Chains Of Heaven

As Enkidu moved forward he noticed some movement ahead. He cautiously moved to see and found three other participants, they were all covered in wounds and looked like they would not be able to do anything much for a while yet.

They were all at the Spirit Profound Realm 5th or 6th level and when they saw Enkidu approaching they instantly froze in fear for a moment before relaxing.

They had forgotten that this was a test that forbids inter fighting, thus there was no risk of Enkidu trying to steal their things. This was so different from normal for them that it was not even funny.

This, however, was not enough to make them completely relax, this was an unforgiving world where the weak perish and the strong grow, simple as that most of the time.

As Enkidu got close enough he spoke.

"Did your injuries come from the profound beasts?" Enkidu asked the trio.

Realizing by his eyes that Enkidu meant no hostility, the trio answered truthfully, "Yes!"

"It shouldn't be difficult for the dozen Spirit Profound realm spirit beasts to kill you, not with this difference in numbers at least. How did you manage to escape from them? Was it some item perhaps?" Enkidu asked with some worry.

If the dozen Spirit realm Profound beasts were to charge at the trio simultaneously, they would probably be dead in a breath or two at most.

For them to survive, either they had some protective item that helped safeguard their life or the profound beasts left them to survive.

The second option was actually the one Enkidu feared the most.

"H-how did you know that we were attacked by a dozen Spirit realm profound beasts?" one of the three participants asked in astonishment.

"I am tracking a pack and it passed in this direction, it having attacked you is expected." Enkidu replied honestly and directly.

"I see. I am not really sure what happened either. We were just walking around when we suddenly encountered the pack. To be honest, we thought that we would be decimated and even made peace with it, trying to take as many of those f.u.c.kers with us as possible, but, for some reason, those profound beasts suddenly left in a panic after a brief encounter, as if they were scared of something…"

"Perhaps they were afraid of you catching up to them?" another one of the trios added in a bit of a joke, not that it was actually that far from the truth actually.

Just not for the reasons they could imagine.

Frowning, Enkidu continued questioning them.

"Where does the path ahead lead to?"

"It leads to Giant's Fissure, one of the most dangerous gorges of this mountain," replied one of the injured participants.

"A canyon? This is bad…" Seeming to have thought of something, Enkidu's expression hardened considerably and worry could be seen in his eyes. He hurriedly rushed forward to the canyon, the three behind looking in wonder until a few pills flew to them, all from Enkidu.

What he might be lacking in weapons he more than making it up in pills and medicinal and venomous herbs, if there was one profession Enkidu was extremely confident in it would have to be in the art of pill forging as he long since mastered it to a high degree.

It was just a shame he lacked a greater affinity for fire and a good flame to work with, but even without those he was already extremely experienced in it and what his teacher was stingy with weapons he was lavished with herbs.

Thus, Enkidu had more than enough medicine to help these three even if they were inconsequential for him.

Not too long later, he arrived at a massive gorge surrounded by steep cliffs. Somehow, an ominous feeling slowly spread across the group.

Ding ding ding ding!

"There is a battle going on over there…"

With these signs, how could Enkidu possibly remain oblivious to what was going on over there?

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There were numerous large floating rock platforms around the gorge, probably either natural reserves of anti-gravity earth or a formation in them. Using them Enkidu escalated to a higher altitude to obtain a better view of everything down there, and upon seeing it Enkidu's face immediately drained of a bit of color.

Two hundred participants were tightly encircled by several hundred profound beasts.

The cultivation of these profound beasts ranged from the Spirit realm to the Earth realm, and every single one of them was considerably powerful. Even though the surrounded participants weren't weak, their opponents were simply too powerful, and they were outnumbered at that and the profound beasts were well organized to attack to make matters worse. As time went by, more and more participants were being incapacitated by grievous wounds.

"So the dozen profound beasts were intentionally luring the participants over so as to eradicate them all in a single sweep, huh."

Upon realizing this fact, Enkidu's face became extremely grave.

Even if he were to just head down to offer his support, he wouldn't be able to turn the tides of the battle. He would only end up contributing to the casualty toll since he could not eliminate this many profound beasts so easily.

He could kill them all, but it would take time and some of the participants would die during the process.

Furthermore, as the name Giant's Fissure suggested, the gorge was extremely narrow as if it was made by a Giant opening it just a tiny bit and not being enough to make it a canyon.

When Enkidu first noticed the presence of the profound beast pack and its irregular formation and the situation surrounding them, a seed of doubt had already been planted in his mind. From the looks of it now, it was indeed a huge set-up!

"The profound beasts are in an alliance, huh."

Enkidu didn't know what to say about that exactly, but he knew that if he were to do nothing then the participants down there would certainly die.

'Wait a second, I did get that thing just now, right?'

Enkidu thought of something and a smile spread across his face.

Normally setting up a formation required one to study the geographical terrain and measure the flow of profound and natural energy in the air using special tools. All in all, it was an extremely complicated process that could easily take from two to three hours to set up. There was a reason why formations were not used to attack, instead were used to prepare the field before a battle even started.

There were surely plenty of formation masters among the two hundred participants down below as well, but even they were helpless against this situation. No one even thinking of using a formation down there.

However, Enkidu was not anyone. He was a person who studied the Heaven's Path Formation Art and had an inborn talent for sensing the energy around him as well as the cheat-like Heaven's Path Library.

He had long since learned of this formation in his travels thanks to his almost obsessive mania of taking books for all types of things, he knew exactly how the formation in his hands works and how to improve upon it.

He then took out the 150 formation flags and jumped down, as he fell the formation flags were hitting the exact place they should be at and at the exact order they should be put. Some of the participants noticed him falling and were in shock at what he just did, not believing that such a method to set up a formation actually existed.

'But, what of activating it?"

This was a fair point, to activate a formation it was necessary for some initial energy to begin it and that would mean profound energy stones.

Enkidu took out 80 of them and threw them at intricate patterns and at different speeds.

Upon seeing the profound energy stones, the profound beasts were taken aback. Sensing danger due to their instincts, they pounced into the air and attacked the profound energy stones.

As if a storm, the powerful torrent of attacks swept the profound energy stones away from their original trajectory.

"It's over…"

The group that was paying attention stared at the sight in trepidation as that meant that a possible rescue operation had just failed completely.

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In their eyes, Enkidu had most probably calculated the trajectory of the profound stones' descent accurately before launching each of them, which was mostly correct as he did take care of it and he was good at throwing things thanks to the Heaven's Path Throwing art. However, with the trajectories messed up by the attacks of the profound beasts, the plan seemed like it was going to fail.

Wneg weng weng weng!

Just when they thought that this operation was a failure and that they would have to risk it all in a gambit to escape where at least half of them would die, the profound stones which had their trajectories altered struck the ground at the very same instant.

Boom!

As soon as they came into contact with the ground, a powerful surge of profound energy suddenly burst into the surroundings, sweeping across the formation flags.

"This…"

"He, did he actually predicted the attacks from the profound beasts as well? Just how high is his comprehension of formations and beast taming to even try to do such a thing? Isn't this a bit too much?!"

Innumerable pupils dilated upon that sight.

The sight before them was within Enkidu's calculations as well. Actually, had the profound stones hit the ground in the way he launched them without interference the formation would still activate but it would take a few more seconds to fully begin.

In other words, Enkidu actually wanted the profound beasts to attack the profound stones upon seeing them. Taking that into account, he made the precise calculations for them to work well regardless of the result of the beast interfering or not.

This…

The situation was so inconceivable that it felt like some supernatural power was at work. It didn't seem like the work of a person at all.

Just as everyone's face was pale with shock at the display of sheer ability that made them all tongue-tied, Enkidu coldly bellowed, "Activate!", and with a furious stomp, a surge of energy shot out.

Weng!

Taking in the concentrated spiritual energy in the air, the formation flags began to buzz, and a thick layer of mist cloaked the humans and profound beasts in the gorge instantly.

Beguilement Formation, activated!