Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
The sound of wheels startled everyone on the Five-Colored Altar.
They looked down and saw a group of female cultivators below, led by a young girl, huffing and puffing as they pushed cannons out of the earth.
The cannons pointed skyward. Some of the women loaded gunpowder, others fitted fuses, and still others loaded shells.
Meanwhile, a cloud of multicolored smoke rose beneath the young girl's feet, and she held little colored flags in her hands.
"Are they going to fire those cannons at us?"
"Heh, even the best of those cannons is only a Magic Treasure Blank. The rest are all magic implements."
"Although I can't mobilize my dharma power, I have a body tempered through [life cultivation]."
"Cannons like those couldn't even knock a single hair off me."
A powerful cultivator sneered in disdain.
Yet in the next breath, the young girl waved her colored flags.
"Everyone, take your positions!"
"Prepare the first cannon salute-one cannon salute-incense smoke coils!"
"Fire!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The cannons roared, flames shooting skyward as smoke billowed.
The next instant, the smoke burst apart, revealing one Dao Seal Cultivator after another.
Among them were Ruo Jinghong and the others.
Holding Sandalwood Incense, they muttered incantations amid the clouds of cannon smoke.
Bili-bili!
Jibber-jabber!
By then, the cannons had been reloaded.
The Officiant Daoist Nun waved her little colored flags again. "Two cannon salutes, the Flower-Scatter takes the stage!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dozens of explosive shells shot skyward and burst. Blazing fire swept out, smoke churned, and the flames formed lotuses suspended at varying heights in the air.
Then the highest lotus bloomed, and Flower-Scatter Daoist Wang Quan stepped out of it.
With his hands behind his back, he walked down from high in the sky.
He stepped from the first