Zu An and the others were startled. The demon spider had left a deep impression on them. Even if they gave it their all, they still wouldn’t stand a chance against it.
They had Dreamland’s master on their side now, but the latter was in a severely weakened state after being imprisoned for a long time. It was unlikely he could put up a fight against the spider.
“What do we have to do to seal the demon spider?” Isabella asked.
“The seal should have been activated when the nine stars were aligned, so we could tap into the natural energies of the world to channel the formation. But we don’t have the luxury of waiting now. We can only use the Dream Clan’s bloodline power to suppress that demoness for now and wait for a better time to seal her off completely.”
Dreamland’s master and Firework slit their fingers and infused their blood essence into the crystal, which glowed with a brilliant red light. The ground quaked as if a formation was whirring to life.
A sharp shriek echoed in the distance. The demon spider appeared to have sensed an impending crisis and started rushing over.
“This isn’t good!” Dreamland’s master exclaimed. “This formation draws energy from five earth veins located across this forbidden land, but two of them have been corrupted and energy is no longer flowing through them. I can’t activate the formation.”
“We’ll handle that!” Zu An said.
Dreamland’s master knew there was no time to waste. “All right. I’ll teleport you over with this formation disc. I’ll try to buy as much time as possible, but you’ll have to make haste.”
His fingers moved so quickly that they became a blur. He activated a series of ancient formations that hindered the demon spider rushing across the screens. The spider tore through the formations in an instant, but Dreamland’s master used his authority to relentlessly create more formations to hinder it.
“I won’t be able to stall it for long.” Dreamland’s master spat blood. His face was pale, and sweat rained from his forehead.
Firework’s eyes were closed, her face pale. Her father was in a weakened state, so she needed to channel more blood essence and power into the formation to compensate for him.
Zu An and Isabella’s surroundings blurred as they were teleported to different corners of the forbidden land.
Zu An stood before an earth vein resembling a majestic dragon. The area was rich with energy, so much so that he could greatly raise his fighting prowess if he utilized the earth vein’s energy using One Drop of Heaven’s Essence[1].
But he quickly dropped that thought. The demon spider’s strength transcended conventional notions of strong and weak. This wasn't a gap he could bridge with just better utilization of his skills.
He looked up at the vein. There was a reddish-black mass there resembling a massive heart. Pure earth veins wouldn’t take on such a color. This must be the corruption Dreamland’s master spoke about.
Approaching the corrupted mass filled with his mind with negative emotions of violence, bloodthirst, and death. If not for the strong mental fortitude he had built up from the storms he had weathered, he would have lost his senses.
Knowing the demon spider could arrive at any moment, he didn’t waste time and began cleansing the demonic energy using the method taught by Dreamland’s master. His Primordial Origin Sutra harnessed the ability to cleanse demonic ki, so it didn’t take him long to expel a pitch-black aura from the lump, leaving behind a pristine red earth vein.
He wondered if things were going well on Isabella’s side, but he quickly realized his worry was unfounded and laughed as he remembered the mountain of treasures she had in her bag. She might even be more efficient than me.
Now that the earth vein was cleansed, he couldn’t help noticing that the massive earth vein contained a plate with a keyhole in the center.
At the same time, something was glowing from his chest. He took it out. It was the key he had received from Alati. The key emanated a beam of light at the keyhole, and the plate lit up.
Even a fool could tell that the key belonged to the hole. Thus, Zu An walked up to the plate, only to suddenly stop when a thought flashed through his mind.
Many things had happened since they entered this forbidden land, and there had been a nudging feeling in his head that something was amiss. However, crises had kept happening one after another, leaving him no time for contemplation.
Unease simmered in his heart. He knew the demon spider could arrive at any moment, but he still refrained from making a move. He had a feeling that if he didn’t figure things out first, there was a good chance he might make a decision he would regret.
“Little brother, you need to quickly unlock it for the earth vein’s energy to flow. I can’t activate the formation otherwise,” Dreamland’s master said.
Zu An looked upward and asked, “You can see what I’m doing here?”
“Of course. I am in the forbidden land’s control room. Didn’t you see it earlier?” Dreamland’s master replied.
Zu An remembered the display screens he had seen earlier. “Why didn’t you mention that a key was required to unlock the earth vein earlier?”
“It’s my first time here as well, and I didn’t know you had that key. My knowledge about this forbidden land comes from my predecessors, so it can be off,” Dreamland’s master replied with a frown. “You seem to be doubting me?”
Zu An didn’t answer the question. “I don’t think I've heard Firework speak for a while now. Is she still fine?”
Firework said, “Big brother Zu, I couldn’t speak earlier because I was focused on channeling the formation.”
“But you can speak now?”
“It’s a bit better now that you have cleansed the earth vein’s corruption. Big brother Zu, we don’t have time. Hurry up and unlock the earth vein’s energy.”
Zu An sighed. “Firework, why do you have such a high opinion of me? You expressed tremendous goodwill to me right from the start even though I was just a countryside bumpkin from a fringe world.”
“I already told you—I am a Beauty worshiper. From the moment I saw you... Gah! Big brother Zu, do you have to make me say such words in front of my father?” Firework’s embarrassment could be heard in her voice. Zu An could imagine her stomping her feet shyly.
Zu An continued the questions. “What’s the situation on Isabella’s side?”
“She has cleansed the corruption on that side, too. You’ll be able to meet her once you return.” Firework sounded anxious. “Our formations can’t stall that demoness for much longer. We only have ten seconds left. You need to hurry!”
But Zu An still refused to move. “Firework... Or should I call you Diodora, or Yani?”
1. First introduced in Chapter 1266, this book exists in real life. It's one of the foundational texts for your Bazi (Eight Characters) divination, and it talks about Yin-Yang, Five Elements, Ten Heavenly Stems, Twelve Earthly Branches, etc. ☜