bookandnovel Chapter 104 Schemes!
Chapter 104 Schemes!
Ning Qingxue felt ice-cold all over, as if she had fallen into an ice cellar. At this moment, all the doubts were connected and there was no more doubt.
"Lu Ming! Stop right now!!!"
She shouted sharply, lunged forward, grabbed Lu Ming's wrist tightly, and used the Heavenly Palace's binding technique to lock Lu Ming's meridians, causing him to stop circulating his magic.
Lu Ming was abruptly interrupted, his Dao Foundation pillar trembled violently, and a sharp backlash pain came from his dantian.
His brows were furrowed, his eyes filled with confusion and a hint of anger.
"Qingxue, what are you doing? We're just one step away from reinforcing the seal!"
"Reinforcing the seal is a pretense; breaking the seal and releasing the Void Venerable is the real goal!" Ning Qingxue's voice was urgent, yet every word was clear.
"He's lying to you! You're not guarding the cauldron; you're using your Dao foundation to collide with it, destroying your own foundation and helping it break free of its seal!"
"Impossible!" Lu Ming suddenly broke free from her hand, still stubbornly urging the magic incantation.
"Senior is the remnant soul of the Heavenly Pivot Guardian Array, protecting us all the way. How could he harm me? My slight loss of foundation is nothing compared to the suffering of all living beings!"
"You're being foolish!" Ning Qingxue's eyes reddened with anxiety as she held onto him tightly.
"Your Dao Foundation is your very essence. Drawing it out of your body is a dead end. A force of the same rank colliding with the Divine Cauldron will only destabilize it and loosen the seal!"
"This isn't strengthening the seal, it's destroying it!"
"You naive fool, you're being sold out and you're still helping them count the money!"
Upon seeing this, the gray-robed elder immediately stepped forward, his expression both sorrowful and anxious, and pointed at Ning Qingxue, shouting sternly:
"Young friend, stop immediately! Her soul has been corrupted by the power of the void, and her mind has been thrown into chaos! The seal is about to be secured; you must not let her interfere!"
"I haven't been corrupted; I'm perfectly clear-headed!"
Ning Qingxue gripped the Destiny Plate tightly, using the Seven Emotions and Separation Scripture to solidify her resolve. In front of the two of them, she clearly and logically deduced the entire truth:
"I cultivate the Seven Emotions and Separation from Hatred, which allows me to see myself most clearly. Only when the power of the Dao Foundation unsealed my cultivation technique was I able to see all my previous emotions."
"Those feelings of compassion, admiration, and trust are all emotions you manipulated, making us lower our guard and willingly enter the game!"
"Lu Ming, with his innocent and pure heart, was completely unaware of your deception and was fooled by you!"
"I used the Destiny Chart to deduce the grand formation. Your origin is not a remnant soul at all. The Divine Continent Cauldron is currently only the last seal on this Nine Extremes Formation. Lu Ming's Dao Foundation is the key for you to break through the seal!"
"The real way to strengthen the seal is not to have Lu Mingtong's Dao Foundation impact the cauldron body."
"Instead, it draws in the earth's dragon energy, spiritual energy, stellar power, gale force, and soul essence from the eight layers of external formations, pouring them all into the Divine Continent Cauldron!"
"But along the way, the power of the eight great formations remained entrenched, never flowing to the ninth level. It was clearly blocked long ago. You only tricked Lu Ming into destroying the cauldron with his Dao foundation!"
"Extracting one's Dao foundation from the body is a major taboo for cultivators, yet you force him to repeatedly collide with the Divine Continent Cauldron. This is not strengthening it, but severely damaging his foundation, leading to his death and the dissipation of his Dao, while simultaneously loosening the seal on the Divine Continent Cauldron!"
Every word he uttered pierced through the old man's layers of pretense.
Lu Ming's movements suddenly froze, and the light of the Dao Foundation Pillar dimmed abruptly.
He looked into Ning Qingxue's clear and lucid eyes, then glanced at the anxious old man in gray robes beside him, his mind racing with details of the journey:
The ethereal transformation only attacks himself; the old man's unusual focus on his Dao foundation; the strange isolation of the great formation's power; and the increasingly intense tearing pain within his dantian...
On one side is the noble principle to be upheld, and on the other is the mission that the old man spoke of, a mission he had been waiting for for a thousand years.
On one side was Ning Qingxue's desperate dissuasion and impeccable logical reasoning.
Lu Ming was caught in an extreme struggle and wavering. He believed in Ning Qingxue, but his heart was being torn apart by a bewitching obsession.
Ning Qingxue's analysis was entirely logical, but he couldn't help but believe the old man.
His inner obsession made him want to continue activating his Dao Foundation, but Ning Qingxue's explanation of the dangers of the Dao Foundation and the principles of the formation made it impossible for him to ignore.
"I..." Lu Ming's throat tightened, and more and more blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. The excruciating pain in his Dao Foundation and the inner struggle made him tremble all over.
Seeing Lu Ming hesitate, the old man in the gray robe knew that if he delayed any longer, something unexpected would happen.
The pain on his face vanished instantly, replaced by a ferocious expression.
"It seems you, little girl, have been deeply corrupted by the will of nothingness. If we don't eliminate you today, you will eventually become part of nothingness!"
"Since you're so stubborn, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
Having said that, the old man raised his hand to grab Ning Qingxue, and a huge palm shadow instantly rushed over. Ning Qingxue's cultivation had now been fully restored, so how could she just sit and wait to die?
The heart-shattering bell on her wrist rang wildly, spreading invisible sound waves. At the same time, the star patterns on her natal chart flourished, forming lines of defense.
The bell rang wildly, bringing with it a cleansing clarity to his mind. Upon hearing the bell, Lu Ming felt a slight tingling in his head, and at the same time, the Qingping Sword Intent in his mind was also activated.
In an instant, a powerful force that shattered illusion shot out, and Lu Ming instantly regained his senses!
He had previously thought of himself as having a pure heart, but now he truly realized that his emotions had also been deliberately guided and controlled!
The stubborn belief in the old man that had been ingrained in his heart was shattered in an instant.
Lu Ming broke out in a cold sweat. There really was such a subtle and bewitching magic. If Ning Qingxue's bell hadn't woken him up, he probably would have died without hesitation!
Lu Ming endured the pain of the backlash from the Dao Foundation, retrieved the Dao Foundation, and drew his sword to meet the old man's palm strike head-on.
Although Lu Ming suffered a backlash, his foundational power was significantly catalyzed, making his magical power even stronger than before.
But the old man's palm strike was something neither of them could withstand.
Their defenses were breached simultaneously, and they were sent flying backward.
Seeing that Lu Ming had also regained consciousness, the old man in gray decided to stop pretending.
"Now that you've seen through me, there's no need to pretend anymore. Destroying you will allow me to seize your Dao foundation and use it to break the seal on the Divine Continent Cauldron!"
The old man's body suddenly disintegrated, transforming into a vast, black, void that blotted out the sky, its piercing roar echoing throughout the ninth core:
"Hehehe! Thousands of years of planning, just one step away! Since you don't know what's good for you, then you'd all die!"
The pitch-black vortex beneath the Divine Cauldron churned wildly, and the Void Venerable trapped in the great formation was thoroughly enraged. His endless overflowing power transformed into a devastating black tide, sweeping over Lu Ming!
The scheme was completely exposed, and a dead end suddenly descended. This world-destroying black tide was far beyond what the two of them could currently withstand.
Lu Ming stood frozen in place, the excruciating pain in his dantian sweeping through his entire body. He looked at the towering black tide before him, filled with self-blame and regret.
They were completely fooled and unaware of it, and were even tricked into willingly sacrificing themselves!
He looked at Ning Qingxue, who was protecting him. If Ning Qingxue hadn't desperately reminded him, he would have already lost his foundation and died, and even unleashed an eternal catastrophe.