Chapter 146: Breaking the Formation (Part II)

"Look at this, everyone!" With these words, Sovereign Yuding produced a golden talisman in the palm of his hand.

It was with great reluctance that Sovereign Yuding brought out this protective talisman, as it was the only middle-grade advanced talisman he possessed.

"A middle-grade advanced protection talisman?" Mo Xing exclaimed in astonishment. Talismans of this grade were exceedingly rare in the cultivation world; even an Tribulation-stage cultivator like Mo Xing had only witnessed one once in all his long years.

Including today, this was only the second time he had ever encountered one.

"Indeed, it is." Sovereign Yuding still felt a sharp pang of heartache, but what was the sacrifice of a single protective talisman if it meant capturing Gushi and Lin Yanghao?

Gitting his teeth, he immediately infused the protective talisman into Leng Ya's body.

The talisman flashed with a brilliant yellow light, enveloping Leng Ya entirely.

"Young man, you may step inside with peace of mind. With the assistance of my protective talisman, I guarantee you will not come to any harm," Sovereign Yuding said. In truth, he felt deeply uncertain inside; he had no idea whether this method would actually work. After all, the outer barrier was completely impenetrable, and who could say whether the conditions inside mirrored those on the outside?

Yet, no matter how doubtful he was, he had to try. If Gushi chose to remain hidden forever, were they expected to wait for him until the end of their days?

By that time, he would likely have already ascended.

That was correct—Sovereign Yuding was on the verge of ascension. At most, a hundred years remained before he would be greeted by the immortal ascension beam, taking him to the realm of everyone's dreams: the Immortal World.

A century was merely a blink of an eye to a cultivator, and Sovereign Yuding's original plan had been to spend these remaining hundred years in tranquil seclusion within his sect.

He wished to avoid all mishaps and court no trouble, but fate was notoriously unpredictable. Who could have foreseen that the affairs involving Lin Yanghao and Gushi would arise?

"Open your mind and offer no resistance; we are about to begin," Sovereign Yuding said solemnly. The secret art he was about to employ allowed the strength of one person to be temporarily channeled into the body of another.

To put it simply, Leng Ya would merely serve as a vessel for this immense power and would be unable to control it himself.

This technique shared a wondrous similarity with the divine sense fusion previously used on True Immortal Changshan.

The only difference was that the former fused divine sense, while this one fused sheer power.

Much like before, Sovereign Yuding first struck a series of hand seals into the air around them.

"凝—Condense!" As Sovereign Yuding uttered the command, Leng Ya felt as though his entire body were collapsing, growing unbearably heavy.

It felt as though an entire mountain range were crushing down upon him.

"What is happening? What is wrong with my body?" Leng Ya cried out in terror.

His body could no longer be said to obey his will in the slightest.

"Do not worry, simply relax your mind. This is a normal phenomenon. You must not move a muscle, or all our previous efforts will be wasted," Sovereign Yuding urged anxiously. Leng Ya's reaction had nearly derailed the entire procedure.

Fortunately, everything held together, and no disaster occurred.

It had merely been a false alarm.

"Understood." Hearing this, Leng Ya no longer dared to twitch even slightly, hardly even daring to breathe. He was certainly not going to treat his own life as a joke.

Immediately afterward, the pressure bearing down on him intensified, leaving Leng Ya gasping for breath.

"Very well, it is complete." Sovereign Yuding let out a heavy sigh of relief and spoke weakly to Leng Ya.

The process had drained him of an immense amount of physical and mental energy.

"Why can I not move?" It was only then that Leng Ya realized his entire body had lost all sensation, scaring him half to death.

Could it be that they had made a mistake somewhere, leaving him permanently paralyzed like this?

What was he to do now?

"To prevent any accidents, I have sealed the meridians throughout your entire body. There is no need to be alarmed."

"Then how am I supposed to go in?" Leng Ya asked in confusion. With all his meridians sealed and unable to so much as twitch, how could he possibly enter?

"You need not concern yourself with that; you only need to relax your mind," Sovereign Yuding replied.

Hearing this, Leng Ya finally set his mind at ease. As long as it was not an accident, all was well.

Moments later, Leng Ya's body began to move entirely on its own accord. He knew, of course, that his physical form was now under Sovereign Yuding's control.

Leng Ya's body slowly glided toward the formation barrier, causing everyone present to heave sighs of relief. As long as he could get inside, that was all that mattered.

"Break for me!" Sovereign Yuding formed hand seals, and the power injected into Leng Ya's body rapidly condensed.

Boom!

A deafening explosion echoed through the air, bringing expressions of joy to the faces of everyone present.

They knew the formation barrier had been breached; they had succeeded.

Meanwhile, Gushi was locked in fierce combat with the spirit beasts, and the shattering of the formation naturally could not be hidden from him.

"How can this be? How could my formation possibly be broken?" Gushi muttered in disbelief. This formation was his proudest creation, and he had possessed absolute confidence that no one remaining in the mortal realm possessed the strength to tear it apart.

Thus, profound shock was etched across his features.

Naturally, Gushi had no way of knowing the method Sovereign Yuding had used to break the array.

Not far away, Lin Yanghao had also heard the deafening roar, and a multitude of doubts flooded his mind.

Because he did not entirely trust Gushi, he had not traveled far, choosing instead to hide nearby.

"What is happening now?" Troubles truly never came singly. The spirit beasts that had been fighting Gushi suddenly scattered in all directions.

Could those spirit beasts be plotting some scheme?

Yet, he could not be bothered to ponder it further. The array of the Thousand Saints Marsh had been breached, and whoever had broken through had undoubtedly come for him.

At the very least, being freed from the entanglement of those spirit beasts was a welcome development.

"What was that explosion, and what happened to the spirit beasts?" Seeing the spirit beasts retreat, Lin Yanghao revealed his hiding place.

Everything that had just transpired had naturally not escaped his eyes.

"The outer array has been broken, and as for those spirit beasts, I have no idea what has become of them," Gushi said.

"Then what are you standing around for? Why aren't we running?" Lin Yanghao naturally realized that their pursuers had arrived, meaning that if they did not flee immediately, they would soon find themselves in mortal peril.

"There is nowhere left for us to run. The old immortals of the Pill Sect have arrived, and those people will locate us in a matter of moments. Instead of fleeing, I might as well use the time before they arrive to recover my strength," Gushi said before seating himself cross-legged on the ground.

Hearing this, Lin Yanghao abandoned the thought of flight. Attempting to escape under the watchful eyes of a group of ancient monsters was an absolute impossibility.

Thus, following Gushi's advice and sitting down to recover truly seemed the wisest course of action.

"What shall we do then?"

"When soldiers come, we block them with armor; when water comes, we block it with earth," Gushi replied with utter calm.