The ten lords brooded and glowered. Though they’d been holding back for their own reasons, it was still humiliating for them to be thwarted by a silverback gorilla.

All ten of them were absolute geniuses who’d been polishing themselves, rather than blindly focusing on breaking through. Their cultivation had all reached the stage of great perfection. In comparison, the silverback gorilla’s cultivation was so flawed it hurt their eyes to even look at him. Although it’d reached the void realm, it didn’t understand the essence of the realm at all.

Nevertheless, Yuan Tong’s physical strength was incomparably great, and the iron rod it wielded was extremely heavy. Swinging with both hands, it was able to send a force of millions of kilograms descending upon its opponents—a power enough to rival any of the lords.

“This cannot be!” The golden lion’s golden eyes turned pale as it panted, shock the overriding expression on its face.

Bloodlines determined the strength of a monster spirit. The gold bloodline was more powerful than the silver bloodline, and the golden lion was the greatest of the gold bloodline tribes. Only the Silvermoon Wolfkings, who stood out from the other silver bloodline tribes, could rival it.

However, the silverback gorilla had beaten it and robbed it of its personal treasure, the evil-repelling Aureate Dawn Orb!

“It must be the ancient legacy buried here!” the Human Lord exclaimed. “The silverback gorilla must’ve gained part of it! It can’t be this powerful otherwise!”

Yuan Tong had been long abandoned by its kind. It’d been a nascent spirit realm cultivator for many years before it entered the Sovereign Meet, its potential long exhausted. The only explanation for its sudden change was an ancient legacy!

The Human Lord’s observation riled up the other cultivators.

“Kill it!” one of them called out. In an instant, sword energy flooded the small clearing.

“Shameless bastards!” Yuan Tong snarled and vanished into the small cavern behind it. The other cultivators hurriedly pulled back their attacks and chased after it.

“Oh?” They screeched to a confused stop as a clearing unusually similar to the one before greeted them. In fact, it was identical to the one they’d just charged out of.

It was a clearing of medium size with the same cavern at its end. Yuan Tong stood guard with a golden rod, staring at the ten lords and their followers with a half smile.

“What’s going on?” muttered the Human Lord, his expression tight. “Have we entered the tomb already?”

“We’ll know everything when we catch the gorilla!” growled the Thunder Lord, tamping down his nerves. “Don’t hold back!”

“Do it!” The ten lords worked in tandem again. Among their followers, some had been left in the tomb earlier, but most had followed them here.

Yuan Tong didn’t run, but faced the ten lords head on again. However, the lords used their strongest attacks this time, hurling the gorilla off its feet and injuring it to the point where it threw up a mouthful of blood speckled with silver radiance.

“Reversion of ancestry!” Silversnow’s face tightened at the sight of the blood. Though silverback gorillas were of the silver bloodline, they were far removed from its source. The sparkling flecks in Yuan Tong’s blood was proof that he had somehow, inconceivably, taken a step back toward their roots and the true power of their ancestors.

“Damn you pathetic cowards, ten against poor little me again!” grumbled Yuan Tong. It turned and dived into the cavern behind it.

“Go after it!” The ten lords had no choice but to give chase. Their stomachs dropped when they entered the cavern.

“What’s… going on here?!” They had returned to the same place again. The same clearing, the same cavern, and the same Yuan Tong!

“Is this all an illusion? Have we stumbled into a formation in the tomb?”

It was no formation, but a feng shui layout. Ghost Hits Wall, as it was commonly called back on Earth.

The ten lords and their followers were elites of different factions and too observant to be fooled by regular formations. However, feng shui layouts were a different story. Not even the greatest formation master in the world would be able to see through them if they lacked the requisite knowledge.

Ghost Hits Wall fooled the senses and kept cultivators going around in circles. Everything but the silverback gorilla was fake.

Within the burial mound, Lu Yun had coalesced formation light with a feng shui layout to imitate the surging ‘immortal light’, beside which was a large water screen. He and the little nun stood near it, observing the cultivators being led on a fruitless chase.

“How impressive,” sighed the little nun. “I can’t detect any traces of a formation! If you can trap them all with a formation, though, why don’t you set up one that kills and get rid of them all?” Excitement ran through her face. “Just like what the Lin brothers did!”

Smiling wryly, Lu Yun waved a hand in rejection. “If I do that, Jadeite Manor will be razed to the ground the next second!

“Those old farts outside are all hypocrites, despite their facade of civility. These cocky, so-called ‘ten lords’ are all geniuses they’ve worked hard to raise. If I eliminate them all, they’ll rip off their thin veils of amiability and take revenge as they’ve nothing left to lose.” He shrugged.

The little nun shot him a stunned look.

“This Sovereign Meet is nothing but a farce. There’s no rules keeping order at all. True geniuses from humble backgrounds were all killed as soon as they arrived at Life Province, never even given a chance to acquire a Life Glyph.

“I was targeted as soon as I showed my void realm cultivation in Destiny City, and Jadeite Manor was surrounded when Qing Yu broke through. If it weren’t for the immortal crystals in my possession, we would’ve been slaughtered a long time ago.” Lu Yun’s expression turned derisive.

“They might as well just let the old freaks go on a killing spree. Whoever kills the most youths will top the Sovereign Ranking!” He’d never taken this Sovereign Meet seriously. If his true body wasn’t still outside, he would’ve long embarked on a slaughter of the other contestants.

……

Destiny City.

Some immortals flushed beet red in response to Lu Yun calling them out, while others maintained expressionless faces. More, however, fell into deep thought.

“Investigate them!” an immortal growled. “We need to find out who Qing Yu and his sidekick are!”

Lu Yun had effectively slapped all of their faces with the whole world as a witness; worse, he was right.

More than ten thousand geniuses had ignobly died before the Sovereign Meet. In fact, some immortals had come with the sole purpose of killing geniuses. The emergence of the void realm had made countless immortals desperate and despairing of the future.

That was also the reason why the major factions hadn’t set up any rules beforehand, or stopped one another from going overboard. They wanted the geniuses from the non-mainstream factions dead so that power would remain in the hands of a select few.

“It’s not Lu Yun of Dusk Province,” said an old man from one of the nine majors. “This seat’s spy in Dusk said that Lu Yun and Qing Han haven’t left the province.”

“Is that truly Lu Yun in Dusk Province?” Some were very unwilling to believe that. If Qing Yu’s Sidekick really was Lu Yun, most of them had very good reasons to kill him—especially House Donglin, the North Sea court, and those who’d lost origin dao immortals to him. Not even the Destiny city lord would be able to stop them.

“We’ve tested him,” the old man said with great certainty. “It is indeed Lu Yun.”