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With a massive boom, the mountain that Mu Yi’s group was on exploded in a cloud of smoke.

A black pillar of smoke shot straight into the heavens.

This black pillar of smoke painted the sky like ink on paper, instantly turning it pitch-black, converting day to night.

Moreover, this invasive black smoke divided into countless thinner pillars of smoke that spread through the air, instantly descending across a large region.

It appeared like an enormous bird cage had appeared. The thick black pillar coming from the center of the mountain served as the central pillar, providing an endless stream of energy to the surrounding pillars. As for Peng Yaolong and the others, they were the birds in the cage.

The Fire Beacon Smoke Net Formation!

“Hurry!” Tang Jie was so alarmed by this sight that his blood ran cold.

No one understood the significance of this bird cage more than him.

A Smoke Net Formation!

Though he didn’t understand what kind of Smoke Net Formation this was, the most defining trait of these formations was their ability to attack and imprison, and they were excellent for group battles. Smoke Net Formations also had the weakness in that the central smoke pillar could be attacked and broken. but the Seven Absolutions Sect had meticulously chosen the mountain to be the center of the formation, so more than half of the pillar was actually in the mountain. In this way, they protected the crucial part while using the sword formation to battle against the Basking Moon Sect.

That battle had consumed much of the Basking Moon students’ magic power, and the terrain of the mountain served as its own form of defense. With this double layer of protection, destroying the central pillar was basically impossible.

Thus, Tang Jie instantly understood that the Basking Moon Sect no longer had any hope of victory while inside the formation, so he continued to flee while dragging along Wei and Qi.

More smoke pillars were coming down, engulfing the small mountain and the surrounding area in a flood of blackness. Peng Yaolong and the others also realized that something was wrong and began to fly away. The best option was to flee the Smoke Net Formation before it had finished manifesting.

But the Seven Absolutions Sect wasn’t going to let them go so easily after going through all the trouble of laying down this formation.

As Peng Yaolong and company flew away, Mu Yi suddenly squatted down and struck the ground with his right palm. A smoke pillar instantly changed direction and flew toward a student.

These pillars were clearly made of smoke, but as it slammed into the student, it fractured bones as if it was an iron whip, causing the student to vomit blood as he was thrown back.

Tang Jie saw the situation and shouted, “That’s the Heaven-Weave Net! Don’t let it touch you, or else it will tie you up.”

Smoke Net Formations were known for their formidable binding power, using their smoke pillars to create a heaven-earth net.

In the distance, more smoke pillars were still descending, turning into the arced iron pillars of a cage. Peng Yaolong and the others were still flying toward an opening in the cage, but Tang Jie knew that while this opening seemed large, an invisible barrier had already sealed off everything.

The Seven Absolutions Sect had gone to such lengths for this plan, so they naturally couldn’t let the Basking Moon students escape that easily. Even though Tang Jie had gotten an early start, it was still impossible for him to leave the effective range of the formation.

Seeing that there was no hope of escape, a student pulled out a talisman, to which Tang Jie cried out, “Don’t!”

The student turned into a yellow light and shot into the earth.

But the moment he entered the ground, a pillar of energy shot out of the earth, pushing him right back out and sending him howling into the air.

Tang Jie covered his eyes.

Smoke Net Formations were known as heaven-earth nets, for above was the Heaven-Weave Net and below was the Silk-Sickle Web. The Heaven-Weave Net imprisoned foes while the Silk-Sickle Web hurt them, making it the more dangerous of the two. Anyone who dared to enter the earth would be lucky to get away alive.

Wait—”alive”?

Tang Jie suddenly stopped and looked around.

“Tang Jie, what are you doing? Hurry and run!” Wei Tianchong frantically shouted.

“Something’s wrong!” Tang Jie looked at the sky and muttered. “The heavenly net captures while the earth web kills, so why is there no capturing or killing going on…? Yes, skimping on materials ultimately weakens the power of the formation.”

“Tang Jie!” Qi Shaoming shouted.

Tang Jie ignored him, staring at the ground where the student had tried to go through, a film of light covering his eyes. He murmured several characters, but he was speaking so softly that no one could tell what he was saying.

Only that green-robed elder of the Seven Absolutions Sect in the spectator stands grunted, “I can’t believe it! He saw through the formation’s flaw and is analyzing it! Unfortunately, with so little time…”

Before he could finish, Tang Jie suddenly shouted, “Found it!”

These words were spoken so forcefully and clearly that the green-robed elder was easily able to tell what he was saying. “How?”

At the same time, Peng Yaolong’s group had reached the edge of the cage and were battering away at the barrier, a powerful repulsive force knocking them back.

The Basking Moon students were already birds in the cage of the Fire Beacon Smoke Net Formation. There was a series of explosions as countless small energy pillars shot out of the ground like gushing fountains.

The encirclement was complete, and the offensive had begun!

As everyone despaired, Tang Jie charged at a certain spot and shouted, “Great Brother, help me out!”

Peng Yaolong shouted, “What do you need me to do?”

“Use the Heavenly King Mara Incantation! Watch my hands and strike where I strike!”

“Alright!” Peng Yaolong once more used the Heavenly King Mara Incantation.

Tang Jie pointed at a distant spot and fired off an Energy Needle. “Here!”

Boom!

A massive palm slammed into the place the Energy Needle had landed, digging out a large crater.

“And here!” Tang Jie fired off another needle, and another giant hand came down.

Tang Jie continued to fire off needles, and Peng Yaolong followed with palm after palm. The other students also attacked, as they had no choice right now except to trust Tang Jie.

As these attacks thundered down, one crater after another appeared, and as the number of craters increased, the pillars of energy shooting out of the ground began to disappear. Gradually, a safe zone was being created in the formation.

On the mountain, Xiao Wen and Lin Wang grimaced, Xiao Wen saying, “How is this possible? How could Tang Jie so quickly identify the locations of the formation nodes?”

The Fire Beacon Smoke Net Formation had many formation nodes, which were key to maintaining the formation. A formation node that was damaged would affect the formation in some way.

But formation nodes weren’t fatal weaknesses. Putting aside how difficult they were to find, even if they were damaged, if only some of them were destroyed, it would be of no harm to the general situation. On the contrary, finding them took far too many calculations, so people normally didn’t go about undoing formations this way.

Tang Jie dared to do this because he had noticed an innate flaw of this formation and because his mind moved quickly. Thus, he was using his amazing calculation abilities to destroy the formation nodes and get everyone a place to take shelter.

Mu Yi was more composed. “If the net is broken, it should be mended. No matter how strong a fish is, it can’t compete against the net!”

He pressed his right hand against the ground, and a wind stirred within the formation. A moment later, the craters began to miraculously heal.

At the same time, Mu Yi turned his bamboo flute with his left hand and blew hard. Tang Jie instantly felt like a needle had been stabbed into his brain, and cried out, which disrupted his calculations at a crucial moment.

Tang Jie immediately lost the position of the formation node, and he was unable to fire his Energy Needle.

“Tang Jie!” Ye Tianshang shouted.

Tang Jie held his head and shouted, “Mu Yi is repairing the damage! He can control the changes with the Stop Gate Banner and can use the Animitta Music to interrupt us! With all these advantages he has, I can’t beat him!”

“Then what do we do?” Peng Yaolong frantically said.

Tang Jie didn’t reply, turning around and heading toward the smoke pillars on the horizon.

While these smoke pillars had already formed, there was still more smoke coming from the center, making the pillars thicker and thicker.

Tang Jie grimly said, “Shatter the heavens to bind the dragon… Mu Yi, I really underestimated you! You know how to leave an opening while sieging a city!”

There were many escape spell arts in the world, but they could generally be categorized into flight, escaping into the earth, and teleportation. Thus, a binding formation that could seal the heavens and earth was still not foolproof. Only by also locking down space and cutting off teleportation could one prevent any mishaps.

The Fire Beacon Smoke Net Formation also had this function. That dark curtain blanketing the sky could render all teleportation ineffective. But Tang Jie saw that Mu Yi was sacrificing this spatial isolation function to bolster the seal on the sky and the earth.

This meant that one could escape if one had a teleportation spell art that was powerful enough.

Did the Basking Moon students have such a method?

They did!

The teleportation token!

Mu Yi’s objective was now plain to see. He was actually giving the Basking Moon students a choice: wait here until they died, or concede and escape.

The Seven Absolutions Sect had no grudge against the Basking Moon Sect, and while Mu Yi had used vengeance to get Yun Wuji to work with him, he himself did not actually want to anger the Basking Moon Sect. He gave the Basking Moon Sect a chance to survive while at the same time weakening its counterattack. After all, the Fire Beacon Smoke Net Formation had been formed with very few materials, so it wasn’t very solid. His worst fear was a desperate counterattack.

Tang Jie despaired when he realized this. But he was an extremely tenacious person, and the more dire the situation, the more decisive he became.

Resolve flashing in his eyes, Tang Jie raised his head and said, “Senior Brother Peng, Senior Brother Ye, everyone, listen up.”

All the students looked at him.

Tang Jie shouted, “Mu Yi has laid down a Smoke Net Formation, but he’s allowed teleportation. Right now, you just need to activate your teleportation token to leave the blessed land. But this would mean that we’ve lost! We will lose the right to vie for the treasures, and we’ll even lose the two treasures we have on hand because we haven’t held them long enough, meaning that they’ll ultimately belong to the final victor. In other words… we won’t get anything.”

He looked at everyone and shouted, “Is that the ending you want?”

Peng Yaolong laughed. “Of course not! Tang Jie, hurry up and tell us your plan already.”

Tang Jie went on, “I can’t break his Smoke Net Formation from within it, but I do have a chance outside of it. I have a means of getting myself out of the formation, but I will need your help. Not only that, I will need you to help me hold off the Seven Absolutions Sect within the formation. In addition, no matter how difficult things get, you have to persevere and not teleport!”

Everyone fell silent.

Peng Yaolong said in a low voice, “And if you can’t do it?”

Tang Jie replied, “Then you all might die in the formation.”

“Understood.” Peng Yaolong nodded. “If that’s the case, what are we still hesitating for? Hurry and get out of the formation, tear it down, and rescue us!”

“Right!” everyone shouted in unison. “Hurry and get out to break the formation!”

“Break the formation!”

“Break the formation!”

“Break the formation!”

The students roared in unison three times.

The energy pillars continued to rise while the dark curtain continued to spread.

The Basking Moon students stood in the wind, countless plumes of smoke rising up behind them.

At this moment, they seemed like a squad of soldiers prepared to die.

Tang Jie breathed in deeply and nodded. “Alright!”

He first activated the Formless Golden Body and Aquagel Shroud, and then he pointed on the ground. “Concentrate all your power right here!”

Twelve people fired at the ground in unison.

As the crater appeared, Tang Jie took out an item and thrust it at the ground.

A Minor Five Elements Escape Talisman!

It was precisely the art talisman he had bought from Madam Shui.

He had bought four art talismans from Spirit Platform Pavilion at the time: the Heavenly Pearl Slash Talisman, the Fiend-Sealing Mountain Talisman, the Yellow Springs Talisman, and the Minor Five Elements Escape Talisman.

He had already used the other three, with the battle against the Illusion Fox at Old Crow Ridge having completely used up the Heavenly Pearl Slash and Fiend-Sealing Mountain Talismans. The Minor Five Elements Escape Talisman was a lifesaving talisman, and since Tang Jie had never needed to run, he had kept it until now. But today, it was finally seeing some use.

A powerful light wrapped around Tang Jie and carried him into the ground.

A pillar of light blasted out of the ground, savagely striking him. But before any blood could appear on Tang Jie’s body, the talisman whisked him away. Peng Yaolong and the others saw energy pillars crazily shooting out of the ground, starting near them and extending all the way out of the formation, disappearing into the forest.

“This… this is…” The students were all gobsmacked.

Tang Jie’s method of escape was extremely simple. By weakening the formation by attacking the formation node and exploiting its innate flaw, he would force his way out with the escape talisman. The Smoke Net Formation’s primary means of sealing the earth was the Silk-Sickle Web, which favored lethality over sealing power. But as its lethality was too great, very few people had the guts to go against the Silk-Sickle Web.

But Tang Jie had the guts. By exploiting the flaw and adding on some destructive power, Tang Jie had torn a gap open in the formation, after which he relied on his own body to push through.

It was a bold wager. If he got out, the sky would be the limit, but if he failed, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about digging a hole for his grave.

For this reason, this method not only required sharp eyes and impressive calculation abilities, but a fearless personality and formidable self-confidence. The formation node was only at its weakest when it was initially broken, and at this life-or-death moment, every second of hesitation drew the escapee closer to death.

As Tang Jie was borne away by the escape talisman, even Mu Yi couldn’t help but mutter, “Tang Jie truly possesses both guts and wisdom!”

“But Junior Brother Mu, Tang Jie will be trouble now that he’s escaped. What do we do now?” Xiao Wen asked.

Mu Yi said nothing.

He blankly looked at the ground, as if he was watching ants fight.

After a while, he finally said, “Tang Jie won’t leave. He will come back to break the formation, and the best way of breaking the formation from outside is the Stop Gate Banner.”

Lin Wang cautiously said, “Tang Jie might not know where the Stop Gate Banner is…”

Mu Yi firmly said, “He definitely knows!”

The Seven Absolutions Sect students glanced at each other, and then Xiao Wen nodded. “If that’s the case, then let me go and protect the Stop Gate Banner. I was planning on having a spar with him anyway.”

Mu Yi said, “Liu Jin, Sun Yi, you go with him.”

Xiao Wen frowned. “Junior Brother Mu, you don’t believe in me?”

Mu Yi looked at his palm and muttered, “I just want to be extra sure.”