Chapter 2585: Five Directions Demon Suppression Formation

The Goddess of Wu Mountain exclaimed, “Her soul is being siphoned away! She might only be left with the final sliver of her soul, which is why she looks nearly transparent.” As the Crimson Emperor’s daughter, she was highly knowledgeable.

Zu An panicked. “Is there a way to save her?”

“We have to destroy the Myriad Souls Banner and find a way to bring her soul back to her body...”

Before the Goddess of Wu Mountain could finish speaking, Zu An charged forward with his Tai’e Sword and unleashed a radiant burst of sword ki.

But the black aura surrounding the Myriad Souls Banner was almost tangible. As it approached the Myriad Souls Banner, the sword ki swiftly lost its radiance. In the end, it weakly struck the banner before vanishing into thin air.

Zu An was stunned. The black aura surrounding the Myriad Souls Banner was so corrosive that it could even affect his sword ki!

Unwilling to give up, he drew the Sun Slaying Bow and shot at the Myriad Souls Banner. A white light reminiscent of a comet violently slammed into the banner.

This attack wielded the power to bring down a sun, yet it merely shook the banner.

Zu An was dumbstruck.

The Goddess of Wu Mountain explained, “Your arrow absorbs surrounding ki to amplify its destructive prowess, but all the natural ki in here has been eroded by the Myriad Souls Banner’s demonic ki. That’s why your arrow was unable to destroy it.”

Xihe surveyed the hall’s layout. “There’s a convoluted formation in this hall that resonates with the Myriad Souls Banner. In essence, you're not just attacking the banner, but the entire palace along with it. Not even the Celestial Emperor can destroy the banner like that.”

This palace had been around for a long time. It had been reinforced by countless celestials, such that one could call it a top-notch defensive artifact. Zu An’s attack was bound to fall short against it.

Zu An frowned. He tried stowing away the Myriad Souls Baner with his Seven-Colored Divine Halo, but it refused to budge. The Myriad Souls Banner was one with the palace, and Zu An didn’t have the means to stow away the entire palace.

Xihe looked at the woman on the altar and said, “If we can’t destroy the Myriad Souls Banner, we’ll have to kill her. If he forges the Myriad Souls Banner, no one will be able to stop Jun. The whole world will be plunged into destruction.”

“Absolutely not!” Zu An knew this was the rational decision to make, but how could he abandon Xiaoxi?

Xihe looked at him before falling silent.

The Goddess of Wu Mountain opened her mouth, but she decided against saying anything.

Zu An surveyed the surroundings while raking up everything he knew about formations in his head. A rough idea popped in his mind. “Emperor Jun is formidable to have linked the Myriad Souls Banner with his palace, but this method comes with a downside. The Myriad Souls Banner is a malevolent yin artifact, whereas this palace represents light. Those are two opposing forces.

“Emperor Jun must have found a way to temporarily suppress the conflict. All we have to do is to undo that, and the palace will help us to suppress the Myriad Souls Banner.”

Xihe and the Goddess of Wu Mountain’s eyes lit up. They thought that it was a feasible plan. “How should we go about it?”

“I know a Five Directions Demon Suppression Formation that can achieve that effect. However, it requires cleansing ki to be simultaneously channeled from five directions, but even with my instantaneous movement, I can only cover three directions.” Zu An racked his brain for a solution.

The Goddess of Wu Mountain said, “Have you forgotten that Xihe and I are here too? Even though I’m weak against fire, I’m still the Crimson Emperor’s descendant. I can channel the fire element in my bloodline to cleanse the surrounding demonic ki. Xihe, as the Sun Goddess, is the nemesis of all malevolent forces. She should have no trouble taking a direction too.”

Xihe nodded. “Indeed, but are you sure you’re up to the task? You were severely injured earlier.”

“Don’t worry, I am a goddess too,” the Goddess of Wu Mountain replied with a confident smile.

Knowing Xiaoxi didn’t have much time to spare, Zu An quickly explained the crux of the formation to the two women. Then, he took out a formation compass from his Brilliant Glass Bead and planted formation flags all around the hall. The Goddess of Wu Mountain and Xihe made their way to the southeast and southwest directions as planned.

Xihe took her position and sat down. Her body radiated a searing light reminiscent of the sun. In the face of her cleansing ki, the surrounding black aura swiftly disintegrated.

The Goddess of Wu Mountain nicked her palm with her fingernail before forming a hand seal to invoke the Crimson Emperor’s bloodline. Flames suddenly blazed around her. Shockingly, it was on par with Xihe’s power.

Zu An was finally able to put his heart at ease. Without any hesitation, he began flitting between three directions, channeling the Primordial Origin Sutra in the north direction, the Phoenix Flame in the northwest, and the White Lotus Flame in the northeast. He alternated among the three directions so fast that outsiders would have thought that there were three Zu Ans.

Needless to say, this was a highly exhausting feat, and he swiftly felt his limit approaching despite his cultivation and resilient body. However, he gritted his teeth and held on for Xiaoxi’s sake.

The five streams of cleansing ki suffused the room like five stars lighting up the dark sky. As the formation flags lit up one after another, the Five Directions Demon Suppression Formation eventually fully activated.

The black aura in the hall swiftly thinned. Sensing danger, the Myriad Souls Banner unleashed a thick black aura that swiftly enveloped the five sources of brilliance.

“This is bad!”

The trio found themselves plunged into darkness. The lights they released gradually dimmed like candle flames before a wind, on the verge of being extinguished.

Zu An began to feel flustered. He continued to move between the three locations based on his memory while searching for a solution out of this quandary.

He could still hold on because his cultivation skill had the power to purge evil beings, and as the Netherworld’s master, demonic aura born from souls could hardly hurt him. However, Xihe and the Goddess of Wu Mountain were already injured. It would be terrible if they were to be inflicted with the demonic aura.

All of a sudden, his vision blurred. The demonic aura around him suddenly morphed into the universe, and several eyes slowly opened. Each of these eyes was on the scale of a planet, and they had lights and runes shimmering around them.

Zu An could hardly describe the appearance of the eyes with words, but there was a feeling that was particularly strong in him. He felt a sense of divinity. It was higher than the deities of the Celestial Court, as if it represented the celestial beings at the very core of the universe.

Coming into contact with these eyes felt bizarre and conflicting. It felt as if he was going to fall into an eye, be killed by another eye, and fuse into yet another eye.

...

Meanwhile, unlike the bizarre situation Zu An had found himself in, the Goddess of Wu Mountain’s face had gone completely red. She found herself placed in the position of a bride in a marriage ceremony, and the groom was none other than Zu An!