Chapter 298 - The Boundary Pillar and the Second Method

Chapter 298: Chapter 298 - The Boundary Pillar and the Second Method

Su Bai stood.

The Formation-Eating Nail was already closing in on the hidden node.

He activated the Dao-Shattering Jade within him.

The familiar pressure twisted almost instantly, and his thoughts accelerated.

Everything suddenly became easier to separate. The path of the Nail, the formation node ahead of it, the failed attacks that had passed through it, and the strange way the artifact interacted with the surrounding spiritual energy all became clearer.

Su Bai stared at it again.

Something was wrong with the way they were trying to stop it.

The Nail was ignoring the attacks because they did not touch the principle it was using to move through the formation.

That thought lingered for only a moment before another followed.

If ordinary attacks could not touch it, perhaps something connected to formations could.

His spiritual sense immediately entered the opened Immortal storage ring.

The newly discovered Boundary Pillars came into view.

Su Bai’s attention settled on one of them.

For some reason, the enormous object no longer looked particularly complicated.

It looked like a very large needle.

He pulled it out.

The Boundary Pillar appeared above Radiant Sky Sect, and several elders instinctively looked up as its massive form emerged into the open air.

Su Bai ignored them.

His spiritual sense wrapped around the Pillar while Qi flowed into its inscriptions. Controlling something this large was nothing like guiding one of his Natal Needles. The weight, resistance, and formation structure were completely different.

But the principle he needed was simple.

It only had to reach one point.

His True Needle Intent settled around his perception.

The enormous Boundary Pillar shifted.

At first, the movement was almost imperceptible, then it accelerated.

The Formation-Eating Nail continued toward the hidden node.

The Boundary Pillar crossed the distance from another direction.

For a brief instant, both objects seemed certain to miss each other.

Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.

The angle changed by the smallest amount.

Finally, the two met.

A violent burst of spiritual light exploded across the sky.

For the first time since leaving its owner’s hand, the Formation-Eating Nail stopped.

Huo Yan stared.

Li Xuanzong’s gaze shifted toward Su Bai.

Even the trapped demonic cultivators looked surprised.

The Nail had finally touched something.

But then, its surface suddenly changed.

Dark patterns spread across the Boundary Pillar.

The Formation-Eating Nail began consuming it.

The outer inscriptions dimmed wherever the strange corrosion passed.

The demonic cultivator who had released the artifact laughed.

His confidence returned instantly.

"Did you think throwing another formation treasure at it would help?"

Su Bai watched calmly.

The corrosion continued spreading.

For several breaths, it looked as though the Boundary Pillar really would be devoured.

It was then that the ancient inscriptions carved into the Pillar lit up.

The light did not resist the Nail directly, it surrounded it.

Layer after layer of sealing patterns awakened across the Boundary Pillar before spreading over the Formation-Eating Nail like a closing net.

The Nail trembled.

Its advance stopped completely.

The dark corrosion still tried to consume the Pillar, but the Pillar’s own sealing structure tightened around it faster than the damage could spread.

The artifact became trapped inside the very object it had attempted to devour.

The smile disappeared from the demonic cultivator’s face.

The others stared.

The Formation-Eating Nail had been given to them specifically because ordinary methods were not supposed to stop it.

Yet a massive pillar had just flown out of Radiant Sky Sect and sealed it in midair.

Su Bai watched the struggling artifact without finding the result particularly strange.

The Boundary Pillar had been made by Immortals.

Expecting an artifact produced in the current world to simply consume it without resistance had always seemed slightly optimistic.

Behind him, Huo Yan finally found his voice.

"Martial Nephew, is that what I think it is?"

Su Bai glanced back and nodded.

"A Sealing Pin, more commonly called as Boundary Pillars."

Huo Yan stared at him.

Su Bai had the distinct feeling that another explanation would eventually be required.

For now, however, the Formation-Eating Nail was no longer moving.

And across the suppression field, the eight demonic cultivators had finally lost some of their confidence.

...

For several breaths, nobody attacked.

The Formation-Eating Nail remained suspended inside the sealing light of the Boundary Pillar, its dark surface repeatedly pulsing as it tried to devour the structure imprisoning it.

The Boundary Pillar did not remain unharmed.

Thin patches of corrosion continued spreading across its outer inscriptions.

Yet every time one layer weakened, another sealing line awakened beneath it.

The two artifacts had entered a strange contest.

One consumed formations.

The other existed to establish and maintain them.

Huo Yan’s exhaustion disappeared completely.

His spiritual sense swept toward the collision point with almost indecent enthusiasm.

"Do not destroy either of them!"

Several people turned toward him.

Huo Yan pointed at the Formation-Eating Nail.

"I want that thing intact."

Lu Canghai looked at him.

"It was about to eat our formation."

"That is precisely why I want it."

Lu Canghai considered the answer and decided there was little point arguing with a formation master.

Inside the suppression region, the demonic cultivator who had released the Nail did not share Huo Yan’s excitement.

His expression had become increasingly ugly.

He formed a hand seal.

The Nail reacted.

The dark patterns covering it brightened, and the rate at which it consumed the Boundary Pillar suddenly increased.

Su Bai felt the change immediately through the spiritual sense he had attached to the Pillar.

The resistance became stronger.

He narrowed his eyes.

The demonic cultivator had not completely lost control of the artifact.

Su Bai increased his own spiritual guidance.

The Boundary Pillar’s inscriptions shifted. Its sealing structure contracted around the Nail.

Neither side gained an immediate advantage.

The trapped demonic cultivator gritted his teeth.

"How can they control that thing?"

Su Bai heard him clearly, but he did not answer.

There was no reason to explain Immortal artifacts to an enemy.

The man’s eyes moved from Radiant Sky Sect toward the Boundary Pillar.

Something in his expression finally changed.

The other demonic cultivators noticed as well.

Their confidence had already been shaken once when the Formation-Eating Nail failed to reach the suppression node.

Now they were beginning to understand that Radiant Sky Sect might possess more unknown objects than they had anticipated.

Li Xuanzong did not give them time to think.

"Continue."

Shen Youran’s fingers moved.

The suppression field tightened.

The eight demonic cultivators immediately felt the difference.

Their already sluggish Qi circulation became even more difficult, and the spiritual energy surrounding them seemed to press against their bodies from every direction.

One man tried to force open another spatial path.

A faint crack appeared, but it lasted less than a breath before the formation crushed the distortion.

His expression hardened.

The passive spatial protection surrounding him remained, but active spatial techniques were becoming nearly impossible.

Shen Youran attacked again.

This time, the ice shards did not approach in a broad wave.

They appeared in carefully spaced clusters around the eight cultivators, each group timed slightly differently from the others.

A demonic cultivator avoided the first. He turned away from the second. The third arrived precisely when his body finished moving.

The shard struck his abdomen, then a lotus bloomed.

The man roared as crystalline branches tore outward from the wound.

He grabbed the frozen structure and ripped it free, taking flesh with it.

Shen Youran had already shifted her attention elsewhere.

Another cultivator attempted to use his spiritual sense to predict the next barrage.

But she already changed the pattern.

Several shards struck the ground and surrounding air rather than the man himself.

For an instant, he thought she had missed.

But then, the ice spread. A thin frozen field formed around him.

His next step slowed by a fraction.

That fraction was enough for Jian Wushuang’s sword light to arrive.

The demonic cultivator twisted desperately.

His passive spatial distortion diverted the edge slightly.

Instead of cutting through his neck, the sword tore across his shoulder.

Blood sprayed into the air.

Su Bai watched carefully.

This was the difference between suppressing a Void-Shattering cultivator and reducing one to a mortal.

They had lost most of their active power.

They had not lost the bodies, instincts, spiritual senses, or spatial characteristics accumulated through their realm.

Even now, killing one cleanly was difficult.

The realization did not disappoint Su Bai.

It made the situation more interesting.

If Void-Shattering cultivators became helpless the moment their Qi was restricted, the realm would not deserve its name.

One of the demonic cultivators seemed to reach the same conclusion from the opposite perspective.

Despite the wounds covering his body, he laughed.

"You cannot kill us quickly enough."

Shen Youran looked toward him without a word, and the man’s laughter died almost immediately.

Her expression had not changed in the slightest, which somehow made the silence that followed feel worse.

A fresh cluster of ice shards began forming around her as Lu Canghai chuckled softly beside Su Bai.

"He really should learn when to remain quiet."

Su Bai nodded.

The demonic cultivator survived the next barrage.

His dignity suffered more than his body.

The righteous experts continued attacking from outside the suppression region.

They had adapted to the formation now, timing their techniques around Shen Youran’s control rather than attempting to overwhelm the trapped enemies independently.

The Zhuge Clan expert was especially troublesome.

Whenever one demonic cultivator tried to move toward another, a carefully directed force altered his trajectory just enough to separate them again.

The Glass-Lotus woman layered pale radiance over sections where demonic Qi gathered most densely, making it even harder for them to force their circulation back into motion.

The Myriad Swords Sect expert sent narrow sword attacks instead of enormous techniques, forcing the demons to spend their limited movement on constant defense.

Scorching Sun Valley followed with concentrated bursts of Yang energy whenever someone became too slow.

Their numerical disadvantage no longer mattered in the same way.

The eight demonic cultivators were trapped inside Shen Youran’s battlefield.

Outside it, the righteous side could choose when and how to attack.

Still, the demonic cultivators refused to collapse.

They had survived too much to panic simply because one artifact failed.

The man controlling the Formation-Eating Nail suddenly stopped trying to overpower the Boundary Pillar.

His expression became cold.

"Leave it."

The artifact went still.

Su Bai frowned.

The demonic cultivator turned toward the others.

"We use the second method."

Li Xuanzong’s gaze sharpened.