The colossal thunder bear roared as it tore down from the sky, its massive paws exuding terrifying pressure, crushing a thunderous mountain peak from afar.
Xu Mu's clothes exploded, and he summoned the Innate Eight Trigrams formation disk. Holding the 'Zhen' character in his palm, he looked up at the sky in a gesture of support. The sky-wide dark golden Dao source climbed upwards along the Great Dao rules, then entwined around the roaring thunder bear.
Then, Xu Mu threw his hands sideways with force.
Lan Yu and the other twenty-five people stumbled simultaneously but quickly regained their footing, gritting their teeth and continuing to channel their abilities, forcefully pulling the thunder bear, which was about to be moved away, back to its original position.
Xu Mu changed his posture to one of holding up the sky, his expression calm, gazing at the bear as it fell, like a giant supporting the firmament.
The immense force descended upon the mortal realm, engulfing Xu Mu. The terrifying power and lightning elements scoured, disintegrating every inch of his skin, while his internal organs vibrated at an extremely rapid frequency, thousands of times per second.
Xu Mu's face turned purple, consumed by lightning.
"Boom!"
White light erupted, illuminating the entire night sky, its shockwaves even overpowering the storm. The formation roared, and Lan Yu and the other twenty-five people's faces turned red, clearly struggling to maintain it.
"Good riddance!"
A hint of triumph flickered across Qing Si's flushed face. Although he didn't know who this strange person was, he could guess that they were not on the same side.
His death was of immense benefit to them, not just for themselves but for the interests of their entire ship.
The white light gradually dissipated.
The thunder bear vanished, and Lan Yu and the others' expressions returned to normal. They carefully maintained the formation, and the storm raged again, sweeping away all the dust.
Then, a deep crater was revealed underground.
Lan Yu and the others gazed intently into the pit, searching for Xu Mu's body, or even fragments of it, but found nothing.
Lan Yu's brow furrowed, a bad premonition surfacing in his heart. Just as he was about to speak a warning, his mind suddenly went blank.
*Bang!*
It was as if an iron hammer had struck their sea of consciousness. The faces of the twenty-five people in the field turned ashen, their bodies swaying precariously, with several clutching their heads and collapsing to the ground.
*Bang!*
Another tremor, but this time, it targeted their physical bodies. All twenty-five people let out a muffled groan, some spitting blood.
"He's not dead yet! Give it your all, don't let the formation break!!" Lan Yu roared, the first to regain his senses. The other cultivators quickly adjusted their states, controlling the great formation to unleash wave after wave of killing phenomena, but Xu Mu skillfully dodged them all.
"What kind of monster is this!" Lan Yu stared at Xu Mu, who was charging through their formation with his upper body bare, his expression calm, his eyes splitting open with rage.
Their combined killing blow from twenty-five people had failed to eliminate this strange person, not even inflicting the slightest injury.
Instead, the other party had launched unexpected attacks on the formation, and though he hadn't broken it, he had caused severe backlash to all of them.
Lan Yu believed that if even one team had been missing from the hunt today, this strange person would have shattered the formation and escaped.
No, not escaped, he would have killed them!
"Don't hold back! No matter how strong he is, he can't outlast us amplified by the formation!" Lan Yu rasped, and the twenty-five people roared in unison, once again condensing their killing illusions.
Dragon and lion danced, swords clashed, meteorites fell, sandstorms and tornadoes filled the air. Various terrifying formation killing techniques manifested around Xu Mu, and unable to dodge, he could only bear them with his physical body.
Dark golden runes appeared on Xu Mu's bones, and several mottled red threads illuminated his skin, seemingly some kind of Daoist protective technique.
Then, ignoring the oncoming attacks, he punched the formation wall with a backhand strike.
*Dong!*
This punch felt like a hammer blow to everyone's hearts, causing Lan Yu and the others' faces to turn pale again as they grunted.
Xu Mu himself was submerged by the killing techniques. The runes and threads on his body shattered inch by inch, his body cut by countless small cracks, oozing blood.
He furrowed his brow slightly, stepped on the 'Xun' character, and ascended rapidly. Then, he casually grabbed two earthen walls, enclosing himself within to slow the frontal impact.
Three seconds later, his physique was completely unharmed. Xu Mu rushed to the edge of the formation again and kicked out.
*Boom!*
Han Qing's head spun, and he fell to the ground clutching his chest, but he immediately bounced back up.
Xu Mu's strength was truly immense, but with the other twenty-four people sharing the burden, they were merely knocked back or suffered internal injuries at most. Serious injury or death was still far from it.
However, this was already outrageous.
Han Qing swore that this strange person they were hunting was, without a doubt, the most outrageously physically resilient person he had ever encountered in the third stage.
It seemed only Xu Mu, who had defeated Zuo Mingqiu at the Ten Thousand Races Alliance, possessed such strength. But how could Xu Mu be at Tianshi Mountain?
"Could this be someone from the Wang family of the Great Xia Dynasty? His physical recovery is so fast, did he eat blood coral!?" Lan Yu cursed angrily while attacking.
After fighting for so long, all of them had suffered considerable losses, yet this strange person, apart from his ruined clothes and occasional blood seeping from his skin, was completely intact.
Did he have a body made of meteorite iron?
Within the great formation, Xu Mu surged, occasionally punching out and clashing his lightning arts with the killing techniques, his face turning pale from the recoil.
He was certainly not made of meteorite iron. Even with a strong physique, he would still get injured in such high-intensity combat. It was just that his external injuries healed too quickly for anyone to notice.
At this moment, many of his internal muscles had small ruptures. Although the vitreous blood was constantly repairing them, the speed of repair was still slower than the rate of damage, as this was a great killing formation orchestrated by twenty-five people.
Xu Mu gritted his teeth. This great formation was evenly matched with him. He couldn't break through using only his physical body and the Eight Trigrams; he had to rely on his hunting knife or the Demon Bow.
But unfortunately, he couldn't use either of these items.
What should he do?
"If only I had been more careful."
Xu Mu shook his head and sighed. This was his own doing. He was constantly on the verge of danger and should have tread as lightly as possible, yet he had still been so careless and fallen into the formation's trap. It was truly inexcusable.
"If there's no other way, I'll just have to wear them down."
Xu Mu took a deep breath, chose a weak point in the formation, and unleashed a bolt of heavenly lightning, then followed up with a punch.
At the same time, lava erupted from underground and splashed onto his arm, charring his flesh and spreading outwards.
Xu Mu furrowed his brow, brought his fingers together like a blade, cut off the scorched flesh, and then quickly sprinkled some wound medicine on it while dodging and weaving.
Then, he kicked out again.
Lan Yu and the others' faces turned pale, and they gathered their abilities once more.
Thus, the two sides continued to clash for another half an hour.
Xu Mu's injuries grew more severe, while Lan Yu and the others' abilities were greatly depleted. The formation was no longer stable and began to tremble without deliberate maintenance.
This indicated that their battle was entering its final phase.
"That thundercloud has finally arrived! Everyone, put in your full effort and kill him!"
Lan Yu shouted triumphantly, looking up at the dark clouds in the sky. He could sense a vast amount of lightning element within the clouds capable of killing peak third-stage cultivators.
And their formation could absorb all the lightning element from the clouds and use it for themselves. Combined with their full power of twenty-five people, one strike might be enough to kill the strange person.
If not, the battle should end.
Xu Mu also sensed this, and his scalp tingled.
Although his speed was fast, due to the limitations of the formation's space, there were no more than a hundred feet for him to dodge and maneuver. When everyone attacked simultaneously, their abilities almost covered the entire area, leaving him no room to evade, only to take the hits directly.
He could endure one direct hit, but constantly taking them would kill him, especially the heavenly lightning that was about to descend. He couldn't resonate with the thundercloud using the Innate Eight Trigrams because the great formation blocked him.
He could only watch helplessly as Lan Yu and the others absorbed the lightning element and condensed their killing move.
Must I really use my knife?
Xu Mu felt a pang of helplessness and lightly gripped the Dao sword in his hand, standing alone in the center of the ravaged land, unsure what to do.
Seeing this, Lan Yu and the others thought Xu Mu had given up resisting, but they didn't know that Xu Mu was contemplating whether the lives of these people were worth exposing his identity.
"Forget it, I have no choice."
"I hope that elder will pretend not to see it."
Xu Mu pursed his lips, and with a sigh of resignation, he gripped the hilt of the knife at his waist. He was truly out of options. He could see the weaknesses of this formation, but he couldn't break it. There was no point in continuing to stall.
"Brothers, let's kill him together!!!"
At the top of the great formation, a terrifying ball of energy, as bright as the sun, condensed. The energy contained within was almost comparable to Lan Yu's roar. As the energy ball plummeted downwards.
Xu Mu took a deep breath, preparing to draw his sword.
But at this very moment, within the vast expanse of white space, a streak of brilliant red suddenly replaced it.
A red sword flew over.
Following behind was a short-haired woman in a simple, clean robe – Zhao Qingdong.
"Stop!"
Zhao Qingdong said coldly.
Simultaneously, a sword energy emerged from the heavens and earth, condensing into a red line that sliced through the ball of white energy.
*Rumble!!!*
The terrifying thunderous mass exploded in mid-air with formidable power, causing Lan Yu and the twenty-five people to vomit blood and fall backwards, the formation shaking violently.
Xu Mu, standing on the ground and also laboriously enduring the aftershocks, squinted. He didn't bother with why Zhao Qingdong suddenly intervened to help him, but instantly seized the opportunity, charging a punch to shatter the formation and escape.
However, at this moment, the small red sword had already blocked his path.
"Don't move."
Zhao Qingdong said calmly.
Her sword hovered in front of Xu Mu, filled with killing intent, while she herself held a jade token and walked into the formation without any obstruction.
Lan Yu and the others, clutching their chests, stood up and then, with grim expressions, looked at Zhao Qingdong.
Their formation originated from Sheng Yang Peak of Tianshi Mountain, and Zhao Qingdong held an Elder Token from Sheng Yang Peak.
Formations had spirits, so they were ineffective against her.
Seeing Xu Mu being rescued, Qing Si became anxious and asked,
"Senior Sister, what do you mean by this?"
"This person can only be killed by me."
Zhao Qingdong gripped her sword hilt and, from ten paces away, calmly said to Xu Mu.
She had an agreement with Zuo Mingqiu: if she could deal with that strange person, the latter would fight her.
Therefore, she had come.
Lan Yu's battle aftershocks were too great, and she had been drawn here.
"But..." Qing Si was about to say something else when Lan Yu waved his hand, interrupting him.
"Forget it."
"Since Senior Sister Qingdong is willing to take action, no matter who this person is or which peak they are from, they are already dead. We can just watch."
Lan Yu clutched his chest and slowly sat down.
As a disciple of Sheng Yang Peak, he had absolute confidence in Zhao Qingdong's strength, as his grandfather, True Person Lan Qi, was one of the elders who most strongly supported Zhao Qingdong.
The latter had compared him and Zhao Qingdong more than once, and the conclusion was naturally worlds apart. Lan Yu also believed this.
After all, he had witnessed Zhao Qingdong in action.
That red sword was so fast that it could sever his throat before his eyes could even track it.
Throughout Tianshi Mountain, and even the Hundred Clans Alliance, Zhao Qingdong's sword was undoubtedly the fastest, and her killing power was unparalleled in the world.
Therefore, the strange person below was doomed.
No matter who he was.
He could not possibly defeat Zhao Qingdong!