Looking at the dense array of barriers, everyone present wore a solemn expression.
"You don't mean we have to break through these barriers, do you?" Li Ze's scalp tingled. "How long would that take?"
Mo Xingjue chuckled softly, rubbing Li Ze's head with his large hand. "Don't worry, it's not about breaking these things, it's about that place, the location of the array's core. Once the core is broken and the spiritual vein is removed, the array will naturally cease to function."
Li Ze looked in the direction Mo Xingjue pointed, his expression not much better. "That's the strongest defensive position in the entire God and Demon Battlefield."
Mo Xingjue nodded, "As long as those barriers remain unbroken, the spiritual energy will continue to flow in, and we won't be able to destroy them. The core of the formation can't be broken in a short time. The manor lord and the others said that they will break the core of the formation, and you will be responsible for refining pills. They will pay you."
Breaking the formation by force requires a lot of spiritual energy. Spirit stones can replenish spiritual energy, as can pills, and the speed of replenishing spiritual energy is faster than that of spirit stones.
“No pay is needed, it’s just a different division of labor,” Li Ze said.
Mo Xingjue's lips curled up slightly. "What a coincidence, we really are on the same page. That's exactly what I told the sect leader."
Li Ze: "......."
So while the others were breaking the formation, Li Ze was refining pills on the side, along with other cultivators from the Crimson Pill Sect. More than a dozen pill furnaces were lined up in a row, creating a grand display.
The demons on the other side, watching this scene, felt a pang of jealousy.
"Li Ze, come here," a Nascent Soul stage demon called out.
Li Ze turned his head and looked at the demon. He recognized the demon and had once refined pills for him.
"I'm not going." Li Ze parted her red lips slightly and uttered two cold words.
The demon was so angry he jumped up and down, "You're on our side!"
"No, I don't belong to any camp. I form my own camp." Li Ze's cold voice carried for thousands of meters. This was the first time he had stated his position.
Ji Chuan and Ji Shuo exchanged a glance and saw the surprise in each other's eyes.
“If you participate in breaking the formation, I can also refine pills for you free of charge,” Li Ze added.
The demon faction also numbers several thousand, and their strength is no weaker than that of the cultivators. If they join, the pressure on the cultivators will be greatly reduced.
Upon hearing Li Ze's words, the demons snorted coldly and turned their faces away, their uncooperative attitude becoming very clear.
Li Ze sighed, "Then you can just stay aside and watch, as long as you have the patience."
The demons didn't care. When it came to patience, none of them had been sitting for years, or even decades.
Ha, they just don't believe it. Do they think it will take more than ten years to break through a formation?
They'll just wait.
The cultivators had no hope for the demons to begin with. They were just grateful that the demons didn't cause trouble or launch a sneak attack when they were exhausted.
Therefore, the cultivators accepted the attitude towards the demon race well.
Li Ze stood side by side with a group of senior alchemists from the Crimson Pill Sect. While the others had long queues of alchemy furnaces, all of them had come to ask for help in refining pills, Li Ze's side was deserted, with only Mo Xingjue present.
Mo Xingjue placed more than a dozen storage bags in front of Li Ze, saying, "You can decide what to do with them; you can refine them into any kind of pill."
Li Ze hummed in agreement, his mind racing to find pill formulas that could quickly replenish spiritual energy, and casually asked, "Do you have enough pills left?"
"Enough, enough for many years," Mo Xingjue said with a smile.
"Alright, I'll start refining the pills now. With the snow wolves guarding me, you don't need to worry. Just take care of yourself. Be alert and watch out for demon attacks," Li Ze instructed.
Mo Xingjue enjoyed his concern and smiled even more. "Okay, I've got it."
The defenses at the center of the formation were impenetrable. Wave after wave of cultivators exerted their full strength, yet they still could not budge it even slightly.
Several thousand cultivators were divided into more than twenty teams, working day and night without stopping, determined not to give up until they broke through the formation's core.
Time flies, and three months have passed in no time.
"Your Majesty, those cultivators are rather weak. Several months have passed, and their defenses haven't changed at all," a demon suddenly said, his tone full of contempt.
Ji Chuan shook his head. "It's not that they're weak, it's that this formation is too strong. Think about those Mahayana stage skeletons, they were also trapped here."
A formation capable of trapping someone in the Mahayana stage is not so easy to break.
"What should we do then? Can those cultivators break this formation?" the demons asked anxiously.
Himekawa shook her head again. "I don't know."
"Why don't we break the formation together?" a demon suggested.
Upon hearing this, the other demons exchanged glances. If those cultivators alone couldn't break the formation, what would happen if they were added to it?
After all, it's an array capable of trapping cultivators at the Mahayana stage. To break it, they can work together. Of course, not in a coordinated effort, but rather each breaking it individually.
"No rush, let's take another look," Ji Chuan said.
Several more months passed, and the defenses at the center of the formation remained unchanged, without the slightest alteration.
Li Ze successfully refined another batch of Grade 7 pills.
"Take a rest?" Mo Xingjue placed a futon at Li Ze's feet.
Li Ze sat down, saying, "It seems we were too optimistic before."
"That's how it is now," Mo Xingjue said with a self-deprecating laugh. Afraid that Li Ze would get anxious, he added, "It's alright, everyone is prepared for a long haul. We won't starve, let's take it slow."
Li Ze remained noncommittal, closed his eyes, and instantly entered a meditative state.
Mo Xingjue leaned against the snow wolf, staring at Li Ze without blinking, his eyes filled with tenderness that seemed to melt into water.
Those nearby, who happened to witness this scene, couldn't help but shake their heads in regret. It was such a pity that their number one genius in the cultivation world had been so bewitched by a demon.
Mo Xingjue thought that Li Ze was just using cultivation to relieve his fatigue and would wake up in no time, but a day passed and Li Ze showed no signs of waking up.
It wasn't until the dense malevolent energy gathered from all directions that he realized, with a start, that his Aze wasn't recuperating, but rather advancing in rank.
The malevolent aura around Li Ze was so dense that it almost turned into liquid. Within a ten-meter radius of him, patches of ice crystals formed, which were crystal clear and emitted white mist.
The snow wolf closest to it didn't feel anything, but Mo Xingjue, who was leaning against it, shuddered and immediately used his spiritual power to isolate himself from the cold.
“There wasn’t this much commotion when Aze advanced before,” Mo Xingjue murmured.
The commotion on Li Ze's side was so great that not only the cultivators noticed it, but the demons also took notice.
"He's already at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm?" Ji Chuan looked at Ji Shuo, his face full of disbelief.
Ji Shuo pursed his lips. "It seems our Demon Realm is about to see its fourth Demon King."
"At this rate of advancement, let alone a Demon King, he could become a Demon God—" Ji Chuan shut his mouth in time.
The demon god, they haven't seen the demon god for thousands of years.
An overwhelming aura swept in, turning the surroundings gloomy and dark.
"They are demons after all. Even their advancement is different from that of cultivators. We didn't have such an evil aura when we advanced." A cultivator said sarcastically.
The others didn't respond; as long as they could advance, whether it was evil or not didn't matter.
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