Such a change was beyond everyone’s expectations.
They all believed the outcome was already settled. But who knew the tide could be turned again? Fairy Emperor of Light still had a trump card. By bewitching the Five-finger Mountain into his own hand, he surprisingly suppressed the old man surnamed Ma at the very last moment.
Li Mu was also extremely astounded.
Earlier, Fairy Emperor of Light told Li Mu before he yielded to the dark side that the Five-finger Mountain was transformed by the palm he had cut off from that year, so as to suppress that demon. At that time, it sounded very shocking to Li Mu. But never could he imagine that the five peaks could be turned into a palm again and still have such a mighty power.
Li Mu even sensed distinctly that as Five-finger Mountain turned into a hand again, the qi in the Earthveins of the entire mountain area was extracted.
The five peaks were like five interconnected tactical deployments. They had been nurturing the area within a radius of several hundred miles for 1,000 years to allow the hand to possess the strength of a ruler of the universe like that.
Rumble!
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
The colossal fleshless palm trembled violently. It was obvious that the giant golden ape beneath it was struggling to throw the palm off and get out.
Fairy Emperor of Light sneered and derided, “You’re already a bug in my hand. Still want to turn the sky upside down?”
As he flung his broken arm, dazzling Taoist figures circulated and beams of the Great Way power were injected into the huge fleshless palm. A deathly white light burst forth from the large fleshless palm and covered the skies. A dreadful power that could not be resisted spread out from the huge fleshless palm and once again bore down on the ground.
Boom!
The earth quaked.
The colossal fleshless palm crashed straight into the ground and pressed the golden ape into the depths of the earth.
Then, there was no more movement.
“Grandpa Ma…” Nannan stood up and stumbled toward the fleshless palm.
Shocked, Li Mu pulled the little girl back and warned, “Too dangerous!”
“Let me go! I must save Grandpa Ma!” Nannan struggled vigorously, tears streaming down her cheeks.
But Li Mu held her back in a tight grip.
The little girl’s cultivation was average. And as her belly band and the red silk cloth had been taken away by him, if she rushed to the front of the fleshless palm, she would probably be reduced to ash the moment she was exposed to the terrible power, let alone save her Grandpa Ma.
“Em…” Ming Yue, the cute senseless girl, also panicked. She whispered, “Young Master, the situation is not good. We’d better take the best one of 36 strategies— run away.”
Guo Yuqing swiveled his eyes to Li Mu, waiting for his decision.
Li Mu shook his head.
Because there was no way out.
After a brief astonishment, the extraterrestrial practitioners were overjoyed.
Of course, they would like to see Fairy Emperor of Light be the winner.
The reason was very simple. Not only because the monkey surnamed Ma from the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits just reprimanded them and made them feel hostile to him, but also because Fairy Emperor of Light had promised them all kinds of immortal skills and heritage, only that the promise was supposed to be fulfilled after Fairy Emperor of Light obtained the victory.
Otherwise, they would be like the dog biting a pig bladder—
Being rejoicing too soon.
Moreover, they did not want Li Mu and his companions to be able to walk out of the Tomb of the God of Sin alive.
The young sinner was too appalling, too heaven-defying, and he had infinite potential. He must be killed right away because those experts had thoroughly offended him and there was no possibility of reconciliation. With the roots not removed, the grass would grow again in the spring wind. Likewise, if Li Mu was not killed now, there would be endless troubles in the future.
Fairy Emperor of Light slowly descended from the low altitude.
He did not appear to feel the glee for his winning. On the contrary, his face was gloomy.
“This was a trap made for another beast, but I never knew the whole plan could be disturbed by this monkey,” sighed Fairy Emperor of Light, his face written with undisguised disappointment.
The crowd of experts did not understand what he meant by that.
Only Li Mu was deep in thinking.
Then, with a sneer, Fairy Emperor of Light looked at Li Mu and the others and said coldly, “It seems that this sinner doesn’t weigh that much. I’ve abused you so outrageously, but that still failed to lure that beast out… Either it has really left, or you are just an abandoned pawn.”
No one else understood what Fairy Emperor of Light was saying.
But reading between the lines, they vaguely came to register another thing—
Why didn’t Fairy Emperor of Light kill Li Mu in a second but insisted on designating the extraterrestrial practitioners to fight him rounds after rounds instead? Further, at the end, when Li Mu had already lost his ability to fight back, he still employed cruel means to torture. That was quite out of the character of a well-respected senior. It turned out that Fairy Emperor of Light had been trying to lure someone out.
Even that giant fleshless palm transformed from the Five-finger Mountain was prepared for the person he wanted to draw out.
It was a pity that the man who made Fairy Emperor of Light so daunted did not show up.
And a general-level monkey from the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits disrupted his arrangement.
A revelation also dawned on Li Mu.
It turned out that everything Fairy Emperor of Light did before, such as gingerly restoring his strength with Ming Yue’s blood and asking the extraterrestrial practitioners for elixirs and herbs to replenish his Source Energy, was actually acting.
The reason why he had put on such a convincing show was that he was worried that his enemy might secretly monitor him and launch attacks.
“What the fu*k…”
Well, life was like a drama, and it all depended on acting skills.
Even a fairy emperor was such a brilliant actor?
And what kind of person could put Fairy Emperor of Light in such fear?
Li Mu started speculating.
At that time, the eyes of Fairy Emperor of Light finally fell on Li Mu. He shook his head and said, “What’s the point of keeping a pawn that already has no use? You, go to hell.” As he said, he raised a hand and made to point a finger at the pawn.
In a haste, Li Mu shouted, “Wait a minute, I still got something to say.”
Fairy Emperor of Light frowned slightly but still chose to wait. “Spit it out.”
Li Mu took a deep breath and said, “You ate your words!”
Fairy Emperor of Light was puzzled.
Li Mu said, “Didn’t you say that you wouldn’t get the kill started today? But why are you going to kill me with your own hands?”
Fairy Emperor of Light sneered disdainfully. “Little bug, even if I don’t attack, do you think that you would be able to get out in one piece?”
By that moment, the Four Men’s Symphony already felt their hearts frozen in despair.
They reckoned the sudden appearance of the general-level monkey from the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits could bring them an opportunity to live. But it turned out that… The four men could only accept their fates. It seemed that the Hun Yuan Sect would no longer have a chance to revive and prosper. Up to then, they still could not see the badly injured Li Mu might have any means or trump cards to turn the tide.
Wang Shiyu, who was pinned to her spot by a Fixing Spell, became a weeping beauty. Her eyes flickered from Li Mu to Fairy Emperor of Light several times, exuding desperation and helplessness. Yet, for the meantime, wrath and hatred were breeding inside her.
“I say, you give it a try. If you don’t strike yourself, I’m sure I can get out of here alive.” Li Mu said with a grin.
“Senior, please allow me to behead this little scoundrel.” Zhangsun Changkong, the Demon Broadsword, volunteered.
The youth of the witch tribe said, “Humph, I’ve beaten you to a pulp, but you still want to play tough? Well, a sinner is a sinner after all. Those from that planet are pitiful bugs.”
“Senior, let me kill him.”
“Please let me kill Li Mu to avenge our head.”
“This sinner is just a dying dog now. He is barking to play for time. Senior, this dog is not worth your shot. To kill him will only dirty your hands. Let me do it for you.”
Some extraterrestrial cultivators caught the opportunity to flatter Fairy Emperor of Light by volunteering to kill Li Mu.
Fairy Emperor of Light stared at Li Mu, gave him a faint sneer, then shook his head to the extraterrestrial practitioners, and said, “No, I still want to kill him with my own hands… It’s been quite a long time since I last drank a sinner’s blood.”
He raised his finger again.
Li Mu hollered, “Wait… One last question. I bet you will be interested in it.”
Fairy Emperor of Light frowned impatiently and said, “Say it. But you’d better not try to delay the kill with your little tricks. For you, that is of no use. It will only make you die more painful.”
Li Mu smiled and said, “I’m not playing for time. Let me give you a friendly reminder. You haven’t found out that a person of mine is missing, have you?”
Fairy Emperor of Light was dazed at that remark.
“Hey, his little attendant is gone!” Yelled Jiang Qingluan, Lord Qu of the Southern Chu, who was wearing a gold crown and standing among the crowd of extraterrestrial practitioners.
It was not until then that everyone came to notice that the disabled little attendant in a wheelchair who had been beside Li Mu the whole time already disappeared out of sight. And they had no idea where he had gone.
Before, everyone’s attention was on the battle and so they ignored what had happened on the other side.
Fairy Emperor of Light was stunned. But soon, he recovered from the shock and smirked, “So what? He is just a little bug. How can he flip the sky? I will kill him. Whether he has fled to heaven or the underworld, he will die!”
Li Mu replied with a smile, “Qing Feng might not really have the ability to flip the sky, but he does know a little bit about tactical deployments and so can undo a small seal underneath.”
“Huh?” Fairy Emperor of Light bellowed with astoundment, “What are you saying?”
Suddenly, there was a faint flush on Li Mu’s face. As though he had heard some great news, he abruptly burst out laughing and then said, “What I mean is quite simple. The point-in-time I’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. Gee, the roles are reversed now. It’s my turn to dominate your destiny.”
When his voice faded—
A series of crackling noises broke out.
Numerous joints in Li Mu’s body seemed to be penetrated by an incompetent force in an instant, causing bursts of thunderous crackling.
And every time the noise sounded, the qi in Li Mu’s body increased.
By the time the others came to their senses, the qi flowing in Li Mu’s body was already strikingly powerful.
Even though Li Mu did not deliberately cast the power, everyone around him instantly felt like suffocating as if being seized by the neck.
That was the instinctive reaction of the weak when they were under the pressure of the strong.
The pressure was even more horrifying and appalling than that produced by Fairy Emperor of Light when he drove the Five-finger Mountain to suppress the monkey.
Then, Li Mu threw a punch.
That punch met no unexpected change nor any resistance.
It squarely and ruthlessly smashed into the face of Fairy Emperor of Light, causing his face to distort. It also sent him flying, spinning 360 degrees in the air before violently colliding into the distant rock fragments.
This sudden turn of events made everyone stupefied. Their eyes almost fell from their sockets in astonishment.
Dead silence fell in that place.
“What… what just happened?”
Countless questions were flashing wildly across the minds of the spectators.
“Isn’t the sinner dying from the grave injuries?”
“How come he became so strong all of a sudden?”
“What kind of power was that?”
“He just knocked Fairy Emperor of Light to the air with a single punch, and the latter didn’t even have a chance to fight back?”
Ming Yue also stared at Li Mu with a blank look.
“What’s going on?”
“Yeah, why has Brother Qing Feng disappeared?”
“What did it have to do with the Young Master’s sudden increase in strength?”
Yet, the shock on Guo Yuqing’s face was less intense than that of Ming Yue.
He had listened to Li Mu, refrained from battling and focused on protecting Ming Yue and the others while watching Li Mu nearly be beaten to death… It was all because he believed that Li Mu must have his own reasons behind the decision of forbidding his friends to intervene.
“Haha, is this the feeling of being invincible? Cool… Well, as I said, if our roles are swapped, I will let you know what is real cruelty.”
Li Mu shot a glance at the practitioners from outer space and said menacingly.
Although he was still injured, still sporting a bleeding nose and swollen eyes and looking extremely haggard, in the eyes of those extraterrestrial cultivators, he was the most frightening devil in the world who just woke up.
A great terror was about to descend upon them.
