Chapter 178: Clash of Formation Arrays

It was the story of a secret agent’s mission. Nobody knew whether the place they were hiding in was a safe zone, or whether they would be facing another secret agent that was lurking right beside him.

Through the binoculars, he saw the wolf-man open his mouth wide as he trembled in horror. Then, his body suddenly exploded, transforming into black scarabs that scattered into the shadows. Meanwhile, another wolf-man waved his snake-headed staff in the air, and yellow sand poured out of the void, coalescing into five sand golems in just an instant!

Their appearance was quickly met with a flurry of dazzling blade lights. Two streams of nethergale promptly swept at them like whirlwinds from both sides, and the two Nipponese emissaries donning conical hats leapt out like valiant warriors. Their clothes fluttered, and Yin energy billowed. They moved in unison as though they were Siamese puppets - unsheathing and sheathing their swords at the exact same time, with the exact same poise and with the exact same movements. Qin Ye wasn’t able to see what they had done, but he could tell that the surrounding trees trembled for a moment, and three of the sand golems scattered in an instant.

Yet everything looked just like a mime show. The clashing emissaries made no sound at all, almost as though there were a tacit agreement among them.

The night breeze whistled, sending waves rippling through the canopy of trees as though they were a sea, and causing the willow branches to dance like a million arms. The dusky street lamps flickered eerily as though they were funerary pyres. And then, a peculiar sound pierced through the dull drone of the rustling leaves in the background.

It was light and barely even audible. Qin Ye drew a deep breath, and slowly shifted his hands to the side of his waist.

Someone was tightening his bowstring in the dark of the night, and Qin Ye was certain that the bow must be massive. Otherwise, there was simply no way that the bowstring would have made such sounds as it tightened. And naturally, its power… must necessarily be absolutely astonishing!

He slowly scanned through his surroundings. Then, just as he looked a little farther to the left, his gaze finally stopped at a particular location.

He could only see the figure’s side profile from where he was. Nevertheless, the dim moonlight allowed him to make out the appearance of this emissary in the canopy.

He had striking red muscles, miserable white bones and protruding eyeballs. But it was undoubtedly a living being. Just like any other of the emissaries around, Yin energy poured out of his body, causing the golden hair that peeked out of his headscarf to flutter on its own. The longbow was forged from bones, and vast amounts of Yin energy were currently condensing into a two-meter long arrow! The head of this arrow blazed with a raging green fire, almost as though it had been lit straight from the pits of the underworld.

Qin Ye squinted his eyes and hesitated for some time. Then, he reached out and made a grasping motion in the air. The demonhead saber materialized instantly, and he promptly leapt out of his cover.

But he knew far better than anybody else that such opportunities were hard to come by. and fleeting when they did.

The entire world fell silent as soon as his feet struck the ground.

He paused in shock for two seconds, and then was struck by an epiphany. He wasn’t the only one who had set up formation arrays outside the memorial hall. These emissaries might not be strong enough to leap straight into the fray within the memorial hall, so they instead chose to set up a formation array outside. Its purpose? Not to dive in, but to obstruct.

I’ve been discovered… The archer still maintained his posture. His clothes fluttered and his eyes were still trained on its target. However, he began to walk away without any hesitation whatsoever. Almost at the same time, the canopy of willow branches suddenly parted, and another dark figure wrapped in a dark cloak dashed straight out. In fact, it looked almost as though there was nothing underneath the dark cloak.

Like a bolt of lightning out of the blue.

There are other emissaries!

Phantom cleave!

The roar of his attack was muted completely. The split-second that the two blades met sent sparks flying through the air. The trees nearby exploded. Willow leaves were tossed about wildly, while the thick trunks of the trees were shattered completely. However, the powerful attack did nothing to stop the approach of the cloaked figure. In an instant, the cloaked figure suddenly rose meters into the sky like a nightmarish fiend straight out of the legends of Europa! Then, it swung the black scythe straight towards Qin Ye’s skull with an indomitable force!

They had drawn their weapons and attacked each other at the same time. Boundless netherflames filled the air, while dazzling sparks flew with each clash of their weapons. In the blink of an eye, the two had already exchanged more than a dozen moves. Then, twenty seconds later, both parties slammed heavily against each other one final time, before tacitly backing away as they heaved and panted.

Qin Ye gazed deeply at his opponent. He could tell that he was holding back and reserving his strength. All he was doing right now was simply ensuring that he made no mistakes.

The two emissaries glared at each other vigilantly. Qin Ye’s thoughts had never spun so quickly. The matters that Arthis had apprised him of, including everything related to the extraterritorial emissaries’ appearance in the First Academy of Cultivators, flickered through his mind quickly. And suddenly, his eyes brightened.

The netherfire around the demonhead saber blazed with ever increasing intensity, sending its flames shooting two meters into the air. The surroundings were immediately painted over with a jade-green hue. Crackle… crackle… Qin Ye held nothing back. His Yin energy and netherfire burgeoned and billowed ever more menacingly, until finally, the entire blade was engulfed in a raging green inferno.

Qin Ye’s white hair scattered about in the wake of the raging green inferno, and he revealed a menacing smile, almost as though he were a vicious ghost, “As expected…”

This was the First Academy of Cultivators.

Underworld emissaries weren’t gods. They couldn’t be seen, but that does not mean that they couldn’t be hit!

How great was the memorial hall?

But, Qin Ye was exempted from all these things.

Arthis had earlier mentioned that “given their current strength, the formation arrays that they’re able to set up are so flimsy that they wouldn’t even be able to withstand a simple blow”.

“Here I go.”

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The eyes of the two extraterritorial emissaries were instantly filled with a trace of despondence. The surrounding willow trees shattered into splinters, while the waters from the man-made lake rose a meter into the sky. A terrifying sound reverberated through the night sky, and the sound of something being shattered rang out in the surroundings. Crash! Clatter!

The emissaries at the memorial hall suddenly looked over with a vicious gaze in their eyes. Even the unintelligible curses muttered under their breaths were carried through the air by the gentle night breeze. The archer emissary gnashed his teeth, and his body trembled. One second later, he cried out with great anger, “du-te!!”

Meanwhile, Qin Ye silently retracted his emissary state and reverted back into his human form. Likewise, the two cloaked emissaries transformed into a nethergale and vanished in an instant.

“Du te… does this mean retreat? What language was that?” He looked in the direction of the arrow’s path of destruction, “We’re not that different after all…”

A jade-green pillar of fire erupted from the memorial hall as soon as the arrow struck the ground, sending thousands of illusory Yin spirits drifting through the sky at once. Clatter… The crunching sound of shattering glass resounded through the hall. Then innumerable runic symbols, green, golden, red, blue… immediately lit up all over the hall, before finally fading into nothingness.

“八嘎!!! / Idiot!!!” “γαματο!! / Shit!!” dannazione!! / Damn!!” Curses rang out through the air. However, none dared to linger around any longer. The winds swept violently, and then everything was suddenly still again.

“That was a masterstroke of evil. You were looking to shatter the formation arrays in the memorial hall so that a certain Judge-somebody would notice these things. And having set your formation array in the outermost edge of the memorial hall, yours would be the only formation array remaining of all extraterritorial emissaries…” Qin Ye sighed wistfully, “Unfortunately, you met me.”

As he spoke, a pressure that resembled that of a thundergod swept across the entire First Academy of Cultivators!

Whoosh… The dark clouds in the sky parted, and a figure descended from the sky with raging fury.

Several figures stared intently at the transcendent being’s descent from the shadows. Their gazes were filled with displeasure and resentment. However, they could only grit their teeth and swallow the bitter pill.

Their posture was bizarre and rigid, almost as though their limbs were unable to bend at all. Then, without a single word, they rushed to the windows and looked grimly at the sky.

“できない / No.” The student on the right hammered the table and gnashed his teeth, “完全に打ちかれた、これはどれが死んだばか野郎!なんと界を破って、この裁判官にづいてもらいました! / It’s completely destroyed. It’s that bloody asshole! How dare he shatter the formation array and draw the attention of the Infernal Judge?!”

“いや! / Damn!”

Who…

Who was so shameless to resort to such tactics?!

“nytt silt, ettvoin kytt sit… / It looks like we’ll have to resort to using it tomorrow.” In another female dorm room, a student with long hair stood in front of the windows with an ashen expression, staring at Zhou Xianlong’s descent from the skies.

1. There’s a simple story behind this proverb. A clam is sitting out in the sun when suddenly a snipe flies down to peck at it. The clam slams its shells shut, gripping the snipe's beak in between. The snipe says, "If it doesn't rain today, and it doesn't rain tomorrow, I shall see a dead clam on the beach." The clam retorts, "If I don't open today, and I don't open up tomorrow, I shall see a dead snipe on the beach." While they are grappling with each other, a fisherman passes by and nets them both. (Source:)

2. I have no idea what language this is.