She was no longer as helpless as she had been just now.
But the thunder in the sky continued to support Linglong, preventing Hua Jian from making any critical breakthroughs on Linglong’s side.
Now, the situation had become a stalemate where Linglong and Hua Jian were keeping each other busy, neither allowing the other to interfere with the other side.
They knew each other too well; it wouldn’t be easy for either to achieve a quick victory.
During their usual sparring matches, Hua Jian would often find the feeling of being suppressed unbearable and would actively look for a chance to counter-kill.
If she succeeded, she won; if she failed, she lost.
But this time was different. Both Linglong and she had chosen more conservative fighting styles.
Losing here would mean their journey in the Ascension Gathering was over, and it would be somewhat embarrassing when they joined the Saint Sect later.
Therefore, Hua Jian decided to trust her teammates. She trusted that even without her, they could react in time and solve the current crisis.
If they didn’t react and were broken through by the Thunder Dragon, Hua Jian would have no choice but to bail.
‘As long as the green mountains remain, one need not worry about firewood.’
She had stalled the biggest threat. If they still couldn’t pull their weight, they couldn’t expect Hua Jian to stand with them against Linglong until the very end and commit suicide, right?
Hua Jian wasn’t an idiot. If she saw things going south, she would definitely slip away and find a chance to get even later.
She wasn’t overly concerned with pride; escaping wasn’t unacceptable.
While Hua Jian and Linglong were completely entangled and unable to separate, the crowd resisting the Thunder Dragon’s attack also realized they couldn’t keep defending passively.
“This isn’t right. We won’t last until the stone pillars are reset. Someone must go and interrupt that dragon’s breath!” Shiqi was the first to shout.
The other cultivators nodded one after another. They thought so too, but who should be the one to interrupt the Thunder Dragon’s breath?
Shiqi immediately volunteered, saying she could give it a try.
But as soon as she rushed out of the array’s range, before she could even launch an attack on the Thunder Dragon, the dragon redirected its attack toward her.
With a loud boom, Shiqi was slammed back into the array.
“Its power is too strong. I can’t interrupt it.” Shiqi said helplessly with a wooden face.
She had just used her Ling Sword to block the Thunder Dragon’s attack, but when the lightning hit her sword, she almost couldn’t hold onto it.
Against such offensive power, she simply had no chance to compete.
“Since the power of one person isn’t enough, why don’t we just concentrate everyone’s power together!”
Just as everyone was at a loss because of the Thunder Dragon’s attacks, Xia Hui, who had been watching coldly from the side, raised her hand to remind them.
Shiqi was the strongest among everyone present, yet she couldn’t block a single strike from the Thunder Dragon.
Under these circumstances, the only way to break the deadlock was to concentrate everyone’s power, switching from defense to offense, and try to take down… or at least interrupt the Thunder Dragon’s attack.
It was impossible that the combined power of everyone present wouldn’t let Shiqi last a few moves against this dragon, right?
“Ah? But we don’t seem to know that kind of array…”
It was a good idea, but the problem was that an array for transferring power was different from a common Five Elements array.
It wasn’t something ordinary cultivators could easily master.
There were a few cultivators here who knew how to use such an array, but there weren’t enough of them, and the power of a few people wouldn’t be enough to cause a qualitative change in Shiqi.
They were all just at the Spirit Master level; they didn’t have such great power or knowledge. They simply didn’t know how to use that kind of array.
Xia Hui’s suggestion was excellent, but who would execute it?
There was no one left!
“None of you know it?” Xia Hui took a deep breath.
Fine, she really couldn’t count on this group of cultivators who might not even be able to squeeze into the Saint Sect Waidian.
Perhaps it was because she had seen too many geniuses; these people seemed utterly foolish in her eyes.
“Then you all maintain this array and tell me where the array eye is.”
“The array eye? What do you want to do in this place?”
The Five Elements Grand Array didn’t have a single master; everything depended on the cultivators in the array making decisions together.
In such a simple array, the array eye was naturally quite obvious, located right in the center of the entire formation.
This was the convergence point for everyone’s Spiritual Power. That massive Lingli Barrier was deployed from this very spot.
Xia Hui trotted over to the array eye and plunged both hands into it.
With her movement, the barrier of the Five Elements Grand Array suddenly shook, looking like it was about to be shattered by the lightning.
“Miss Shiqi, help me block it for a bit! I need some time!” Xia Hui shouted at Shiqi.
‘Help block it for a bit?’ Shiqi looked up at the arrogant Thunder Dragon in the sky, silently thinking that Xia Hui really overestimated her.
She had just rushed out to block it once and had been sent rolling back.
Now, she was being asked to block it again… Ah, forget it! If I have to block it, I’ll block it. Sacrificing myself is fine!
Gritting her teeth and raising her sword, Shiqi rushed toward the Thunder Dragon without looking back, clashing with the falling lightning.
It was called a clash, but it was actually just Shiqi unilaterally resisting the impact of the lightning breath.
She had only just rushed up, and now she was already being pressed back to her original position by the breath.
She said she would block it for a bit, and she really could only block it for a bit.
But this small amount of time was enough for Xia Hui to tamper with the array.
The Spiritual Power accumulated in the Five Elements Grand Array had been extracted by her, turning into a colorful little ball. She threw this little ball at Shiqi.
“Miss Shiqi, catch!”
“Catch what…” Shiqi vaguely heard Xia Hui’s voice amidst the thunder.
Before she could react to what she was supposed to catch, a dull pain suddenly flared in her back.
Then, a massive amount of Spiritual Power surged into her body, stretching her meridians to their absolute limit.
Following the pain came a powerful force that exceeded Shiqi’s imagination.
The lightning breath that had been forcing her back was actually pushed back by her sword.
And this only consumed about half of the power in her body.
“So strong!” She clenched her fist, instantly developing the illusion that she was now invincible.
“Miss Shiqi, use it sparingly! Don’t use up all the power at once!”
It wasn’t until Xia Hui’s reminder came from below that Shiqi looked back.
She discovered that almost all the cultivators who had been in the array were now lying on the ground in exhaustion.
Xia Hui was currently dragging them up one by one, making them swallow Alchemy Pills to recover their Spiritual Power so they could continue the array.
She looked just like a great villain exploiting livestock, but thinking that she was doing this for the ultimate victory, Shiqi quickly suppressed the strange thoughts in her mind.
Regardless, Xia Hui was doing the right thing now; the methods were just a bit unsightly. It wasn’t too big of a problem.
However… if she only had this much power on hand, it would still be quite difficult for her to defeat this Thunder Dragon, right?
Cutting through the lightning spat out by the Thunder Dragon with one stroke of her sword, Shiqi calculated the loss of Spiritual Power and realized she probably couldn’t defeat this Thunder Dragon.
In other words, the primary goal was still to stall for time, at least until Xia Hui sent a new round of power.
Then she would find a way to hold off the Thunder Dragon long enough for the stone pillars on the other side to be reset.
Shiqi also understood the reality. This powerful Thunder Dragon certainly wasn’t Linglong’s creation.
It was most likely a phenomenon caused by the special environment in this forbidden land.
Once the stone pillars were reset, this Thunder Dragon would surely disappear.
By then, if she and Hua Jian joined forces to deal with Linglong, their chances of winning wouldn’t be low.
Thinking of this, Shiqi abandoned the idea of attacking and instead began to focus on defending.
Although her defense wasn’t exactly impenetrable, the few bolts of lightning that leaked through were eventually caught one by one by Xia Hui, who was in good condition, and didn’t cause much damage.
However, Xia Hui looked a bit disheveled after being hit by the electricity, her face full of annoyance and unhappiness.
If it weren’t for her lack of strength, Shiqi suspected this young girl would have flown into the sky and torn the Thunder Dragon apart with her bare hands.
With Shiqi’s stalling, the cultivators finally managed to recover some Spiritual Power through the Alchemy Pills, only to have it drained by Xia Hui again, returning them to an empty state.
However, Xia Hui wasn’t in a hurry to send this power to Shiqi. Instead, she hesitated between Shiqi and Hua Jian.
With Shiqi’s conservative fighting style, she had practically replaced the original function of the Five Elements Grand Array, and the consumption was even lower than the array’s.
After all, that array would waste a lot of power on other directions that weren’t under attack, while Shiqi was using the power very sparingly.
Even if there was significant loss during the transmission process, it was still much slower than the array’s consumption.
Given Shiqi’s current stance, she would likely hold out until the stone pillars were reset.
Even if her estimation was wrong, the third round of Spiritual Power should have been squeezed out by then.
Shiqi still had a lot of Spiritual Power in her body.
If Xia Hui forced this power directly into Shiqi’s body, it might just make her explode, which wouldn’t be a good thing.
In that case, why not find a way to support the other battlefield?
If Hua Jian could achieve victory early, or if she just had a chance to deal with the Thunder Dragon, it would also relieve the pressure on this side.
Thinking this, Xia Hui slowly swirled the concentrated Spiritual Power in her hands—power that even Shiqi would find hard to withstand—adding a strange hue to it.
Furthermore, it would allow Hua Jian to experience something in advance, something unique to Wanhuagu.
“Miss Hua Jian! Look over here!”
Once the Spiritual Power in her hand had completely changed color, Xia Hui shouted loudly at Hua Jian.
The moment Hua Jian turned her head, Xia Hui threw the Spiritual Power in her hand directly toward her.
This beam of Spiritual Power drew a colorful arc in the air.
As it neared Hua Jian, it seemed to be attracted by her, coming to rest obediently on her palm.
Hua Jian instantly understood what was happening on the other side.
It seemed the defensive array had temporarily turned into an auxiliary array.
However, this little bit of Spiritual Power didn’t seem like it would help her much…
Wait! Why is this Spiritual Power so strong?!