A Card In Hand

Chapter 7: The Crimson-Eyed Flying Dragon and the Silver Halberd

“Relax, the flying dragon has long been sealed,” Li Ao said nonchalantly, snapping his fingers.

A spark of energy burst from his fingertips, forming a small orb of light that quickly transformed into waves of energy.

These waves rippled through the air, reaching the stone walls of the cave dwelling everywhere and bouncing back.

After the energy wave survey.

In the deepest part of the stone wall, a dark area suddenly lit up brightly.

The hidden formation silently revealed itself, shining with the light of a pale blue hexagram.

“Huh?”

Li Ao said in surprise, because he found that the hidden formation before him was not set by Youhuo, as previously thought, but rather by another, clearly more powerful stranger whose main attribute seemed to be water.

This was distinctly different from Youhuo, whose main attribute was darkness.

This unknown opponent, not present in Li Ao’s memories, possessed exquisite formation skills.

In other words, without the secret key to this formation, anyone daring to break the formation for treasure would be subjected to some unpredictable curse.

“It’s surprising that a prince ranked thirteenth, Prince Jinxi, has so many talented supporters behind him. No wonder I was played around in circles back in the day,” Li Ao shook his head, deeply sighing about his past, which he found hard to revisit.

“As a newcomer, wanting to climb up without any support is simply masochistic. Luckily, torturing myself turned me into a support!”

Li Ao did not have the secret key.

No choice.

He had to rely on his strength to break the formation.

After careful observation and repeatedly probing with very slight energy, Li Ao’s lips suddenly curled into a smile.

“Go, fetch me some live cave spiders!”

Although breaking the formation was not difficult for Li Ao, he wanted more than just to break the formation; he was preparing a big surprise for Prince Jinxi when he arrived.

Li Ao knew curse formations too, although not as smoothly as the God of Curses.

He turned his energy into thread-like strands, gently winding around his fingertips, carefully changing the arrangement of the magical strings within the formation.

Sometimes fast, sometimes slow.

Tweaking and plucking.

His movements were like playing a musical piece, full of method and structure.

Ten minutes later, Li Ao slowly withdrew his hand from the formation, gently wiping off some sweat.

Although this formation was not comparable to the gigantic formations of the Celestial Realm, it was still a sophisticated one, and modifying it with his current strength presented some difficulties.

Two Shadow Giant Wolves were already waiting with the cave spiders.

A Stone Bear had also caught one.

Unfortunately.

It had not even had the chance to rejoice before it was blocked front and back by the two wolves, and under their imposing gaze, it had to crunch the spider to death…

“Prince Jinxi, I never gave you a gift in our past life, so this life I’ve decided to make it up to you doubly,” Li Ao said earnestly, selecting three female spiders, transforming them into cards, and carefully placing them into the barely visible three secret eyes of the hexagram formation.

As soon as the cards entered the hexagram formation.

They immediately released the illusion.

The formation instantly engulfed the three female spiders.

Within the flashing light, the disintegrating spiders turned into three streams of cursed energy, merging into the hexagram formation.

“Hmm, next, the curse formation will enter a dormant state, just waiting for Prince Jinxi to lightly place the secret key on it, and the whole ritual will be completely completed. Prince Jinxi is a person who pursues quality in life; he should appreciate the unique experience these little spiders bring,” Li Ao double-checked the formation, ensuring it was foolproof before he stopped his operations.

Li Ao stood before the curse formation, resting for a long time.

For him, who habitually pursued perfection, there was still one last step of camouflage to complete.

Of course, before camouflaging, he had to retrieve something from behind the formation.

With a thought.

The curse formation rotated like a wheel.

Three pale blue cursed spider shadows, driven by Li Ao’s will, jumped out from the secret eyes, quickly swapping positions in the only correct way to solve the formation.

Li Ao believed that no more than five people in the entire Tianfeng Continent could correctly solve the formation; not to mention Prince Jinxi couldn’t solve it, even the original master of the water attribute wouldn’t be able to unlock this ‘Curse of the Cursed Spider’ formation stolen from the God of Curses.

The hidden door behind the stone wall thunderously opened, revealing a small stone chamber.

The stone chamber was not large.

Inside the cave, there was a square stone table.

On the table, there lay a beautifully crafted crystal box.

Li Ao, using his source energy to sense it, found no traps.

Without hesitation, he collected the crystal box into his palm.

After restoring the formation, the three Cursed spider shadows also returned to their places, causing the formation to rotate back into motion and closing the stone wall secret door that had opened.

Li Ao, using his source energy, set up a camouflage formation to disguise the area, restoring the curse formation to its original state, though its core components had drastically changed.

Camouflage completed.

Li Ao then turned his attention to the crystal box in his hand.

The crystal box, not yet opened, emitted energy fluctuations so intense that two shadow wolves and a stone bear retreated fearfully more than twenty steps away, not daring to approach carelessly.

Opening the crystal box.

A burst of light emerged from within, brightening the entire cave.

As the white light faded, a shimmering orange card floated in front of Li Ao.

“Interesting! Not only merging a Crimson-Eyed Flying Dragon with a silver-tier weapon, the Cliff Spear, but also incorporating a specific contract formation,” Li Ao remarked appreciatively.

“If it weren’t for someone who knows how to crack this specific formation, even if someone other than Prince Jinxi got hold of this card first, they could only watch as this treasure gathers dust!”

If he were to rate his opponent’s maneuver.

Li Ao felt giving a perfect score might make the opponent proud, but ninety was definitely not out of the question.

“Removing a specific contract formation isn’t easy, but with the right conditions, a slight modification to change the specified target for a new one shouldn’t fail; the replacement process is just a bit troublesome.”

Nothing can stump an old demon who has lived in the Celestial Realm for nearly two thousand years!

Li Ao extended his right hand, his index finger tracing slowly in mid-air.

The light strings formed by source energy continued to extend.

With each meticulous stroke.

The intricacies were indescribable.

Soon, a gorgeously complex Celestial Formation was born.

Li Ao gently placed the orange card within the formation, then with his left hand, he maneuvered both the formation and the card to his left side.

His right hand began to mold a new formation.

As the second equally splendid but distinctly different formation took shape, the connecting light strings between the two suddenly emitted dazzling light, shining brilliantly.

Li Ao quickly pulled out a pure black diamond refined from the core of an Abyssal Golem and placed it in the center of the right formation.

Black diamond placed.

The light from both formations intensified a thousandfold.

A wondrous balance of formations rose between the two, ascending over twenty meters.

“Meld!”

Li Ao raised both hands, infusing the power of time.

The card and the black diamond connected by countless tiny currents met successfully, creating a powerful flow of energy.

Massive energy continued to brew, eventually expanding into a sphere.

The energy core grew larger and larger.

When the energy core reached about ten meters in diameter, a silver dragon, blazing with green abyssal flames, suddenly burst forth and soared into the sky.

Reaching the apex, the silver dragon instantly reversed direction, diving back down.

Li Ao raised his right hand high.

The silver dragon opened its fierce maw, diving towards his palm.

The intense shockwave swept through the entire cave, blowing the two shadow wolves and the stone bear, which had retreated even further, several tens of meters away.

Boom!

The balance of the formations let out a thunderous noise that shook the mountains and rivers.

Countless currents crackled like serpents in the brilliant white light, striking all over the cave walls.

The energy turbulence, triggered by the imbalance of source power, directly created a terrifying tornado storm, swirling stones and darkening the skies as if doomsday had come.

It was unclear how much time had passed before the energy storm gradually subsided into a fierce wind, heading swiftly towards the sky outside, and the energy turbulence finally dissipated slowly.

Sizzling… sizzling… sizz…

At this moment, what Li Ao held in his right hand was an indescribably splendid silver halberd.