Chapter 144: Forbidden Formation

More or less, everyone gained something from coming out of the tower. Yi Xuan had fought without rest against sixth- and seventh-rank demonic beasts inside, and the aura surrounding him had become even more fierce. If he had been given another two months, he would certainly have emerged even stronger than he was now.

Gu Liang Tian had regained his former outward appearance of compassionate concern for all living beings, and his heart was calmer than it had ever been before.

Even Lu Chenhan had fallen flat on his face, so there was nothing much left for him to feel displeased about.

Of course, Ning Qianyao was the exception among these people. She had not been able to gain any insight or training. The only thing she had taken from the Rotating Tower was a magical treasure, and it was not even as powerful as the ones she already had.

Ning Qianyao felt restless and uneasy. She was far too afraid of Ye Su and You Fushi coming out. How wonderful would it be if they never came out at all?

As for the Nine-Turn Soul-Recovery Pill, the most agitated person was undoubtedly the Sect Master of the Pill Sect. Even now, he still could not calm down, muttering, "How could they just swallow it?"

He had wanted to see what the Nine-Turn Soul-Recovery Pill looked like. Perhaps he could have identified some of its ingredients.

Zhou Qi, the Sect Master of the My Sword Sect, suddenly asked Yi Xuan, "The Chongming Saber has developed a spirit?"

Ning Qianyao's heart gave a heavy thump. She lowered her head, her eyes flustered.

Yi Xuan nodded. Holding his saber, he let Chongming emerge from within it. Chongming politely nodded to everyone. Even when facing several Sect Masters, he showed no fear.

"I thought the Chongming Saber couldn't develop a spirit." Daoist Feng Chen looked at the saber in Yi Xuan's hand. "People have always said that the Chongming Saber had a flaw. Although it possessed the consciousness of a spirit, it couldn't manifest as one."

"It can manifest as a spirit." Yi Xuan said nothing more.

At the time, Mei Chouren had been on the fourth floor, while Gu Liang Tian had reached the sixth. Neither knew what had happened. The others were not the sort to meddle in other people's business, so they did not interrupt either.

"Was there some opportunity inside that caused the Chongming Saber to take form?" Daoist Feng Chen continued asking.

"Mm." Yi Xuan gave a brief response and then fell silent.

The matter between You Fushi and Ning Qianyao would have to wait until Ye Su came out to deal with it. Yi Xuan did not want to tell the others about it beforehand.

Daoist Feng Chen paused, but ultimately did not ask anything else.

……

On the eighth floor, the Blood-Weeping Sword was still chasing thunder everywhere.

You Fushi had slept with his head resting on Ye Su's lap for several days. At last, he grew a little bored and sat up. Sitting beside her, he tilted his head and gazed at Ye Su in a daze.

Ye Su's complexion was not good. Her head was covered in sweat, and her back was soaked through. Those bolts of lightning struck her one after another with pinpoint accuracy, driving into her body.

Sometimes, Ye Su's divine sense would spill out uncontrollably, but before long, she would draw it back in again.

You Fushi lay beside her leg, occasionally reaching out with a fingertip to touch those few faint wisps of divine sense. He gazed up at Ye Su for a long time, somewhat reluctant to part with the warmth of her body.

After thinking for a moment, he slipped the Mist-Killing Flower off his wrist and carefully put it on Ye Su's hand. Then he transformed into his true form and coiled around the same hand.

The little black snake lazily wrapped itself around Eldest Senior Sister's wrist, the tip of its tail curling up slightly. After rubbing its head against the back of her hand, it lay there without moving.

At that moment, Ye Su was using her divine sense to guide the lightning, making it carve out a larger area in her sea of consciousness.

These bolts of lightning specifically targeted her divine sense. Wherever her divine sense was concentrated, that was where they struck. Injuries to the divine sense were more severe than physical injuries; every ounce of pain penetrated deep into her bones and meridians.

Ye Su had never been one to waste anything. Since these golden divine-sense lightning bolts had come all this way, she could not let them go to waste. She had to get something out of them.

So she guided her churning sea of consciousness outward, making those bolts forcibly carve out more space for it within her spiritual residence.

It was not difficult. She merely had to precisely control her sea of consciousness amid excruciating pain while enduring the double torment of her divine sense and spiritual residence being struck by lightning.

Inside her spiritual residence, a miniature version of Ye Su, formed from her divine sense, was directing where the incoming bolts of lightning should strike. Suddenly, she sensed something and lowered her head to look at her right wrist.

This familiar feeling……

Had her little junior brother transformed into his true form?

Ye Su felt a little regret that she could not see her little junior brother's true form, but she still had to continue tempering her sea of consciousness with these golden lightning bolts.

It was a rare opportunity to have a place to temper her divine sense. For someone born with divine sense, this was an excellent training ground.

……

On the seventh floor, Lu Chenhan still could not climb the stairs to the eighth floor. He lay sprawled at the landing, unable to move even a little farther.

Those two had ascended to the eighth floor with ease. Lu Chenhan could not accept it. He should have been the first person to reach the top, the first to win the grand competition, and the first to ascend the tower.

Now, he had nothing left.

"Chenhan." Qijue emerged from the sword and took his hand. "Let's go down."

Lu Chenhan used the last of his strength to shake off her hand. His bloodshot eyes stared at Qijue. "You couldn't defeat the Blood-Weeping Sword either?"

"……He is an evil spirit." Qijue looked at the young man opposite her, whose face bore a familiar resemblance to someone she knew. "Chenhan, if you want to go up, you must first go down."

Lu Chenhan stared at Qijue and asked hoarsely, "What do you mean?"

"There is a formation hidden on the seventh floor." Qijue spoke in an extremely soft, breathy voice. "A long time ago, your…… father and the Holy Maiden of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect set up a forbidden formation together."

The forbidden formation had been created using the Holy Maiden of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect's blood. Half of the blood flowing through Lu Chenhan's body came from her, so he should be able to activate the formation.

Lu Chenhan immediately used the Qijue Sword to support himself as he stood up. "You know where it is?"

Qijue nodded. "Back then, your father and I went up to the eighth floor together." It had been through this forbidden formation.

Lu Chenhan stared at her for a long time before finally agreeing to go down.

Qijue helped him eliminate the surrounding demonic beasts, allowing Lu Chenhan to recover once more. He headed toward the place the sword spirit had indicated, a spot in the farthest corner of the seventh floor.

It took the man and the sword spirit a full half month to fight their way from the staircase to the forbidden formation.

As instructed, Lu Chenhan used the Qijue Sword to cut his own hand and let the blood drip onto the ground.

The instant the blood touched the ground, the lines of a formation faintly appeared. As Lu Chenhan's blood continued to drip, it began to spread until it filled the entire pattern of the formation.

After a long while, Lu Chenhan furrowed his brows. "There's no response."

"You need to bleed more," Qijue said with certainty. After all, he was not the Holy Maiden of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sect herself, but merely her son, with the blood of Lu Jue mixed into the other half of his bloodline.

Lu Chenhan swung his sword and cut his palm again, making the blood flow faster. At last, the forbidden formation blazed with red light. The light spread continuously along the ground until it climbed onto the staircase.

"Now follow the lines of the formation up the stairs again," Qijue said. "The pressure will disappear."

Lu Chenhan raised his head. At last, the gloom that had lingered on his face for so long began to clear. He swung his sword and cut down the demonic beasts charging toward him, then rushed straight for the staircase.

When he reached the entrance to the stairs, he hesitated briefly before striding up. Sure enough, he no longer felt any pressure at all. There was actually a forbidden formation hidden inside the Rotating Tower.

"My father and mother…… How did they keep this hidden from everyone else?" Lu Chenhan asked Qijue.

"Back then, they were the only two people who reached the seventh floor," Qijue recalled. "In the end, both of them made it to the eighth floor."

Lu Chenhan lowered his head and looked at the formation lines beneath his feet. His mother had actually been able to suppress the pressure of the Rotating Tower.

……

You Fushi was the first to notice the disturbance. He released Ye Su's wrist and instantly returned to human form, with only a thin layer of black clothing covering his body. He picked up the clothes on the ground and lowered his head to put them on.

By the time Lu Chenhan walked up, You Fushi had just finished tying his belt.

"So this is the eighth floor." After ascending, Lu Chenhan looked at the golden sea of lightning and narrowed his eyes.

The Blood-Weeping Sword had already returned to You Fushi's hand, and Blood-Weeping had also run out of the sword. For some reason, when he looked at Lu Chenhan, he was practically drooling.

You Fushi tilted his head and gave Blood-Weeping a faint glance. The sword spirit immediately lowered his head and wiped his mouth, standing obediently to one side.

"What is it?" Having received his parents' gift, Lu Chenhan's confidence had temporarily soared. He looked at You Fushi, his eyes icy cold. "Didn't expect that I could make it back up here?"

You Fushi felt nothing toward such words. He simply stood in front of Ye Su, holding the Blood-Weeping Sword.

"I heard you only joined the Qianji Sect later on," Lu Chenhan said to You Fushi. "Why not join Kunlun instead? You could have an inexhaustible supply of spiritual energy and spirit stones."

Seeing that You Fushi did not respond, Lu Chenhan continued, "Join forces with me and kill her inside the tower. Once we leave, I'll recommend you to the Daoist so you can join Kunlun."

Lu Chenhan wanted to kill Ye Su here, even though it had been You Fushi who had kicked him down.

He sensed an overwhelming threat from Ye Su. With You Fushi backed by an evil sword, his only option was to cooperate.

"You think you can just say we'll join forces and expect me to agree?" Blood-Weeping could not resist talking back. "You're just a little Nascent Soul cultivator, and you've got quite the nerve."

Hearing the Blood-Weeping Sword Spirit's words, Lu Chenhan first frowned, then said to You Fushi, "A mere sword spirit dares to put himself above you. You should teach him a lesson."

Seeing someone try to drive a wedge between him and his master, Blood-Weeping immediately flared up. "I even want to sit on your sword spirit's head! Come teach me a lesson if you've got the guts!"

With that, he charged toward Qijue, clearly intending to engage in hand-to-hand combat again.

Lu Chenhan's expression turned cold, and he was about to attack Blood-Weeping.

At that moment, You Fushi lowered his head and slowly drew the blade of the Blood-Weeping Sword from its ancient silver scabbard.

The moment the Blood-Weeping Sword was drawn, red light burst across the eighth floor, actually suppressing the golden radiance of the sea of lightning. An aura that was sinister yet not demonic spread through the air.

Lu Chenhan instinctively took a step back. He knew all too well how powerful the Blood-Weeping Sword was. This sword was far too sinister.

You Fushi lowered his eyes, concealing the fleeting flash of purple in them. When he looked up again, he suddenly appeared right in front of Lu Chenhan and slashed at him.

Lu Chenhan felt a chill run down his spine. He hurriedly dodged to the side and raised the Qijue Sword to defend himself.

At this moment, Qijue's sword spirit was of no help. From the instant the Blood-Weeping Sword was drawn, it seemed that a layer of restraint on Blood-Weeping had vanished, and his power had suddenly increased tremendously.

As a sword spirit, Blood-Weeping had no gender, unlike Qijue.

When he said he would sit on Lu Chenhan's sword spirit's head, he really meant to sit on her head.

Qijue's sword intent was powerful, but Blood-Weeping's was no weaker. It even carried a towering murderous aura forged through slaughter in a sea of blood.

It took only a few moves before Blood-Weeping grabbed Qijue by the neck, swung her onto the ground, and planted his rear directly on the sword spirit's head.

Ever since her birth, Qijue had been treated with reverence and admiration. Everyone said she was a divine weapon, and every one of her masters had been the strongest person of their era, their glory and renown dazzling. Her previous master had been the strongest of them all throughout the generations, and had even enabled her to manifest as a sword spirit.

During those days, her master had taught her how to live, changing even the way she viewed the world.

Never had she suffered such humiliation, and this was already the second time.

"Your sword spirit is sitting beneath me!" the man in red shouted arrogantly at Lu Chenhan.

Lu Chenhan could not spare any attention to look at his sword spirit. You Fushi's attacks came one after another, even stronger than they had been in the sect's grand competition arena. It was as though he could predict every move Lu Chenhan made. Lu Chenhan simply could not win.

Blood-Weeping had apparently grown bored. He stood up, grabbed Qijue by the head, and slammed it against the ground. "Your head's broken. Let me fix it for you."

Qijue's entire existence as a sword spirit teetered on the brink of collapse. In the end, she simply dispersed her spiritual form and returned to the sword.

Blood-Weeping let out an exaggerated sigh, rolled his eyes a few times, then suddenly approached the wall of the tower. Although it was supposed to be a sealed door, he did something that caused a window to suddenly open. "Master! Throw him out!"

You Fushi turned his gaze and instantly teleported in front of Lu Chenhan. He flicked his sword into a flourish, blocking the Qijue Sword, then stretched out a foot once more and kicked Lu Chenhan out of the Rotating Tower.

Outside the tower, everyone suddenly discovered that the sealed entrance to the eighth floor had been opened. "……"