Chapter 151: Golden Geng Glazed Formation

“Old wretch! This Lord is done playing with you!”

The Yellow Sand King shrieked, leaping high into the air.

With a violent twist, it dove headfirst towards the earth, intending to burrow deep and escape.

“Gah!”

The next instant, a miserable wail tore from the demon’s throat.

It felt as though its head had smashed into an indestructible mountain of solid rock.

The Golden Geng Glazed Formation had sealed the earth, creating an impenetrable isolation layer. There was no escape; the ground was harder than divine iron.

“Old wretch… you have a death wish!”

The Yellow Sand King shook its dizzy head, letting out a furious roar at Li Meng, who hovered high above.

The demon’s massive body began to spin rapidly.

It transformed into a living drill, gathering immense momentum as it rode the wind upward, charging straight at the descending golden hand seal.

BOOM!

The Yellow Sand King slammed into the golden palm.

For a moment, the two forces deadlocked dozens of meters in the air.

Ripples of dual-colored spiritual light exploded outward, wave after devastating wave.

“H-how… how can it be this strong? It… it defies logic!”

The Yellow Sand King felt the violent Spiritual Power crushing down from the golden hand. The pressure was overwhelming; it felt as if its tail was about to snap from the strain.

“Hmph. Obstinate creature. Will you still not submit?”

Li Meng, drifting casually on the wind, let out a cold snort.

He pressed his palm down gently, as if swatting a fly.

The massive golden hand seal suddenly flared with blinding brilliance.

The Yellow Sand King felt the weight of a great mountain slam into its body.

The stalemate shattered instantly.

With a thunderous crash, the enormous golden hand swatted the demon out of the sky and pinned it firmly against the earth.

A shockwave of golden spiritual light swept outward, kicking up billowing clouds of sand and dust.

The surrounding Tianshi Mansion cultivators stumbled back, raising their sleeves to shield their faces from the rolling grit.

When the dust finally settled, the sky remained choked with yellow sand.

The massive Yellow Sand King lay broken on the ground, a bloody, mangled mess. In the gray, hazy desert, only the formation continued to shine with a serene, opulent golden light.

“Vile beast. Submit,” Li Meng’s voice rang out, clear and indifferent, echoing through the heavens.

The Yellow Sand King opened its bloody maw. Its hideous features twisted into what looked like a mockery of a grin.

“Old wretch… this Lord vows never to be a slave! Even if I die, I won’t let you have an easy time of it!”

As it spoke, the demon retched and spat out a cyan-colored bead.

The moment the bead left its mouth, it expanded dozens of times in size.

Circles of cyan light pulsed outward, forming small Spiritual Tides that surged in all directions.

In an instant, the sandstorm that had engulfed the thousand-mile region vanished.

Visible streams of wind-attributed Spiritual Power converged from every corner of the horizon, rushing towards the cyan bead as it soared into the sky.

At an altitude of a thousand meters, the bead came to a halt.

It spun rapidly, emitting a dazzling cyan radiance and releasing a dense, suffocating concentration of wind energy into the world.

[Wind Controlling Bead: A Heaven-reaching Spiritual Treasure refined from the inner core of a variant flood dragon.]

The information revealed by the Heavenly Eye caused Li Meng’s expression to shift slightly.

A Heaven-reaching Spiritual Treasure.

It all made sense now. The Yellow Sand King was merely at the late stage of Foundation Establishment, yet it had managed to trigger a sandstorm capable of swallowing a thousand miles.

That wasn’t the demon’s power. It was the Wind Controlling Bead’s divine ability.

Li Meng didn’t hesitate. He rode the wind, shooting straight towards the treasure.

The phenomenon caused by the bead was too conspicuous. It was a beacon that would draw every cultivator in the vicinity like sharks to blood.

“A mere early Foundation Establishment junior dares to seize such a treasure? Scram!”

A streak of sword light suddenly tore through the sky from the distance.

It was blindingly fast, a fleeting stream of lethal light. The sword qi arrived before the blade itself.

It was a flying sword.

Li Meng merely flicked his sleeve, his expression bored.

A swath of golden light spilled out, coalescing into a shimmering shield that blocked his path.

Clang!

The flying sword slammed into the barrier and was casually bounced away.

In the time it took for that single exchange, Li Meng had already closed the distance.

He waved his sleeve again.

The Wind Controlling Bead vanished, swept securely into his Sword Nurturing Gourd.

“You have a death wish!”

A furious roar echoed from the horizon.

The voice closed in rapidly. From the north, a barrage of sword lights approached.

Sixteen figures came into view, all Foundation Establishment cultivators. They wore brownish-green robes, their hair bound in strict topknots.

The two sides faced off in the sky, separated by a few hundred meters.

The leader was a cultivator at the Grand Perfection of Foundation Establishment. Beside him hovered the flying sword that had just attacked, glowing with a faint cyan light.

Li Meng swept a glance over him.

A flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.

A Variant Spirit Root.

The man possessed a Wind Spirit Root, a rarity second only to the Thunder Spirit Root.

“Fellow Daoist,” the leader from the Qingyun Sect said, cupping his hands with an unfriendly expression. “This treasure shares a predestined bond with me. I ask that you part with it. My Qingyun Sect will surely offer generous compensation.”

Li Meng looked at him, amused.

Disdain flashed in his eyes.

If this were a demonic cultivator, they would have just attacked. But the righteous path always loved to play the hypocrite—courtesy before force.

“Hmph. Don’t make me laugh,” Li Meng scoffed. “You say there’s a bond, so there’s a bond? Who do you think you are?”

Before the man could retry, another cluster of sword lights approached from the northwest.

Another group of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

And they weren’t the only ones.

In mere moments, streaks of light converged from all directions. Some hung back to observe, while others moved to encircle Li Meng.

“That’s the Qingyun Sect’s prodigy, Deng Wu!”

“It’s him? Why is he here?”

“This is going to be a show.”

“Who is that other group?”

“Cultivators from the Ziyun Sect. That’s their body refinement prodigy. I heard he’s already reached the ‘Mountain Peak Realm’, just one step away from becoming a Martial God.”

“What’s his name?”

“Gong Qi!”

“Strange name.”

“Shh! Do you want to die? Careful you don’t get punched to death, his temper is foul!”

The onlookers whispered fervently.

“Haha! If you want the treasure, just snatch it! Why spew so much nonsense?”

A jarring, ear-piercing laugh cut through the air.

A group of cultivators flew in from the southeast, clad in blood-red robes and radiating thick Baleful Qi.

“It’s the demonic path… the Blood Blade Sect!”

“It’s… it’s the Blood Son, Wen Yu! He’s here too?!”

“That guy holding the treasure is only at the early Foundation Establishment stage. Doesn’t he know that holding a great treasure is a fast way to get killed?”

“He’s simply a stupid pig. If he throws the treasure away now, he might still have a chance to live.”

The arrival of the Blood Blade Sect turned the atmosphere electric.

With the prodigies of the three major sects present, Li Meng had naturally become the target of all arrows.

Yet, suspended in the air, Li Meng remained expressionless, enduring the greedy gazes of the crowd with the indifference of a statue.

He glanced down at the ground, towards the Tianshi Mansion cultivators.

His gaze locked onto Xia Qian.

Xia Qian caught the Senior’s look. Her face was etched with worry.

Li Meng gave her a subtle signal with his eyes.

Xia Qian nodded slightly. She understood.

“Senior Brother, let’s go!”

“But… but!”

Bu Shun looked up at the sky. Everywhere he looked, Foundation Establishment cultivators filled the air like locusts.

“No buts. Move!”

Xia Qian hurriedly led her Junior Brothers away.

As for the half-dead Yellow Sand King?

Xia Qian left it behind.

She couldn’t take it, shouldn’t take it, and didn’t want to take it.

Without the Wind Controlling Bead, the Yellow Sand King had lost the qualification to be enfeoffed as a local earth deity. It was now just a loose Foundation Establishment demon beast.

If they tried to drag it along, they would only attract the greed of the cultivators above.

Xia Qian was not foolish enough to make such a mistake.

High above, Wen Yu watched thoughtfully as the group of Qi Condensation ants scurried away into the distance.