Junior sister took first place again

Midnight has arrived, but the Nine-story Observatory is still as bright as day.

Immortal Yunhua stood on the top of the suspended peak. The stars embroidered with silver thread on his jade-colored Taoist robe were shining and surging, and as his wide sleeves fluttered, it seemed that thousands of stars were flickering.

Seventy-two star ropes dropped from the suspended peak, interweaving in the void to form a huge "Zhou Tian Xuan Ji Formation", as if to swallow the entire night into its arms.

At three quarters past midnight, Yaoguang, the seventh star of the Big Dipper, was hanging just above the top of Liuli Peak.

Immortal Yunhua flew to the center of the nine-zhang-high star dial, and the seventy-two star ropes under his feet were cutting the floating peak into the prototype of the Three Thousand Sword Testing Platform.

The twelve elders of the Xingchen Sect sat in the Tiangang positions respectively, and the silver light emitted from the galaxy plates in their hands weaved a Zhoutian Xuanji Formation covering a hundred miles among the clouds.

"Zhen is in the mine pond, and Li Palace is in the hell of fire."

Immortal Yunhua swept the void with his wide sleeves, and the silver star map on his jade-white Taoist robe suddenly came alive.

The disciples of the Seventh Hall trod on the Star Rope, embedding 360 thunder talismans into the edge of the sword testing platform. The moment each talisman lit up, purple lightning streaked along the Star Rope, exploding into a continuous vortex of thunderstorms in the sea of clouds.

The floating star sand in the formation condensed into three thousand sword-testing platforms as the fingertips of Immortal Yunhua pointed.

"The star track of Dui position has shifted by three inches." Yunhua Immortal Venerable suddenly stopped the spell, and his eyes pierced the southeast corner like an ice blade.

The Immortal Venerable's voice carried the power of the Moon's Soul, and the spiritual consciousness in the purple palaces of everyone present trembled uncontrollably.

Yan Jiuyuan groaned and knelt on the ground, and the star plate in his hand fell to the ground with a clang. The bronze star plate was reflecting the innate Bagua flowing in the eyes of Yunhua Immortal Venerable - those pupils clearly reflected a wisp of dissipating demonic blood smoke deep in the southeast corner of the formation pattern that his disciple was responsible for.

Ouyang Zhan lowered his head and stared at the jade floor tiles, his shirt soaked with cold sweat sticking to his back.

He didn't dare to mobilize even a single ounce of his spiritual consciousness, even suppressing his heartbeat to a sluggish state. Otherwise, the array pattern that had been soaked in demonic blood yesterday would have crumbled piece by piece under the profound gaze of his uncle.

"Change people." Yunhua Immortal Venerable spoke calmly, and as he spoke, he lightly waved his sleeves. The starlight of Taiyin at the center of the formation suddenly increased, and Yan Jiuyuan had been tethered outside the formation by the star track chains.

"Where are the disciples of Tianji Hall and Tianquan Hall?"

Following the call of the Immortal Lord, twenty-four purple-robed disciples came along the star track.

The cinnabar mole on the forehead of the leading girl burst into red light, and the jade balance instrument in her hand was precisely embedded in the gap of the Dui position.

In a distant guesthouse, there were cultivators who had arrived at the Xingchen Sect in advance. They were idly watching the layout of the venue for the Immortal Sect Competition.

Seeing this, a wave of exclamations suddenly rang out: "It's Li Yushu from Tianji Hall. He ranked 18th in the Nascent Soul Stage in the last Zhongzhou Competition. I heard that he will be representing Xingchen Sect this time!"

"He was able to complete the formation pattern of the Tribulation Realm in an instant. He is an opponent that cannot be underestimated."

Ouyang Zhan felt a sweet and fishy taste in his throat. He had taken down Yan Jiuyuan from Tianshu Hall, but he didn't expect that his good uncle didn't call on the disciples from Tianxuan Hall to make up for it.

He saw the core of the formation, the Xun position, which he was responsible for, being re-tempered by new disciples using the Nine Heavens Pure Sound Technique. The reverence that danced in the eyes of those young cultivators was more blazing than the sparks of the Zhoutian Xuanji Formation.

"Three thousand star tracks were re-established in an instant. After so many years, Immortal Yunhua's Heavenly Array is still so flawless."

"I heard that a high-level demon disturbed the star orbits last night, but the Immortal Venerable saw through it..."

Whispers mixed in with the humming of the star rope, like fine needles piercing Ouyang Zhan's Baihui acupoint.

He stared at the fire runes flowing in the formation, and suddenly remembered the apprenticeship ceremony many years ago - at that time, Immortal Yunhua also replaced the wrong formation pattern he had engraved with a flick of his sleeve, and the cheers of the monks on the mountain still roared in his ears.

The moment the formation was complete, the seventy-two star ropes transformed into three thousand swords of light suspended in the air. A Kunlun Immortal Sect elder's sentiment pierced through the sword's resonance: "Observing this formation is like witnessing the Way of Heaven. Fellow Daoist Yunhua is truly halfway to immortality."

This sentence triggered all the suppressed admiration, and a star rain suddenly fell from the sky above the Ninth-Layer Observatory - it was actually the spiritual power unconsciously released by the cultivators, which resonated with the Zhoutian Xuanji Formation and produced a strange phenomenon.

True Lord Lingyun followed silently ten steps away, crushing a piece of star sand with the sole of his boot.

Those exclamations were like poisoned silver needles, burning the half of the Star Devouring Disc hidden in his sleeve. The day before yesterday, he had personally embedded the Black Crystal of the Demonic Abyss into Yan Jiuyuan's Star Disc, but it failed to disturb the man's mind for even half a quarter of an hour.

The star sand in front flows in the formation, like mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, converging into mysterious areas.

As the last spell of Immortal Yunhua fell, the entire Zhoutian Xuanji Formation was completely formed.

He looked around and nodded with satisfaction: "That concludes today's arrangements. Thank you all for your hard work."

The disciples bowed and said they dared not.

"Everyone go back and rest for a while. We will start the battle at noon tomorrow."

It was already three quarters past three in the morning. The moment Immortal Venerable Yunhua retracted his sleeves, the entire formation turned into a translucent glass dome, melting the last trace of demonic energy into green smoke, and then disappeared after stepping on the chains for a moment.

Ouyang Zhan stood there, his knuckles turning white from the exertion.

He lowered his eyelids to hide his trembling pupils, and the sharp pain of the tip of his tongue against his palate was enough to suppress the bloody taste in his throat.

Amid the praises of the disciples around him, he heard his own respectful response mingled with the evening breeze: "I will obey the Immortal Venerable's command."

The disciples who had worked hard all night had all dispersed. Ouyang Zhan stared at the bloodstains on his palm caused by his fingernails - the scarlet blood was strangely gathering into miniature star tracks, echoing a hidden gap somewhere in the formation.

The night wind swept across the remaining sparks of the sword-testing platform, blowing the hem of his Taoist robe into the shape of a crane with outstretched wings. In the northwest sky, the star Pojun was emitting an ominous blood-red glow.