The sea wind turned bone-cutting without warning, and the swirling grit stung my face raw. I stood at the cliff's edge of Tide-Listening Manor, the beast-hide formation diagram in my palm radiating an ever-intensifying blue glow, every line of its markings pulsing against my fingertips like living things. Three days and three nights of grueling effort — every node of the Sea-Churning Formation had been carved into my very bones. Yet the moment that ink-black pillar of light rose from the distant horizon, I still felt an invisible hand clenching around my heart.

"The Lock-Sea Formation is complete." Elder Kai's voice came from behind me, carrying a barely perceptible rasp. He leaned on his dragon-headed staff, gazing at that pillar of light spearing into the clouds, his beard trembling faintly in the sea wind. "Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise — the spiritual energy of all four cardinal positions has been drained dry. Tide-Listening Manor is now an isolated island."

I drew a slow, deep breath. The spiritual energy of my eighth-layer Qi Refinement stage churned wildly through my meridians as I fought to suppress the sweet-metallic taste rising in my throat. The Sea-Quelling Jade Pendant blazed hot against my chest, resonating across the distance with the dark-gold sigils etched into the meteorite-iron anvil, forming a thin but tangible layer of protection. Then the "Tide-Drawing Eye" sigil on the beast-hide diagram erupted in a blaze of brilliant light — the sea surface before me blurred in an instant, and countless water-element particles surged and churned across my field of vision.

"They're here!" Elder Kai slammed his staff against the ground. The seawater below the cliffside exploded with a thunderous roar, and several dark shapes burst from the waves, landing wraith-like along the outer edge of the Lock-Sea Formation's wall of light. The figure at their head wore a black hooded cloak; beneath it glinted a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles, and a steel abacus rested in his left hand.

The identity the blind old man had unearthed from the dark-web bounty posting suddenly flashed through my mind: "Iron Abacus — Rex Zhao!"

"Ethan Lu, long time no see." Rex Zhao's voice carried through the light wall, dripping with nauseating false warmth. "I told you all along — wouldn't it have been so much simpler to cooperate? You forced our hand."

I tightened my grip on the meteorite-iron anvil, dark-gold sword energy flickering in and out of existence along its edges. "Rex Zhao, cut the bullshit. Baizhenlou has certainly perfected the art of skulking in the shadows."

From the darkness behind Rex Zhao came a cold, contemptuous snort. A crushing, suffocating pressure rolled out in all directions — more overbearing than the Core Formation aura I had sensed before. Rex Zhao's face shifted. He scrambled hastily to one side as a figure shrouded in black mist stepped slowly forward.

"Skulking in the shadows?" That voice scraped like metal grinding against metal. "Ethan Lu — do you know what crime you stand accused of?"

I braced myself, refusing to buckle beneath the crushing pressure, my gaze locked onto that figure. "What crime have I committed? It is you who have conspired with heretic cultivators and brought harm to mortals — that is the crime worthy of death ten thousand times over!"

The black mist suddenly dispersed, revealing a face — aged yet sharply defined, a scar shaped like a fish-scale marking his brow. Behind me, Elder Kai sucked in a sharp breath. "It's you! The Master of Baizhenlou — Victor Jin!"

My heart lurched violently. Elder Kai had once told me that the Master of Baizhenlou held power at the late Foundation Establishment stage. So why was he now radiating the pressure of Core Formation?

"Old man Hai, long time no see." Victor Jin's gaze swept over Elder Kai, carrying a flicker of disdain. "The Demon-Demon Demon Suppression Bureau couldn't do anything to me back then. What makes you think the two of you alone can stop me now — a mantis trying to halt a chariot?"

Elder Kai gripped his staff. "Victor Jin — you broke through to Core Formation? With those heretic pills, I'll wager!"

The corner of Victor Jin's mouth curled into a vicious grin. "And what of it? Power is the only truth that matters. It beats spending a lifetime stalled at Foundation Establishment and dying of old age."

"Ethan Lu, did you think I truly coveted that broken anvil and jade pendant of yours?" His gaze turned glacial in an instant. "You should never have tangled yourself with those old fossils in the Demon-Demon Demon Suppression Bureau. You have disrupted our plans too many times. And you should never have grown this fast. Leave you alive, and you'll become a calamity sooner or later."

So that was it. The realization struck me with sudden clarity. The meteorite-iron anvil and the Sea-Quelling Jade Pendant were precious, yes — but not irreplaceable in the eyes of a Core Formation cultivator. What had truly moved Zhao Wuchang to murderous intent was my connection to the Demon-Demon Demon Suppression Bureau, and the potential I had demonstrated by rocketing from the first to the eighth layer of Qi Refinement in barely six months.

"You want to kill me?" I drew a slow, deep breath and drove the power of the Sea-Churning Formation to its absolute limit. "Then let's see if you have what it takes."

The words had barely left my mouth before my hands snapped into a seal. The beast-hide formation diagram erupted in ten-thousand-zhang waves of blue radiance. The jade-stone pool beneath Tide-Listening Manor shattered with a thunderous crack, and the spiritual water transformed into a water dragon a thousand meters long, roaring as it surged toward Victor Jin.

"A parlor trick." Victor Jin let out a cold snort and casually struck out a palm of black spiritual energy. It collided with the water dragon. In the earth-shaking blast that followed, the water dragon splintered apart piece by piece, and the shockwave sent blood and energy roiling through me — I staggered backward, step after step.

"Eighth-layer Qi Refinement." Victor Jin advanced one step at a time, the Lock-Sea Formation's wall of light fracturing beneath his feet inch by inch. "You are, in the end, nothing more than eighth-layer Qi Refinement. Even if you have comprehended the Sea-Churning Formation, you are merely prolonging the inevitable."

End of Chapter 35: The Lock-Sea Formation