SQLJBFDTW Chapter 17

Even the most knowledgeable disciples were scared pale by the scene before them.

The water they stood on was actually a huge pool of blood. In the air above the blood pool, countless corpses of humans and beasts were suspended by threads, unable to fall into the pool, with only blood flowing down the threads.

Chao Jianxue felt a surge in his throat and wanted to vomit, but he quickly shifted his gaze to Yu Wei’s face and forcibly held it back.

Yu Wei, after all, hadn’t reached the level of a great god. His face was as white as gold paper, and he couldn’t bear to look closely at the horrors above the blood pool. In his panic, his eyes met Chao Jianxue’s.

The fear that was usually hidden, the tremor in his pupils, surfaced in the usually calm and deep pool of Han Yuan.

Chao Jianxue realized belatedly that Yu Wei wasn’t really an emotionless block of wood, he just always hid it deeply and acted well.

Just like now, even if he was afraid, Yu Wei had to force himself to look.

“What’s in the middle?”

Chao Jianxue suppressed his nausea and looked over. On the round platform in the middle of the blood pool, a broken sword stood upright, apparently Lord Fu Heng’s own life sword.

Unfortunately, the magnificent immortal weapon recorded in the classics now looked like a piece of scrap metal.

And it was hidden in a real “blood pool and meat forest”.

“Ahhh—I can’t take it anymore!” someone wailed, “It’s too disgusting! I want to go back!”

The psychological shadow brought by an immortal weapon that they didn’t even know if they could use was simply huge. They wouldn’t be able to look at meat for at least a year after returning.

A group of people were vomiting wildly. Chao Jianxue silently moved away from the pile of rainbow-colored vomit and stood shoulder to shoulder with Yu Wei.

“…Aren’t you afraid?” Yu Wei asked.

Chao Jianxue tried hard to smell the fragrance of lotus on his body to calm his nausea, and sincerely said, “It’s better to stand with you.”

Yu Wei gave him an inquisitive look.

Amidst the crowd’s retching, a fox phantom sat upright on the round platform and gradually materialized, speaking in a majestic voice.

“Young juniors, congratulations on reaching this realm. To be able to get here, you should be among the more outstanding Yuan Ying cultivators, and I am very pleased. Cultivators should temper their hearts and courage. If you can’t even bear this bit of blood, how can you continue on the path ahead?

This sword is my life sword, Qianli. Unfortunately, I have already died, and with the passage of time, Qianli’s brilliance is gone. It is no longer a very powerful treasure. Those who are destined can come and take it.”

Just as someone was about to step forward, the remnant soul of Lord Fu Heng said again, “However, this formation is a one-way trip. Once you step into the formation, there is no turning back. Either you die, or someone pulls out the Qianli Sword. Being able to get to this point is already outstanding. Looking back, I have opened the realm gate. If you don’t want to take the risk, you can leave on your own. Those who leave will also give me three years of cultivation.”

There was such a good thing?

The classics were not wrong. Lord Fu Heng was indeed gentle and kind, especially to the younger generation, and kind and generous, like a spring breeze to those below him.

Lord Fu Heng’s fox face smiled, and people bowed one after another and walked towards the realm gate.

After all, everyone was just here to try their luck. Since they could get three years of cultivation from the immortal for nothing, why take the risk?

Seeing that Yu Wei didn’t move, Chao Jianxue reached out and poked the back of his hand. Yu Wei turned his head.

“Is this formation easy to solve?”

Yu Wei said, “Thousand Thread Formation. The bells on the threads are the killing move. I’m afraid you have to untie them one by one to get close to the Qianli Sword. Moreover, formations from thousands of years ago are ever-changing and not so easy to solve.”

“Do you want to leave?”

Yu Wei earnestly said to him, “You should indeed leave.”

Alas, Chao Jianxue actually wanted to leave. With such a bloody blood pool in front of him, rushing in might turn him into a piece of meat hanging there.

But Yu Wei didn’t mean to leave. Because of some strange psychology, he didn’t want to leave either.

He had a life-saving magic weapon on him, which he had quietly held in his sleeve. If something happened, he could react in time.

He believed that Yu Wei was the child of destiny, and the child of destiny would naturally not die easily!

Seeing that he didn’t move, Yu Wei asked in surprise, “Aren’t you leaving?”

“Lu Renyi” raised his head and chest: “I believe in Senior Brother Yu!”

The others from the Wuwu Sect also left one after another. In the end, only the Myoxuan Mountain senior brother and the two of them remained.

Hua Ze also left.

There were only about ten people left in the field. Fu Heng smiled and said, “Are you really not leaving? Once the realm gate is closed, this place will be a battlefield, and you will not be allowed to watch.”

So another person left.

The remaining people were all determined to get the Qianli Sword. Chao Jianxue didn’t know where he got the courage from. Anyway, things had come to this, so it didn’t matter if it was a mountain of knives or a sea of fire.

As the realm gate closed, the surrounding raging fire burned even more fiercely. Fu Heng shouted, “Open the formation!”

Red bells appeared, and the threads were like a net, covering everyone’s heads, and even moving.

Chao Jianxue’s spirit was stretched to the extreme. Sure enough, people in desperate situations would explode with power they couldn’t imagine. In just a moment, he had changed his posture and dodged two thin threads that brushed against his body.

Tragic, tragic, people really can’t be careless. He felt like he was doing the Yangko dance, his body twisting and turning, stimulating a flexibility that didn’t belong to him.

The sound of a bell ringing indicated that someone had touched the thread formation. Chao Jianxue didn’t dare to look at all. The person had already fallen into the blood pool in fragments amidst the life-threatening sound of the bell.

On the other side, Yu Wei took many steps quickly. His eyes were like torches. He actually reached out and grabbed one of the threads. The bell was about to ring but hadn’t yet, and he had already steadily pinched it. Spiritual power gathered at his fingertips and turned into fire, instantly igniting the thread.

The flameStopup the thread and turned purple-red. Unexpectedly, the bell didn’t ring, and even the surrounding firelight weakened by three points.

Fu Heng sat upright on the round platform and commented, “Interesting, to find the first formation eye in such a short time is truly a rare talent.”

Yu Wei modestly said, “Senior, you flatter me.”

Chao Jianxue wanted to kneel down and kowtow to him: Now is not the time to be modest here, Junior Brother! But he knew that when Yu Wei said it was difficult to solve, it was like a top student saying the question was difficult, and then the score came out all correct.

Two words—humility.

One word—pretentious.

Just as a thread came horizontally towards him, Chao Jianxue knelt down.

Fu Heng noticed him and turned to him, saying, “You are the only Foundation Establishment cultivator here. Why didn’t you leave? How strange, how strange… Huh…”

He said this nonsensically, and Chao Jianxue couldn’t bother listening. Under the double attack of the two threads, he rolled in the water in a distorted posture, baring his teeth.

Then he heard Fu Heng say, “Why are there only two demon cultivators? Has my demon race declined?”

“…”

The few people present looked at each other. Seeing that they all looked like human cultivators, there must be two demon cultivators disguised.

“Junior Brother Yu, Kan position, third!” the Myoxuan Mountain senior brother shouted.

Without hesitation, Yu Wei swung his sword and chopped at that thread. The bell that was about to fall on the thread slipped down, and he used the tip of his sword to pick it up, maintaining a delicate balance. Taking advantage of the momentum, it fell into his fingers and was crushed into powder.

This advance and retreat brought him three steps closer. Chao Jianxue squeezed a handful of sweat for him.

The remaining people gradually understood the method of solving this formation. They needed to find the formation eye threads in eight directions and destroy them in order to get close to the round platform.

It was just a matter of who reacted faster, whose movements were more agile, or who was willing to be a wedding dress for others, acting as an assistant to observe the surroundings for him.

But having reached this point and knowing the solution, who would be willing to be this wedding dress if they weren’t from the same sect?

Some people even secretly made moves, a flying knife flying towards a bell near Yu Wei, which was blocked by the Myoxuan Mountain senior brother.

The place, which was clearly silent enough to hear a needle drop, gradually evolved into an undercurrent of wind and clouds, just like the waves on the blood pool beneath their feet, sometimes still and sometimes turbulent.

In the undercurrent, Chao Jianxue, the only Foundation Establishment passerby character, was ignored.

He rolled, rolled, rolled, he crawled, crawled, crawled, he dodged, dodged, dodged.

Finally rolling to a safe corner, Chao Jianxue gasped for breath, wiped away his sweat, and didn’t bother with the blood on his sleeves.

His hands and feet were sore and unbearable. He looked up at the round platform. Lord Fu Heng was still looking at him with a smile.

Chao Jianxue: “…”

He dodged left and right, but no matter where he looked, Lord Fu Heng’s gaze seemed to be tracking him, like a Mona Lisa fox version.

Could it be that his attitude of slacking off was too obvious?

But he was powerless. He wanted to rush up but couldn’t, so he might as well just stay in place and do nothing.

He watched for a while and gradually realized that the movements of the people in the formation were actually quite beautiful.

It seemed that people were breaking the formation, but in reality, the formation was guiding people’s movements. As long as the movements were correct, the spinning steps and twisting of the body had a unique flavor of sword dance, allowing people to ignore the blurred flesh and blood hanging on the thread formation above their heads.

Among them, Yu Wei danced the best. The Myoxuan Mountain senior brother seemed to have given up on winning the sword and was following Yu Wei’s path in the rear, protecting him.

Looking at Lord Fu Heng’s smiling face again, a thought flashed through Chao Jianxue’s mind: Could it be that the true immortal set up this Thousand Thread Formation just to watch people dance with swords?

It seemed to really match his train of thought, and Lord Fu Heng winked at him.

“There is a thousand li beyond a thousand li, child. What’s the fun in just hiding? Why not come forward?”

His voice suddenly sounded in Chao Jianxue’s mind. Strangely, this voice was only heard by Chao Jianxue alone.

As soon as the voice fell, a force pushed him forward, rejoining him in the bizarre Thousand Thread Formation.

Chao Jianxue was speechless and choked, thinking to himself that the true immortal could ignore him.

Another person died.

Chao Jianxue almost fell several times, entirely because he was conservative and unwilling to move forward, coupled with the inexplicable flexibility and agility of his body, narrowly saving his life.

Yu Wei had already approached the front of the round platform. As long as he reached out, he could touch the broken sword.

But at this moment, an unexpected change occurred.

The Thousand Thread Formation suddenly changed formation. The last formation eye thread was drawn away, and the bell, shaking like a death talisman, disappeared with a swish without a trace.

“Where did it go?”

“Why is there another change of formation!”

This change made the few people present watch as they turned red with heat. The well-planned route was completely disrupted, and they had to find the formation eye that had disappeared again.

Several thin threads stretched horizontally, and Yu Wei, who was closest to the round platform, was surrounded by thousands of threads. In front of his eyes and behind his neck, he was only a hair’s breadth away from the threads.

Like a butterfly pinned down by thin needles, no matter how much it wanted to flap its wings, it would only be self-harm.

“Junior Brother Yu!” The Myoxuan Mountain senior brother was anxious and shouted, which also made Chao Jianxue look over.

Chao Jianxue’s eyes met Yu Wei’s calm and composed gaze.

Then he saw Yu Wei open and close his mouth, calmly and quietly roaring between life and death: “The clean thread on the lower right of the Xun direction!”

He was speaking to Chao Jianxue.

Chao Jianxue’s spirit tensed, and he immediately looked in the direction he said. Sure enough, there was a thread that had not touched the blood, was it the formation eye?

Yu Wei was far away from him, and in such a short period of time, could he really find the correct formation eye thread?

If he was wrong, he was dead.