I take life very seriously. 90. Mastering the Two Hexagrams of Heaven and Earth, Part Three

In a flash, with a thunderous sonic boom, Big Drunk shot toward Zhang Mingjing at supersonic speed, thinking that the closer he got, the easier it would be to break free of his fixed position in the formation.

Alas, the Eight Trigrams Formation could expand and contract at will, vast as infinity or small as a mote of dust. So no matter how desperately he tried to close in on Zhang Mingjing, he remained firmly locked to the Heaven position, his energy being drained away bit by bit. Moreover, Zhang Mingjing’s own speed was astonishing; how could he be approached just because one wished it so? In the end, this tactic naturally proved useless.

After that, Big Drunk lunged and darted above and below, yet still could not shake free of the Heaven trigram.

At last, Zhang Mingjing was fully convinced of this new technique devised by Zhang Yidao.

Seeing his energy being rapidly siphoned away while he remained helpless, Big Drunk finally begged Zhang Mingjing for mercy. “I admit defeat. Please spare me!”

The strange temporal and spatial code inside him immediately cursed viciously, “Idiot! For all your profound cultivation, you’re still this pathetic.”

“Hmph! I should never have been blinded by greed and tried to become an immortal. I fell for your trick.”

Alas, as soon as he said that, the code of the strange temporal and spatial entity utterly darkened him. His eyes turned fierce and vacant at once, as though only now did he truly regret his folly.

Zhang Mingjing and the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model had long expected such an outcome, and they could not help but feel sorry for Big Drunk.

“Can he still be saved?” Zhang Mingjing asked the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model.

“This half-divine being’s will is far too weak. He was blackened so casually that there’s no saving him.”

“How can that be? If he’s so timid, how did he ever reach this level?”

“You have to allow a few lucky cultivators to exist, don’t you? A wrong turn that happens to be right—he probably stumbled into the higher realms of cultivation that way.”

“You’re talking nonsense. Why does something like that never happen to me?”

“Because your fortune is thin.”

“Get lost.”

While Zhang Mingjing and the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model were still trading barbs, the blackened Big Drunk and the temporal-spatial code had already had half of their energy drained by the formation, and he was no match for Zhang Mingjing anymore.

At that moment, Zhang Yidao said the energies at every trigram of the Eight Trigrams Formation had reached equilibrium and could no longer siphon away Big Drunk’s power, so they could only release him.

At this point, Zhang Mingjing should have delivered the finishing blow. But he truly could not bring himself to do it. If the three satellites in the sky unleashed their attack, all the lasers would likely be transferred away by the temporal-spatial code, and the result would still be futile.

A few seconds later, it was still the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model that urged him, “You’d better put him out of his misery. Under the control of that temporal-spatial code, he’s living worse than dead.”

“Ah.” Zhang Mingjing hesitated for a moment, then finally condensed all his energy into a beam sword and thrust it into Big Drunk’s swollen belly. He had thought that would finally bring the tragedy to a close.

Who could have imagined...

“Hahaha... Didn’t see that coming, did you?” Big Drunk’s eyes were no longer vacant, though they remained fierce, now with a trace of cunning besides.

Zhang Mingjing and the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model immediately realized they had been deceived. Then they discovered that Big Drunk’s belly could actually absorb energy, and its suction was no weaker than that of the formation just now.

“Damn it! So that’s a thing.” Zhang Mingjing grumbled. He tried to withdraw the beam sword, but Big Drunk’s belly had a suction so absurdly powerful that it could not be pulled back at all. He could only watch helplessly as the energy of the beam sword was rapidly devoured.

“You can’t take it back now. This is trouble. His energy won’t just recover—it’ll exceed what it was at the start,” said the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model.

At once, Zhang Mingjing’s mind moved, and he said to Zhang Yidao, “Zhang Yidao, immediately return this half-divine being to the Heaven position. Give me the Earth position.”

“All right!” Zhang Yidao received the order and began at once.

But the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model said, “His energy has already surpassed what it was before, and surpassed yours too, because not only is Big Drunk himself frantically absorbing power, the temporal-spatial code inside him is absorbing as well. And it is, by nature, an energy devourer, so it absorbs even faster. Even if you place him in the Earth position again, he can still muster enough strength to kill you before most of that energy is drained, because your reserves are now severely insufficient.”

“Yes. Nearly ninety percent of the energy in that beam sword came from my armor. What do we do now?”

“Other trigrams in the formation still hold energy. Let Zhang Yidao transfer that power to you. It should bring you close to half of his level, enough to tangle with him for a while. You may even find a chance to wipe him out.”

“And if the energy runs out and we still haven’t killed him?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

“Right.”

In the time it took a spark to fly, Zhang Mingjing had already changed the strategy.

Zhang Yidao immediately shifted the energies from every trigram of the Eight Trigrams Formation to Zhang Mingjing.

Both sides were charging up...

Six minutes later, Big Drunk and Zhang Mingjing finished charging almost at the same time.

The Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model calculated Big Drunk’s current strength and could not help grumbling, “Damn. He’s actually twenty percent stronger than you now, and has nearly sixty percent more energy.”

“Should we put this half-divine being back into the Heaven position of the Eight Trigrams Formation?” Zhang Yidao asked at that moment.

The Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model immediately told Zhang Mingjing, “Tell him yes. And have him move both you and the three satellites out of the formation as well.”

“Huh? Why?”

Before Zhang Mingjing could give Zhang Yidao the instruction, Big Drunk had already launched the attack first. His speed was terrifying. With a sonic boom, he instantly accelerated to ten times the speed of sound, and Zhang Mingjing had no choice but to dodge at that same speed.

“He has far more energy than you. Matching him in speed is no long-term solution. Hurry and have Zhang Yidao place Big Drunk in the Heaven position and move you and the three satellites out of the formation,” the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model urged.

Though Zhang Mingjing did not have time to ask why, nor the mind to ponder the reason, he still obeyed at once.

Zhang Yidao, however, understood perfectly well why this was being done, and even assumed it was Zhang Mingjing’s idea. He could not help feeling rather admiring.

Zhang Yidao swiftly placed Big Drunk in the Heaven position, then moved Zhang Mingjing and Xiao Ba, along with the other satellites, out of the formation. An astonishing effect appeared immediately: Big Drunk’s energy began to drain rapidly.

“Damn it! Again,” Big Drunk muttered.

The temporal-spatial code inside him also said furiously, “Looks like this formation is hard to shake off. While we still have the upper hand in strength and energy, we might as well go all out and rush in to kill that brat.”

“Mm.”

Zhang Mingjing had already sensed the changes in Big Drunk and instantly understood. He smiled at the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model and said, “Because all the energy the Eight Trigrams Formation had stored earlier was given to me, it’s temporarily empty. Now that you’ve put Big Drunk into the Heaven trigram, the other seven trigrams, all empty-handed, can split the energy of Big Drunk and the temporal-spatial code among themselves.”

“Exactly. And you and the three satellites already have your own energy, so having you leave the formation creates more room for the formation to divide Big Drunk’s power.”

“I get it. With Big Drunk inside the formation now, it’s like the formation has become a giant bloodsucker, constantly draining him and the temporal-spatial code. Just thinking about the two of them getting tormented like that makes me feel better, hahaha...”

“So he’ll surely gamble everything.”

“Then let him come. This cunning fatso—I won’t hold back on him this time.”

As soon as the words in Zhang Mingjing’s mind and the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model fell silent, Big Drunk had already killed to his front, moving slightly faster than ten times the speed of sound.

Zhang Mingjing sidestepped and avoided him. Big Drunk’s body was like a comet, streaking past with a long blazing tail and terrifying force.

Though Zhang Mingjing dodged the blow, his armor was still struck by the shockwave from Big Drunk’s energy, and he immediately felt a tremendous pressure.

Big Drunk shot into the clouds at more than ten times the speed of sound. Zhang Yidao kept the Eight Trigrams Formation tightly entangled with him and did his utmost to accelerate the formation’s consumption of Big Drunk’s energy, while Xiao Nvxia’s consciousness by his side seemed to hold its breath in tense concentration.

After flying several thousand meters without slowing, Big Drunk took an enormous arc, finally turned around, and once more bore down viciously on Zhang Mingjing.

Zhang Mingjing unleashed dozens of Heaven’s End Kicks toward his incoming path, then followed with dozens of Tathagata Divine Palms, but Big Drunk evaded them all.

Big Drunk also fired dozens of high-energy particle beams at Zhang Mingjing, and Zhang Mingjing dodged every single one.

The two sides chased and slaughtered each other in the air, each move flashing like blades and swords, dazzling the eye.

After more than ten minutes of battle, neither side had gained the upper hand.

By then, another half of Big Drunk’s energy had been drained by the formation. Though the formation had fully fed and could no longer absorb more, he had only half his power left. Seeing that he no longer held an absolute advantage, he said irritably, “Looks like I can’t deal with this brat today.”

At that moment, the temporal-spatial code inside him suddenly said, “Then stop fighting. We didn’t come here to kill him anyway. We came for the energy ball.”

Big Drunk seemed to awaken as from a dream and grumbled, “Why didn’t you say so sooner? You made me waste all this time on him.”

“It’s not too late to say it now.”

Big Drunk had already begun flying toward the small city in the south, and he even tried to increase his speed as much as possible, finally surpassing eleven times the speed of sound.

Zhang Mingjing knew his intent and pursued desperately from behind, but since the armor’s energy this time was not especially abundant, it was like driving a car without daring to floor the accelerator. He still hadn’t caught up, because he needed to reserve power for a strike at thirteen times the speed of sound.

The Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model was helping him calculate the collision route.

Alas, within one second it computed over a hundred possibilities and found that not a single one could successfully strike Big Drunk.

“Even at thirteen times the speed of sound, no good?” Zhang Mingjing asked.

“I calculated using thirteen times the speed of sound, and not once did it succeed. He always dodges.”

“Damn it.”

Just then, Zhang Mingjing and the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model suddenly sensed Big Drunk’s speed weakening, and they were both surprised.

Almost instantly, they received a message from Zhang Yidao’s consciousness. It turned out Zhang Yidao was emptying the energy from the seven trigrams outside the Heaven trigram. With that, those seven trigrams regained room again, and the formation’s alternating cycle of waxing and waning was reactivated, once more beginning to divide up Big Drunk’s remaining power.

Big Drunk’s speed had already fallen below ten times the speed of sound. Furious beyond measure, miserable beyond measure, he was.

But in that very instant, he suddenly accelerated again.

“Damn. This time he’s really starting to go all out,” the Fifth-Dimensional Spatial Thought Model read the cause first and could not help complaining.

Zhang Mingjing immediately read it as well. The reason Big Drunk was accelerating again was that the temporal-spatial code had truly blackened him this time, fully mobilizing his energy as if stomping the accelerator all the way to the floor.