Chapter 105: A Strange Attack
“Don’t panic, little junior brother. Someone is attacking the formation from the outside and has severed our vision and divine sense. The Elders are already fighting the attackers, there’s likely nothing serious going on.”
Just as Li Yan looked around in confusion, Li Wuyi’s voice rang out in his mind.
Turning his head, he saw Li Wuyi wearing a curious expression as well, his gaze coincidentally sweeping in his direction, it was clear he had also been scanning their surroundings.
One after another, many Qi Condensation cultivators awakened from their meditation, their faces filled with unease and suspicion. For a moment, no one spoke.
Li Yan quietly attempted to release his divine sense and his heart jumped. His spiritual awareness couldn’t even extend outside his body. Even within the formation, his vision was severely limited.
“Do not panic. This is simply the result of unstable heavenly forces within the secret realm.”
An echoing voice reverberated through the array, it was Elder Peng.
“The secret realm is already unstable, and now it can launch attacks on its own? And what kind of attack was that?”
Someone whispered their doubts to a nearby cultivator.
“No idea. I can’t see a thing in the sky, just a mass of gray. My divine sense won’t extend even half an inch.”
“Same here. I tried my best to release it just now, but nothing happened...”
…
As whispers spread among the disciples, the rumbling outside the formation only grew more deafening.
Li Yan felt the ground beneath him tremble violently, as if threatening to hurl him to the ground. He focused his vision toward the edge of the formation, where he could just barely make out two elders standing guard.
One was the beautiful Peak Mistress of Boundless Peak. The other, Li Yan believed, was a Core Formation Elder from Old Lord Peak.
Straining his eyesight, Li Yan managed to see their profiles. Both wore grim expressions, eyes locked onto the world outside the formation, though whether they could see anything was unclear.
Still, seeing that neither of them appeared strained or hesitant in their spells gave him some relief. Clearly, things were still under control.
Li Yan remained silent, keeping a close eye on the two elders’ expressions while straining to listen for any clues.
After a while, he realized the thunderous crashes weren’t all coming from their immediate area. Some came from farther off, suggesting that the other three sects and even the demon beasts were under attack too.
But what he didn’t know was that the demon beasts weren’t under attack at all.
They had long since discovered that as long as they didn’t try to escape the realm, these mysterious assaults would leave them untouched. After verifying this several times though at great cost, they stopped intervening altogether.
In the past, the demon beasts had helped, not out of goodwill, but because they feared the human sects would suffer too many losses and stop entering the secret realm altogether. Without humans, who would bring them pills and treasures?
But after seeing how resilient the cultivators were, able to withstand these strange assaults through their formations and precautions, the demon beasts no longer felt compelled to interfere. In fact, they found some amusement in the humans’ predicament.
Inside the formation, apart from quiet murmurs, the disciples of the four sects could do little else.
About fifteen minutes later, the sound of the external assault ceased abruptly. The swirling dust and sand outside the barrier vanished without a trace, and moonlight and starlight returned to the sky.
The enormous Tianxin Compass still floated firmly above the valley’s mouth, showing no sign of disturbance.
Li Yan saw the Peak Mistress and the Old Lord Peak Elder exhale deeply in relief, withdrawing their attacks as smiles emerged on their faces. Clearly, the enemy had failed and retreated.
The other elders followed suit, withdrawing their power and to everyone’s surprise, the formation itself was dismantled. However, Elder Peng did not allow the disciples to leave the area.
Maintaining a formation of this scale consumed an enormous number of high-grade spirit stones. After keeping it active for fourteen straight days, their reserves had taken a major hit. Even the well-resourced four sects felt the pinch.
They all knew the pattern, these strange attacks only ever came once per entrance cycle. So they immediately deactivated the formation to conserve resources, though the array apparatus remained in place as a precaution.
Just because it had only happened once each time didn’t mean it always would. If there was another surprise assault, they had to be ready to reactivate it instantly.
From afar, Li Yan noticed that disciples of the other three sects were also peeking over, none of them leaving the areas allocated to their sects.
At this moment, he realized his divine sense had returned to normal. He let out a breath of relief. A cultivator without divine sense was like a mortal without sight.
When his divine sense swept toward the demon beast encampment, he was momentarily stunned. The three beast groups were howling toward the four sects and from those roars, he could clearly sense a mocking, gloating tone.
Li Yan couldn’t make sense of it, but soon shifted his gaze back toward the Tianxin Compass.
After watching for a while, Li Yan couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. It had only been fourteen days, yet nearly thirty to forty percent of the black light dots had already vanished. And among the Foundation Establishment cultivators near him, only three had returned, clear proof of how brutal the trial inside truly was.
Still, he felt somewhat comforted when he noticed that the other six colors of light dots had also diminished significantly. One color in particular had lost over half of its numbers, that one belonged to a beast clan team.
Li Wuyi had previously explained that due to limited spots, beast clans often had to form mixed teams consisting of different races. It wasn’t uncommon for them to end up fighting each other inside.
“I wonder how Senior Brother, Senior Sister, and... she is doing.”
Li Yan gazed at the Heart of Tianxin Compass again. The colored lights inside were now thoroughly interwoven, anyone could run into anyone. Letting out a heavy breath, he slowly closed his eyes under the night sky.
In the days that followed, Li Yan was occasionally roused by fluctuations around him. It turned out that after over ten days of cultivation, many disciples from the four sects had begun breaking through their realms.
Thus, every now and then, brilliant light would flare somewhere in the area, accompanied by surging spiritual energy, clear signs of a breakthrough. Some broke through major bottlenecks, while others advanced by only a minor stage.
However, some refrained from cultivating at all. Cultivators like Du Sanjiang, who were already at the peak of the Qi Condensation stage, had long been preparing for Foundation Establishment. While not guaranteed, they had a fair chance. If they suddenly broke through here, they would miss out on their true goal of obtaining treasures from this venture.
If outside cultivators without such confidence overheard them, they might cough up blood in rage. After all, most who pursue the Dao of cultivation only wish for long life, and advancing in realm is everything.
Li Wuyi narrowed his eyes. He had noticed something odd: most of those who improved their cultivation here were from the Wraith Sect. While the other three sects also had breakthroughs, their numbers were significantly lower.
After close observation, he found that all of them only advanced minor stages. Not one had made a major breakthrough, something that raised his suspicion even further.
The beasts, in contrast, showed no such changes. Born and raised in this secret realm, their bodies were already adapted to the dense spiritual energy. Those that could break through had long done so. As such, not a single beast had experienced a breakthrough.
“These people are hiding quite a secret. Their auras are oddly mixed, yet deep and heavy. What’s going on?”
Li Wuyi squinted toward the eight seated Core Formation elders. The eight sat cross-legged in the four corners, eyes closed in meditation, as if unaware.
In truth, the eight Core Formation elders from the Wraith Sect were already communicating via secret voice transmissions. What Li Wuyi had noticed, how could it escape their experienced eyes?
“The alliance between the three sects is undeniable. These juniors are steeped in death qi, and they’re not even taking this rare opportunity to properly cultivate. It seems likely they’ve forcibly raised their cultivation through medicinal means. Breaking through another minor realm now would be nearly impossible.”
This was Elder Peng’s voice.
“They’ve planned far ahead. When we rejected their proposal to send Foundation Establishment disciples into the Wheel of Life and Death, they anticipated we’d insist on Qi Condensation disciples. They prepared precisely for this.”
Peak Master Yi’s aged voice echoed in their minds.
“Forcibly elevating one’s realm with pills... These people’s paths to immortality may already be over. Even the slightest progress in the future will be incredibly difficult.”
Elder Feng of Old Lord Peak added.
“Their cultivation levels are too uniform, almost all at the late tenth level of Qi Condensation. Only about thirty are mid-stage, while we still have disciples at the seventh or ninth level.”
The sultry voice of the beautiful Peak Mistress from Boundless Peak drifted through their minds. Even without looking, they could all picture her voluptuous and enchanting form. Fortunately, they had spent centuries alongside her and were used to her charms.
The “seventh level” she mentioned referred to Li Yan, he alone remained at that level. All other disciples were ninth-level and above.
“This battle will be perilous. But even if the three sects have the advantage, how could they coordinate inside the Wheel? One team against one team, while they may have stronger overall strength, they won’t necessarily win against our disciples unless they possess some special artifact.”
Peak Master Feng of the Spirit Insect Peak said via voice transmission.
“Even if it's a trap, we must fight. Even knowing it’s a trap, are we to skip every future Wheel of Life and Death that comes every fifteen years?”
Elder Yan of Boundless Peak transmitted solemnly. The others fell silent. He had spoken the truth.
Even if it meant sacrificing this generation of Qi Condensation disciples and even three Foundation Establishment cultivators they had to proceed. This time, they might glean insights into the three sects’ hidden cards.
But perhaps they were simply sending these disciples to their deaths. The Wheel of Life and Death was a completely sealed space. Not even the light dots were visible from outside. All participants would be ejected at once in the end. Those who didn’t make it out... would never return.
If they were utterly wiped out, there would be no one left to pass on intelligence. And this trap would likely be laid again in the next cycle.
Yet none of the elders resented the three sects’ collusion. When a single power grows too dominant, the weaker ones naturally unite to suppress it. The Wraith Sect had done the same before, partnering with any of the three when it suited them.
From ancient times to now, the four great sects had schemed against each other countless times. Who told the Wraith Sect to rise so swiftly over the past few centuries?
(Chapter End)