Bamboo Mound

"I have a sense of déjà vu; I feel like I've seen the effects of this attack somewhere before..."

Ning Chang stroked his chin thoughtfully. Apart from the Three Sects Competition on the Qingyun Sect's side, he had basically never fought, and could only remember a few battles.

At the mine, he only used bamboo leaves, and his opponent's stick couldn't even make a hole in it.

The Xuan Shui Turtle and Xuan Shui Snake were even simpler, staying entirely in the water and air without causing any impact on the environment.

During that inner demon incident, I was completely unconscious, and when I woke up, the environment hadn't changed much...

"Before that... never mind, I don't really remember."

"There are countless attack methods in the cultivation world, so it's normal for some of them to have similar effects."

"Um... Master..."

As Ning Changzheng shook his head inwardly, a female voice came from behind him, sounding somewhat swaying and dreamlike.

Turning around, he noticed that the figure with the bent arm, trying to get up, looked somewhat familiar, but after raising an eyebrow and thinking for a moment, he still couldn't place it.

"strangeness.."

"Ah!...Greetings, senior."

As the figure stood up and looked up, he naturally saw Ning Chang's appearance. He was startled and bowed slightly, as if to pay his respects, in a posture that Ning Chang had never seen before.

"You know me?" Ning Chang finally realized something was wrong and frowned.

"A smooth attack can be dismissed as an illusion or a coincidence, but this girl... she feels the same way. She knows me too... My memory is playing tricks on me!"

Connecting the incorrect points, Ning Chang instantly came to a conclusion!

Even as his mind raced, the expressions of the two people outside changed slightly after hearing Ning Chang's casual question.

The girl stared blankly for a moment, then looked somewhat lost, and silently leaned closer to Ge Shu's back.

Ge Shu, being over fifty years older than Ning Chang, naturally noticed the unusual expression on Ning Chang's face, but knew it wasn't anything to worry about, and simply said as usual:

"This is my newly accepted disciple, Lin Yumeng. You took care of me some time ago, how could you have forgotten?"

“Lin Yumeng… I remember now.” Ning Chang repeated Lin Yumeng’s name, and fragmented memories gradually surfaced.

"Phew~ It seems I haven't been using my brain much lately, and my thinking has become a bit sluggish."

Ning Chang let out a long sigh and shook his head vigorously. "I've always been a bit forgetful, and even at this level, there's been no improvement..."

"In addition, I only met her once during the admissions process. Since then, I've fainted several times in the past few months, so it's normal that I can't remember many things at the moment."

As he spoke, he examined Lin Yumeng again, only to find that her cultivation level was only at the first level of the Spirit Fusion Realm!

"Hmm? Young friend, even with your spiritual platform, the innate deficiency of divine consciousness hasn't been passively repaired... That's quite rare."

Ge Shu stared at Ning Chang's forehead for a moment, then casually raised his hand to repair the deep pit beside him, creating a flat surface, but without laying down the same stone bricks as the surrounding area.

Ning Chang didn't pay attention to the decorations, but instead noticed a possible common sense in Ge Shu's words. However, he didn't rush to ask questions, but instead looked at Lin Yumeng:

"Putting all that aside, this should be Sect Leader Ge's residence, right? How could she be so badly injured here?"

Ge Shu shook his head. "I don't know either."

He sensed that the spiritual energy around Xiaoyu suddenly became violent, and then her aura became so weak that it almost disappeared.

If I hadn't arrived in time, locking away her life and soul, and given her a Rejuvenation Pill..."

She didn't continue, but the three of them knew exactly what would happen next.

As soon as they finished speaking, the two of them looked at Lin Yumeng at the same time, waiting for her to continue.

Seeing this, Lin Yumeng nodded, closed her eyes and recalled for a moment, then parted her teeth slightly and said:

"Since breaking through to the Spirit Fusion Realm yesterday, I have been consolidating my realm until this morning. After that, I continued to study the Water-Shielding Mind-Shifting Formation bestowed by my master."

"Following the instructions in the book, I quickly set up the formation and successfully activated it, but... with my current strength, I am completely unable to trigger the formation's attack and teleportation functions..."

Ge Shu nodded and said, "Yes, that's true. I originally planned to start looking for suitable attack methods for you from the fifth level of Spirit Fusion, which is why I only gave you a defensive formation to familiarize yourself with in advance and practice for self-defense."

Hearing this, Ning Chang suddenly fell silent. If Ge Shu hadn't provided Lin Yumeng with a powerful enough attack method to trigger the Water-Covering Heart-Shifting Array, then Lin Yumeng would only be able to use the bamboo leaf he had given her and the Five Elements Dragon-Trapping Array.

However, he did not believe that the formation he had stolen from a sect that was at the upper limit of the Fetal Heart Realm could shake the formation used by the sect leader of a major sect like the Astrology Pavilion.

Therefore, the only possibility is to place the speculation on the bamboo leaves themselves. The idea that their attack, which was at the Spirit Platform Realm, broke the formation set up by Lin Yumeng at the Fusion Spirit Realm is somewhat reasonable, although the power of the attack is still questionable.

"Did you use that bamboo leaf to test the defensive formation? It wouldn't be too surprising if it got out of control."

He tried to keep his tone as calm as possible so that the two wouldn't think he was blaming them.

"Senior, those bamboo leaves were a life-saving treasure bestowed upon me by you. How could I use them so carelessly in a formation test!"

After speaking, she paused for a moment, "But... something really happened, the bamboo leaves have disappeared."

"No rush, speak slowly." Ge Shu gestured for Ning Chang to quiet down for the time being.

"Yes, after I discovered that I was unable to trigger the array's function, I set my sights on the attack array that this senior had bestowed upon me at the time."

Upon hearing this, Ning Chang was stunned. "I didn't expect that formation to still be..."

...It really does have that kind of power...

Feeling Ge Shu's gaze, Ning Chang didn't say the rest of his sentence, and forced a smile.

"As soon as I finished setting up the Five Elements Dragon Trapping Formation, I felt the formation's strength increasing rapidly, but it stopped very quickly."

It took several hours to barely master the spiritual light within the array, and then I controlled the light to attack the Water-Shielding Mind-Shifting Array.

As she said this, a hint of helplessness and fear appeared in Lin Yumeng's eyes.

"The shield of the Water-Covering Heart-Shifting Array shattered the moment it came into contact with the spiritual light, which then broke free of the disciple's control and rampaged through the Five Elements Dragon-Trapping Array!"

The disciple couldn't dodge in time and was grazed by the spiritual light on his waist and abdomen. His spatial bag was also destroyed by the light. When I looked clearly, only the bamboo leaf given to him by the senior was still intact...

"But then that bamboo leaf suddenly started to glow, and I was drawn in, and it entered the spiritual light of the Five Elements Dragon Trapping Formation. At that time, I had barely left the range of the two formations, and after that... I don't remember anything."