Chapter Thirty-One: The Symbol Array

  "Ah!" Li Muran let out a pained cry, and his arm already had two fine wounds, with fresh blood flowing out.

  Fortunately, the Golden Vajra Symbol had a strong defensive power, and this symbol was also filled with yuan energy. It managed to withstand the two powerful wind blades without being directly shattered, but still left Li Muran with two wounds as two forces of energy burst into the light shield.

  However, after being struck by these two wind blades, the golden light shield on Li Muran's body suddenly dimmed a lot; if such fierce wind blades came again, I'm afraid that even the Vajra Symbol would not be able to withstand it and would be destroyed.

  Li Muran was shocked and didn't care about stopping the bleeding, he quickly turned around and rushed away, while throwing out the paper crane.

  Li Muran had just stepped onto the talisman paper crane when the demon eagle swooped in with a flap of its wings. Li Muran immediately flung out over ten Flame Exploding Talismans behind him, transforming into over ten streaks of firelight that shot towards the demon eagle.

  These more than ten flames suddenly burst open in the air, and the demonic eagle hastily flapped its wings to create a series of fierce gusts that protected itself, not allowing those exploding fireballs to get close.

  There was such a delay, and Li Muran had already flown more than 100 feet away on the talisman paper crane. The giant eagle let out a sharp cry, but instead of chasing after him, it returned to the stone cave to guard the ink spirit bamboo.

  On the paper crane, Li Muran stretched out two fingers, and a layer of green light appeared at the tip, then gently wiped it on the wound.

  It's strange to say that after the wound encountered the green light, it not only stopped bleeding immediately, but also gradually healed.

  This is "Rejuvenation Technique", one of the lower-level wood-attribute spells, which can promote wound healing under the effect of law power and has a certain therapeutic effect on internal injuries.

  The wound is not shallow, but for a cultivator, it's an insignificant minor injury.

  "This demon eagle is actually so formidable, it's quite troublesome!" Li Muran manipulated the paper crane to land on the middle of the mountain waist, while frowning and thinking about a countermeasure.

  He had already guessed that this demon eagle should be the guardian demon of the thousand-year-old ink spirit mushroom.

  In ancient books, it is often mentioned that whenever there are rare heavenly treasures and earthly gems, spiritual objects of heaven and earth, guardian monsters often appear beside them. These guardian monsters guard the treasure, not allowing it to be taken away or destroyed by humans or other beasts, while also gaining great benefits from these treasures.

  For example, some thousand-year-old spiritual grasses will produce fruit at regular intervals. The fruit itself is a top-grade tonic, and when the Guardian Demon eats it, its strength and cultivation will surge greatly. Take that ink spirit mushroom from earlier, for instance - the fragrance it emits has a huge beneficial effect on the iron-winged eagle's cultivation. This iron-winged eagle is only a second-level demon bird, but the power it displayed just now was truly astonishing, likely due to its long-term absorption of the ink spirit mushroom's aura.

  Besides, Old Guo mentioned that among the nearby mountain peaks, this Ya Jiao Peak is the most productive of precious medicinal herbs. It's possible that this also has some connection with that thousand-year-old ink spirit mushroom.

  Although I had already guessed the origin of the Iron Winged Eagle, how to deal with it was a very troublesome matter.

  Li Muran thought to himself, "The classics often say that although the demon class is gifted with extraordinary abilities, their spiritual intelligence is not high and cannot be compared to humans. So even though the number of demons in the world is not inferior to that of humans, those who control the world are still the human race!"

  "This Iron Winged Eagle has a Wind Attribute Divine Ability with excellent offense and defense, while my cultivation is average, so I can only outsmart it, not overpower it."

  "My Flame Burst Symbols, cannot be said to be weak in power, as long as the number goes up, even if that demonic eagle's body is strong and sturdy, it can't withstand it! However, the hurricane technique offered by the demonic eagle can make the fireballs transformed from the Flame Burst Symbols unable to get close, causing not much damage!"

  "If we can trap the demonic bird in a small space and bombard it with a pile of explosive talismans, I believe we can annihilate it in one fell swoop!"

  Li Muran immediately thought of the stone cave, but the thousand-year-old ink spirit mushroom was in the stone cave. If he launched a strong attack on the stone cave, this spiritual medicine would definitely be destroyed. Under the situation of "killing the rat and breaking the vase", Li Muran decided to lure the demon eagle out of the cave and solve it outside.

  "Let's try the method of Fu Zhen mentioned in the classics!" Li Muran deliberated repeatedly, and finally made a decision.

  What is referred to as a Fu Zhen, is an array of talismans arranged in a specific pattern, requiring multiple talismans and also needing one "array symbol", the array symbol can connect all the talismans together, so that they can be activated simultaneously, forming a powerful array.

  There are many types of array symbols. Li Muran has a number of Flame Explosion Symbols in his hand, planning to set up the Heavenly Flame Earth Fire Array, which requires a fire attribute array symbol.

  Li Muran didn't have a ready-made fire attribute array symbol in his hand, but he could make one himself. A primary fire attribute array symbol also requires drawing a section of the Wan Huo Dou Wen, which is relatively difficult and far exceeds the difficulty of ordinary five-line Dou Wen. Ordinary Qi Mai initial and intermediate disciples would never be able to create an array symbol, but with the help of the copper mirror's light, Li Muran was able to do so.

  "Even if the formation can be set up, we must still lure the demonic eagle into the formation." Li Muran thought to himself: "Fortunately, demons are not highly intelligent, as long as we set traps according to their habits, we can lure it out."

  Gradually, Li Muran already had a complete set of ideas.

  That night, with the bright moon in the sky, many poisonous snakes emerged from the mountains to bask in the moonlight and search for food.

  Most snakes are active at night, and many of them have astonishing toxicity. Ordinary people who encounter them are in great danger. Therefore, there is the saying "venomous snakes and fierce beasts". In the eyes of ordinary people, venomous snakes can be compared with large ferocious beasts, and are extremely dangerous existences.

  However, for a cultivator like Li Muran, the danger of venomous snakes and ferocious beasts can almost be ignored. Li Muran stuck a stone armor talisman on his body, then easily caught over ten venomous snakes.

  These venomous snakes wanted to bite people, but they couldn't pierce that layer of transparent stone armor. They retreated at a very fast speed, but in the eyes of Li Muran who had cast the Moon-Eroding Technique, it was like an earthworm crawling forward.

  "With these poisonous snakes, the trap can be set!" Li Muran smiled slightly and rode on the paper crane to a certain place at the top of the mountain, still some distance away from the nest of the Iron Winged Eagle.

  Li Muran took out a Buddhist golden knife artifact, digging a deep pit - this thing came from the monks of the Great Ming Temple who stole it for repair, and its value was not low. Now Li Muran used it as a hoe or iron shovel, if other Buddhist monks saw it, they would definitely call it a waste of heaven's material.

  This golden knife is indeed a treasure, in terms of sharpness, it surpasses the sharpest treasured swords and knives in the mortal world by far. Li Muran infused some spiritual energy into the knife, then used it to chop at the mountain rocks, it was as if he was cutting through mud, easily digging out a deep pit about ten feet in size.

  Li Muran posted thirty Flame Exploding Symbols in hidden places such as the gaps between the stone walls and under rocks around the deep pit, surrounding the entire area.

  The fire attribute array symbol made tonight was also posted by him on a rock behind the deep pit.

  This is the simplest formation, relatively simple to set up, as long as other symbols are not too far away from the array symbol and can be within the range of mutual connection between the array symbols.

  The real formation, still need to rack one's brains to hide various talismans, but Li Muran didn't have this need - after all, the spiritual intelligence of the demon class is very low and won't understand that it's a trap.

  After the arrangement, Li Muran threw most of the venomous snakes into the deep pit, and also killed a few venomous snakes. He discarded the snake's blood, remains, gallbladder, etc. along the way from the symbol array to the nest of the demon eagle - near the stone cave where the thousand-year-old ink spirit mushroom was located.

  After doing all this, Li Muran immediately cast the Night Concealment Technique and quietly hid beside the symbol array.

  According to legend, most demonic birds like to swallow poisonous snakes and other toxic food. Li Muran hoped that the iron-winged eagle would be the same.

  The night wind is cool and refreshing. The wind on the mountain top is even stronger. The bloody smell of venomous snakes also drifts with the wind in all directions.

  Not long after, a clear cry came from the stone cave, and immediately afterwards, a black iron-winged eagle with shiny feathers flew out.

  "It's really useful!" Li Muran was overjoyed. Generally, the demonic bird would also go out to forage at night, but today someone had intruded into its nest, so the demonic eagle stayed in the nest to guard Mo Lingzhi and didn't go out to forage. Now that it smelled that familiar scent, it couldn't bear it any longer.

  The iron-winged eagle flew towards the symbol array, its sharp eyes gleaming with exceptional sharpness, and its vision was also extremely good at night.

  However, it still did not discover Li Muran hiding behind a boulder and casting Night Concealment.

  The iron-winged eagle immediately discovered the venomous snakes in the deep pit, and then stretched out its double claws to grab those venomous snakes without hesitation.

  If it were a human cultivator, seeing this scene would definitely judge that this might be a trap in the first time, and be careful. Even if the treasure in the deep pit is precious, they wouldn't dare to rush in so recklessly.

  However, lower-level demon birds don't have so many thoughts. When they see delicious food, they go to eat it, which is just their instinct.

  One can think and speculate, one can only act on instinct, this is the biggest difference between human cultivators and low-level demon species.

  In the instant when the iron-winged eagle swooped into the deep ditch to catch the poisonous snake, a black shadow suddenly flashed out from behind a giant stone not far away, and with a finger flick, a law force accurately hit the fire attribute array symbol on a rock behind the deep ditch.

  In an instant, the array symbol transformed into a fiery light that shot up to the sky, emitting countless rays of light. However, these countless rays of light only covered an area of about ten zhang in diameter.

  The formation symbol flashed and disappeared in an instant, but the myriad lights transformed by the formation method simultaneously triggered all thirty Flame Explosion Symbols hidden nearby in this brief moment!

  "Boom!" A loud noise came from the depths of the pit, a huge flame shot up into the sky, illuminating the night sky. In the distant village of Yaonongcun, Guo Lao and Yingge Yiwu, who were gazing at this place in the courtyard of Guo's house, both witnessed this scene!

  "On that side, it suddenly flashed brightly, seemingly in the direction of Ya Jiao Peak!" Old Guo exclaimed: "Is it Wúmíng's display of his immortal magic? Did he kill that demonic bird?"

  "I hope so!" said Yan Wu softly: "I wish him all the best and a safe journey!"

  "Hmph, can those few moves of his be considered divine techniques? He's just pretending to be a deity, I think he won't be able to return!" Ying Ge said with a pout, but her expression was also somewhat tense and anxious as she gazed at the distant night sky.