"They're refiners!"
"Retreat!"
On a precipitous mountain that brimmed with rich vitality, an orange-yellow strange fruit shaped like a twisting snake ripened, giving off an enticing fragrance.
As it ripened, it attracted many Molting Beasts, superhumans, and cultivators.
Just as the fighting was reaching a fever pitch, Yuan Tianzong, who had been nearby hunting Molting Beasts, followed the scent and arrived. Though he hadn't revealed any overwhelming aura, the moment he appeared, the superhumans and cultivators all turned pale.
Their hesitation came from not wanting to give up the strange fruit, not from weighing whether they could defeat a refiner.
A moment later, the superhumans and cultivators all withdrew.
The refiner's reputation carried too much weight. The entire Buddhist sect seemed powerless against him. Many Buddhist disciples had been killed in the Mount Tai region, yet the sect hadn't even issued a single public statement. It had remained silent.
After learning what had happened, Second Master Xu's family had cut off a limb to save itself. They personally beheaded Second Master Xu and everyone else involved, then offered their heads to the refiner, terrified he might hold a grudge against them.
If even the Buddhist sect, one of the Great Sects, and the newly risen Noble Families acted this way, then cultivators at the very bottom like them had no choice. When the odds of being killed were one hundred percent, there was only absolute risk and no reward.
So anyone capable of thinking would choose to leave, without clinging to any hope of luck. Even if what lay before them wasn't a strange fruit but something far more dazzling, they would still do the same.
And it wasn't just them.
Across the entire Mount Tai region, Lord Refiner was king now. Nobody wanted to come into conflict with him