Ever since receiving the letter from his dear disciple, Daoist Buyu had calculated everything clearly.
A battle was unavoidable. While he could contend with Great Yu's Tribulation Transcendence cultivator for a brief spell, he was sure to come out on the losing end in an extended fight.
The letter had already stated that experts from the imperial court and the Five Great Immortal Sects were on their way; all he needed to do was trigger a massive, resounding clash to draw attention and hold out until they arrived to assist.
"Senior Chen Tao," Daoist Buyu murmured, looking up at the figure fighting Venerable Poxiao, his mind greatly eased.
The Luoshui Guards were the imperial court's specialized agency for dealing with marauder cultivators and ancient cultivators. The strongest nine among them were known as the "Nine Palaces," and Chen Tao, as head of the Nine Palaces, possessed unfathomable cultivation and strength.
In terms of seniority, Chen Tao ranked half a generation above even Daoist Buyu's master—a true, bona fide old monster.
Dispatching Chen Tao demonstrated just how seriously the imperial court took these Great Yu cultivators.
"Pah!" Daoist Buyu spat a mouthful of bloody foam, grimacing in agony and feeling as if his body were about to fall apart.
During the fight, he had used sword qi to support his physical form and temporarily enhance his bodily endurance. Now that the sword qi had dispersed, his suppressed injuries erupted. Every acupoint was bleeding; within a few breaths, his clothes were soaked in blood and grime, turning him into a bloody figure from head to toe.
"That was brutal," Daoist Buyu muttered. He retrieved several exquisite supreme-grade pills from his sleeve, each bearing pill patterns and exuding an aromatic pill fragrance, and swallowed them in one gulp.
His wounds gradually began to heal, and he felt considerably better.
"Body Cleansing, Clothes Cleansing."
Daoist Buyu cast the Body Cleansing Art and the Clothes Cleansing Art. The bloodstains vanished, his garments became clean as new, and his body felt light again.
"Seventh Senior Brother's pills really do wonders."
The supreme pills he had just consumed were rare elixirs refined by the Seventh Elder using rootlets of the Little Medicine King. Priceless beyond measure, they could serve as the grand finale at any Body Integration-level auction, truly invaluable.
Daoist Buyu was away from the sect year-round and bound to encounter danger, which was why he always kept life-saving pills on hand.
"Chen Tao of the Luoshui Guards?" Venerable Poxiao glared fixedly at the old man who had suddenly appeared, not daring to let down his guard for a second.
He sensed a deep, suffocating sense of threat from Chen Tao.
*Run!*
This was no place to linger; he had to escape at once!
"Where do you think you're running?" another voice rang out behind Venerable Poxiao.
Venerable Poxiao whipped his head around and found that yet another Tribulation Transcendence cultivator had arrived!
Down below, Daoist Buyu recognized the newcomer as another member of the Luoshui Guards' Nine Palaces.
"The Luoshui Guards have three Tribulation Transcendence cultivators in total, and the imperial court sent out two in one go. They've really spared no expense." The more people arrived, the happier Daoist Buyu was, as it meant Venerable Poxiao's chances of escaping grew slimmer by the second.
The newcomer gave Venerable Poxiao no time to react. The Dao of Talismans flowed out of the void like a mighty river, coalescing into chains of law to capture Venerable Poxiao alive!
Venerable Poxiao saw the situation turning dire. The talismans were formed naturally, flowing like an endless, inexhaustible river—indicating that this talisman cultivator had achieved grand mastery. If he were bound by chains woven by a grandmaster talisman cultivator, breaking free within a short time would be virtually impossible.
He soared into the sky, intending to break through the encirclement of the two Tribulation Transcendence cultivators.
"Trying to flee? Did you ask my Dao Seeking Sect first!" Old Ba's voice boomed above Venerable Poxiao as a foot came stamping right down toward his face.
Old Ba stood at the array's core, establishing a blockade high above Dingxin City, while the Third Elder and the others occupied the positions of the seven stars.
Seven stars guarding the pivot—the North Star Array!
Not bothering to entangle himself with Old Ba and the rest, Venerable Poxiao deployed his Asura Body. The Asura raged, shattering space itself.
Just as he was about to dive into the spatial rift, a voice echoed from within it:
"Do you take my Prison Suppressing Sect for air?"
From the spatial rift surged numerous ancient ferocious beasts—a Dijiang, a Golden-Winged Peng, a Hundun, and others—ferocious of visage, baring their fangs, bodies massive as mountains, radiating a chilling, primeval aura!
Eight powerful figures stepped out from the spatial rift, their bodies bearing tattoos of these ancient ferocious beasts.
The Prison Suppressing Sect's war tattoo cultivation method!
"My Five Elements Sect..."
"My Moon Laurel Immortal Palace..."
"The Hanging Temple..."
The Hanging Temple had dispatched only one person: its Prior, whose combat prowess was in no way inferior to Qiu Jin'an!
There were also civil officials and military generals dispatched by the imperial court, all high in fighting spirit and itching for a fight.
The two Nine Palaces of the Luoshui Guards possessed the highest cultivation and had arrived the fastest. Soon, Body Integration cultivators from the Five Great Immortal Sects arrived one after another in the skies above Dingxin City, surrounding it so tightly that not a drop of water could leak through.
All told, over forty Body Integration cultivators had assembled here.
Furthermore, every one of these Body Integration experts hailed from the Five Great Immortal Sects—any one plucked at random was far more capable in combat than an ordinary Body Integration cultivator.
Two members of the Nine Palaces plus the sects' Body Integration cultivators: against such a lineup, even if Wu Youdao and his two companions were here, they would have had no choice but to take a beating obediently.
Even if Wu Youdao and his trio had acquired the power of Huangzhou's national destiny and Wu Youdao's dragon-tiger qi had completed its metamorphosis, they still wouldn't have stood a chance against this force!
To prevent a repeat of the incident in Hanshui City, the imperial court and the immortal sects had deliberately mobilized a massive force to thoroughly scour and purge all latent threats in Jizhou!
In short, so long as a Great Yu cultivator dared to show their face, they would face a combined strike from the righteous path!
By the same token, Daoist Buyu didn't dare show his face either.
How could the residents of Dingxin City ever have witnessed a scene like this? They couldn't tell who was Tribulation Transcendence or who was Body Integration; they didn't even know that any single person up there was stronger than their city lord.
Dingxin City's city lord was merely at the Void Refining stage.
Yet this did not prevent them from being overwhelmed with excitement and cheering wildly. They had been tormented by the Rules established by Venerable Poxiao for too long; a single minor infraction of the Rules meant the threat of death, forcing them to tread with utmost caution every single day.
"Boss, I'm heading out. Until we meet again," Daoist Buyu bade farewell to the dazed teahouse owner.
The teahouse owner was actually a cultivator, albeit of modest cultivation, who had opened a tavern in Dingxin City to pass the time.
He could roughly tell that these cultivators were higher in cultivation than the city lord—they were the top almighty figures of the cultivation world.
Not once in nearly a hundred years had so many almighty figures taken action together; even now, he could scarcely believe his own eyes.
"Ah, you're leaving?" The teahouse owner wanted to urge Daoist Buyu to stay. Just moments ago, the daoist had spoken as if facing death with equanimity, ready to risk his life against Venerable Poxiao; how come now that Hanshui City was saved, he was leaving instead?
"If I don't leave now, I won't be able to leave at all." Daoist Buyu offered no further explanation to the teahouse owner. Taking advantage of everyone's attention being focused on Venerable Poxiao, he slipped away.
"Capture him alive!" Chen Tao commanded, yet he himself was the first to strike.
Biting through his fingertip, drops of golden blood flew out, transforming into divine weapons that rained down toward Venerable Poxiao like a curtain of rain.
"It's been so long since I last saw Senior Chen Tao's Hundred Refined Divine Weapons!" The sect members exclaimed while joining Chen Tao in attacking. The dizzying barrage of diverse attacks battered Venerable Poxiao so severely that he couldn't fight back in the slightest.
Despair welled up within Venerable Poxiao. Ultimately, he was bound by the chains of rules formed from talismans, completely unable to muster even a shred of his cultivation.
"We've finally caught one!" Chen Tao sneered coldly. Up until now, every Great Yu cultivator had been captured by the Dao Seeking Sect. Now, it was finally the imperial court's turn.
"By the way, where did the cultivator who was fighting on equal terms with Poxiao just now go?"
When he arrived, Chen Tao's attention had been entirely on Venerable Poxiao, so he hadn't noticed who had been fighting him.
"Ask the city lord. He definitely saw," Old Ba suggested.
Stared down by a group of almighty figures whose cultivation vastly exceeded his own, the city lord trembled from head to toe as he drew a face all too familiar to everyone present.
"Motherfucker! That Buyu punk ran away!"
Everyone slapped their thighs in sheer frustration, looking as though they had missed out on a heavenly opportunity.
If Daoist Buyu were here, what a glorious opportunity for revenge it would have been!
"Interrogate Poxiao under severe torture! If not for him, would that Buyu punk have been able to get away?!"
Venerable Poxiao: "..."
*Didn't they say Great Xia's cultivators all get along peacefully? It sure doesn't look like it.*
Chapter 464