Chapter 174

Chapter 174: To the Inner Ring

"Flap, flap, flap…" As soon as he entered, blades shot toward him from all directions.

These blades were thinner than paper, roughly the size of an adult’s palm, covered in pale blue frost patterns, and were dozens of times sharper than the Golden Sword Talisman!

Li Hui didn’t even glance at them; he didn’t have the time to look. With a flicker of his form, he dashed far ahead, leaving the icy blades behind.

Inside the red fortress, it resembled the Blood Phantasm Maze. It was clear that the Hongmo Sect had put a lot of effort into replicating the labyrinth to test the cultivators, and even the main hall and tunnel paths were quite similar.

The Blood Phantasm Maze holds blood energy, while the red fortress harbors ground energy!

The Blood Phantasm Maze has corpse energy, and within the red fortress lies toxic gas! The corpse energy cultivates corpse moths, while the toxic gas nourishes poison bees.

Li Hui had plowed through the Blood Phantasm Maze, and now with some progress in practicing the Ideal Body, he moved exceptionally smoothly. Whenever he encountered a formation, he would pierce through before it could fully activate.

Each time he used the Ideal Body, he felt that alongside the lightning power from the Cow Shock Stone, a massive magnetic force had also increased within him. This magnetic force could be transformed into attraction or repulsion at will.

After stepping into the grand formation, he was able to discern its strengths and weaknesses between attraction and repulsion, thereby choosing the most suitable path to navigate through it.

Li Hui believed that if he could improve his cultivation further, he could use the peculiar repulsion and attraction within him to interfere with and alter the formations. Perhaps he could fully unleash the Dragon Claw pattern, Dragon Horn pattern, and Dragon Body pattern, combined with the Heavenly and Earthly Arrays to achieve this.

So far, outsiders had never seen the complete picture of his spiritual patterns, and there was a good reason for his caution; who knew if there was a way to strip them away?

Cultivators possess endless means, and even something like the Fortune Ascending Talisman could appear. Seizing someone’s fortune is as common as having home-cooked meals. Was it surprising to seize Upper Tier Spirit Motion Marks? A common person is innocent, but possessing treasures can lead to trouble; whether he heard or witnessed such things, it happened far too often. If he obtained superior spirit marks, he could take down a Condense Essence Stage practitioner, yet revealing them would be a problem!

Caution comes without mistakes; Li Hui would never forget how his elder brother died. A brave man did not perish on the battlefield but fell victim to poison from the world’s people. Was that unjust? Was that wronged? This was a bloody lesson, etched into his heart.

“Boom, boom, boom, boom…” Four presences charged in with a host of Beastmen entering the red fortress. Though they lacked the formation-breaking skills of the Ideal Body, their Condense Essence Stage cultivation was a force to be reckoned with. In the face of absolute power, what did ground energy or toxic gas matter? They were all swept away.

“We found that kid; hurry!”

At the same time, Li Hui discovered the teleportation array. Without saying a word, he stepped onto it, hearing the roar of wind behind him.

“Buzz, buzz, buzz…” The formation activated, and the lights danced before his eyes.

The Li Family cultivators arrived incredibly fast; the strength of a Condense Essence Stage practitioner was beyond anything a Spirit Motion Stage cultivator could imagine. Moreover, they used magical treasures to accelerate their movement, almost catching Li Hui, only a handful of moments away.

The teleportation array dimmed, and the four Li cultivators exchanged furious glances.

“Unbelievable! He got away. Use Miao Jade to accelerate the recovery speed of the teleportation array. We’ll teleport over in ten moments and see where he runs this time.”

At that moment, in the Inner Ring of Wan Nest Island, near the west slope of Xiliang Mountain, swirling lights contracted, revealing three figures.

“Boom!” As Li Hui appeared, the Heavenly and Earthly Arrays operated at high speed, pulling in red, orange, yellow, and green spiritual energies from all directions. The Bamboo Box behind him vibrated, almost shaking apart.

“Whew, whew, whew…”

Chef Zhao and Huo Qiniang breathed heavily, feeling an overwhelming pressure surround them. Instantly, light patterns erupted from their bodies, and they even unlocked a new spiritual mark based on their existing foundation. Luckily, Li Hui’s presence felt like an endless pit; while absorbing spiritual energy, it also reduced the spiritual pressure. Otherwise, with their foundations, it would be difficult to walk in the Inner Ring.

Surveying the surroundings, they saw stone carvings, withered vines, ancient trees, and black soil under a gloomy sky. There weren’t any restrictive halos in the air or on the ground, making the place look extraordinarily clean and refreshing, which left the three feeling somewhat disoriented.

“Um, is there really no restrictions here?” Chef Zhao asked, astonished.

“It’s not a lack of restrictions but rather that the area is too vast for us to even see the outlines of the formation rings,” Li Hui warned gravely. “You two be ready; the moment we step out of the teleportation array, we’ll need to bolt toward the purple fortress. In a few days, the Demon Wall will descend, and we must hide within the purple fortress to avoid misfortune, lest we get hit.”

“Ah! Where’s the purple fortress? I don’t see it!” Chef Zhao looked bewildered.

“You will see it,” Li Hui said with a brilliant smile as he inhaled the fresh air deeply. The atmosphere of the Inner Ring area was so rich in spiritual energy, with red, orange, yellow, and green energies slowly nurturing their bodies.

Red represents the Fire Spirit, orange the Earth Spirit, yellow the Gold Spirit, and green the Wood Spirit. However, they weren’t simply fire or earth spirits; each color was mixed with hundreds of types of corresponding spirits, such as Qiantian Fire Spirit, Liyue Fire Spirit, and Xunlong Fire Spirit.

The more complex the spiritual energy was, the more beneficial it was for Li Hui! Additionally, the twenty pieces of purple crystals in the Bamboo Box were functioning under the Miao Jade array design, enhancing the filtration effectiveness of the spiritual energy.

Under the guidance of the Heavenly and Earthly Arrays, all the meridians in his body only absorbed the trace spiritual energy beneficial for enhancing his potential; any excess was stored up, waiting for his body to unlock new vitality before using it.

The treasure cabinet’s true marvel lay in the fact that sometimes, even if he acquired a tiny bit of unique spiritual energy, its benefits for the body were no less than consuming miraculous alchemy.

Therefore, thanks to Wan Nest Island’s Inner Ring, any potential consumed by forcefully practicing the Ideal Body might rapidly be replenished, and he even faintly felt an urge to advance. It seemed he was close to unlocking the eighth spiritual mark.

The eighth spiritual mark should be unlocked at the back of the neck, while the ninth would open at the dantian position. Although they might overlap with the Dragon Body pattern, it would ultimately open in the dantian, just as it did for everyone else.

“Get ready; those Li Family cultivators will certainly find a way to come after us. There’s no time to delay.”

Even though he felt a tingling warmth and comfort inside him, time was urgent. The Heavenly and Earthly Arrays would automatically break down hundreds of types of spiritual energy, and Li Hui could no longer afford to indulge in their wonders.

“Let’s go!” Just as the three stepped out of the teleportation array, thunderous winds surged simultaneously.

The wind roared like a dragon, and the thunder crashed like a tiger, charging from both sides as if they had real forms.

Let alone Spirit Motion Stage cultivators, even Concentrating Spirit Stage practitioners here would likely be ripped apart by the wind and thunder. Yet, Li Hui charged through unimpeded.

“Bang…” Upon landing, the three not only evaded the wind dragon and thunder tiger but also avoided the fiery lotus that soared into the air behind them.

Li Hui let out a light shout, and dragon horns sprouted from his forehead. A brilliant light flickered in his eyes, enhancing his insight and thought process to an extraordinary level, making him appear exceptionally fierce, like a treasured blade being drawn.

“What a complex formation and restrictions, interlinked and pressing down step by step… The purple fortress is…” His form suddenly faded away, and the sound of “hiss, hiss” echoed as a few black ice needles, launched from an unknown source, pierced the ground. This was supposed to be the teleportation array’s greatest attack, but it missed completely.