“Your Majesty! He deceived you! This isn’t a god-forging array…” Wu Zhao’s face was pale as he muttered.
“Who? Who reversed the formation’s matrix?” Hua Hong shouted angrily.
“It was…” Wu Zhao began, but a dark blast struck his chest mid-sentence. Blood spurted from his mouth, and he collapsed to the ground.
“Uncle Wu Zhao!” Hua Hong ran to him.
Just then, an unexpected twist occurred—a dagger formed of dark energy shot toward the Yiren King’s back.
On one of the stone pillars, Nan Wan’s lips curled into a smirk. Foolish king… a handful of cultivators from the celestial and demonic clans could never serve as sacrifices for the God-Slaying Array. The true sacrifices were the entire Yi people and the Yiren King himself, who had merged with the array’s core. Once the array completed, the dragon soul would awaken, and with his master’s approval, he would be the first rewarded!
The sound of a weapon piercing flesh echoed, but Nan Wan’s smug smile froze mid-smirk. Disbelievingly, he looked down at a metal staff that had impaled his chest, blood gushing from his mouth. His body was knocked off the pillar, crashing heavily onto the ground below.
Covered in blood and mangled, “Nan Wan” raised his head, revealing a hideously twisted face.
“So, it was you,” Bai Shuo muttered, her surprise mixed with bitter acceptance.
Not far off, Fan Yue appeared behind the Yiren King, gripping the dark energy dagger. With a faint twist of his fingers, he crushed it into dust. Bai Shuo flung out her bag of holding and shouted, “Mumu, Iron Forge!”
Hundreds of talismans flew from the bag. Fan Yue and Hua Hong sent out streams of energy, guiding the talismans to attach to the unconscious celestial and demonic youths scattered throughout the hall. With the talismans in place, the energy from their foreheads ceased flowing into the blood pool, and the anguished wails of the Yi spirits silenced. Hua Yong, who had been hovering above the blood pool, now fell like a broken kite.
The Yiren King leapt forward, catching his son’s limp body. Bai Shuo quickly retrieved a pill and forced it into Hua Yong’s mouth. The monstrous appearance dissolved as his body returned to its human form, drained of all dark energy and left as helpless as a mortal.
“Yong’er!”
“Do not worry, Your Majesty. The pill I gave him is a Serenity Pill. The dark energy was just a ruse; he was poisoned by demonic toxins, which caused his transformation. The true sacrifice for the God-Slaying Array is you.”
The Yiren King froze, staring coldly at the bloodied figure on the ground.
Outside the city, the dragon shadow within the array let out a pained wail, and the winds slowed slightly. The people surrounding the array looked up in astonishment, realizing that the black dragon shadow was slowly dissipating.
Expressions of relief spread across the group. Master Yun Xiao couldn’t help but ask, “Lord Jinyao, what is happening?”
“Someone has managed to stop the dragon soul from awakening!”
Hua Hong's face shifted drastically as she turned to Bai Shuo and said, “Every generation of the Yiren King is the core of the divine formation.”
Inside the stone hall, Bai Shuo glanced at Zhe Sang with a raised eyebrow. “The Yiren King is at the peak of the Sovereign rank. How many in the three realms could kill him? Certainly not you. Your only chance was to use the Crown Prince of Yiren as bait. Only when the Yiren King is helping his son ascend to divinity would he be at his weakest.”
Mu Jiu, overhearing all this, finally pieced things together and widened his eyes. “Are you saying we’ve all been bait this whole time? And that the Yiren King himself is the true sacrifice for this cursed formation?”
“Not just the Yiren King. The entire Yiren clan as well. Killing the Yiren King would only destroy the core of the divine formation and awaken the dragon soul. These corrupted Yiren spirits are the divine force driving the dragon soul.”
The Yiren were weak, but when an entire clan’s spirits combined, they could rival a demigod’s power. This explained the elusive source of demigod-like strength that had puzzled Jinyao.
High above the city, Tian Yu observed the water mirror, where the barely alive Zhe Sang lay. He gave a derisive snort. “Pathetic.” His gaze landed on Bai Shuo, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
“Who would have thought there’d be such a clever girl among the Celestials, one able to see through my plan? She suits my taste much more than your Chong Zhao,” he remarked.
Hearing this, Fu Ling, who had silently hoped for Chong Zhao’s safety after the God-Slaying Array’s sacrifice was thwarted, kept her face stern and replied, “Lord, it’s true Zhe Sang was useless, a complete failure in your grand design.”
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