"Battle."
The instant the third ball of light burst, a hundred ink-black runes appeared out of thin air above the Arena.
Those runes did not transform into phantom warriors. Instead, they arranged themselves into a circular battle formation.
The battle formation had three layers. The outer layer was a spinning ink-black wheel of light, its rim densely covered with the sharp edges and corners of written characters.
The middle layer consisted of interlocking toothed rings of characters, each tooth formed from Haoran Righteous Qi compressed to its utmost limit.
The inner layer consisted of three concentric discs, their surfaces densely engraved with ancient inscriptions.
Those inscriptions continually rotated in opposing directions, like three millstones grinding simultaneously in different directions.
Lang Tu's dark-green slit pupils abruptly contracted.
His body reacted the instant the Battle-Character Battle Formation took shape. His right foot stamped hard against the ground, and dark-red Killing Intent condensed into a blood-colored carapace over his body.
But the battle formation spun far faster than he had anticipated. In an extremely short time, those three counterrotating discs accelerated to a terrifying speed.
The ancient inscriptions on the discs produced a piercing hum as they scraped against the air. The overlapping hums formed a dull, steadily intensifying crushing force.
The battle formation rolled toward Lang Tu.
Lang Tu swung his axe down.
The Killing Intent condensed on the axe blade was shredded into a skyful of dark-red flecks of light the instant it touched the battle formation's outermost wheel of light.
Before those flecks could drift away, the sharp corners of the characters along the wheel's rim swept them inside and ground them into even finer powder.
He had put at least seventy percent of his strength into that axe strike, yet the battle formation's wheel of light merely paused for