Mortal: The Path to Immortality

"You actually possess such a formation? That's incredibly eerie. Once I get out, I'll definitely give you a thorough soul search!"

With a gloomy face, Yu Liancheng raised his hand and unleashed several ghostly claws formed from corpse energy at the silver array light shield.

Starlight swirled across the surface of the protective barrier, silently neutralizing the attacks without even causing a ripple. Now, he was finally certain that this formation was not an illusion, but the genuine "Star-Pulling" ancient formation.

"Hmph! Don't be too smug. You two think you can activate this formation to kill me? Wishful thinking!!" Yu Liancheng glared fiercely at Lu Nanzhu, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

Lu Nanzhu didn't waste any words with him. He immediately took a deep breath and pressed his hands firmly onto the mother array plate in front of him.

As he poured in his magic power, he felt an immense gravitational pull descend upon him, and the spiritual energy within his body was frantically drawn out by the array plate like water bursting its banks.

At the same time, strange phenomena suddenly occurred within the formation. Illusory stars appeared in the air, shooting out countless dazzling streams of light as they attacked Yu Liancheng.

Yu Liancheng pushed off with his feet, his figure turning into a blur as he dodged one after another. Seeing the stream of light becoming increasingly dense, he suddenly summoned a jet-black umbrella-shaped magic weapon.

"Duh!"

The black umbrella opened above his head, and billowing corpse energy surged out, transforming into a thick layer of black mist that protected him.

Immediately afterward, the umbrella ribs trembled, and a solid purple light shield enveloped Yu Liancheng layer by layer. No matter how the flowing light in the formation bombarded it, the light shield only trembled slightly.

"Fortunately, I managed to refine this treasure, otherwise I would have almost perished here." Yu Liancheng stood under the umbrella, calmly with his hands behind his back, no longer using his magic power to resist, letting the array attack wear him down.

Lu Nanzhu's heart sank upon seeing this. He had originally thought that the emergence of the "Star-Pulling Formation" would surely severely damage the powerful enemy, but he never expected that it would be blocked so easily by the other party.

He lamented that his Foundation Establishment cultivation was far too low, while also being horrified by the almost chasm-like difference in power between cultivation levels and formations.

Just as Lu Nanzhu was about to grit his teeth and forcefully increase the power of the formation, a jade hand gently touched the formation's mother plate.

Lu Nanzhu immediately felt the power drawing spiritual energy from his body weaken considerably. Within the formation, the previously scattered streams of light surged in number in an instant, their power increasing several times over!

Xiao Suxin stared intently at the formation, her voice cold and clear, and without turning her head, she said, "I told you to leave this place, why did you come back to die?"

Lu Nanzhu turned his head and saw her fully engaged in operating the formation. He replied, "Since I have received the inheritance from my senior, how can I stand idly by?"

By the moonlight, Lu Nanzhu could vaguely see a faint smile flitting across Xiao Suxin's lips, gone in an instant.

Immediately afterwards, Xiao Suxin threw the seven jade lotus beads on her wrist into the air, protecting the array sub-plate suspended in the air.

She disregarded her own safety and activated the formation with all her might. In an instant, the light within the formation poured down like a torrential downpour. This reckless and frenzied output finally caused Yu Liancheng, who was under the umbrella, to change his expression.

"Xiao Suxin, are you out of your mind?! By forcibly activating the formation like this, even if you kill me, you will damage your own essence and have no hope of reaching the Nascent Soul stage in this life!" Yu Liancheng roared hysterically.

A few dozen breaths later, a crisp sound of tearing cloth was heard, and the jet-black umbrella, along with its light shield, was shattered by the violent starlight.

In his panic, Yu Liancheng hastily summoned several defensive shield artifacts, but they were all easily shattered like paper in the face of the Star-Connecting Array, which was several times stronger.

In desperation, Yu Liancheng launched another fierce attack on the sub-array in the sky. However, the seven jade lotus beads were as solid as a rock, blocking the attacks one by one.

"Give up. I didn't have the strength to protect the array plate before, which allowed you, this villain, to escape. This time... I will avenge you no matter what!!" Xiao Suxin gritted her teeth, her voice filled with determination.

Yu Liancheng was filled with fear and had no choice but to unleash a hexagonal protective array.

While struggling to maintain the defensive formation by channeling his magic power, he also pulled out a blood-red corpse pill from his storage bag and stuffed it into his mouth to replenish his spiritual energy.

Not long after, the dense streams of starlight within the formation suddenly stopped.

Lu Nanzhu was puzzled when he saw an unprecedented look of horror on Yu Liancheng's bloodless face, while Xiao Suxin's pale lips curled into a relieved smile.

Suddenly, the star trails within the formation reversed, transforming into countless golden chains that tightly surrounded Yu Liancheng and his defensive formation.

Yu Liancheng was horrified to discover that the spiritual power within his body was uncontrollably gushing outwards, which was like adding insult to injury for him who was already weak!

With a crack, the defensive formation completely collapsed as its spiritual energy was drained.

However, such a high level of exertion was also considerable for Xiao Suxin. Her body swayed slightly, she closed her eyes, and the transmission of her magical power gradually weakened.

Upon seeing this, Yu Liancheng was overjoyed, his eyes blazing with a desire to survive. He planned to forcefully break through the formation and leave the moment its power waned.

But before he could be happy for long, Lu Nanzhu suddenly realized what was happening.

He exerted his strength suddenly, almost as if he wanted to "drain" himself completely, and took over the magical power supply of the array plate without reservation.

Even with such a large amount of magical power provided by him, the array's power is still less than half of what Xiao Suxin had just provided, but it is still enough to maintain the array's extraction function!

"Boy, don't overestimate yourself! You? Even if you were drained into a dried corpse, you still couldn't trap me!" Yu Liancheng cursed wildly, reaching into his storage bag with his right hand, only to find that the last of his corpse pills had been used up.

The formation, like a millstone, continued to relentlessly drain his remaining magical power.

Yu Liancheng stared coldly at Lu Nanzhu, calculating in his mind that a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator's mana could only last for a few dozen breaths at most.

Just when Yu Liancheng thought Lu Nanzhu was about to collapse from exhaustion, he calmly took out a small white bottle and, right in front of Yu Liancheng, gulped it down.

Yu Liancheng watched as Lu Nanzhu's previously depleted spiritual energy rapidly recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye and defying all logic after he drank the milky-white spiritual liquid.

The restored spiritual energy, by sheer bad luck, just happened to make up for the gaps in the array's extraction!

"You also have ten-thousand-year-old spiritual milk!? Who exactly are you!? Impossible..." Yu Liancheng shook his head, his face full of disbelief.

But then he immediately realized:

"How precious is ten-thousand-year-old spiritual milk? Even if he replenishes his spiritual power, how long can he last with his current cultivation level? Let's wait a little longer, let's wait a little longer."

But to Yu Liancheng's surprise, the Foundation Establishment cultivator opposite him seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of "Ten Thousand Year Spiritual Milk". Whenever his spiritual power was about to run out, he could always take out new spiritual liquid from his storage bag to replenish his spiritual power.

"No...this is impossible! You Foundation Establishment ant!!"

Yu Liancheng rushed towards Lu Nanzhu like a madman, but before he could take two steps, he suddenly staggered and finally collapsed halfway due to the complete exhaustion of his magic power.

At this moment, Yu Liancheng was like a fish on a chopping board, completely at the mercy of others.

Even so, Lu Nanzhu did not dare to relax in the slightest, as he knew how deep the scheming of this old monster who had lived for hundreds of years was.

So he gritted his teeth and continued to maintain the formation, drawing every last bit of magic power from Yu Liancheng's withered body.

Half an hour had passed, and Lu Nanzhu had used up most of the spiritual liquid he carried.

At this moment when their mind was most exhausted and their defenses were slightly lax, the array's extraction power unconsciously weakened.

Suddenly, an unexpected change occurred! Yu Liancheng, who had been lying motionless on the ground, suddenly shot out several long, purplish-black needles from his sleeve without warning.

Those long needles contained the last bit of Yu Liancheng's magic power, and their power was incredibly great. Two of them even pierced through the array barrier.

With a loud "boom," one of the flying needles slammed into Lu Nanzhu's chest, instantly shattering the pseudo-talisman "Panlong Armor" that had been protecting him, and the jade scale armor inside was also completely destroyed.

Lu Nanzhu felt as if he had been struck by a heavy hammer in the chest, and he spat out a mouthful of blood, suffering severe internal injuries.

The other flying needle was even more dangerous, heading straight for Lu Nanzhu's face.

Just as it was about to pierce the target, the flying needle seemed to be suddenly deflected by some invisible force, inexplicably changing direction and crashing into the nearby ground with a "boom," tearing out a hideous, huge chasm.

Lu Nanzhu broke out in a cold sweat. Enduring the excruciating pain, he rolled over and stood up, pressing down hard on the array plate again. He frantically poured in the remaining magic power along with the spiritual liquid, activating the array with all his might.

"How could this be..." In the midst of the formation, Yu Liancheng watched as the final attack inexplicably missed, letting out a desperate murmur before finally closing his eyes and passing away.

As the last vestige of life vanished, the array barrier slowly dissipated into starlight, and the two array plates and the surrounding array flags, having exhausted their energy, gradually decomposed into spiritual energy that drifted into the air.

Within the formation, there was no trace of life.

The sneak attack left Lu Nanzhu feeling a lingering fear. He quickly swallowed several healing pills and gulped down several mouthfuls of spiritual liquid to urgently recover his injuries and magical power.

Once his injuries had stabilized somewhat, he got up and picked up all the incredibly powerful needle-shaped magical artifacts from the ground.

Then, Lu Nanzhu came to Yu Liancheng's corpse and used his magic to take away the storage bag.

Then, with a flick of his finger, several fireballs shot out. Flames erupted, completely incinerating the deeply sinful corpse.

When the firelight faded, only a dull-looking "Soul-Soothing Pearl" remained, already cracked in two.

Just then, the entire site began to shake violently.

At the ravine created by the flying needle, a huge crack is spreading wildly. The foundation of the entire area has become extremely fragile due to the continuous battles, and this place is about to collapse completely.

Lu Nanzhu's expression changed. He looked at Xiao Suxin, who was unconscious beside him, and immediately carried her on his back. He then used his escape technique to flee this dangerous place amidst the crumbling rocks.