Lu Changsheng's face changed drastically.
He had no time to wonder why another living being had suddenly appeared in this deadly place. Instinct took over, and he drove his True Immortal power to its limit, diving headfirst toward the ground.
But it was too late.
"Boom!"
Above Phoenix Fall Valley, the Calamity Sha Mist that had lingered year-round was suddenly torn apart by a violent force.
Immediately afterward, four streaks of Escape Light, exuding a dense stench of blood and a savage aura, slammed down like meteors onto the ruins less than a hundred yards from Lu Changsheng.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
With four thunderous crashes, four enormous craters were blasted into the ground. Amid flying rubble, four figures slowly rose from the pits.
Hidden in the darkness, Lu Changsheng used the Cowardly Immortal Vine's senses to keep a close watch on the four uninvited guests.
The moment he saw what they looked like, his heart sank to the bottom.
Three were burly men clad in battered Black Armor, and the fourth was a gaunt old man whose body burned with faint, crimson flames.
Their bodies were covered in horrific wounds that cut to the bone. Some had even been burned away to the point that half their bodies were charred black, and their auras were extremely unstable.
Even so, the savagery and brutality that seeped from their very bones were enough to make one shudder.
What drove Lu Changsheng to despair even more was their cultivation.
Three early-stage Mystic Immortals! One at the peak of the mid-stage Mystic Immortal realm!
And judging from the lingering traces of law on them and the style of their Black Armor...
"Fleeing remnants of the Dragon Clan and Phoenix Clan!"
Lu Changsheng gritted his teeth, instantly identifying them.
At this point in the Primordial Land, the Dragon-Phoenix War had reached its most intense stage.
These four had clearly fled from some major battlefield after suffering defeat.
In their panicked flight, they had blundered straight into Phoenix Fall Valley, naturally concealed by its baleful energy.
"Damn it! Why now? Why couldn't they have come sooner or later?"
Lu Changsheng hid behind a massive boulder, stopping even his breathing as he suppressed every trace of his aura.
He could only hope the four fugitives were just passing through to tend their wounds and hadn't noticed him.
But fate was not on his side.
The gaunt old man at the peak of the mid-stage Mystic Immortal realm—the Phoenix Clan fugitive—suddenly twitched his nose.
His vulture-like, sinister eyes abruptly snapped toward the boulder where Lu Changsheng was hiding.
"Who's there? Come out!"
The old man let out a hoarse roar.
Though gravely wounded, his senses were still sharp.
When Lu Changsheng had repaired the Mysterious Yellow Shield earlier, the formation had concealed him. But in the instant he withdrew it,
a faint trace of Innate Treasure Light had escaped as the treasure's aura receded. The old monster had still managed to catch it.
"The aura of an Innate Spirit Treasure..."
A greedy gleam burst from the old man's eyes, and his flagging aura began to surge wildly with his ravenous desire.
"Everyone, don't let him get away! Anyone secretly refining a treasure in this godforsaken place must have stumbled upon a great opportunity!"
The three Dragon Clan remnants behind him also came to their senses, their eyes glinting with bloodthirsty killing intent.
They were already desperate fugitives with nowhere left to go. Now that they had come across a lone cultivator, of course they would kill him without hesitation and plunder his possessions to replenish their depleted strength.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Three waves of early-stage Mystic Immortal pressure erupted at once, locking down the space within a hundred miles.
The Phoenix Clan elder was even more direct. He raised a hand and sent a stream of searing Southern Bright Separation Fire surging toward the boulder where Lu Changsheng hid, taking the shape of a roaring fire dragon.
"Bang!"
The sturdy boulder couldn't withstand even a single breath of Southern Bright Separation Fire. It crumbled to dust.
With his cover gone, Lu Changsheng was completely exposed to the four mighty Mystic Immortals.
"An intermediate True Immortal Fire Crow?"
The Phoenix Clan elder paused when he saw Lu Changsheng's cultivation, then burst into a piercing laugh.
"Ha ha ha ha! Heaven is truly helping me!"
"A mere True Immortal ant dares to lay hands on an Innate Spirit Treasure!"
"Hand over the treasure obediently, and perhaps this old man will show mercy and leave you with an intact corpse!"
The four Mystic Immortals surrounded Lu Changsheng from every direction, their gazes fixed on him like he was a lamb waiting for slaughter.
Standing at the very center of their encirclement,
Lu Changsheng didn't panic and beg for mercy as he usually did, nor did he scurry around like a headless fly.
He lowered his head and looked at the Cowardly Immortal Vine on his wrist, which was trembling frantically in warning.
"There's no escaping this."
He murmured softly to himself.
After eighty thousand miles of caution, and fifteen hundred years of crafting treasures through the Dao of Cowardice,
he had still failed to escape the most brutal law of survival in the Primordial Land—survival of the fittest, killing for treasure.
In this deadly place, there was no formation to rely on, no reasonable big shot like Nuwa to fool.
There were only four Mystic Immortal thugs, willing to do anything to survive and get their hands on treasure.
"An intermediate True Immortal against four Mystic Immortals..."
Lu Changsheng slowly raised his head.
His golden eyes, usually brimming with calculation and timidity, were now so calm that they seemed terrifying.
Not a ripple disturbed them. Only an absolute indifference, as though life and death no longer mattered.
"Since I can't keep hiding..."
Lu Changsheng raised a hand and gently patted his chest.
"Hum!"
An ancient shield radiating a deep yellow light appeared before him in an instant.
He looked at the four greedy remnants, the corners of his lips curling into a bone-chilling smile.
"Then I'll just have to kill you all!"
At his words, the four Mystic Immortal remnants, who had been about to divide up the spoils, all froze.
After a brief silence,
"Ha ha ha ha ha!"
The Phoenix Clan elder clutched his belly and let out a harsh, night-owl-like cackle, as if he had just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.
"A mere intermediate True Immortal ant, spouting such arrogance!"
His eyes suddenly turned cold as he pointed at the Mysterious Yellow Shield radiating yellow light before Lu Changsheng.
"You think that with a broken Innate Spirit Treasure, you can bridge an entire major realm and challenge us?"
"Foolish whelp, today I'll show you the might of a Mystic Immortal!"
Before the old man had finished speaking, his figure vanished from where he stood like a ghost.
In the next instant, his withered claw tore through the air with a shriek, wrapped in the searing, violent Southern Bright Separation Fire as it reached straight for Lu Changsheng's crown.
Though gravely wounded, the old man had unleashed the full strength of an early-stage Mystic Immortal in that strike.
In his eyes, a single blow would turn the overconfident Fire Crow into a lump of flesh along with his shield.
The three Dragon Clan remnants didn't even bother to attack. They merely stood at the edge of the encirclement, watching with amused expressions as they made sure Lu Changsheng couldn't escape in the chaos.
"Die!"
The old man's claw slammed into the Mysterious Yellow Shield before Lu Changsheng.
"Clang—!!!"
A deafening crash rang out.
The violent Southern Bright Separation Fire instantly swallowed the spot where Lu Changsheng stood.
"Hmph. Pathetically weak."
The Phoenix Clan elder sneered and reached toward the sea of fire to retrieve his spoils.
But in the next instant, the sneer froze on his face.
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