âIâve underestimated Jie Tian.â
Chu Feng realized that Jie Tian and Little Fishy were equally matched despite Jie Tian having expended much of his spirit power on breaching the palace gates. This didnât make sense.
âIt looks like he has other powers in his body,â Chu Feng murmured.
He noticed that Jie Tianâs power didnât just come from his formation armor. The latter was supported by another source of spirit power that significantly augmented his fighting prowess. It was thanks to his formation armor and the other source of spirit power that he was able to fight on equal terms with Little Fishy despite having expended much of his energy.
Little Fishy had a slight advantage in terms of spirit power thanks to the starlight formation, but the advantage wasnât showing in the battle as she was a cultivator unaccustomed to fighting with spirit power. In contrast, Jie Tian was a talented world spiritist who was proficient in using spirit power. His skills allowed him to compensate for his weakness in terms of spirit power.
More importantly, Little Fishyâs starlight formation was slowly wearing out. It was going to be a battle of attrition at this pointâwhoever wore out faster would lose the battle. From what Chu Feng could see, Little Fishy was wearing out faster.
At this rate, they would lose the battle. Chu Feng knew that he needed to think of a solution.
By closely observing the two, an idea quickly came to him. It might be faint, but he could sense another layer of energy enveloping Jie Tian. It contained a tinge of the formation entitiesâ auras.
This led him to deduce that the traitors were hiding on Jie Tian, augmenting his fighting prowess through a power-sharing formation constructed using a treasure. The treasure must have been formidable, or else the traitors wouldnât have been able to construct such a powerful formation.
Chu Feng took a closer look and quickly found the treasureâs opening. As long as he could temporarily seal off the treasure, the power-sharing formation would unravel.
âLittle Fishy, Jie Tian is carrying traitors with him. They have constructed a power-sharing formation to augment Jie Tianâs strength. Donât fight him face-on right now. Try to minimize your starlight formationâs rate of depletion and stall for time. Iâll construct a formation in the meantime.
âI wonât be able to deal with him with my limited strength, so Iâll need the strength of your starlight formation too. Iâll transfer the formation to you once Iâm done constructing it. Fuse your starlight formation into it and direct it toward Jie Tian.
âIt wonât be sufficient to defeat Jie Tian, but itâll temporarily disable the treasure and unravel the power-sharing formation. That should significantly weaken him,â Chu Feng hurriedly sent a voice transmission to Little Fishy.
âAll right.â
Little Fishy obediently listened to Chu Fengâs suggestion even though the latter was currently far weaker than her. She began stalling for time to minimize her starlight formationâs depletion.
Meanwhile, Chu Feng began constructing his formation. The formation wasnât too tough to construct, but it was complicated by three important points he needed to take note of.
First, his formation must be able to fuse into Little Fishyâs starlight formation as he needed her power to temporarily seal off the treasure.
Second, it needed to be a double-layered formation. One layer was the sealing formation to disable the treasure, whereas the first layer had to be a sufficiently powerful offensive formation to serve as a feint so that they could slip the sealing formation close enough to Jie Tian to work its effects.
Last but not least, Chu Fengâs formation had to be constructed discreetly. Jie Tian mustnât catch on to it, or else he would surely hinder him.
These three points were simple to accomplish alone, but the difficulty increased exponentially when he had to simultaneously fulfill them. Even Chu Feng would require considerable time to complete the formation.
âChu Feng, why donât you just construct a powerful offensive formation?â Eggy asked.
If Chu Feng had the means to construct a two-layered formation, surely he would have the means to construct a more powerful offensive formation by itself. Rather than unraveling the power-sharing formation, it would be more effective for him to get rid of Jie Tian right away.
âJie Tianâs means arenât beneath mine; he might even be stronger than me. I am not confident of curbing him even if we have the same level of spirit power. I donât think that I can construct an offensive formation strong enough to turn the tides of the battle.
âI believe that Iâd be able to contribute to the battle more by focusing on weakening Jie Tian. The offensive formation Iâm constructing here is a distraction to divert his attention elsewhere so that Iâd stand a better chance at unraveling the power-sharing formation,â Chu Feng explained.
âI see. You have truly thought things through,â Eggy agreed with Chu Fengâs point of view.
It was not that Chu Feng couldnât construct a stronger offensive formation, but he chose to do things in a safer manner so as to better help Little Fishy.
Time ticked by.
Chu Fengâs formation was on the verge of completion, but Little Fishy was also falling into an increasingly more disadvantageous position. Her starlight formation was depleting faster than he had expected. Jie Tian was also depleting his spirit power, but it was nowhere as fast as Little Fishyâs.
At this rate, Little Fishyâs starlight formation would wear thin first.
By then, Little Fishy would only have her formation armor to rely on. While she could exert her bloodline power through the formation armor, its prowess was beneath the starlight formation. This would place Little Fishy in a terrible position.
It was fortunate that Chu Feng completed the formation. He discreetly sent a voice transmission to Little Fishy, saying, âYou did well, Little Fishy. Head over there and grab my formation.â
To avoid catching Jie Tianâs attention, Chu Feng was going to transfer the formation over to Little Fishy in a discreet manner. Little Fishy quickly rushed into position and grabbed the formation before fusing the spirit power from her starlight power into it.
Unfortunately, Little Fishy had depleted so much of her starlight power that there wasnât much of it left. Even so, she could sense how powerful the formation in her hand was, and that greatly boosted her confidence.
So, she stopped escaping and instead tossed the formation toward Jie Tian.
Jie Tian was stunned as starlight zapped down on him like a rain of arrows. The formation looked as if it was constructed out of countless formations, and there was no way to escape it. The only way to survive was to last till the final arrow.
The most frightening thing of all was that the arrows came in at a steady pace reminiscent of a disciplined army. That made it even more threatening.
âIs that her trump card?â Jie Tianâs gaze turned grim.
Thus far, her attacks had been limited to basic manipulation of her spirit power, reminiscent of how a cultivator could only purely use their martial power and oppressive might if they hadnât learned any martial skills.
Yet, she was using a powerful formation that normal world spiritist would have struggled to construct this time around.