Even though both Daoist Buyu and the Grand Elder had already reached the half-step Tribulation Transcendence stage, a battlefield is unpredictable. Once the nine of them started fighting, it was hardly a case where the highest cultivation was guaranteed to win.
The elders rarely fought, so the Dao Seeking Sect disciples quickly picked the closest spots from which to watch.
A battle between Body Integration cultivators is earthshaking; there was no need to watch from directly below like Lu Yang.
"Who do you think will win?"
"The Sixth Elder's Immaculate Immortal Physique nullifies all spells. Within his Immortal Physique's domain, the Sixth Elder is invincible!"
"The Immaculate Immortal Physique is powerful, but it's not quite at the level of invincible."
"The Grand Elder, I'd say. I hear that in his youth he was a tough one. It was only as he got older that he took up self-cultivation—digging holes everywhere and building tombs without a permit."
"Right, right, I heard the family elders say as much. The Grand Elder has no shortage of enemies in the Imperial City—the least of them start at third-rank officials." The speaker was a senior brother who lived in the Imperial City. His family wasn't as illustrious as the Meng Family, but in the Imperial City it still counted as a great clan.
"If you put it that way, our Sect Master beats the Grand Elder—the whole Imperial City is crawling with our Sect Master's enemies."
"You underestimate our Sect Master. Forget enemies all over the Imperial City—in the entire cultivation world, whether the Central Continent or the Demon Domain and the Buddhist Kingdom, just ask any cultivator who's lived two thousand years. Who doesn't have a grudge against our Sect Master?"
"Why does it sound like you're actually proud of that?"
"Of course I'm proud. With enemies everywhere, our Sect Master still bounces around alive and kicking. That's skill."
Nine Body Integration cultivators fought in a melee, each displaying his arts, as if heaven and earth were collapsing. It was far noisier than when Lu Yang practiced his sword techniques.
The hard ground of Tianmen Peak was like mud before the elders, shaped at will. Trees collapsed, uprooted as if by a hurricane sweeping the ground, leaving not a blade of grass behind.
The elders attacked the strongest first—Daoist Buyu and the Grand Elder. Formations paired with talismans, alchemy paired with artifact refining... those two were no pushovers either; the Sword Dao and the dream arts each showed their might, shifting unpredictably.
But under the combined assault of the seven elders, they still showed signs of fatigue and gradually revealed openings.
Just as the disciples were all guessing who would be the final winner, a puppet shot into the sky and, like dumplings dropped into a pot, slapped the elders down one after another.
Only when it reached the Sixth Elder did it strike a little more gently.
The elders and the Sect Master, whose cultivation pierced the heavens, were unable to fight back at all. They were defeated with such ease, flung to the ground and left thoroughly dazed.
They looked up and saw the puppet standing before them, a pile of hoes over its shoulder. Without a word, it handed each of them a hoe and pointed at the scarred Tianmen Peak.
The meaning was clear: if the mess wasn't cleaned up, nobody was leaving today.
At the sight, Lu Yang counted himself lucky. Good thing his cultivation was low and he wasn't qualified to take part in a battle of that level.
The puppet handed the last hoe to Lu Yang.
Lu Yang recalled the scene when he had used One Sword Into Ten Thousand Swords, silently took the hoe, and joined the elders' ground-leveling squad.
...
Outside the Dao Seeking Sect, Clan Head Jin was still anxiously waiting for word from Daoist Buyu.
"A whole day has passed, and Big Brother still hasn't sent word. Is the Dao Seeking Sect too dangerous, so he can't let me in?"
"Or has Big Brother forgotten about me?"
Chapter 785