Five minutes later, Hua Pianxian was still tracing patterns!
Eight minutes... ten minutes...
In the blink of an eye, a quarter of an hour slipped away unnoticed.
That slender, vermilion carving knife rotated with extraordinary dexterity in the void... and directly beneath it, the light emanating from the illusionary talismans began to grow progressively weaker.
Nie Kong’s face remained impassive, yet his heart was a coil of intense anxiety.
But Hua Pianxian remained utterly relaxed, seemingly in no hurry whatsoever. Yet, Nie Kong dared not interrupt her; what if she threw a fit and quit? Would he truly have to resort to the petty revenge he had threatened—sneaking in through Hua Mei’s back entrance? That act, however, would amount to nothing less than an insult to Hua Mei herself.
Could this woman succeed or not? If she didn’t act soon, did that mean Hua Mei’s current cultivation level wasn't sufficient to sustain the mending of this illusionary array?
Nie Kong’s thoughts spun in uncertainty.
Qingyue and Hulu had long ceased their antics and quietly approached Nie Kong’s side along with the Ghoul Eagle King. Even Taiyan burrowed out from Nie Kong’s chest, though the once vibrant petals on him now drooped slightly, looking listless; within the “Three Spirits Congealing Origin Array,” her energy was almost completely depleted.
The faint glow from the illusionary talismans continued to dim; that sliver of pale green seemed poised to extinguish at any moment.
“Chil…”
In a moment of dissociation, Nie Kong thought he saw the great gate shattering, with the powerhouses of the Ling Shen Hall rushing in, and he couldn't help but open his mouth. But before he could speak, Hua Pianxian, who had been intensely focused, let out a mocking laugh. “Nie Kong, itching to ask but afraid to? Suffering from holding it in?”
“…”
Nie Kong was struck dumb. Hua Pianxian had often been put in her place by him before, but now he was tasting the bitter pill of being speechless in front of her—truly, the tables had turned.
“Tch!”
After that sneer at Nie Kong, the expression on Hua Pianxian’s pretty face suddenly shifted to one of profound solemnity. Her entire being—her spirit and vigor—seemed to undergo a seismic transformation in that instant. Then, with a slight flick of her wrist, the sharp tip of her carving knife landed precisely on a curved line of an illusionary talisman.
It was finally beginning!
Nie Kong’s spirit soared. He stared, unblinking, at Hua Pianxian’s knife. Qingyue, Hulu, and the Ghoul Eagle King also snapped their eyes wide open almost simultaneously.
“Tch! Tch! Tch…”
The sound of the carving knife scraping against the ground was continuous and unbroken.
Hua Pianxian’s wrist began to shake faster and faster. The several-foot-long carving knife, in her hands, seemed like a living, sentient artifact. Its razor tip danced lightly within the dense network of talisman lines, and flecks of vermilion energy occasionally shot forth, plunging into the illusory symbols.
As the tip moved upward, the elongated blade incessantly dragged a dazzling afterimage through the air.
After a dozen seconds passed…
It was as if dozens of fair, tender hands, wielding dozens of crimson carving knives, were dancing simultaneously within the Ninth Ring. Hua Pianxian herself moved like a butterfly flitting through flowers, her graceful, beautiful figure flickering lightly within the ring. Reflected in the brilliant luminescence, the scene was mesmerizing.
“How beautiful!”
Qingyue couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration. Hulu and the Ghoul Eagle behind her were already gaping, struck speechless.
Nie Kong, too, found his eyes struggling to take it all in.
Soon, Nie Kong keenly noticed that under the deliberate strokes of Hua Pianxian’s knife, the weak green luminescence transmitted by the illusionary talismans had ceased its decline. It remained, much like a twinkling star in a dark firmament—though the glow was faint, the darkness could not seem to swallow it whole.
Finally stabilized!
Nie Kong breathed a silent sigh of relief. He wondered what the situation was like at the entrance to the Ling Fu?
“…”
“Quick! Quick! Just a little longer, and they will break through the main gate!”
“With the Ling Shen Hall Master and the two High Gods, the power enhancement applied to those six ‘Spiritual Intent Deification Diagrams’ has made them countless times stronger. It probably won't even take an hour!”
“I wonder if they’ll manage to catch that Flower Spirit once they get inside…”
“That’s hard to say. Perhaps this ‘Medicine Spirit Illusionary Realm’… no, the Ling Fu, might still have an exit.”
“…”
His companions mumbled intermittently.
Where their gazes converged, the two black gates could practically be described as ‘breached.’ After being assaulted by the six ‘Spiritual Intent Deification Diagrams’ for so long, the angle of the two doors, viewed from the front, was almost parallel to the observers’ sightlines. The black mist between the door seams was growing thinner by the second, threatening to vanish at any moment.
Through the wide crack, the vista inside the Ling Fu was perfectly visible.
Mountains, rivers, lakes… pavilions and towers faintly discernible amidst the peaks, and various halls, even a pagoda sculpted from white jade… all these magnificent sights seemed condensed onto the scroll framed by the door crack, then continuously unfurled before the onlookers.
“This gate is about to open! Everyone, put in a bit more effort; within a quarter of an hour at most, we can enter the Ling Fu!”
Kou Xilai roared with laughter, raising his right hand slightly to infuse another thick bolt of violet lightning into the divine power gathered by the “Spiritual Intent Deification Gaze.” The man in black and the youth in blue robes beside him did the same, pouring out inexhaustible divine power, merging it with that multicolored current.
“A quarter of an hour! Just one more quarter of an hour!”
“At most a quarter of an hour! Focus!”
“…”
Seeing the final gate of the Ling Fu on the verge of breaking, Kou Xilai felt a surge of triumphant elation, eager to rush into the spirit palace and capture both the Flower Spirit and her master in one swoop. Divine power poured heedlessly from Mei Wu’s body, and Kou Xilai’s shouts rose and fell, but the black aura clinging to the two great doors seemed stubbornly entrenched. No matter how fierce the divine power assault, it held fast.
“How many quarters of an hour has it been now?”
“Five? I think at least four!”
“Looking at the trend, that gate might actually hold for a full day!”
“…”
It wasn’t just the surrounding spectators who noticed this abnormality; even the Spirit Masters bombarding the Ling Fu gate with the “Spiritual Intent Deification Diagrams” felt a strange sensation, as if they were continuously dripping water onto a sheet of steel as thin as a cicada’s wing—no matter how dense the drops, they could not pierce the metal.
“Don’t lose heart!”
Kou Xilai could no longer laugh. The stifled frustration was about to tear his chest apart, but at this moment, he, the Ling Shen Hall Master, could only continue to encourage his comrades wielding the “Spiritual Intent Deification Diagram.” Only the memory of his constant shouting of “a quarter of an hour” made his old face flush with shame.
The gate, which looked moments from shattering, was stubbornly holding on like a cockroach, tantamount to slapping him repeatedly in public!
“It can’t hold much longer!”
“Sixth Elder, go replace Kou Tang!”
“…”
Under Kou Xilai’s bellowing commands, an hour passed, then two hours…
The crimson sun gradually climbed to the zenith above the “Spirit-Binding Marsh,” yet the black aura in the door seam continued its resolute, stubborn defense, showing no sign of dissipating. On the contrary, the divine power channeled through the six “Spiritual Intent Deification Gaze” diagrams and the Ling Shen Hall Master Kou Xilai was already showing signs of waning.
The man in black and the youth in blue continued to channel their divine power, but their brows were inevitably knitted tight.
On the surface, the divine power from the two High Gods remained as fierce and formidable as ever, but they knew the truth in their hearts: after such a long stalemate against the Flower Spirit and her master, followed by the continuous bombardment of the illusionary gate, they were at the end of their tether; their internal divine energy was on the verge of collapse.
“Crack!”
Just then, the two great doors shuddered violently, and a resonant buzzing sound surged outward.
…… ……