Lu Ya, Keep Bowing. We're Watching.

The atmosphere in the valley was exceedingly strange.

Lu Ya stood before the altar.

He still held the talismans used for worship in his hand.

Zhao Gongming stood opposite him.

His face was so dark it looked ready to drip water.

Both sides fell silent for a moment.

In the end, Gao Yougan was the first to lose patience.

"Bow, then."

"Weren't you worshipping quite earnestly just now?"

"Why did you stop moving the moment people showed up?"

Lu Ya: "..."

Lin Yuan nearly burst out laughing.

That mouth of Senior Brother Gao's.

It was growing more and more like his own in spirit.

Lu Ya slowly lowered the talisman paper in his hand.

His expression remained fairly calm.

"For all of you to find this place..."

"...was beyond this humble Daoist's expectations."

Zhao Gongming stared at the straw effigy in the center of the altar.

"Lu Ya."

"This humble Daoist bears neither grievance nor enmity toward you."

"You came to the battlefield and said you wanted to duel me in Daoist arts."

"This humble Daoist fought you."

"Yet behind my back, you set up something like this."

At this point.

He actually gave a laugh.

"You couldn't beat me head-on."

"So you resorted to this?"

Lu Ya was not provoked.

"Fellow Daoist Zhao."

"The Investiture of the Gods Calamity is itself the evolution of Heaven's ordained course."

"What this humble Daoist does is merely follow the current."

"Heaven's ordained course again."

Zhao Gongming nodded.

"This humble Daoist has truly broadened his horizons today."

"You call wanting to kill me Heaven's ordained course."

"Then if this humble Daoist beats you to death now..."

"...does that count as Heaven's ordained course too?"

Lu Ya's gaze tightened slightly.

The next instant.

All twenty-four Sea-Calming Pearls rose into the air!

There was no more needless talk.

Five-colored divine radiance instantly illuminated the entire valley.

"Attack!"

Wang Mo and the other three scattered at once.

The Ten Heavenly Lords also immediately raised their formation banners.

Their objective was not to surround and kill Lu Ya head-on.

It was—

To seal off his escape routes!

"Heaven-Absolute Formation, rise!"

"Earth Inferno Formation, rise!"

"Wind Roar Formation!"

Ten simplified formations rapidly spread out.

Though they lacked the scale of the complete Ten Ultimate Linked Formation outside the Shang Camp.

They were more than enough to seal off every side of the valley.

What was Lu Ya's most troublesome ability?

His escape art.

Especially that Rainbow-Transforming Escape Technique.

It was absurdly fast.

Thus, on the way here, Lin Yuan had already reached an agreement with Qin Wan and the others.

They did not need to trap him to death.

They only needed to prevent him from escaping at the first opportunity.

Zhao Gongming would fight.

They would block the roads.

Lu Ya had clearly seen through their intention as well.

His body instantly transformed into a scarlet rainbow.

He tried to burst out of the valley.

But the moment he moved.

The gale-force winds of the Wind Roar Formation had already crashed down.

The red light swerved.

He tried to break through from the other side.

But Qin Wan's Heaven-Absolute Formation had sealed it off in advance.

The Ten Heavenly Lords had long grown so accustomed to Lin Yuan's judgments that almost no explanation was needed.

"Right side!"

The moment Lin Yuan shouted.

Zhao Jiang immediately reinforced the formation.

Lu Ya was forcibly driven back to the center.

And Zhao Gongming's Sea-Calming Pearls had already arrived.

Boom!

The first round of impacts.

Lu Ya's protective immortal radiance shook violently.

The second round followed close behind.

His expression finally changed somewhat.

Zhao Gongming himself was a Daluo Realm expert.

Now that the Nail-Head Seven-Arrows Book had been discovered ahead of time.

Though his soul had been affected, his combat strength had not fallen anywhere near the level it would have reached in the later stages of his original death calamity.

All twenty-four Sea-Calming Pearls were intact.

The Treasure-Dropping Coin had even been seized back by Zhao Gongming.

Together with the Ten Heavenly Lords and the Four Sages of Nine-Dragon Island sealing the escape routes.

Compared with the original fate.

This scene could no longer be described as merely somewhat different.

Lin Yuan had torn the script apart and printed a new one.

"Lin Yuan."

While evading the Sea-Calming Pearls, Lu Ya suddenly looked at him.

"You discovered all of this?"

Lin Yuan stood quite far back, wind and lightning beneath his feet.

"Senior."

"Don't chat while fighting."

"It makes it easy to get beaten up."

The instant his words fell.

Bang!

A Sea-Calming Pearl struck Lu Ya's protective divine light dead-on.

Lu Ya's body was sent sliding dozens of zhang sideways.

Lin Yuan: "..."

That cooperative?

He almost felt embarrassed.

But Zhao Gongming showed no mercy whatsoever.

"You've been worshipping this humble Daoist for so many days."

"Today, this humble Daoist will let you bow to your heart's content!"

The twenty-four Sea-Calming Pearls descended in succession.

Lu Ya was not skilled at head-on clashes.

After several attempts to break out were blocked by the formations.

He finally began fighting in earnest.

An incomparably blazing firelight erupted from his body.

The temperature throughout the valley soared in an instant.

Many of the formation banners around the Ten Ultimate Formation began to burn.

Qin Wan's expression changed.

"He's going to force his way through!"

"Let him break through!"

Lin Yuan did not make the Ten Heavenly Lords hold on stubbornly.

"Have everyone withdraw first!"

"Don't compete in mana with a Daluo Realm expert!"

The Ten Heavenly Lords were familiar with those words.

They were even more familiar with retreating.

If the formations needed to be abandoned, they abandoned them.

No one felt any heartache.

Lu Ya seized the opportunity.

He transformed into a rainbow and shot skyward.

Zhao Gongming wanted to pursue him.

Lin Yuan immediately spoke up:

"Martial Uncle!"

"The altar!"

Zhao Gongming halted.

Indeed.

Lu Ya could be found later.

The Nail-Head Seven-Arrows Book had to be destroyed first.

If they gave chase and fell for a luring-the-tiger-away-from-the-mountain scheme.

That would only bring trouble.

Zhao Gongming stopped in midair.

He watched helplessly as Lu Ya transformed into a long rainbow and vanished into the distance.

He did not pursue.

Then he slowly turned his head.

His gaze fell upon the altar.

The straw effigy bearing his name still stood there.

The lamps on either side burned with ghostly flames.

And the talisman papers carried an aura that made his Primordial Spirit exceedingly uncomfortable.

Zhao Gongming walked to the altar.

The more he looked, the darker his face became.

"So this is the thing?"

Yao Bin stepped forward to inspect it.

After only a few glances, his expression had already grown grave.

"Vicious."

"It locks onto the soul through name and karma."

"Worshipped every day."

"Gradually weakens the three souls and seven spirits."

"Once the soul weakens to a certain extent..."

He did not continue.

Everyone knew the outcome.

Wang Mo's temper flared at once.

"So underhanded?"

"If Junior Brother Lin hadn't discovered this in advance—"

"Wouldn't Senior Brother Zhao have died without even knowing how?"

Lin Yuan did not join the discussion.

He had been staring at the altar.

The system had yet to sound.

That meant Zhao Gongming's death tribulation had not been completely lifted.

Finding this place alone was not enough.

It had to be severed.

"Uncle-Master."

Lin Yuan looked up.

"Leave nothing behind."

Zhao Gongming had no intention of studying it anyway.

"Of course."

He raised a hand.

A Sea-Calming Pearl slowly rose into the air.

Yao Bin suddenly shouted:

"Senior Brother, wait!"

"What?"

"The straw effigy and the altar have already formed a connection with your soul."

"You can't just smash them recklessly."

Zhao Gongming frowned.

Lin Yuan likewise became alert.

Yao Bin inspected it carefully for a moment.

"Extinguish the lamps first."

"Then destroy the talismans."

"Finally, eliminate the straw effigy."

"Let the soul connection unravel layer by layer."

"Otherwise, a sudden backlash could injure Senior Brother as well."

Having a professional really was a blessing.

Lin Yuan was once again glad that he had rescued all Ten Heavenly Lords.

Otherwise, even if they had found the altar—

A group of them would have simply torn it down by brute force.

Something might really have gone wrong.

Yao Bin began breaking the spell.

The first lamp went out.

Zhao Gongming's body trembled slightly.

Instead, his mind became a little clearer.

The second lamp.

The third lamp...

As one lamp after another went dark—

The exhaustion that had shrouded Zhao Gongming's mind these past days rapidly faded.

Then came the talisman papers.

Qin Wan and the others helped suppress the surrounding aura.

Yao Bin burned them one by one.

At last.

Only the straw effigy remained.

Yao Bin checked it for a long while.

At last, he nodded.

"It's ready."

This time, Zhao Gongming did not let anyone else act.

He walked forward himself.

Looking at the straw effigy bearing his name—

A cold smile curled at his lips.

"This poor Daoist's life."

"Since when did it become someone else's to worship away?"

One of the twenty-four Sea-Calming Pearls drifted gently down.

Bang!

The straw effigy turned to dust.

The entire altar exploded at the same time.

Flames shot into the sky.

At that very moment, the system deep within Lin Yuan's consciousness shuddered violently.

But it did not settle the matter immediately.

A line of information slowly surfaced.

[Zhao Gongming's predetermined death tribulation is being reassessed...]

Lin Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly.

There was still one final step.