Unnamed District Arc, Chapter Ninety-One: The Arrogant Miss Shangguan

So her cultivation had advanced this quickly? She was almost at the Nascent Soul stage.

But if you are Xiaona, then all is well. If you are not, I will personally end your path to immortality.

Zhou Xuanhong looked toward the city lord's residence in Yuan Dong City. His eyes betrayed no emotion, yet those who knew him understood that he was already laying another trap. Who, one wondered, would be the next unlucky soul?

Shangguan Liming and his sister had departed. Not long after they left, someone from the Shangguan family delivered two honorary elder tokens as a gift, and then withdrew without further disturbance.

By then, quite a few passing cultivators had gathered nearby, and cultivators from the shops on either side had come out to watch the commotion. After all, it had been the Shangguan family's young master himself who had received these people. Though their cultivation was not high, anyone could see how much importance the Shangguan family placed on the two of them.

Zhou Xuanhong paid no heed to the gazes around him. He did not bother with conversation, either. There was no need. In any case, he would have no further dealings with them.

As Zhou Xuanhong walked toward the small hill, a vast spiritual sense surged out from his body. Before the hill, the earth was forcibly driven apart by that spiritual sense, carving out a passage and forming a cave.

Excess soil was squeezed outward along the way. He went straight in, quickly reaching the depths at the hill's core, where he excavated a space seven meters high and ten meters across, and also opened a smaller chamber beside it.

At the same time, he took out a pile of low-grade spirit stones from his storage ring and crushed and reassembled them all, forming a table and chairs in the center of the main cave for receiving guests.

By now, many divine senses were probing inward, trying to see what Zhou Xuanhong intended to do, but they were all repelled by a force of rejection. It turned out that without anyone noticing, an anti-sense formation had already been laid around the hill.

What surprised the onlookers even more was that, following the initial third-rank anti-sense formation, a bewildering formation came next, shrouding the entire hill in dense fog so that no one could see within.

Then came the Three Talents Master Formation, an all-purpose offensive and defensive array. The formation's source was the array master himself: when the person stands, the formation rises; when the person leaves, the formation conceals itself. The earth veins served as its foundation, drawing an endless supply of the power of the earth, making it chiefly defensive against enemies; the heavens served as its outlet, gathering the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, making it chiefly offensive for slaying foes.

The Three Talents Master Formation was one of the finest among third-rank formations. Although it could not withstand an attack from a Nascent Soul True Lord, it posed no problem at all for an ordinary Golden Core perfection cultivator. If the formation master had reached a certain level of insight into heaven and earth, then even a Nascent Soul True Lord could not say he could not contend with it for a while.

With this formation revealed, the cultivators watching nearby were all somewhat astonished. The Three Talents Master Formation was indeed quite famous, yet many formation masters could not lay it down at all. Arrays of this sort, which required insight into heaven and earth, were among the very best. However, judging by how quickly this formation had been established, they guessed that Zhou Xuanhong had probably used a formation disc.

Immediately after came a Nine Star Blazing Sun Mother-Child Formation. This array was primarily defensive, yet it possessed a passive counterstrike trait, or rather, it used offense as defense. So long as an attack landed upon the formation, it would instantly be rebounded by the mother-child array, while also carrying a fire-element formation attack. This too was a top-tier third-rank formation.

Then came a spirit-gathering formation for aiding cultivation, a Fire Serpent-Snake Trap Formation for restraining and bewildering opponents, and so on.

Altogether, there were eighteen top-tier third-rank defensive formations. Even if a Nascent Soul True Lord came personally, he would likely be badly vexed by this fortress of formations and find it difficult to break through in a short time, let alone any other Golden Core cultivator.

Aside from the spirit-gathering formation, the anti-sense formation, and several other support arrays, none of these formations were offensive in nature. After all, this was someone else's territory, and Zhou Xuanhong understood the rules.

Although the formations had been laid, most had not been activated. Formation operation also required spirit stones and similar sources of energy as power; if everything were turned on, the spirit stones consumed each day would be no trivial amount.

Even so, all these formations remained in a ready state. Zhou Xuanhong had also bound them together with linked restraints so that if any one formation were triggered, all of them would activate in succession.

These were not formation discs. Zhou Xuanhong's formation speed was simply too fast. With his powerful soul force and his level in the art of formations, laying down third-rank arrays was effortless.

It seemed that after handing over his soul blood, the Shangguan family had become more at ease with him as well, for the formation jade slips were sent over very quickly, and the person who delivered them was none other than Shangguan Yixin.

As the direct eldest young lady of the Shangguan family, and one of its most gifted younger generation members at that, being sent out by the clan to deliver something left her quite displeased. Yet there was nothing she could do about it, for it had been her father's order.

"Hey! Where is everybody? Where have you all died off to? Come out at once!"

Being shouted at like that, Zhou Xuanhong could not simply swallow it, even if he was usually deep and unflappable. There was no need to endure this insult, so he stayed inside the cave and pretended not to hear.

He knew that his earlier formation speed had likely been observed by Shangguan Ba through divine sense, and that he was being regarded highly for his talent in formations. That was why his daughter had been sent to deliver the jade slips, perhaps in hopes of sparking some connection with him, or perhaps for some other purpose.

When Zhou Xuanhong had been at the Shangguan residence before, he had seen clearly that the Shangguan family placed the greatest importance on bloodline inheritance. Whether it was his own comprehension or Li Li's sword talent, the Shangguan family could not simply ignore it for nothing.

Shangguan Yixin snorted coldly and asked the owner of a nearby shop, "Hey, have you seen the two newcomers leave?"

The shopkeeper was a seller of spirit delicacies, a seventh-level Golden Core cultivator, but he remained obsequious in front of Shangguan Yixin and hurriedly cupped his hands. "Reporting to Miss, those two never left."

Shangguan Yixin's gaze turned instantly icy. Her divine sense swept across the many formations inside the hill, and she directly took out a heavy sword from her storage ring and hacked down at them.

The result was that the Nine Star Blazing Sun Mother-Child Formation was instantly triggered. Its passive counterstrike rebound Shangguan Yixin's attack at once, while a fireball shot out from within the formation. The power of that fireball was no weaker than a strike from a late-stage Golden Core cultivator.

And all eighteen other formations activated in an instant as well. The barrier of the fivefold trapping formation directly enveloped Shangguan Yixin, while the fog blocked the spread of divine sense, poisonous serpents formed from spiritual energy spat venomous mist, and the already hazy scenery around her began to shift and warp.

Shangguan Yixin stood there in a daze. What the hell was this? She had only cut down once. It should not have been this exaggerated, should it?

From outside, the small hill's entire hundred-meter radius had been engulfed by the formations. The array patterns inside were densely interwoven. Just one glance was enough to make other Golden Core cultivators feel a chill crawl up their spines. If they were the ones going in, they likely would not last ten seconds.

But Shangguan Yixin was also a proud and high-spirited person. She swung her sword at the massive fireball hurtling toward her, the surge of power carrying not a trace of spiritual energy, only pure physical strength.

Boom!

The fireball was cleaved apart, but another one came immediately after, and on the barrier of the Nine Star Blazing Sun Mother-Child Formation, yet another fireball began to condense.

"Damn it!"

Shangguan Yixin cursed loudly, then pulled a movement talisman from her storage ring and stuck it to her legs. Her hair had been singed somewhat at the ends, and she realized there was no need to force a head-on clash. So she dodged the fireball attacks within that cramped space.

"Hm? Why am I still in the same place?"

Just as the fireballs came closer and closer, Shangguan Yixin had no choice but to take out a third-rank talisman and meet it head-on. Once activated, the talisman released a cloud of icy mist from within, condensing into a stag that thrust forward with a great pair of ice horns.

At the same time, she finally reacted: this was Zhou Xuanhong's home ground. Even though her cultivation had reached Golden Core perfection, she was probably still no match for him here. So she decisively relied on instinct and retreated backward.

Yet she did not know that the moment she attacked the grand formation, her life had already come under Zhou Xuanhong's control. The formations had merely activated some of the arrays capable of passive counterattack, and they were still holding back. Otherwise, she would not have been able to endure for long at all.

Shangguan Yixin could not break through the formations and escape, because behind her stood the barriers of five top-tier third-rank trapping formations, while ahead of her were six more, and five other offensive-and-defensive formations that had yet to be triggered.

Just when Shangguan Yixin was helplessly aware that she could not break the formation with her own strength alone, Zhou Xuanhong's voice rang out at the right moment.

"Fellow Daoist Shangguan Yixin, why are you inside my formation? I was in secluded cultivation just now. May I ask what happened?"

Shangguan Yixin felt both ashamed and angered, but she did not admit that she had initiated the attack herself. Instead, she snapped, "Why are you still not releasing this young lady? Do you still want the formation jade slips or not?"

Inside the cave, Zhou Xuanhong's expression turned cold. He had graciously given her a way down, and she still dared to bark at him? Did she really think he had no temper?

Zhou Xuanhong would not act on impulse. Shangguan Yixin had already been trapped for several minutes, yet no one from the Shangguan family had come. The meaning of that was self-evident.

When Zhou Xuanhong remained silent for a long while, and the formations instead began to operate again, Shangguan Yixin grew somewhat flustered.

"Hey, hey, hey! Where are you? Hurry up and let this young lady out!"

What answered her was another fireball, together with the poisonous mist sprayed by many venomous serpents, and the increasingly dense white fog.

"You just wait. Once I get out, I will make you kneel before me and beg forgiveness!"

Inside the cave, Zhou Xuanhong chuckled softly and controlled Li Li to enter the smaller chamber beside him to absorb spiritual energy.

He was very satisfied with this puppet. It could increase its cultivation. Earlier, before Shangguan Ba, Li Li had not chosen either of the two options because he had no soul blood at all and could not form an immortal contract. So, in order not to expose any flaw, he had deliberately kept up a cool facade and chosen nothing.

With nothing else to do, Zhou Xuanhong watched the miserable beating Shangguan Yixin was taking outside the hill by the formations and found it rather amusing. For one thing, Shangguan Yixin was very beautiful, with ample breasts and a firm, lifted backside, and not a trace of excess flesh on her body. The sight of her in fierce combat carried a certain charm.

Besides, Shangguan Yixin was also a body cultivator, with astonishing recovery ability. Any wounds she suffered healed very quickly. But the formation's attacks came from every direction, and the damage they inflicted outpaced her recovery. She would not be able to hold out for long.

As Shangguan Yixin struggled against the formations, she kept cursing Zhou Xuanhong and hurling threats at him. But as time ticked by little by little, her cursing grew softer and softer, and her resistance weaker and weaker.

Zhou Xuanhong could only sigh and say, "She really can take a beating."

Among all cultivation systems, if sword cultivators were first in attack, then body cultivators were first in taking punishment. Of course, nothing was absolute. At the very least, Shangguan Yixin could truly endure a beating. If it had been an ordinary cultivator, he would have been blasted to death several times over already.