"What on earth have you figured out already?!"
Xie Yushu glared at Tu Zhiyong, his eyes sharp and piercing. His grip on the folding fan tightened uncontrollably, his knuckles turning pale.
"This kind of formation, especially with someone actively controlling it and manipulating it so fluidly it's far beyond anything I can analyze…"
Tu Zhiyong wiped the fine sweat from his brow, his face filled with helplessness.
"No matter how much you push me, there's nothing I can do!"
"Didn't it almost get broken from the inside just now?"
Xie Yushu questioned sharply, "Why didn't you strike while the formation was vulnerable?"
"That brief moment of weakness closed up in an instant! I'm not a Foundation Establishment cultivator I don't have the divine sense to help me catch such a fleeting flaw!"
Tu Zhiyong's face was twisted with frustration. He was on the verge of flipping out at Xie Yushu.
He had seen it just now.
The formation had indeed suffered a massive impact from within. Even so, that power enough to blast apart a Foundation Establishment cultivator hadn't managed to break through. Not even close.
In Tu Zhiyong's eyes, the stability of Li Ye's formation had already exceeded the bounds of an ordinary second-tier formation. It had reached a level of strength he wouldn't have dared to imagine.
And clearly, that was the result of Li Ye unleashing some trump card. Yet even with that, Xu Pingyang hadn't escaped. Tu Zhiyong had already guessed both Foundation Establishment cultivators were likely doomed in there.
Under such circumstances, and with Xie Yushu forcing him to stay behind and break a formation he simply couldn't crack wasn't that just sending him to his death?
Before Xie Yushu could say another word, Tu Zhiyong gritted his teeth and leaned in to speak in a low voice.
"Brother Xie, hear me out! The way things look, Li Ye has likely broken through to Foundation Establishment, using divine sense to push this formation to its maximum power. Our leader and Elder Ma are probably already finished. Instead of sitting here waiting to die, we should flee while we still can and start preparing for what's to come!"
As he expected, there was no look of shock or panic on Xie Yushu's face. The urgency in his expression faded, and he simply asked in a deep voice:
"How sure are you?"
"At least seventy percent," Tu Zhiyong replied seriously. "Even if I'm wrong, compared to staying here until Li Ye finishes them off and comes after us next that's a certain death sentence. A bit of backlash from the Alliance Leader later? That's nothing."
"Let's go!"
Xie Yushu didn't waste a single word. He summoned his spirit crane and mounted it, preparing to flee immediately.
The rest of Xu Pingyang's loyal cultivators didn't hesitate either, taking to the sky on their flying tools.
As Vice Leader of the Mountain Alliance and Xu Pingyang's right-hand man, Xie Yushu believed everything he'd done so far had lived up to that role.
Even if Xu Pingyang survived, he might be displeased but not to the point of punishing him over this.
And now that Tu Zhiyong had taken the blame for "panicking and fleeing," he had no reason to hesitate anymore.
If not now, then when?
Tu Zhiyong breathed a huge sigh of relief when he saw Xie Yushu take action, quickly following on his flying boat.
"Alliance Leader Xie, what's going on…?"
Some of the other cultivators still stuck around asked in confusion as they saw the group suddenly flee.
But Xie Yushu, the first to act, was already soaring into the sky without looking back, heading straight for the mountains beyond.
The others began to sense something was wrong. Some panicked. The quick-witted ones didn't waste time and followed suit.
"Only now you want to run? Too late,"
Li Ye's voice echoed out, and at once, everyone's hair stood on end.
Especially the Lan family all of them wore expressions of dread, the worst already forming in their minds.
Whooosh, whooosh, whooosh,
Suddenly, spiritual energy surged violently.
The formation that had been laid atop the low-grade spiritual vein in the mountain, without any warning, began resonating with the Green Vine Verdant Wood Formation. Spiritual energy was siphoned off.
The entire formation rapidly expanded, instantly enveloping the entire Changcui Mountain, and continued growing outward, tendrils of thick vines lashing out at the fleeing cultivators.
Powered by two spiritual veins working in tandem, the speed was terrifying. Even though Xie Yushu moved swiftly, he still couldn't outrun it he was caught and pulled back by the vines.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Like dumplings falling into a pot, the cultivators who tried fleeing through the air dropped one by one. The lower flyers were beaten black and blue; the higher ones had bones broken and were halfway to death.
Though the formation's power fell to a first-tier level due to the expansion, it was still more than enough to deal with this group.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Vines shot out, binding their limbs and sealing their spiritual power.
Then came the brutal strikes vines and sharp thorns pierced through their chests, or streams of wood-type energy eroded them, dissolving flesh, draining magic, and extinguishing life.
Screams filled the air.
"Li Ye! I'm innocent!"
"I never even attacked you let me go! Ahhh!"
"Li Ye! I was wrong! I beg you, spare me! I'll serve you like a dog!"
"You dare kill me?! I curse you to die horribly!"
Blood, screams, and curses erupted from the crowd.
Li Ye stood mid-air, shrouded in a soft blue spiritual light. His eyes remained calm from start to finish.
Since these people had chosen to side with Xu Pingyang and attack him they were enemies. Killing them was no loss.
"My formation skills are second only to yours... I still have value... Li Ye, I'll give you all my knowledge, serve you as a slave just don't kill me!"
Tu Zhiyong, impaled through the chest by a vine, hung in midair, blood gushing as he pleaded for his life.
In that moment of life and death, all his pride had vanished. He just wanted to live.
But Li Ye only glanced at him. The formation did not stop.
Swish
A silver light flared. A complex talisman burst into effect, temporarily disrupting the formation.
The trees and vines surrounding Xie Yushu were completely dispelled but the barrier itself held.
He had already activated a Windwalk Talisman, the breeze swirling around him but he still slammed into the formation's barrier and was yanked back by a vine.
Before he could struggle, more vines surged in and pierced through his chest and dantian.
"Li Ye… I really regret it…"
He looked at the young man shrouded in pale green spiritual light, standing tall like a jade statue, and regret flickered in his eyes. The next moment, all signs of life faded from him.
Whether he regretted not seizing the chance to win over Li Ye earlier, or regretted making an enemy of him and ending up like this no one would ever know.
With his life extinguished, whatever he had been thinking no longer mattered.
In that brief moment of distraction, still left without a response from Li Ye, Tu Zhiyong also breathed his last.
"Li Lang!"
With a thud, Lan Xinyi rushed forward from the side, clutching the vine that had pierced through Lan Ming.
She was the only one present who hadn't been bound or harmed by the formation.
Li Ye had known of her actions from the start.
She had never actively betrayed him; in fact, she had always been worried for him. She was simply powerless to act due to her circumstances.
Naturally, Li Ye wouldn't do anything to Lan Xinyi.
But as for the rest of the Lan family… not a single one of them would be spared!
Those frail old men, already barely hanging on, could no longer withstand the pressure of the formation. By now, they had all perished beyond any hope of survival.
Only Lan Ming had a sliver of life left in him.
"I beg you! Li Lang… please don't kill Xiao Ming. I swear I'll make him change his ways…"
Lan Xinyi desperately clung to the vine, which remained utterly unyielding, and pleaded with Li Ye.
"Change his ways?"
Li Ye shook his head calmly. "If I hadn't been prepared in advance, I would've long been captured or killed under the guise of 'righteous justice' by this brat working with Pingyang Mountain. How could today even exist then… Anyone who took part in this must die!"
As he spoke, the wood energy surged again Lan Ming was instantly pushed to the brink of death.
"Jie… Jie jie…"
Pale-faced, Lan Ming tilted his head toward Lan Xinyi, who now looked disheveled and devastated. For some reason, he suddenly recalled the time when the two of them, siblings on the run, had fled from vile pursuers.
Back then… his sister had also stood in front of him just like today.
But once you go down the wrong path, there's no way back...
Thinking of the mistakes he had made under the influence of those old Lan family members and the outside world, Lan Ming forced out a weak, broken whisper with his final breath:
"Jie jie… I'm sorry…"
As the words left him, the last of his life faded away. The light in his eyes dimmed, and his head slumped forward.
With a cry of grief, Lan Xinyi collapsed unconscious, heartbroken beyond measure.
And so, all enemies were completely wiped out…
Li Ye's gaze remained calm as he descended to the ground, gently picked up Lan Xinyi, and slowly walked back toward the mountaintop.
Behind him, the formation followed step by step, sweeping away every bone and corpse from the ground.
In its wake, only the bloodstains remained silent witnesses to the carnage that had just unfolded.
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