Chapter 395: Demonic Qi
"We will know when we know." Yu Nianzhen said and then pointed to the bottom of the lake.
"Formation master Ma is about to do it." He continued.
"Should we retreat a few hundred metres?" Xuan Ke questioned.
"The previous incident didn’t affect the lake’s shore..." Jiang Yue stated but a trace of uncertainty flashed in his eyes.
Although the previous attempt didn’t affect the shore, there was no guarantee about other attempts.
"Let’s watch from my sword world." Yu Nianzhen offered.
"Will you be okay?" Jiang Yue couldn’t help but worry.
Yu Nianzhen’s sword world couldn’t be broken no matter what.
However, his endurance was not infinite.
If a powerful force continuously impacted the sword world, Yu Nianzhen would run out of strength and have no choice but to recall the sword world.
"Don’t worry." Yu Nianzhen reassured.
Now that he was at the peak of the core formation realm, he could maintain his sword world for more than half a day.
If nothing extraordinary happened, he, Jiang Yue, and Xuan Ke would be safe in the sword world.
"Okay." Jiang Yue agreed and Yu Nianzhen took them into the sword world.
"Your sword world is more stable than before." Xuan Ke said in admiration.
"My Azhen is so talented. How can his sword world be unstable?" Jiang Yue asked with overflowing pride in his voice.
’I shouldn’t have said anything.’ Xuan Ke regretted.
In the months they were apart, he somehow managed to forget how annoying the two could be.
Now that he was back in their presence, he was simultaneously happy and annoyed.
’It’s true that you can’t have both the fish and bear’s paw.’ He thought and sighed in resignation.
After that, the three focused on formation master Ma who had already asked his followers to attack the formation’s nodes.
A moment later, the attacks landed on the formation nodes and a deafening crack resounded in the surrounding one square kilometre.
"It’s broken." Formation master Ma laughed happily.
"What did I say? The formation isn’t as complicated as the other formation masters are trying to make it." He continued then turned to Ning Ling and finally to Huangfu Yan.
"Idiot." Jiang Yue muttered.
At the same time, formation master Ning shook her head while Huangfu Yan glared at the person coldly.
"The formation is broken and the tomb is about to open." Someone suddenly shouted and everyone seemed to wake up.
Dozens of cultivators jumped into the lake pit and rushed to the tomb entrance.
"What are you?" Formation master Ma roared angrily.
When he asked people to help him attack the formation, only a few cultivators volunteered.
Now that the formation was broken, dozens of them wanted to take advantage but there was no door!
"Kill them quickly. Don’t let them take advantage." He ordered his followers.
However, he didn’t need to order because his followers had already begun to take action.
After all, they couldn’t allow others to take advantage of them.
As the two groups were fighting, a loud shriek filled the air.
"What’s that?" Someone asked with unconcealable horror in his voice.
"Tentacles? Black tentacles?" Another observed.
When everyone looked, they saw black tentacles flowing out of the tomb entrance.
Because of the previous shriek, those who were fighting also noticed the tentacles.
In horror, they retreated from the tomb entrance and some flew up, planning to return to the top.
However, the black tentacles did not give them a chance.
Faster than any of them could escape, the black tentacles entangled them all and a horrifying scene played out in front of everyone.
Seeing the scene, everyone fell silent until someone spoke about ten breaths later.
"Was that an octopus?" The person asked.
"What kind of octopus can annihilate more than two dozen core formation realm cultivators in less than a breath?"
Inside the sword world, Jiang Yue, Yu Nianzhen, and Xuan Ke were also horrified.
"Why do I feel that..." Xuan Ke started and frowned without finishing his thoughts.
As soon as the black tentacles touched the cultivators, their bodies began to disintegrate and then turned into black smoke.
After that, the black smoke clung to the tentacles and retreated into the tomb.
"It’s demonic qi." Yu Nianzhen said with a solemn expression.
When they were in the Nine Treasures secret realm, they happened to see a wasteland covered with demonic qi.
Thinking about it now, Yu Nianzhen felt that the black tentacles and smoke were made of demonic qi.
"I also think so." Xuan Ke agreed.
"Does the tomb belong to a demon cultivator or is it a sealing place of demonic qi?" Jiang Yue wondered.
Unfortunately, no one could answer his question.
"The appearance of demonic qi proves that the tomb is ancient." Yu Nianzhen said as he took back his sword world.
"Mmmm." Jiang Yue nodded in agreement.
The demon clan had disappeared from the Cangxing world more than one hundred thousand years ago.
In that case, a demon clan-related tomb could be traced back to before the disappearance of the demon clan and the world’s top experts.
"A demon clan tomb is troublesome." Xuan Ke suddenly said and the other two agreed.
Even if the tomb formation was truly broken, no one could survive in a place filled with demonic qi.
Fortunately, another person had arrived at the same conclusion and a voice resounded in the surroundings.
"For the time being, formation masters can only study the formation. No one is allowed to try breaking it." Murong Feng said and looked around to make his point.
"Demonic qi is toxic to all cultivators except the demon clan. Not even the evil cultivators will dare to mess around." Xuan Ke whispered.
"That’s the rational assumption. However, there are always a few irrational and self-righteous people. It’s best to take precautions." Yu Nianzhen countered and the other two nodded.
Unexpectedly, Murong Feng also heard Yu Nianzhen’s words and he looked at the person appreciatively.
"This junior makes a good point." He said while looking at the group of three.
"Junior, what precautions should be taken?"
"Formation and guards." Yu Nianzhen answered simply.
"You mean to arrange a formation around the lake?"
"That’s my meaning."
"Let everyone retreat one kilometre away." An old voice sounded.
"Abbot Si." Murong Feng greeted and an old monk appeared in front of everyone.
"We cannot make any mistakes and release demonic qi into the world." The monk said and several people gasped.
Aside from the higher realm cultivators, most others hadn’t realised that the black tentacles were demonic qi.
Now that they did, they couldn’t help but be terrified.
Although the demon clan had disappeared a long time ago, all cultivators had an instinctual fear towards the clan.
After all, demonic qi was fatal to all cultivators.
"Can an isolation formation isolate the demonic qi?" Abbot Si questioned Huangfu Yan.
When she heard the question, Huangfu Yan didn’t answer right away.
Instead, she frowned and tried to recall everything she knew about demonic qi.
However, she still couldn’t make up her mind even after many moments of consideration.
"It should but I can’t be sure." She finally said.
"What does formation master Jiang think?" Murong Feng asked and everyone turned to Jiang Yue.
"Same as formation master Huangfu, I am not sure. However, I think it depends on the source of the demonic qi."
"Source?" Murong Feng asked and most others looked at Jiang Yue in confusion.
"If the source is naturally existing demonic qi, an isolation formation should work. However, if the source is a high realm demon clan or treasure, whether we can isolate it depends on the level of formation we can arrange."
Hearing that, everyone had an idea but the Abbot still turned to Huangfu Yan for confirmation.
"Junior Jiang is right." She said.
Although she disliked Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen, she couldn’t speak against her conscience just to spite them.
"Before anything, we will entrust several formation masters to arrange a fifth-level isolation master." Abbot Si suggested and Murong Feng nodded.
At this time, other nascent soul realm cultivators had also approached to take part in the discussion.
After all, they didn’t want to be left out and lose the chance to gain more benefits.
"This matter should be left to fifth-level formation masters." A middle-aged man suggested.
"Formation master Gui has arrived." The abbot said and smiled.
Gui Xiong was the formation master of the Ice Palace sect.
As allied forces, Abbot Si was naturally happy to see Gui Xiong.
"It’s only natural to let the fifth-level formation masters handle it." A nascent soul realm ancestor agreed.
"It’s said that junior Jiang is a fifth-level formation master but why haven’t I ever heard of it?" Gui Xiong sneered as he looked at Jiang Yue.
When he heard that, Jiang Yue sighed.
’Am I being targeted?’ He thought and his eyes turned cold.
Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t insist on getting involved.
However, he and Yu Nianzhen were still disciples of the Sea Cloud sect and he had to win a place for the sect.
