Chapter 103

Ke Xingzhou also noticed Xiang Ting’s gaze and couldn’t help but furrow his brows, thinking.

Sealing array?

This term seemed oddly familiar. After thinking for a while, Ke Xingzhou recalled that it was the first array his master taught him.

This brings us to the topic of the sequence in learning Taoist magic.

Looking at the other Taoist priests, it’s clear that array formations are quite advanced Taoist techniques, requiring exceptional talent to learn.

Most Taoist priests might never come into contact with an array in their lifetime. Even if they do, they would only learn the basics—just enough to judge the effects of simple arrays and how to break them.

Although Ke Xingzhou has the Heavenly Eye, it doesn’t help much with array formations. The Sealing Array is an advanced formation, which, logically, wouldn’t be something a beginner Taoist should learn.

Moreover, magic no longer exists in the present world.

Ke Xingzhou had once questioned why his master taught him an array that would no longer be used. But now, looking at the array in front of him, an odd feeling vaguely flashed in his heart.

Seeing that everyone else had already entered the array, he raised his foot to follow them.

But suddenly, his wrist was grabbed. He turned around to see Nie Chen looking at him seriously: "Can you not go this time?"

Ke Xingzhou was stunned.

Since they had known each other, Nie Chen rarely denied his choices. Whatever Ke Xingzhou wanted to do, Nie Chen would accompany him, even when the consequences were obviously not great.

In Nie Chen’s worldview, mistakes weren’t scary; what was scary was being denied the chance to try.

So, he never interfered with Ke Xingzhou’s decisions.

This was the first time Nie Chen had clearly shown an attitude of stopping him.

Ke Xingzhou shook his head, hiding the strange feeling in his heart, and explained to Nie Chen: "It’s fine, I just remembered that my master seems to have taught me this array."

Nie Chen looked at him skeptically, not letting go.

Ke Xingzhou reminded him: "It’s the array I learned when I first joined the sect."

Nie Chen remembered.

At that time, they hadn’t yet parted ways. In order to have more common ground with Ke Xingzhou, Nie Chen had tried to learn the Sealing Array, but he failed miserably.

Array formations change in countless ways; they can’t be learned by rote memorization. His talent in metaphysics was tragically poor, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t grasp the mysteries of the arrays.That was the first time he realized how far he had drifted from Ke Xingzhou’s life, and also the first time he felt a sense of panic.

Nie Chen looked at the array in front of him, and the unease in his heart grew stronger.

Ke Xingzhou, however, shook his head, signaling that he was fine: "Let’s go."

With that, he stepped into the array, and a mysterious sensation hit him. The scene in front of him suddenly changed—

The towering trees disappeared, replaced by an endless expanse of sandy land. The moon in the sky seemed to have suddenly enlarged by dozens of times, hanging like a disk in the air. But because it was surrounded by eerie purple-black mist, it failed to evoke any pleasant thoughts. The longer one stared, the more chilling it felt.

Ke Xingzhou furrowed his brows and instinctively held his breath.

He didn’t like the atmosphere here. The purple-black mist gave him the feeling that his pores were being blocked. Although the surroundings were wide open, he had the constant sensation of being surrounded by people, and the strong feeling of being watched made him uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, the crowd ahead began to stir.

While the two of them were struggling outside the array, the Taoist priests had already found the whereabouts of the Six-Armed Dragon God.

—Inside the array, everything was visible. As long as the eyesight was good, one could see scenes from ten miles away at a glance. It would be hard not to find it.

The Six-Armed Dragon God didn’t expect this place to be discovered. He had already turned back into human form to tend to his wounds. When he saw them appear, he realized he had been betrayed.

He was filled with both anger and shock: “Those traitors, how dare they really tell you about this place?!”

Zhu Chu sighed, looking at him reproachfully: "What are you talking about? They turned from darkness to light, of course, they had to show their loyalty. Otherwise, how would they prove they were truly repentant?"

He thought to himself that initially, he thought the failure was due to Huangmao’s master’s fault, but now it seemed this evil god also had some responsibility.

Not considering his own subordinates at all, what was this behavior?!

The Six-Armed Dragon God: "..."

The eight Dragon Gods led the Taoist priests to the vicinity of the array and then left. The Six-Armed Dragon God, even though angry, couldn’t find the real culprit and could only shake with rage.

Seeing how angry he was, Zhu Chu couldn’t help but feel some sympathy and kindly comforted him: “Doing business with familiar people is like this. You, too, always want to take all the benefits for yourself. If they don’t resent you, there’s something wrong! You’ll have to learn from this experience and not be so selfish next time.”

Next time...

The Taoist priests were speechless for a moment when they saw the Six-Armed Dragon God was also very angry. His cold gaze swept over them all, and the remaining four arms suddenly waved, rapidly forming one hand seal after another.

The Taoist priests became tense: "What is he going to do?"

Zhu Chu, seeing his familiar movements, couldn’t help but think of a familiar anime, and explained to the Taoist priests: "He’s forming hand seals. It seems this evil god hasn’t been dead for long; he’s still like a young, arrogant teenager!"

The Six-Armed Dragon God: "…………"

His expression immediately turned ferocious as he stared at Zhu Chu: "Shut up! Stupid humans, what do you understand?!"

Zhu Chu snorted, feeling unconvinced: "Who says I don’t understand? I was once a hand seal master at the orphanage, and many older kids were in awe of my speed! If you don’t believe me, let’s compare!"

As he spoke, his hands moved swiftly, forming one impressive hand seal after another.

To be honest, with his serious expression, it almost had a bit of a metaphysical aura.

Even the Taoist priests couldn’t help but wonder if he really knew the other party’s techniques, and some even leaned toward Ke Xingzhou, asking him: "Daoist Ke, does your temple teach this?"Ke Xingzhou: "?"

He didn’t know either.

The Six-Armed Dragon God on the opposite side watched the speed at which the other party was forming the seals. Indeed, it was much faster than his, and some of the gestures were quite familiar, causing him to feel shocked.

Originally, with two fewer arms, he wasn’t very used to it. In his panic, he accidentally made a few wrong seals.

The surging spiritual energy surged back into his body, and the Six-Armed Dragon God’s face turned pale as he spurted out a large mouthful of blood.

He stared at Zhu Chu in disbelief: "Who are you? What kind of technique is this?!"

Zhu Chu broke out in a thin sweat on his forehead, quickly retracting his stance. He looked down at the Six-Armed Dragon God with a very disdainful expression: "Don’t understand? I just learned this, I thought using the hand seals I learned as a child to deal with you would be too much. This is our Taoist Nine-Word True Mantra—‘Those who fight shall array themselves in formation before!’"

Six-Armed Dragon God: "??"

The Taoist priests: "……??"

No wonder they felt the gestures were a bit familiar earlier, it turns out it was the Nine-Word True Mantra...

Zhu Chu's gestures were so fast that at first, they didn’t dare to recognize it.

Upon learning that the gestures used by the other party had nothing to do with his own, the Six-Armed Dragon God spat out another mouthful of old blood, clearly enraged.

"Good! Good, good... you dare to humiliate me like this!"

Zhu Chu didn’t understand: "How is this humiliation? Isn’t it just that your seal speed is a bit slower? Why can’t this ghost take a loss?"

The Six-Armed Dragon God was about to be driven mad by him. He pointed at him, trembling, but couldn’t say a complete sentence.

Zhu Chu saw this and was very nervous. He anxiously grabbed the sleeve of a nearby Taoist priest: "Damn, can ghosts really die from anger? His death won't be counted against me, right? My merits are at stake, aren’t they?"

No, please! The little bit of merit he had accumulated with hard work from drawing talismans day and night!

He looked as if he sincerely feared the Six-Armed Dragon God would just die in front of him.

Six-Armed Dragon God: "..."

The Taoist priests: "..."

For some reason, despite everything going smoothly with the ritual, they felt inexplicably exhausted.

It was the first time they had felt sympathy for a villainous spirit.

This dragon god, really, what a tragic fate...

--

The Six-Armed Dragon God was so enraged that he kept spitting blood and couldn’t say a word.

The Taoist priests waited for a while, and the tiny bit of sympathy they had was replaced by impatience.

It was already late at night. After several long nights, their bodies, now over fifty years old, were starting to feel the strain. Moreover, the person across from them had committed numerous evil deeds and wasn’t exactly a good spirit.One of the Taoist priests couldn’t help but speak up: "Are you not done yet?"

Six-Armed Dragon God: "..."

He had finally stabilized his inner energy, but this single sentence almost caused it to become chaotic again. He barely suppressed the surging inner energy and forced himself to stand up.

The Taoist priests immediately became vigilant.

The Six-Armed Dragon God wiped the purple bloodstain from the corner of his mouth, coldly glaring at them. Then, he raised one hand and pointed at the sky.

The dark sky was immediately covered with dense clouds, blocking out the last bit of starlight. Amidst the black clouds, faint purple lightning flickered, making the atmosphere even more tense and terrifying.

Zhu Chu: "Ah, I’m so scared."

Everyone: "…"

Everyone was speechless at his unenthusiastic words, but the Taoist priests quickly reacted, raising their magical tools and attacking the Six-Armed Dragon God.

The Six-Armed Dragon God had lost two arms, but because of his long-term devotion to incense offerings, his combat strength was still formidable.

The Taoist priests’ attacks could hardly reach him, and only Xiang Ting was barely able to strike him, but still couldn’t prevent him from summoning lightning.

The dark clouds in the sky gathered more and more, quickly condensing into a massive mass, descending with tremendous pressure. Purple lightning was scattered throughout, flashing intermittently.

Everyone felt a chill in their hearts, and the Taoist priests’ faces twitched: "Damn, he’s actually able to summon the heavenly tribulation!"

The Six-Armed Dragon God looked at their panicked expressions and couldn’t help but let out a sinister laugh: "Hahaha! When you used this formation to seal us, did you ever think that you would end up like this?"

The monsters sealed inside the demon-sealing formation were naturally demons, and the Taoist priests now finally realized the true identity of the opponent, their faces changing dramatically.

"Demons! The great war between the gods and demons thousands of years ago, all demons were sealed and killed! How could there still be demons in this world?"

"‘Sealed and killed’?" The Six-Armed Dragon God snorted with a laugh, "You humans really are arrogant!"

He didn’t explain how he survived, but casually pointed at the sky. The dark clouds immediately reacted to the demonic energy on his body, and terrifying lightning began to gather.