Chapter 933: Setting a Trap
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
Shi Tianhao activated his Purple Skull of Angmao. In it, a powerful thunder-type spiritual energy fused together with the Primordial Magnet Power in the mine and created a terrifying sound.
"Duo!" Shi Tianhao said in a low voice as a powerful Qi pillar, that seemed to be made out of clear and yet impure Qi, appeared from his forehead. It then enveloped his body and turned into a huge, Primal Taiji Diagram image.
In the Taiji Diagram, one could see countless images of ancient beasts and an ancient, primal power began to spread.
The Purple Skull of Angmao combined with Shi Tianhao’s Immortal Soul Avatar and powerful thunder light flashed non-stop. Combined with the vast amount of Primordial Magnet Power in the mine, it was a truly terrifying scene.
Runes made from thunder appeared one after another on the Taiji Diagram. Slowly, they turned into a terrifying giant spell formation.
This was the powerful spell formation that Shi Tianhao came up with under Lin Feng’s guidance after the he had achieved the Immortal Soul stage and after they had won the Anti-Celestial Sect War. It was called the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Formation. It brimmed with brutality and its destructiveness was astounding.
Its core was similar to the Purple’s Cloud Sect’s Nine Heavens Divine Clouds Thunder Emperor Douzhuan Formation which they used to defend their sect. Like it, it used the power of the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder. While Shi Tianhao’s formation did not have the vast experience the Purple Clouds Peak accumulated over the years, it was still extremely powerful.
Furthermore, Shi Tianhao’s own power was extraordinary and much greater than other cultivators of the Immortal Soul stage. Under his manipulation, the formation’s offensive abilities were further heightened.
Normally, the formation would tap on the natural thunder in the sky. However, in the Steel Polarity Mine, due to the Primordial Magnet Power, it was unable to activate completely. All it was doing now was to slowly swirl as it waited for the right opportunity. However, it was already much more terrifying that the spell formation of the Choucheng.
When he was in the Barren Expanses, Shi Tianhao would cultivate this particular spell formation when he had nothing to do.
"Switch the 284th formation pattern and the 285th, the 1769th formation pattern is wrong and you need to correct it…" Li Yuanfang looked carefully at Shi Tianhao’s Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Formation as he pointed out its mistake.
Shi Tianhao used all his advice. While he had studied spell formations, his understanding of them were still lesser than Li Yuanfang’s even though he was already in the Immortal Soul stage. Hence, before he casted this spell formation, he sought Li Yuanfang’s advice to make it stronger.
Li Yuanfang frowned and said, "The 3027th spell formation…"
He was rarely at a loss of words. This time, however, it was not because he did not know what to say but instead, he did not have enough time to come up with a countermeasure due to time constraint.
This formation pattern appeared fine to Li Yuanfang. However, he was sure that if he adjusted it slightly, it would become stronger. That required him to test it first.
Before he could test anything, Li Yuanfang would not dare to make a conclusion. After a while, he said, "Don’t change the 3027th formation pattern. For the 3988th formation pattern, you may want to let Yang retreat, the effects would be better…"
As he interacted with Shi Tianhao, Li Yuanfang started to conjure his own spell formation. Gusts after gusts of squalls appeared as they sliced up the limited space in the mine.
It was the indestructible and ferocious Nine Heavens Formless Squall.
Li Yuanfang started to use the formation map, which was Nine Heavens Formless Squall Formation Map that Lin Feng took from the Aeolus Sect many years ago.
While the formation map was damaged, Lin Feng managed to briefly repair it. It was not as powerful as before, it was still useable. When Shi Tianhao and company went to find the Secret Manual of Kun Peng, they even managed to use it.
Then, Lin Feng completely repaired the formation map. Together with Li Yuanfang, they made tweaks and adjustments to it to make it even stronger than its prime.
The Aeolus Sect, now that Lin Feng thought about, had only two treasures of value: the Heavenly Oyster Golden Pearl and the Nine Heavens Formless Squall Formation Map. Compared to the Heavenly Wind Holy Man’s Heavenly Wind Treasure Fan, it was even more valuable as it was a very good spell formation.
At this moment, Li Yuanfang used his hands to induce continuous changes to the spell formation. The Nine Heavens Squall Formation directly communicated with the layer of squalls above the Nine Heavens, which was full of primal, Nine Heavens Formless Squalls that were near-indestructible and had the ability to rip the heavens and earth apart.
At the moment, Li Yuanfang’s mastery was still low. While the spell formation was powerful, he was not powerful enough to fully capitalize on its power. Hence, Shi Tianhao, who was by the side, had to help him.
Slowly, he passed control over the Nine Heavens Squall Formation to Shi Tianhao. He then advised Shi Tianhao verbally from the side as the latter used both the Nine Heavens Squall Formation and the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Formation.
Above the Primal Taiji Diagram, which was a manifestation of Shi Tianhao’s Immortal Soul, thunder and squall clashed non-stop, turning into a terrifying area of death.
Thunder and wind were both Shi Tianhao’s specialty. Now, with Li Yuanfang’s help in controlling both spell formations, he was able to obtain an even more powerful tempest.
Amongst all of Shi Tianhao’s attacks, the Infinite Thunderstorm was the first spell he had mastered after he started cultivating the "Heavenly Classic of the Way's Virtues". Now, he used it less frequently, but it was not because the spell was not powerful enough.
Instead, it was because of the very opposite. As thunder and wind clashed together, they would complement each other to form even more thunder and wind. Hence, the increase of its energy was almost unlimited. The limiting factor here was whether Shi Tianhao himself could take it.
Today, Shi Tianhao was already in his Immortal Soul stage. The amount of Infinite Thunderstorm he could control was terrifying.
Strictly speaking, if he had enough time to prepare, this could be his strongest attack in terms of pure power.
However, here was the problem. Now, in the Immortal Soul stage, a battle would change non-stop. In the blink of an eye, more than a thousand blows may be exchanged. Hence, he had less time to prepare his Infinite Thunderstorm. That was why Shi Tianhao used it less and less.
Today, however, he was here to lay a trap for others and hence, this problem no longer existed. Hence, Shi Tianhao once again used this old spell of his.
However, this time, he did not just simply use Infinite Thunderstorm as an attack. With Li Yuanfang’s help, he was able to combine both the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Formation and the Nine Heavens Squall Formation and conjure up an even more powerful thunderstorm that was normally beyond his usual limit.
As Shi Tianhao and Li Yuanfang busied, Wang Lin did not slacken off. He shed his human form and turned into his Immortal Soul Avatar, the Netherworld Taiji Diagram.
Above the powerful Netherworld Taiji Diagram, a Demonic Door opened. Behind it was an empty world. There was only one source of light. Then, from the light, a line came forth and ended at another light. Then, from that light, the line shot out to another light. It stopped there, before continuing on and on like this.
In the next instant, the Demonic Door closed. The Karmic Line that was extending non-stop started to turn in the opposite direction.
That was the last of Wang Lin’s Four Appearances Boundary Spell, the Cause and Effect World.
While he summoned the Cause and Effect World, Wang Lin took out his Heavenly Gods-Sealing Banner. The Original Soul of his magic treasure, the Heaven-Sealing Lord, appeared next to him clad in black. After he communicated with Wang Lin, the Heaven-Sealing Lord waved the flag and a shadow flashed in it. Then, someone fell out.
It was not the most powerful person currently sealed in the Heavenly Gods-Sealing Banner, Xu Anda, the former Hallmaster of the Hall of the Dead. Instead, it was one of the weakest Immortal Soul cultivators inside the flag, Zhang Enrui of the Samsara Sect’s Path of Humanity.
Zhang Enrui sighed and listened to the orders of the Heaven-Sealing Lord. He closed his eyes and exhaled. The gas he exhaled smelled like alcohol.
However, this alcoholic gas did not make anyone drunk, nor did it smell special. Instead, it would make someone lose awareness of his surroundings.
While it was useless against Immortal Soul Third Level or Undying Demon Soul Third Level cultivators, the alcoholic gas enveloped the area where Shi Tianhao was at. This would make his opponents unaware of Shi Tianhao’s existence.
While they were in the interior of the Steel Polarity Mine, where the supernatural awareness of Immortal Soul/Undying Demon Soul Third Level cultivators was rendered useless and unable to scour anything, Shi Tianhao’s two spell formations and his Infinite Thunderstorm were too powerful and too hostile.
If it were Liang Fu, the Cheng Yun Holy Man or the Great Zhou cultivators, then it was still fine. However, if their enemy was the demon they sensed earlier, then there was a risk of detection.
For powerful demons in the Yu’ao Dragon King’s and the Zu’e Grand Sage’s level, they were still highly sensitive even in areas like the Steel Polarity Mine. At a distance, their detection abilities may be nullified. Closer, however, no one could say for sure.
Hence, Wang Lin used his Cause and Effect World to help Shi Tianhao cover his actions. Then, he let Zhang Enrui further hide Shi Tianhao.
In any other places, this may not work. After all, while cultivators had different intuitions, most of them were able to recce ahead with their supernatural awareness. However, in an area like the Steel Polarity mine, Wang Lin’s move was truly well-played.
The Yu’ao Dragon King and the Zu’e Grand Sage descended into the interior of mine, unknowingly and unaware.
There, even with their demon powers, they were unable to detect Wang Lin’s and Shi Tianhao’s exact location. They only knew that they disappeared somewhere in the mine.
However, the two demons did not let their guard down. The Celestial Sect of Wonders was famous and who knew if they have some special trick up their sleeves?
The Yu’ao Dragon King, who studied under the Golden Cicada, knew that the Buddhist Great Karmic Mantra stated that one could numb the senses of others by breaking the karmic links between objects and entities.
The Golden Cicada was able to be active in recent years and covert at the same time till the point where others did not even know of his location not only because of his own powers. It was also because he used Buddhist spells to hide his karmic links.
Of course, the Buddhist Karmic Concealment spell was not invincible. It too relied on the cultivator’s mastery, mana and understanding of the mantra behind it as well as the relative level of one’s enemy. It even depended on one’s intuition.
If one’s enemy to find a weak spot and discover a karmic link, then the Karmic Concealment’s powers would decrease greatly.
However, right now, the Yu’ao Dragon King and Zu’e Grand Sage were akin to being blindfolded. They could not sense the danger that was only inches waay.
It was like asking two blind men to detect the trap underneath their feet without a blind dog or a walking stick. No matter how careful they were, they could only react to it once they had stepped on it.
As to whether they could react on time, that’s another matter.