Chapter 155: Quasi-Fourth-Grade Grand Formation
"You think I'd believe that?"
General Golden Claw eyes radiated killing intent. At this point, he could already guess that his foolish son had been used by the other party as a pawn.
"General, I am Lord Chisha's consort!" Realizing the murderous gleam in General Golden Claw gaze, Master Xuanshui cried out urgently.
Hearing the name "Chisha," the killing intent in General Golden Claw eyes lessened slightly. Among the great demons, Chisha's name was far more well-known than his.
That old she-demon had lived for nearly a thousand years, and her strength had long reached the pinnacle of the great demon class. Rumor had it that even when facing a Demon King, Chisha could hold her own for a couple of exchanges.
Many great demons believed that Chisha was the most likely candidate to become the next Demon King. For demon beasts to grow stronger, two factors were essential: bloodline and innate talent.
Chisha's true form was a mutated sand scorpion. Normally, sand scorpions were desert-dwelling demon beasts, but Chisha was an anomaly—her element was water.
This kind of mutated demon beast had a bloodline that was difficult to categorize. But in general, such mutations would push a creature's bloodline beyond its original species' limits. Therefore, theoretically, Chisha had the potential to ascend to Tier 4 and become a Demon King.
As for talent and comprehension—after living for a millennium, even someone dim-witted would have figured out a lot by now.
Faced with a being who could become a Demon King at any moment, General Golden Claw wasn't inclined to provoke her. Of course, Xuanshui was just one of Chisha's many playthings—killing him probably wouldn't incite her to an all-out battle.
But Golden Claw wasn't willing to take that gamble.
Having recently gained a fortuitous encounter, his potential hadn't yet been fully tapped. Given time, his strength could still improve. Once he reached the peak of Tier 3 as a great demon, and if Chisha still hadn't become a Demon King by then, he'd have no reason to fear her.
Whew...
Feeling the suppressive force around him begin to lift, Master Xuanshui let out a long breath of relief. All his painstaking efforts to please Lord Chisha had paid off. With her backing, even the powerful great demons wouldn't dare act recklessly against him.
That's why he had to go all out for Chisha's millennial birthday celebration this time.
"Argh!"
Yet before he could fully relax, a wave of searing pain shot through his arm—General Golden Claw had severed it in one clean strike.
Golden Claw may have hesitated to kill him for fear of offending Chisha, but he wouldn't allow his dignity to be trampled. Taking an arm was his way of issuing punishment.
In the future, when his strength was enough to rival that old she-demon Chisha, then he could simply kill Xuanshui outright.
"Scram!"
Without giving Master Xuanshui any further chance to scream in pain, Golden Claw flung him away like trash.
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Xuanshui fled the Giant Crab Archipelago in utter disgrace. Staring at his missing arm, his expression turned viciously dark. As a half-demon at the Core Formation level, regenerating a severed limb wasn't difficult—but it would take time.
He was well aware that the reason Lord Chisha favored him wasn't because of his strength, but because of his humanoid appearance.
Now that his form was damaged, it was like a beauty's face being disfigured. While he could recover his appearance in time, until then, he was bound to be neglected.
That Lord Chisha had a particular obsession with sea demons possessing human forms. She had even pursued a Tier 4 Demon King once, simply because such a being could perfectly transform into a human. Unfortunately, Demon Kings had standards—they wouldn't be interested in a mutant like Chisha.
So, she scoured the seas in search of humanoid sea demons to keep by her side. Xuanshui was only selected because he was a half-demon who happened to look human.
As such, he took great care of his body. Now that it had been marred, Xuanshui was furious.
But rage aside, confronting General Golden Claw was out of the question. Even if he had a hundred lives, he wouldn't dare. Nor did he dare report the incident to Chisha. After all, General Golden Claw was a top-tier great demon. Though he wasn't Chisha's equal, he was a regional overlord in his own right.
If he went berserk, even Chisha would have a hard time dealing with him. If Xuanshui brought trouble to her doorstep, she wouldn't hesitate to crush him like an ant.
Xuanshui had always been keenly aware of his place. As long as he kept pleasing Lord Chisha, he would have everything he needed.
But with his precious body damaged, he would likely be neglected for a while—and the other concubines would surely seize the chance to climb the ranks.
There was no exaggeration in saying that General Golden Claw had crippled his future. If Xuanshui didn't vent this hatred, his inner cultivation would be affected.
Suddenly, an idea came to him—a way to strike back at Golden Claw. Now that the general knew who had killed his son, he was surely preparing for revenge.
Xuanshui could preemptively leak some information to the human cultivator. With advance warning, the human might be able to cause more damage in the clash.
With that, Xuanshui immediately set off for the target location. Time was of the essence—Golden Claw could strike at any moment.
But when he reached the island where Gu Mo resided, he paused. Golden Claw had just suffered a loss—Xuanshui couldn't afford another.
Going personally to snitch carried too much risk. After some thought, he turned around and headed for the Crimson Coral Archipelago, intending to have someone there deliver the message on his behalf.
Meanwhile, on the island's lake—
Gu Mo scanned the area outside the island. Just now, he had once again sensed that unique Tier 3 demon aura. But as before, it had flashed and disappeared, which made him uneasy.
After all, a strange Tier 3 demon beast frequently lurking nearby was not a good sign. But the aura had always been brief, giving Gu Mo no chance to lock onto the source.
After confirming that the aura was gone, Gu Mo turned his gaze to the storage bracelet in his hand.
This was the bracelet he had taken from that large crab. The restrictions on it had already been undone. Compared to human cultivators, demon beasts were far less adept at using magic tools, so the seals on their storage items were usually crude. That made it easy for Gu Mo to crack.
"Let's see what kind of treasures are inside."
He extended his divine sense into the bracelet and found a wealth of spiritual materials and ores—many of them Tier 3 quality. They were clearly the crab's personal collection and would fetch a high price in the cultivation world.
Many of these materials were exclusive to the ocean and considered rare in the broader cultivation realms.
Aside from the spiritual materials and ores, he also found a pile of items belonging to a cultivator, likely the bracelet's original owner.
From the items, Gu Mo could tell the owner had been a Core Formation cultivator—and a Tier 3 formation master. Many of the items were formation tools and materials, including a set of quasi-Fourth-Grade formation flags.
Like formation disks, flags were tools used to quickly set up arrays. Disks were simple and could be used right out of the box, while flags required actual knowledge of formations to deploy properly.
However, formations built with flags were far more powerful and versatile. They were a formation master's main combat tools.
"Good thing sea demons don't understand formations."
Gu Mo took out the set of formation flags—108 in total. After refining the core flag, he learned the name of this array: Illusory Cloud Formation.
It was a quasi-Fourth-Grade illusion array. Once fully deployed, it could trap a Nascent Soul cultivator for quite some time.
That's the true power of formation arts. Though time-consuming to set up, once complete, they could allow cultivators to fight far above their level.
If the giant crab had activated this array during their battle, things would've gone badly for Gu Mo.
Fortunately, sea beasts generally had no understanding of formations. So although the formation flags were worth as much as a high-grade magical tool, to them, they were no better than scrap.
They also couldn't trade them to human cultivators—doing so would be strengthening the enemy.
Now, however, this precious quasi-Fourth-Grade grand array belonged to Gu Mo. While he wasn't a formation master, the storage bracelet also contained detailed instructions left by the original owner. With time, Gu Mo could study them. He didn't need to master the craft—just learning to set up Illusory Cloud Formation would be enough.
There was even a jade slip containing a mysterious formation master's legacy, though it was locked with a seal and couldn't be accessed for now.
According to the instructional jade slip, the Illusory Cloud Formation didn't just produce illusions—it also concealed auras. That meant he no longer needed to set up separate illusion and concealment arrays. With one sturdy barrier formation added, his defenses would be complete.
His current illusion and concealment arrays were already falling behind his needs. This new formation was the perfect upgrade.
"This formation master likely wasn't killed by that crab," Gu Mo mused. With a formation this powerful, the crab and that sea serpent wouldn't have stood a chance. The master must have been killed by someone else—and instantly, before he could deploy the array.
In the end, his storage bracelet somehow made its way to Gu Mo.
Such was the unpredictable nature of fate and fortune.
Thinking of fortune, Gu Mo called over Little Carp and gave its head a gentle pat. They say koi bring good luck—he wondered if this little guy had the same effect.
Outside the island—
A sword light streaked across the sky. Riding it was the anxious figure of Shi Yunjie.
"Miss Yuwei! I have an urgent matter for the Master!" he called out as he landed on the island, facing Shi Yuwei, who had come to investigate.
"What is it?"
Before she could respond, Gu Mo's figure appeared. The moment Shi Yunjie approached, Gu Mo had already sensed him. At the Core Formation level, his divine sense easily covered the island and its surrounding area.
Even more distant zones could be monitored via the entangled aquatic plants acting as his surveillance web.
"Greetings, Master!"
Upon seeing Gu Mo, Shi Yunjie hurriedly bowed and handed over a jade slip—something he had just received from that mysterious Xuan Shui Daoist.
"What's the background of this Xuan Shui Daoist?"
Gu Mo took the jade slip and swept it with his spiritual sense. The contents immediately became clear: the slip contained intelligence on the Golden Claw General. More importantly, it stated that the enemy had already learned of his son's death and was preparing to come for revenge—Gu Mo was to be ready.
This news took Gu Mo by surprise. What shocked him wasn't the fact that the Golden Claw General was seeking revenge—he had already mentally prepared himself for that ever since the giant crab mentioned its backing. What really stunned him was the strength of the sea monster's intelligence network.
They had managed to trace it back to him in such a short time? Gu Mo had completely wiped out the sea serpent, the giant crab, and their entire seafood army. Even if the Golden Claw General realized his son had died, it shouldn't have been possible to identify the killer this quickly.
If given a little more time, Gu Mo could either upgrade more of his plant-based forces, infuse his meridians with Golden Core energy and break through to the Golden Core Formation stage, or set up the quasi-tier-four grand formation he had just acquired. Once those preparations were complete, when the Golden-Pincer General showed up, Gu Mo would absolutely ensure he never left alive.
At present, with his plant battlefront, Gu Mo wasn't afraid of the Golden Claw General—but he wasn't confident he could take him down, either.
According to the intelligence in the jade slip, the Golden Claw General was a late-stage Tier 3 demon beast. But with those twin golden pincers, his combat power was equivalent to that of a peak Tier 3 beast.
For someone at Gu Mo's current level, self-preservation wasn't a problem—but taking down a peak Tier 3 opponent would be extremely difficult. And if he failed to kill him, the next time the enemy came—armed with a full understanding of Gu Mo's strength—it would be much harder to win.
"Master, that Xuan Shui Daoist..." Shi Yunjie began explaining everything he knew about him.
As Gu Mo listened, he frowned. Something felt off about this Xuan Shui Daoist. For a half-demon, he was acting far too warmhearted.
First he helped mediate a deal between the Crimson Coral Islands and the giant lizard, and now he was passing on warnings to someone like Gu Mo—who had absolutely nothing to do with him. Gu Mo didn't deny that good people existed in the world, but a half-demon? And one who had managed to cultivate to the Golden Core stage?
Because a bleeding-heart type like that—unless they had some extraordinary backing—usually didn't live long.
Frankly, no cultivator who survived in this sea region was a goody-two-shoes. Even Shi Yunjie here had probably done his share of shady things in private.
That said, Shi Yunjie still seemed to be largely on the right path. As long as he didn't fall into demonic cultivation, Gu Mo had no intention of playing judge, jury, and executioner.
Unable to figure out what the Xuan Shui Daoist's true motives were, Gu Mo decided to shelve the issue for now. The more urgent concern was dealing with the Golden Claw General.
So long as the enemy hadn't yet gotten a clear read on his capabilities, Gu Mo still had a chance to strike from the shadows. And if he timed it just right, there was even a real possibility of taking the Golden Claw General out.
Given the destructive power at his disposal, as long as he seized the right moment—he absolutely could kill that crab.
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