Chapter 236: Nut Formation
Gu Mo's sword cultivator avatar fixed his gaze on the black-clothed youth in the sky. Within his body, twelve sword cores rapidly arranged themselves into the Heavenly Twelve Sword Fiend Formation. At the same time, twelve bamboo swords around him also laid down another Heavenly Twelve Sword Fiend Formation.
Then, a wisp of Immortal Power ignited, and the avatar's aura soared straight upward.
"You actually used Immortal Power!"
Sensing the sudden surge in Gu Mo's aura, the black-clothed youth's expression brightened. Everyone knew that this Lin Wu had condensed an Immortal Golden Core.
That was practically a ticket to the Nascent Soul stage. Yet now, Lin Wu had just spent this precious ticket outright. Doing so would make his future advancement to Nascent Soul much more difficult.
Such a self-crippling move could only delight the black-clothed youth.
"What!"
The youth hadn't concealed his words, so the nearby righteous sect heirs, as well as the demonic sect heirs who had come with him, all heard it.
Soon, everyone outside also learned: Lin Wu had burned his Immortal Power.
In fact, Gu Mo had used Immortal Power several times before, but back then there hadn't been so many people around. And for cultivators who hadn't condensed an Immortal Golden Core, it was extremely difficult to sense Immortal Power. Moreover, the water curtain that the outside world was watching through didn't transmit aura.
Thus, nobody had known Gu Mo had used Immortal Power before. This time, however, facing a Nascent Soul demonic lord, it couldn't be hidden.
"Sigh!"
When the news spread, those outside all sighed in pity, lamenting the fall of a top prodigy. Without Immortal Power, the difficulty of reaching Nascent Soul rose sharply. If unlucky enough never to seize a breakthrough opportunity, one might be trapped at Golden Core for life.
"Excellent!"
The demonic sect, by contrast, was overjoyed. With Lin Wu having spent such an important Immortal Power, his threat level had dropped a notch.
Of course, the best outcome was to kill him on the spot—then his threat would be reduced to zero.
"Great Sun Golden Crow Sword!"
When his power peaked, Gu Mo swung without hesitation. In that instant, blazing sword light transformed from a Golden Crow shot forth, dazzling like a radiant arrow, piercing toward the rolling sea of blood-clouds.
Rip!
The blazing great sun sword light stabbed into the blood clouds, tearing with the sound of rending silk. Soon, a massive gap split open in the cloud.
But Gu Mo's expression showed no joy, only gravity. For his full-strength strike had failed to shatter the blood cloud completely—meaning that even at his limit, he could not break the opponent's defense.
"Hahaha!"
Seeing the blood cloud nearly torn apart, the black-clothed youth, now a Nascent Soul demonic lord, let his tension vanish, bursting into hearty laughter. At last he had seen Lin Wu's limit. Now came the hunt.
Knowing he was outmatched, Gu Mo didn't hesitate further—he used Wind Escape and retreated swiftly. Since he couldn't win, he would flee. Gu Mo wasn't foolish enough to fight to the death.
But the black-clothed youth clearly wouldn't allow Gu Mo to escape so easily. Ignoring the other righteous heirs, he transformed into a streak of blood-light and chased after Gu Mo's fleeing avatar.
Once Gu Mo's avatar and the Nascent Soul youth vanished, only the heirs of both righteous and demonic sides remained. Without a word, they clashed fiercely.
"Could this be the Blood Escape technique of the Blood Demon Sect?" Gu Mo frowned, sensing the blood-light rapidly closing from behind. For the moment, he couldn't shake him.
Activating the identity token to leave required time, so Gu Mo had to open enough distance first to withdraw safely.
Yet the opponent's cultivation far surpassed his avatar's, and the blood escape was no weaker than his Wind Escape. Gu Mo's Wind Escape was already at mastery, nearly perfected.
But facing a whole great realm of difference, that advantage was easily offset.
If speed alone couldn't gain distance, then…
Gu Mo's avatar swept his gaze over the forest below and quickly dove in. Then he cast Wood Escape, vanishing into a tree.
"Hm? Vanished?"
The black-clothed youth arrived at the spot where Gu Mo disappeared, spreading his Nascent Soul divine sense without restraint, yet found nothing. If Wood Escape could be so easily detected, it wouldn't deserve to be called a top divine ability.
Even if Gu Mo had only grasped the basics, it was still beyond the youth's detection.
"Hmph, do you think you can escape like this? Naïve!"
The youth naturally knew Lin Wu, though a sword cultivator, could wield Wood Escape. That was how he had obtained the jade treasure chest earlier.
But unless it was true mastery, a half-baked Wood Escape could still be countered.
His chosen method was crude but effective: destroy the forest. If the trees were gone, there'd be nowhere to hide.
Crude though it was, it indeed struck at the weakness of Gu Mo's Wood Escape. Helpless, Gu Mo could only keep fleeing.
Each time the enemy drew close, Gu Mo would use Wood Escape to hide. When the youth began leveling the trees, he would flee again.
For the moment, the youth couldn't catch him. After all, what sword cultivator trained in so many escape arts? Weren't sword cultivators supposed to charge straight ahead, unbending and unyielding?
Though he couldn't seize him right away, the youth wasn't worried. With his higher cultivation, he had the advantage in endurance.
If impatience led to a mistake and allowed the target to slip away, that would be a true failure.
If the youth wasn't anxious, Gu Mo was even less so. Still, endless fleeing wasn't a solution. So, his avatar took out the Heavenly Demon Dissolution Secret Art.
Naturally, since the avatar still needed to escape, studying this demonic forbidden art was left to the main body. Avatar and true body shared awareness—if the avatar's divine sense browsed the inheritance jade slip, the true body was also browsing it.
But Gu Mo's true body wasn't exactly in peace either. As time passed, the demonic heirs outside the formation had begun to stir, preparing to attack.
The righteous heirs, however, hesitated. After all, the defenders now were Shennong Valley disciples. If they struck, wouldn't that be aiding the demonic sect?
Yet they also didn't wish to step in and stop the attack. Rather, they hoped the demonic heirs would break through quickly—then they could act with justification.
So, the situation became one where the righteous heirs watched from afar while the demonic heirs launched their assault on the formation.
"No, the formation won't last much longer," Ding Shiyan and Du Jinpeng poured spiritual power into it, hoping to keep it up.
But with dozens of demonic heirs striking, the little spiritual power they supplied was no more than a drop in the ocean. Almost all the demonic heirs had gathered here—there was no point contesting the other jade treasure chest, only here remained hope. Thus, both sides' heirs converged.
"Senior Sister Ding, Senior Brother Du, come over to me."
Seeing the formation about to collapse, Gu Mo waved to the two. At the same time, a faint light screen enclosed a small area around the jade treasure chest.
This was the Nut Formation Gu Mo had prepared earlier, burying spiritual nuts underground. He had used third-grade supreme nuts, and even stationed the fourth-grade nut, Little Dull, as the formation's guardian.
With Little Dull's intelligence directing it, the Nut Formation's defensive efficiency was raised a level. Coupled with the earth-vein spiritual energy converging at the jade treasure chest…
Forget those Golden Core heirs of righteous and demonic sects—even the Nascent Soul demonic lord chasing his avatar wouldn't be able to break this Nut Formation.
So, if Gu Mo's avatar ever found himself in truly dire straits, he still had one last fallback—he could hide within the Nut Formation laid down by his main body.
Of course, that was a last resort. Gu Mo didn't want to be too high-profile.
"Good!"
Seeing Gu Mo set up a formation, both Ding Shiyan and Du Jinpeng could only treat a dead horse as if it were still alive—better to have a formation than nothing at all when facing so many powerful geniuses of the demonic sects head-on.
"Boom!"
As Ding Shiyan and Du Jinpeng stepped into the Nut Formation, the grand array created by the jade stone chest also faded away as its spiritual power was spent.
At once, those demonic sect geniuses charged forward, murderous intent rolling off them, determined to kill Gu Mo and the other two on the spot.
This scene left the Valley Master of Shennong Valley filled with anxious dread. Of the five who had entered the Heavenly Chosen Battle from his sect, three were about to be lost here.
Especially Gu Mo—he carried the potential of a true disciple. If something happened to him, how could the Valley Master answer to Elder Hou and Elder Qi? Particularly Elder Qi—Gu Mo was his only disciple.
But the rules of the Heavenly Chosen Battle were absolute. No matter how anxious he was, the Valley Master of Shennong Valley could not interfere.
"Don't worry, it'll be fine."
Looking at Ding Shiyan and Du Jinpeng, whose eyes now blazed with desperate resolve, Gu Mo smiled and reassured them. Then, closing his eyes, he continued to ponder the method of the Demonic Body Dissolution.
"You're really… unbelievable…"
Seeing how utterly carefree Gu Mo was, Du Jinpeng couldn't help but be speechless. But since Gu Mo could face danger with such calm, how could he afford to falter?
Suppressing his fear, Du Jinpeng braced himself for an all-out fight. Even if he died, he would drag a few enemies down with him.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
The attacks of the demonic sect geniuses soon slammed down—but they were all stopped cold by the light curtain of the Nut Formation. Seeing this, the demonic sect geniuses froze.
So many of them had struck together, yet they couldn't break this seemingly minor defensive formation.
"Again!"
One of them, unwilling to believe it, surged his body with rolling demonic energy and blasted at the light curtain. But all that happened was that a few ripples spread across its surface before it returned to calm.
"Pathetic! Useless!"
Another demonic genius jeered.
"You do it, then!"
The one who had just attacked snapped back coldly.
"Heh, just watch me tear this flimsy array apart."
This demonic genius was from the Blood Demon Sect. Backed by a top-tier great sect, he was brimming with confidence.
"Break for me!"
Blood fiend power surged around his fist, and he slammed it against the light curtain, stirring ripples slightly larger than those caused before.
"That's all you've got?"
The one from earlier instantly seized the chance to mock him.
"This is impossible!"
The Blood Demon Sect genius's face turned grim. He wasn't a true disciple of his sect, but he ranked high among the inner disciples just below that level. How could he fail to shatter such a small defensive array?
It didn't even look all that sophisticated. How could it be unbreakable?
"Huh? What are those people doing?"
Meanwhile, on the island, Gu Mo's avatar and the black-clad youth were locked in a chase, neither side able to settle the fight quickly. This drew others' eyes to another jade stone chest.
Soon, they all saw a bizarre sight: a cluster of demonic sect geniuses surrounding three from Shennong Valley, striking again and again—yet every strike was blocked by a glowing barrier, leaving the three completely unharmed.
"Are the jade stone chests' arrays really that strong?" Gasps of disbelief rippled out. If the chest's arrays were this tough, why were they all fighting so hard over them?
"That's not the chest's array—it was set up by that Shennong Valley genius." Someone who had been watching closely spoke up.
"What!"
The crowd was stunned. And as they continued observing, their view of that formation's strength only deepened.
So many demonic geniuses attacking together, yet they still couldn't break it. Could this be a fourth-tier array? Only a fourth-tier array could possibly withstand the combined assault of so many late-stage and even great-circle Core Formation demonic cultivators.
If he could lay a fourth-tier array, that meant Shennong Valley had an array master. And to set up such a formation at the Core Formation realm—that strength was no less than that of a true disciple.
"How would I know what tier it is? All I saw was that Gu Mo from Shennong Valley bury a few nut-shaped things as tall as a person, and then the light curtain appeared." This was the strangest part in everyone's eyes.
"Don't tell me it's another new kind of spiritual plant." Thinking of Gu Mo's previous feats, the onlookers began to speculate.
"A spiritual plant that can block so many demonic geniuses? That's insane!"
"And he's not even a true disciple of Shennong Valley yet. Doesn't this mean there's another secret behind him?"
…
The Valley Master of Shennong Valley listened to all the murmurs, his face twitching slightly. He had already decided: once they returned, he would immediately promote Gu Mo to true disciple. Otherwise, outsiders would start questioning Shennong Valley's judgment.
"What an extraordinary spiritual plant!"
In the sky, Azure Venerable looked down at the Nut Formation Gu Mo had set, delight glimmering in her eyes. As a Nascent Soul Venerable of Shennong Valley, she had come into this Heavenly Chosen Battle with little enthusiasm—her disciples' performance had been mediocre. But Gu Mo had just given her a real surprise.
Those nut-shaped spiritual plants, paired with a defensive array, had produced such astonishing results.
And that youngster was only at the early Core Formation stage, yet he had cultivated a fourth-tier spiritual plant. His talent was truly remarkable—no weaker than Lin Wu of the Grand Yan Sword Sect.
"Hmph!"
On the other side,Ten- thousand Blood Demon Venerable swept his gaze toward his own disciple, still chasing Lin Wu of the Grand Yan Sword Sect, and frowned. After all this time, he still hadn't taken him down. Truly disgraceful.
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