Chapter 57: Chapter 55: The Array-Breaking Coincidence

At this point, Ye Lei and his group were utterly exhausted, having reached their limit.

In their efforts to protect the disciples, both Ye Lei and Ye Dian had been heavily injured. Their Third-level Demon Beast mount, the Gray Eagle, had been torn to pieces by the frenzied Beast Tide, devoured until nothing but its skeleton was left.

Fortunately, all the disciples were still alive.

Although they were all injured, none had died.

The arrival of Ji Lin and his companions gave Ye Lei’s group a chance to catch their breath.

"We’ll fight our way out together!" With a wave of his hand, Ji Lin led the group of experts, shielding the disciples as they began to break through the encirclement.

However, they quickly discovered that no matter how they tried to break out, they couldn’t get clear of the Beast Tide.

It was as if the Demon Beasts had latched onto them, coming in relentless waves, fearlessly charging to their deaths.

Even Ji Lin, a Void Realm expert, was beginning to feel the strain.

"Elder Ji, this is getting us nowhere! Someone deliberately used an array to lure this Beast Tide. The only way we can escape safely is by breaking that array!" Ye Lei shouted.

"An array?" Ji Lin’s brow furrowed. "So it’s the Wolf Fang Sect. How dare they trigger a Beast Tide? Aren’t they afraid of sanctions from the Mountain and Sea Empire?" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

But this was no time to dwell on it. Ji Lin ordered, "Hold your positions! I’m going to break the array!"

With that said, he activated his Grotto Heaven Protection Body, smashed through layers of obstructing Demon Beasts, and shot into the sky.

A dense swarm of flying Demon Beasts rushed him. Ji Lin swept his sword in a circle, and countless blossoms of sword light bloomed in the air. Any Demon Beast touched by the light was instantly shredded to bits.

His powerful Divine Sense spread out like a tidal wave. Ji Lin quickly discovered an anomaly, and his heart leaped with joy.

It was one of the hundred-plus array bases of the Basic Beast-Attracting Array, which he mistook for the array’s core.

"Break!" Ji Lin roared, thrusting his sword. A magnificent beam of light shot from his blade, striking down at the array base like a meteor.

Meanwhile, at the true core of the array, Mo Qi had exerted every ounce of his effort. Having nearly depleted his Spiritual Power, he finally finished setting up the reversed One-Way Teleportation Array.

"San Pang, hurry over here! It’s time for us to leave!" Mo Qi waved to Jin Sanpang, who wasn’t far away.

By this time, Jin Sanpang had already devoured over a thousand servings of Medicinal Cuisine, nearly emptying Mo Qi’s entire stock.

After tasting the Medicinal Cuisine, Jin Sanpang was completely captivated by the flavor. He felt for the first time that all the delicacies he once craved were utterly inedible by comparison.

Compared to Mo Qi’s Medicinal Cuisine, they were all utter garbage, enough to make one gag.

Add to that the fact that Mo Qi had let him eat so much for free, and in Jin Sanpang’s eyes, he was the perfect big brother—the very embodiment of kindness and friendship.

"Okay, Brother Mo! I’m coming right now."

Jin Sanpang now hung on Mo Qi’s every word. If Mo Qi told him to sit, he wouldn’t dare lie down.

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

His mass of fat jiggling, Jin Sanpang sprinted toward Mo Qi, his steps making the ground tremble slightly.

From a distance, he looked less like a person running and more like a giant ball of flesh rolling forward.

"Hehe, Brother Mo, you’re the best." Jin Sanpang licked a grain of rice from the corner of his mouth with a silly grin and said earnestly, "You’re the nicest person to me besides my dad."

Mo Qi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and his heart ached at the cost.

’Over a thousand servings of Medicinal Cuisine!’

’If I’d sold all that back at the Void Sect, that would’ve been a hundred thousand contribution points!’

’And Jin Sanpang just gorged himself on all of it.’

Still, Mo Qi wasn’t about to be petty with a child; otherwise, he never would have let Jin Sanpang eat so much in the first place.

"San Pang, step into the circle of light," Mo Qi urged as he activated the Teleportation Array.

"Okay." Jin Sanpang didn’t hesitate at all and obediently stepped inside.

The Teleportation Array flared with brilliant light, enveloping Mo Qi and Jin Sanpang. Space trembled slightly, and the two of them vanished from the spot.

The moment the two vanished, a Jade Talisman shattered. A colossal hand emerged, reaching out and clenching around the true core of the Basic Beast-Attracting Array.

RUMBLE!

With a violent squeeze, the massive hand crushed the array’s core, unleashing an astonishing wave of destructive power.

The powerful shockwave radiated outward, flattening the land for several kilometers around and killing or maiming countless Demon Beasts.

At that very same moment, Ji Lin’s beam of sword light obliterated the array base.

With its core destroyed by Mo Qi, the Basic Beast-Attracting Array ceased to function.

The beast horde, driven into a frenzy by what they perceived as mating signals, finally came to its senses and ceased its attack.

"Excellent!" Ji Lin was overjoyed, believing he was the one who had destroyed the array.

It wasn’t just him; even Ye Lei and the others on the ground thought that Ji Lin had broken the array. After all, everyone had seen that dazzling beam of sword light with their own eyes.

Only Liu Hui, sensing something, glanced in the direction of the true array core. From there, he had felt a much more powerful fluctuation of energy.

’Master, was that you?’

Ji Lin descended, his Void Realm aura flaring out. The now-lucid Demon Beasts gave him a wide berth, not daring to approach.

"Thanks to Elder Ji’s timely arrival and his incredible display of power in breaking the array to save us, we are eternally grateful."

Ye Lei and Ye Dian stepped forward and bowed in unison, and the other disciples all knelt to express their gratitude.

"No need for such formalities. This is merely my duty," Ji Lin said with a polite smile, but anyone could detect the pride and delight in his tone.

Ji Lin knew that when word of this got back to the Void Sect, it would be considered a great accomplishment.

At this thought, the frustration he felt from being obstructed by Jin Quan earlier also eased considerably.

"I’ve been saying it all along. That good-for-nothing Mo Qi is useless. He must’ve seen things were looking bad and slipped away, leaving us here as shields to draw the Beast Tide’s attention," Qi Tian spoke up again, casting a provocative glance at Liu Hui.

"Are you looking to die?" Liu Hui’s eyes narrowed, his voice turning cold.

His patience with Qi Tian had long worn thin.

"What, gonna get violent now that I’ve called you out?" Qi Tian said with a scornful expression. "The array was broken by Elder Ji Lin’s sword strike. And your useless master? What has he done, aside from setting up that worthless Heaven-Deceiving Array?"

"Qi Tian, you’ve gone too far! If it weren’t for Mo Qi’s Heaven-Deceiving Array, we wouldn’t have held out until Elder Ji Lin arrived," a disciple who couldn’t stand it any longer spoke out in Mo Qi’s defense.

"Bullshit Heaven-Deceiving Array!" Qi Tian swore. "All it did was constantly drain our True Essence and stamina. If we hadn’t been hiding in here and instead used our peak strength to break out, we probably would’ve been long gone."

"As far as I’m concerned, he just wanted to use us as bait to buy time for his own escape!" Qi Tian added. "You all saw it just now. The array core wasn’t far from us at all. If he really was confident in breaking the array, he should have done it long ago. But where is he now?"

The disciple who had spoken up for Mo Qi was left speechless, and even felt himself being convinced by Qi Tian’s words.

’He’s right. They all saw Elder Ji Lin destroy the array’s core, and it was only about ten li away.’

’If Mo Qi really could break the array, he should have found it already. So why has he vanished?’

’Could what Qi Tian said be true?’

A seed of doubt was planted in the minds of all the disciples, except for Liu Hui.

Ji Lin heard the argument and asked, puzzled, "What’s this about Mo Qi?"

Ye Lei quickly stepped forward and recounted the course of events.

"Nonsense!" Ji Lin said angrily. "A mere disciple in the Refining Essence Stage going off to break an array? And you actually believe such a ridiculous story?"

Ye Lei gave a bitter smile. ’Viewed in isolation, the matter does seem incredible. But when you consider everything together, it’s not so preposterous.’

"Elder Ji, Mo Qi is a Core Disciple specially approved by the Sect Leader. He must have some special abilities. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have discovered the danger in advance, a danger that even the two of us brothers failed to detect. He also immediately identified it as a Beast Tide, and the Heaven-Deceiving Array he deployed was genuinely a huge help."