Rumbling—
A thousand li away from the underground cave, Yang Hong was sent flying by the explosion!
Unexpectedly, the unexpected happened.
The Four Great Demonic Sects each harbored their own ulterior motives, and thus, their formations were designed to restrain one another. This resulted in a massive explosion when all of them were triggered.
"Pfft—What kind of formation is this? Its power is immense! I'm already at the fourth layer of the Mahayana realm, yet I'm still injured—Pfft!"
Yang Hong, who had been blasted hundreds of feet away, spat out several mouthfuls of blood and flew up on his sword.
When he looked back at the former location of the cave, he could see a colossal sinkhole, over 900 li wide and 10 li deep, had been blasted open!
"Hiss—The power is too great!"
Seeing the massive crater, Yang Hong gasped in shock!
The Blazing Fire Desert was plagued by sandstorms and the occasional rampant "Black Despair," making its ground harder than third-grade spirit iron. Even the diamond on Blue Star might not be as hard as the ground here!
Yet, such sturdy ground had been blasted into such a colossal sinkhole, demonstrating the immense power involved!
Rustle—Rustle—Rustle—
As Yang Hong marveled, countless Golden Devouring Ants flew in from all directions. They neither attacked nor evaded Yang Hong, but instead, flew directly into the center of the sinkhole.
Then, more Golden Devouring Ants emerged from beneath the ground, seemingly endless and covering the sky.
Only then did Yang Hong realize that the Golden Devouring Ants that had attacked the "Myriad Peaks Plain" were only a portion of the whole, perhaps only one percent!
The majority of the Golden Devouring Ants were hidden underground, or even submerged in the molten lava beneath the earth!
"This—So many? How is this possible? How long did it take to develop this many?"
Seeing the sky-obscuring swarm of Golden Devouring Ants, Yang Hong couldn't help but tremble. He was also fortunate that he had arrived in time to destroy this underground insect nest. If left to its own devices, the entire Taiyuan Planet might be overrun by Golden Devouring Ants in no time!
"No! Not overrun! The entire planet will be gnawed away, and then collapse! It might even cause the entire planet to implode!"
The thought of such a terrifying scene sent shivers down Yang Hong's spine, breaking out in a cold sweat!
"Thank goodness—Thank goodness—I discovered it in time."
Wiping the sweat from his brow, Yang Hong took out his artifact, the "Spirit Recording Stone," and began to document the scene. Regardless of the outcome, he had to transmit this matter to the Buddhist and Immortal Sects, urging them to act.
The "Spirit Recording Stone" was a very ordinary artifact, capable of being made by cultivators in the Qi Refining stage, essentially equivalent to a video recorder on Blue Star. Higher-grade ones could even record the spiritual energy and various auras of the environment.
Yang Hong possessed a fifth-grade Spirit Recording Stone. He had even specially captured the aura and mana fluctuations of the Golden Devouring Ants and infused them into the stone.
During the fifteen minutes of recording, countless Golden Devouring Ants continued to emerge from afar and from beneath the ground, pouring into the sinkhole that had become a massive pool of blood.
The conflict and explosion of the Four Great Demonic Sects' formations seemed to have created something extraordinary.
Seeing this, Yang Hong abandoned his plan to fly back slowly. In fact, he didn't intend to go back at all.
With a wave of his hand, nine ninth-grade Great Azure Sky Willow trees appeared in the air and were fixed in place by his mana. Following that were 648 small Azure Sky Willow trees, and then 6561 spiritual plants of the five elements.
All the spiritual plants were suspended in the air by Yang Hong and, under the control of his divine sense, formed a three-dimensional formation.
Within half an hour, a formation emitting a faint silver light took shape in the sky.
Then, the oversized Azure Nether Stone, purchased at the auction in Chaoyang City, appeared in his hand.
"What a shame. I wanted to use you to forge a storage ring with a vast space. Now, you'll be wasted."
With that, he shattered the Azure Nether Stone without hesitation. A potent spatial energy erupted, and was immediately absorbed by the silver formation.
Without further delay, he placed the ten copies of the Spirit Recording Stone and a jade slip into the center of the formation!
"Azure Nether Sky-Splitting Formation! Activate!"
As Yang Hong's mana surged, the formation in the sky emitted a dazzling silver light, momentarily eclipsing all colors in the heavens and earth.
However, as the light faded, the spiritual plants that formed the grand formation turned to ash and drifted down!
The Spirit Recording Stones and jade slip at the center of the formation had vanished.
"The formation is good, just a bit too resource-intensive on spiritual plants."
Although he felt a pang of regret, seeing the Spirit Recording Stones and jade slip successfully transmitted, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Now was not the time to lament over spiritual plants; it was a time to race against the clock.
Another half an hour passed. The Golden Devouring Flying Ants in the sky finally ceased to appear, but the ants on the ground continued to emerge.
The 900-li wide sinkhole was now filled with dark red blood.
In less than an hour, such a massive sinkhole had been filled, indicating the sheer number of Golden Devouring Ants that had rushed to their deaths.
"Hmm—What's going on? Those scorpions, centipedes, and sandworms aren't being swept along by the ant swarm; they're actively coming here."
While carefully observing the situation in the sinkhole, Yang Hong discovered another unexpected occurrence: countless insects of various kinds were swarming in.
He quickly unleashed his divine sense to its full extent.
"Fortunately, the range of abnormal insect activity is only nine thousand li. They must be attracted by the demonic blood in the blood pool."
"I should seal off this area first."
The thought of losing a large number of spiritual plants again caused Yang Hong a twinge of heartache, but he did not hesitate.
Raising his right hand, spiritual plants flew out from the scales on his back, heading towards the nine thousand li mark.
His scale space now had a side length of 999 zhang, containing over a hundred thousand spiritual plants, many of which had been recently cultivated from the Heart Demon Sect's secret realm, including ninth-grade "Silver Moon Grass" and "Rising Sun Fruit Trees."
As the spiritual plants flew out, a massive formation continuously refined itself in Yang Hong's mind.
The originally somewhat disordered spiritual plants began to take on a general order.
Boom!
A ninth-grade Rising Sun Fruit Tree slammed heavily into the ground, crushing a swarm of passing insects and demonic insects. Then, two more ninth-grade Silver Moon Grasses descended, flanking the Rising Sun Fruit Tree.
Next, ten spiritual plants belonging to the five elements formed a circle, encircling the three ninth-grade spiritual plants.
As soon as the thirteen spiritual plants landed, they began to extend their roots, anchoring themselves. Faint Yin, Yang, and Five Elements spiritual energy began to connect, completing a simple second-grade formation, the "Yin-Yang Five Elements Formation."
Thump—Thump—Thump—
As the formation successfully activated, passing insects were all repelled and blocked, unable to advance an inch, whether at a hundred zhang altitude or a hundred zhang underground, not a single insect could pass.
As for demonic insects?
Those that were meant to pass had long since done so.
At a distance of 198 zhang on either side of this spiritual plant formation, identical spiritual plant formations were continuously extending.
Ultimately, Yang Hong established a ring of "Yin-Yang Five Elements Formations" for a thousand li around the sinkhole.
But this was only the first step of his formation!
"Heaven and Earth Boundless, Qiankun Boundless, Dao Law Boundless—Yin-Yang Taiji Formation—Rise!"
Within the thousand-li radius, the spiritual energy that had been in chaos due to the explosion of the Four Great Demonic Sects' formations began to slowly stabilize. The insects and demonic insects that had been frantically surging towards the sinkhole from beyond a thousand li paused instantly, then slowly dispersed.
"Excellent, the first step is complete, isolating the blood pool in the sinkhole from the outside world!"
Watching the dispersing insects, Yang Hong breathed a sigh of relief.
But as he looked at the churning, boiling blood pool in the sinkhole, his heart became heavy again!