The Quest for Immortality

Zhang Lan felt a shiver down his spine.

He knew the array was powerful, but he never expected its destructive force to be so terrifying.

It was clearly just a First Grade array, yet it made him, a Foundation Building cultivator, feel a sense of unavoidable despair.

”Can the array really be this strong?”

Zhang Lan and Yang Jiyong simultaneously expressed their amazement, murmuring to themselves.

After speaking, both of them were stunned, then they looked at each other with disdain as if they had swallowed flies.

Zhang Lan sneered, ”Doesn’t your Yang family have a grand array too? Why are you so surprised, acting like you’ve never seen the world?”

Yang Jiyong retorted, ”And your Zhang family doesn’t? You’re not any better.”

Zhang Lan said, ”Our Zhang family has deep foundations, we don’t need to activate the grand array.”

Yang Jiyong responded, ”Our Yang family is renowned for our conquests; no small fry would dare to provoke us, so we naturally don’t need to activate the grand array.”

Zhang Lan laughed coldly, ”You talk a big game, but you still haven’t seen a grand array in action, have you?”

”Neither have you,” Yang Jiyong shot back.

...

The two argued for a while, both equally matched, unable to make fun of each other.

Afterward, they both looked towards the Five Elements Demon-Slaying Array in the center and sighed softly.

The grand array was indeed a rare sight to behold...

Although both the Zhang and Yang families had grand arrays, they rarely activated them.

Activating a grand array consumed a large amount of spirit stones, and even if their families had spirit mines, they couldn’t afford such waste.

Unless faced with a powerful enemy or a catastrophe threatening the family, the grand array would remain dormant.

Due to their deep foundations and vast influence, neither the Zhang nor Yang families had officially activated their grand arrays for hundreds of years.

Thus, Zhang Lan and Yang Jiyong had never truly seen a grand array in action until now.

The Five Elements Demon-Slaying Array depicted by Mo Hua was the first full-powered grand array they had ever seen.

Before today, they knew the array was powerful but had no idea just how powerful until they experienced it firsthand.

Moreover, the Five Elements Demon-Slaying Array was different from their family protection arrays, which were primarily defensive or balanced with some offensive capabilities.

This array was purely offensive.

The power of such an array was far greater than they had imagined.

Both men fell silent. After a long while, Yang Jiyong murmured:

”Array masters are truly terrifying...”

Zhang Lan did not refute this time but softly agreed, ”Yes...”

Yang Jiyong looked at the array, filled with surging spiritual power and overwhelming killing intent, and couldn’t help but be shocked:

”If such an array were deployed on the battlefield, it would undoubtedly suppress and annihilate all enemies! Even cultivators of a higher realm might not survive!”

He looked up towards a distant mountain peak.

There, at the array hub, sat young Mo Hua, controlling the entire Five Elements Demon-Slaying Array.

Yang Jiyong had never felt Mo Hua’s depth more profoundly than now.

A thirteen-year-old chief array master, deploying a purely offensive array.

”This child will surely become a great weapon in the future.”

”He can create arrays to save millions, but he can also create arrays to kill millions...”

Yang Jiyong was both awed and terrified, his gaze growing more solemn.

At this moment, Mo Hua was fully focused, meticulously controlling the array, maneuvering the Five Elements formations to trap and kill Feng Xi.

Meanwhile, Feng Xi had already escaped from the traps of the Earth-based Flowing Sand Array and the Metal-based Golden Light Array, climbing along the rock wall into the Water-based formations.

Mo Hua communicated with the array hub, cutting off the spiritual power supply to the Earth-based formations, then channeling the refined spiritual power through the array hub to the Water-based formations.

With the infusion of spiritual power, the Overturning Water Array and Wood Poison Array were activated, instantly flooding the ground.

Feng Xi waded through the water, struggling with each step.

Moreover, the surrounding greenish wood poison gas gradually corroded Feng Xi’s skin, causing paralysis and eroding its blood energy.

Some wood poison gas seeped into the water, intensifying the poison through the principle of mutual generation in the Five Elements, with water nurturing wood.

As Feng Xi’s four feet waded through the water, the poison eroded its flesh step by step, until only bones remained. After the blood energy condensed, it was eroded again...

Trapped in the Overturning Water Array for several hours, Feng Xi emerged with significantly weakened blood energy.

Ahead awaited layers of formations, including the Metal Lock Array, Water Sword Array, Wood Prison Array, Fire Rain Array, Red Fire Array, and Earth Fissure Array.

As long as it couldn’t escape the grand array, it would remain trapped in the Five Elements’ cycle of entrapment and slaughter until completely annihilated by the thousands of formations.

All the cultivators who witnessed this scene were shocked, but a glimmer of hope arose in their hearts:

Maybe they really could kill the great demon with the grand array!

Everyone’s spirits lifted.

Thus began the long process of suppression and slaughter.

The array’s destructive power was terrifying and effective against Feng Xi.

But Feng Xi’s blood energy was thick; to completely suppress and kill it, they had to keep the array running continuously, repeatedly trapping, killing, and exhausting Feng Xi’s blood energy until it died.

This wasn’t a quick task.

This suppression might last for days, even ten days or more.

All the cultivators involved had to remain vigilant and unrelenting. If Feng Xi escaped, it would be almost impossible to trap it again and kill it.

Mo Hua stayed at the array hub, controlling the entire array.

When Feng Xi tried to crash into the walls, he strengthened them with spiritual power.

When Feng Xi was trapped, he activated the formations there while stimulating nearby killing arrays.

He cut off unnecessary formations to save some spirit stones.

Mo Hua’s spiritual sense was constantly being consumed.

If Feng Xi was temporarily trapped, Mo Hua would sit and meditate to restore some spiritual sense.

If Feng Xi escaped, Mo Hua would consume his spiritual sense to manipulate the array hub and activate nearby formations to contain Feng Xi.

Feng Xi was constantly manipulated within the composite array of the Five Elements, trapped by confinement arrays and attacked by killing arrays.

Feng Xi kept struggling; Mo Hua remained sleepless and relentless.

Master Luo, watching from the side, was deeply impressed.

Such profound spiritual sense foundation and rapid recovery...

To control the grand array alone, Master Luo wasn’t surprised.

But to control the grand array, maneuvering it effortlessly, without sleep or fatigue, with abundant spiritual sense—was this truly within the capabilities of a Qi Refining cultivator?

If he were to control the grand array, he’d be exhausted within a few hours.

Master Luo sighed.

Originally, he thought if Mo Hua got tired, he could help for a while.

But now, seeing Mo Hua unfatigued, he felt exhausted just watching.

Moreover, the array hub looked complicated, but actual control was even more complex. One had to be thoroughly familiar with every part of the array to manage it properly.

Master Luo realized he had overestimated himself.

Such a task could only be entrusted to the chief array master, Mo Hua.

Watching Mo Hua, Master Luo sighed:

”Indeed, there’s always someone better out there...”

Mo Hua remained fully focused on controlling the array.

The grand array was vast, and even with precise control, errors inevitably occurred.

These could be mistakes in spiritual power flow, compatibility issues between formations, or insufficient bearing capacity of the array mediums, causing breaks and wear in the array patterns.

During these moments, when spiritual power supply faltered and formations couldn’t function, the Foundation Building cultivators and stationed Dao soldiers within the array had to act, temporarily restraining Feng Xi to prevent its escape.

Facing such suppression, Feng Xi was furious.

Acting during these moments was extremely dangerous.

Thus, Zhang Lan, Yang Jiyong, Elder Yu, and others were fully alert, never letting their guard down. Each person acted only once, then withdrew to let another take over.

This way, they restrained Feng Xi without prolonged combat, preventing anyone from being devoured by Feng Xi, which would rejuvenate its blood energy.

Zhang Lan and the others were under immense pressure, cautious with every move.

Fortunately, Mo Hua quickly adjusted the array hub, resuming the array’s operation, trapping Feng Xi again, activating the formations in turn...

This process was exceedingly long...

Outside the array, in Tongxian City, all the cultivators’ emotions shifted from shock and joy to anxiety and torment.

They didn’t know how long it would take to kill the great demon or if they could succeed, leaving them in prolonged anticipation...

For the next ten days, day and night, the multicolored lights in the deep mountains never faded, and the powerful spiritual energy fluctuations rose and fell continuously.

Feng Xi’s roars echoed day and night.

Its blood energy waned, but its ferocity grew, staining the sky over the mountains red, like the gate of a purgatory slowly opening in the heavens.

The Five Elements Demon-Slaying Array, like a multicolored shackle, tightly locked this purgatory gate.

Finally, after more than twenty days, Feng Xi’s roars grew weak and gradually subsided.

The blood-red sky also dimmed.

The setting sun cast its light, dyeing Dahei Mountain in gold, and a glimmer of hope surfaced in everyone’s hearts.

Within the array, after more than twenty days of sleepless battle, all the cultivators were exhausted, and their spirit stone reserves were nearly depleted.

All the cultivators,

working together, finally drained Feng Xi’s blood energy completely!

Feng Xi’s blood energy dissipated, its body turning ashen as it collapsed to the ground.

Elder Yu and the others, pale and panting, clenched their teeth, having endured over twenty days.

As Feng Xi fell, everyone initially felt numb, then slowly regained their senses, incredulously murmuring:

”Dead?”

”Killed?”

”The great demon is dead, it’s been killed...”

...

Joy surged like a tide, and they couldn’t help but cheer.

Mo Hua exhaled deeply and collapsed to the ground.

But before he could rejoice, a sudden sense of foreboding struck him.

He quickly got up, looked down, and his pupils contracted.

The fallen Feng Xi, silently, slowly stood up again...

Just like the pig demon before, which had once silently risen and devoured the Qian family ancestor.

The cheers abruptly stopped as everyone witnessed this, exclaiming in shock:

”The great demon isn’t dead?”

”Impossible, its blood energy is clearly exhausted...”

”What should we do?”

At the same time, Feng Xi’s aura changed, surrounded no longer by crimson blood energy but by dark gray death energy.

Its pig face twisted, deformed, and reformed into a large human face.

This human face resembled an eerie Daoist.

It opened its mouth, lipless and toothless, and spoke, its voice indistinguishable in gender.

It sounded like one person speaking, yet like many speaking together, eerie and chaotic:

”Who dares? Ruin my plans!”

”Ruin my plans!”

”Who? How dare?”

”Ruin...my plans!”

...

The chaotic voices mingled, sounding both near and far, as if echoing in their minds.

Zhang Lan and the others turned pale:

”What is this?!”

”Is this pig...a human?”

Seeing the human face, Mo Hua had a sudden realization. He understood why the pig could resurrect.

Because it harbored another divine sense within.

The divine sense of that eerie Daoist!

Feng Xi’s demonic consciousness had long perished; what drove it to resurrect was the Daoist’s divine sense.

The one Mr. Zhuang had warned him not to ask, think about, or mention...that eerie Daoist!

Feng Xi resurrected, its human face emerging, entangled in grievances, shrouded in heavy death energy.

In the secluded mountain abode, Mr. Zhuang’s expression grew solemn as he murmured:

”Dao Heart Demon Planting...”