Section Eighty-Six: Onlookers Never Mind When the Commotion Grows Larger

Page 1 of 3

Wuyun shook his head and pointed at Lan Chulian, who was still undergoing tribulation, warning, "This fellow is crossing his tribulation. Aren't you afraid of being dragged into it yourselves?"

"Haha!" With a flick of his arrow-like brilliance, Cuo Guangmang wrapped the formation diagram in a sharp aura and laughed. "I was worried about that too. But with this divine tree at the peak of the Immortal King realm standing here, heavenly thunder only strikes the tallest one."

Whoosh!

As he spoke, Cuo Guangmang loosed an arrow. It was no ordinary shaft, but one forged from remnants found within spatial rifts. It feared neither water nor fire, neither thunder nor magnetism, and carried the power to shatter space, break formations, break arts, shatter forms, and sever karma.

Even if it struck only a clone, the true body would still suffer from the karmic force transmitted back through the connection. It was terrifying indeed.

The arrowhead vanished instantly into the formation. Cuo Guangmang did not even wait before declaring proudly, "This arrowhead was blessed by the Six Directions Heavenly Divine Monk. Demons and ghosts cannot hide before it. Within it lies a trace of the tearing force of spatial rifts, and its power is boundless. Altogether, only two such arrows exist on this bow. Once I find the materials to forge a third, the three arrows will merge into one, and I will reach the Immortal King. By then, among those in the early Immortal King realm, I alone will be the strongest!"

What Cuo Guangmang said was true. Even Feng Qianyu would not easily provoke him. Her own life-bound weapon was a seven-in-one divine axe, devastating at close range, but his grew stronger the farther it traveled, making it a perfect weapon for ambushes. One strike could leave a foe gravely wounded.

While he was speaking, the outer surface of the formation began to shift in color, like those brittle glass walkways that seem ready to shatter under one step, or like broken stainless-glass panels covered in frosted patterns.

The screams of Bear Old Three, Little Worm, and Green Leaf, together with the distressed cries of the child Yueqi, made Cuo Guangmang all the more pleased.

Beneath the formation’s cover, chaos reigned, yet after a long while, though the formation changed through several colors, it still refused to collapse.

Standing outside, Cuo Guangmang could not see the formation clearly. Most especially, the faint signs of resistance it gave, as though it were already on the brink of breaking, only made him hesitate.

Even so, he did not dare charge in recklessly. He said to the onlookers around him, "If I break the formation, you must give me three-tenths of whatever is on him. Otherwise, do not blame me for showing no mercy from behind!"

An open threat, instead, won more respect. Lan Chulian, in particular, nodded first in agreement and said, "With the help of this divine tree, my Immortal King tribulation will soon be over. Once I step into the Immortal King realm and take command of the power of law, Master Cuo, you shall be my foremost ally!"

The two strongest among them had spoken, so the rest naturally followed. Feng Qianyu even let out a chuckle; she had originally wanted to expose Wuyun's siege of the Fox Immortal King, but those who watch a spectacle never object when the spectacle grows larger.

Cuo Guangmang drew back his Heaven-Subduing Sun-Shooting Bow once more. Another arrow was nocked, and without further delay, he sent it screaming forward. This arrow transformed into ten thousand divine soldiers and generals, for within it he had refined the souls of his clan's warriors, embedding them into the arrow’s formation so that it could inflict even greater damage in battle.

With a crack, as soon as the arrow entered the formation, the already shattered diagram restored itself in an instant, and Wuyun's figure appeared within it. This left Cuo Guangmang puzzled. Clearly, he could still sense the two arrowheads he had used to cause destruction, so why were Wuyun and the others within the formation completely unharmed?

"Only two arrowheads?" Wuyun’s eyes shone as he looked Cuo Guangmang over from head to toe. He shook his head and said, "So poor. If I had one more than these four directions, I could repair it into five!"

Six heavens and four earths; if it were repaired to six heavens and five earths, its power would certainly multiply.

No sooner had Wuyun finished speaking than the two arrowheads vanished without a trace, as though they had been melted down by someone. Only countless vengeful spirits rushed out; the moment they emerged beneath the tree, they were immediately cowed by the tribulation thunder and dispersed on their own.

"You..." Cuo Guangmang spat blood more than a dozen times, and each time he spat more than before. These arrowheads had been acquired by chance; if he wished to forge a third, he would have to buy the materials from Immortal Kings or Immortal Emperors at an astronomical price.

"Too far!" Cuo Guangmang roared. The blood he spat out turned into small replicas of himself—this was a curse art. The moment they formed, Wuyun pointed at the tribulation thunder sheltered by the divine tree and said with a smile, "No specter, no fiend, no ghoul dares to run wild beneath heavenly thunder!"

His words were like arrows, instantly breaking Cuo Guangmang’s spell. The latter had just shouted that he would merge man and arrow and fire them from the immortal bow when Lan Chulian stopped him, because another bolt of tribulation thunder had formed.

Page 2 of 3

Within the Immortal King tribulation, there are at most eighty-one bolts of thunder. To this point, only a little more than half had fallen. The final three, or even the last one, were the most terrifying.

Lan Chulian took this bolt of thunder directly with his body. When his body was damaged, the divine tree once again released a beam of healing immortal light and restored him. This only further confirmed that he was destined to become an Immortal King.

"Do not be fooled, everyone. He is Lan Chulian of the Qitian Star Domain!"

Wu Hao roared, exposing the identity he had been concealing. At that, Lan Chulian revealed his true face and said, "Now that you know how formidable I am, you..."

Before he could finish, Wu Hao roared again, "The crimes you committed in the Qitian Star Domain are unforgivable. Betraying master and ancestors, repaying loyalty with treachery, cheating your brothers and juniors out of everything, everyone who once stood beside you vanished without a trace. You are now like a rat in the street in the Qitian Star Domain, and even if you come to another star domain, you should still be exterminated!"

Wu Hao’s outcry immediately stirred the crowd into heated discussion. Even Zhang Lu, the demon-clan patriarch who had been goaded into attacking Wuyun, grew even more regretful.

In the Third Immortal Domain, the most hated people are those who betray their masters and forebears, and those who betray their brothers and kin. Wherever such people go, they are cursed and driven away. If one also appears on the star-domain wanted list, then there is nowhere to go at all.

"I am an Immortal King reborn, and only one step away from the Emperor. The righteous prosper, the disobedient die. So long as I once again reach the peak of the Immortal King realm and charge toward Immortal Emperorhood, I will surely succeed! Look: even this non-transforming divine tree at the peak of the Immortal King realm is helping me survive the heavenly tribulation. What reason do you have to doubt my strength?"

Lan Chulian, called the Mad Lover, endured another strike of tribulation thunder. This time, he deliberately let a trace leak out, and that alone frightened the people nearby.

"Before you arrived, the one hidden inside the formation had obtained many top-grade immortal stones. Sir, I dare say that if you take out those immortal stones and split them evenly, each person would only get one!"

Faced with Lan Chulian’s provocation, Wuyun answered bluntly, "Three apiece would still be enough, but why should I split them with you? If you have the ability, climb the tree and pick them yourself! If you want to take things from me, then prepare for pain worse than death!"

Bear Old Three, Battle King, Little Worm, Green Leaf, and Long Yi all shuddered. Whenever this senior Wuyun spoke harshly, his expression became fierce enough to scare even Yueqi into tears.

One sentence had offended everyone. With that excuse in hand, all kinds of immortal artifacts aimed at the formation were raised, forming a ring that encircled it completely.

Once these artifacts were unleashed, even with six heavens and four earths, the formation could not withstand them, lacking both willingness and strength.

Yet Wuyun only smiled and said, "If men respect me, I will respect them. Otherwise, all of you will be cast into the netherworld hell!"

Even as he spoke, some of the surrounding weapons burst with light and struck the formation. Some directly manifested weapon spirits that bit and clawed at it; others unleashed the might of various immortal arts in attack.

Still more were formation-breaking tools: filth, corrosive poisons, drills, high-speed cutting devices, all brought into use.

This place was, after all, a land of adventure; most people carried such things with them as essentials.

Just as Wuyun found himself in a dilemma, Lan Chulian pointed his immortal sword and guided tribulation thunder to strike the formation, which had nowhere else to hide. In an instant, the layer of protection covering the formation was blasted apart, and the six heavens and four earths seemed faintly unable to hold.

"You forced my hand!"

Wuyun raised one finger and muttered incantations under his breath. Bear Old Three, with his sharp eyes, noticed that the rope woven from dragon-seeking grass was gone, and the tree hollow Wuyun had dug out had already healed over. A look of "I knew it" appeared on the bear's face.

The divine tree upheaved the heavens and earth!

Page 3 of 3

Yes! The roots of the divine tree surged upward. Countless roots lifted its enormous body, and then it began to wriggle away.

Do not be fooled by how slowly it seemed to move when it first emerged. The moment it began to travel, it vanished from sight in an instant.

All the immortal beasts were left staring dumbly. Even a divine tree at the peak of the Immortal King realm, unable to take human form, ought to have been unable to move an inch. Who could have imagined it could still travel, faster even than a flying immortal artifact?

Most terrifying of all, everyone was now exposed beneath the tribulation thunder of the Immortal King calamity. At once, among the crowd, those at the peak of the Mystic Immortal realm, those only one step from the Immortal King realm, and those who had suppressed their cultivation and were about to undergo tribulation were all implicated as additional tribulation thunder surged forth.

This included Zhang Lu, Cuo Guangmang, and even Rong Ya and Jin Bu, who all triggered their own Immortal King tribulations.

Once the Immortal King tribulation descends, it becomes a living hell on earth.

Countless accidents erupted, countless horrors descended. Inner demons, demons from beyond the heavens, evil spirits from foreign realms, and terrifying beings within spatial rifts all appeared.

Altogether thirteen people had independently triggered tribulation, throwing everything into tremendous chaos.

If the divine tree were still here, shielding them beneath its cover, none of this would have happened. Who could have imagined that a single move by Wuyun would bring such catastrophic consequences?

First, the tribulation thunder in the sky multiplied at once, locking onto all thirteen of them. Then the demons beyond the domain, the evil spirits, and the inner demons invaded. Not just one person was targeted, but every one of them.

It was equivalent to one person suffering a tribulation while everyone else shared it—effectively multiplying the Immortal King tribulation by thirteen!

Rong Ya was horrified. His great vengeance had not yet been avenged; how could he die miserably here? He brought out his ultimate life-saving immortal artifact, yet the outcome could not be reversed. A cluster of inner demons rose from his own heart, and in an instant the emotions he had suppressed could no longer be contained, driving him into madness.

Elder Jin Bu was the same. After an evil spirit entered his body, his entire being emitted a pale yellow light. Whether he kept his eyes open or let his soul drift out to observe his surroundings, everything around him seemed like another world, with countless strange things attacking him.

The other eleven were no different. Each of them was struck and forced into desperate resistance.

Fourteen people were undergoing tribulation at once. Those around them who tried to flee were also dragged in. Some mid- to late-stage Mystic Immortals and Mystic Beasts who had not yet reached perfection were brushed by a trace of evil spirit or outer-realm inner demon, and their bodies were instantly set ablaze by demonic fire. Their eyes flashed with multicolored light, their souls clouded over, and they too fell into frenzy.

By the time a single incense stick had burned down, one-tenth of those who had just been besieging the formation had had their souls shattered, and thirty to forty immortal cultivators had had their bodies destroyed, turning into clumps of soul energy that were absorbed by the imperial artifact.

"Have I perhaps been too ruthless with myself?" Wuyun looked at the tribulation thunder striking the formation. After each blow, the formation flickered with lightning, replenished by the force of electric thunder.

Feng Qianyu, swept up in the disaster, also fell into crisis. An evil spirit invaded her, only to be blocked by her immortal artifact. Yet when she tried to escape the range of the tribulation thunder, she discovered that the entire interior here was already sealed beneath it.

Even if one returned to that horrifying corridor from earlier, once a living being had been locked on by the calamity, there was nowhere to hide.

Only when all those undergoing tribulation either perished or succeeded would the lock be lifted.