At that moment, Long Xiaoxiao and her parents, as well as Yu Ting, all had their brows tightly furrowed. The worry was plain on their solemn faces.
Long Xiaoxiao and Yu Ting were especially nervous — cold sweat kept breaking out on them, and their faces had turned deathly pale.
They were worried. They were afraid.
The reason for their fear was that the formation Li Muzhi had presented was simply too exquisite.
Moreover, none of them had ever seen it before.
So they believed that Chu Feng, too, had almost certainly never laid eyes on this particular formation.
But could Chu Feng really replicate such an intricate formation within the time it took an incense stick to burn?
If he couldn't, that would prove his talent in formation arts was inferior to Li Muzhi's.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was that if Chu Feng failed, he would lose.
And once Chu Feng lost to Li Muzhi, his life would be forfeit.
And so, the world around them fell utterly silent — so quiet that one could hear the wind, and the beating of every heart.
All eyes were fixed on Chu Feng. Even Li Muzhi's grandfather, hidden high in the void above, watched with the same intensity.
Yet the first to break that silence was Chu Feng himself.
"Keep the time. If I exceed one incense stick's worth, my life is yours."
The moment those words left his lips, the hearts that had been suspended in everyone's chests settled somewhat.
Chu Feng showed not a trace of worry. On the contrary, a confident smile hung on his face.
Hummmm—
As soon as Chu Feng finished speaking, the power of the barrier surged from his body once more.
The dazzling barrier shone with a sacred, resplendent glow, shifting and morphing with unpredictable fluidity under Chu Feng's command.
But this display of his only made Long Xiaoxiao's parents look uneasy once again.
"Young Master Chu Feng — could it be that he's overlooked a step?"
They stared at Chu Feng, silently lamenting that things were going wrong.
And Li Muzhi, standing opposite Chu Feng, simply shook his head with a smile.
That smile carried not only mockery toward Chu Feng, but the air of someone who had already won.
In truth, Chu Feng's technique in laying out the formation was extremely smooth — even faster than Li Muzhi's had been.
The phrase "flowing like clouds and running water" could not have suited anyone better than Chu Feng in that moment.
He did not look the slightest bit like someone forming this formation for the first time.
If Li Muzhi's earlier formation work had displayed the full depth of his talent in the art of barriers, then Chu Feng's method now surpassed Li Muzhi's by a narrow but real margin.
And yet, there was something wrong with the way Chu Feng was constructing the formation.
Something so wrong that even Long Xiaoxiao's mother and the Dragon Clan Patriarch could see it.
The sequence in which a formation was assembled was critically important — much like choosing a path.
If you took the wrong road from the start, how could you ever reach your destination?
Sure enough, as time slipped away, half an incense stick's worth had already passed.
And before long, the full hourglass was nearly spent.
With the deadline fast approaching, Chu Feng's formation still showed no signs of completion.
Even though his hands were still moving so fast that only afterimages remained, and the barrier power still answered his commands in orderly sequence — the formation itself did not appear any closer to being finished.
"Father, what do we do? Time is almost up."
Long Xiaoxiao looked to her father.
She certainly did not want Chu Feng to die like this. What she hoped was that, if Chu Feng truly lost, her father might step in and save him.
After all, among everyone present, her father was the only one who might be able to do so.
But her father had no intention of responding to her words.
The Dragon Clan Patriarch was not about to offend the person hidden in the void — not for Chu Feng's sake.
"Elder."
When her father refused to answer, Long Xiaoxiao turned her gaze to the old Daoist.
Aside from her father, Chu Feng's Master was the only person she could rely on.
"Princess Xiaoxiao, have no worry."
But unlike everyone else, there was not a single trace of tension on the old Daoist's face.