"Oh?" Tianhe Xuan was greatly astonished. With a snort, his figure instantly vanished from the stone wall, reappearing by another wall behind Changkong.

Changkong stumbled as he landed, the function of these stone walls already dawning on him. It turned out Tianhe Xuan used these walls to conceal his presence, coordinating them with the profound mysteries of the Eight Formations to draw in the enemy, thereby finding opportunities to lure and kill them—a truly vicious tactic. Now, however, the Du Men before him opened as the stone wall receded. Following the arrangement of the Dunjia, he charged straight in.

The world inside the Du Men was nothing but smoke, and the stone wall bearing Tianhe Xuan’s likeness immediately followed him.

"I didn't expect the Fan Hai Ji Tian Yin to possess such infinite transformations among various weapons. But this time, luck won't be on your side." Tianhe Xuan controlled the stone wall and violently shoved it toward Changkong. Seeing this, Changkong shouted a warning, using the momentum to execute a move—kicking backward to borrow force—which propelled his body away. Although this maneuver worked, the white smoke filled the gate, making it impossible to see the situation ahead. He only heard a rumbling sound, like the earth cracking, immediately followed by three colossal stone walls advancing.

"Hah!" Changkong knew this was bad and let out a loud roar, snatching up his prayer beads and swiftly sweeping them back and forth across the three stone walls, attempting to stop them. But at this moment, Tianhe Xuan was no longer holding back. It turned out Tianhe Xuan’s figure was hidden within all three incoming walls. The three figures simultaneously swung their arms, and in an instant, several darts shot out fiercely from the walls, striking Changkong directly.

"Aiya!" Changkong was utterly bewildered by Tianhe Xuan's sudden appearances and disappearances. Despite the sharp pain from the hidden weapons, he managed to endure it. He didn't tend to his wounds because the walls in front and behind showed no sign of stopping their advance based on his attacks. To avoid being crushed into a paste, Changkong braced his back foot against the pursuing wall and planted his other foot firmly against the oncoming wall, thinking this would save his life. Unaware of the immense power behind the walls, they began to converge again after only a brief pause. Realizing his strength was insufficient, Changkong once again used borrowed force to launch himself high into the air.

With a deafening "Kuang," before Changkong could react, a row of stone walls appeared above him, pressing down heavily.

Changkong's heart leaped. He spread his arms and casually formed another Golden Seal above his head, managing to brace the wall directly overhead. Little did he know, Tianhe Xuan's figure was still concealed within the wall. With another wave of his hands, hidden weapons shot out again.

"Not good." Changkong had already tasted the hidden darts and naturally evaded them easily. However, this evasion caused him to neglect the surrounding walls, resulting in him being violently slammed down from mid-air. Just as he was about to hit the ground, he slapped the ground with one hand and instantly rolled his body, finally locating the exit of the Du Men. With a flip, he slipped into the Xiu Men.

"Monk, entering the gates so haphazardly is unwise, haha!" Tianhe Xuan burst into laughter, seeing the pursuit situation was overwhelmingly favorable.

Changkong understood the principle of the Eight Formations: entering and exiting must follow the gate sequence controlled by the formation setter to break it. However, Tianhe Xuan's formation was merely a variation of the Eight Formations, requiring no set sequence. But the crucial necessity remained: he had to traverse all eight gates before the external changes triggered by the stone walls fully manifested, or he would surely be trapped to death within the formation.

A cold glint flashed like an eye. Inside the Xiu Men, there was astonishingly a mountain of blades.

Changkong went from dizzy to seeing spots. Upon entering the Xiu Men, he felt himself falling straight down. Looking below, he saw only knife tips gleaming with cold light—truly a mountain of blades. Knowing there was no footing in this gate, he inverted his body in mid-air, head pointing down, sliding downward. Just as he was about to plummet onto the knife tips, he used a Golden Seal to block, rebounding his body upward.

"Haha, Monk, enjoy yourself thoroughly." Before Changkong could catch his breath, Tianhe Xuan above pressed closer and closer. Rows of stone walls descended along with his sinister laughter, intending to seal off Changkong's path over the top.

Changkong knew he couldn't approach the stone walls, yet this path was undoubtedly the only way to break through the gate. Thus, he swung his prayer beads, unleashing the Great Vow Buddha Dharma in the air, attempting to slow the descent of the stone walls ahead. This move proved effective; under the influence of the golden light, the forward stone walls suspended themselves in mid-air.

Tianhe Xuan was surprised that the power of the Golden Seal was so bizarre, capable of stopping falling stones. He countered by spurring forth another swarm of hidden weapons to obstruct Changkong's offensive. At this moment, Changkong couldn't afford to worry about that; he continued to use his prayer beads to form Seals against the stone walls. As a result, the hidden weapons, lacking an obstacle, struck Changkong squarely, slicing across his body again, leaving trails of blood and torn flesh. "Ah!" Changkong grit his teeth against the intense pain and continued to rotate rapidly in the air, finally piercing through the mountain of blades and bursting into the Sheng Men.

"Hoo..." Inside the Sheng Men, there was absolute silence. Changkong knelt heavily on one knee, gasping for breath. Strangely, he couldn't even hear his own panting.

Changkong slowly raised his head and saw that, without him realizing when, he was surrounded by a circle of stone walls. Within each wall was Tianhe Xuan’s cold, stern smile.

This? Changkong tried to speak but found that no matter how wide he opened his mouth, no sound would emerge.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. Looking down, he saw that a stone spike had deeply pierced his body beside him. No sound, no warning—in a situation void of everything, a stone spike had wounded him silently.

Changkong reached out to cover the incessantly bleeding wound, raising his vigilance against the surrounding stone walls. Tianhe Xuan's expression remained cold, yet Changkong could not sense an attack coming from any direction.

Ya! Changkong cried out internally and knelt on the ground once more. One of his feet had been struck again by one of Tianhe Xuan's hidden weapons, immediately gushing blood. Changkong was growing agitated. He only knew that the Eight Formations were meant to be delaying tactics, intended to trap and confuse the enemy to achieve the supreme state of conquering without fighting. He hadn't expected that Tianhe Xuan would integrate such bizarre stone walls into the Eight Formations, making this ordinary array lethally perilous. The critical issue was that the Sheng Men he currently occupied was entirely blocked by stone walls, leaving him with no way to locate the next gate.

Just as Changkong hesitated, another hidden weapon shot out from the stone wall before him. Changkong tried to form a Seal to defend, but his speed had fallen behind. The instant he flicked up his prayer beads, his hand was already sliced by the weapon, bleeding profusely.

"Well?" Tianhe Xuan was relaxed and smug. In his view, Changkong's Fan Hai Ji Tian Yin didn't seem as formidable as anticipated.