Chapter 97: The White Tiger Formation Talisman Reveals Its Might

If she were to say she did not want it, that would be a lie. Yet the danger involved was impossible to estimate, so Ji Yao chose to refuse.

The two of them stood at an impasse for a long while. In the end, Ji Yao traded for Dongfang Shun’s promise of two favors, exchanging it for his help with two matters of her own.

Since Dongfang Shun had an inner knot he could not yet untangle, Ji Yao decided to entrust him with something she had been considering for a long time. With that young tiger protecting him, perhaps the task could be done even more perfectly.

On the second night after they parted, the two of them once again returned to the sealed array at the center of the Enlightened Immortal Secret Realm. Of course, they were wearing concealment talismans.

When Dongfang Shun looked at the smaller breach above the curtain of light, he finally understood, in broad strokes, why Ji Yao had insisted that he come and see it with his own eyes.

This so-called breach was not a random tear at all, but an ever-shifting formation. Though the array was of an extremely high level, he had studied the original diagram before; a few of the crucial nodes could still be made out.

The two of them sank into the ground, set up a protective barrier with an array disc, and concealed their auras as well.

“Your understanding of formations should be no weaker than mine. Since I can see it, I trust you can too,” Ji Yao said with certainty.

Dongfang Shun nodded. “Yes. What do you want me to do?”

Ji Yao drew a crude formation diagram on the ground, then brushed her hands clean and rose to her feet.

“Don’t worry, I won’t put you in a difficult position. If we succeed, this may even earn us a share of merit.” As she spoke, she tapped several spots on the diagram with her foot.

Frowning at the places she indicated, Dongfang Shun’s mind flashed with a possibility. “You’re not planning to mend the heavens, are you?”

Hearing that, and comparing it with the actual positions, Ji Yao could not help but smile.

“Don’t make it sound so dramatic. For us, it may be mending the heavens, but for the people in the trial ground above, we’re only filling a hole.”

Dongfang Shun was amused by her wording as well. Thinking it over, he found it really was exactly so.

“All right. Even if your version is more vivid, what do you plan to use to fill the hole? A heaven-filling divine stone?”

Ji Yao gave him a look that said, just watch. Dongfang Shun said nothing more and studied her movements carefully.

She took out a fresh hide at once, clearly taken from the earlier battlefield, the skin of a third-rank demon beast.

Then she produced a bottle of strangely colored liquid medicine and sprinkled it carefully over the hide.

After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the hide changed before their eyes. The thick, damp pelt gradually became a thin sheet.

“What is that liquid medicine?” Dongfang Shun could not suppress his curiosity and asked.

Ji Yao continued with her work without looking up. “A secret family formula. Forgive me, but I cannot tell you.”

A faint fire-element spiritual energy rose in her palm as she dried the hide. The soft, resilient demon-beast skin slowly turned into a material akin to spirit bamboo paper.

Then Ji Yao formed a hand seal, and a sharp metal spell cut the dried hide into rectangular pieces in a netlike pattern.

Seeing the final state of the hide, Dongfang Shun finally understood. Before entering the secret realm, Ji Yao had given him a stack of talismans. It seemed the immensely powerful talismans had been made exactly like this.

At last, Ji Yao took out the collected beast blood, added some medicinal powder, ground it thoroughly, soaked her talisman brush with it, steadied her wrist, emptied her mind, and let spiritual energy flow out.

A rune that looked simple yet intricate was completed in one flawless breath beneath her hand. Spiritual light flashed and sank into it.

“You look very interested. Here, try your hand.” Ji Yao handed Dongfang Shun several freshly made sheets of talisman paper.

Seeing him take the paper and spread it out, Ji Yao went back to her own work.

By the time she finished drawing the last formation talisman, she realized Dongfang Shun had long since stopped continuing. He was simply staring in a daze at the movements of her hands.

Ji Yao patted him awake, then said, “Don’t overthink it. The talismans I draw are not merely a matter of different paper. It also depends on technique and the flow of spiritual energy. Without the proper method, success is impossible.”

“You should get to work.” Ji Yao was the first to appear on the surface, and Dongfang Shun followed after her.

The six demon beasts inside the curtain of light saw humans appear and roared as if they were about to surge forward.

That familiar tiger’s roar rang out again, and the six demon beasts instantly became obedient. They lay back down on the ground in silence and stopped moving.

Ji Yao looked at the little tiger cradled in Dongfang Shun’s arms and faintly felt something akin to envy.

Both had a “divine” in their name, both were in their infant stage, yet the difference was so vast. Her own sacred tree did not even possess half the majesty of that one, nor half its docility and charm.

“Should we work together to deal with them first, or will you handle it alone?” Ji Yao asked Dongfang Shun, pointing at the six beasts inside the curtain of light.

Dongfang Shun spread his hands toward her, his voice cold. “No need. Give me the talismans, and we’ll act separately.”

Ji Yao shrugged and said nothing more, simply slapping three formation talismans into his hand. He had a tiger at his back; what was a mere third-rank demon beast worth?

“Get ready. Once the passage opens, you go in. The route can only last for the time it takes to burn one stick of incense. You must come out within that time, or even I won’t be able to pull you back out.”

Dongfang Shun gave a slight nod. Ji Yao then affixed a formation talisman to the curtain of light, her fingers constantly forming seals. The place where the talisman rested slowly stretched out, forming a passage.

Dongfang Shun needed no urging from Ji Yao. He flashed forward and entered the curtain of light. The small variegated white tiger dropped to the ground at his feet, then with a few leaps had stomped over all six of the third-rank demon beasts inside.

Ji Yao no longer paid attention to Dongfang Shun. She used her remarkable footwork to step onto the curtain of light, fly to the very top, and flick a talisman into the position she had long since chosen.

Then, skimming lightly along the curtain, she shifted to the next spot and affixed another formation talisman. She repeated this move nine times before dropping back to the ground.

Inside the curtain of light, Dongfang Shun had also finished placing the last talisman. With a flash, he came out through the passage.

As soon as he emerged, the passage upheld by the formation talismans closed at once. The talismans stuck to it ignited without any wind to feed them, burning to ash.

The six demon beasts inside the curtain were already gone without a trace. Only a pool of blood remained on the ground to prove they had once existed. As for where the corpses had gone, Ji Yao did not need to think twice.

On the low dome of the curtain of light, twelve formation talismans shimmered brilliantly. Gradually they linked into a single line, and light flowed across the dome. The place where the breach had been changed once more, and the gap slowly began to shrink.

“All right, let’s go.” What needed to be done had been done. Ji Yao no longer felt any need to wait for the outcome. She turned and left.

Dongfang Shun glanced at her, then followed in silence. The farther the two walked, the smaller the breach behind them became, like a fishing net slowly being drawn in.

“Hey! Have you heard? The problem in the Enlightened Immortal Secret Realm seems to have been solved!”

Outside the valley where the Rising Cloud Secret Realm was located, a crowd of cultivators had gathered, including both sect disciples and wandering cultivators.

“What of it? Haven’t you heard yet? A disciple of the Lofty Cloud Sect contracted a divine beast, a white tiger!”

“A divine beast? You’re really bragging now. How could a divine beast possibly appear in the cultivation world? You make it sound as if you saw one yourself!”

One day earlier, the Enlightened Immortal Secret Realm had closed, and all the surviving cultivators were teleported out. Thus all manner of rumors began spreading wildly among the cultivators.