บท 204: Burning Lotus Tribe
Bang!
Yaan stabbed forwards with the abyssal blood sword, piercing into a certain burning lotus on the surface of the formation as it expanded and reached its maximum size. His timing needed to be perfect here, because if he was even one hundredth of a second out of sync, then his attack would fail to break through and he would receive a heavy backlash from the formation.
Boom!
The moment the sword's tip pierced into the lotus, it collapsed in on itself, then exploded in a fiery ball, engulfing Yaan within. The Bloody Totem Tribe Elders paled and hurriedly flew back, anxiously staring into the ball of flames, uncertain about whether or not Elder Red would be ok.
Since Yaan never provided anyone in the Bloody Totem Tribe with his name or any sort of title to address him with, they decided to just call him Elder Red, on account of his red robe. Whilst this was quite a simplistic naming sense, it was also quite fitting, since this red robe was very eye catching, compared to the usual tribal style furs worn by most people in this region.
After the ball of flames burned itself into exhaustion, Yaan's small figure was revealed within the smoke. The elders hoped that he wouldn't be too badly injured, but it was beyond their expectations that he would emerge from the explosion completely unharmed!
As the smoke cleared away, a small opening was revealed within the formation. This opening was like a thin split within the centre of a single lotus, whilst the lotus itself was currently shrinking, rapidly restoring the damage and mending the hole.
Yaan attacked with five more strikes, cutting through the lotus diagonally across its flaming petals. The previously thin opening immediately exploded open. The lotus completed detonated, creating an explosion multiple times more powerful than the one from before!
The elders were forced to retreat and defend themselves. By the time they recovered and could see through the wreckage, they realised that Elder Red had already entered the Burning Lotus Tribe!
They could not be sure if he had endured that explosion head on, or if he simply recovered faster than the rest of them, entering swiftly and without hesitation. Regardless, his abilities were clearly extremely profound and formidable…
Rather than his outright strength though, his ability to quickly see through the flaws in a formation to target its weakness was much more terrifying! It should be known that in the War Flower Empire, almost all tribes were protected from the outside world by formations like this…anyone who was able to so easily break through a tribe protecting formation, would be feared by any and every tribe!
It was only natural that Yaan specialised in this aspect of formations though. Back in the Southern Continent, half of his motivation for delving into the art of formations stemmed from his desire to unravel the mysteries of the Fragment Sect's core sect formation in order to escape from the Fragment of Qi. Back then, he spent long periods of time arduously studying large scale formations, learning how to inspect, unravel and dismantle them.
In the end, his efforts did not pay off in the Southern Continent, but Yaan now felt glad that he had spent so much time on this. It seemed that on the Blood Plane, understanding how to attack a tribe protecting formation was an essential skill.
The Burning Lotus Tribe's formation was truly formidable. Even after breaking through the formation and entering the tribe, Yaan still failed to dismantle the offensive capabilities of the formation entirely.
Burning lotuses formed from the formation and shot down towards Yaan and the other elders as they entered. However, these lotuses were significantly weakened compared to their original power, it was not a problem for the elders to defend against this barrage of attacks.
Yaan stood ahead of the rest, and although he did not make any movements to evade, strangely, not one of the burning lotuses landed on him.
The other elders arranged themselves into a battle formation, with those stationed on the outside focussing on defending everyone else, leaving those on the inside to deal with the rapidly approaching Burning Lotus Tribe Elders.
After practising his manipulation of the dao of illusions in the Elixir Sky Tower for 100 days, Yaan came to better understand his own abilities. He was now able to make proper use of this power which he had gained so abruptly, to the extent that when the Burning Lotus Tribe Elders arrived, they were completely unable to sense his presence!
Indeed, the area that illusions excelled in more than anything else…was concealment and distortion!
These 4-Star Realm warriors were completely unable to detect him now that Yaan was actively hiding himself. In fact, it wasn't only the Burning Lotus Tribe Elders who couldn't locate him, even the formation completely overlooked him!
The Bloody Totem Tribe Elders felt completely bewildered when their enemies ignored Yaan, rushing straight past him and towards their group. It was at this moment that they realised that Yaan had hidden himself, both from the enemy elders and from this tribe's formation!
The following scene caused the Bloody Totem Tribe Elders to shiver. Even though 'Elder Red' was on their side, his methods made them feel chills.
Yaan turned around, raising the abyssal blood sword above his head, then slashed out multiple times in rapid succession. He had not yet perfected his practise over concealing his presence, so when he acted, the Burning Lotus Tribe Elders sensed that something was wrong. Regardless, they still couldn't locate Yaan's position, they only felt an extreme sense of crisis as their instincts told them that they were in grave danger!
Some tried to dodge, but it was useless. They were moving blindly, not knowing where the attack was coming from, or even what was going to strike them!
Chi Chi Chi…
Sharp sounds whistled out as heads rolled and cores were torn out from their bodies. Yaan acted quickly, killing his enemies and stealing their cores before the abyssal blood sword's effect caused their corpses to wither away.
Yaan still did not understand how or why the abyssal blood sword caused the bodies of its felled victims to shrivel up and lose all vitality. He had attempted to study this sword for a brief period of time, but gave up quickly after realising that he couldn't see through the first thing about this sword. All he could see was its demonic aura, everything else was obscured from his investigation.
Before long, the group of Burning Lotus Tribe Elders who arrived here were defeated. Yaan saw three more approaching, but after they witnessed their fellow tribesmen being slaughtered like cattle, they turned pale and quickly retreated.
After seeing the huge group of Bloody Totem Tribe Elders, they realised that they were completely outmatched.
It seemed that those in the Burning Lotus Tribe had grown accustomed to serving below others and valuing their survival above all else. They did not possess the honour and pride of the Aztecs in the Rising Sun Tribe. They quickly attempted to flee, all three of them rushing in different directions.
Yaan took a step and chased after one individual, killing him shortly before turning and heading towards the second elder.
The woman glanced back fearfully as cold sweat drenched her back. Her beautiful face was covered in horror as she felt the approach of death, but even now, she was still unable to see just what it was that was aiming for her life.
CHI!
As Yaan killed the woman and tore the Vital Core from her body, he glanced across the battlefield, towards the last fleeing elder. The Bloody Totem Tribe Leader and the other elders had chased after the remaining old man, corning him and launching their attacks as they continued to defend against the Burning Lotus Tribe's formation.
Yaan saw that the elders had things under control and looked away. For now, he did not bother seeking out the other 4-Star Realm tribe elders, despite knowing that there were at least another dozen remaining.
Instead, he stared up at the formation, analysing it from the inside.
Tribe protecting formations were generally designed to battle invaders outside of the tribe, they were not optimised for attacking and defending against those who had already broken into the tribe. This formation was no different, and from the inside, it was also easier to study its hidden mysteries.
Yaan flew across the tribe quietly, locating various points across the lands where certain valuable materials were hidden - these were the formation components. He was able to locate the various components keeping this formation together, but until Yaan had properly deduced the structure of the formation's design, he could not damage or remove these components, since they were protected by the overall formation matrix.
If it was so easy to destroy or dismantle a formation, the formation would be useless, it would not make a good defensive measure.
Whilst a formation was being built, the internal design was easy to see. The various components were placed in set locations, and the links were formed between each of these components.
However, once the formation was activated, the structural design would usually vanish completely. A complete formation was much more than the sum of its individual components, it was an intricate structure which transformed into a singular entity, rather than remaining as a series of components and connections.
It was difficult to locate the individual components within an active formation, but even if the components were found, they could not be destroyed or removed. Attempting to do so would result in failure when the complete formation was still active.
Only by finding the formation's flaws could it be dismantled and deactivated easily.
After Yaan located the 125 core components across the tribe, he understood the majority of the formation's structure. With this, he was able to target its flaws.
Without hesitation, he attacked a certain burning lotus right as it expanded from its origin point, which was one of the most crucial formation components.
BANG!
He only attacked the lotus casually, but as soon as he did so, the entire formation shuddered. Yaan moved quickly, then proceeded to attack another four crucial components, immediately causing the entire formation across the tribe to freeze.
Yaan's eyes lit up as he saw an opportunity. He originally planned to completely take down this formation, since it was continuously attacking all outsiders, making it impossible to gain control over the Burning Lotus Tribe. When the weaker Bloody Totem Tribesmen arrived to stabilise the situation, they would not be able to endure under the formation's assault.
However, after Yaan attacked five of the formation's flaws, the formation did not immediately break down, but simply froze in place. He had not removed the resources, but he did dislodge them slightly, moving them aside from their correct positions.
This formation was extremely stable. It was designed such that movements like this would not result in its total collapse. Of course, any alteration to the proper structure of a formation would affect its functionality, and now, the formation had completely frozen.
Without hesitating, Yaan flew across the tribe, then stopped beside a certain component. Before, he was unable to target this component, but now, it was exposed to the world.
Yaan could feel that a certain energy was contained within this component, and he realised that this was probably the stored energy of the formation's creator! That person had long since died, but after they set up the formation, their energy remained within its core. The formation could not be controlled by any of the living Burning Lotus Tribesmen, but continued to operate under the deceased creator's will.
That person was now dead, they could not defend against Yaan's attack. Yaan easily displaced the energy, replacing it with his own Vital Qi. Yaan's Vital Qi quickly seeped into the formation, but then it abruptly stopped.
After Yaan moved the dislodged components back into their original positions, then reformed the connections using his own formation water, the formation restarted and returned to normal, only now, Yaan possessed complete control over its operation.
"The art of formations is truly interesting." Yaan's eyes shone, feeling like his grasp over formations had once again grown deeper.
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