Chapter 497: Lu Yang's Three Trump Cards

Lu Yang possessed three trump cards, none of which he would ever deploy lightly.

The first was the Elder Sister’s Pictographic Fist, a method to summon his eldest martial sister.

The second was the Out of the Horse Immortal, to invite the Incorruptible Immortal into his own flesh.

The third was the Invincible Pill, a remedy capable of dictating the exact blueprint for victory.

To unleash any of these three hidden cards upon a cultivator of his own realm would be a blow of absolute fatality.

Unless an adversary proved truly insurmountable, or dared to employ underhanded tricks first, Lu Yang would never turn a card face up.

Kong Hao belonged squarely to the latter sort.

The power Kong Hao was manifesting quite clearly did not belong to him; in all likelihood, some formidable soul-entity resided within his frame, a tactical routine Lu Yang knew all too well, given that he harbored one within himself.

The contest had thus become an impossibility.

That mighty soul-entity was, at the very absolute least, at the Body Integration Stage, leaving Lu Yang to fight them with nothing but his own bare wits.

Without hesitation, he consumed the Invincible Pill, and the answer it returned was crystalline and precise, mirroring exactly what he had anticipated: report the violation to the arbiter.

"Is this what passes for a genius, relying on external power to wage my battle?" The Young Cult Leader Lu sneered coldly. "If you lot intend to turn a blind eye to this, I hold within my hands dharma treasures bestowed by both the Cult Leader and my master, weapons against which even those of the Tribulation Transmutation Stage cannot withstand a single strike."

"Out of consideration that these treasures overly transgress the bounds of regulation, I refrained from employing them in combat. If Kong Hao does not break the rules, then I naturally need not concern myself with so much."

The arbiter, upon hearing Lu Yang’s report, froze in a brief stupor, failing to react immediately; for all his vast experience and wide knowledge, he had never before witnessed anyone calling upon the strength of another soul within their body to fight.

Only upon hearing Lu Yang’s words did he perceive that something was indeed amiss with Kong Hao’s strength—it was a force that did not belong to him.

This, naturally, constituted a foul.

"The defeated party: Kong Hao."

Just as Kong Hao was about to wage battle with his newfound strength, he heard the arbiter pronounce the verdict of the match, and he descended from the stage in utterly dejected ruin.

The moment he stepped down, he was greeted not by the Sect Master of the Waterfall Sect, but rather by an encroaching tide of Tribulation Transmutation patriarchs from every path.

"Clear the way, let me have a look at just who is inside this brat's body."

"The 'Laws of Body Snatching' were formulated by my own hand; I am the foremost expert in this domain, so let me go first."

"My cultivation is the highest, let it be me."

The Sect Master of the Waterfall Sect had every intention of stepping forward, but had long since been elbowed to the rear by this gathering of grand titans.

"This aura tastes rather like one of the Four Perils," Venerable Yiqi remarked, being the most sensitive to such essences, and delivered the initial judgment.

"Little lad, offer no resistance. I shall venture into your spiritual terrace to inspect."

With those words, a minuscule figure flew out from Venerable Yiqi’s own spiritual terrace, plunging straight into Kong Hao’s consciousness.

"Ho, quite a massive fellow indeed."

Kong Hao’s spiritual terrace was far grander than those of his peers within the same realm, a consequence not of his own cultivation, but rather of being stretched wide by the colossal entity within.

An iron palisade divided the spiritual terrace into two distinct halves: the smaller portion served as Kong Hao’s meager domain of activity, while the larger was the sealing ground of the mammoth beast.

Forged into the center of the iron bars were nine layers of seals, unbreakable and absolute. The colossal beast glared fixedly at Venerable Yiqi, its feral eyes betraying an imperceptible trace of terror.

The behemoth was a stallion-lion the size of a small mountain, its mane long and pristine white like drifting flakes of snow that rose and fell with its respiration, its two upward-curving fangs resembling a pair of bright, snow-gleaming broadswords, and its tail stretched as long as its entire body.

"So, it turns out to be an old Taowu."

Venerable Yiqi sneered; this ancient Taowu was no simple creature, possessing a cultivation at the Tribulation Transmutation Stage, sufficient even to claim the mantle of Patriarch of the Taowu Clan, though for what reason it had been sealed here remained a mystery.

"Is this not Ji Xiong? I had assumed you were eliminated after failing to contest the patriarchate, yet who would have thought you were hiding here."

One after another, Tribulation Transmutation masters flew into Kong Hao’s spiritual terrace; such figures were scarce in the world, and it did not take long for someone to recognize the identity of the old Taowu.

Never in his entire life had Kong Hao beheld so many masters of the Tribulation Transmutation Stage.

The moment he learned of the old Taowu’s true cultivation and identity, a tremor of shock struck his heart.

He had assumed the old Taowu was merely at the Body Integration Stage, never imagining it to be of the utterly terrifying Tribulation Transmutation realm.

He was without father or mother; from the very moment he gained consciousness, the old Taowu had resided within his flesh, sealed by an unknown hand.

Kong Hao had never dared to reveal the existence of the old Taowu, fearing that great powers would covet him, which was precisely why he had joined the Waterfall Sect—a sect that failed to draw any notice even among those of the second rank.

Who could have foreseen that, in the end, the matter would be laid bare after all.

How would these grand figures choose to deal with him?

To expect the old Taowu to speak the truth was an impossibility, so the Tribulation Transmutation patriarchs questioned Kong Hao on what he knew, and combining his words with the intelligence they recalled regarding the old Taowu, they pieced together the general thread of the tale:

After failing in its bid for the patriarchate, the old Taowu had been hunted down, its physical form annihilated and its soul damaged, fleeing all the way into the territory of the Great Xia. There, a cultivator at the peak of the Body Integration Stage, highly skilled in sealing techniques, had bound the old Taowu inside Kong Hao's body.

Judging by the nature of the seal, that peak Body Integration cultivator harbored a benevolent intent toward Kong Hao; so long as Kong Hao’s strength continued to grow, he would be able to unravel the seals layer by layer and employ the old Taowu’s power.

"You have two choices," Venerable Yiqi said, guiding Kong Hao’s path forward.

"Unravel the seal, and we shall strike to capture the old Taowu. In return, we will provide you with matching compensation—heavenly materials, earthly treasures, spiritual items, and divine elixirs shall all be yours, treating it as though we purchased it from you. This is the most secure option."

It was true that an old Taowu at the Tribulation Transmutation Stage was difficult to deal with, yet who among those present was not also of the Tribulation Transmutation Stage? If they all rushed forward together, the old Taowu would have no choice but to take a thorough thrashing.

"Or you may choose to keep the old Taowu sealed, unraveling the bindings layer by layer as your strength increases. However, during this process, you will bear the risk of backlash."

"Which one do you choose?"

While the crowd of Tribulation Transmutation masters observed the old Taowu as though inspecting a rare and precious beast, the tournament proceeded in an orderly fashion.

Lan Ting, terrified that Meng Jingzhou would deploy his Bachelor’s Curse Fist, fought with timid hesitation and was ultimately defeated by Meng Jingzhou.

Meng Jingzhou thus secured his place in the finals.

Yan Tianzhi, obeying his master’s instructions to fight with life-risking ferocity whenever he encountered anyone from the Five Elements Sect, defeated Bai Ming and smoothly advanced into the semi-finals.

"Prison Suppressing Sect, Yan Tianzhi."

"Heavenly Court Cult, Young Cult Leader."

Lu Yang and Yan Tianzhi crossed paths in the semi-finals.

Behind Yan Tianzhi, the Taotie war-crest and the Azure Dragon war-crest shimmered with brilliant light, the phantom illusions of the two great calamity-beasts looming indistinctly, projecting an immense sense of oppression.

This was the unique war-crest cultivation technique of the Prison Suppressing Sect, a method original to the sect’s founding patriarch.

Beholding the two grand war-crests, Lu Yang clapped his hands in genuine admiration: "At long last, I have encountered an intriguing adversary. I have long heard that the war-crest system of the Prison Suppressing Sect is a peerless marvel, one that even our Cult Leader praises without end, and seeing it today proves it true to its renown."

"In the primordial era, our human race possessed the custom of painting patterns upon their faces; if the designs were drawn properly, they could derive boundless strength, which was the very earliest method our human race utilized to contend with floods and monstrous beasts. The Cult Leader had assumed these patterns were long lost to time, yet he never expected that in this new age, someone would innovate upon those old markings, pioneering the war-crest cultivation system."

"The Cult Leader remarked that the creator of this cultivation system was a talent of grand stature, though born under an unlucky star, living in the transitional era between the Great Yu and the Great Xia. Had he lived in the primordial era, he would surely have vied for the fruit of immortality, forging a glorious future and etching his name through ancient and modern times alike!"

Lu Yang sighed with lingering sentiment, as though savoring the Cult Leader's high assessment of the Prison Suppressing Sect's founding patriarch.

Upon the judges' bench, Qiu Jin'an and Luo Hongxia turned their astonished gazes toward Yang Ding.

There had been no mention of this particular arrangement beforehand; this lad Lu Yang was nearly praising your Prison Suppressing Sect's ancestral master to the high heavens.

Yang Ding scratched his head in awkward embarrassment: "Well, I merely wished to seize this opportunity to generate a bit of repute for my Prison Suppressing Sect."

(End of Chapter)