Chapter 385: Worsening Situation
A thousand miles away from Huang Li Island, Xuan-Cang, Xuan-Qing, Xuan-He, and several other Zhen Ling Sect Enlightened Masters hurriedly flew towards Huang Li Island.
All of their expressions were dark and gloomy.
Due to the heavy cost of teleportation formations, Zhen Ling Sect had only set them up on medium islands and some small islands with strategic purposes such as Xuan Qi Island.
However, this changed three years ago when Huang Li Island was reclaimed and became the only mini island that had a teleportation formation in Zhen Ling Sect.
But because the teleportation formation on Huang Li Island was destroyed, and the one on Xuan Qi Island was isolated, the Enlightened Masters were left with no choice but to travel on their own.
While the other Enlightened Masters were worried for Huang Li Island's safety, Xuan-Cang and Xuan-Qing were more distressed because they were the ones that planned the scheme.
However, the initial plan was just to put Huang Li Island in a difficult position to prove Lu Ping's inability, after which they would intervene swiftly and take control of the situation and the island itself.
This was why Xuan-Cang invited a dozen Enlightened Masters to a gathering in his cave-dwelling. He needed them to rescue Huang Li Island with him.
He hadn't thought that the monster race would take down the teleportation formations and completely ruin their plan.
At the same time, this also changed the essence of the scheme. After all, the initial calculation on Lu Ping and Huang Li Island was just infighting between factions, the island would still be in the hands of Zhen Ling Sect in the end.
But if the island fell to the monster race, this would be an entirely different story. At worst, they could be accused of colluding with monsters and betraying the human race.
At best, Xuan-Cang would be dismissed from his position as the guardian of Di Kun Island along with a heavy punishment. After all, Huang Li Island was nominally a subordinate island under Di Kun Island, so Xuan-Cang naturally had to be responsible for its loss.
Not to mention that Di Kun Island was Zhen Ling Sect's main hub in the northern region. All cultivators had to first teleport to Di Kun Island, and then use its teleportation formation to reach the other islands in the northern region, including Huang Li Island.
Hence, if Huang Li Island's teleportation formation was really destroyed from the inside, the perpetrators must have entered Huang Li Island from Di Kun Island. Xuan-Cang would have to bear the mistake of overlooking these people and letting them pass freely.
Outside of Huang Li Island's protective formation, Enlightened Master Lv Hai and a few other Mid Core Forging Realm monsters created a huge hole on the protective light barrier again, letting more monsters to slip through.
Amongst the monsters that infiltrated the island, there was a giant turtle that didn't immediately join the fight. Instead, it quietly slipped away from the battlefield and hurried to the center of the island.
Lv Hai looked at the other monster Enlightened Masters, and asked with confusion, "Strange, the protective formation has been penetrated more than a dozen times. In addition to the tsunami divine ability, it should be weakening by now. Why is it still so strong and sturdy?"
A monster asked, "Is there another Enlightened Master hosting the protective formation?" 24062
Even though this monster was only in the Fifth Layer Core Forging Realm, weaker than Lv Hai, he spoke as if he was equal in status to Lv Hai.
Lv Hai shook his head, and replied, "According to the human pets, Zhen Ling Sect only has two Early Core Forging Realm humans on the island. We just sent three more Enlightened Masters into the island, they should be more than enough to keep the humans from looking after the formation chassis, unless..."
The monster interrupted Lv Hai, and said, "Unless the humans have hidden their cards, or that Lu Xuan-Ping is forced out of his closed-door cultivation."
Lv Hai wasn't offended, and instead nodded with a smile, "Brother Ma is right."
Enlightened Master Ma didn't seem to care what Lv Hai replied with, and continued, "Even so, we have five Enlightened Masters and they only have three. What's more, one is looking after the formation chassis, so we are five against two. Why is it that the island is still holding firmly?"
Lv Hai felt a little awkward after being ignored previously, and quickly said, "Brother Ma, are you saying that Zhen Ling Sect has more hidden strength on the island?"
Enlightened Master Ma's expression remained unchanged, "This is the only explanation. The protective formation has obscured our divine revelation from seeing the situation on the island. But during the brief moments we saw through the holes on the barrier, we still have the upper hand on the island.
"However, if we cannot take down the island before Zhen Ling Sect's reinforcement arrives, we will not only fail this operation, we will also lose all our forces on Huang Li Island, including the three monster Enlightened Masters, two Core Forging Realm human pets, and the remaining monster cultivators."
Lv Hai turned solemn, as he said, "Brother Ma is right. We cannot afford to fail this time, the consequence of failing is beyond any of us. People, now is not the time to hold back, we all need to give it our full effort. Even if we cannot break this protective formation, we need to weaken it to send more underlings into the island. It would be for the best if one of us can enter to settle everything once and for all."
...
It's just a spirit pellet, how can it be so powerful!?
The monster Enlightened Master was terrified to see the power of the spirit pellet. He was initially rushing towards Hu Lili, but he forcibly stopped himself and quickly moved back.
At the same time, he cast out a water barrier in front of him. The water barrier expanded whilst countless starfishes flew towards the incoming sword light.
The sword light was barraged by starfishes and eventually shattered just before the water barrier ran out.
While the monster Enlightened Master heaved a sigh of relief, another spirit pellet flew out of the lightning ball again. Amidst his shock, the spirit pellet turned into a strange-looking Jiao that lunged towards him.
On the other side, the Core Forging Realm human pet attacked Hu Lili's rear.
Hu Lili quickly placed down several formation materials beside her; they resonated with her nascent formation chassis creating an emerald light barrier that trapped the human pet inside.
Bang... Bang... Bang--
The human pet lashed out a series of attacks to try and break free from the light barrier.
Just as the monster Enlightened Master struck down the strange-looking Jiao, another spirit pellet turned into a Luan covered in black fire and pounced on him.
The monster Enlightened Master's water barrier had already been torn by the strange-looking Jiao. He looked at the incoming Luan and screamed in pain with a trace of regret, "How dare you... How many more of these pellets do you have left? When you run out of them... heh.. that's when you die!"
These pellets were naturally the spiritual battle pellets that Lu Ping had concocted. The power of these pellets were heavily dependent on the alchemist's alchemy and prowess. Hence, they could sometimes be even stronger than talisman treasures and just as strong as talisman artifacts.
However, Lu Ping didn't want to spend extra time and effort to concoct these battle pellets. To him, he would rather concoct a few more cauldrons of cultivation pellets than these battle pellets.
Hence, he had only specially concocted these battle pellets for Hu Lili when she was still in the Blood Condensation Realm to ensure her safety. As a result, these battle pellets only had ordinary strength.
Hu Lili heard the monster Enlightened Master's words and looked gloomier. As a formationist, she could easily handle either of them individually, but not two at the same time. Hence, she had to use the battle pellets which were meant for her escape.
After all, Lu Ping's intention in concocting these battle pellets was to ensure her safety. This was because the battle pellets were consumables that could only be used once. So, they were meant to stall her opponents while Hu Lili escaped.
In other words, the monster Enlightened Master was right. Once Hu Lili used up all her battle pellets, she wouldn't be able to hold off the two of them anymore and would be defeated.
After her, Chen Lian would be next, and then Luan Yu, and finally the island.
Is this it? In the end, do we still have to wake Lu Ping up from his cultivation?
Di Kun Island should have noticed by now that the island's teleportation formation is destroyed, so why are there no reinforcements?
Did something happen to Xuan Qi Island too?