Lady Cultivator

This wasn’t Mo Tiange’s first time fighting a fifth rank demonic beast, but this was indeed her first time fighting underwater.

From a distance, Ren Yufeng and Xiang Zhiyang were making a mad dash over. It was unclear what kind of fleeing technique they used, but their speed was unexpectedly faster now than when they were on land. Presumably, Zhengfa Sect cultivators were good at water element magic, so using Fleeing Water Technique underwater was perfect for them.

While the two people continued to run over, they shouted, “Formation!”

Lu Rongsheng immediately brandished his wooden sword and shouted, “Open the formation!”

The seven of them simultaneously cast their spells. Glittering rays emerged on the surface of the protective barrier, forming a small gap which allowed Ren Yufeng and Xiang Zhiyang to fly into the formation.

Lu Rongsheng shouted again, “Close the formation!”

The small gap emitted a spiritual light and in a flash, the gap disappeared.

Right after the protective barrier closed, the breath of the Water Carp Beast violently surged towards them. For a moment, the ten people inside the protective barrier were all pale.

Although they had long pondered how to deal with this demonic beast, its rank was still equal to the Core Formation realm; as Foundation Building cultivators, they still had a hard time maintaining their composure when faced with its gushing, formidable momentum.

Ren Yufeng shouted, “Junior Martial Brothers, stay calm! Our Seven Stars Vanishing Formation will definitely be able to block it!”

By the time he finished speaking, the Water Carp Beast already spotted them. Demonic beasts typically relied more on their instincts and since the Water Carp Beast was already infuriated; it immediately went to knock its head on the barrier upon spotting them!

Mo Tiange forced herself to remain calm. She watched from inside the formation. The Water Carp Beast was larger than the ten of them together, and its whole body was as dark as ink. It looked similar to normal carps, but it had a gigantic head, a black mouth and crisscrossing teeth. It was indeed… terrifyingly ugly!

As the Water Carp Beast dashed towards them headfirst, the momentum of a fifth rank demonic beast gushed violently, and Mo Tiange almost thought they’d be swallowed by it. However, it was blocked by the blue protective barrier—the moment the demonic beast slammed into the barrier, the blue light on the surface of the barrier glinted, but it managed to block the demonic beast in the end.

Upon seeing what happened, not only Mo Tiange, but even Ren Yufeng and the others also sighed with relief. Since they laid the formation, they were naturally confident about its effectiveness. Nevertheless, their confidence still needed to be validated by reality. Now they saw that it really managed to block the Water Carp Beast, smiles finally emerged on their faces.

“Junior Martial Brothers and Sisters! You’ve seen it for yourself; we should act according to our plan now!”

Everyone sounded their agreement then held fast to their respective positions. Ren Yufeng said to Mo Tiange, “Junior Martial Sister Ye, that Water Carp Beast has a very powerful spell which has a long buffer time between each use. When this spell passes, we’ll temporarily open the formation, and you’ll have to attack it with all your strength.”

“Alright.” That wasn’t hard, but… She thought for a moment then asked Ren Yufeng, “Senior Martial Brother Ren, when we open the formation, will we…”

“Junior Martial Sister Ye only needs to believe us!” Before she could ask her question, Ren Yufeng cut her short. He was watching the Water Carp Beast nervously and simply couldn’t bother to answer Mo Tiange’s question; his arrogance from the first time they met was now on full display unconsciously.

Mo Tiange furrowed her brows but said nothing. With her current status at Xuanqing School, there weren’t many people who could talk to her like that. She was Lord Daoist Jinghe’s disciple, so who would dare to trouble her? Ren Yufeng’s temper really wasn’t good, but she wondered—was his strength enough to justify his temper?

Just as she was deep in thought, she heard Ren Yufeng shouting loudly, “Now! Open the formation!”

Lu Rongsheng immediately waved the wooden sword in his hand. “Open the formation!”

In a flash, a small opening appeared in the protective barrier above them.

Ren Yufeng once again shouted, “Attack!”

Mo Tiange raised her hand, causing the Shuttle of Flying Apsara to fly out of the formation through the small opening, turning into a golden beam which shot towards the Water Carp Beast. At the same time, Ren Yufang’s and Xiang Zhiyang’s magic tools also flew out, but theirs were only flying swords. Presumably, they hadn’t had time to refine magic tools with other elemental attributes, so they used common flying swords.

Ren Yufeng’s and Xiang Zhiyang’s flying swords quickly pierced the Water Carp Beast, but its skin was very tough—the two flying swords only created one white scratch mark and simply couldn’t pierce through its body.

Mo Tiange’s Shuttle of Flying Apsara moved. A golden beam rotated around the Water Carp Beast and surrounded it. At that moment, the two flying swords had already returned to their owners in defeat. Ren Yufeng shouted, “Junior Martial Sister Ye, quick!”

Mo Tiange didn’t even spare him a glance. The moment the golden beam was right under the Water Carp Beast’s head, it suddenly pierced its body. The Water Carp Beast howled in pain and suddenly went berserk.

On the other hand, Ren Yufeng and the others were beside themselves with delight. Mo Tiange’s magic tool was at least able to injure the demonic beast, so their trip wasn’t in vain after all.

“Junior Martial Sister Ye!” Ren Yufeng shouted, “Everything depends on you!”

Instead of answering, Mo Tiange took out a pile of high level talismans then hurled them forward.

They then saw the sand in the water outside bubbling violently; Mo Tiange had actually thrown soil element talismans!

The Water Carp Beast was affiliated with the water element and soil subdued water; these talismans targeted its weakness perfectly.

The Water Carp Beast was furious. All of a sudden, it swung its tail, hitting the protective barrier and causing the blue barrier to shake. Lu Rongsheng, who was maintaining the formation, vomited blood. Even though they’d long been prepared, the furious attack of a fifth rank demonic beast still wasn’t easy to withstand.

In its mad state, the Water Carp Beast appeared to be preparing to use some kind of magic. Ren Yufeng shouted, “Stop attacking! Close the formation!”

Once Mo Tiange heard what he said, she moved her spiritual aura to withdraw the Shuttle of Flying Apsara and right after, the formation was closed once again.

Because it could neither see nor hit their group, the Water Carp Beast’s fury once again flourished and it swung its tail, striking the protective barrier with all its might. As it delivered multiple strikes, Lu Rongsheng vomited several mouthfuls of blood.

Upon seeing this, Ren Yufeng promptly commanded, “Junior Martial Brother Xiang, switch places with Junior Martial Brother Lu!”

Xiang Zhiyang grunted his compliance and walked to Lu Rongsheng’s position. He then took out his magic weapon, which was a jade tablet.

Their current situation made Mo Tiange frown. Xiang Zhiyang took over Lu Rongsheng’s position. Lu Rongsheng was of no help to them for the time being due to his heavy injuries. That being the case, the only ones actively helping out with the offense now were only Ren Yufeng and her. Ren Yufeng’s flying sword could only damage the demonic beast to a limited extent, so they’d have to rely on just her to handle the beast… Honestly speaking, Mo Tiange wasn’t at all confident she could do it.

Nonetheless, even if she wanted to retreat, their current situation made it impossible for her to do so. She had to clench her teeth and persist.

“Junior Martial Sister Ye.” Between the attacks, Ren Yufeng glanced at her hands and said, “Your magic tool is quite impressive.”

Mo Tiange said, “My master bestowed it upon me when I succeeded in building my foundation. Fortunately, it comes in handy.”

“Is that so?” Ren Yufeng asked, “Junior Martial Sister Ye, which cultivator from Xuanqing School is your master? I traveled to Kunwu when I was young, so I’m familiar with some elders in Xuanqing School; I might be familiar with your master.”

Mo Tiange chuckled and said vaguely, “I’m a disciple of the Clear Spring Peak. My master hasn’t left the mountain for years; Senior Martial Brother Ren most likely wouldn’t recognize him.”

“Oh…” Her answer was vague, but Ren Yufeng was also a perceptive person. He could see that she didn’t want to talk too much about it, so he stopped asking—he just glanced at her pensively several times before continuing to watch the Water Carp Beast outside the barrier.

Zhengfa Sect’s Seven Stars Vanishing Formation was exceptional. Under the wrath of the Water Carp, the formation still managed to firmly withstand its attacks.

Their second chance at opening the formation came very soon. This time, because the Water Carp Beast was already injured, Ren Yufeng’s flying sword finally had an impact; it could now leave some light cut marks when it struck the Water Carp Beast’s body.

Mo Tiange still attacked using her Shuttle of Flying Apsara, but in between, she also threw some flying needles and small throwing knives. Unfortunately, the Water Carp Beast’s skin was really thick, so aside from the Shuttle of Flying Apsara, the other weapons couldn’t really cause any significant damage to it. As for talismans, she used several high level talismans before and didn’t have many left now, so she didn’t want to waste them anymore.

After a while, the Water Carp Beast once again lost its temper, so they closed the formation again.

This repeated several times. The Water Carp Beast could do nothing to them and suffered countless minor injuries, so in the end, it gradually lost its strength, making its movements slow down.

Seeing this, Ren Yufeng said with delight, “Everyone, buck up! The Water Carp Beast’s movements are slowing down; we can soon tire it to death!”

After hearing this, the Zhengfa Sect cultivators who were arduously guarding the Eyes of Formation shifted their eyes at the Water Carp Beast. Everyone was invigorated; even Lu Rongsheng, who was sitting cross-legged to recuperate, also opened his eyes.

Xiang Zhiyang, who’d taken over Lu Rongsheng’s task of managing the formation, also raised his head to look, but he then said weakly, “Senior Martial Brother Ren… it has to work this time because I won’t be able to hold on for much longer…”

For formations like this Defense-Strengthening Formation, the person presiding over the formation had to bear a huge burden, much more than everyone else did. In their group, including Mo Tiange, there were only three middle stage cultivators and one late stage Foundation Building cultivator. Ren Yufeng had to direct the others, and Mo Tiange didn’t understand the techniques used by Zhengfa Sect, so only Lu Rongsheng and Xiang Zhiyang could preside over this formation. Since Lu Rongsheng already exhausted his strength, there was no one who could replace Xiang Zhiyang.

Xiang Zhiyang’s current condition made Ren Yufeng mutter with hesitation for a while before he said, “If Junior Martial Brother Xiang cannot hold on any longer, the next time we open the formation, we better go all out and kill that Water Carp Beast!”

His words were actually directed at Mo Tiange, who was meditating at the moment. Although she didn’t need to continuously expend spiritual aura, attacking a fifth rank demonic beast would still cost her a tremendous amount of spiritual aura, so she had to make the most of this short period of time to recover her spiritual aura as soon as possible.

Mo Tiange opened her eyes and stood up. “Senior Martial Brother Ren, I don’t have many talismans left. I’m really not confident that I’ll be able to kill it directly the next time we open the formation.”

“Rest assured, Junior Martial Sister Ye,” Ren Yufeng said anxiously, “You just need to use your talismans. When we find the treasures, we’ll definitely give you a bigger share.”

“…” Mo Tiange wanted to say that it wasn’t what she meant, but upon more careful consideration, she said nothing more. She still had another killing move which she hadn’t used because she felt they hadn’t yet reached the point where she had to. Nevertheless, she couldn’t worry about that now. Aside from her, all those Zhengfa Sect cultivators had no effective methods for fighting the Water Carp Beast; if she didn’t use her last move and their protective barrier was broken, she would be in a very tricky situation.

Just as she was deep in thought, the formation was once again opened. Ren Yufeng shouted, “Junior Martial Sister Ye, you’ve got to go all out!” After he spoke, his flying sword took the lead in their attack.

Mo Tiange didn’t hesitate. She hurled the Shuttle of Flying Apsara forward and at the same time, her divine sense, which had become corporeal after it was strengthened by the Soul-Refining Art, was also stretched out!

The corporeal divine sense brought about by the Soul-Refining Art was extremely fine and completely invisible, so the fifth rank Water Carp Beast only sensed that there was something pouncing on it. It swung its fins, trying to beat the divine sense away, but the corporeality of the divine sense wasn’t equal to other traits, so when it swung its fin, Mo Tiange immediately let the corporeal divine sense scatter and transform into ordinary divine sense.

The Water Carp Beast’s eyes darted around in confusion. In the next second, however, Mo Tiange’s divine sense once again converged and ruthlessly lashed out at the demonic beast.

“Glub!” The Water Carp Beast groaned. Its primordial spirit was struck head-on!

Dealing with the Soul-Refining Art was actually very simple. One just had to guard their mind and not use their divine sense—that way, their primordial spirit would be concealed deep within their sea of knowledge where no one could enter at will. Nonetheless, whether it was cultivators or demonic beasts, both instinctively had to use their divine sense during battle. Their divine sense was essentially their eyes, so how could they possibly not use this tool? For demonic beasts especially, they didn’t have any intelligence; using divine sense was just instinctual.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Water Carp Beast’s primordial spirit just received a direct strike, Mo Tiange continued on with her attack. She stretched her corporeal divine sense forward again to pierce the Water Carp Beast and at the same time, she also controlled the Shuttle of Flying Apsara, pretending she was going to use it to attack.