Chapter 9: Heavy Casualties, A Turning Point

The death of Bu You the Real Person shocked Young Master Shaoyan, Ji Ning, and their group, but the most shaken was Xue Hongyi, whose strength was comparable to Bu You's.

"We shouldn't have come, shouldn't have come!" Xue Hongyi's eyes turned red. A talisman appeared in his hand, which then transformed into a layer of golden light enveloping him. Bang! He withstood a claw strike from a Qiongqi puppet, the golden light trembling, and used the opportunity to dart away.

He fled far into the distance.

Of the eighteen Qiongqi puppets, ten were occupied by Ji Ning and the other five, along with ten Wanxiang Adept death warriors, while the remaining eight focused on Young Master Shaoyan. Xue Hongyi desperately broke free from the center, and for a moment, no Qiongqi puppet targeted him.

"Damn it, damn it." Young Master Shaoyan glanced coldly at Xue Hongyi in the distance. Earlier, Xue Hongyi and Bu You had at least helped him hold off three Qiongqi puppets. Now that Bu You was dead and Xue Hongyi had fled, all eight Qiongqi puppets were besieging him alone.

Xue Hongyi, putting on a pitiful expression, urgently transmitted: "Young Master Shaoyan, I truly can't hold on anymore. Brother Bu You has fallen. If I resist any longer, I'll likely die within a few breaths."

Young Master Shaoyan was furious but knew these people were neither his slaves nor death warriors; fleeing in the face of death was normal.

"Damn it, damn it! If only I can survive this calamity and reunite with Uncle Fang, I'll never let Uncle Fang leave my side again, never!" Young Master Shaoyan truly regretted sending Xiangliu Fang away. If he had known, he would have used two treasures to entangle that group of demonic soldiers.

The treasures that could delay ten thousand demonic soldiers were naturally extraordinary, but Young Master Shaoyan had been reluctant to use them.

Now he regretted it, but it was too late.

…

Young Master Shaoyan stood there, a crimson flood dragon coiled around him. This crimson flood dragon emanated a terrifying aura, its claws repeatedly striking at the besieging Qiongqi puppets.

Bang! Bang! Bang!!!

One Qiongqi puppet after another was sent flying backward.

The Red-Scaled Flood Dragon's long tail also lashed out repeatedly, but the Qiongqi puppets, being treasure bodies, were indestructible. They fearlessly swarmed in, their claws tearing huge wounds in the flood dragon's body, ripping off scales, and spattering blood.

Yet the Red-Scaled Flood Dragon's body healed at an astonishing rate as it continued its desperate fight against the Qiongqi puppets.

This single divine beast, the Red-Scaled Flood Dragon, managed to hold off eight Qiongqi puppets!

"What a formidable Red-Scaled Flood Dragon!" Ji Ning, though engaged in battle, observed the entire battlefield. The flood dragon's power impressed him. "No wonder it's a top-tier bloodline among divine beasts. It must have also trained in divine demon body refinement. Though at the Wanxiang level, it has combat power comparable to a perfected Yuan Shen. My full爆发 would probably only match it."

At this moment, Ji Ning was using the Small Thousand Sword Formation, which, despite the enhancement of the Five Elements Five Directions Formation, was still weaker than his close-combat abilities.

"Hold!"

"Hold!"

Ji Ning and his group struggled desperately, while icy arrows rained down from all sides, and Qiongqi puppets mixed in to attack them. However, the Qiongqi puppets were also occasionally hit by the icy arrows, as the puppets had only activated the formation but could not control it.

Only the master of the immortal mansion or its heir could truly control the formation.

Without a controller, the icy arrows struck friend and foe alike, but the Qiongqi puppets, being treasure bodies, were unaffected by the arrows.

"Not good." Ji Ning's expression changed.

"Trouble." Cangjiang the Real Person was also alarmed.

All of them were constantly monitoring the battlefield. The eight Qiongqi puppets that had been besieging Young Master Shaoyan, blocked by the Red-Scaled Flood Dragon, suddenly abandoned him and lunged at the ten Wanxiang Adept death warriors.

The ten Wanxiang Adept death warriors were relatively weaker, but with their minds linked and forming a grand formation, they had managed to hold off three Qiongqi puppets.

Now, the other eight Qiongqi puppets suddenly turned on them, bringing the total to eleven.

If eleven puppets had attacked Ji Ning's group of five, they could have held out, but now they targeted the ten death warriors...

…

"Stop!" Young Master Shaoyan roared in anger. He had not acted before, but now a huge black whip appeared in his hand, its surface flowing with black flames. He swung the whip, which shot through the air and lashed at the distant Qiongqi puppets.

Bang!

The whip struck a Qiongqi puppet, sending it tumbling out of the formation and out of sight.

"Bang!" "Bang!" Young Master Shaoyan lashed out, each strike carrying incredible, terrifying power, sending every Qiongqi puppet flying.

"So powerful."

"So terrifying."

"So strong."

Ji Ning and the others were all astonished.

No one had expected Young Master Shaoyan to be so formidable. Ji Ning could tell at a glance that the flames on the whip were 'Earthfire,' and likely at the first-grade Earthfire level, which could rival ordinary Heavenly Fire.

"The flames are first-grade Earthfire, the whip is unusual, and Young Master Shaoyan's aura suddenly surged—he must be using a secret art." Ji Ning marveled at how the ancient tribe 'Shaoyan' trained their next leader comprehensively; at least his combat power was equally astonishing.

He was definitely on the same level as Ji Ning, Yu Wei, and the others, and his treasures were even better.

"No!" Young Master Shaoyan showed an angry expression.

Though he had sent three Qiongqi puppets flying, he was only one person. The other eight puppets, along with a barrage of icy arrows, tore through the formation of the ten Wanxiang Adept death warriors, shredding one of them.

With one dead, the remaining nine Wanxiang Adepts' power plummeted.

Meanwhile, the three puppets that had been sent flying returned, unharmed, and lunged at the nine death warriors.

"Kill!"

"Master, we go now."

"Boom."

"Bang."

"Rip." One by one, the Wanxiang Adepts, fearless of death, were torn apart by the Qiongqi puppets or crushed by their wings. In the span of a breath, all ten death warriors were dead.

Young Master Shaoyan was furious, but he dared not let the Red-Scaled Flood Dragon leave his side, as he himself was not a divine demon body refiner and was vulnerable in close combat. The flood dragon had to protect him closely.

"Kill those five."

"Kill them."

The eleven Qiongqi puppets ignored Young Master Shaoyan and charged at Ji Ning and his four companions from the Black-White College.

Ji Ning and the others had foreseen trouble when the puppets surrounded the ten death warriors, but they were also held back by the seven Qiongqi puppets in front of them. Among the five, only Ji Ning, Yu Wei, and Cangjiang were truly strong; Nine Lotus and Mu Zishuo were much weaker.

"Ji Ning, Firecloud Fairy, Cangjiang the Real Person." Young Master Shaoyan urgently transmitted, "Watch out for those Qiongqi puppets. You must hold on."

"Damn Qiongqi puppets, damn them! First they kill my ten death warriors, now they want to kill Ji Ning and the others." Young Master Shaoyan knew that as long as Ji Ning's group was alive, they could help hold off some puppets. If they died, the eighteen Qiongqi puppets would surround him alone, and even with his many treasures, he would have to use a 'Greater Teleportation' to escape.

If he fled, he would fail this trial, drastically reducing his chances of becoming the next Feather Duke—something he absolutely could not allow.

"Ji Ning, let me in. Xue Hongyi, get in here too."

Young Master Shaoyan, the Red-Scaled Flood Dragon, and the panicked Xue Hongyi flew into the formation of Ji Ning's five.

Ji Ning and the others naturally did not stop them.

"Attack." Young Master Shaoyan ordered with a dark face.

He swung his black flame whip.

The Red-Scaled Flood Dragon extended half its body outward, its claws repeatedly striking at the Qiongqi puppets.

Xue Hongyi also desperately used his treasures, trying to make up for his earlier mistake.

"Young Master Shaoyan." Ji Ning suddenly transmitted.

"What is it?" Young Master Shaoyan was in a bad mood but remained polite to his valuable ally.

"My spirit-beast, the Whitewater Hound, is quite skilled in formations. After much study, he has found a flaw in this formation and is confident he can break it." Ji Ning transmitted.

Young Master Shaoyan, originally irritable and furious, felt a glimmer of hope but also disbelief: "You say your Whitewater Hound can break this formation? This is a formation left by the Immortal Wujiang, a Celestial Immortal. Can it really break it? Are you sure?"

It wasn't that he looked down on the Whitewater Hound, but he didn't believe it was such a formation expert.

"Young Master Shaoyan, although it's a formation left by Immortal Wujiang, he may not have been skilled in formations. Moreover, while this formation is powerful, it has no one controlling it. An uncontrolled formation is very rigid and lacks any flexibility." Ji Ning transmitted. "My Whitewater Hound, using the Fuxi Staff Formation, can definitely break it."

"Fuxi Staff Formation? Fine, I'll trust you. I have a set of Earth-ranked top-grade Fuxi Staff Formation treasures. Use mine for greater power." Young Master Shaoyan, not holding back, tossed over a set of Earth-ranked top-grade Fuxi Staff Formation treasures.

The Whitewater Hound, who had been studying the formation without acting, sent out streams of elemental energy to envelop the ownerless Fuxi Staff Formation treasures.

He easily refined them.

"Uncle Bai, are you absolutely certain?" Ji Ning transmitted.

"Don't worry, Ning'er. I've studied it thoroughly and am absolutely certain I can break this formation. Though it's incredibly powerful, it has no one controlling it. You see, the more powerful a formation, the more complex it is. It channels the power of heaven and earth through multiple transformations to achieve such might. If I can block one of those transformations, the entire formation will be useless."

"If the formation had a controller, it could change constantly, making it hard to break. But without a controller, breaking it is a hundred or a thousand times easier." The Whitewater Hound said. "And we even got this set of Earth-ranked top-grade Fuxi Staff Formation treasures. Young Master Shaoyan is quite generous."