Zhao Yunxiao, Pu Feixiang, and Gui Longcan rushed straight back without bothering with the monkey monsters that were still struggling with the traps along the way.
By the time they arrived, they could see that Chu Han was back as well, now fully focused on his role of supporting Mo Mian once again.
Having already set up everything beforehand, all Chu Han had to do for the grand array was activate it.
After which, he would no longer have to remain there to personally maintain it, not unless something went wrong with the array somehow.
Yet even with his support, Mo Mian was starting to look tired at this point. His hands were starting to shake, and his breaths were getting heavier.
Mo Mian had absolute confidence in his speed. In fact, he was used to taking advantage of that to overwhelm his opponents in the past.
However, it was a completely different matter altogether now that he had to keep moving at high speed while repeatedly going up close to such a dangerous opponent, all just to retain its attention.
This was almost akin to tempting fate.
Just one misstep, and the situation could take a drastic turn for the worse. To prevent that from happening, the level of concentration and energy required was on a whole other level.
Even an inner disciple like Mo Mian could not help but feel drained.
That was why he inevitably let out a smile upon noticing the three outer disciples rushing towards them.
“You sure took your time. I was starting to think that maybe the two of us should just do this ourselves!” Mo Mian complained, though the relief on his face told a different story.
“Apologies for the delay. Let’s do this!” Pu Feixiang answered without slowing his steps.
Snarl-!
Even if the monkey demon had not noticed the arrival of the trio before, there was no way that it would not after hearing Pu Feixiang’s voice.
It bared its fangs at the approaching trio in a threatening manner, as though warning them not to get close.
But why would the three of them care?
After all, Mo Mian was keeping the monkey demon from rushing at them.
The trio were completely unfazed as they continued forward to rejoin their party members.
“Terra Seal Formation!” Mo Mian shouted without hesitation.
They had tried the direct approach earlier, but the result was lacklustre, to say the least.
All they managed was to create a small wound on the monkey demon – one that even ordinary mortals could brush off as an insignificant injury.
Since that was the case, they would just have to rely on battle formations to take down the monkey demon!
“Understood!” the rest of the party answered simultaneously.
All of them quickly got into position, forming a circle as they surrounded the monkey demon and Mo Mian, though they made sure to keep their distance as well.
With that done, they immediately extended their spiritual sense to encompass one another.
They had already practised this numerous times on this trip.
Even though it was not nearly to the extent of being able to do it subconsciously, it was definitely not too difficult either, as they were all rather familiar with doing so by now.
Along with their spiritual senses, their essence energy spread out and started intertwining with one another’s.
Despite all of them possessing essence energies with fundamentally different traits, the distinctly different streams of essence energy started to synchronise upon coming together, eventually forming a cumulative whole.
A globe of light formed, slowly growing till it became as tall as a man as it hovered directly above the monkey demon.
Mo Mian could not help but let out a faint smile upon seeing this.
Being able to perform well during practice was completely different from being able to do so in a life and death situation.
Many a time, cultivators would succumb to the pressure of a real life situation and end up failing to live up to the stellar results that they recorded during practice.
Thankfully, there was no such issue here with Zhao Yunxiao.
Or, at the very least, it was all good so far.
“Physical Seal, activate!” Chu Han shouted.
The globe of light hovering above the monkey demon pulsed once, and its colour changed from pure white to a dull grey.
At the same time, a suppressive seal fell upon the monkey demon.
It was as though numerous weights had been loaded upon its body. Every single movement now took more than double the original amount of effort to complete.
“Elemental Seal, activate!” Gui Longcan was the next to announce.
The globe of light pulsed once more. This time, a trace of yellow light had been added to the dull grey.
Another seal fell upon the monkey demon, this time no longer physical in nature.
Instead, it served to restrict the monkey demon’s ability to call upon the elements. This was an ability that many demons possessed, albeit in various different forms.
“Vitality Seal, activate!” it was Pu Feixiang’s turn this time.
The globe of light pulsed again, and a trace of red light now joined the yellow and grey from earlier.
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The monkey demon immediately felt that its blood and energy were being sapped away bit by bit. At this rate, it would only get weaker and weaker as time passed, and that was even if it did nothing but stand there and wait.
“Mental Seal, activate!” Zhao Yunxiao followed.
The globe of light pulsed once more. This time, a trace of blue had been added to it.
It was as though a blocker had been inserted into the monkey demon’s brain, attempting to forcibly slow down its train of thoughts. Any individual with a weak mind might even suffer severe mental damage if targeted by this seal, permanently losing the ability to think for themselves in the future!
“Temporal Seal, activate!” Mo Mian was the last.
The globe of light pulsed, and a silver light entered the mix.
As expected of the leader of the Mystic Cavalry. Even as he continued skirting around the monkey demon, Mo Mian did not fail to synchronise with the others and deliver on his part of the battle formation.
The result of this was the formation of a globe of light comprising light waves of five distinctly different colours.
These five colours represented the five different seals that they had activated this time – Physical Seal, Elemental Seal, Vitality Seal, Mental Seal, and Temporal Seal.
With that, they attempted to seal off all possible moves that the monkey demon could possibly have up its sleeves, even finishing off with the Temporal Seal to cut off any attempts at time manipulation!
This was why the Terra Seal Formation was considered a staple among the Black Tortoise Sect disciples when it came to battle formations.
Not only was it relatively easy to execute, but it was also terrifyingly effective in battle!
Zhao Yunxiao and the members of the Mystic Cavalry smiled in satisfaction upon seeing the successful activation of the Terra Seal Formation.
Just as practised!
Snarl-!
The monkey demon roared in rage.
It might not understand the underlying concepts behind the battle formation that had just been used against it, but it could definitely feel its effects.
It was almost as though it had suddenly fallen into a quagmire, and that was certainly not a pleasant experience.
Unwilling to just sit and wait, the monkey demon’s muscles bulged, and it leapt towards Mo Mian once more.
Unfortunately, the result of doing so was obvious.
It was already incapable of catching Mo Mian before, so how would it be possible to do so now that it had become even slower?
In response to the approaching monkey demon, Mo Mian smirked in a relaxed manner as he easily sidestepped the attack.
At the same time, he started to focus his essence energy at the very tip of his sword.
“Take this!” Mo Mian slashed out with all his might.
Against Mo Mian’s swift attack, the weakened monkey demon simply could not react in time.
Slash-!
Blood stained the red hair on the monkey demon’s back as Mo Mian’s Jadewind Sword connected.
This time, the thick hair on the monkey demon’s body was no longer enough to fully mitigate the might of his sword slash.
Instead of simply causing a small cut like before, the sword slash retained much of its power even after going through the monkey demon’s thick hair, creating a big gash across the monkey demon’s back.
This kind of injury was no longer something that the monkey demon could simply ignore!
Now that Mo Mian no longer had to worry as much about evasive measures, numerous more attacking options instantly opened up to him.
If he had been focusing fifty percent of his energy on evasion and fifty percent on offence earlier, he could now focus more than eighty percent of his energy on offence.
In doing so, his attacks would naturally be far more powerful than before!
“My turn!” Pu Feixiang shouted as he thrust his spear forward.
Distracted and weakened, the monkey demon tried to swat away the spear thrust but was unable to do so in time.
Pierce-!
Pu Feixiang’s spear strike similarly got past the layer of thick hair and stabbed into the monkey demon’s arm.
While it did not create as serious an injury as Mo Mian’s sword slash, it still drew blood nonetheless.
Pu Feixiang might have a lower cultivation level than Mo Mian, but he partially made up for that difference through his choice of weapon.
After all, the sword was superior in terms of versatility, while the spear had the advantage in terms of pure power.
Snarl-!
The monkey demon roared in rage as it swiped at Pu Feixiang, completely ignoring the injury that it had just received.
“Watch out!” Chu Han cautioned.
“Shit!” Pu Feixiang cursed as he hurriedly pulled his spear back.
He barely managed to bring his spear up in defence as the monkey demon’s claws arrived.
Bang-!
“Urgh!” Pu Feixiang groaned in shock as the monkey demon’s claws smashed into his spear.
The heavy impact from the monkey demon’s swipe almost sent him flying through the air!
Even though it was now subjected to the effects of the Terra Seal Formation, that did not mean it had been rendered completely helpless.
It was one thing for Mo Mian to dance around the monkey demon since he specialised in speed, but Pu Feixiang was not nearly half as fast.
The fact that he used a spear only slowed him down further.
“Don’t get carried away!” Gui Longcan chided in irritation.
“My bad!” Pu Feixiang apologised. He understood that he was at fault here as well.
He had imagined that he would be able to get a hit in and escape while the monkey demon was still distracted by Mo Mian, but that was a huge miscalculation on his part.
The monkey demon was far more difficult to deal with than he had thought!
Pu Feixiang let out a sigh of relief after seeing that things had remained under control.
It was one thing to get into trouble alone.
But if he had ended up breaking the battle formation because of that, then it would be equivalent to dragging the rest of the party down with him!
After witnessing what happened with Pu Feixiang, the rest of the party no longer dared to approach carelessly.
Mo Mian remained the only one attacking at close quarters, while the other members stuck to employing long ranged attacks.
Gui Longcan fired lightning bolts at the monkey demon with waves of his treasure fan.
Zhao Yunxiao threw daggers imbued with essence energy, targeting the monkey demon’s vital points.
Chu Han and Pu Feixiang helped by throwing out projectiles of pure essence energy as well.
These long ranged attacks might not be as effective, but using them was still better than risking failure.
Just like that, they started to whittle the monkey demon down in a systematic manner.
More and more wounds appeared on the monkey demon’s body as time passed, and it started to display serious signs of fatigue.
The party members could not help but exchange glances with smiles on their faces.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the monkey demon fell!
Strictly speaking, that would also mark the completion of their sect mission since the monkey monsters had never been their targets in the first place.
Of course, they would still proceed to get rid of the monkey monsters out of goodwill.
Without the monkey demon, taking care of the monkey monsters would not be much of a concern anyway!
But just as success was well within sight, Zhao Yunxiao suddenly frowned.
While setting up the array flags and traps last night, he had secretly included some additional mechanisms of his own.
Among them were alerts that would activate whenever anything wandered too close.
And all of a sudden, these alerts had begun to activate in quick succession, starting from those furthest away and rapidly getting closer and closer!
This could only mean one thing.
Zhao Yunxiao had no idea who or what was triggering all his alerts.
But whatever it was, it was approaching them fast!