A unique power encircled the Blood Sea and isolated it from the outside world, which in turn isolated the Dao Flowers. However, the flowers didn’t bloom immediately even after Qing Han and the others stepped ashore.
The spark of hope had resurrected it and repaired the path of cultivation it contained, but civilization’s irrigation was required for the flower to bloom properly. In other words, it needed to absorb the different walks of life of this era.
“Where do we go now?” Lu Qingshuang asked timidly, approaching Lu Yun. “Back to Xiankan, or to Dusk Province?”
She, too, was terrified by her clansman. Although she and her companions weren’t hurt, they weren’t able to wrap their minds around what had just happened. Had they really survived three shots from a weapon of war?
Perhaps the monsters in the Blood Sea really have turned us into their puppets and we’ve become their vanguard. The returning group had naturally heard what the fleeing immortals had yelped when making their getaways.
“We’re in no hurry.” Lu Yun stowed his fortress ship and approached the enormous weapon on top of the city wall.
Roughly three hundred meters in height, it was clear and translucent, like a cannon made of crystal. On the other end of the weapon was the deactivated great formation of the nameless city, clearly the source of its power. These weapons were capable of great destruction, and only the nine heavenly courts could activate them with special methods and formations. No other clans or factions were capable of owning, or using, such a treasure.
The last time Lu Yun had been ambushed, the Qing Clan and Exalted Immortal Sect had banded together with the Feng Clan, Jin Clan, House Donglin, and other major factions to set up two great formations that could potentially even kill dao immortals. Even then, they hadn’t used any weapons of war, nor did they have the right to get their hands on one. Moreover, it was simply too much work. A grand formation would have to be set up to accommodate the treasure.
Dusk used to have such a weapon, set up in the seaside stronghold by the North Sea. However, it’d been torn down five thousand years ago, dismantled by the heavenly court and discarded as scrap in the ocean. Later, City Lord Fei Nie had established a great formation to prevent the North Sea monster spirits from invading.
Since the heavenly courts were the only ones who could use these weapons, layer upon layer of bureaucracy had to be waded through before one could be set up, and they could only be placed in strategically significant locations.
Given that their might was sufficient enough to threaten arcane dao immortals, they were on par with the nuclear weapons of Earth. Without the means to control the treasure, Lu Yun couldn’t use it, even though it was right within his reach. [1] If he misused it, the resulting explosion could raze everything within five hundred kilometers to the ground.
“You, you aren’t thinking of taking it, are you?” The others tensed when they saw the way Lu Yun was considering the treasure. It couldn’t be moved after it was laid down, or it would self-destruct.
“I do want to take it with me, but it’s tied to the underground vein here… aha!” A closer inspection of the city and mountain ranges in the area had imparted further insight as to the situation here.
The treasure and great formation in the city were linked to the vein underground and had become one with the local terrain, allowing the weapon to tap into the power of heaven and earth.
No wonder it was so powerful!
In other words, the treasure didn’t just rely on its inherent might, but also the endless supply of power from the land. It simply compressed the land’s power to the limit of the world’s physical laws, then released it.
“It’s no surprise that even Huangqing doesn’t know the secrets of this weapon,” muttered Lu Yun. “She’s a refiner, but she doesn’t know formations!”
Weapons of war incorporated the peak of both formation and equipment dao. Very few in the world were skilled in both fields. Almost no one could master both, but the inventor of these weapons just so happened to be such a talent.
“...set up formations!” Lu Yun’s face lit up with an enthusiastic light. He would set up formations to move both the city and the vein beneath it! He needed a formation that reached twenty-five hundred kilometers in radius!
Lu Yun returned to hell with his idea. Only Feinie possessed the ability he needed! She could set up a grand formation with the Formation Orb that would uproot all of the mountains, and the remaining terrain in the area as well. [2]
Once he entered hell, time essentially froze for him, giving space for Feinie to focus on recovering. With pills refined by Yuying, she quickly returned to peak condition and left the netherworld to set up the formations.
A circle with a twenty-five hundred kilometer radius was bigger than China on Earth, but to golden immortals, a circle that big meant nothing. The highest level formations in the world of immortals could reach tens of thousands kilometers in radius.
Naturally, it wasn’t easy to move a city along with its surrounding mountains, rivers, and underground veins. Veins, in particular, were especially tricky. Created by the condensed power of heaven and earth, underground veins included all sorts of mineral and spirit veins. A slight shift in their relative position could cause a chain reaction. Many immortals who attempted to tamper with such veins had ended up dusted to ashes for their efforts. Even celestial emperors wouldn’t make an attempt.
Feinie, however, was an exception.
The Formation Orb was a connate-grade treasure that contained countless formations. It could simulate the presence of the veins and dissolve nature’s backlash. She completed the formations around the entire area in half a day.
“You… are... going to move both the city and the underground vein?” Qing Han asked in disbelief when he saw what Lu Yun was doing.
“That’s right!” Lu Yun nodded. “The treasure is tied to the underground vein here, and will be rendered useless if the two are separated. That’s why I have to take the weapon, the vein, and the local terrain with me.”
More than just a mineral vein, the underground vein was a complete ecosystem that spanned the circle’s radius.
“Don’t worry about the crimson sea,” he smiled, “it’s completely isolated from the outside world. The monsters within it will turn into ashes as soon as they reach land, just like the paper boats.”
Qing Han huffed without a word; he knew that. He was just worried that Lu Yun would be hurt by the energy backlash of what he was about to attempt.
Rumble.
A deep boom echoed through the land. Those who’d returned to their fortress ships goggled with surprise as the nameless city, the earth beneath it, and the mountains and flora in the area around it rose into the air and formed a floating island.
Hum.
The island vanished with the opening of an invisible door, leaving behind only an enormous, bottomless crater.
“Let’s go.” Once Feinie returned, Lu Yun waved his hand and commanded the fortress ship to set out for the transportation formation in Life Province, choosing to return to Dusk rather than Xiankan. As a mere cultivator, he couldn’t do much to turn things around in Xiankan; Dusk Province was his territory.
Those aboard the twelve fortress ships gaped in shock, speechless. Had what they thought just happened… really happened?
1. Ahem, ya mean without the nuclear launch codes? Heh.
2. Poor lady, isn’t she recovering…