A flash of anger crossed Yu Ling's austere face. He spoke in a low voice, "Ran Xi, stabilize your soul first. If your soul becomes the sacrifice, the second seal of the evil god's sealed ground will not be far from breaking."
"Alright."
Yunxi answered crisply. With her master guarding her, she could safely free a hand to complete the bloodline sealing art.
After attuning with the Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff, she drank a vial of recovery potion. With a sweep of her sleeve, she shifted the bloodline-tracking grand array she had drawn earlier to her front and began to inscribe the sealing sigils.
Those sigils were recorded in her bestiary codex and matched the array lines on the spatial wall that sealed Long Ya within the Shanhe Scroll. She was already familiar with them. In just two breaths she finished the inscription, then flicked the sigils into the bloodline-tracking array, letting the seal ride the guidance of bloodline pursuit to lock down the Wei clan bloodline.
Yunxi then closed her eyes and sank her divine sense into the tracking array, following every trace she could to ensure each Wei clansman's bloodline was sealed.
In the Wei clan estate at Haoran City, disciples with weaker cultivation were already feeling their souls being tugged free, collapsing where they sat. Wei Lingtao sensed the pull on his own soul. His expression changed. He immediately ordered the clan to recall all disciples, then went straight to the courtyard where Wei Chenyin resided.
Wei Chenyin felt the same force wrenching at her soul. Her eyes flew open from meditation. In the next beat, Yunxi's voice sounded in her ear:
"Chenyin, evil cultivators are using the Wei bloodline as a guide to forcibly extract the souls of our clansmen as sacrifices to open the evil god's sealed ground. I have used a tracking array to seal the Wei bloodline. Stabilize the situation at home at once. Do not let the evil cultivators exploit any opening. I am at Yunxiao Sea and cannot support the clan."
Wei Chenyin replied at once, "Rest easy, Ran Xi. I will guard the clan."
As her words fell, a golden sigil surfaced over her chest through the power of bloodline. The pulling force vanished with it.
She rose from the cushion and opened her ward with a flick of her sleeve, arriving just as Wei Lingtao reached her door.
"I know what is happening. Ran Xi is sealing our bloodline through a tracking array. Send messages to every Wei disciple outside. Tell them to hide somewhere safe and stabilize their souls. Do not allow the soul to leave the body."
"Yes."
There was no time for Wei Lingtao to ask for details. He immediately began sending message talismans. The whole Wei clan sprang into urgent motion.
In the sect, Wei Zonghao at the alchemy halls, Wei Zongyu with the Law Enforcement Hall, Wei Zonghan in seclusion, Wei Yunying and Wei Yunyin in seclusion, and Wei Zongjin on the road back to the clan all felt the pull at once. Moments later, clan transmissions reached them.
Each felt a different degree of soul-tug based on cultivation, but after receiving the orders, they all calmed themselves, sat in meditation, and stabilized their souls. Soon, a golden sigil surfaced over their chests, and the force trying to rip out their souls disappeared. They finally let out a long breath.
Yunxi's divine sense remained within the tracking array. The sealed ground below, struggling to rise, seemed to sense this and pressed upward harder. Waves roared again across the sea. Even the Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff began to tremble.
At Yunxi's sides, Yu Ling and Ming Hong frowned almost imperceptibly and poured in more spiritual power, determined to buy Ran Xi more time.
Yunxi's spiritual power was draining fast. She had no choice but to pull the Xianling Grass from her space and press it against her chest. She sent a quick transmission, "Xiao Xian, everything rests on this. Help me."
Xiao Xian shook its leaves anxiously. "Master, the spirit veins I absorbed are long gone. You have not replenished me."
Yunxi grit her teeth and continued to squeeze her dantian dry, then said, "Then I will draw on the space's spiritual power."
Xiao Xian stopped her at once. "No. If you drain the space, it will shut down on its own. I remember other chests were transmitted to you along with me. They held supreme-grade spirit veins. Take them out now. Do not keep hoarding. Look at the situation."
Yunxi slapped her forehead. She really had forgotten. After her space fused with the Misty Snow Domain, she had flipped through the supplies her cross-server chat group donated to "Wuzu Girl." There were indeed supreme-grade spirit veins. More than one.
Back then, she had a space and did not need them, so she kept them sealed. She also could not bring herself to give them to Xiao Xian, planning instead to pluck two from the Weiling Realm later. One thing had led to another, and she never had time to gather more veins, so Xiao Xian refused to come out of the space.
There was no room for thrift now. The "Heavenly Gang North Star Demon-Slaying Array" needed to be activated soon. With a thought, she grabbed a supreme-grade spirit vein in each hand and drew on them madly, refilling her near-dry dantian and meridians.
Ming Hong and Yu Ling watched the two supreme-grade spirit veins coiling along Ran Xi's forearms. Their eyelids twitched. The Divine Transformation cultivators helping nearby sucked in a breath. Loose talk spread about how wealthy an Out-of-Body cultivator could be.
Cao Yi's face had gone white. He placed the final formation disk at its exact position and used spiritual power to link up the last core formation, while also resisting the enormous pull from below. His spiritual power ran out entirely. He said to Lin Keyang and Zhang Lingrui behind him, "I do not have enough power to link all the disks."
Without a word, both moved to Cao Yi's back, pressing their palms to him and pouring spiritual power into his body. The crisis was plain. If their formation failed, Ran Xi would not be able to activate the full demon-slaying array.
If the sealed ground emerged fully from the seabed, all preparations would be wasted. Everyone was squeezing their last drops of spiritual power to buy time. Cao Yi could not fail.
Just then, a gray-white fog rolled over the sea, slowly encircling every cultivator. Whispering rustled within it, like murmurs right at their ears.
"Hahaha. Who would have thought the feng shui treasure that the gods chose for this Lord would fall so low. A swarm of ignorant ants still dream of sealing this Lord again. What a joke."
The sealed ground surged faster, slowly pushing the Seven Stars Soul-Shattering Staff upward.
Yunxi bared her teeth and focused on recovery, ignoring the grating voice. She sent a transmission to Cao Yi, "Shut off your five senses. Activate the final core formation. Leave the rest to this Lord."
Blood rimmed Cao Yi's lips. He knew this was the critical moment. If this core formation did not ignite, ten years of preparations would be lost. They had to drive the evil god's sealed ground back into the depths.
Cao Yi roared, using his soul force to trigger the last formation link. With a resonant hum, a vast, golden, intricate formation in the shape of the Big Dipper blossomed over Yunxiao Sea.
"Ran Xi, it is done!"