Chapter 190: Attempt
Chapter 190: Attempt
Cheng Lingyu was enveloped by an arc-shaped protective barrier, its surface crisscrossed with countless lines forming a net-like pattern.
The two women tensed, vigilantly observing their surroundings.
Cheng Lingyu moved slowly, the curved barrier stretching ten zhang outward like invisible probes scanning the area.
A sudden lightning strike shattered the energy shield around him, forcing him to halt.
Cheng Lingyu fixed his gaze on the ancient tree a hundred zhang away. Faint glimmers resembling flowing lightning appeared on its weathered trunk, revealing transparent threads that materialized into a net-like defense system.
“What’s this?”
Fang Ruohua gasped while Lan Xiaozhu paled visibly.
Cheng Lingyu spoke gravely: “These interwoven threads create a defense system containing lightning’s destructive strength, integrated with an abstruse formation. Ordinary people can neither detect nor breach it.”
“Can you break through, elder brother?”
“Testing is required. Both of you retreat a hundred zhang.”
“Be cautious!”
Fang Ruohua tugged Lan Xiaozhu backward, her worried eyes never leaving him.
Cheng Lingyu activated his formation, employing the Heavenly Spirit Diagram’s array-breaking methods fused with the technique of origins. Instead of physical contact, he manipulated true essence into shifting shapes to probe the tree’s defenses – a strategic confrontation as perilous as direct combat.
His multi-layered offensive-defensive formation triggered violent disturbances upon approaching the tree. Lightning bolts coalesced into a humanoid entity that annihilated all thirty-six formation layers instantly.
Cheng Lingyu recoiled, shaken. The trunk’s defenses could obliterate even Blood Martial Realm experts. As the Heavenly Spirit Diagram’s wisdom surfaced in his mind, he regrouped.
“Another attempt.”
His formations now swirled like countless shifting vortices. The tree’s defense system remained dormant unless its spatial boundary was breached.
Standing at the critical boundary, Cheng Lingyu’s forty-eight layered formations rotated fiercely. When he advanced, lightning too swift to track transformed into a destructive humanoid figure. Brilliance erupted around him as his formations activated – the invading lightning initially breached his defenses but got deflected by circular motions, its lethal edge gradually dulling into glowing orbs of lightning.
The women breathed easier seeing this.
Cheng Lingyu accelerated formation shifts, accumulating dangerous clusters of lightning orbs around himself. A determined gleam flashed in his eyes as he simultaneously maintained the Composite Formation against the tree’s assault while drawing the orbs toward his body’s defensive shield.
Fang Ruohua nearly charged forward had Lan Xiaozhu not restrained her.
“Wait! He wouldn’t risk this without certainty.”
Though equally concerned, Lan Xiaozhu’s trust kept her comparatively calm.
Cheng Lingyu activated his defensive shield while using the Thunder Palm, combining it with his special physique to absorb lightning power. This had been proven by Caiyun back in Yunyang City, where she used thunder and lightning to temper his body, forming the fourth star in his mysterious space. The human-shaped lightning atop the giant tree was terrifying – a divine weapon of destruction to others, but pure nourishment for Cheng Lingyu.
Fang Ruohua gaped as glowing orbs of lightning disappeared into Cheng Lingyu’s body. “Sister Lan! Elder brother… he’s swallowing lightning?”
Lan Xiaozhu whispered, “His Constitution defies normal logic.”
By the giant tree, Cheng Lingyu’s absorption speed increased, making him step forward unconsciously. The tree’s defense system retaliated violently. Cheng Lingyu staggered as his forty-eight layered formations nearly shattered. He hastily added six more layers, barely holding on.
Stronger attacks meant more lightning orbs. Cheng Lingyu merged fifty-four formations with difficulty. Though skilled in the Heavenly Spirit Diagram, his cultivation level limited him to the first three layers. Fifty-four formations clearly weren’t enough to reach the trunk.
His brilliant strategy layered defenses, conversions, and absorption into one system to steal lightning power. Though the pyramid in his mysterious space took 99% of it, Cheng Lingyu knew this stored energy would manifest later. More importantly, stealing lightning let him approach the tree to reach its crown – where Feixing Ridge’s ancient ruin stood, housing untold secrets in its ten-thousand-year-old castle.
Focusing completely, Cheng Lingyu adapted quickly to the defense system. His third step triggered overwhelming lightning that engulfed him completely, trapping him in a crackling sphere.
Fang Ruohua trembled. “Anyone else would die instantly!”
“Even Blood Martial Realm experts might fail here,” Lan Xiaozhu murmured.
The lightning sea roared as Cheng Lingyu took his fourth step. No increased attacks. After adjusting, his fifth step proved similarly calm. Only on his eleventh step did lightning surge again.
“Zones. This must be the third layer,” he realized. His trembling formations nearly broke until he added two more layers – fifty-six total – barely enduring. Here, lightning almost liquefied into thunder-ocean. His mysterious space devoured it endlessly, pushing him onward.
The fourth zone held beast-shaped lightning and glowing runes. Fifty zhang from the trunk, Cheng Lingyu hit his limit – sixty formations, maximum for Soul Martial Fourth Realm. Converted lightning-liquid submerging him became both burden and training.
The thousand-zhang-high castle loomed above. Attempting flight, Cheng Lingyu crashed down at seventy zhang. Repeated attempts capped at seven hundred zhang before gravity dragged him back. Reversing Di Xuan Yin beneath his feet helped slightly.
“Skywing Escape!” Light wings sprouted from his back – Heavenly Palace’s ultimate void-traversing technique. They propelled him five hundred zhang instantly.
“He’s flying!” Fang Ruohua cheered while Lan Xiaozhu worried.
Seven hundred zhang. Eight hundred. Each failed attempt refined his Skywing Escape. Five attempts brought him closer, but space-time distortions near the castle blocked final approach.
“This won’t work,” Cheng Lingyu concluded, scanning for solutions.