The handsome man and beautiful woman were particularly eye-catching in such a desolate place. Despite Feng Miaojun’s exceptional composure, she couldn’t help rubbing her eyes to confirm she wasn’t seeing things.

Before her, the blue stone had been flattened, with a long scroll of documents laid out. Princess Changle was muttering incantations while writing on the scroll. Her handwriting was elegant, the ink as red as blood, yet unlike cinnabar. The wind was blowing from her direction, carrying a faint sweet fragrance.

Most peculiar was that after completing the final stroke of each character, it would slowly disappear from the document, leaving the scroll blank once more.

Princess Changle seemed to have been writing furiously, as about four-fifths of the scroll appeared to be completed, yet from what Feng Miaojun could see, the scroll’s surface remained snow-white, without a single character.

Did the characters she wrote all mysteriously vanish?

Feng Miaojun immediately recalled the conversation between Fu Lingchuan and the Crab Spirit that she had overheard earlier.

Before a national treasure could undergo the trial of Heaven’s Way, a country’s ruler had to recite and handwrite a prayer of thirty-six thousand characters!

What concept was that? It meant writing three thousand six hundred characters every half hour, completing it within five hours without any rest! When first hearing this requirement, Feng Miaojun thought Heaven’s Way had a cruel sense of humor, devising such a torturous method.

Perhaps these founding monarchs were tortured to the point of exhaustion, only then appearing genuinely sincere?

Even though Princess Changle was healthy and strong, after continuously writing for more than four hours, she was swaying on the verge of collapse. Not only was her complexion withered, but her neck and hand muscles had stiffened, inevitably causing her to write more and more slowly.

After all, she was just a mortal, and a pampered princess at that.

Looking at the characterless scroll, Feng Miaojun recalled a piece of unofficial history she had once seen in the Smoke Sea Tower: reportedly, a nearly extinct bird species called the Manman Bird nested on the islands of the Eastern Sea and was often used by ancient people to pay respect to celestial deities. The blood of Manman Birds released after worship possessed special powers, more potent than cinnabar, and was commonly used in contractual documents.

Characters written with Manman Bird blood would quickly disappear when exposed to light, hence such scrolls were called “Wordless Celestial Books.” In truth, they weren’t wordless—it was just that until the contract was formed, the words could only flow as speech but not take physical form.

Once the contract was established, the content of the document would be supervised by Heaven’s Way, protected by powerful efficacy.

The prayer that Princess Changle was composing was meant to declare the founding of a nation to Heaven, so using Manman Bird’s blood for writing was indeed the most appropriate approach. Moreover, Manman Bird’s blood was extremely precious, with very little existing in the world—once used, it diminished. Ordinary people would find it difficult to obtain even a single drop. Regardless of where Fu Lingchuan had procured so much, it must have cost him dearly. Princess Changle didn’t have the opportunity to make mistakes and start over.

Fu Lingchuan stood beside her, providing protection. On the blue stone lay a piece of withered wood emanating blue light—the soul-nurturing wood where the Crab Spirit resided.

As the strange wind arose, Fu Lingchuan and the Crab Spirit immediately became alert.

Fu Lingchuan, who had been resting with closed eyes, opened them and exclaimed: “Not good!”

He took two steps forward, bent down to brush his hand across the ground, and his eyes showed ferocity as he scanned the surroundings.

Feng Miaojun pulled her head back, secretly worrying about Bai Ban.

She couldn’t believe that the Merman King and others hadn’t thoroughly searched Cone Tail Mountain in the past few hours, just as someone had said, “three times already.” The Merman King had been able to break through the previous illusion, so why hadn’t he discovered that Fu Lingchuan was hiding right here?

Just as Princess Changle was about to complete her task, something went wrong. Fu Lingchuan’s face tensed as he barked: “Who’s there? Come out!”

It turned out that earlier, with the two of them as the center, five Sumeru needles had been inserted into the ground until completely buried, forming a peculiar array called the Mustard Seed Formation.

As the name suggested, this formation was adept at hiding Mount Sumeru within a mustard seed. The Mustard Seed Formation consisted of two sets of needles: the Sumeru needles inserted into the ground and the Mustard Seed needles hidden on one’s person. Any living being carrying a Mustard Seed needle who entered the formation would be shrunk to the size of a sesame seed.

So Fu Lingchuan and his group hadn’t become invisible right under the Merman King’s nose—they had shrunk. In the night-cloaked Cone Tail Mountain, who would think to look down at the ground for objects the size of sesame seeds? This mountain hollow had no shelter, allowing one to see the bottom at a glance, and others wouldn’t deliberately search the ground inch by inch.

Thus, even though the visitors were all powerful beings, they had been deceived.

Moreover, since the Merman King had experienced an illusion beforehand, he instinctively thought Fu Lingchuan might repeat the same trick. How could he have anticipated that this time Fu Lingchuan would use the Mustard Seed Formation?

Originally, the silver needles of the formation were inserted into the ground with not even their ends exposed, making them impossible for others to discover. But Feng Miaojun happened to have a peculiar liquid metal monster with her, especially sensitive to precious metals.

When Fu Lingchuan reached down to feel, he discovered that one of the Sumeru needles buried in the ground had been removed, thus breaking the formation!

The effect of this formation was incredible, but its weakness was equally obvious: once fixed, it couldn’t be moved, and if one needle was displaced, the formation would immediately break.

After Fu Lingchuan’s shout, he naturally began to inspect the surroundings. Feng Miaojun understood this point and immediately gripped her Star Heaven Spike, spiritual power rapidly coursing through her body.

Even if Fu Lingchuan hadn’t discovered her, she had to take action. No matter what, she had to stop Princess Changle from continuing the spell, prevent the heavenly lightning from striking, and thus save her own life!

At that moment, a tremendous “BOOM” suddenly resounded through heaven and earth.

The sound was so explosive and vast that it almost exceeded the limits of what human ears could bear. Feng Miaojun, with her keen hearing, momentarily experienced a blank in her mind, followed by unbearable pain in her eardrums, which nearly ruptured!

The so-called great bell would need to be amplified tenfold to barely compare with this sound!

She turned pale with shock and looked toward the horizon where the sound had originated.

There, a giant pillar of lightning formed by a thunderbolt descended from the sky to the sea surface, with a diameter of at least twenty li, surrounded by countless writhing electric snakes—a truly awe-inspiring sight!

The misty sea surface instantly brightened as if it were day.

Feng Miaojun instinctively closed her eyes, thus avoiding eye damage from the intense light.

Such heavenly might made one’s scalp tingle with fearful respect!

It was at this moment that she truly understood the meaning of the saying “Human power cannot overcome heaven.”

Though it was just a glimpse, she could confirm that the position where the lightning pillar fell was where the merchant ship the mermen were pursuing had been sailing.

What had the people on that ship done to provoke Heaven’s anger, bringing down such divine punishment?

More importantly, calculating the time, the mermen must have almost caught up with it. If the divine punishment struck the ship, would it also affect the mermen in the sea?

If so, the mermen truly encountered a disaster they didn’t deserve.

However, before she could ponder this question further, she heard a sharp, agonized scream!