"This is..." Shen Luo drew his gaze away from the dog demon and looked at the Bull Demon King in surprise.
"When the Demon Clan was planning to attack Emerald Cloud Mountain, this fellow relied on his Late True Immortal Stage cultivation to keep shouting challenges outside. He was unbearably noisy, so I captured him alive and have kept him locked in my cave abode ever since," the Bull Demon King said.
"His cultivation is just right, enough for tribulation substitution. There's no time to lose. Let's each take our place in the formation. Once I teach you the incantation to activate it, we can begin," Shen Luo said.
Everyone voiced their agreement.
Shen Luo walked to the center of the Magic Formation and stamped his foot, making the entire altar shudder.
The stone pillar at its center rose several inches from the rebound of that force. Shen Luo slipped the tip of his foot beneath it and flicked upward, sending the three-foot-high stone pedestal into the air.
Turning his hand over, he took out the Zhenhai Refined Iron Rod and planted it against the ground, catching the falling stone pillar squarely on its tip.
Then he picked up the dog demon dressed as a Daoist and tossed him beneath the stone pillar, with his back against the Zhenhai Refined Iron Rod.
The wretched dog demon could neither move nor speak. He could only look pleadingly at the Bull Demon King, whimpering incessantly.
The Bull Demon King ignored him. With a wave of his hand, he sent Red Boy, still enveloped in the light cast by the Sea-Calming Pearl above his head, onto the stone pillar atop the Zhenhai Refined Iron Rod.
Shen Luo and the other three also leaped up, each landing on a stone pillar and sitting cross-legged.