, which could also display what the fiends were seeing, unlike the Myriad Immortals Cauldron.
On the board, the fiends charged into the estate. They arrived at a field and charged right through, encountering no opposition or traps.
Origin Defender smiled. “It’s fine. We can head in.”
He strode into the estate.