Gu Fangchen and Shi Le quickly arrived at the center of the Mining Protection Formation, where the activation mechanism was located.
Shi Le took two steps forward and saw an old man in a Daoist robe lying on the ground. A faint golden light flickered between his brows, blood flowed from his seven orifices, and his eyes remained wide open in death.
"Master Huadu!"
His heart ached. He reached out to close the elder's eyes, then carefully pulled out the golden needle.
Shi Le compared it with the ones from the two traitors earlier and immediately knew Gu Fangchen hadn't lied.
Master Huadu had indeed been killed by them!
His face grew grim.
That golden needle had clearly been crafted by a Divine Path expert. It concealed its aura so completely that not only did it evade his own senses as a formation master, even a Divine Path cultivator like Master Huadu hadn't detected it.
Such a method could only mean long-standing premeditation.
From the Princess being trapped, to the Qiong Man's ambush, to the use of golden needles to assassinate both Master Huadu and himself, every step was part of a meticulous chain meant to annihilate all one hundred fifty thousand of the White Dragon Army.
Gu Fangchen walked to the formation's center and looked down at the glowing lines beneath his feet.
The Mining Protection Formation was only a convenient term for the soldiers.
Its true name was the Five Qi Realm-Stabilizing Formation, created by a grandmaster of the Daoist sect's formation path in cooperation with twelve formation cultivators. It spanned the entire Fire Essence Ore mine and the forward encampments.
Its function was not only to defend against enemies but also to suppress the destructive fire energy within the Fire Essence Ore, preventing explosions and protecting the miners.
However, such an enormous formation consumed tremendous resources. Normally only the first layer was active; the remaining four were kept dormant.
Theoretically, to fully activate it would require over ten formation masters acting together.
But that was impossible. Formation cultivators were precious strategic assets, leaving even five permanently stationed with the White Dragon Army was already difficult.
Thus, the Mining Protection Formation had a simplified activation mechanism designed to draw spiritual energy from the Fire Essence Ore vein itself to power the array.
Of the five stationed formation cultivators, Master Huadu was fifth grade, while the others were sixth. Usually, he would activate the array in battle while the others maintained it.
Now, with Master Huadu assassinated and the others unable to return from their posts, the formation was effectively crippled.
That was why Shi Le had fallen into despair.
He rose and looked at Gu Fangchen, who was pacing as he studied the array. Unable to suppress his anxiety, he asked, "Do you have the confidence to activate it?"
He was nervous. Gu Fangchen's earlier display, exposing traitors as though aided by divine insight, had shocked him deeply.
Yet, from what he sensed, Gu Fangchen's physical cultivation was only around seventh grade.
If he claimed he could activate the formation, then he must be cultivating both martial and divine paths.
And everyone knew: those who cultivated both usually ended up mediocre in both. Even geniuses rarely surpassed sixth grade.
A sixth-grade formation cultivator would struggle to start this array, if not fail outright.
As expected, Gu Fangchen's face grew solemn. He hesitated, frowning slightly.
"I think... it might be a little difficult," he said gravely. "Mainly because I'm short on materials."
He looked toward Master Huadu's body, then at Shi Le.
Shi Le froze, then quickly understood.
He drew a deep breath and took a spatial pouch from the corpse's waist.
"The situation is urgent. Everything Master Huadu owned should be in this pouch. He had no wife or children. If his spirit watches from the heavens, he would surely want someone to avenge him. I ask you to do your best, little brother!"
Gu Fangchen took the pouch without changing expression. "Much obliged."
After all, the man had just died, looting the body in front of the man's comrade would seem indecent.
He wasn't acting as the Northern Garrison Prince's libertine heir now; he had to maintain at least some semblance of propriety.
As a former subordinate of Yizhou, he needed to act with integrity.
Gu Fangchen deftly broke the seals on the pouch, scanned it with his spiritual sense, and quietly closed it again.
A fifth-grade formation master with no dependents and no clan to support, his wealth could only be described as immense.
Shi Le stood beside him, watching as Gu Fangchen pocketed the pouch and began making modifications to the array with his own blood.
Something feels... wrong, he thought.
Shi Le's eye twitched.
Then he heard Gu Fangchen clap his hands. "Done."
Forget it... as long as the array activates, it doesn't matter how.
Gu Fangchen placed his palm on the formation's central glyph and said, "Activate."
Crimson markings spread across his skin as the Demon-Suppressing Nails channeled spiritual energy into the activation core.
Instantly, five layers of luminous sigils unfolded above the entire mine and battlefield.
Shi Le's heart leapt with joy, but the next moment, the lines turned blood-red, and cracking sounds echoed as the formation's outer nodes began to shatter.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The complex sigils collapsed, replaced by blood-colored lines.
Shi Le's pupils contracted. The spiritual energy from the Fire Essence Ore mine, meant to power the array, was now swirling uselessly in midair, forming coiling dragons of light.
When the blood-colored lines solidified, those dragons roared and dove into Gu Fangchen's body.
In an instant, his flesh was consumed by heat. Cracks split across his skin, glowing like molten lava.
Shi Le rushed forward in alarm. "What are you doing?!"
Then he realized what Gu Fangchen had changed earlier.
The mechanism that was supposed to draw spiritual energy for the array was now channeling it into Gu Fangchen instead.
"You're insane! The annihilating fire energy within this vein could make even a grandmaster explode on the spot!"
Even if Gu Fangchen were a traitor, this was suicide.
As Shi Le approached, the burning aura hurled him backward.
Gu Fangchen shrugged, grinning. "I never said I came to activate the Mining Protection Formation."
He had only come to "borrow" it. What he truly intended to activate was the White Dragon Army Formation.
Shi Le had thought him arrogant for claiming that, but his absolute faith in the Martial Saint had led him to compromise, hoping at least the Mining Protection Formation could be opened.
Gu Fangchen knew that if he revealed his true plan, Shi Le would try to stop him.
So he went along with it.
Because in truth, he wasn't opening the array, he was destroying it.
Activating and maintaining a formation required power, but altering it from within did not.
The White Dragon Army still didn't know that Princess Xiao Yinghao would be trapped for seven days. By then, half the army would be lost, with no hope of victory.
They were clinging to false hope: that once the Princess returned, all would be well. None realized that decisive action was needed now.
Destroying the Mining Protection Formation would be disastrous, once the Qiong Man forces broke through, the rear would fall.
But Gu Fangchen understood: he could only achieve victory by relying on the army formation. And with his current cultivation, as Shi Le had correctly judged, he couldn't sustain it alone.
So he altered the array.
He redirected the energy meant for the formation into himself, binding his being to the array.
In other words, he had become its spirit.
If he lived, the formation lived. If he died, it perished.
And in doing so, he was burning the array's very life force.
When this was over, the formation would be ruined.
Such vast energy would have killed any normal cultivator instantly.
But this body of Gu Fangchen's was a puppet refined through the Demon Refinement Method, tempered in the extremes of agony.
The Demon-Suppressing Nails forming its spiritual circuit could endure this flood temporarily.
And with that power, he could release his soul, take full control, and command the puppet body directly.
Gu Fangchen sat cross-legged, steadied his breath, and let his spirit leave his body.
His divine sense fused with the array, sweeping across the entire battlefield from above.
He rose higher, surveying the chaos below.
Though his earlier ruse of "reinforcements" had temporarily rallied morale, it was far from enough.
The White Dragon Army's left flank had collapsed; the Qiong Man's Divine Path cultivators summoned sandstorms to cover their wolf cavalry, who tore through the ranks unhindered.
On the right, General Yao Jin's heavy infantry still fought bitterly, but the enemy's bone arrows turned the ground into venomous quagmires, pushing the line back.
Gu Fangchen willed the spiritual energy drawn from the Fire Essence Ore mine to form the outline of a massive army formation.
In an instant, one hundred fifty thousand soldiers felt their weapons resonate. They froze, then erupted in joy.
"It's the White Dragon Army Formation! The Princess has returned!"
They looked up. Above them, the coiling fire dragons had woven countless crimson battle flags.
Then they hesitated.
Since when had the White Dragon Army Formation turned red?
...
"Not bad," Gu Fangchen muttered. "The view's about the same as in the game."
"Just missing the formation interface, manual control will have to do."
He studied the incomplete array before him, waiting for his soldiers to fill the empty nodes.
Or rather, they were about to become his soldiers.
Returning to his body, he stood and pointed forward.
"General Shi, enter the formation."
Shi Le looked at the youth's cracked, burning body, speechless. Then he turned toward the distant sky.
Through the smoke, the shape of a colossal fire dragon was faintly visible, but its eyes were dim and lifeless.
That pattern was indeed the White Dragon Army Formation...
Shi Le swallowed hard, clasped his fists, and said solemnly, "Sir, the White Dragon Army shall never forget your grace."
He did not know Gu Fangchen had destroyed the Mining Protection Formation, nor that his body was a refined puppet.
In his eyes, Gu Fangchen had sacrificed himself to activate the White Dragon Army Formation.
Regardless of victory or defeat, this man would surely die.
Such selflessness erased all suspicion, leaving only admiration and awe.
Though he had never met this youth before, such noble sacrifice proved everything.
Shi Le wasted no time. He turned into a streak of light and rushed into the battlefield toward one of the formation's eyes.
The two eyes of the White Dragon Formation served as its dual cores, held by Shi Le and Yao Jin.
Shi Le looked up as a crimson banner descended toward him. He opened his spirit and caught it.
The banner dissolved into a red dragon. His aura surged, every gesture brimming with explosive power.
At that same moment, his consciousness fell under Gu Fangchen's command.
Vice General Shi Le, entered the formation.
Charging forward, he roared, "White Dragon Army, enter the formation! Everyone, enter now!"
From above, a blood-red line cleaved the battlefield like a blade through butter.
His soldiers obeyed, catching the descending banners one by one, morale soaring.
But someone soon noticed something wrong.
"Wait, the White Dragon Army Formation's commander, she's not the Princess!"
"General, has Her Highness returned?"
Shi Le's eyes blazed red. "No time! Follow my command, enter the formation!"
Vice General Yao Jin saw the abnormal crimson flags and glared furiously at Shi Le.
"Shi Le! You dare betray us?!"
"I have not betrayed anyone!" Shi Le shouted. "The commander is a former subordinate of Yizhou, sent by Marshal Ding himself to aid us!"
Yao Jin barked, "Lies! Why was I not informed? And the White Dragon Army Formation is Her Highness's unique creation, how could anyone else use it? What right does Ding Xingfeng have to command our army? You're conspiring with the enemy, handing the White Dragon Army to outsiders!"
"If you stop now, it's not too late!"
Shi Le's tone grew desperate. "The situation is dire! If I've betrayed, may I die without burial! Only with both of us entering the formation can it truly awaken!"
Yao Jin opened his mouth to retort,
A youthful spirit body formed from crimson energy appeared before him.
It was Gu Fangchen.
Thanks to the half-formed army array, his strength had temporarily risen to fifth grade, allowing his soul to act independently.
At his appearance, Yao Jin sneered. "I once served in Yizhou myself. I've seen every one of Marshal Ding's close aides. Why have I never seen you?"
Gu Fangchen sighed. "At this point, it seems I can hide it no longer."
Yao Jin's expression hardened. "Let's see what nonsense you'll spout now. You might fool that fool Shi Le, but not me! Even in death, the White Dragon Army will never change masters!"
Gu Fangchen replied evenly, "Actually... I am the Princess's betrothed consort. I've been training under Marshal Ding all these years. The White Dragon Army Formation was personally taught to me by the Princess herself."
"Look up. You should recognize whether this formation is genuine or not. If we weren't intimately close, how could she have passed it on to me?"
He spoke with complete conviction.
"As her consort, her husband-in-law, my command over the White Dragon Army cannot be considered a change of masters."
...
Inside the Blood River Repentance Formation, a breathtaking woman clad in black and silver armor advanced cautiously through the crimson currents, her sword gleaming coldly.
Suddenly her brow furrowed, and her eyelid twitched.
The formation was troublesome, but not lethally so.
Yet... why did she suddenly feel a foreboding dread?