Seeing the hammer shadow falling, Zhang Yuhe's heart skipped a beat. It was truly his bottomless Nine Heavens Mixed Yuan Sword Formation at work.
In theory, this magic power was as impressive as described, but what was its actual effect?
He'd never truly experienced it before.
What if the descriptions in the techniques were exaggerated?
After all, many exercises tend to embellish their capabilities, claiming they can turn the world upside down at a moment's notice.
Zhang Yuhe focused most of his attention on controlling the Nine Heavens Mixed Yuan Sword Formation.
If things went south, he'd run.
He was fast, after all, and had the Heavenly Desolate Flying Immortal Technique to rely on.
This was certainly a magical ability suited for escaping.
Rumble...
The enormous hammer shadow crashed into the sword shadow light curtain, but the curtain didn't even tremble.
"Haha, the Nine Heavens Mixed Yuan Sword Formation is more formidable than I thought!"
Seeing that the formation's defense held firm, Zhang Yuhe couldn't help but feel elated.
With such an impenetrable defense, he no longer needed to deal with these people.
He could now focus entirely on pulling lightning to attack Mirror Sky City.
The man with the scar and the others were utterly stunned.
They had no idea that the small hammer in the scarred man's hand was a spiritual treasure that could lead to the heavens.
Although it was just a lower-grade artifact, it was still a Tongtian Lingbao, not some trivial object.
A strike from a Tongtian Lingbao, especially one wielded with full force, could easily calm mountains and seas, let alone shatter defenses.
Yet, despite the ferocity of the blow, Zhang Yuhe's sword shadow light curtain didn't even flinch.
What kind of defense was this?
The six of them stood frozen, completely dumbfounded.
"What now?" they muttered, bewildered.
They had initially thought Zhang Yuhe would be easy to overpower.
Now, he seemed more like a tough walnut—or at least an iron turtle.
Unable to break the defense, they realized they had to find another approach.
"Let's go. We'll search for the corner of the formation and break the one he arranged," the scarred man declared, facing Zhang Yuhe's turtle-like defense with no further hesitation.
He thought, If you're hiding behind that defensive shell and pulling lightning to strike Mirror Sky City, we'll simply destroy your formation and see how you handle it.
With a wave of his hand, the six of them quickly scattered, flying in all directions to search for the array flags Zhang Yuhe had placed.
"Damn, we can't let them find the formation flags."
Seeing the six Transformation Cultivators dispersing, Zhang Yuhe's heart raced with anxiety.
If they located even a single formation flag, all of his earlier efforts would have been in vain.
The Dehydration Thunder Formation was purely an attack-based formation. Once someone found the location of its flags, it could easily be disrupted.
Zhang Yuhe glanced at Litian, who was still entangled with Concubine Mingyue and couldn't break free.
"Fine, I'll handle this myself."
He quickly pinched the spell, causing the sword shadow light curtain around him to dissipate in an instant.
"Go!"
With a wave of his right hand, one of the golden flying swords shot towards one of the approaching Transformation Cultivators.
Li Jiangxiong, flying ahead with urgency, was intent on locating the formation flags.
If Zhang Yuhe was allowed to control the formation again, Mirror Sky City's defense would soon collapse.
Suddenly, Li Jiangxiong felt an overwhelming sense of danger, as if disaster was closing in.
He turned and saw a golden sword light speeding toward him.
Without thinking, he pulled out a brick-shaped magic weapon.
He injected mana, and the magic weapon quickly expanded to face the incoming sword light.
The golden sword light sliced through the magic weapon as if it were made of paper, cutting the brick-shaped artifact in half with ease.
The slab-brick magic weapon offered no defense. The flying sword continued on its path, slicing toward Li Jiangxiong.
With no time to react, Li Jiangxiong was struck, and in an instant, his body was split in two.
A miniature Yuan Ying, shaped like Li Jiangxiong, flew out of his body.
This was Li Jiangxiong's Yuan Infant.
When a monk reaches the Yuan Infant realm, their Yuan Infant resides in the dantian. As long as the Yuan Infant is not destroyed, the monk can potentially be revived.
However, as soon as the Yuan Ying emerged, the golden flying sword glowed brightly and immediately annihilated the Yuan Infant.
Li Jiangxiong, the ancestor of the Li family, who had cultivated for thousands of years, was completely obliterated.
"Uh, am I really that strong?"
Zhang Yuhe himself was shocked.
For a long time, he had no clear sense of his own strength.
There was no way to gauge it; he spent most of his time at the mountain gate, training alone, never really testing himself in battle.
How could he know how strong he was?
But now, it seemed, he had just killed a god-transforming monk—and it had been surprisingly easy.
Although Li Jiangxiong had been severely injured by Litian earlier and was in the early stage of god-transformation, he was still a formidable foe.
The remaining five at the scene stood frozen, their jaws dropped.
Even Litian, normally brimming with arrogance, now wore a look of disbelief.
In Litian's mind, Zhang Yuhe's cultivation had advanced rapidly, so he assumed his supernatural powers had not received as much attention.
Moreover, Zhang Yuhe lacked battle experience, and when the six Transformation Cultivators charged earlier, he had looked extremely anxious.
Yet, despite all this, Zhang Yuhe had effortlessly slain a god-transformation monk with a single sword.
"Is it really so easy to kill a Transformation Monk?" Litian wondered aloud. "I couldn't even take down one of them after all that effort."
Concubine Mingyue, quicker to recover, shouted to the remaining five, "Quick! Let's go after him together. Don't let him take us down one by one."
The five who had previously scattered to find the formation flags now regrouped. However, their once arrogant demeanor had shifted to cautious caution.
Each of them released their defensive magic weapons and surrounded themselves, slowly flying toward Zhang Yuhe.
Zhang Yuhe saw the five approaching and quickly pinched the magic technique again. The Nine Heavens Mixed Yuan Sword integrated into the sword array, forming a massive sword shadow light curtain around him.
Although he had killed one person just now, Zhang Yuhe remained vigilant.
Let them attack first.
He knew the defense of Mirror Sky City was about to break. He'd wait until it did, then focus on destroying the altar.
The scarred man, along with the remaining four, cautiously approached Zhang Yuhe and then slowly dispersed to attack from all angles.
"Kill."
The scarred man eyed the weakening defensive circle around Mirror Sky City and gave the order with determination.
Once again, the small hammer in his hand transformed into a massive hammer shadow, slamming into Zhang Yuhe's sword shadow light curtain.
The other four also released their magic weapons, cautiously launching their attacks.
Each strike landed on the curtain, causing it to ripple slightly, but otherwise, the formation barely budged.
Seeing the attack's lack of effect, Zhang Yuhe relaxed and resumed focusing on pulling lightning to attack Mirror Sky City.