The Silkworm Gathering Commences

Before long, the time for the Sanwei Meeting arrived. In the preceding days, Chi Qiu had kept a low profile, dedicating herself to deepening her understanding of the Moon Gaze Treasure Canon.

Just this morning, Chi Qiu finally comprehended the third chapter of the Moon Gaze Treasure Canon. Although she was still a considerable distance from the Heart Scripture Realm, she had nevertheless found the path to advancement. Now, she merely needed to accumulate more time to step into that revered realm.

Furthermore, Chi Qiu’s cultivation these past few days yielded another significant gain: her sword qi technique. Previously, her technique could only draw upon Lunar spiritual energy to form its sharp edges. Now, however, Chi Qiu could transform any spiritual energy in the heavens and earth into sword qi, unleashing it with devastating force. This breakthrough meant she could freely use sword qi even during the day.

Currently, Chi Qiu wore a light blue robe, her ice-blue hair simply tied up to cascade down her back. The wounds on her face had completely vanished, leaving not even a trace of a scar.

This remarkable recovery was clearly Wu Yuling’s doing. After Chi Qiu had been injured, Wu Yuling had diligently applied scar-removing ointment. Chi Qiu had initially believed that merely healing was sufficient, considering scar removal somewhat excessive. Yet, unable to refuse Wu Yuling’s persistence, she had allowed her to proceed.

As it now seemed, the effects were indeed quite remarkable.

Soon, Chi Qiu arrived near the colossal mulberry tree, where Le Shan, clad in a green robe, had already been waiting for a considerable time. Upon seeing Chi Qiu approach, Le Shan retrieved a black token from his robes and tossed it to her.

Chi Qiu caught the token. Forged from refined iron, it bore the intricate carving of a colossal mulberry tree. A clear, subtle aura slowly permeated outwards from within, marking it as no ordinary item.

This token served as Chi Qiu’s pass to enter and exit the grand formation. Besides her, the other three Heart Scripture Realm cultivators would also be granted a similar token.

“Esteemed Fellow Daoist Chi, please guard the south,” Le Shan said, cupping his hands in a respectful gesture. “This year’s Sang Tea harvest depends entirely on your efforts.”

The Sang Tea was Sang City’s most crucial annual income, and for Le Shan, it represented the largest fortune he could acquire through his position. Naturally, he attached immense importance to it.

Chi Qiu returned the respectful gesture, offering no further words.

With the token in hand, Chi Qiu departed from the central position of the formation, leaving Le Shan behind. She made her way to the southern sector, the area she had been assigned to guard during the assembly days earlier. This particular locale was strewn with jagged rocks and boasted a rather complex terrain, making it relatively easy to defend.

This arrangement was a joint decision by Le Shan and the other Heart Scripture Realm cultivators. In their estimation, even if Chi Qiu’s combat prowess far surpassed that of ordinary Spirit Nourishing Realm cultivators, she still fell considerably short when compared to them, the Heart Scripture Realm experts. Thus, they had entrusted the most defensible southern sector of the formation to her.

Chi Qiu, for her part, was naturally delighted by this decision. Without a moment’s hesitation, she readily agreed to guard the southern formation.

Chi Qiu took her stand on a small earthen slope, positioning herself at the very edge of the formation. She slowly closed her eyes, and then, indigo flowers began to unfurl from beneath her feet. They spread outwards like a surging tide, swiftly covering a distance of a hundred zhang.

After Chi Qiu had fully comprehended the third chapter of the Moon Gaze Treasure Canon, the spiritual energy within her body had become even more refined. This, coupled with her frequent practice of the divine ability ‘Blooming Life’ during this period, allowed her to extend the indigo sea of flowers for over a hundred zhang.

As long as Chi Qiu remained within the sea of flowers, every inch covered by its expanse would be known to her. Whether it was living beings—demonic beasts, cultivators, or mortals—or inanimate objects like massive rocks, rivers, and trees, all would be clearly displayed within Chi Qiu’s mind.

In addition, Chi Qiu could perceive the subtle fluctuations of spiritual energy and true qi within the flower sea, enabling her to anticipate and evade attacks.

Chi Qiu stood silently within the blue sea of flowers, her hand resting on the Azure Frost Sword, poised and ready to strike.

Suddenly, the black token hanging from Chi Qiu’s waist began to crackle. Then, to her surprise, Le Shan’s voice emanated from within it.

“Fellow Daoists, prepare yourselves,” Le Shan’s voice echoed. “The colossal mulberry tree is about to manifest an anomaly.”

The words were brief, yet the tone was heavy with gravitas. Chi Qiu understood that once the colossal mulberry tree manifested its anomaly, the demonic beasts lurking around Sang City would surge into the city, making a direct beeline for the tree.

A few breaths later, a distinct rustling sound echoed. A pale green aura began to permeate from the colossal mulberry tree, rising towards its canopy. As it reached the treetop, it seemed to compress, shrinking in on itself. Then, more aura emanated from the tree, once again drawn upwards to the canopy. This cycle repeated, building upon itself until the accumulating cluster of spiritual energy reached dozens of zhang in size.

Finally, the canopy could no longer contain the dense green aura. With a resounding bang!, the accumulated spiritual energy suddenly erupted, instantly transforming into a vibrant green ring. It expanded outwards, soaring across the sky in the blink of an eye.

Only a few breaths after the green ring had expanded, the chilling roars of beasts immediately echoed from the distance. The sound was desolate and drawn-out, sending shivers down one’s spine.

Soon enough, Chi Qiu sensed a colossal demonic beast stepping onto the indigo sea of flowers. It was a gigantic alligator, incredibly hideous in appearance, measuring dozens of zhang in length and nearly a zhang in width. Its protruding maw, lined with massive fangs, dripped with saliva as it slowly crawled, step by step, towards the colossal mulberry tree.

Although this gigantic alligator appeared terrifying, its cultivation realm had only just reached the Transcendent stage, barely qualifying it as a true demonic beast. Such creatures often lacked sentience, acting purely on primal instinct.

Chi Qiu invoked the Moonlit Sky Sword Art, swinging her Azure Frost Sword to unleash a single, precise strike. A streak of verdant sword qi soared forth, cutting directly towards the gigantic alligator. As the strike was performed beneath the colossal mulberry tree, it naturally drew upon the spiritual energy of plants and wood, thus rendering the sword qi a distinct bluish-green hue.

The gigantic alligator, utterly devoid of sentience, did not dodge or evade when it saw the sword qi approaching. Instead, it charged headlong into the attack. With a sickening hiss, its protruding maw was sliced open by an extremely deep wound, leaving only a thin layer of flesh to connect it. Its entire mouth dangled precariously, almost tearing away completely.

“Roar! Roar!”

Foul-smelling, deep red blood splattered across the ground, dyeing a patch of indigo flowers a gruesome crimson. Having suffered such grievous injuries, the gigantic alligator naturally dared not crawl towards the colossal mulberry tree anymore. It thrashed its tail, turned, and laboriously crawled out of the indigo sea of flowers.

Chi Qiu shook her head helplessly as the gigantic alligator fled. The physical bodies of these demonic beasts were truly terrifying; her sword qi, summoned by manipulating the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, had failed to kill the beast with a single strike.

If it had been a Transcendent Realm cultivator instead, even ten of them stacked together would have struggled to withstand that single sword strike.

Fortunately, most of these demonic beasts lacked true sentience, merely following their primal instincts to charge directly towards the formation. This fact considerably alleviated Chi Qiu’s pressure.

Not long after the gigantic alligator’s retreat, three water rhinoceros, each five zhang tall, lumbered into the indigo sea of flowers. Simultaneously, from another direction, a colossal serpent, dozens of zhang long, slowly slithered closer. All these demonic beasts were at the Transcendent stage. Chi Qiu unleashed several continuous sword strikes, effortlessly severing the gigantic serpent into multiple segments from a hundred zhang away. However, an unexpected situation arose when she struck at the water rhinoceros.

The water rhinoceros possessed incredibly thick hides. Although Chi Qiu’s sword qi could leave wounds upon them, it proved insufficient to halt their advance. Furthermore, these beasts possessed exceptionally powerful regenerative abilities; after running merely a few dozen zhang, the scratches on their hides had already completely healed.

Chi Qiu abandoned the idea of killing the water rhinoceros with sword qi, instead allowing them to approach the grand formation. She prepared to slay these three beasts using the Azure Frost Sword and the inherent power of the grand formation.

Despite their colossal size, the water rhinoceros were surprisingly swift. Chi Qiu felt a tremor run through the ground as the three beasts reached the edge of the grand formation.

Intricate and profound array patterns manifested, drawing forth several wisps of bluish-green true qi that converged with immense plant and wood spiritual energy. In mid-air, they coalesced into a massive green longbow, three zhang in size. Complex array patterns also wreathed the bow, true qi flowing along them. Then, the bowstring was drawn, and three green spiritual energy arrows materialized, nocked upon the string.

“Snap—Boom!”

With a resounding twang, the three arrows transformed into streaks of green light, instantly piercing the bodies of the three water rhinoceros. Immediately, spiritual energy erupted within them, causing their forms to rapidly swell before exploding outwards, scattering blood and shattered flesh across the ground.

As expected of a formation requiring a God Concealing stage cultivator to preside over it, Chi Qiu thought, witnessing the gruesome spectacle of scattered blood and flesh before her. It can unleash such terrifying attacks.

Having witnessed the formation’s immense power, Chi Qiu’s pressure drastically decreased. She began to cooperate with the formation to slay the demonic beasts, all while carefully guarding against any exceptionally fast creatures that might rush the formation to damage its patterns. For over an hour, no further incidents occurred.

During this time, the number of demonic beasts steadily increased, and their cultivation realms grew higher. Within the range covered by Chi Qiu’s sea of flowers, there were even scenes of higher-realm demonic beasts devouring lower-realm ones after killing them.

When a large number of demonic beasts appeared simultaneously at the formation’s edge, the longbow sometimes couldn’t shoot them down quickly enough. At such times, Chi Qiu would have to leave the grand formation, engage the beasts, and prevent them from damaging the array, waiting for the longbow to become free and target the demonic beasts.

Although this often led to perilous moments, the situation remained largely stable.

Chi Qiu slashed her Azure Frost Sword diagonally, severing two major tendons of the ferocious beast before her. The creature’s legs buckled, and it collapsed to the ground. Chi Qiu paid the beast no further mind, retreating back into the grand formation, awaiting the longbow to strike it down.

Just then, the ground subtly trembled. Chi Qiu closed her eyes, sensing that the numerous demonic beasts within the flower sea had all simultaneously crouched down, trembling and ceasing their movement. Chi Qiu focused her senses to the very edge of the flower sea, where a black bear-like creature, twenty zhang tall, stepped onto the flower sea. It was approaching the grand formation at an incredibly fast pace, and before long, it arrived at a small hillock directly before Chi Qiu.

The human and the beast met each other’s gaze. Chi Qiu was startled to perceive a hint of profound, human-like cunning in the bear’s eyes. Seeing this, Chi Qiu understood that this bear-like creature’s realm had likely already reached the Heart Scripture Realm, its sentience on par with that of an ordinary person.

Chi Qiu tightened her grip on the Azure Frost Sword, showing no fear as she calmly observed the black bear-like creature.