It was obvious that, although this world was not the Great Desolate World, it was very likely connected to it in some way.
After all, the Ten Directions Blood Grudge Bone-Corroding Grand Formation would never appear here for no reason.
But now was not the time to think about such things. What he needed most at this moment was to break this formation before it fully formed.
The most critical aspect of the Ten Directions Blood Grudge Bone-Corroding Grand Formation lay in the ten positions.
Eight positions corresponded to the Southeast, Southwest, Northwest, Northeast, East, South, West, and North.
Adding in Heaven and Earth, it formed a formation from which any Resentful Soul and Resentment Qi attracted nearby could not escape.
The most terrifying part of this formation was not its sealing ability, but its power to control the Resentful Soul and Resentment Qi within, forming attacks capable of dealing near-destruction to the Spiritual Soul.
Pei Qingxuan, though firm in will, could not withstand this formation no matter how resolute her mind was.
“Hmm… It’s not quite complete after all… Well, that makes sense. They’re just ordinary practitioners of the Magical Path, not true members of the Wu Tribe, let alone possessing the Wu Tribe’s strength.”
Although these cultivators of the Magical Path had used certain tricks to set up the formation, there was one thing they simply could not achieve.
And that was the might of the Wu Tribe.
The strength of the Wu Tribe was not in their Spiritual Soul, but in their bloodline.
Their inheritance came from the Pangu Bloodline, and their blood naturally carried Innate Chaos Qi, which had the recognition of the Heavenly Dao and could never be imitated by ordinary practitioners of the Magical Path.
Yet they had used some special means.
That was to harness the Baleful Qi brought about by their own accumulated Killing Sin.
They used Baleful Qi to form the Array Core, thus avoiding the defect of making themselves the core, but at the same time, this also meant that the Ten Directions Blood Grudge Bone-Corroding Grand Formation lost the flexibility of direct control by a true body.
“In that case… it’s a little easier to break, but still not easy now, hmm…”
Xu Ping’an pondered for a moment, reached out to open the Medicine Box, and pressed a Switch.
With a ‘ka-chunk’ sound from within, as if some mechanism had been triggered, Xu Ping’an reached from outside, pulled aside a side panel, and with one motion, drew out a hidden Drawer.
The Drawer wasn’t large, only about the size of a palm, and instead of rare medicinal herbs, there lay an ordinary Pouch.
It was stitched from burlap, sealed with ox tendon, and appeared to be completely unremarkable.
But that was only when others touched it.
The instant Xu Ping’an’s hand contacted the pouch, the mouth of the bag immediately loosened by itself, opening wide.
If anyone had been beside him looking inside the bag at that moment, they would have seen two broken Silver Ingots, which showed no sign of anything special at all.
But then, something truly strange happened.
Xu Ping’an reached into the pouch and, with a casual grab, drew his hand back.
The two Silver Ingots inside had not moved in the slightest, yet now there was a Gourd in his hand.
A small Red Gourd sat steadily in Xu Ping’an’s palm as he looked up and scanned his surroundings.
The Blood-tinged Baleful Qi was already beginning to form, and a faint red mist was slowly spreading through the air.
If this mist fully formed, there would be big trouble.
To temporarily keep the mist from forming too quickly, Xu Ping’an had no choice but to bring out some of his best treasures.
And the little Red Gourd in his hand was one of them.
The Nine-Nine Soul-Scattering Gourd.
Also known as the Red Gourd.
It was one of the Seven Treasured Gourds born from the Innate Spirit Root Gourd Vine.
Within it was Soul-Scattering Red Sand, which could corrupt the Vital Essence and absorb and capture souls—
It was the bane of all Spiritual Souls.
The Red Gourd among the Seven Treasured Gourds had once been obtained by the ancient great being Hong Yun, but after Hong Yun perished and his Dao dissipated, this treasure had vanished without a trace.
As for how it ended up in his hands?
That was thanks to that System that went wandering off to the heavens and still hadn’t come back yet.
Looking at the treasure gourd in his hand, Xu Ping’an could only shake his head helplessly.
If he possessed magical power—even if not magical power, just some Spiritual Energy—he could at least activate the treasure gourd, easily breaking the formation and slaughtering those practitioners of the Magical Path.
But unfortunately, he had no magical power at all, and couldn’t even sense Spiritual Energy.
So, there was no way he could use the gourd’s heaven-defying ability to corrupt Vital Essence.
However, the Red Sand inside the gourd was still usable to him.
Though he couldn’t activate it with magical power, the Red Sand in this Red Gourd was innately able to absorb souls and capture spirits, as well as draw in Resentment Qi and Baleful Qi.
Normally, these absorbed things could be used as the Red Gourd’s attack, released at will.
But, alas, Xu Ping’an couldn’t use that function!
He couldn’t attack with it, but it had other uses.
After all… some heavenly and earthly treasures needed special nourishment; this Baleful Qi, Resentment Qi, and Blood Qi made the best fertilizer for certain medicinal herbs.
So in the past… this Red Gourd, famed throughout the Great Desolate, and its Red Sand inside, had become the soil he used to cultivate herbs.
Truly worthy of its name as an Innate Spiritual Treasure.
No matter how much Red Sand he used, it never ran out.
Even if you poured out ten tons, it would still be full inside.
But for now, those things were unimportant.
Xu Ping’an opened the mouth of the gourd and poured out a little of the Red Sand.
This Red Sand, if touched by an ordinary person, would kill them instantly.
Their soul and blood essence would be completely devoured by the Red Sand in a single moment, and even reincarnation would be out of the question—their very being would vanish.
But, as luck would have it, Xu Ping’an was not only the owner of the Red Gourd, but also possessed the Body of Chaos, unaffected by all techniques, so this thing had no effect on him at all.
Even the surrounding Baleful Qi could not pose the slightest threat to him.
Not daring to pour out too much, for fear of harming Pei Qingxuan or the three women inside the Tianming Bell behind him, Xu Ping’an only poured out about a dozen grams—a small heap of sand, which he placed on the ground.
Then, a change visible to the naked eye occurred. The blood mist that had been steadily thickening all around… began to slowly disperse.
Seeing this, Xu Ping’an nodded in approval.
“Mm… Now there’s no worry about cultivating the Resentful Blood Flower.”
Only then did he turn back to the battlefield.
In the sky, Pei Qingxuan and Wu Xin Du Gu were still fighting, but as time went on, Pei Qingxuan was clearly gaining the upper hand.
After all, her cultivation was higher than Wu Xin Du Gu’s.
If it were purely a contest of swordplay, their skills would be nearly equal, and even after days and nights of battle, it might be impossible to determine a winner.
But the problem was, even swordsmanship needed cultivation to support it, and clearly, Pei Qingxuan’s cultivation far surpassed Wu Xin Du Gu’s, so although Wu Xin Du Gu’s sword skills were impressive, his expenditure of energy was great.
It seemed that in another three or so minutes, he would be defeated.
“Three minutes, huh?”
Xu Ping’an muttered, nodding secretly, then turned and walked toward the Golden Boat.
At this moment, all the practitioners of the Magical Path had their attention focused on maintaining the formation and on the two figures fighting in the sky.
No one noticed that, from within the Golden Boat they had just shot down, a young man had stepped out.
Xu Ping’an glanced at the practitioners of the Magical Path, then stepped forward with Gang Steps, and the faint blood mist around him suddenly began to swirl about his body.
Clearly, while the practitioners of the Magical Path had set up the formation, the one who truly made use of it was Xu Ping’an, who understood the formation perfectly even before it took shape.
The blood mist instantly enveloped his whole body.
His aura was entirely hidden within the mist, and even his figure became blurry and indistinct.
Unless one observed closely from up close, even these practitioners of the Magical Path might not realize there was actually a living person standing here!