Chapter 4281 — Set Up by Someone

None dared to slack off. Every one of them, spirits roused, kept pouring everything they had into their martial techniques, hammering away at the enormous sphere overhead as though their lives depended on it.

At first, their attacks seemed utterly futile—the great sphere gave no reaction whatsoever. Yet after they had thrown everything into the assault for the span of a full stick of incense, something finally began to change.

The next time they struck the great sphere, it was no longer like a clay ox plunging into the sea without a trace; instead, they distinctly felt a faint force rebound against them, as though the wild, frantic barrage of earlier attacks had all been swallowed up by the sphere and had finally reached saturation.

Joy lit every face in an instant. Whatever the change was, any change at all was good news—it proved they were not wasting their effort, proved there was hope of entering the ruins!

"Quickly, everyone, put your backs into it—we are almost there!" Chang Daoping shouted again in urgent encouragement.

At these words their spirits soared, and they threw themselves into it with all their might, whipping their martial techniques into an even wilder frenzy. Chang Daoping, for his part, was also swinging his formation flag with all his strength. What formidable technique he was using, none could tell, but a beam of blinding brilliance burst from the tip of his flag and slammed straight into the great sphere—so terrifying was its power that the whole sphere seemed on the verge of collapse!

With such a formidable brother leading the charge, the others grew all the more fervent and diligent. In their minds, they assumed that once this great sphere was shattered, the formation would be broken.

Wei Zhao, however, took all of this in and was nowhere near as shallow as the rest. This sign did indeed resemble the prelude to breaking the formation, but it was absolutely not what everyone imagined.

For anyone who probed with their divine sense would discover that Chang Daoping was not attacking the great sphere at all—quite the contrary. He was in fact using the formation flag to rapidly channel the vast energy that had gathered upon the sphere onto his own person. Everyone else was merely kept in the dark.

There was more to this thing after all! Wei Zhao understood now, and he kept his attention fixed on Chang Daoping's every move; should the man do anything to his detriment, he must make certain he could carry Huang Xiaotao away in an instant.

Just then, under the relentless combined assault of the others, the great sphere suddenly boomed and rumbled. Cracks spread across its surface, multiplying at a rate visible to the naked eye, until at last they grew so dense and countless that it could hold no longer.

Boom! The great sphere burst apart with a tremendous blast, and the vast energy that had belonged to the crowd was instantly loosed back upon their heads. Caught wholly off guard, they were flung flying on the spot, every one of them badly wounded.

In the chaos, Wei Zhao hurriedly healed himself and Huang Xiaotao while still keeping an eye on Chang Daoping—and found the man utterly unscathed.

After channeling that vast energy onto himself, Chang Daoping seized the moment when the great sphere exploded to hurl that energy at once toward a stone lock that had abruptly surfaced elsewhere.

In that instant, the surroundings changed. The crowd felt the world spinning dizzily about them, and by the time they came to their senses, the environment had been turned completely upside down, utterly unlike the scene from moments before.

No dense forest, no wasteland—beneath their feet now stretched an empty street, and before them stood a vast, deathly still city. Not far ahead, above the city gate, five great characters were carved in plain relief: Odor Cultivation City!

"Listening to Brother Chang was right after all—we finally made it in!" Cao Shishi cried excitedly, as though she had cast even her injuries to the back of her mind. The others too were overcome with delight—to have entered the ruins meant the Star Ink Milk they had dreamed of was within reach!

Watching this, Wei Zhao could not help but curl his lip in secret disdain. These people had been kept in the dark by Chang Daoping from first to last without ever realizing it, and here they were still giddy with joy—it was enough to make one laugh and cry at once.

Wei Zhao had seen the scene just now perfectly clearly. Chang Daoping truly had no intention of harming anyone, but he had also certainly not told them the truth. The great sphere they had all attacked with such force was no formation eye at all; the stone lock that surfaced afterward was the true formation eye.

All the effort the crowd had expended had in fact been labor on Chang Daoping's behalf—every one of them worn out like a dog and wounded besides, while Chang Daoping alone remained full of vigor, having squandered not a shred of his own strength and suffered not a scratch.

The only thing he had done was draw out the crowd's energy and, while they were in disarray, divert it onto the stone-lock formation eye. For a fine hand of his Nascent Soul stage, such a trifle was nothing short of effortless.

From beginning to end, the crowd had been mere drudges for Chang Daoping—and drudges who did not even understand what they were doing. Never mind that they had followed him in this time; were they to come on their own next time, they would not even know what the formation eye was, let alone get inside.

And recalling the journey before, Chang Daoping had merely led the way swiftly on his own, never giving them time to memorize the route, never letting them see a route map—and now, in breaking the formation, he had deliberately held something back. Plainly, he did not want them to know the way into the ruins.

On reflection, though, Chang Daoping's conduct was not altogether incomprehensible. Star Ink Milk, after all, was a heaven-sent treasure that would keep condensing anew; even if it were all taken this year, it would return next year and the year after. If the crowd learned the way into the ruins, would that not mean a whole flock of competitors for Chang Daoping out of thin air?

The tale of the apprentice taught all he knows starving his master to death is common enough in the mortal world, and no less so throughout the world of cultivation. Before a peerless treasure like Star Ink Milk, every bond of intimacy must give way—even dual-cultivation partners must keep a measure of guard.

"Actually, this place should be the very wasteland we saw a moment ago—only concealed by the Moon Shadow Formation, which is why we could not see it before," Chang Daoping explained to the crowd.

"So that is how it is." Understanding dawned on every face, and they nodded, all eager to try their luck, unable to contain their excitement—so much so that they gave no thought even to their injuries.

At this moment, their gazes followed the empty street before them stretching straight ahead, so far that the eye could scarcely find its end. Facing the city gate as it did, it appeared to be a main thoroughfare.

On either side of the road stood shops and pavilions of exceedingly ancient vintage, along with crumbling walls and broken ruins. Some writing remained upon the walls, though what characters they were could no longer be made out.

Compared with the excitement of the others, Wei Zhao's response was far more subdued. Holding Huang Xiaotao's hand and healing them both, he studied the scene before him.