Led by Wu Qi, King Yang Qiu and his army quickly left the scene while Lord Wandering Immortal, who had tried to lure King Yang Qiu to attack the formation with another army, could only stamp his foot indignantly as he stared at the smoke stirred up by them.
Gritting his teeth and looking in the direction where the army had disappeared, Lord Wandering Immortal murmured with a cold grin on his face, "Count yourself lucky today...But King Yang Qiu, your days are numbered! Sovereign's grand scheme will soon enter the second stage… Hehe…soon we'll make you pay for what you've done to us in these days!"
He tucked the Dazzling Sun True Flame Mirror into his sleeve, then looked up at the sky and sighed. "Am I going to remain an immortal, or am I going to walk on the Eight Treasures Lotus Throne like the others?" He murmured under his breath. "Which is better? Daoist League or Buddhist League? In Daoist League, I can be free and easy, but the strong overall strength of the Buddhist League can bring me a lot of benefits..."
After murmuring to himself, the rather confused Lord Wandering Immortal shook his head and sighed, returning to the pavilion in the chasm with dozens of immortals standing behind him. 'There is still a long way to go before the final stage of the alliance's scheme... I think I should wait until the end to make a decision, when the situation is getting clearer. Whether I will remain an immortal or join the Buddhist League, I'll make the final decision then!'
All the soldiers went back to the barracks while Wu Qi, King Yang Qiu and the others returned to the great hall in the field headquarter. As Wu Qi and the other military officers wore heavy armors and their boots were made of metal, they walked with deafening steps that sounded like summer thunder. In the great hall, several of Yu Qingcheng's disciples were talking to each other and pointing at the map, observing the details of the formation. When they saw Wu Qi and the others returning, they hurriedly stepped away from it.
A black jade throne rose silently from the center of the hall, and on either side of the map rose rows of chairs of varying heights. Sitting on these tall chairs, the military officers could look down on the map; with the incredible visions brought to them by their strong fleshly bodies, they would not miss any details in it, even though the map was miles wide and long.
King Yang Qiu took off his cloak and armor, changing into the same outfit Wu Qi had seen when he had first arrived. Leaning against the back of the black throne, he pointed to the map and shouted, "Tell me exactly what you found, Tan Lang. Everyone, watch carefully…Our hope of breaking that formation may lie on this boy...No, not may, but he is our only hope of breaking that formation!"
With a smile on his face, Wu Qi shook his head and walked straight to the map without saying anything. The other military officers filled the black chairs on either side of the map according to their ranks, and all looked at him with gleaming eyes. An Oracle clad in a black robe threw a tiny jade slip to him. He took it and quickly glanced at the contents with his divine sense, which turned out to be the techniques of controlling the map.
Wu Qi expressed his gratitude to the Oracle with a cupped fist and quickly remembered the hundreds of hand incantations in the jade slip. Afterward, he locked his hands in an incantation gesture and pointed at the map.
The map began to change as twelve rays of light shot out of his hands. Wu Qi marked the locations of the twelve mountains he saw with the Eye of the Thousand Ghosts. Driven by his mental power, the map automatically formed twelve mountains with faint light according to what he saw. At the sight of these strangely arranged mountains, King Yang Qiu jumped up to his feet and growled, "Don't tell me none of you can use the Eye of the Thousand Ghosts except Tan Lang!"
Dozens of Oracles with strong cultivation bases in the hall lowered their heads and dared not speak. If truth be told, they all felt surprised when Wu Qi was using the Eye of the Thousand Ghosts just now. The ghostly aura emitted from him was not very powerful, but they were amazed by the fact that he could see through the formation that covered the chasm ten thousand miles across with that technique. With the fog produced by the formation enveloping the massive chasm, even the strongest Sun Oracles who served King Yang Qiu could only see about a thousand miles into it, and none of them could see what the core of the formation actually looked like. Therefore, how could they discover these twelve mountains?
King Yang Qiu gave the speechless Oracles an angry glare and said in a deep voice, "I can forgive you this time. Well, I know there are all sorts of bizarre magic in Directorate of Celestials, and you are not necessarily specialized in the practice of the Eye of the Thousand Ghost. I don't blame you for this!"
Taking a deep breath, he sat back on his throne and gestured Wu Qi to continue analyzing the formation.
The Oracles stole glances at each other, then lifted their heads to look at Wu Qi at the same time. They knew, and they knew King Yang Qiu had realized this as well, that all the Oracles present had been immersed in all sorts of mystic arts for centuries, while it had only been more than two years since Wu Qi began cultivating the magic of Directorate of Celestials. Despite that, he managed to surpass all the Oracles present in term of his attainment in the Eye of the Thousand Ghosts...There could only be two explanations: either all the Oracles present were idiots, or Wu Qi was a genius!
But, of all the Oracles present, several of them were Sun Oracles with very strong cultivation bases. How could they be idiots?
Therefore, this proved that Wu Qi was a genius, and a rare genius who cultivated both magic and fleshly body!
These Oracles sighed in their hearts. With this freak helping King Yang Qiu now, it was likely that they would not get as much attention from King Yang Qiu as they used to. On the other hand, King Yang Qiu, his face grim and his mouth shut, was cheering and shouting in his heart, 'Great! I've finally found myself such a talented person! I must help him improve his cultivation base as fast as I can! I'm so lucky!"
After revealing the mountains corresponding to the twelve stars on the map, Wu Qi explained to everyone how their presence might affect the entire formation. When King Yang Qiu and all the military officers present heard him mention that the power of the formation might even threaten the top-tier Primordial Immortals with these twelve mountains, their faces suddenly turned very unsightly.
Then, Wu Qi revealed the circle of mountains with 108 true forms of the Celestial Dippers and Nether Evils Celestial Lords on the map and told them frankly, "Legend has it that the Celestial Dippers and Nether Evils Celestial Lords conferred by the Heaven are all mighty demons in essences. No matter it is their true form or their divine abilities, they all match perfectly with the Heavenly Dao. With the titles conferred by the Heaven, although they only possess the cultivation bases of Gold Immortals, they can borrow the power of the stars corresponding to their titles to fight head-on with even Primordial Immortals. Yes, what you see here are just the projections of their true forms, with merely a trace of their divine power. But when they join forces..."
King Yang Qiu and the hundreds of military officers who served him simultaneously crushed the armrests of their chairs. Based on their uniform movements, this was clearly not the first time they had done so. A few Oracles waved their hands at the same time to unleash bright sheet of light, and in just the blink of an eye, the crushed armrests turned into powder and floated up to join back into armrests.
'What a group of men with remarkable cohesiveness!' Wu Qi could not help but marvel silently. The fact that King Yang Qiu and his military officers were able to do exactly the same thing at the same time meant that their relationship was almost at the level of being mentally interconnected. Meanwhile, the fact that those Oracles were able to use magic so quickly and uniformly to restore all the crushed armrests suggested that they must have done so very often.
Looking up at King Yang Qiu, Wu Qi explained the arrangements that he found on the 36,000 rocky hills that lined the outermost circle. As he drew his fingers across the rocky hills, the flags conjured with the star power, the immortals and cultivators guarding at the hilltops, and the immortal weapons wheeling around the hills, were fully exposed to King Yang Qiu and the others.
King Yang Qiu sucked in a cold breath as he rose to his feet in horror and growled, "36,000 immortal weapons! What the hell do those b*stards want to do? But how strange! If this formation is so powerful, why was the last time..."
All the military officers and Oracles in the hall turned pale as they stared at Wu Qi.
Without Wu Qi's explanation, they all knew what the alliance's immortals were up to. When King Yang Qiu sent his troops to attack the formation for the first time, the alliance killed tens of thousands of soldiers on the spot, only allowing some seriously injured military officers and ordinary soldiers to escape. Their purpose was to lure King Yang Qiu to send more soldiers and military officers into the formation, and then kill them all!
Had Wu Qi not been here, based on King Yang Qiu's temper, he would have avenged his favorite military officers by sending out troops that he believed could easily destroy the whole formation. But, according to all the arrangements they witnessed now, unless he could send more than ten Supreme Oracles, he would never be able to destroy the formation. Instead, all the troops he planned to send out would be trapped inside.
But, how could King Yang Qiu possibly be able to send ten Supreme Oracles at once? He was not the current Human Emperor! It had taken him a hard effort to draw Yu Gu over to his side, and it was only when he had cowed Yu Gu's sons and grandsons that the Supreme Oracle agreed to provide him a limited service.
How could a man like Yu Gu be as faithful and practical as confidants King Yang Qiu had personally discovered and promoted?
King Yang Qiu looked at Wu Qi, his heart beating violently. 'I have to cultivate him into a Supreme Oracle as fast as I can! Until then, of course, I have to give him frequent promotions and lucrative remuneration, as well as countless beautiful girls, so that I can buy his heart over!'
King Yang Qiu, who had just turned pale with fright, slowly sat back on the throne and said in a deep voice, "What a wicked scheme! Those immortals are indeed sinister and treacherous! They are no longer the same kind of existences as us, who are people chosen by nature!"
He took a deep breath, then pointed a finger at Wu Qi and asked, "Tan Lang, tell me, can we destroy this formation or not?"
Wu Qi continued to observe the triple-layered formation while pondering, eventually pointing his finger at the small lake in the middle of the chasm. "There is something strange in this lake," he said slowly, "…something very powerful. If I can figure out what's in the water, I should be able to crack this formation!"
King Yang Qiu raised his brows. Just as he was about to speak, Yu Qingcheng's voice suddenly came in from outside the hall. "Your Excellency, don't be fooled by this fellow. How could a mere Myriad Immortal Alliance be capable of forming the true forms of those mighty Celestial Lords? Does he think the alliance has obtained the support of the Heaven?"
As soon as Yu Qingcheng's voice echoed out, another long cry was heard coming from the entrance of the field headquarter.
"Liu Bang, the King of Han, the special emissary of the Heaven, requests an audience with His Excellency!"
Although he was still a rather long distance away, Liu Bang's cheerful laughter that came with a foxy hint could be clearly heard by everyone in the hall. "King Yang Qiu, you mustn't shut the door on me again today! Your father, King Yang Shan, and I are old friends. So, there is no reason for you to refuse to see me, right?"
King Yang Qiu's facial muscles were twitching. After pondering for a moment, he clapped his hands slowly and shouted, "Open the front door and welcome the special emissary from the Heaven!"
Wu Qi looked curiously in the direction of the front door. What was Liu Bang doing here?
Did his visit have anything to do with the alliance's formation?