Time slowly passed, but nothing out of the ordinary appeared in the surrounding area.
Finally, a burly man red-haired man in the light formation ran out of patience, and transmitted his voice toward a portly elderly man. "Why isn't he here? Could it be that he changed his mind and decided not to follow our plan? We didn't deploy anyone to spy on them as we were worried that the culprit would notice."
"Rest assured, Brother Che Qi; we wouldn't have set up this trap if we weren't fully confident in it. I don't know why the culprit pursued those two for such a long time, but the results of our investigation indicate that he's displayed no intention of giving up. As long as that Six-winged Frost Centipede doesn't make it too obvious, he'll definitely be able to lure the culprit into this trap," the elderly man replied with a warm smile.
"That's very reassuring to hear. Speaking of which, just how fearsome is the culprit behind the blood sacrifices? Not only have the 12 of us been assembled, even these Heaven and Earth Extreme Formations and the sacred treasure of the Blood Bone Sect, the Yellow Wind Scroll, are being used. That treasure and these two formations alone should be enough to refine the culprit alive; why are our services still required?" the red-haired man asked in a curious manner.
"I'm not too sure about that, but there must be a reason why the fellow daoists who assembled us are being so cautious. Setting everything else aside, that man has already killed three Grand Ascension Stage fellow daoists and has sacrificed countless living beings without any inhibition, so he does deserve this grand treatment," the portly man replied.
"I'm rather curious about where that man came from. Could it be that he's been cultivating in seclusion for countless years or perhaps is a powerful being from another realm?" the red-haired man speculated.
"There's no need to think about such things. Regardless of where he came from, his actions are inexcusable, and our Blood Dao sects definitely can't allow him to continue living in this world. Otherwise, our reputation would be swept to the ground," the portly man replied with a solemn expression.
"That's true. I've heard that Bi Ying of the He Lian Trade Guild, Mistress Ling Yun of the Myriad Curse Mountain, and Fellow Daoist He of the Skyfall Valley have also been invited as spectators. With their participation, there's no way that man will be able to survive," the red-haired man said.
"Hehe, there's no way those three would join forces to oppose the same enemy. Besides, with all of us here, there won't be any chance for them to get involved," the portly man replied, to which the red-haired man nodded with a contemplative expression.
Meanwhile, four Grand Ascension Stage beings were standing together in the hall of a shimmering golden pagoda.
The pagoda was situated in a giant city countless kilometers away from the desert, and the four of them were all appraising a white light screen between them.
The screen was displaying everything taking place in every corner of the desert, and one of the four Grand Ascension Stage beings was none other than Bi Ying.
The other three were comprised of a middle-aged man in a scholar's robe, a middle-aged woman in a colorful dress, and a crimson-robed man with eyes that resembled those of a falcon.
All four of them were appraising the scenes unfolding on the light screen with calm expressions, displaying no intention of conversing with one another.
……
Half a day later, a streak of light suddenly appeared on the edge of the desert before flying deeper into the desert at an astonishing speed.
The streak of light was being pursued by a rainbow cloud, from which an icy male voice rang out.
"You've truly enraged me now, and I'm growing tired of this game of cat and mouse, so I'll end it here and now."
As soon as the voice trailed off, the rainbow cloud transformed into a bolt of rainbow lightning that sped up drastically.
Thus, the streak of light and rainbow lightning quickly sped through close to half of the desert and arrived at its center.
The streak of light faded, and a snowy white eight-winged centipede was revealed alongside a beautiful woman in a silver palatial dress.
As soon as the centipede landed on the ground, it transformed into a white-robed young man with golden and silver patterns on his face, who immediately turned to look back into the distance.
A rumbling thunderclap rang out, and the bolt of rainbow lightning appeared before hurtling down toward the duo.
The Six-winged Frost Centipede's pupils contracted slightly upon seeing this, and he immediately transformed into his eight-winged centipede form against before continuing to flee.
Right at this moment, a burst of rumbling suddenly rang out, and the earth tremored violently as a burst of invisible suction force erupted forth from underground.
The bolt of rainbow lightning was stopped cold in its tracks by this unexpected burst of suction force, revealing a sickly black-robed young man; it was none other than the true immortal, Ma Liang.
Countless pillars of light of different colors erupted out of the sand down below and extended straight up into the heavens.
The earth continued to tremor as a super formation that stretched as far as the eyes could see slowly emerged, following which countless Blood Dao disciples appeared before arranging themselves into a profound formation, then began to activate the formation treasures that they were holding.
Meanwhile, the sky lit up, and an invisible restriction fell away like a light veil, revealing a giant light formation that encompassed the entire sky.
The light formation then began to slowly descend from above, and powerful energy fluctuations instantly filled the entire space.
Standing between the two enormous formations, Ma Liang was made to look like an insignificant ant.
Right at this moment, the 12 Blood Dao Grand Ascension Stage being emerged from the light formation before surrounding Ma Liang in a flash, appraising him from afar.
Even though he was immobilized in mid-air, Ma Liang remained completely unfazed to see this, and a burst of light erupted from his body, following which a sharp tearing sound rang out, and he instantly regained freedom.
"You're all quite courageous to be ambushing me. With so many of you present, you must intend to kill me here," Ma Liang chuckled coldly at the sight of the 12 Grand Ascension Stage beings around him.
"Hmph, you dared to sacrifice hundreds of millions of living beings on our continent; surely you already predicted that this day would come," a Grand Ascension Stage enshrouded within a cloud of crimson Qi harrumphed coldly.
"I did anticipate that this would happen, but I didn't expect you to join forces with these two. I've grown sick of this game of cat and mouse anyway, so I'll kill all of you, then slay those two myself," Ma Liang said as he glanced at the Six-winged Frost Centipede and the Ice Phoenix, who had already backed away into the distance.
"What insolence! Looks like he won't give up unless death is staring at him in the face. There's no need to waste more time with useless chatter; let's take him down!" a brocade-robed elderly man yelled.
As soon as his voice trailed off, around a dozen crimson flying swords immediately flew out of his body.
The other Grand Ascension Stage beings also sprang into action upon seeing this, and treasures came flying out in a frenzy.
At the same time, a burst of buzzing rang out from the two giant formations, and countless runes emerged on their surfaces as they began to slowly revolve.
The light formation in the sky quickly transformed into a giant mirror that obscured the entire heavens.
The surface of the mirror was entirely silver, and countless silver threads rained down from it amid a rumbling boom.
Meanwhile, balls of white light emerged from the formation on the ground, instantly inundating all of the people in the formation before transforming into a massive "seal" character.
As soon as the character took shape, bursts of law fluctuations immediately swept toward Ma Liang from all directions.
However, Ma Liang merely smiled in response, and in the next instant, an extremely fearsome aura erupted out of his body.
At the same time, a series of purplish-golden chains abruptly appeared over his body, all of which were releasing scintillating light.
The entire center of the desert dimmed significantly, and all of the world's origin Qi surged toward a certain point in a frenzy.
……
At the edge of the desert, the masked grand elder of Blood Bone Sect, Xiao Ming, had appeared in mid-air.
His expression immediately changed as he sensed the devastating aura erupting from the extremely far distance, and he murmured to himself with a grim expression, "Even the Heaven and Earth Extreme Formations are unable to contain him; looks like we have no choice but to use that treasure."
As soon as his voice trailed off, he opened his mouth to release a yellow scroll, which slowly unfurled in front of him to reveal the map of a desert.
The desert on the map was identical to the desert before Xiao Ming, and he pointed a finger at the map, upon which the desert on the map suddenly began to writhe and squirm as if it had sprung to life.
At the same time, the sand on the surface of the actual desert itself began to surge in a rhythmic manner, as if to resonate with the changes taking place on the map.
"Let there be wind," Xiao Ming yelled as he pointed a finger at the map again.
The edge of the desert on the map immediately warped and blurred, and wisps of faint yellow mist emerged before slowly drifting upward.
At the same time, clouds of yellow mist appeared in front of Xiao Ming before instantly transforming into a series of tornadoes that were quickly increasing in number, forming one row after another.
Thus, a yellow wall of wind that was taller than the eyes could see rapidly took shape, and the same scene was being replicated on the outskirts of the entire desert.
"Go!" Xiao Ming commanded as he swept a sleeve through the air, and the walls of wind converged toward the center of the desert from all directions, sweeping up ferocious sandstorms that were only increasing in ferocity.
