Mountain Invincible struck down the four Duke of Qi Residence guards with ruthless force. Though he preserved Jiang Kui's dignity, he also made the Residence indirectly offend the sects backing those four guards. That’s why Old Man Tanner cursed Mountain Invincible as a brainless brute—he’d needlessly created four new enemies for the Duke.
After killing those four wastes, Mountain Invincible felt a faint regret in his heart. Still, in his mind, it was all the fault of that kid inside the formation. If not for Ian Song forcing those four to insult the Duke, he wouldn’t have had to kill them.
Thinking this, he joined the ranks of those attacking the formation.
As a mid Divine Transformation cultivator, his strength was indeed extraordinary. When he struck, his power actually overshadowed the combined attacks of the five early Divine Transformation experts.
But unfortunately, he still couldn’t break the Nine Heavens Black Tortoise Array.
Outside the formation.
Under the wind blade assault, Conrad Wolf was already showing signs of collapse. His true essence shield was down to a thin layer, and he had less than ten percent of his true essence left inside.
With a thought, the wind blades froze in mid-air.
"Do you want to live, or do you want to die?"
Ian Song smiled at Conrad Wolf, asking in an unhurried tone.
"Is this kid about to pull the same trick again?"
Outside the array, when the crowd heard Ian Song's words, they all thought the same thing to themselves.
Conrad Wolf, on the other hand, looked conflicted when he heard this.
"I'll give you ten breaths to decide. If you still can't make up your mind, then go ahead and die!" Ian Song said coolly, his tone carrying a chilling edge.
Controlling the life and death of a Nascent Divinity expert with only mid Out-of-Body cultivation—this was the allure of an Earth-rank formation master!
Seeing this scene, Raina Quinn's gaze toward Ian Song grew complicated. As for the other female cultivators nearby, quite a few were openly showing admiration.
"Does anyone know where this young man came from?" someone asked.
Instinctively, everyone looked toward Old Man Tanner, the most knowledgeable among them.
Old Man Tanner stroked his snowy white beard and slowly spoke: "All I know is that this young man’s surname is Song. Earlier, he killed Aaron Jiang at Immortal Cloud Pavilion, then fled here and set up this formation." At this, Old Man Tanner sighed lightly. "Looks like this youth is about to make a name for himself!"
Hearing Old Man Tanner’s sigh, the crowd all nodded to themselves.
But Mountain Invincible found it especially grating. He snapped, "Everyone stop! Cheng Jun, hurry back to the Duke of Qi Residence and invite Jace Zhao, our consecrated formation master, to break this array!"
"Old Man Tanner, can Jace Zhao really break this array?"
Raina Quinn sent a voice transmission, faintly worried for Ian Song.
Old Man Tanner thought for a moment before replying, "Jace Zhao joined the Duke of Qi Residence twenty years ago as their consecrated formation master. Back then, his formation skills were already at peak Profound-rank. Ordinary Profound-rank formation masters were no match for him. Now, after twenty years and all the formation manuals and resources the Duke has collected for him, it’s entirely possible he’s broken through to Earth-rank."
"So you’re saying Jace Zhao can break this array?" Raina Quinn asked anxiously.
Old Man Tanner nodded lightly to Raina Quinn. "It's possible. But even if he has reached Earth-rank, he might not be able to break the Nine Heavens Black Tortoise Array. Setting it up is easy; breaking it is another story!"
"That’s a relief!" Raina Quinn secretly let out a breath. In her mind, Ian Song’s formation skill might be high, at Earth-rank, but his actual cultivation was too weak—just mid Out-of-Body, not even on par with an ordinary Duke’s guard.
Inside the formation.
Ian Song set his teacup down again. "Your ten breaths are up. Have you made up your mind?"
Hearing Ian Song’s words, everyone stared at Conrad Wolf, waiting to see what he’d choose.
"Spare my life, young master!"
Thud!
Conrad Wolf finally couldn’t withstand the test of death and compromised. Seeing him kneel, Mountain Invincible’s face turned ugly, his eyes flashing with killing intent—this damned Conrad Wolf had utterly disgraced the Duke of Qi Residence.
Conrad Wolf was different from the other guards—he was personally trained by the Duke of Qi Residence.
His betrayal dealt an even greater blow to the Duke of Qi Residence.
Suddenly, Ian Song formed a hand seal, and at once, those outside the array could no longer see or hear what was happening inside.
Ian Song slowly rose and walked over to Conrad Wolf. "Open your mind—I’m going to plant a restriction in your soul. With this, you’ll never be able to betray me."
"Yes!" Conrad Wolf nodded in full cooperation, though a cold light flashed deep in his eyes. As a Nascent Divinity expert, his soul was strong; he planned to pretend to be controlled, then break the restriction once he left the array and seize a chance to redeem himself. But he didn’t know that, while Ian Song’s realm was only mid Out-of-Body, his spiritual strength far surpassed Conrad’s.
With a single finger, Ian Song sent a Puppet Mastery divine art into Conrad Wolf’s brow. Because Conrad didn’t resist, he was quickly enslaved.
"Conrad Wolf greets Master!"
Conrad Wolf once again knelt, bowing respectfully. At the same time, all thoughts of betrayal vanished from his mind.
Rise.
Ian Song then brought Conrad Wolf into the Divine Temple and transmitted the War God Canon to him.
When Ian Song returned to the array, he saw a black-robed middle-aged man outside, staring intently at the formation as if studying its patterns.
Ian Song wasn’t worried. He had studied countless advanced formation texts, and after modifying the first layer of the Nine Heavens Black Tortoise Array, its defense had increased several times. Breaking it was much harder, and the spirit crystal consumption was tenfold. Only he could afford such a cost; most formation masters aimed for minimal crystal use.
Formation masters are ranked Earth, Heaven, Profound, and Yellow. A Heaven-rank master can set up arrays that can trap or even kill Tribulation Crossing experts.
Above Heaven-rank are Immortal-rank formation masters. Once you reach Immortal-rank, you can form arrays with a single thought, using the power of heaven and earth without consuming spirit crystals.
When Ian Song first arrived in this world and learned about the immortals here, he resolved to master formations. With his intelligence and access to countless advanced formation materials, improving his formation skills was much faster than increasing his true essence.
So after returning from Ten Thousand Spirits Island to the Jade Maiden Sect, he deliberately focused on improving his formation skills. Now, though he hadn’t reached Heaven-rank, he was close to the threshold. He was confident that, given a month to set up an array, he could trap even a Fusion expert for a while.
Unfortunately, time was too short now, so the array he set up could only trap Nascent Divinity experts—but that was enough, since the strongest in the Duke of Qi Residence was only late Nascent Divinity.
"Master Zhao, can you break this array?" Mountain Invincible asked.
"You think breaking an array is as easy as eating and drinking?"
Jace Zhao glared at Mountain Invincible, then began circling the array. The more he observed, the deeper his frown grew—he realized this Nine Heavens Black Tortoise Array had been modified, and even with his best skills, he might not be able to break it.