Chapter 928: The Immortal Lord Arrives!

"How absolutely insolent this brat is!"

"Absurd! How could the worldly ants of your sort ever imagine our wisdom, our celestial arts, and our Daoist techniques?" Beside the Exalted One of Sublime Dharma, the middle-aged man in grey robes also spoke in rage. "To dare such arrogance, do they truly believe our Eight Celestial Clans have no one left?!"

He let out a resounding shout: "Fellow Daoists, is there anyone willing to go down with me to break this piece of trash formation?!"

"This seat shall accompany you!" the Exalted One of Sublime Dharma declared proudly.

"Fellow Daoist Guyin, how could this affair proceed without including this old man?!"

Upon the dense clouds, three immortals drifted forth. Aside from the middle-aged man in grey and the Exalted One of Sublime Dharma, there was another—a lean, elegant old man with a head of pure hoary hair.

At this moment, he clearly intended to display his cultivation. Instantly, his robes billowed wildly, and an exceptionally domineering surge of celestial spiritual power came roaring out, sweeping across the eight wildernesses!

Everyone around, even the Exalted One of Sublime Dharma, revealed a solemn expression: "Fellow Daoist Cangjie... after all these years of not meeting, your cultivation has actually progressed to such a degree?!"

The old man with hoary hair stroked his beard and laughed loudly: "A slight advancement, merely a slight advancement."

The surrounding elders and exalted ones immediately offered their congratulations: "To think that Fellow Daoist has already taken a step ahead of us, truly celebratory! Most celebratory indeed!"

"It seems Heaven is aiding us in breaking this formation!" The Exalted One of Sublime Dharma sneered. "Fellow Daoists, let us enter the formation right now to have a look, and see what manner of existence this evil formation truly is!"

"Exactly my thoughts!"

With a grand laugh, the three of them each unleashed their techniques. In the blink of an eye, they transformed into three long rainbows and entered the formation.

"This time, we shall let these mortals witness the true methods of the Celestial Houses," the white-haired old man, the Exalted One Cangjie, spoke.

"This seat has brought along many rare treasures specifically to deal with that demon monkey this time," the middle-aged man in grey, the Exalted One Guyin, also remarked. "Who would have thought that the demon monkey, having caught wind of it from somewhere and likely knowing our might, wouldn't dare show its face. Today, it seems we can only first operate on these so-called Ten Celestial Lords!"

With their hands clasped behind their backs, they walked forward within the formation until they reached a place where a plaque hung above the formation gate, bearing the inscription: Soul-Dropping Formation.

"Well said!" The Exalted One Cangjie spoke coldly. "The creator of this formation actually dared to let it block our path so blatantly; they are truly seeking their own doom! This old man shall enter first! Let us see what capabilities you possess!"

Having spoken, he gave a great flick of his sleeve. The clouds and mists before him swirled, suddenly coalescing beneath his feet into a white jade bridge that seemed both illusory and real. The white jade bridge extended onward, actually carrying him straight toward the interior of the formation!

"Splendid Daoist magic!" The Exalted One of Sublime Dharma could not help but praise in astonishment. "Transforming the Innate Pure Qi into a jade bridge keeps all evils at bay and renders ten thousand malice incapable of invading. Though within the formation, you remain untainted by filth. Let us see how this Soul-Dropping Formation of yours will execute its craft now!"

The three of them stepped onto the jade bridge together and entered the formation. Within, they beheld miserable white banners fluttering amidst a dark and gloomy sky.

Only dots of bright lamps flickered, like starlight in a dark night, or like wandering ghosts in the black of night, drifting along...

Upon the earth, hexagram inscriptions intersected, black waves rolled, and layers of lamp fire burned. A Daoist sat cross-legged upon an Eight Trigrams Platform, shaking a white banner in his hand, as ten grass figures stood separated in ten directions.

The miserable white candlelight flickered, casting a deeply eerie glow upon the grass figures.

As the white banner in the Daoist's hand shook, a sinister wind instantly arose from all sides within the entire formation. The sinister wind carried the black sand from the ground and swirled onto the jade bridge. Immediately, a plume of black smoke billowed from the white jade bridge. Within the foul black smoke, it was as if fierce ghosts were howling. The moment that sinister wind merely brushed their faces, not only was it difficult to exert their entire divine powers, but the three of them stumbled on the spot, their vision turning black, nearly tumbling off the bridge.

That bizarre, sinister wind invaded their bodies, penetrating every opening. The celestial spiritual power within their bodies seemed like mere decoration; their life's learning and entire divine powers could not exert the slightest effect here! They could not even begin to fathom how this sinister Qi could possibly be so bizarre!

That breath did not invade the physical body nor enter the tendons and meridians, yet it made the souls of the three men hazy and muddled, as if about to leave their bodies!

At this moment, the three of them practically shuddered instantly, their faces entirely covered in horror!

Though there were ten thousand kinds of Daoist arts and divine powers in the world, they had never seen such a bizarre and fierce formation, nor had they ever witnessed such a vicious, life-claiming method!

Throughout the entire formation, it felt as though at this very moment, the vitality of all who entered was disintegrating, and the fierce Qi of heaven and earth was surging madly toward the place where they stood.

"Not good!" The expressions of the three shifted again and again. The strangeness of this formation completely surpassed their imagination! If they dallied for another moment, even gods and immortals would have their souls hooked and spirits captured!

Almost simultaneously, the three of them all sacrificed their strongest Dharma treasures, circulated the celestial spiritual power of their entire bodies, and flew toward the outside of the formation in absolute terror.

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!"

Outside the formation, the immortals were still discussing when the three would break it, when they suddenly saw three figures shoot out from within like streaks of rapid lightning, looking almost scared out of their wits, their faces as pale as golden paper, gasping for breath uncontrollably.

Startled, the crowd of elders and exalted ones asked repeatedly: "Fellow Daoists, how did it go?"

Once their breathing settled slightly, the three of them held their breath and focused their minds to inspect themselves. Their faces had originally been deathly pale, but after an inspection, they finally spoke: "I thought those few individuals possessed some real ability, yet they are nothing more than this—merely making an empty show of strength!"

"Indeed!" The middle-aged man in grey, the Exalted One Guyin, said. "That formation is bizarre, but it cannot harm the likes of us yet. However, it does possess some tricks. Everyone can..."

At this very moment, within that Soul-Dropping Formation, three miserable white lamps floated and suspended in the sky. Suddenly, one lamp abruptly extinguished!

Before the Exalted One Guyin could finish his words, he suddenly stumbled violently, his face turning as white as a paper-doll made of paper!

"Brother Guyin! What is wrong with you?!"

"It is nothing!" The Exalted One Guyin shook his head and said. "Perhaps it is because I overexerted my magic power when exiting the formation."

Three days later, as the three were discussing the method to break the formation, they actually almost fell asleep right before it.

Another ten-odd days passed, and the lamps of the Soul-Dropping Formation had already mostly extinguished.

On this day, the Exalted One of Sublime Dharma was originally discussing the strategy to break the formation with others when his vision suddenly went dark.

He was seen devoid of color, collapsing sideways onto the ground, unexpectedly like a cold corpse, practically without any breath left!

Such a bizarre manner of death caused the hair of almost all the Eight Celestial Clans to stand on end on the spot!

"This... what is going on?!" The immortals gathered almost entirely around the three, having witnessed with their own eyes the three suddenly dying violent deaths without almost any omen!

It had not even been three days since they descended to this lower realm, and not only had the Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Generals all fallen, but even... three elders and exalted ones had perished in such a bizarrely violent manner.

"The souls within their bodies have been drawn away by someone!" An elder, his face frighteningly grim, inspected the three and said.

"What?!" Hearing these words at this moment, almost everyone, including the Eight Celestial Clans present and the twenty-odd exalted ones and elders, retreated several steps as if fearing snakes and scorpions!

Their eyes looked toward the formation below as if looking at a swath of life-claiming fierce ghosts; their gazes had completely changed.

The Thirty-Six Heavenly Spiritual Generals and the Spiritual Generals of the Four Directions had merely entered the formation to investigate, yet one by one, they did not even have the chance to exit, all perishing within the formation!

Sublime Dharma, Guyin, and Cangjie—three exalted ones with profound magic power—had been out of the formation for barely a month, yet they actually died so bizarrely on the spot!

From their eyes, a trace of terror and endless panic could already be seen!

Such a matter, if spoken aloud, perhaps even they themselves would not believe it, yet the fact lay right before their eyes, leaving them no choice but to believe.

Despite their heaven-reaching cultivation, at this very moment, they were virtually at their wits' end against such a formation. Not only had they been delayed here for over a month, but they had also suffered disastrous losses!

...

The heavens and earth suddenly split open, as if the primal chaos was newly divided.

A burst of dense, auspicious celestial mist and ten thousand wonderful celestial sounds drifted down ethereally, causing heaven and earth to resonate in harmony, as seven-colored rainbow lights arose and celestial phenomena were born!

Looking up into the depths of heaven and earth, one could see the crowd of immortals standing in attendance, lined up in a single file, and above them sat a figure wearing a feathered crown, riding a golden chariot engraved with dragons and dancing phoenixes, unparalleled in gold and jade, whose radiant countenance brought forth the colors of antiquity, and whose nobility shared its name with heaven and earth.

A gaze descended from the nine heavens.

"The Celestial Lord... could it be... the Celestial Lord?!"

"To think it is the arrival of the Celestial Lord?!" All the immortals of the Eight Celestial Clans broke into cries and shouts at this moment.

All the original terror and horrifying emotions instantly transformed into a burst of pleasant surprise and excitement at this moment, and a few individuals even said severely: "With the Celestial Lord arriving, this formation will be broken in an instant!"

Only a detached voice was heard in the sky, saying: "The Celestial Lord has spoken: your celestial tribulation of today was already foreseen ten thousand years ago. A mere trivial Soul-Separating Formation only requires entering the formation to reclaim the souls, and its calamity will resolve itself."

"Today, you are bestowed with the supreme treasure of the Holy Emperor Palace, the Holy Spiritual Golden Seal. You need only invite the golden seal forth to crush this formation to pieces. Break the formation swiftly, and do not delay!"

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Let us write up to here for now... I truly can no longer sustain the cultivation lifestyle of staying up late...

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