Chapter 417: Using One Formation to Break Another
“How about this? If Brother Han and Fairy Shi break through the formation, then they can have the first pick. We will distribute the rest afterwards.” Hu Yue revealed slight embarrassment and hastily mentioned Han Li, going through the motions for the time being.
The thin, shriveled cultivator surnamed Jian stood to the side and remained silent. He remained somewhat of a mystery to Han Li.
“Fellow Daoist Hu, wouldn’t it be better to first bring Brother Han and Fairy Shi to the formation and see whether or not the formation can be broken, and leave the distribution for afterwards? If they cannot break the formation, having this talk now would be useless.” Jin Qing proposed with a slight smile.
Hu Yue patted his head and promptly agreed, “Right! This formation spell is rather strange. Fellow Daoist Jin and I relentlessly assaulted it for an entire day. As a result, we only wasted our magic power on attacks that didn’t damage the formation spell in the slightest.”
The others agreed and followed in curious anticipation. They flew towards the back of the sand mountain and stopped near an unremarkable shallow slope.
“Please take a look. The area covered in a yellow mist is where the spell formation is located.” Hu Yue pointed down at an area of the slope while in midair with a solemn expression.
The others didn’t need it pointed out as there was a huge, dense yellow mist that resembled a huge beast quietly crouching in wait. It gave them an incomprehensibly strange feeling. “Yi! It seems to be a dual attribute earth-wind formation spell. How interesting.” Upon seeing the formation spell’s grandeur, Shi Die’s eyes immediately brightened with excitement.
Han Li was brought back to attention upon hearing her and looked at her before turning his attention towards the formation spell. Not long after, his expression became solemn.
This formation spell was indeed a wind-earth dual attribute formation spell as the woman had said. At his current level, it would prove quite troublesome to break through it.
At that moment, Shi Die slowly descended to the edge of the spell formation and enthusiastically took out a strange magic tool.
She stroked the disc-shaped magic tool before pointing it towards the yellow mist and shooting out a green beam of light. The beam then disappeared without a trace into the formation.
Shi Die frowned as she took out a fiery crystal ball and rubbed it with her hand several times before sending it into the yellow mist as well. But after flashing several times with red light, the crystal ball was also submerged into the dense yellow mist.
At this point, the female cultivator’s complexion turned slightly red, involuntarily revealing an expression of worry. She continued to probe the formation spell with another eight different magic tools. However, apart from a yellow copper mirror that was able to shine through an area of the mist, none of the other magic tools had any effect.
Having seen this, the rest of the party looked at one another and couldn’t help but fly down onto the slope, approaching the woman.
After a moment more of observation, Han Li saw that the woman wanted to continue sending off magic tools and couldn’t help but inwardly sigh. He gently asked, “Fairy Shi, how about you let me give it a try.”
“Humph! If Fellow Daoist Han has any tricks, do not hesitate to make use of them. This young woman will not stop you.” From her tone it was obvious that Fairy Shi had become frustrated.
Han Li became slightly annoyed, but he maintained a calm appearance. Without paying her any notice, he patted his storage pouch and took out over a dozen small flags of various colors. They then surrounded Han Li and began to slowly revolve around him.
“Formation flags.” Upon seeing the small flags appear, Jin Qing astutely called out the name of the items.
The others gazed on in astonishment, not knowing what Han Li intended to do with the formation.
Han Li didn’t pay any attention to their amazed expressions and just pointed to the formation flags. The formation flags then flew off in streaks of brilliance above the yellow mist. In accordance to the arranged pattern, they floated above the mist in a shape vaguely resembling the Big Dipper.
“Big Dipper Heaven-Earth Formation.” Shi Die recognized the formation by the flag’s arrangement and revealed slight amazement.
Right after she spoke, the formation flags began to let out a series of low, long hums. They then each shot out a beam of light, joining together as a concentrated, thick pillar that shot down towards the yellow mist. Soon after, it completely disappeared.
Having seen this, the others turned their gaze towards the yellow mist, but saw that there wasn’t the slightest irregularity.
“Brother Han, this is…” Jin Qing couldn’t help but want to ask about a few of his doubts before he was interrupted by a sudden occurrence.
The originally still, unaffected mist suddenly released a muffled pop as if water were boiling inside of it. The mist started to roil as if a flood dragon were overturning them from within. It appeared as if the mists were suddenly alive.
At that moment, Han Li’s eyes were radiant, and he shot out several magic seals towards the floating flag formation. Soon, the formation flags began to shoot out a continuous, concentrated beam of multi-colored light.
Not long after, another astonishing scene occurred.
The rolling yellow mists started to rise and fall in rhythmic fluctuations and began to form countless protrusions that were the size of steam buns. The protrusions became larger and taller as time passed, as if a monster were about to fly out from within.
When the others saw this, they felt aghast and involuntarily took a few steps back.
Fairy Shi hastily ran back forty meters with a changed expression before stopping and turning her head around.
Bang, Bang…
A series of deafening booms came from the yellow mist.
The cultivators had earlier put up their guards. They all hastily readied their defenses and stood firm, watching as the mists heavily swayed as if they were being blown about by violent storm winds.
Only Shi Die looked on in anticipation, while all the others were fearful.
The extremely dense mist didn’t end up expelling anything at all. It had just parted away like clouds and disappeared, revealing everything that the formation contained.
While Hu Yue and the others greatly rejoiced, Jin Qing quickly walked over to Han Li’s side and said with a beaming smile, “Brother Han! I didn’t think you possessed such great skill. Did you break through the entire formation?”
Han Li’s mouth twitched before he gave the others an explanation with a bitter smile, “Break through the formation? Brother Jin greatly underestimates the formidability of ancient cultivator formations. I merely dispelled the formation spell’s outermost layer, which was acting as a smokescreen.”
Jin Qing was slightly disappointed to hear this, but without waiting for him to speak, Hu Yue suddenly spoke with joy, “Haha! That’s fine. Take your time, we have plenty. Now, we have some confidence that this formation can be broken through after all.”
Jin Qing blankly stared for a moment before agreeing with slight embarrassment, “Right! Us cultivators have no shortage of time. I was just being impatient.”
At that moment, Shi Die’s haughtiness disappeared without a trace. She gave a deep bow to Han Li and sincerely said, “This young woman is truly ignorant. I truly didn’t think that Senior would take such an original approach in using formations to break formations. It has widened Junior’s perspective. I hope Senior Han will provide some guidance on the Dao of Formation Spells.”
Han Li had returned the gesture with slight surprise. This sudden turn of events had greatly changed his impression of her.
“This was but a minor trick. In truth, I actually don’t hold much understanding towards formation spells.” Han Li replied with a calm expression.
Han Li was being completely truthful! Were it not for her pointing out that the formation spell was a dual earth-wind attribute, Han Li would’ve had no way of knowing how to start and break through the illusion formation.
Han Li had only spent a mere twenty years researching formation spells. As such, his knowledge was quite limited. He had merely absorbed most of the theories of formation spells without gaining a deeper understanding.
The reason why he was able to make use of such a carefully prepared strategy, like using the Big Dipper Heaven-Earth formation flags to break the formation, was simply due to his confidence regarding Xin Ruting’s genius in formation spells.
Among Xin Ruting’s experiences, she had included the ingenious methods she had used to break through many different kinds of formation spells. Despite Han Li’s lack of understanding, he had made a reckless attempt.
However, this technique was extremely clever and had deeply shocked the others!
The other cultivators clearly considered Han Li’s words as modesty and viewed him with respect. Han Li faintly smiled in response and didn’t force himself to further explain. Instead, he turned his gaze to look at the true formation hidden behind the illusion formation.
After the mist faded away, a layer of dim yellow light was revealed, covering an area of about four hundred meters.