Chapter 988: Attack on Emerald Cove P2: Aksai’s Unavoidable Negligence

This time, the halberd’s blade shone so brightly that the surrounding sea was illuminated by its green radiance.

Countless wind currents converged around its edge, compressing into a terrifying cutting force that made even the distant Swordfall cultivators feel a faint chill.

The halberd descended with enough power and momentum to split a mountain in half, from top to bottom.

BOOOOOOM!

The resulting impact shook the entire region.

The gray dome caved inward more dramatically than before, and the rolling fog surged in every direction. For an instant, the enormous barrier looked as though it would finally shatter beneath the overwhelming force.

But the formation endured.

The gray fog gathered toward the point of impact, resisting the halberd’s blade until the tremendous pressure gradually dissipated. Then, with a violent rebound, the dome repelled the final strike.

The halberd disintegrated into countless streams of pale-green wind.

At nearly the same moment, the formation flags surrounding Rumaal, Anaah, and Mirelle began to crack. Fine fractures spread across their surfaces before the flags crumbled into tiny fragments. The fragments were immediately swept away by the residual wind currents, dissolving into nothingness before they could fall into the sea.

The Threefold Wind Halberd Formation had collapsed.

Rumaal lowered his hands, his expression turning thoroughly ugly. Anaah and Mirelle returned to his side, both of them looking toward the gray dome with grave expressions.

They had used a powerful combined formation operated by three Lord-level cultivators who were all close to the peak stage, yet they had failed to breach the island’s defenses. Worse still, their formation flags had been destroyed in the process, leaving them with nothing to show for their efforts.

The gray dome, meanwhile, had already returned to its original state. The rolling fog continued to embrace Emerald Cove Island as though nothing had happened.

Not a single opening had appeared.

Rumaal stared at the barrier in disbelief.

"What an absurdly tough formation! And it isn’t even drawing excessively from the Spirit Vein. How powerful would this formation become if it actually reached the 4th Order?"

He had initially expected the island’s defenses to be formidable, but he hadn’t anticipated this level of resilience. The Threefold Wind Halberd Formation was powerful enough to threaten the defensive arrays employed by some of Orveth’s major native sects with a single use, even when operating at only half its peak offensive power.

Yet Emerald Cove Island’s formation had endured three consecutive strikes without suffering any visible damage. In fact, the only formation that had collapsed was his own.

"This formation surpasses the defensive formations used by the so-called Big Five of Orveth," Anaah remarked, her expression unusually serious. "I’ve studied the protective arrays of several major sects in Orveth in detail, and none of them could withstand three strikes of that magnitude without showing some damage. Yet this one has returned to its original state as if nothing happened.

"This formation... It doesn’t look like it belongs to Orveth, either in the past or the present. Forget the Empire; such a formation shouldn’t even exist in the Eternal Sea. I don’t think anything like it has ever existed in this region, even if we go as far back as the Mad Immortal’s invasion."

Mirelle studied the gray dome in silence before adding, "What’s more concerning is that we still don’t understand how it works. We struck it three times, and it responded by repelling the attacks. But I couldn’t determine how it absorbed the force or where the energy went afterward. It was as if the formation had swallowed our attacks and simply spat them back out."

Her words made Rumaal’s expression even uglier.

He had hoped that the three strikes would reveal something useful about the formation’s structure. Instead, they had learned almost nothing beyond the fact that it was extraordinarily difficult to break through.

The truth was that this wasn’t a recent upgrade Aksai had hastily made to the formation. This was the Devil’s Den Formation’s natural defensive power, which had risen to such an absurd level after the formation reached the late stage of the 3rd Order and advanced several steps beyond it.

As for why Varesh and the other imperial cultivators had been able to enter the Devil’s Den, it was simply because Aksai had allowed them inside so that he could trap and kill them using the formation’s various offensive and isolating capabilities.

One had to admit that Aksai had become rather laid-back about using concepts from other worlds in Dadangar without ever facing any repercussions. This wasn’t entirely his fault, though.

The enemies Aksai had faced before the imperial invasion were powerful in their own ways, but none of them was as well-informed as the core members of the Empire’s major factions. Aksai’s danger-sensing capabilities hadn’t truly been put to the test in Orveth.

This was because Orveth’s native cultivators lacked the expertise and access to various cultivation legacies needed to identify Aksai’s belongings as foreign objects that didn’t belong to Dadangar’s current civilization.

This was why Aksai had even dared to use the spatial capabilities of the Enchanted Everwood Farm right in front of Kalina. His experiences with the native cultivators had unintentionally caused him to lower his guard. After killing Kalina, Aksai had resolved not to reveal his trump cards in front of imperial cultivators unless absolutely necessary, lest more information about him be divulged.

However, Aksai could never have imagined that his use of the Devil’s Den Formation would attract even more attention and provoke even greater greed than his use of a supposedly 4th Order spatial treasure.

The formation’s mysterious nature, combined with its astonishing defensive capabilities, made the entire island seem far more suspicious than the intelligence reports had suggested. Yet a place with such an extraordinary defensive formation couldn’t be judged by its apparent standing alone.

Emerald Cove Island had remained relatively obscure for decades, even after Aksai became a Core Formation Lord. Its local cultivators weren’t particularly famous, and its influence had never been comparable to that of Orveth’s major sects.

One had to remember that the Emerald Cove Guild was a relatively recent organization established by Aksai. It had only just begun to make the island’s forces known when the imperial forces invaded.

Rumaal narrowed his eyes at the gray dome.

What exactly is hidden on this island?

He had come here to find Aksai Everwood and recover the jade slips Kalina had taken with her. However, after witnessing the formation’s resilience firsthand, he couldn’t help wondering whether there was more to Emerald Cove Island—or Aksai himself—than the information gathered by the Empire’s intelligence networks had revealed.

Perhaps the island had simply remained hidden because nobody had ever been powerful enough, or curious enough, to investigate it properly.

Or perhaps someone had deliberately ensured that it stayed that way.

Either possibility was troubling.

Beside him, Kanis watched the gray dome with an increasingly fascinated expression. Rather than being discouraged by the failure of Rumaal’s attack, the young Half-step Nascent Soul True Sword Cultivator seemed even more interested in the formation than before.

His Sword Intent stirred faintly around him.

"Well, well," he murmured, a greedy smile spreading across his face. "It seems I was right to come here."

He turned toward Rumaal, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.

"Friend Rumaal, it looks like we’ll have to put in a little more effort if we want to get our hands on this formation. But before we combine our forces, shall I give it a try on my own first?"

Rumaal begrudgingly nodded his head, forcing himself to maintain a nonchalant expression as though the failure to breach Emerald Cove Island’s formation was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

He couldn’t afford to show his frustration in front of the Swordfall cultivators. As a peak Lord from King Runiye’s faction, he represented one of the eight major powers of the Shinayin Empire. If word spread that he, along with his two wives, had failed to breach the defensive formation of an obscure island in Orveth, it would inevitably raise questions about his faction’s strength and preparedness.

Worse still, it would affect their share of the spoils.

The island’s formation was so formidable that it was difficult to believe Emerald Cove Island possessed nothing valuable enough to justify its existence. Whether the formation concealed some extraordinary inheritance or merely protected an enormous stockpile of Spirit cultivation resources, one thing was certain: the island was worth plundering.

And if King Runiye’s faction couldn’t even breach its defenses, how could they claim a fair share of the spoils?

Damn it! No wonder my dear Kalina was killed by this crafty island owner. Someone possessing such a type of formation would indeed have means to protect himself and surprise his enemies.

Rumaal cursed inwardly but kept his expression composed.

He had already used the strongest offensive formation available to him, and it had failed to accomplish anything. The Threefold Wind Halberd Formation had been powerful enough to threaten the defensive formations of Orveth’s major sects, yet it hadn’t even managed to leave a visible mark on Emerald Cove Island’s barrier.

There was little point in trying other methods. They would be even less effective, and wasting more resources would only make him look worse in front of the Swordfall cultivators.