The First Immortal of Destiny

Chapter 223: Chapter 223: Breaking the Formation (Seeking votes and Subscriptions)_1

Early-stage Class II creatures. Whether demonic beasts, Soul Ghosts, or Heavenly Demons, under Shen Mo’s formidable sword Qi, a mere touch meant death, a graze meant injury!

Yet the handful of Human Ghost armored soldiers guarding General Wei Bai managed to block this attack without suffering the slightest harm.

Their Qis are linked! The other armored soldiers are sharing the burden of the attack! Shen Mo’s eyebrows knitted slightly as he sensed the complexity of the army formation.

”Kill...kill them all!” growled the Human Ghost General in a guttural voice.

WHOOSH!

The formation of thousands of Human Ghost armored soldiers changed with startling speed. Wisps of ghostly Qi, mingled with the army formation’s Demonic Qi, emanated from them, coalescing into heavy, dark clouds. The numerous armored soldiers, who had been standing on the ground, now trod upon these roiling Demonic Qi clouds and took to the air.

Shields overlapped like fortress walls, while countless long spears thrust out from the gaps. Shield walls, forests of spears, and blade formations filled all directions, like a sack bristling with spikes, closing in on everyone.

BANG!

Li Zhong’s body slammed violently into a section of the shield wall. The shield wall dented slightly before he was pinned by innumerable long spears, as countless decaying broadswords rained down like a waterfall.

CLANG!

CLANG! CLANG!

Sparks flew amidst the cacophony of clashing metal!

Relying on his formidable vitality, Li Zhong charged madly into the army formation, causing the soldiers’ ranks to tremble continuously, yet they never broke.

Despite Li Zhong fighting at the peak of the Qi Gathering Realm against these early-stage Class II Human Ghost armored soldiers, not a single one of them was injured by him!

”Dammit! How are we supposed to fight this?” Li Zhong roared in frustration as he furiously battered the army formation.

It wasn’t just him; Chen Mengze, Jiang Yingying, Lu Ming, and the others were also being relentlessly pushed back by the formation’s pressure.

Their attacks—Sword Qi, thunder light, magic, magic artifacts, and so on—were undoubtedly potent. However, as soon as these attacks landed within the army formation, their power was dispersed among all the Human Ghost armored soldiers. Then, the enemy formation pressed in, steadily shrinking the pocket around them.

”These Human Ghost soldiers have formed a formation that links their Qi, allowing them to besiege any enemy caught within,” Song Fang of the Profound Moon School suddenly said. ”Relying on brute force will only allow the army formation to wear us down and crush us bit by bit. We must destroy its formation nodes!”

”Formation nodes... Where are they?” Shen Mo asked anxiously, his Demon Slaying Sword sweeping aside an incoming thicket of spears.

”This isn’t like a formation set up with magic artifacts!” Song Fang explained. ”This army formation is composed of the soldiers themselves. When their formation changes, the nodes also shift. I need time to calculate their positions!”

With that, Song Fang retreated to the center of the group, took out dozens of jade tokens, and began her calculations, laying them out before her.

But they were all trapped. Shield walls and forests of spears surrounded them on all sides. She had barely begun her calculations when she was forced to use magic to evade long spears thrusting at her.

”Come stand beside me!” Shen Mo called out.

Then, with a flick of his wide sleeve, he summoned the seven Big Dipper Swords.

HUM!

With a resonant thrum, the small swords soared into the air, arranging themselves in the pattern of The Big Dipper. In an instant, a vast Sword Array was established!

The majestic Sword Light clashed continuously with the shield walls, forests of spears, and blade formations, stubbornly resisting the crushing pressure of the enemy’s military formation. With The Big Dipper Array countering the enemy, the pressure on the others momentarily eased.

This time, it wasn’t that Shen Mo was hiding his strength or deliberately refraining from using his Sword Array. If he were facing scattered early-stage Class II Human Ghosts, even thousands of them, he could have annihilated them all with his Sword Array alone. But they had formed an army formation. Given the power of his Big Dipper Array, he couldn’t break their formation immediately; instead, they would fall into a stalemate, a battle of attrition. And Shen Mo was only one person. No matter how abundant his Mana, he couldn’t outlast these thousands of Human Ghosts. It would be a waste of a formidable technique! Now that Song Fang had a method to break the army formation, Shen Mo naturally wouldn’t be stingy with his Mana, ready to lend her a hand.

Seeing the protection of the powerful Sword Array, Song Fang’s face lit up with relief. She quickly refocused, concentrating on manipulating the formation-calculating jade tokens.

CRACK!

CREAK!

CREAK!

The two formations were locked in a stalemate. Countless beams of Sword Light clashed violently with the shield wall and forest of spears, both wreathed in ghostly Qi.

Sword Qi raged!

Blades and spears reaped!

The sheer scale of the confrontation was comparable to a battle between two armies in the mortal world. Thousands of troops clashed, locked in a brutal melee!

In just a dozen or so breaths, Shen Mo’s Mana had depleted by seventy to eighty percent!

This clearly demonstrated how unwise it was to pit The Big Dipper Array against the Human Ghost army formation in a contest of attrition. With over a thousand early-stage Class II armored soldiers as its foundation, even if Shen Mo consumed all the Elixirs in his Universe Bag, he doubted he could diminish the army formation’s power by even a third.

The next instant, Song Fang pinched a swirling jade token between her fingers and declared, ”East side, third horizontal, fifth vertical!”

”Die!” roared Li Zhong, who was positioned to the east. His body, as unyielding as solid metal, instantly shot towards the Human Ghost armored soldier Song Fang had indicated.

BOOM!

When Li Zhong’s iron fist smashed down, the targeted armored soldier remained unhurt, as the army formation dispersed the impact.

But the entire army formation trembled slightly!

Shen Mo, resisting the army formation’s power with The Big Dipper Array, felt it very clearly; the pressure feeding back from his Sword Array suddenly decreased by a tenth.

”This method works!” Everyone’s spirits lifted.

Song Fang continued without pause, ”West side, second horizontal, first vertical. North side, seventh horizontal, third vertical!”

On one side, Yao Ting and Lu Ming unleashed magic and thunder-type magic, targeting one of the armored soldier nodes.

On the other, Chen Mengze, Jiang Yingying, Peng Chenshu, and the others also unleashed their techniques, striking another node.

CRACK!

CRACK! CRACK!

The previously well-orchestrated Human Ghost army formation fell into slight disarray. The formation’s power weakened by thirty percent. Even General Wei Bai, the Human Ghost commander who had been concealed among the armored soldiers, was exposed.

It also seemed to realize something was amiss and continuously issued orders, changing the soldiers’ formation!

All formations—be it a Mountain Protection Array, a Flag Array, a Sword Array, or an Army Array—experience a certain degree of disruption when shifting, making it impossible to maintain the array perfectly. This was the moment when weaknesses were most easily exposed.

Shen Mo held back his sword, waiting for this very chance!

”The Big Dipper Array, Conversion!”

The Sword Array suddenly converged on General Wei Bai. Sharp sword lights engulfed it and the hundred or so Human Ghost armored soldiers surrounding it.

This Human Ghost General showed no signs of panic. The hundred or so armored soldiers beside it raised their shields and long spears, intercepting the imposing sword lights.

At this moment, from the open front of Shen Mo’s robe, two additional arms suddenly appeared, rapidly forming hand seals.

”Seven Mansions of the Vermilion Bird of the South, Palm, Ghost!”

A ram-like phantom emerged from his hands, striking like lightning. It plunged straight into the Human Ghost General’s body!

As with other attacks, the Human Ghost General did not bear the brunt of this phantom alone. The hundred or so soldiers beside it also absorbed most of the Palm’s power for it!

However, the residual power still caused Wei Bai to freeze for an instant!

In less time than it takes to snap one’s fingers, Shen Mo’s Demon Slaying Sword pierced its throat.

SPLAT!

A flash of sword light, and the Human Ghost General’s head was already soaring into the air.