In the Nine Heavens Holy Land, Yang Kai stood suspended in the void, his dark hair whipping in the wind, his robes snapping behind him.
His expression was solemn. In one hand he held a bronze-colored Formation disc.
This was the disc used to control the Du Tian Xuan Ling Formation — painstakingly refined by himself, Li Jiao, and Liu Yan at no small cost.
Everything was in place. All that remained was the final catalyst.
He closed his eyes and focused for a moment, then lightly brushed his fingers across the disc. The faintly pulsing surge of his Emperor Yuan caused the disc's surface to shimmer with light.
At a certain instant, his eyes snapped open, brilliant light flashing from both pupils. With one hand holding the Formation disc aloft and the other weaving a rapid series of hand seals, beams of radiance shot into the disc as his voice boomed: "Activate!"
The Formation disc blazed with light!
A deep, resonant hum rose from far beneath the earth. The entire Nine Heavens Holy Land trembled, the ground shaking violently. Countless cultivators who had been meditating in seclusion were startled awake and rushed out of their chambers to investigate.
One glance at the figure suspended in the sky told them it was his doing — not another invasion by some powerful enemy — and they breathed a collective sigh of relief.
At the heart of the Nine Heavens Holy Land, the Xuan Ling Pillar that served as the Formation's eye had undergone a sudden, wondrous transformation. Across the surface of the thousand-zhang-tall pillar, intricate patterns and runes flared with cascading light.
An invisible shockwave rippled outward, radiating from the Xuan Ling Pillar with a deafening pulse. It swept across the Nine Heavens Holy Land, rolled over thousands upon thousands of li, and spread to encompass the entire Tongxuan Continent.
One after another, the other Xuan Ling Pillars were ignited. Caught in the shockwave's wake, they resonated in sympathy, their surface runes blazing with brilliance. Seen from the starry sky above, the entire Tongxuan Continent would appear to hold one hundred and eight beacons of light, flickering into luminance one by one. Wherever the shockwave passed, the radiance was blinding.
Yang Kai's hand seals grew ever faster, his expression growing grimmer by the moment. Though his own cultivation was profound, he had sealed himself and was simultaneously orchestrating this continent-spanning Formation — he could not afford the slightest lapse. Today's endeavor concerned Xia Ningshang, and he had no choice but to treat it with the utmost gravity. Beads of sweat slowly formed at the tip of his nose.
After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the Xuan Ling Pillar at the Nine Heavens Holy Land emitted another invisible shockwave, repeating what had come before.
The pillar was like a heart beating in steady rhythm. With each pulse, the remaining one hundred and seven Xuan Ling Pillars resonated with it just a fraction more closely, and with each repetition, that thread of resonance would grow until the beginning and end fused into one — until all one hundred and eight became a single, unified whole, blanketing the entire Tongxuan Continent.
Again and again the invisible shockwaves spread. The one hundred and eight beacons lit and dimmed, lit and dimmed, cycling endlessly.
But as time passed, the frequency of the pulses slowly increased.
After one day, the interval — once the length of a cup of tea — had been cut in half.
After another day, it was halved once more.
Three more days later, the pillar at the Formation's eye was flickering nearly every few breaths, and the remaining one hundred and seven pillars kept pace. If one observed closely, one would notice that the pillars' light was no longer activating in sequence but trending toward perfect synchronization.
Yang Kai drove the Formation disc with everything he had, maintaining the Grand Formation, oblivious to the passage of time.
At last, the flickering frequency of the pillar ahead seemed to reach some kind of limit. An invisible pressure radiated outward, like an ancient beast from the dawn of creation suddenly stirring to wakefulness.
Yang Kai's face was drawn with exhaustion, but his eyes burned with startling intensity.
At last — the moment had come!
Without a shred of hesitation, he altered his hand seals and hurled the Formation disc high into the air. A streak of light shot into it as his voice thundered: "Open!"
The Formation disc hummed with power.
The one hundred and eight beacons, which had been flickering ceaselessly, all extinguished in a single instant — not a trace of light remaining.
But in the very next heartbeat, those same beacons reignited. There was no sequence, no distinction between any of them. They had become a single, indivisible whole.
One hundred and eight shockwaves rippled outward in unison. From every Xuan Ling Pillar, one hundred and seven beams of light erupted, racing in every direction across the sky, stitching together a vast net that spanned the entire Tongxuan Continent.
In that moment, every living being on the Tongxuan Continent raised their eyes to the heavens. The crisscrossing beams of light descended like meteors falling from the firmament, converging into a meteor shower that blanketed the entire world.
The spectacle was breathtaking — yet no one felt fear or dread. Instead, an overwhelming urge to bow in reverence surged through every heart.
Boom… boom… boom…
The resonant hums continued without cease, each Xuan Ling Pillar now locked inextricably to the other one hundred and seven.
Click…
As though a key had been turned in a lock, the one-hundred-and-eight-fold Du Tian Xuan Ling Formation was unlocked in a single instant, its world-shaking power finally unleashed.
Majestic heavenly might gathered, clouds massed overhead, and the laws of the world stirred — seeking to repel this Formation that exceeded the bounds of the world's existence.
Then, in a flash, a flawless, jade-white hand swept across the sky. Wherever it passed, the heavenly might dissolved, and all returned to calm.