The Six Gates Formation was one of the common military formations used by the Great Yu's army. Its structure was similar to that of the Six Flags Formation used by immortals.
The Six Flags Formation used by immortals could be divided into illusion array, maze array, trap array, murder array, and many other different attributes; but, the Six Gates Formation was different. After being studied and modified by Great Yu's Military Court and Directorate of Celestials, this formation was full of endless transformations, deadly traps, and restrictive magic. As a matter of fact, it was a formation created purely for the purpose of killing people.
As soon as the formation had taken shape, the surrounding natural energy was immediately driven away; even the underground energy veins were forced by its power to divert their flow, avoiding the area thousands of miles around Dayan Immortal Pass. This place had now become a land without any natural energy. It was the most unfavorable battleground for immortals and cultivators, who had to rely on natural energy to produce their greatest power.
Human soldiers, on the other hand, were unaffected by the formation. Their strong fleshly bodies allowed them to use their powers perfectly. And because the powers of Oracles came from the Ghost Gods they worshiped or other natural beings, they could function normally only by borrowing the power of nature without consuming any natural energy.
In this Six Gates Formation, the overall strength of the human race would not be affected, but immortals and cultivators were weakened by half at the very least.
Everyone, including Yan Dan and Ying Zheng, was frowning as the six curtains of light converged in the sky into a hexagonal curtain of light that encompassed an area of hundreds of miles. Except for those who were pure body cultivators, such as Bai Qi and Fan Yuqi, others had felt the impact of the disappearance of natural energy. Like fishes out of water, they felt extremely uncomfortable. To make matters worse, the energy in their bodies was seeping out through their skins.
Not only did the formation force away all the surrounding natural energy, but it was also drawing energy from their bodies!
Bai Qi grunted coldly. Among the many generals of the six dynasties, his killing nature was definitely the strongest. Seeing that Great Yu used the formation to trap everyone, he immediately drew his sword and rushed toward the tens of thousands of human soldiers in the west, with a strong ominous aura churning around him. As he neared the enemies, a vague figure of a white tiger suddenly rose from behind him; accompanied by a frightening roar, he leaped up into the air and brought his sword down toward the ranks of soldiers.
Dozens of sword beams, each shaped like the head of a tiger, flew whistling out of the sword, plunging straight into the soldiers with a threatening, ominous aura. The soldiers cried out at the top of their lungs as three hundred of them marched forward, armed with a huge bronze shield each. The shields were connected to each other, forming a thick steel line of defense in front of them.
These bronze shields were about a foot thick, ten feet tall, and five feet wide; their ancient bodies were stained with color, looking at least several thousand years old. The surface of the green shields depicted the complex Ghost God patterns, which pieced together to form a complex restrictive rune.
The air rang with deafening booms as the sword beams that Bai Qi unleashed hit the shields. The three hundred soldiers snorted, their muscles bulging and their bodies moving backward. As each of the sword beams weighed at least 500,000 kilograms, although these soldiers were almost breaking through the realm of First Pangu Heaven, they were still being forced back.
But, pushing them back was all that Bai Qi had achieved. As they moved backward, the surface of the shields belched out green smoke and flames, forming a huge ghost head that swallowed up all the sword beams. The soldiers received no injuries except for the severe pain in their arms from the powerful impact.
The three hundred soldiers had barely retreated when heavy footsteps rang behind them. Eighteen hundred soldiers, all armed with shields, marched forward in six rows of three hundred soldiers each.
Bai Qi's face flickered. He had just delivered an attack with all his might, but that did not bring him any blood, and only embarrassment. With the six rows of soldiers marching forward now, it was clear to him that his hopes of breaking through the ranks in this direction had fallen short. As a commander in chief himself, he was well aware of the strength of an army in a formation. If his first strike did not destroy the formation, he would only be wasting his efforts by continuing the attack.
He spat sulkily, then transformed into a beam of white light, ready to retreat.
But, how could they let him leave so easily, now that he had fallen into the Six Gates Formation, which was the trump card of the human army stationed in Dayan Immortal Pass? While Bai Qi had only flown less than ten feet backward, three Moon Oracles on a flying ship over his head with seven crescent moons embroidered on their sleeves simultaneously raised their hands and crushed a strange bone charm they had been holding in their palms.
Suddenly, the void behind Bai Qi rippled like water. Before Ying Zheng could utter a word of warning, he had crashed into the void, and in the next moment, he appeared in the middle of eighteen hundred soldiers. With him in the center, eighteen hundred shields closed in rapidly, forming into a little iron fortress which trapped him firmly in.
Amidst loud shouts, the soldiers trapped Bai Qi pulled out the javelins hidden behind the shields at the same time. Accompanied by the muffled beatings of war drums, they threw the javelins at him with all their might. Eighteen hundred six-feet-long, sharp javelins pierced through the air with colorful, magical flames, blotting out the sky. It was a horrible scene that looked like a nightmare.
Roaring angrily, Bai Qi wielded his sword to slash off the javelins. But, a dozen Oracles high in the air suddenly blew on bone flutes made of Mermen's ribs. The melodious tune of the flutes came drifting down, leaving his sword-wielding arm to a sudden halt in the air. In his eyes appeared numerous illusions, such as a sea of gold and silver, fine wine and beautiful girls, and various visions that kept overlapping and changing.
Bai Qi, who had killed countless people in the past, was only confused by the illusions for about a second. He let out a deafening roar, and a towering blast of murderous air exploded out of him, shattering all the illusions in just a flash. Then, he thrust his long sword forward; however, the one-second pause was more than enough for the eighteen hundred javelins to divide into eighteen waves and block the way in front of and behind him, while the first wave of javelins, about thirty of them, landed on his body.
Amidst jarring noises of impact, the javelins hit him in quick succession and threw him back with hard blows. Although most of the javelins were shattered when they touched his body, they left bloody wounds on his skin nevertheless.
Although Bai Qi was also taking the path of body cultivators, unlike Wu Qi's True Body of Heaven and Earth Scripture and Dragon Transformation Script, he was more focused on the accumulation of murderous aura. His fleshly body was not as strong as Wu Qi's, which was as tough as diamonds and invulnerable to physical harm. Furthermore, as these javelins were made with secret techniques by Great Yu, they came with all kinds of strange curses that were impossible for his body to defend against.
Bai Qi grunted as his left thigh was pierced by a black javelin that came almost as fast as lightning. As it entered his flesh, a stream of corrosive energy sprayed out of it and quickly blackened half of his thigh.
As fierce and brave as he was, Bai Qi grabbed the end of the javelin and pulled it out of his thigh without even batting an eye. Black blood spattered around him from the wound and he stumbled forward, almost falling to the ground.
Furious with shame, Bai Qi ground his teeth and growled, "This is so embarrassing!"
His towering anger mixed with endless killing intent and transformed into a white tiger with a pair of wings, rising from behind his back. With fine beams of white light darting out of his eyes, he glanced furiously at the soldiers who surrounded him and growled, "Die now! What are you waiting for when you are not dead yet?"
The flickering spirit light that shrouded the eighteen hundred soldiers suddenly shattered at the same time. Bai Qi's glance had ripped apart all the protective magic that the Oracles had enchanted them with. The soldiers shrieked miserably in unison; their souls were torn to pieces by the glance as well. Countless strands of white smoke mixed with broken soul fragments poured out of their seven orifices, transforming into streams of light and flowing into Bai Qi's body.
While he grinned sinisterly, the wounds caused by the javelins on his body healed quickly, and even the wound on his thigh disappeared in just a flash.
After that, Bai Qi raised his sword and made a provocative gesture toward the soldiers approaching from behind.
Ying Zheng laughed wildly and said triumphantly to the emperors and ministers standing beside him, "Isn't Prince of Wu'an a mighty warrior? Hahaha!"
Ying Zheng was showing off proudly, and all his ministers were grinning from ear to ear as well. But, the faces of the emperors and ministers of the other five dynasties were a little ugly, each scolding in his heart while feeling pity that the enemy had not been able to chop down this ruthless butcher into meat paste. Even though the six dynasties had formed an alliance, no one liked a ruthless butcher like Bai Qi, especially the emperor and minister of Great Zhao.
Wei Wuji fingered his pretty swallowtail beard and said indifferently, "Since this formation is divided into six gates, why don't we each attack one gate? Well, why don't we have a bet... Each of us will bet three thousand beautiful girls, and the first to break the formation gets all of them. What do you say?"
The eyes of all the emperors and ministers brightened instantly. With a smile on his face, Tian Wen nodded and said, "Three thousand beautiful girls? I like the idea!" While laughing, he waved his hand and made a gesture, then charged toward one of the gates with all his ministers.
For the moment, the air rang with loud battle cries as the emperors and ministers of six dynasties exercised their divine abilities and charged into the directions they had chosen.
Using beautiful girls as stakes? Wu Qi shook his head. He had no interest in winning this bet. But, Princess Zhang Le took him by the hand and dragged him in the direction which the Great Yan was attacking. Her eyes flickered with excitement as she cried out loudly, "Hey, with each dynasty betting three thousand beautiful girls, doesn't that mean we will get all the beautiful girls if we can be the first to break the formation?"
While giggling, she gave Wu Qi a wink and said, "I was worried about where I can find suitable concubines for you! If we win, then I'll be able to choose some beautiful and clever girls from the over ten thousand girls to be your concubines!"
Wu Qi almost fell to the ground, while Yan Dan and Yan Qijun cheered in unison from aside. "Zi Xuan has a point. Wu Qi, with your amazing latent potential, you must produce more offspring. And don't forget, your descendants are also part of the Great Yan imperial clan!"
Yan Qijun even put up a finger and said, "If we win, I'll pick a thousand of the best girls for you. How about that?"
Wu Qi just rolled his eyes in silence. He had nothing to say to these people whose values and morals were very different from his own.
But, Ao Buzun suddenly became really excited. While howling, he soared up into the sky, opened his mouth, and shot out the purple inkstone with all his might.
"One thousand beautiful girls? Yes! I can finally get rid of this damn status of a virgin!"
A beam of purple light flashed through the air, and in the blink of an eye, the purple inkstone landed into the military ranks not far in front of them, killing tens of thousands of soldiers. With that, the whole Six Gates Formation crumbled, resulting in a backlash that threw all the other soldiers to the ground while making them cough up blood.