"Yes!"
Jiang Si Shan nodded. "Ye Feng, do you know what the stone in the emblem of the exploration team of the City of Arcane is?"
"I heard before it was some kind of arcane nguyên thạch..."
Ye Feng replied while examining the black lump.
"No!"
Jiang Si Shan shook his head. "The stone on it has two parts, one is arcane crystal, and the other is qi-concealing stone!"
"When I was young, I came to the core of this city-protecting formation with my father. My father told me that the core of the City of Arcane's city-protecting formation needs to consume some kind of energy..."
"Although the core of the city-protecting formation can absorb energy on its own, it is generally in a deficit... and the qi-concealing stone can provide this energy to the core of the city-protecting formation..."
"This is why the city-protecting formation needs major repairs from time to time..."
Jiang Si Shan quickly explained to Ye Feng.
"Is that so... Huh..."
Ye Feng was curiously observing the core of the city-protecting formation when suddenly his eyes lit up, his expression very surprised, because he saw a divine pattern stone at the base of the core of the city-protecting formation.
"I heard Shen Yun Yao mention before that arcane crystals, which are considered unlucky by most arcane practitioners, are only wanted by Mech City and the City of Arcane..."
"Mech City wants them for the spark of their mechs, while the City of Arcane wants them for this city-protecting formation core, and the divine pattern stone at the base?"
Seeing this, Ye Feng began to understand.
"Speaking of which... the core of the City of Arcane's city-protecting formation... this black lump... looks a bit like a spark..."
Ye Feng took a few steps back and muttered after observing from a distance.
"It really does look like it... The first time I came here, I also mistook it for a mech's spark..."
At this moment, Jiang Si Shan had already arranged a circle of arcane nguyên thạch engraved with mysterious runes around the core of the City of Arcane's city-protecting formation.
"By the way, Si Shan, didn't you say before that the core of the City of Arcane's city-protecting formation is the Annihilation Array?" Ye Feng looked at Jiang Si Shan with confusion. "I searched around, but I don't see it?"
"It's underground that black lump, frozen by a huge layer of ice..."
Jiang Si Shan pointed to the ground and replied.
"Alright~"
Looking at the ice surface, the thickness of which he didn't know, Ye Feng shrugged helplessly.
"Ye Feng, step back a little, I'm going to start installing the qi-concealing stone into the core of the City of Arcane's city-protecting formation!"
Jiang Si Shan checked the arcane nguyên thạch placed around the black lump and said to Ye Feng.
"Okay!"
Ye Feng nodded and quickly retreated to the side.
Jiang Si Shan's eyes narrowed. He directly took off the thick woolen coat he was wearing, his arcane energy surged madly, and he formed hand seals, patting them onto the core of the city-protecting formation.
Jiang Si Shan's figure flickered around the core of the city-protecting formation. The runes on the arcane nguyên thạch he had placed on the ground earlier also responded. wisps of arcane energy detached from the arcane nguyên thạch and, along with the hand seals made by Jiang Si Shan, merged into the core of the city-protecting formation...
"Gold, wood, water, fire, earth... The five main elemental arcane energies..."
Sensing the fluctuations emitted by the five colored arcane energies of the black lump, Ye Feng immediately understood.
"Swoosh! Hum!"
"Crackling~ Crack~ Clang~! Clang!"
As Jiang Si Shan made the last hand seal, and after all the arcane energy from the arcane nguyên thạch on the ground was absorbed by the black lump, the black lump emitted a series of crisp sounds.
Within a few breaths, a slot appeared at the very top of the black lump, containing a small piece of grayish-white stone, which was the qi-concealing stone.
Seeing this, Jiang Si Shan's face lit up with joy, and then he became serious again. He took out the qi-concealing stone that Ye Feng had given him before, but this qi-concealing stone was now carved with runes and its shape had changed somewhat.
Jiang Si Shan held his breath, pinched the qi-concealing stone with his right thumb and index finger, and slowly approached the core of the city-protecting formation.
"Swoosh!"
In a flash, Jiang Si Shan's left hand shot out, swiftly pinching out the remaining small piece of qi-concealing stone from the slot at the very top of the black lump.
Almost at the same time, Jiang Si Shan placed the qi-concealing stone in his right hand into the slot.
"Hum!"
Instantly, ice-blue runes lit up on the inside of the slot of the black lump, and the runes on the surface of the qi-concealing stone that Jiang Si Shan had placed also burst with ice-blue light.
With a flash of ice-blue light, a tremendous force erupted...
"Puff!"
Jiang Si Shan, who was very close, was hit by the ice-blue light and spat out a mouthful of blood, flying backward.
Before Jiang Si Shan could react, an even larger ice-blue light surged out from the slot. The hot blood he had just spat out had not yet landed when it was frozen in mid-air...
"Swoosh!"
Jiang Si Shan thought he was dead, but at this very moment, a figure flashed past, blocking the much larger ice-blue light for him.
"Ye... Puff..."
As Jiang Si Shan spoke, he spat out another mouthful of blood. An unbearable sharp pain spread through his internal organs, twisting his face and making him unable to speak.
"I'm fine!"
At this moment, Ye Feng's voice rang out. His arcane energy surged all over his body, protecting himself...
"The runes on the qi-concealing stone... need to correspond to the runes in the slot of the black lump..."
Ye Feng realized that it was precisely because the qi-concealing stone Jiang Si Shan had just placed was slightly misaligned that the powerful ice-blue energy had erupted.
To Ye Feng's surprise, this ice-blue light was extremely cold, and there was a subtle similarity between it and the cold he felt in this area...
And this similarity... was very much like the wisps of strange aura he sensed when he practiced that set of mysterious movements...
"Right..."
At this moment, Jiang Si Shan's hoarse voice, filled with pain, sounded.
"Hmm?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly. His eyes narrowed, and he withdrew the arcane energy protection around him.
"Swoosh~ Hum!"
"Crack!"
Instantly, Ye Feng's body was hit directly by the ice-blue light, but his hands moved swiftly, repositioning the slightly misaligned qi-concealing stone, and the ice-blue light did not continue to surge.
"Bang~ Bang!~ Crackle~ Crack~"
Being hit by the ice-blue light, Ye Feng, like Jiang Si Shan, was sent flying backward, crashing into the frozen wall and breaking a large icicle...
"Ye..."
Seeing this, Jiang Si Shan, who was pale on the ground, was about to crawl to check on Ye Feng, but was stopped by Ye Feng's wave.
Ye Feng did not speak. He sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, and carefully felt the energy of the ice-blue light that had just rushed into his body...
Jiang Si Shan also quickly mobilized his arcane energy to recover from his injuries...
...