The subsequent joint practice sessions proceeded without a hitch.

Although Qiu Ruoli was seething with barely contained rage, she had no choice but to swallow her pride. As time passed, the group’s coordination sharpened, and their grasp of the grand formation deepened.

Shen Xian was in high spirits.

He hadn’t just secured a high-grade True Spirit Treasure for free; he had effectively neutralized the others. After the recent standoff, no one dared to find trouble with him.

It was a perfect double victory.

The group of thirty took three days to meditate and adjust their conditions to their peak.

When the time came, they immediately set out toward the depths of the Spirit Medicine Garden. The remaining Sect disciples stayed behind, guarding the entrance to ensure no opportunists tried to sneak in and fish in troubled waters.

The moment they stepped into the Spirit Medicine Garden, a wave of Spiritual Qi, so dense it felt almost solid, washed over them. Mixed with a faint, refreshing medicinal fragrance, it was an instant tonic for the soul.

However, beneath this veneer of tranquility, hidden dangers lurked in every shadow.

The surrounding spirit herbs had long since withered. In their place, veins of violet-black demonic patterns crawled across the ground like festering spiderwebs, radiating a heart-palpitating, baleful aura.

In the distance, several shattered bronze pillars jutted from the earth at distinct angles. The massive chains wrapped around them were corroded by rust and time, silent monuments to the brutality of some ancient, forgotten war.

“Careful,” Lei Yingjie warned, his voice low and tight. “The baleful aura here is oppressive. One slip and it will erode your mind.”

Everyone immediately circulated their Spiritual Power, enveloping themselves in protective light as they advanced with heightened caution.

As they ventured deeper, the Spiritual Qi grew even richer, condensing into a low-hanging mist that swirled around their ankles.

“We’re close,” Lei Yingjie muttered, his gaze sharpening.

Rounding a ruined medicinal plot, the group finally laid eyes on their prize.

A pool of Spirit Milk, five zhang in radius.

The liquid was clear as a mirror, its surface shimmering with a soft, milky-white luminescence. Merely inhaling the drifting vapors caused their pores to dilate and their cultivation bases to buzz with activity, as if long-held bottlenecks were loosening.

However, reality quickly dampened their excitement.

More than half the pool had been tainted by encroaching demonic energy. Of the remaining uncontaminated half, the portion that was actually pure enough to harvest was pitifully small.

“Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Milk!” someone gasped, unable to contain their greed.

But before they could celebrate, a suffocating Pressure descended from the heavens.

ROAR—!

A heaven-shaking bellow shattered the silence. From the shadows behind the pool, a colossal silhouette slowly rose.

Its body was sculpted from violet crystal, and jagged bone wings erupted from its spine. A ferocious flood dragon head loomed over them, a pair of scarlet vertical pupils staring down with freezing indifference.

The guardian of the garden. The Mystic Nether Demon Flood Dragon.

A Rank 7 Demon Beast.

It possessed the power to assume human form, yet this creature clearly disdained humanity, preferring the raw terror of its primal body.

The cultivators who were seeing this beast for the first time felt their hearts tremble. The pressure radiating from it was far more terrifying than the intelligence reports had suggested.

Even Shen Xian’s expression turned grave.

However, something else caught his attention. The guidance from the Xuan Turtle in his possession wasn’t pointing at the Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Milk.

Is there a path behind the pool?

Shen Xian narrowed his eyes, peering past the coiled behemoth.

Sure enough, behind the massive boulder where the Demon Flood Dragon had been resting, a fissure was barely visible beneath a curtain of vines. It pulsed with a weak, rhythmic spatial fluctuation.

Another treasure site?

Shen Xian cast a subtle, sweeping glance at Lei Yingjie and the other so-called prodigies.

It suddenly made sense. These people weren’t just here for the Spirit Milk. Their true target was the hidden zone behind it.

But… why fight?

Why not lure the Rank 7 beast away and slip inside?

Unless… there was a specific reason they had to kill this monster first.

He looked back at the beast. The Mystic Nether Demon Flood Dragon slithered forward, its violet crystal scales grinding together with the sound of metal on stone, sparking blinding flashes of blood-red light.

Every inch it moved caused the earth to shudder. The very space around it seemed to warp under its immense Pressure.

“Prepare the formation!” Lei Yingjie barked.

No one dared to hesitate. They scattered instantly, taking up their practiced positions.

ROAR—!

Sensing their hostility, the Mystic Nether Demon Flood Dragon snapped its bone wings open. A violent storm of blood-colored light swept across the clearing!

War was instant.

“Engage!”

At Lei Yingjie’s command, thirty Golden Core cultivators formed hand seals in unison.

The formation diagram unfurled, dimming the sky and earth. Thirty pillars of spiritual light erupted, weaving together in the air to form a thunderous net that blotted out the sun.

“Nine Heavens Thunder Tribulation… Fall!”

BOOM—!

The nine cultivators at the Heavenly Position nodes channeled their power simultaneously. Enduring the backlash tearing at their meridians, they triggered the divine thunder.

The first bolt of purple lightning crashed down, hammering the dragon’s spine. Several crystal scales shattered, exploding into dust.

The beast roared in pain. Its bone wings flapped wildly, blood-light surging between the cracks in its armor.

The power of this Rank 4 Grand Formation was far beyond expectations. Even a Rank 7 Demon Beast was caught off guard.

“Continue! Do not stop!” Lei Yingjie waved his formation flag, sweat beading on his forehead.

The second and third waves of lightning bombarded the creature.

The Demon Flood Dragon was beaten back, scorch marks marring its beautiful violet crystal body.

Seeing this, the morale within the formation soared.

“It’s working!”

The terror they had felt moments ago evaporated, replaced by a surge of confidence.

But then—

ROAR—!

The Mystic Nether Demon Flood Dragon threw its head back and let out a long, piercing howl. Its scarlet pupils blazed with manic ferocity.

It wrenched its bloody maw open.

A terrifying dual-breath attack spewed forth.

To the left, a torrent of scorching fire turned the ground into bubbling lava. To the right, a cone of absolute zero froze the air into razor-sharp ice spikes.

Ice and fire intertwined, creating a death zone a hundred zhang wide!

Shen Xing reacted instantly. His figure blurred, retreating to a safe distance. Hands flying through seals, nine golden sword shadows materialized before him, shredding the incoming ice spikes into powder.

Qiu Ruoli was not to be outdone.

With a graceful lift of her jade-like hand, seven white lotuses bloomed around her, expanding into a flowing barrier of light that intercepted the rain of fire.

Sizzle—

The lotuses met the flames, evaporating them with a sharp hiss.

The other prodigies scrambled to deploy their own defensive arts.

“Heavenly Position, full power!” Lei Yingjie screamed. “Earthly Position, stabilize!”

The eighteen Golden Core cultivators at the Earthly Position nodes grit their teeth. They poured their essence into the array, summoning countless black vines from the earth to bind the colossal beast, restricting its rampage.

Rumble…

Lei Yingjie and the two other leaders channeled their thunder techniques. The formation spun again, pouring down purple lightning like a torrential rainstorm.

The dragon screamed as scales were ripped from its flesh.

The cultivators let out a collective breath of relief. They had it on the ropes.

Or so they thought.

The Mystic Nether Demon Flood Dragon suddenly went berserk.

Its bone wings extended fully, spanning thirty zhang, casting a massive shadow over the group.

A shockwave of blood-colored light exploded outward like a tidal wave. The Heavenly Position nodes took the direct hit.

After sustained injuries, the Rank 7 beast had been thoroughly enraged. A terrifying power brewed within its core, stirring up an earth-shaking momentum.

Pfft—!

A scion from a prominent clan guarding a Heavenly Position node coughed up a mouthful of blood, his protective Dharma Treasure shattering into dust.

He was flung backward like a kite with a snapped string, smashing into a stone wall a hundred zhang away with a sickening crunch.

“Brother Li!”

Another prodigy screamed, eyes bulging with fury, but the nightmare was just beginning.

The dragon’s massive tail swept horizontally. The ground cracked inch by inch.

The violent kinetic force blew five cultivators from the Earthly Position nodes off their feet.

“Ahhh—!”

Screams pierced the air. The grand formation descended into chaos.

The formation patterns flickered wildly, teetering on the brink of collapse.

“Stabilize! Hold the formation!”

Lei Yingjie shouted until his voice cracked, hairline fractures appearing on the shaft of his formation flag.

He desperately channeled Spiritual Power, trying to knit the array back together.

But the Mystic Nether Demon Flood Dragon wasn’t giving them a second chance.

Its scarlet pupils locked onto the disorganized group. Its bone wings spread wide once more, and deep within its throat, the devastating cocktail of ice and fire began to glow…