One Against Four, Absolute Suppression, Peerless Might!

"Strike!" Before the words had even faded, three streaks of flowing light materialized. A compass! A bronze mirror! A banner! These were the life-bound treasures of the three Lu brothers, each at the True Artifact grade. Yet at this moment, faint, hair-thin cracks marred the surface of all three treasures. Those fissures were a gift from Luo Chen during the great battle in the Tiandu Domain! Unlike human cultivators who excelled at artifact forging, powerful demon cultivators tended to pursue convenience and raw power when crafting treasures. They did not consider an artifact's growth and transformation the way human experts did, who often incorporated diverse materials during forging to grant artifacts immense growth potential and admirable restorative properties. Consequently, once a demon powerhouse's treasure suffered damage in battle, it often required an extended period to mend. Barely a year had passed since the battle of the Tiandu Domain; the three treasures were still far from their peak condition. The three Lu brothers cast pained glances at their respective artifacts, then made the exact same move in unspoken unison. Magic power surged violently as demonic qi billowed forth. Their three figures began to swell and balloon wildly, ultimately transforming into three jiuzhang deer two to three hundred zhang tall, treading upon azure clouds as they loomed in the void. Standing to one side, Di Tu looked somewhat surprised. "Is the Alchemy Grandmaster truly so formidable that you must reveal your true forms right from the start?" While pushing his life-bound compass to its limits, Lu Changsheng replied, "He is extraordinarily powerful. Back then, even when the three of us laid down a killing formation, we failed to slay him and instead suffered damage to our treasures. That is why we invited you, my lord, to hold the line, and why the three of us dare not hold back in the slightest." Di Tu raised an eyebrow, palpably sensing the gravity in the Lu brothers' words. "Very well. Since you show such loyalty and put forth such effort, I shall report this to my father afterward." "Then we thank you, my lord!" Lu Changsheng felt a surge of joy. The needle on the compass above his head was already spinning frantically. Their exchange seemed elaborate, yet it had transpired in a mere breath. The compass needle snapped to a sudden halt! "Found Luo Chen's true body!" Lu Changsheng barked in a low voice and plummeted swiftly. Sharing a tacit understanding, the other two demons descended alongside him. The compass, bronze mirror, and banner cast out overlapping ripples of light that expanded relentlessly, covering nearly a hundred li. Seen from high above, this descending grand formation seemed poised to swallow the vast Baili Qingchuan whole! *** Before Luotian Hall on Mount Daqing. A man and a woman stepped outside at an unhurried pace. Looking at the man's tall silhouette, Sima Huiniang could not hide the worry in her eyes. Yet she refrained from excessive chatter, offering only an elegant curtsy. "Your wife wishes you a triumphant return, Husband!" Luo Chen smiled faintly. Stepping upon a gentle breeze, he soared straight up into the azure clouds in a single stride. Within his line of sight, black mist blotted out the sky, nearly engulfing the entire expanse of Baili Qingchuan. Luo Chen naturally recognized this familiar spectacle. "Nine Chapters Bone Dissolution? Again?" A fierce glint flashed across Luo Chen's face, his pupils glowing with a faint golden luster. His eyes darted rapidly, as though searching for flaws. Suddenly! Luo Chen moved, rocketing toward the dark canopy like an arrow loosed from a bow. He moved with such blistering speed, wrapped in cyan-white flames, that from afar he resembled a blazing sun. Plummeting rapidly, the three Lu brothers could not help but feel perplexed at the sight. They had feared Luo Chen might notice them and evade the trap, so they had made extensive preparations beforehand. They had rallied a vast horde of demon beasts to assault Baili Qingchuan, forcing Luo Chen to reveal himself, whereupon the three would spring their ambush and lock their formation onto his true body. That way, they could trap him within the grand formation once more. Yet now that he had detected the grand formation, why was he charging straight into danger instead of retreating? Though doubts swirled in their hearts, the three had no room to alter their course now. The formation was already deployed; no matter what Luo Chen did, they had to see it through. "Don't panic, Eldest Brother! Last time, he was trapped by us for ages and only broke out after sustaining injuries. This time, he's merely bluffing!" "That's right! Once he steps into the formation, with our combined might and Di Tu's assistance, there is no way he can escape!" Seeing his two younger brothers so brimming with confidence, Lu Changsheng naturally would not dampen their own morale to boost the enemy's. "Then let him step into the trap!" A colossal curtain of darkness bore down upon Qingchuan. A blazing sun vaulted skyward, charging straight for the heavens. Suddenly! *Clang!* The moment Luo Chen entered the formation, a sharp sword hum rang out. Immediately following it was a terrifying swath of sword light slashing upward thousands of zhang. *Rip...* The sound of tearing silk echoed as a sliver of celestial light abruptly pierced the darkness cloaking Baili Qingchuan. Breaching the black curtain, Luo Chen stood tall in the void. Holding a blood-red sword, his cold gaze fell upon the three colossal jiuzhang deer, who were coughing up blood and stumbling backward. "Repeating old tricks—utterly useless!" The Nine Chapters Bone Dissolution Formation was indeed wondrous. It required neither heavenly timing nor favorable terrain; relied solely on the three brothers' coordination, it could be laid out anywhere at any time. Moreover, it possessed manifold variations and unpredictable shifts. An ordinary Demon Emperor caught within would face certain death. Even a Great Demon Emperor encountering it for the first time would need to expend considerable thought to break it. Yet Luo Chen was different! He was a fourth-rank formation master, and he had personally experienced this formation during the great battle in the Tiandu Domain. Back then, he had shattered it with brute force. In truth, he had already gained an impressive grasp of its inner workings. This formation was too insubstantial, akin to rootless duckweed. So long as one found its flaw before it fully deployed, one could break it "easily." Of course, for an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator, whether finding that flaw or breaking it easily, neither was remotely feasible. Yet Luo Chen possessed the Illusion-Breaking Eye, allowing him to seize upon the fleeting flaw in an instant. Coupled with the peerlessly sharp Yuantu Sword, shattering it was as easy as turning over his hand! Standing in the void, Luo Chen flicked the blood-red longsword in his hand. "You three defeated dogs again? You dare run wild at my Luotian Sect?" His voice was laced with utter disdain. The three colossal jiuzhang deer had already clustered together, their plum-blossom hooves pacing restlessly in the void. Right then, a gruff voice boomed from above. "Lu Changsheng, your formation is useless! If we want to take this man down, it will come down to the saber in this emperor's hand!" Accompanying those words was a massive saber beam glowing with dazzling golden radiance. Luo Chen raised an eyebrow. Without a shred of hesitation, he slashed outward with the Yuantu Sword. Unlike before, when he needed to gather power to channel the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, after training in the way of the sword and drinking deeply of demon blood, the Yuantu sword spirit had formed an initial bond with Luo Chen. Thus, this strike contained not only Luo Chen's refined magic power, but also channeled a torrent of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy. Sword qi and saber light collided in a flash. *Boom!* The void trembled, robes snapping violently in the shockwave. A burly figure wielding a gold-ringed broadsword appeared in Luo Chen's view. "So you brought a helper!" Luo Chen sneered, shifting his gaze onto the man. "Your name?!" "I am Di Tu, son of Lord Pingshan! On this journey, I urge you to surrender peacefully and accompany us to the Pingshan Sacred Ground," Di Tu said haughtily, his tone indicating he thought little of Luo Chen. Luo Chen frowned. The son of Ancient Demon Di Tian? This unfamiliar foe's background was somewhat beyond his expectations. Rumor had it that Ancient Demon Di Tian had unified the demon race of the Eastern Desolation and established the Pingshan Sacred Ground within the Million Mountains. He had three direct offspring: Huang Man, one of the Nine Commanders; the mid-fourth-rank Di Tu; and a relatively mysterious child said to have been born to his favored consort, Fairy Jinxiu. To think the second son, Di Tu, had come to Baili Qingchuan to summon Luo Chen. "Is this Lord Pingshan's intention?" "Indeed. The name of the Alchemy Grandmaster resonates like thunder even among our demon race. If possible, this emperor has no wish to cross swords with you." "Heh, you truly think you have this master dead to rights?" Luo Chen narrowed his eyes, sweeping his gaze across the surroundings. While he and Di Tu spoke, the three Lu brothers had quietly drifted apart, each taking up a position. Coordinating with Di Tu's stance, they had placed Luo Chen dead in the center of an encirclement. Seeing the formation complete, especially with Luo Chen making no attempt to flee, Di Tu felt complete confidence in victory. *Clang! Clang!* He shook the golden saber in his hand, the iron rings rattling against the spine with a sharp martial rhythm. "Alchemy Grandmaster, we have surrounded you. There is no path to heaven and no door into the earth. Do you still intend to struggle?" "Haha!" Luo Chen laughed. "You surround me?" The next instant, his mocking laughter vanished abruptly. A formidable domain erupted outward from his person with a thunderous roar. Senluo Fire Prison, unleash! Within it, all worldly spiritual energy that did not belong to the fire element was thoroughly suppressed. The four opposing demons were not surprised by this. Each channeled their Nascent Souls to commune with heaven and earth, expanding their own Nascent Soul domains. Yet the moment the three Lu brothers unfurled their Nascent Soul domains, the Senluo Fire Prison forced them right back down. Far from pinning Luo Chen, they could not even manipulate the free-floating spiritual energy between heaven and earth; they could only mobilize the magic power within their own bodies. Di Tu fared slightly better, but only barely. His domain could only protect the space immediately around him, entirely unable to affect Luo Chen. From this single sudden shift, Di Tu realized something was amiss. "Such a powerful domain, such monstrous magic power—and you told me he was only at the fourth layer of the Nascent Soul stage?" The three Lu brothers had no time to answer Di Tu's question. Luo Chen was far from finished! With the blood-red sword hovering in midair, he pointed one finger to the heavens and one to the earth. "Sword formation, rise!" Across the earth of Baili Qingchuan, countless sword qi strands that had been slaughtering demon kings answered his summons. They surged into the sky as brilliant sword beams, encircling Luo Chen and the four demons together. Five sword pellets circled the perimeter like stalking fish, eyeing them with predatory intent. The Great Five Elements Sword Formation operated on the mutual generation and overcoming of the five elements; its fundamental design was suppression. Unfortunately, because three of the sword pellets used to form the array had not yet reached the True Artifact grade, it suffered from a major deficiency, rendering its performance in battle somewhat lackluster. Yet Luo Chen remedied that flaw in the very next instant. He opened his mouth and spat! A streak of grey light emerged. Spinning dizzily in midair, the grey light expanded in the blink of an eye into a hundred-zhang cauldron. It was none other than Luo Chen's life-bound treasure, the Hunyuan Cauldron! It also integrated the power of the five elements, and its suppressive might far exceeded that of the newly mastered Great Five Elements Sword Formation. "Enclose!" The hundred-zhang cauldron hung high in the sky, shedding a hazy spiritual glow that completely covered the five combatants. With the Great Five Elements Sword Formation watching hungrily below, the massive cauldron crushing everything from above, and Luo Chen using his own Nascent Soul domain as the bridge to fuse the three, the void instantly congealed, turning sluggish as a swamp and making every step an ordeal. This all sounded lengthy, yet barely a breath had passed since Luo Chen released his domain. Sensing catastrophe, Lu Changsheng blurted out, "His earlier sword formation was deliberate—it was all preparation for this very moment! We've been duped!" Luo Chen paid no heed. Reaching out, he gripped the Yuantu Sword once more. His white robes snapped and billowed without any wind. "Now, it's my turn to surround you." "Will you submit and serve as my mounts, or stubbornly resist and meet your end?" "Choose!" His words radiated unbridled arrogance and absolute dominance! Di Tu was the first who could bear it no longer. He roared, "Insolent wretch, die!" Even before his voice fell, he was the first to strike, unleashing wave after wave of colossal saber beams toward Luo Chen. The three Lu brothers followed suit, directing their treasures toward Luo Chen. Yet whether it was the saber beams, the cyan light of the bronze mirror, or the black mist billowing from the banner, in Luo Chen's eyes at this moment, they were all agonizingly slow. He moved! Employing the principles of Moon Steps, he strode through the "Triple Hell" of his own making, moving with leisurely grace as if taking a stroll in a courtyard. Faced with the incoming onslaught, he dodged, sidestepped, or casually swatted the attacks aside. The blood-red sword in his hand unleashed sweeping sword qi, complemented by various spells, raining down upon the four Demon Emperors. Luo Chen could evade or parry the Demon Emperors' attacks at will. Yet under the crushing weight of the Triple Hell, Luo Chen's strikes were far harder to avoid. If they could not dodge, they had to take them head-on! Yet how could Luo Chen's strikes be so easily endured? *Swish!* The blood-red sword slipped from his hand, cleaving through the air. The life-bound banner of Lu Chang'an, the youngest of the three Lu brothers, was cleanly sliced in two, leaving a deep gash across his colossal body. *Boom!* A fire phoenix swept through. The second brother, Lu Changqing, shielded himself with the bronze mirror, but he could not block it entirely; the fur along his back melted away, exposing vast swathes of charred flesh. A flaming dragon descended from the heavens, roaring as it lunged at the eldest brother, Lu Changsheng. He swallowed the compass whole, cloaked himself in spiritual light, and abruptly shrank in size, forcibly shifting several zhang through the void to dodge the fire dragon. Yet when he reappeared, blood poured from his body in torrents. Evidently, his physical body could not withstand such a forced displacement in the heat of battle. Seeing this, however, Di Tu's eyes lit up. "This battlefield suppresses our magic power and restrains our demonic arts, but it doesn't seem to restrict physical strength!" With a booming bellow, he charged toward Luo Chen. His reasoning was straightforward. Though demon cultivators turned to qi refinement methods, their physical constitution was still far beyond what human cultivators could match. In a direct clash of physical might, he could disregard the Triple Hell Luo Chen had so painstakingly laid out. Yet as he charged at Luo Chen, Lu Changsheng seemed to recall a certain past scene and cried out in sheer panic: "Don't!" However, the warning came too late. *Bang!* Di Tu stared in disbelief as his fist was caught firmly in the young man's grip, unable to advance another inch! "Impossible!" He pushed his physical strength to the limit, yet his fist remained pinned. Worse still, the colossal force exerted by the other's hand threatened to grind his knuckles to dust. The corner of Luo Chen's mouth twitched in silent amusement. Under the suppression of the Triple Hell: In magical combat, he was like a fish in water! In physical combat, he was peerless under the heavens! With a beckon of his left hand, the Yuantu Sword streaked back, aimed directly at Di Tu. Sensing the threat, panic surged through Di Tu. He wanted to retreat, but his right hand was held fast in Luo Chen's iron grip—he could neither advance nor pull away. Gritting his teeth, a look of madness flashed across Di Tu's face. The golden saber slashed down from above. A blackish-yellow radiance flared across Luo Chen's body as the Xuanchen Armor materialized, showing no intention of dodging. *Crack!* The golden saber cleaved straight through Di Tu's own arm. Di Tu ripped himself away. Left holding a severed arm, Luo Chen was momentarily taken aback. "Severing your own tail like a gecko—so decisive?" His surprise lasted only a heartbeat. With Luo Chen's battle instincts, how could he squander such a golden opportunity? Without the slightest hesitation, he engaged Moon Steps and gave chase. Not far off, the three Lu brothers swallowed hard at the sight. Suddenly! Lu Changsheng spotted something in the distance and screamed in agony, "Third Brother, don't—" Lu Chang'an kicked with all four hooves, erupting with every ounce of magic power to break out of the Triple Hell. Yet what greeted him was the slicing of countless terrifying sword threads. *Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!* In merely a few breaths, the colossal body of the third brother, Lu Chang'an, was riddled with holes by the Great Five Elements Sword Formation like a hornet's nest. A Nascent Soul scrambled out in sheer panic. Without the barrier of the purple mansion, the Nascent Soul's connection to heaven and earth grew even closer, to the point where even the Senluo Fire Prison could not suppress it. Caring nothing for his ruined physical body, Lu Chang'an prepared to execute a Nascent Soul teleportation to escape this nightmarish battlefield. Yet in the next breath, several crimson chains abruptly reached out from the void, binding his Nascent Soul tight and dragging it straight back into the massive grey cauldron hovering above. This happened so abruptly that no one had time to react. Not even the eldest brother, Lu Changsheng, who had shouted the warning. He stared blankly at the massive cauldron in the sky, then shifted his gaze toward Luo Chen. Luo Chen, the perpetrator of this deed, was unleashing broad, sweeping martial arts strikes, engaging Di Tu in brutal close-quarters combat without giving him an inch of room or time to respond. The ferocious flurry of fists and kicks battered Di Tu until he could barely retaliate, his body already covered in grievous wounds. It was as though the previous scene had been executed automatically by the sword formation and the giant cauldron on their own. Yet everyone knew that True Artifacts requiring such colossal expenditures of magic power could never slay enemies autonomously without guidance. Watching this, Lu Changsheng muttered to himself, "How is he controlling the giant cauldron, the blood sword, and the sword formation all at the same time?" *Thud!* The colossal corpse of the jiuzhang deer crashed onto the earth with a resounding boom. "Eldest Brother, Third Brother is gone!" The second brother, Lu Changqing, roared in fury and galloped forward on all fours, charging at Luo Chen. Hearing this, Lu Changsheng's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. "Avenge Third Brother! Kill him!" *Crack!* Luo Chen ripped off Di Tu's other arm. Without even looking back, he flashed a savage grin: "Come! Come! Today, every last one of you will be buried here!"