Chapter 89: Flicking a Dragon with the Finger

The few of them slightly quickened their pace as they continued up the mountain, and strangely enough, they did not encounter a single soul along the way. Instead, the surrounding trees underwent a dramatic change, replaced entirely by bamboo standing seven or eight meters tall, which instantly imbued the atmosphere with a stern and desolate chill.

At this point, Chen Hongxu and his companions were only a few steps away from the summit. A massive and majestic palace came into view. The entire structure was golden in hue, and as the young man surnamed Kong had described, the palace was actually crafted from pure gold. Various inlaid gemstones, sandalwood, and other treasures of the mortal world, which were exceedingly rare elsewhere, could be seen everywhere inside the palace.

Leading the way, Chen Hongxu stood at the palace entrance. He looked up at the ancient yet exceptionally well-maintained grand hall, and remarked with a double entendre, "Quite well prepared."

The young man surnamed Kong smiled bitterly and nodded, while Qi Hui clenched her fists tightly, her eyes burning with unyielding anticipation and fighting spirit. In stark contrast, the two concubines of the young man surnamed Kong, who were somewhat older, wore expressions of utter terror. Their calves trembled, and they looked frightened out of their wits.

To the crowd gathered on the open plaza at the entrance of the grand hall, Chen Hongxu's unperturbed demeanor and breezy detachment naturally appeared utterly odious.

The plaza in front of the palace was roughly the size of two soccer fields, and at this moment, it was packed with at least a thousand people. Their cultivation levels varied, though ranked experts naturally made up the majority, which was clearly discernible from their attire and formations.

The ranked masters stood at the front, clad in iron-plated armor that looked imposing and majestic. Behind them stood a smaller group of people dressed in brocaded robes. The strength of these individuals was considerably higher, all of them having reached the Longevity Realm.

According to Chen Hongxu's perception, although the auras of these people varied in strength, none of them intersected with the aura of mortality or death; they merely ranged from surging to faint. It seemed there were no experts who had truly stepped into the realm of death.

Standing on the palace steps, a youth glared with gloomy eyes at the young man surnamed Kong standing behind Chen Hongxu, and barked, "Little Kong, bringing people up the mountain without permission is already a capital crime, and now you have even harbored rebellious intentions. If you commit suicide right now, for the sake of the years we've spent together, I will ask Lord Tongtian to spare you the agony of having your soul extracted and refined."

The young man surnamed Kong smiled unconcernedly and replied, "Senior Brother Wang, on this immortal mountain, people value loyalty above all else. Do you genuinely love this place so much that you are willing to give your life for it?"

"Audacious!" shouted the youth who was clearly the leader. "A stubborn fool blind to destiny!"

As soon as these words fell, he pulled a small wooden tally from his bosom, waved it at the young man surnamed Kong, and a smug smile played at the corners of his mouth.

The young man surnamed Kong constricted his pupils slightly and snapped, "Shameless! You actually hold my natal soul tablet!"

"Will you submit or not?"

"A true hero cannot be subdued by force. Am I the kind of person who clings cowardly to life and fears death?" The young man surnamed Kong let out a disdainful, cold snort, lifting his head proudly with a striking sense of backbone.

"Courting death!" The leading youth sneered, exerting a slight force with his fingers. With a crisp "crack," the wooden tablet in his hand shattered instantly.

"Ah." The young man surnamed Kong let out a miserable shriek immediately, then raised his hands to clutch his chest, crouching on the ground with an expression of agony.

One minute passed, two minutes passed. It was not until three minutes had elapsed while the young man surnamed Kong maintained his crouching posture that the smile at the corner of the leading youth's mouth slowly faded, as if something felt wrong.

Seeing that his performance had run its course, the young man surnamed Kong slowly stood up with an expression as if he had swallowed a fly. He blinked at the leading youth—whose face looked as though he had ingested feces—and suddenly burst into a cheerful peal of laughter.

The corners of the leading youth's eyes twitched, and his breathing abruptly grew rapid. His face darkened ominously, and he said in a deep voice, "In a moment, I will make you wish you were dead rather than alive. Guards, follow the formations taught and bestowed by Lord Tongtian and deploy!"

Hearing this, the expression of the young man surnamed Kong shifted slightly. It did not look feigned; having stayed on the immortal mountain for a long time, he understood Lord Tongtian's methods to varying degrees, and it was precisely because of this understanding that he felt a trace of dread.

Without waiting for the opponent's formation to be completed, he hurriedly sent a telepathic voice transmission to Chen Hongxu: "The grand formation formed by these thousands of people will undoubtedly possess immense power. Master, you must not be careless. Striking and eliminating them right now is the best opportunity."

Chen Hongxu shook his head, halting the young man surnamed Kong's advance. He had a clear measure of the Immortal Tongtian's strength; it was impossible for him to be at the Human King realm, so what kind of threat could methods taught by such a person pose?

Naturally, with the young man surnamed Kong acting as his helper by his side, Chen Hongxu felt even more at ease, especially since the strength of a lotus slave was directly tied to his own.

Chen Hongxu and his group stood in place like ignorant youths, looking up in bewilderment as the people above continuously shifted positions and stirred the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

After a brief moment, wisps of crimson red mist began to rise from the plaza in front of the palace. These mists appeared corporeal, constantly shifting shapes as they surged toward the sky.

The originally green sky was blocked off by this red mist. Looking as far as the eye could see, the entire view was filled with a crimson expanse that blotted out the sun, resembling an impending torrential downpour of blood, magnificent and overwhelming in momentum.

"What kind of formation is this?" Chen Hongxu asked doubtfully.

"I've never seen it before. Even when experts from the upper realm came down to cause trouble in the past, such a grand spectacle never appeared," the young man surnamed Kong replied, shaking his head in puzzlement.

Chen Hongxu's expression turned slightly serious. In his perception, this red mist faintly bore a similarity to the threads of slaughter absorbed by his martial embryo.

He pondered for a moment, raised a hand, and pointed a finger. A thin red thread rapidly surged into the air, merging completely and seamlessly with those crimson mists.

After about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, red mist ceased rising from the ground. Chen Hongxu gazed at those who had finished setting everything up; they had visibly withered, their figures noticeably shrunken by a circle.

The leading youth exhaled a breath, paying no heed to the life or death of the armored attendants before him. In his mind, such ranked experts were as numerous as desired outside the mountain.

His expression was somewhat ferocious. After all, just as Chen Hongxu had surmised, this grand formation indeed required absorbing a portion of the life force and blood of those who set it up. Not only the servants below, but even he himself had been drained of a little bit, more or less. Although this trace of vitality would not affect his future achievements—and might even be replenished after the battle concluded and he enjoyed a good meal—he still felt thoroughly disgusted. When had people of the immortal mountain ever stooped to harming themselves to achieve a goal? If Lord Tongtian had not previously spoken of countermeasures, he truly would not have believed that the youth before him possessed three heads and six arms capable of defeating so many people.

Chen Hongxu was unaware that the leading youth held such underestimating thoughts, but none of this mattered to him anyway, for all he wanted was to study this formation.

The conclusion he had drawn after watching for a while was simply this: grand in momentum, mediocre in power.

The leading youth waved his hand, raised his clenched fist horizontally, and shouted with great momentum, "Kill!"

The crimson clouds and mist in the sky above rolled in response, transforming into the shape of a dragon's head that poked out from the sea of mist, snapping its jaws to bite at Chen Hongxu.

The massive red dragon slowly emerged from the clouds and mist, gradually approaching Chen Hongxu. The pressure emanating from its body was so powerful that it paralyzed anyone within range, rendering them unable to move.

One could understand just how terrifying it was by simply looking at Qi Hui and the two concubines of the young man surnamed Kong, who stood dumbfounded, struck with horror yet completely rooted to the spot, unable to dodge.

The young man surnamed Kong also faced a formidable enemy, his sleeves ballooning outward as if he intended to go all out.

Chen Hongxu remained expressionless. With one hand, he grabbed the young man surnamed Kong—whose body was leaning slightly forward—and with his other hand, he curled a finger and flicked it forward.

A wisp of fierce wind carrying a golden rune struck squarely on the head of the red dragon, directly smashing the behemoth violently back into the clouds, where it dissipated into nothingness.

A wind blew past, leaving not a single sound. Everyone dropped their jaws in shock. Setting aside the disparity in scale, even the combined momentum of a thousand people had been beaten back with a single blow—just who was this youth?

This was the collective question in everyone's mind, and for the first time, a thought arose in their hearts: no matter how exaggeratedly the formation was prepared, it was still far from enough.

Meanwhile, high up on the mountain ridge, an old man whose face was covered in wrinkles laughed heartily. Staring at a large insect crawling before him, he muttered to himself, "A body with infinite aptitude, the shell of a divine beast... This old man shall live free of disaster for another two thousand years."