Chapter 60: The Hidden Assault

"Not good!" The expressions of the three Deity Transformation masters changed drastically, turning pale in an instant. City Lord Tang shot forward immediately, his hands forming hand seals so fast they blurred into afterimages, conjuring a protective barrier in the shortest time possible to shield the skies above Abyss Ocean City.

The other two Deity Transformation masters reacted swiftly as well, flying out in tandem to form hand seals and joining forces with City Lord Tang to sustain this temporary barrier. However, being summoned in a rush, its range was only sufficient to protect the crowds gathered in the city center; the surrounding lakes and towering mountains outside were left entirely exposed. Lightning and wind blades rained down across the heavens in a chaotic flurry, stirring up clouds of dust everywhere.

Qiu Ci also flew forward, but looking at the overwhelming deluge of descending lightning and the wind blades crashing outside the city, she knew that if things continued this way, the entire city would be smashed to pieces. Moreover, she had a faint premonition that these bolts of lightning and wind blades might not even be the truly terrifying threat.

She directly summoned her system and commanded, "System, scan the current status of Abyss Ocean City and analyze the optimal defense method."

[Understood, Master! Abyss Ocean City's current damage rate is at 30% and continuously rising. If it drops below 50%, it will lose its levitation power. The current optimal defense plan is to reactivate the original defensive grand array and superimpose the Nine-Turn Five-Element Defensive Array over it for a flawless defense.]

As the voice faded, a dozen red marker points instantly appeared in Qiu Ci's field of vision; those were the nodes of the array automatically identified by the system.

Without hesitation, she produced several array flags. With a flick of her wrists, the flags automatically flew toward the designated marker points. The next moment, a dozen beams of array light soared into the sky as the previously shattered defensive array reappeared, slowly wrapping around Abyss Ocean City once more.

"This is..." City Lord Tang and the other two also snapped back to their senses. Years of tacit understanding led them to exchange a single glance before Wen and Kang withdrew their hands first, channeling their spiritual energy into the array on Qiu Ci's side instead.

With the addition of the two masters, the array closed faster and faster, completely sealing shut within half a quarter of an hour to block out the overwhelming lightning and fierce winds outside once again.

City Lord Tang also dismissed the temporary barrier he had conjured, joining the other three to stabilize the newly restored defensive array. "It worked!" Seeing the stable array once more, City Lord Tang felt a surge of joy, wanting to ask Chu Qiuchi how she managed to reactivate the array.

When he turned around, however, he noticed that Qiu Ci's hand seals had not stopped at all; instead, they were moving faster and faster. Her entire body's spiritual energy erupted fully, and that unmasked pressure caused even the three fellow Deity Transformation masters to feel a hint of strain.

Meanwhile, the array flags planted at the various nodes throughout the city flared with brilliant spiritual light, and the white beams shooting into the sky grew increasingly dazzling. Then, they watched as outside the grand array, a second identical layer of defense rose up, followed by a third, a fourth, a fifth...

It continued stacking all the way up to nine layers before the turbulent spiritual energy surging around her finally calmed down.

The three of them: "..." Wrapping oneself in cotton quilts for the winter isn't even done to this extreme?!

The three companions were utterly dumbfounded. Tang Qian, after all, was a city lord with broad horizons and recovered his wits after a moment, though his expression grew even more incredulous. "This... Could this be the Nine-Turn Five-Element Defensive Array?!" This was a high-tier defensive array that could never be deployed without formidable spiritual sense and cultivation, meaning that the person before them was at the very least a high-tier array master.

"I never expected Friend Chu to possess such profound mastery over the dao of arrays?!" Wen Qi also recovered, looking at Qiu Ci with astonishment.

"Uh, it's alright, I just know a little," Qiu Ci replied honestly. Back when she was undergoing her upgrade at the base, the master mainframe had crammed all knowledge pertaining to the Deity Transformation realm directly into her mind. Forget arrays, she had the complete set of knowledge covering alchemy, talismans, arrays, artifacts, spells, swords, and beasts. In a sense, she could be considered a well-rounded cultivator, though strictly limited to the primary level of the Deity Transformation stage.

"Hahaha... Fellow Daoist Chu is being too modest," Kang Chen chimed in. "To be able to set up such a grand array, your mastery of array formations is far beyond 'just a little'."

"Had I known Fellow Daoist Chu excelled in the path of arrays, I should have visited earlier to request your help in modifying the protective array in advance," City Lord Tang sighed with a trace of regret.

"It is not too late now!" Kang Chen said while continuing to stabilize the array. "With this array, Abyss Ocean City is safe."

"Indeed! With such a powerful array in place, we will surely make it safely through the Wind Wave Sea."

"That's right, even if it were several times more perilous, there would be no problem at all."

"Indeed!"

Qiu Ci: "..." No, please stop jinxing it again!

Boom!

Sure enough, the moment their voices fell, another massive roar echoed from beneath Abyss Ocean City. The city, which had just stabilized, felt as though it had been struck by some violent impact; the entire municipality shifted sharply to the right, and the ground within the city shook violently once more.

Even the four people suspended in mid-air were struck by this immense shockwave, stumbling unsteadily. As for the nine-layer barrier enveloping Abyss Ocean City, with a flurry of cracking sounds, six layers shattered in an instant, and the seventh layer developed a web of fissures.

The three of them gasped in shock, their eyes wide with disbelief.

Qiu Ci, however, instantly released her spiritual sense, her expression sinking. "There is something beneath the city." With that, she shifted her hand seals, transferring control of the array over to City Lord Tang. "I leave the array to you all. I'll be right back!"

Without another word, she turned and flew swiftly downward toward the base of the city.

"Fellow Daoist Chu..." City Lord Tang wore an anxious expression as well, but he understood that maintaining the remaining layers of array was far more crucial. Gritting his teeth, he increased his output of spiritual energy, doing his utmost to stabilize the array.

Qiu Ci moved with extreme speed, arriving at the underside of Abyss Ocean City in a flash. The city itself was originally a colossal spirit boat, its hull crafted entirely from spiritual timber that naturally possessed its own protective spiritual energy.

Guided by the perception of her spiritual sense, she flew all the way to the turbulent area and indeed discovered that the spiritual wood there had been damaged, leaving behind a breach over ten meters wide that billowed with escaping spiritual qi. A multitude of wood fragments floated in the surrounding space, and one could even spot several spirit stones embedded among them, which served as part of the propulsion system.

At a glance, the massive hole was clearly smashed open by some gigantic creature. Recalling how the entire city had twice been knocked off course by collisions, she could not help but suspect that something in the vicinity was attacking them. Yet, there was utterly no aura of any living entity in the air, nor any trace of spell-driven energy. How, then, had this massive hole come to be?

Qiu Ci had no time to ponder the cause; her top priority right now was to patch up this huge breach. Otherwise, not only would it weaken the array's defensive power, but once the defensive array completely collapsed, the entire city would plunge from the sky.

She immediately formed hand seals, channeling her spiritual energy to activate a restoration incantation.

Before long, the ruptured opening began to merge back together as if time were reversing. The scattered wood fragments also returned to their original positions, and the gap looked on the verge of sealing completely.

Suddenly.

A chill inexplicably washed over her back, and an extremely faint buzzing sound rang beside her ear.

Turning back to look, she saw a gigantic, crescent-shaped white rainbow hurtling toward her direction at blistering speed. An inexplicable pressure descended abruptly, freezing her body stiff and leaving her with nowhere to dodge. For the first time, the terrifying sensation of death rose in her heart, right as the white rainbow threatened to slice her in two.

Bang!