Chapter 297 - Suppressed Authorities and the Hidden Nail

Chapter 297: Chapter 297 - Suppressed Authorities and the Hidden Nail

The moment Shen Youran lowered her hand, the newly completed Sect-Scale Suppression Formation answered.

There was no great pillar of light and no enormous barrier descending from the heavens. The change came far more quietly than that.

The eight demonic cultivators felt it first.

The spiritual energy surrounding them suddenly became heavy, as though the entire region had turned hostile at once. Their Qi circulation slowed sharply before several pathways were forcibly interrupted, and the connection they normally maintained with the surrounding spiritual energy became distorted.

One of them instinctively activated a movement technique.

"..."

Nothing happened.

His expression changed.

He tried again, this time forcing considerably more Qi into the technique, but the energy barely reached the necessary meridians before the formation disrupted it.

Another demonic cultivator attempted to tear open the surrounding space.

The space distorted faintly around his hand, but whatever authority he normally wielded over it immediately became unstable.

His eyes widened.

The formation had not stripped away everything they had gained from reaching the Void-Shattering Realm. Their bodies remained terrifyingly powerful, their spiritual senses were still far beyond ordinary cultivators, and the instinctive spatial protection surrounding them had not disappeared completely.

But the strength they could actively call upon had been suppressed.

For cultivators accustomed to moving across enormous distances with a thought and shattering mountains with a technique, the sudden restriction was horrifying.

Their first instinct was to leave.

Unfortunately, the path behind them was no longer welcoming.

Thousands of beast projections had not yet faded completely. Although the Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Formation was weakening, enough projections remained to crowd the routes leading away from Radiant Sky Sect.

Beyond those beasts stood the righteous Void-Shattering cultivators.

For the first time since arriving, beads of sweat appeared on several demonic cultivators’ foreheads.

Li Xuanzong noticed.

He still did not rush forward.

The woman from the Glass-Lotus Holy See glanced toward him.

"Are we waiting?"

"For a moment."

Li Xuanzong’s gaze remained fixed on the trapped cultivators.

"This is the first time the larger formation has been activated."

Shen Youran had only just gained control over a formation stretching across the entire territory of Radiant Sky Sect and several miles beyond it.

Even with distributed command nodes assisting her, forcing the network to distinguish between allies, enemies, movement routes, and separate suppression sections would take a little time.

Entering carelessly now could cause the righteous side to be caught by the same restrictions.

Li Xuanzong had no intention of creating that problem.

Behind him, the other righteous experts stayed outside the suppression region and watched.

Their expressions were considerably less calm than his.

The expert from Myriad Swords Sect stared at the eight trapped cultivators.

"They really cannot circulate their Qi properly."

The Scorching Sun Valley cultivator did not answer immediately.

His gaze moved from the trapped enemies toward Radiant Sky Sect itself.

A formation capable of suppressing ordinary cultivators was nothing unusual.

A formation capable of interfering with Void-Shattering cultivators was something else entirely.

Neither of them remembered Radiant Sky Sect possessing anything like this.

The same realization spread through the Nascent Soul visitors gathered near the mortal city.

Several had come hoping to establish friendlier relations with Radiant Sky Sect while the situation surrounding Fallen-Star Sanctuary remained uncertain.

Now they were staring at eight Void-Shattering demonic cultivators whose powers had been forcibly restricted after crossing an invisible boundary.

One elder swallowed.

Another glanced toward the mountains surrounding the mortal city.

A thought that nobody wanted to say aloud passed between several of them.

If Radiant Sky Sect had invited them farther inside with malicious intentions, how many of them would have been able to leave?

The answer was uncomfortable enough that nobody attempted to calculate it.

The reactions of the Myriad Swords Sect and Scorching Sun Valley experts were slightly different.

They exchanged a glance.

Before coming here, both had already discussed what their assistance would mean.

Their sects had never enjoyed particularly warm relations with Radiant Sky Sect. Rivalry had existed for decades, and neither side wanted favors accumulating indefinitely.

Su Bai had helped their younger generation obtain valuable gains inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary.

Helping Radiant Sky Sect during a crisis had seemed like a convenient opportunity to balance that debt.

The Covenant Oaths between the younger generation could remain their own matter.

As far as the sects were concerned, they could leave afterward with a clean account.

That had been the plan.

Neither man said anything now.

The expert from Scorching Sun Valley looked once more at the suppressed Void-Shattering cultivators.

The Myriad Swords Sect expert slowly stroked the hilt of his sword.

After several breaths, their eyes met again.

The previous calculation quietly disappeared.

Perhaps an old rivalry did not need to be taken quite so seriously.

Maintaining decent relations with Radiant Sky Sect suddenly sounded considerably wiser.

Fortunately, neither of them had said anything foolish upon arriving.

Their attention returned to the battlefield before anyone noticed the silent change in attitude.

Shen Youran had finished adjusting the formation.

Her spiritual sense spread through the distributed command network while the suppression regions stabilized one after another.

The eight demonic cultivators felt the pressure around them become more precise.

Their expressions darkened.

It was then that Shen Youran finally moved.

Su Bai had never seen her fight seriously before.

He had expected something cold and efficient.

He had not expected it to be quite this unpleasant.

A faint frost appeared around Shen Youran’s fingertips.

Her hand moved once.

The moisture in the surrounding air crystallized.

Hundreds of slender ice shards formed around her almost immediately, each one so thin that Su Bai barely caught their movement before they vanished from where they had appeared.

The trapped demonic cultivators reacted instantly.

Their cultivation might have been suppressed, but their instincts had not disappeared.

Several twisted aside before the shards reached them.

One lowered his body at the exact moment three streaks of ice crossed above his head.

Another relied on the lingering spatial distortion around his body, causing two shards to deviate slightly before they could touch him.

They were still Void-Shattering cultivators.

Even weakened, they were not helpless.

That distinction lasted only until Shen Youran’s next motion.

She had watched every dodge.

The second wave did not target where the demonic cultivators were standing. It targeted the directions they had chosen to avoid the first.

One man twisted away from a shard aimed at his throat and moved directly into another approaching from behind his shoulder.

The shard pierced his robe.

His expression changed.

The ice did not simply remain embedded. A pale lotus bloomed from the point of impact. Thin crystalline petals spread beneath his skin before several sharp branches erupted outward.

Blood scattered through the air.

The man grunted and tore the frozen structure free, but doing so opened the wound further.

Another demonic cultivator was struck in the thigh.

The same thing happened.

A lotus blossomed inside the wound, forcing him to rip away a section of flesh before the freezing energy could spread farther.

Shen Youran’s expression did not change.

Her next barrage was already forming.

It became immediately obvious why so many people disliked fighting her.

She was not simply fast. She remembered how every opponent moved.

The first attack tested their reactions. The second punished the habits revealed by the first. By the third, she was no longer aiming at bodies.

She was controlling escape routes.

A demonic cultivator avoided two shards and abruptly realized that the remaining openings all led toward the same narrow region.

Shen Youran’s fingers moved.

An ice lotus erupted there before he could reach it.

He stopped himself violently and barely avoided the bloom.

That hesitation allowed another shard to pierce his side.

Everyone watching no longer needed Li Xuanzong to explain why Shen Youran had been given control of the formation.

She did not hesitate. She did not become excited. She did not overcommit because someone was injured.

Every attack simply made the next attack harder to escape.

Lu Canghai watched beside Su Bai and stroked his beard.

"My Disciple, remember this lesson."

Su Bai glanced toward him.

"If Martial Aunt is angry?"

"No. If she looks calm, assume things are already worse."

Su Bai considered that for a moment.

"But Martial Aunt is always calm."

Lu Canghai fell silent.

Meanwhile, the trapped demonic cultivators had little time to think about Shen Youran’s personality.

Li Xuanzong finally raised his hand.

The righteous side attacked from outside the suppression region.

Pale lotus radiance from the Glass-Lotus expert swept across one section. The Zhuge Clan cultivator sent controlled bursts of force toward anyone attempting to gather near another demonic expert, breaking their coordination whenever they tried to regroup.

Myriad Swords Sect and Scorching Sun Valley joined soon afterward.

None entered the suppressed region.

They did not need to.

The eight demonic cultivators found themselves trapped inside a battlefield where their own movement techniques had been crippled while attacks continued arriving from outside.

Their injuries accumulated.

One demonic cultivator blocked a sword strike with his forearm after his Qi failed to reinforce the defensive technique quickly enough.

The blade did not sever the limb.

His Void-Shattering body remained far tougher than ordinary flesh.

It still carved a deep wound across his arm.

Another tried to evade a wave of scorching Yang energy and discovered that his physical speed alone could not reproduce the movement he had relied on his entire life.

The attack struck his shoulder and threw him across the sky.

He stabilized himself without falling, only for an ice shard to arrive where his body stopped.

A pale lotus bloomed across his back.

His roar echoed across the mountains.

The beast projections continued disappearing during the assault.

Jian Wushuang noticed the weakening structure of the Ten-Thousand Beast Dominion Formation and stopped feeding his own Qi into the plate.

Maintaining it any longer would accomplish little.

The demonic cultivators were already where they needed to be.

The remaining Highest-Grade Spirit Stones lost the last of their brilliance.

Cracks spread across the formation plate in Jian Wushuang’s hand.

The beast projections faded one after another until the final enormous silhouette dissolved into spiritual light above the mountains.

The plate broke apart.

Jian Wushuang looked at the fragments for a moment before allowing them to fall from his hand.

The one-use formation had served its purpose.

Inside the suppression field, another ice lotus burst from a demonic cultivator’s shoulder.

He tore it free with a snarl.

His robes were already covered in blood.

Yet Su Bai’s expression slowly changed.

’Something was wrong.’

He looked across all eight demonic cultivators.

They were injured. Their Qi remained suppressed. Their escape routes had disappeared, and the righteous side continued attacking from beyond the formation’s reach.

They should have been desperate.

Instead, after the initial shock faded, Su Bai saw something else in their eyes.

They were watching, measuring, and calculating.

The cultivator connected to Su Bai’s Mark avoided another blade by twisting his body just enough for the attack to scrape across his side.

He glanced toward the mountains beneath them.

Another demonic cultivator did the same.

Su Bai’s unease deepened.

They were looking for something.

One of the wounded cultivators suddenly spoke while avoiding another cluster of Shen Youran’s ice shards.

"Have you found it?"

The question was calm enough to make Su Bai’s unease sharpen.

Another demonic cultivator wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Yes."

Shen Youran’s next barrage forced him several steps sideways, but his expression barely changed.

"It is still too early to show others what we were given."

The first man laughed bitterly.

"At this rate, you can keep it until your corpse rots."

His companion’s eyes darkened.

For a brief moment, nobody on the righteous side understood what they meant.

Su Bai did.

Or at least, he understood enough to know he disliked it.

The wounds covering the demonic cultivators had spilled a considerable amount of blood.

One of them suddenly reached into his storage.

Li Xuanzong’s gaze sharpened.

A dark object appeared in the man’s hand.

It looked like... a nail?

The moment it touched the blood covering his palm, the artifact reacted.

The blood vanished into it.

The nail lengthened.

Strange patterns appeared across its surface, and the surrounding spiritual energy recoiled as though something corrosive had entered the formation.

The wounded demonic cultivator smiled for the first time since the suppression began.

"I found the weak point."

He raised the artifact.

"Let the Formation-Eating Nail handle the rest."

The nail left his hand.

Li Xuanzong attacked immediately.

A metallic blade crossed space and appeared directly in its path.

Woosh!

It should have struck.

Instead, the blade passed through the nail without resistance.

Li Xuanzong’s eyes narrowed.

Shen Youran reacted a heartbeat later.

Ice condensed around the artifact from multiple directions.

But then...

The shards passed through it as well.

The Formation-Eating Nail continued forward.

Its target was one of the suppression nodes hidden within the surrounding terrain.

The expressions of Huo Yan and the nearby formation elders changed at once.

Several senior figures reacted almost immediately, sending different techniques toward the Formation-Eating Nail from multiple directions. Sword light, condensed spiritual force, and elemental attacks all crossed its path, yet every one of them passed straight through without slowing it in the slightest.

The Nail continued toward the hidden suppression node as if nothing in the battlefield could touch it.