Chapter Ninety-Four: Rules

The thousand-year-old great demon Liu Kunsheng was gone.

The Deng brothers were gone too.

Feng Xingtong on the field was utterly spent.

Wang Bing, by contrast, wore a vicious sneer.

“Damn it, bastard. You made me miss the best supplement. You... die.”

Faced with Feng Xingtong, whose strength was already at its end, Wang Bing had no intention of giving him even the slightest chance to concede.

He lunged forward.

The moment his hand blade shot straight for Feng Xingtong’s throat, a deep green glow suddenly burst from around Feng Xingtong’s body.

Within that green light, a tall and burly figure appeared out of nowhere before Feng Xingtong, using his waist to block Wang Bing’s merciless strike to the throat.

Lu Dashan took the blow without moving an inch. Wang Bing, on the other hand, had overexerted himself, and the sudden impact left him grimacing in pain.

“Fuck, what the hell is this?”

Clutching his arm, Wang Bing broke into a cold sweat that poured down his forehead. Even his stance twisted inward at the knees, and he roared and cursed like a mad dog.

Lu Dashan paid him no mind. He did not stop. Another mighty slap sent Wang Bing spinning away several meters like a top.

He crashed heavily to the ground.

After landing, Wang Bing felt numb all over, his head ringing with a deafening buzz.

That slap changed everything.

On the platform above, Wang Ai’s previously self-satisfied expression vanished at once.

He could no longer even bother caring about his status among the Ten Lords. Pointing at Lu Dashan below, he barked, “Celestial Master, look at this. Such blatant cheating—it’s completely ignoring Mount Longhu and the Rite of the Great Cosmos!”

“Cheating?”

At those words, the old Celestial Master on the platform shook his head helplessly. “Old Wang, why are you so agitated? This Rite of the Great Cosmos is being held in full view of everyone. Whether there’s cheating or not, isn’t that something you can tell at a glance?”

“That’s right.”

Lu Jin remained silent as ever, but the old master at his side added a cool remark in support, irritating Wang Ai all the more.

“Celestial Master, Old Lu, you both know Ye Yan’s spirit banner guardian, don’t you?”

“He just descends onto the field like this. It’s clearly aimed at our Wang family. If you two won’t even bother to intervene in a matter like this, then what fairness is left in this Rite of the Great Cosmos?”

In Wang Ai’s view, the Celestial Master and Lu Jin saying such things now was nothing short of shielding Ye Yan, who had stepped in to help Feng Xingtong, and even targeting their Wang family.

Who didn’t know Ye Yan’s spirit banner guardian?

When he had posed as Ye Liangchen before, he had at least bothered to disguise himself. But now? No disguise at all, just brazenly descending onto the field.

If that wasn’t targeting him, what was?

It was plainly aimed at the Wang family.

“Old Wang, relax. It’s not as exaggerated as you make it sound. You were also involved in setting the rules for the Rite of the Great Cosmos. Nowhere did it say competitors can’t borrow outside power to win.”

The old Celestial Master smiled gently.

As soon as he finished, Lu Jin, hands still in his pockets, gave a cold snort and added, “I remember quite clearly that when this rule was established, some people raised both hands in support. And now they want to bring it up as a complaint. Some people, once they get old, don’t even care about face anymore.”

Wang Ai was left thoroughly choked by the old Celestial Master and Lu Jin’s tag-team act, one playing good cop and the other bad cop.

It was true... he had taken part in establishing the rules of the Rite of the Great Cosmos.

And the rules never said contestants could not borrow outside force.

The rule had been made for a very simple reason: to loosen the restrictions for those strange practitioners like shamans and spirit-medium disciples, since their combat power lay in their spirit companions and charms.

Back then, when this rule was discussed, Wang Ai had raised both hands and both feet in support.

For no other reason than that the Wang family’s own Spirit Summoning and Commanding Art was also a branch of shamanic practice.

With no restriction on this rule, it was a boon for his precious grandson Wang Bing.

There was plenty of room to maneuver.

What Wang Ai never expected was that the very rule he had supported would now put him in a dilemma.

It meant Feng Xingtong could use Ye Yan’s spirit banner guardian to do many things, while Ye Yan himself, so long as he did not directly enter another person’s fight, could even lend his guardian to someone else without violating the rules.

A single overlooked detail could ruin everything.

Thinking of this, Wang Ai felt a lump of frustration in his chest. But seeing the expressions on the Celestial Master and Lu Jin, he knew those two would never help him. If he wanted to save someone...

He turned to Lu Ci instead, only to find that old dog staring at his nose and his nose at his heart, utterly lost in some far-off reverie.

Clearly, he was no better to rely on.

Just as Wang Ai was pondering how to get his precious grandson out intact, Lu Jin lazily spoke up.

“Old Wang, don’t say the Celestial Master and I are being unfair. Last round, that Feng kid stepped in personally for his daughter’s sake. The Celestial Master and I discussed it, and while the rules can’t be changed, we can give you the chance to go down yourself. Think it over.”

Lu Jin’s words sounded reasonable enough, but in Wang Ai’s ears they took on a far nastier meaning. His eyelids twitched wildly, and his expression practically screamed that you’re trying to harm me.

Go down himself?

What a joke.

The reason Feng Zhenghao could step in without any scruples was that all he had to deal with was a mere junior from the Jia Family Village.

But what would Wang Ai be facing?

Ye Yan—an eerie young monster who was ruthless, dark-hearted, and terrifyingly strong.

Was that something he could just leap into?

Ye Yan would probably be hoping Wang Ai jumped down. That would give him a perfectly legitimate excuse.

Wang Ai was not about to be fooled.

...

Wang Ai was arguing on the platform.

Wang Bing was getting beaten below.

“Damn it. Just a spirit companion, and it really thinks coming out will do anything...”

After taking Lu Dashan’s slap, Wang Bing finally came to his senses, but fury blazed in him all the more.

Though he had no idea where this oddly shaped spirit companion had come from, Wang Bing—master of the Spirit Summoning and Commanding Art—felt no fear.

In his view, the Spirit Summoning and Commanding Art was the natural enemy of all spirits and ethereal beings.

So long as it was a spirit, a living essence, no matter how powerful it was, it could only obediently submit before him.

Even a thousand-year-old great demon like Liu Kunsheng had been dragged around like a dead dog before his Spirit Summoning and Commanding Art.

If not for Feng Xingtong’s sudden eruption, Liu Kunsheng would already have been used as his meal.

Wang Bing rubbed at the side of his face, swollen like a pig’s head, and his gaze turned increasingly vicious.

“Beast, come here.”

With a wave of his hand, terrifying black qi surged outward like a tidal wave, pulling toward Lu Dashan. Yet at the center of that black tide, Lu Dashan remained utterly unaffected, still walking toward him step by step, unhurried and steady.

“How is this possible? The Spirit Summoning and Commanding Art actually failed.”

Wang Bing was momentarily stunned.

The target had clearly been marked by the summoning power, yet the other side showed no trace of obedience at all.

This completely defied common sense.

Wang Bing could not make sense of it.

No, no, something must have gone wrong in his technique. He slapped his own face, driving away the first flicker of panic rising in his heart.

The Spirit Summoning and Commanding Art was a miraculous skill that could even toy with a great demon like Liu Kunsheng until he was dog-tired. How could it possibly fail on some scrap of a spirit creature?

He refused to believe it and tried again.

Then there was no reaction.

Another attempt, another failure.

After several times in a row, Wang Bing finally realized something was very wrong.

He was just about to run.

But when he looked up, he saw a big slap rapidly enlarging before his eyes.