290: Kunlun dares to issue an ultimatum? I'll rip your dog's head off!

The two-month deadline passed in the blink of an eye.

At the back mountain of Daozi Peak, the entrance to the Forbidden Ground was crowded with people.

Today was the day Lu Sheng, the Chief Daozi of Dengxian Island, would exit his seclusion. The scale of the scene was comparable to the New Year celebrations.

Li Xiaoyao wore a brand-new purple-gold Daoist robe, his hair combed meticulously. He held a top-grade spiritual fan that he usually couldn't bear to use, standing before the Dragon-Severing Stone with a face glowing with health.

Behind him, Xing Tian, Ling Yao, and a group of core Elders were lined up on both sides. Further back were thousands of True Inheritance and Inner Sect Disciples, all waiting with craned necks.

“Everyone, look sharp!”

Li Xiaoyao lightly waved his folding fan, his tone carrying an irrepressible pride: “Opening the Heavenly Rank Treasure Vault this time cost us a fortune. Inside lies the accumulation of several thousand years of our Dengxian Island. Even a fingernail-sized Opportunity leaked from there would be enough for that kid to undergo a complete transformation.”

“Grand Elder, aren’t you afraid that kid Lu Sheng might bite off more than he can chew?” Xing Tian asked in a booming voice, his arms crossed, his eyes holding both expectation and worry.

“Bite off more than he can chew?” Li Xiaoyao sneered, stroking his beard and sighing. “I actually hope he can eat a bit more. The items in that treasure vault are piled up like mountains. Just Spirit Stones alone amount to a million cubic meters, and there are thousands of various divine Sharp Weapons. Even if you let an ancient Vicious Beast in to gnaw on it, eating one-tenth in two months would be the absolute limit.”

As he spoke, he turned to face the Disciples, raising his voice an octave to begin the customary pre-battle mobilization.

“Disciples! When the Daozi exits later, there will surely be ten thousand rays of spiritual light and a thousand streaks of auspicious air! This is the sign of our Dengxian Island’s revival!”

“We must use the most enthusiastic applause to welcome our newly risen powerhouse!”

“Can you do it?!”

“We can!!”

Thousands of Disciples shouted in unison, the sound waves startling the birds in the mountain forests into flight.

Just as the atmosphere reached its climax...

“Rumble—”

The heavy sound of mechanical friction rang out.

The Dragon-Severing Stone, weighing a million jin and sealed for a full two months, slowly began to rise.

Everyone’s breathing stopped at this moment. Countless eyes stared fixedly at the widening gap, waiting for the legendary treasure light to soar into the sky, waiting for that suffocating pressure of a powerhouse.

One meter.

Two meters.

Ten meters.

The stone gate was completely open.

However.

There was no treasure light.

There was no auspicious air.

There wasn't even a single extra ripple of Spiritual Qi.

There was only a gust of cold draft mixed with a strong earthy smell, as if it had just blown out of a freshly dug grave, whistling past everyone's faces and ruffling Li Xiaoyao's meticulously groomed beard.

Dead silence.

The thousands of people present were as if they had been collectively hit by a binding spell. One by one, their mouths hung open, their expressions shifting from expectation to blankness, finally freezing into a state of extreme absurdity.

The folding fan in Li Xiaoyao's hand fell to the ground with a "clack."

He rubbed his eyes.

And rubbed them again.

Then his body suddenly swayed, and he let out a wail like a stuck pig: “My... where is my vault?!!”

Behind that massive stone gate...

Where was the magnificent Small World?

Where were the Spirit Stones piled like mountains?

What met their eyes was an incredibly massive, bottomless super-sized dirt pit!

Forget about treasures.

Even the basalt floor tiles laid on the ground were gone!

Even the Coiled Dragon Golden Pillars that supported the dome had been uprooted!

The tens of thousands of night pearls originally embedded in the ceiling had vanished completely, leaving only dark holes that seemed to be mocking the people below.

Was this a seclusion?

This was clearly a demolition crew moving in, wasn't it?!

“This... has it been robbed?” Elder Xing Tian stared with wide eyes, his speech failing him. “But the Formation wasn't broken... what kind of thief could steal so cleanly? They even peeled off the wall skins?”

Although Elder Ling Yao had a steady personality, her eyelids were twitching wildly now, her fair hand clutching her chest for fear her heart would jump out.

Too ruthless.

It was truly too ruthless.

Was this the so-called "eat as much as you can"? Did this kid understand the word "eat" as physical consumption?

Just as the Elders were about to collapse...

Activity finally came from the bottom of that massive dirt pit.

“Cough, cough...”

A series of coughs rang out.

Immediately after, a ragged figure covered in dust climbed up along the pit wall.

Everyone looked closely.

It was Luo Tianfei.

This Divine Phoenix Maiden, who was usually high and mighty, now had hair like a bird's nest and a face covered in black ash. Her priceless soft armor was in tatters, looking exactly like a refugee who had just escaped from a coal mine.

The moment she saw Li Xiaoyao, her tears almost broke through; the sense of grievance from seeing a loved one instantly erupted.

“Grand Elder...” Luo Tianfei's voice was hoarse, carrying a sob.

“Tianfei! What happened?!” Li Xiaoyao rushed over as if catching a life-saving straw. “Where are the things in the vault? Did some mishap occur? Did a spatial collapse swallow the treasures?”

He was frantically looking for excuses.

Even a spatial collapse would feel better than them being eaten clean by someone!

Luo Tianfei's lips trembled, just as she was about to speak.

“Tap, tap, tap.”

Steady, powerful footsteps came from the depths of the darkness.

With every step that landed, the ground shook slightly.

Then, a tall and straight figure walked slowly out of the shadows with his hands behind his back.

Lu Sheng.

He had changed into a clean set of black casual clothes. His hair was wet as if he had just washed it, and he held a spiritual fruit he'd found somewhere, munching on it with a loud "crunch, crunch."

At this moment, there wasn't any terrifying aura ripple on his body.

He looked just like an older brother from next door who had eaten his fill and was out for a stroll.

Except for those eyes that occasionally flashed with a grey-white color, which were so deep that people didn't dare look directly at them.

Lu Sheng walked to the Dragon-Severing Stone, looked at the group of Elders and Disciples with various expressions as if they had seen a ghost, swallowed the last bite of the spiritual fruit, and casually wiped his mouth.

“Yo, everyone's here?”

Lu Sheng gave a greeting, his tone as relaxed as if he were asking what was for dinner: “This is quite a big lineup. A welcome ceremony?”

“Wel... Welcome my ass!!”

Li Xiaoyao finally came back to his senses, pointing at the massive empty pit behind him, his finger shaking as if he had Parkinson’s: “Lu Sheng!! Explain this to me!! What is going on?!”

“This is thousands of years of foundation!! You just... just...”

Li Xiaoyao clutched his chest, unable to catch his breath, his eyes rolling back as he prepared to fall backward.

Two nearby deacons were quick-witted and immediately pulled out a Nine-Turn Heart-Protecting Pill that emitted a medicinal fragrance and stuffed it into the Grand Elder's mouth, only then bringing him back.

Lu Sheng watched this scene and spread his hands helplessly.

“Old man, you're being boring now.”

“We agreed before I went in—take as much as I can. As long as I can break through to Spirit Ancestor, you'd accept it even if I ate the family fortune empty.”

Lu Sheng pointed at the large pit with an innocent face, even looking a bit aggrieved: “Besides, the quality of your treasure vault isn't that great. I wasn't even full before it was all gone.”

“Mainly those wall skins... the texture was too astringent. Remember to change to some softer Materials next time.”

Not even full?!

The wall skins were too astringent?!

The thousands of Disciples present felt their scalps go numb.

Is this the Chief Daozi?

This is a humanoid Taotie!

“You... you...” Li Xiaoyao swallowed the pill and his breathing smoothed out, but his face grew even darker. “Fine! Good that you aren't full! Since you ate so much, what is your current Realm?!”

“If you haven't reached Spirit Ancestor, I'll activate the Mountain-Protecting Grand Formation today and stuff you, you spendthrift, into the sea eye!”

Everyone's gaze instantly focused on Lu Sheng.

After consuming so many resources, even a pig should have become a god, right?

But at this moment, Lu Sheng's aura was restrained, and one couldn't see his depth at all. He didn't even have the Spiritual Pressure unique to powerhouses.

“Realm?”

Lu Sheng curled his lip and casually flicked the fruit pit in his hand.

Whoosh!

The fruit pit turned into a streak of light, accurately hitting a stone peak a thousand meters away.

Boom!

That hundred-meter-tall stone peak, without any spirit source fluctuation, instantly crumbled into a sky full of dust.

Physical pulverization.

Dead silence.

Lu Sheng ignored everyone's shock and only slowly raised his head. Those originally black eyes instantly turned into an emotionless dead grey.

“Want to see the goods?”

“Fine.”

“Then... keep your eyes wide open and watch closely.”

The corners of Lu Sheng's mouth curled up slightly. He lightly lifted his right foot and let it fall toward the ground in a seemingly casual manner.

“Thud.”

The sound wasn't loud.

But the moment his foot hit the ground...

Buzz——————!!!!

An indescribable, terrifying ripple erupted without warning, with Lu Sheng as the center.

This wasn't Spiritual Pressure.

This was an absolute crushing from the level of life itself, a sense of desolation that signaled the "end of all things."

The originally bright and sunny sky darkened instantly.

The space within a ten-mile radius seemed to have its colors drained, turning into a black-and-white photo with only grey and white tones.

Everyone's heart sank abruptly, as if an invisible mountain had been pressed onto their backs.

“Thump!”

“Thump!!”

The hundreds of Inner Sect Disciples closest to him couldn't control their knees at all, kneeling on the ground in a uniform fashion, cold sweat instantly soaking their clothes.

Even powerhouses like Xing Tian and Ling Yao, who were in the Spirit Ancestor Realm, had their faces change drastically. They had to circulate their entire spirit source to barely remain standing, but their trembling legs betrayed their inner horror.

This feeling... was not Spirit Ancestor at all!

This was like facing a living ancient deity!

Behind Lu Sheng, a thousand-meter-tall phantom flashed and vanished.

Though it was only for an instant, that imperial will that looked down on the world and viewed all things as mere straw dogs was already deeply etched into the depths of everyone's Souls.

The Archaic Heaven Emperor Venerable made his first appearance.

“Whew...”

Li Xiaoyao only felt his throat go dry, that feeling of his heart stopping suddenly hitting him again.

But he didn't faint this time.

He stared fixedly at Lu Sheng, and in those old eyes that were originally cloudy from the pain of losing money, an unprecedented wild joy and brilliance erupted.

It was the madness of a gambler who, after going all-in, flips over his cards to find a royal flush.

“This... this is...” Li Xiaoyao's voice trembled.

Lu Sheng withdrew his aura, the surrounding colors returned, and that suffocating pressure vanished instantly.

He turned back into that young man with a face that invited a punch.

“How is it?”

Lu Sheng patted Li Xiaoyao's shoulder, the action like a leader inspecting a subordinate: “Was this deal a loss?”

Li Xiaoyao's body shook, and he instantly changed his expression.

The wrinkles on his face smiled into a blooming chrysanthemum. The previous heartache and anger vanished completely, replaced by an extreme fawning and kindness.

“A loss? Who said it was a loss?!”

Li Xiaoyao waved his large sleeve and roared at those Elders who were still in a daze: “What are you looking at! Can't you see the Daozi has grown thin from hunger?!”

“Pass down the order! Open the backup warehouse! Bring out the rest of the family fortune!”

“Give the Daozi whatever he wants to eat! Even if he wants to tear down the Ancestral Master's hall, hand him the hammer!”

The Disciples: “...”

Is this the art of face-changing?

Lu Sheng nodded with satisfaction: “Alright, forget about those scraps, the texture really isn't good.”

He stretched, preparing to go back to Daozi Peak for a nap.

“Wait.”

Li Xiaoyao's expression suddenly turned solemn, the smile on his face fading, becoming more serious than ever before.

He pulled a gold-stamped red invitation from his robe and handed it to Lu Sheng with both hands.

On the cover of the invitation was an embossed pattern of a divine mountain shrouded in mist, exuding a high and mighty majesty.

“What? Business so soon?” Lu Sheng raised an eyebrow.

“This is the ‘last ultimatum’ just sent by the Kunlun Holy Land.”

Li Xiaoyao took a deep breath, his voice low and carrying a suppressed rage.

“They have invited the major Holy Lands to observe a ceremony. It's called a sparring match, but it's actually to establish their dominance.”

“The invitation says...”

“In this Grand Competition, if no one from our Dengxian Island can make it into the top three...”

“They will strip us of the title of Dengxian Island and completely erase Dengxian Island from the map of the True Sea.”

Lu Sheng took the invitation.

His fingertips applied a slight force.

The invitation, which contained a hint of the Kunlun Spirit King's will, turned directly into ash in his hand.

“Erase us?”

Lu Sheng patted the ash from his hands and looked toward the distant east.

In those grey eyes, a heart-palpitating ambition and killing intent danced.

“Interesting.”

“Since they've stuck their necks out...”

Lu Sheng grinned, revealing a row of forest-white teeth.

“Then I'll take their heads for them... and kick them around like balls.”

PS: The Holy Land Grand Competition begins. See how the protagonist crushes the prodigies of various forces.