The eyes of thousands of cultivators were all focused on Lu Zhou. The stronger experts were trying to sense his energy fluctuation, wanting to find out his real strength. However, they found nothing, as if he were just an ordinary person.
Luo Changfeng’s Flash of Heavenly Sword began to gather power, and beams of sword light soon converged together.
“Master…” Little Yuan’er looked worried. Meanwhile, the other three villainous disciples were not as nervous as her, and instead they watched with great interest.
“Don’t worry! Master is not going to get himself killed for nothing,” said Mingshi Yin, the fourth disciple.
Perhaps their master really had some trump cards. It was just as well to let these people test them out.
Little Yuan’er had no trouble in learning her senior brothers’ and sister’s intentions. She could tell that from their unconcealed expressions.
But…
Her master was facing the Heavenly Sword Sect’s strongest skill, which even a peak expert of the Nascent Divinity Tribulation realm dared not to take head-on. It was obviously Luo Changfeng’s trap.
Meanwhile, Lu Zhou looked calm, but he was extremely nervous inside. He kept staring at the items on the menu—the peak-form experience card and the critical block card—while paying close attention to the surroundings.
When necessary, he knew that he must use the peak-form experience card. Moreover, he also realized that his four villainous disciples were growing suspicious.
‘Ding! A side quest is triggered! The will of others is not ours to see, make the villainous disciples show their true colors.’
Lu Zhou’s face flickered when he saw the quest. He was facing enemies from the front and the rear! What a pathetic master he was!
At that moment, Luo Changfeng’s Flash of Heavenly Sword finished gathering power.
“Die!”
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
A whirlpool of sharp blades shot straight toward Lu Zhou, rolling up strong gusts of wind that blew at the thousands of cultivators, forcing them to narrow their eyes and veil their sights.
“Duck, Master!” Little Yuan’er was shocked.
Duanmu Sheng, Mingshi Yin, and Zhao Yue also watched with wide eyes, their faces looking worried. Even if their master were not injured, it would still be a little difficult for him to take the attack head-on. So, why would he do that?
“You can’t die right now, old thing!” Duanmu Sheng cried out reflexively as he exchanged a glance with Mingshi Yin and Zhao Yue, their eyebrows frowning. If the other died, those cultivation techniques and weapons would disappear with him.
Swoosh!
Duanmu Sheng and Zhao Yue bolted over. Just as the hundreds of blades approached, the third and fifth disciples set off huge waves, one heading toward their master and the other toward Luo Changfeng’s blades.
“Oh?” Lu Zhou frowned slightly. ‘They are indeed villainous disciples. Are they worried that I will bring the treasures to my grave after I die?’
“Master, Retreat!”
The gust of wind sent out by Duanmu Sheng with all his strength pushed the blades off their course by a little, sending them toward the Golden Court Mountain’s shield. Even so, the remaining energy still shook Lu Zhou and made him feel sick. He immediately turned around and ran back into the shield in feigned panic.
Zhao Yue’s energy blast was to save her master, but as he stepped into the shield, it smashed on the protective barrier.
Boom!
Boom!
The blast exploded on the invisible shield in mid-air like fireworks.
Crack! Crack!
In the blink of an eye, the shield of Golden Court Mountain cracked with lines spreading out everywhere. It would most likely not last for too long.
Silence fell and all sights were restored. Lu Zhou looked up a little at the shield and sighed in his heart.
The critical block card was not triggered, and he still had five of them. In other words, no attack could harm him right now. However, the group of villainous disciples had ruined his plan!
“I knew this old villain was pretending. He ran really fast just now!”
“I saw it too. What a shame!”
“I didn’t expect the formidable patriarch of villains to be reduced to this.”
That gave the tens of thousands of cultivators more confidence.
Luo Changfeng flew forward as he looked down from the sky and said, “So, is this your trick? It has really opened my eyes.”
His attack had missed the target, but he was not bothered by it. As far as the people from the orthodox sects were concerned, it was meaningless for this group of villains to play any tricks.
“Luo Changfeng, you are so shameless! Do you want my Master to stand unmoving like a practice target and let you hit with a full-power attack? Do you take us all for fools?” Zhao Yue said sarcastically with a smile.
“Zhao Yue, I was trading blows with your master, but you suddenly interfered even when he didn’t say anything. Haha…It seems that his status as the patriarch of villains is no longer as respected as before,” said Luo Changfeng.
“I can’t believe that a formidable patriarch of villains ended up needing the protection of his villainous disciples. This will be a strange piece of news for the world.”
Lu Zhou paid no heed to their words, which were nothing but trash talk meant to mock him. They were a waste of time and totally meaningless. Instead, he glanced at the peak-form experience cards once again. He had three of them, which would give him a total of one and a half hours of peak time. In other words, once he used them, he had to fight and win the battle as quickly as possible.
When Mingshi Yin saw his master’s expression, he cupped his fist and said, “Master, there’s no need to waste your breath with them. With your mightiness, as long as you hold back the top ten experts, the rest of them are just underlings you can let the four of us handle. Isn’t that better?”
Lu Zhou frowned slightly and said in a deep voice, “Are you doubting my decision?”
“No, this disciple dares not!”
Lu Zhou had a deep understanding of ‘pacifying the internal before resisting foreign aggression’ now. If he did not pacify this group of villainous disciples, he would have a hard time later on.
The time of a peak-form experience card was fixed, and once he used them all, he would fall into a crisis again.
“Duanmu Sheng!”
“Yes, Master?”
“How dare you!” Lu Zhou’s voice grew louder.
“What?”
“Who allowed you to interfere in my affairs?”
Duanmu Sheng’s expression changed slightly. He hurried over and dropped to his knees as he said, “I know it was wrong, but I was worried about Master’s safety. The old fool Luo Changfeng is trying to trick Master into falling into his trap! Master must not fall for his tricks!”
In fact, many things were already very obvious, and all it took was for someone to rip the thin layer of paper apart. For the past month, Ji Tiandao had been struggling and putting on airs. However, these disciples were no idiots, and some details had long made them suspicious.
Lu Zhou was a dimension traveler and not Ji Tiandao, so no matter how hard he tried to imitate, he could not get the essence of Ji Tiandao’s speech. At this moment, the group of villainous disciples had already realized that their master was pretending. Since he was pretending, there was no need for them to continue acting.
At that moment, Mingshi Yin did not pretend to be afraid like Duanmu Sheng. With a treacherous smile on his face, he said, “You’ve been acting very hard, Master! I think it’s enough.”
“Oh?”
“Third Senior Brother, get up…” Mingshi Yin’s attitude changed. Meanwhile, the respectful look on Duanmu Sheng’s face disappeared as he slowly rose to his feet.
The fifth disciple Zhao Yue chuckled and said, “Give up, Master! As long as you give us all your cultivation techniques and weapons, we will definitely bring you away today, and you will always be our Master.”
Little Yuan’er’s eyes grew wide as she said, “Senior Brothers and Sister, what are you doing…”
Outside the shield, Luo Changfeng and the others laughed wildly when they saw the villains fight among themselves.
“You may escape an untoward act of heaven, but never the evil of your own!”
“This is karma! With such villainous disciples, you should have been mentally prepared for this.”
“The five villainous disciples who betrayed you are the best examples. I think this old villain will not come to a good end even without us orthodox sects fighting him.”
The top ten experts looked at each other and laughed.