“H-Husband!?”
Pei Qingxuan’s cheeks suddenly flushed crimson.
She clapped her hands over her ears and whipped around—only to be stunned to find… Xu Ping’an was nowhere to be seen beside her.
Xu Ping’an, watching Pei Qingxuan’s reaction through the Array Formation, suddenly remembered… Ears.
That seemed to be her weak spot.
He might’ve leaned in a bit too close just now, making Lady react so strongly.
At this moment, Xu Ping’an calmly stretched out all ten fingers.
In the endless Blood Mist, ten slender scarlet threads were connected to his fingertips.
It was as if each of his ten fingers was tied with a red string.
He had now fully replaced all the Demonic Sect Sect Masters who originally activated the Array Formation, taking control of it himself.
Each of those ten threads on his fingers represented a node of the formation.
This was honestly a rather clumsy method of control.
After all, he wasn’t the one who initiated the Array Formation, and there were a lot of flaws.
Xu Ping’an even suspected that whether the Array Formation could be activated at all was entirely up to luck.
When they started the Array Formation, they skipped many essential steps and key points.
As a result, the Array Formation was extremely unstable. In order to stabilize it, he had no choice but to resort to this makeshift method.
He moved his fingers slightly. Instantly, Xu Ping’an’s voice followed the Array Formation and reached Pei Qingxuan’s ears.
[Lady, don’t be afraid. I’ve seized control of this Array Formation—they can’t manipulate it anymore, so you don’t need to worry.]
Pei Qingxuan’s wide eyes filled with confusion, and she stood rooted to the spot.
It took her a while to come back to her senses.
“Husband… you can even seize control of such an ancient Array Formation?”
Xu Ping’an smiled faintly and sent her another message:
[This is nothing yet. Your husband is far more capable than that.]
Being looked at by Lady with such astonishment instantly satisfied his vanity.
This was a normal reaction for anyone.
After all, he always had a clear understanding of himself: just an ordinary man.
Though he possessed a few mysterious means, both mentally and physically, he was no different from anyone else.
Being gazed at by Lady with such admiration and shock, it was only natural for Xu Ping’an to feel a swell of pride.
“Husband~”
Pei Qingxuan’s once resolute gaze softened, her moist eyes growing misty, and her cheeks flushed like a ripe apple, tinged with rosy red.
Xu Ping’an twitched the corner of his mouth.
No wonder she’s born with such charm—anytime her own man does something a bit unusual, she gets all worked up!
[Um… Lady, calm down. Now isn’t the time to be thinking about that.]
Seeing Lady’s dreamy gaze, blushing cheeks, and even trembling slightly without realizing it, Xu Ping’an hurriedly tried to persuade her.
Dropping all pretense, he immediately snatched away the others’ control and directed the Blood Grudge Tide straight toward one of the Demonic Sects.
Even when these Demonic Sect Sect Masters banded together, they couldn’t overcome Pei Qingxuan, let alone an Array Formation that even she couldn’t resist.
In the blink of an eye, the Demonic Sect at one corner of the Array Formation was completely annihilated.
There wasn’t even time for a scream.
But even if they had screamed, it wouldn’t have mattered.
The Ten Directions Blood Grudge Bone-Corroding Grand Formation was now filled with blood fiendish energy, which could even condense into a tangible Blood Ocean.
Within the crimson ocean, countless Resentful Souls howled mournfully.
Even if the Demonic Sects managed to cry out, there was no way they could drown out the wails of these Resentful Souls.
So Xu Ping’an wasn’t worried about exposure at all.
He immediately directed the tide to its next target.
At that moment, Qi Guan Xuehe, positioned at the formation’s key node above, was completely stunned.
Because previously, it was he who controlled this Array Formation.
He had clearly been sending the Blood Grudge Tide toward Pei Qingxuan, hoping to kill her in one strike.
But suddenly, the tide just froze in place and wouldn’t budge!
“What’s going on? How could this happen!?”
Qi Guan Xuehe stood there in shock, unable to believe his own hands.
He once again formed hand seals and chanted incantations, but the Array Formation seemed completely out of control—it wouldn’t respond to him at all.
“Sect Master, what’s wrong? Why isn’t the Blood Grudge Tide moving? Wasn’t it about to kill Pei Qingxuan?”
A few Disciples also seemed to sense something was off, and one hurriedly asked.
But at that moment, Qi Guan Xuehe was in no mood to answer.
A sudden sense of foreboding welled up in his heart.
As a cultivator, he never ignored such feelings—the deeper his cultivation, the sharper the Heavenly Dao’s warnings.
Before he arrived, Qi Guan Xuehe knew that this tribulation was meant for Pei Qingxuan; he shouldn’t be facing any Calamity.
But the problem was, why had the Blood Grudge Tide, which was supposed to engulf Pei Qingxuan, halted, and why had the entire Array Formation lost control? He could even feel the Heavenly Warning of an impending Calamity!
Something’s wrong! Something’s very wrong!
In that instant, Qi Guan Xuehe trusted his instincts and, without a moment’s hesitation, quickly formed a seal to try and sever the Array Formation’s operation.
But even as he chanted again and again, he couldn’t stop the Array Formation.
And that sense of crisis only grew stronger.
He used a Thousand-Mile Sound Transmission.
[Everyone, something’s wrong!]
But his voice was like a stone sinking into the sea—no one replied.
At this moment, he was certain something had gone wrong.
As the node controller for this operation, Qi Guan Xuehe had been told before coming that if the Array Formation lost control, there were two ways to dismantle it.
The first was to form the closing seals and chant the incantation to shut it down normally.
The other was the risky method of forcibly breaking the Array Formation.
The former was a standard procedure and had no effect on the formation or anyone inside.
But the latter was far more dangerous!
Because it meant the blood fiendish energy and Resentful Souls stored within would instantly go berserk and spiral out of control!
But now, he dared not hesitate any longer, for the sense of crisis from the Heavenly Warning was becoming unbearable.
Normally, cultivators always received a Heavenly Warning—unless it was a Calamity from the Heavenly Dao itself, which struck without the slightest warning.
A warning… is the Heavenly Dao granting a chance to live.
The more unexpected the Calamity, the stronger the warning would be.
On the other hand, if a person was already marked for Destined Fate of Death by the Heavenly Dao, there would be no warning at all.
Pei Qingxuan’s situation was precisely like this.
She was undergoing this tribulation as a continuation of the last Calamity, and it was the Heavenly Dao that had already decreed her Destined Fate of Death.
Thus, she felt not a trace of the Heavenly Warning.
But at this moment, Qi Guan Xuehe could sense an intensely violent Heavenly Warning.
Rather than wait for disaster to strike, it was better to… shatter the Calamity early—there might still be a sliver of hope!
With this in mind, Qi Guan Xuehe didn’t hesitate further. He reached into his robes, pulled out a blood-red gem, and hurled it downward. “Scatter! If any of you survive, return to the Sect and regroup!”
Before the Disciples could react, the blood-red gem fell into the Blood Ocean below.
With a ripple of the tide, the Blood Ocean suddenly shook, and even this world began to collapse with a thunderous roar!
Qi Guan Xuehe seized the moment, flashed, and slipped out through a shattered corner of the Array Formation.
In the next instant, heaven and earth turned upside down!