I think that they are trying to create a distraction for the Righteous Alliance so that they can gain time to activate the demonic buddha lotus.
I just hope that no tragedy occurs.
[AMITABHA! ]
So I’m guessing the array is a sacrificial array, so the more people die on it the more the black lotus recovers, so besides being a distraction, the items were meant to attract more cultivators to be part of the sacrifice.