Chapter 424: A Fatal Flaw |
Su Ming’s tactic changed in an instant.
He stopped attacking the black-robed man directly.
The next moment, Su Ming’s figure appeared at the edge of the dense mist. His hands flashed into a complex hand seal, pointing remotely toward the Black Wind Mountain cave.
“Thousand-Silk Draw!”
The liquid spiritual energy in his Dantian transformed into an invisible guiding line, piercing the void and precisely linking to the “Thousand-Silk Binding Formation” he had previously laid around the cave!
The next instant, at the entrance to the black-robed man’s cave dwelling, the twelve black formation flags that Su Ming had secretly buried sprang to life with dazzling, eerie light!
Hum—!
Countless threads of spiritual energy, invisible to the naked eye, burst from the ground like rampant vines, wildly winding, cutting, and strangling toward the protective formation flags that guarded the cave entrance!
Pff!
“Ah—!”
The black-robed man, who had been grappling with Su Ming within the formation, suddenly let out a sharp, wailing scream, as if someone had shoved a glowing-hot iron rod straight into his soul. The blood-killing qi swirling around him visibly dimmed.
A fierce light erupted in Su Ming’s eyes!
He had guessed right!
Those flags were directly linked to the black-robed man’s soul!
“More!”
Su Ming gave the enemy no chance to breathe. His divine sense manipulated the twelve formation flags, unleashing a frenzied slaughter against the protective flags at the cave entrance.
Pff! Pff! Pff!
One blood-colored small flag after another was shredded by the invisible threads!
Each time one shattered, the black-robed man’s scream grew more agonized. His spiritual energy waned rapidly, the protective blood aura could barely hold form, and true, bone-deep fear finally surfaced in his blood-red eyes!
He knew he was finished!
This young man before him was not fighting him normally. From thousands of miles away, he was destroying the foundations that sustained him in a way the black-robed man could not comprehend!
“Madman! You madman!”
The black-robed man roared in despair, knowing there was no longer any hope. A suicidal madness seized him in an instant.
“If I can’t live, neither will you! Die with me!”
He bit his tongue hard, spraying a mouthful of pitch-black essence blood over the blood knife in his hand.
“Blood Killing Ignites the Soul, Heaven and Earth Fall Silent!”
Boom—!
A violent aura far surpassing the peak of Foundation Establishment erupted!
The black-robed man began to burn his essence blood and soul in a frenzy. The surrounding space warped under the pressure of this vast force. A thick black blood fog spewed from every pore of his body, instantly devouring the surrounding starlight!
At this moment his power surged to an incredibly terrifying level, even faintly brushing the threshold of the Golden Core!
His blood-red eyes had completely lost reason, leaving only the purest intent to destroy and madness. He raised the blood knife, now turned pitch black, and fused with it—becoming a black lightning bolt tearing through heaven and earth, recklessly slashing toward Su Ming’s position!
This strike cut off all of Su Ming’s escape routes, determined to obliterate him along with the formation!
Su Ming’s pupils contracted to pinpoints.
An unprecedented crisis of death pressed down on his heart.
The black blade, like a rift cleaved from the Nine Netherworlds, tore through the mist, carrying an intent to annihilate, and was already nearly upon him.
A terrifying pressure, enough to make even Golden Core cultivators take notice, locked onto Su Ming’s skin, as if it would crush his soul itself.
A desperate situation!
Yet Su Ming’s mind was clearer than ever.
He did not choose to take the blow head-on.
At the moment before the blade reached his body, his figure blurred and became unreal like a reflection on water, then with a rippling sound shattered into countless fragments of light.
His true body had already appeared ten zhang away in a different direction.
This was his most basic application of the Minor Heavenly Cycle Star Formation—using the formation’s power to shift position.
Boom—!
The black blade struck empty air, cleaving a deep, charred chasm several zhang into the ground! The violent aftershock blasted outward, causing the entire confusing-trail array to shudder wildly, as if it might collapse at any moment.
“Die with me!”
Missing his strike pushed the blood-burning black-robed man over the brink. He stopped caring about the consequences, guided only by that surging, beast-like instinct. He locked onto Su Ming’s new location and slashed again!
The blade moved like a shadow, reaching the limit of speed!
Su Ming’s form flickered and darted through the mist and starlight.
Each time, he barely escaped the world-shattering blade by a hair’s breadth. He was like a small boat in raging waves—always on the verge of being swallowed, yet somehow finding a sliver of life at the critical moment.
He blended Aura Concealment Art with the formation to the utmost, seeming to fuse with the space itself, leaving no breath that could be locked onto. Each of the black-robed man’s attacks only chased a constantly shifting illusion.
However, Su Ming’s heart sank bit by bit.
The power gained from burning essence blood was too terrifying; the opponent’s attack speed and force far exceeded his expectations.
If this continued, the formation would sooner or later be utterly destroyed by this raw force!
He could not wait any longer!
Time seemed to crawl.
The black blade’s soul-stealing gleam in Su Ming’s vision expanded, and the black-robed man’s face hidden beneath the hood, twisted by madness, came into clear view.
All of Su Ming’s focus concentrated on the opponent—he waited, waiting for that fleeting, single opening.
The power from burning essence blood was tremendous but could never last! Like fireworks, the more brilliant the bloom, the faster it would fade.
One…
Two…
Ten…
The black-robed man slashed wildly seventeen times, each enough to cripple a late Foundation Establishment cultivator. The core area of the killing formation was a ruin of destruction.
But Su Ming remained alive.
And after the eighteenth strike, the black-robed man’s soaring fervor finally showed the slightest, almost imperceptible sign of declining!
Now!
A dazzling light exploded in Su Ming’s eyes like never before!
He stopped dodging.
As the nineteenth black blade was about to fall, and the black-robed man’s energy reached its exhausted limit, Su Ming moved forward instead of retreating, stepping out to meet it head-on!
