Wangwu Mountain was located some thirty miles outside Yanwu, and was the only way to Firecrow Empire.
A Bluewolf hoverchariot sped through the air. After leaving the auction hall, Zhou Chuan and the other two set off immediately for Firecrow Empire. Although they had noble status, they were nothing but servants in front of the heir of the Zhou Family, so they did not dare to delay for even a brief while.
“This is…?” Zhou Chuan was taken aback. Peering ahead in horror, he said shockingly, “Look, what’s going on here?”
That woke Pang Chengwen and Shi Ruida from their meditation. They hurried over to the front of the chariot and saw a huge mountain blocking the way. “Are you taking a wrong road, Zhou Chuan?” said Shi Ruida.
Zhou Chuan’s face was full of horror as he said firmly, “This is the correct road! We took the same road when we came, and I’m sure there was no mountain here!”
Pang Chengwen had a dubious look and a frown on his face. “You mean a mountain suddenly appeared here over the last few days?” He laughed. “Although those almighty experts could move mountains and topple seas in legends, that’s just an exaggeration. No one in the world can move a mountain.”
Shi Ruida was laughing too. “You’re just too nervous, Zhou Chuan. Quickly turn around, or you will hit the mountain soon.”
Zhou Chuan lowered his head and looked at the chariot’s recording needle in silence. ‘This is the road we took when we came here. I can’t be wrong. Besides, this mountain looks very familiar…it seems like that Wangwu Mountain beside the road.’
“Be careful, I have a bad feeling!” Zhou Chuan warned as he carefully adjusted the chariot’s course. Although he felt strange, he could not just do nothing and watch as the chariot ran into the mountain.
Pang Chengwen and Shi Ruida smiled at each other. They did not take the warning seriously, and they thought he was just overreacting. As both of them were much stronger, they were already not happy with Zhou Chuan leading the group. And now, they simply did not cover the mocking look on their faces.
All of a sudden, a dark cloud drifted over them, veiling the sky and blocking the sunlight and turning the world dark.
They looked up, and what they saw immediately scared the wits out of them. It was not a dark cloud, but a great mountain several thousand miles in circumference falling rapidly from the sky, and their chariot was right beneath it. They had nowhere to run!
“AH! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!”
Pang Chengwen screamed and leaped out of the chariot, rushing toward the distance like a bolt of lightning. The mountain was so huge that even a Martial Grandmaster or Martial Supreme would be crushed to death instantly, not to mention a mere Martial King like him!
The other two men were terrified as well. In desperation, they jumped out of the chariot and ran crazily away from it.
“The mountain is moving! Someone really can move a mountain!” Zhou Chuan was utterly shocked as he put all his strength into his legs and ran for his life.
The mountain fell rapidly. Although they had been running with all their strength, they could not avoid it, and it seemed they were about to be crushed into some meat paste. Their eyes were wide with terror; roaring, they unleashed their Primordial Qi, which formed into layers of strong shields around them. With cold sweat trickling down their foreheads, they watched as the mountain came crashing down on them.
Just when they were about to make the last struggle before death, the mountain suddenly twisted and distorted, then turned into streams of light and quickly scattered in the air, dissolving into a myriad of colorful light dots and flying into the eyes of a man standing not far ahead on the road.
The sky turned bright and clear, and the Wangwu Mountain that blocked the way was gone. It turned out that everything was just an illusion.
The young man with a pair of strange eyes looked slightly pale. It was plain that the grand scale of the illusion just now had consumed a significant amount of his spirits. Meanwhile, a hint of a smile brushed his lips, and he began to perform all kinds of incantation gestures, sending them into the chariots. In just the blink of an eye, the Bluewolf shrunk in mid-air into a mini chariot and fell into his hand.
“Who are you?! How dare you fool us!” Pang Chengwen flew into a rage.
Shi Ruida was boiling as well. His murderous aura exploded out instantly, which pushed his clothes up and made him look double in size.
The young man put away the chariot as he smiled and said, “Greetings, my friends! I’m Li Yunxiao, the City Lord of Yanwu.”
That did not quench Pang Chengwen’s flame of anger even a little bit. His eyes gleamed with killing intent as he said coldly, “The City Lord of Yanwu? How dare you fool us! You are digging your own grave!” They did not even regard the monarch of Tianshui as someone important, let alone a mere city lord.
Zhou Chuan’s face flickered, but he was much calmer than the other two men. “Greetings, my lord. May I know the reason my lord does this to us?”
Yunxiao smiled faintly and thought a little bit highly about Zhou Chuan. “Well, as I had just taken the office a few days ago, I’m a little short of money. In addition to borrowing the Bluewolf chariot from you, another reason I come to you is to borrow the Cauldron of Five Elements. When Yanwu gets richer, I’ll definitely return it to you personally.”
“Borrow the Cauldron of Five Elements?” Pang Chengwen roared with laughter, as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world. “Haha! You are just a mere Martial Master! And, do you know who you are talking to?”
“Well, I really don’t know your names, but I’m not interested either. So, save your breath. I’ll leave once I get the cauldron.”
“Boy!” Shi Ruida’s face turned dark as his aura spread rumbling out like a mighty storm. He pointed a finger at Yunxiao’s face and bellowed, “Are you a real fool or you’re just pretending to be one? Do you really know who we are? Do you know the consequence you will face after this?”
Yunxiao’s expression did not change and the smile still hung on his face. Lightly, he lifted a hand and waved it down, which broke Shi Ruida’s pressure of a seven-stars Martial King apart and sent it out in all directions behind him.
Shi Ruida’s face fell. He knew how strong his pressure was, which even a Martial Lord would find it hard to resist. ‘This boy is just a five-stars Martial Master. How did he break my pressure with a slap? And, although he seemed to have thrown out the slap casually, I could feel a very profound martial essence in it…’
Zhou Chuan was taken aback as well. In a deep voice, he said, “We are from the Zhou Family of Firecrow Empire. Do you really want to offend us?”
Yunxiao laughed. “Yes, it is the Zhou Family I am looking for, and you are the people I want to borrow from. As one of the four major aristocratic families of Firecrow, surely you are not so stingy, are you?”
The look on Zhou Chuan’s face grew uglier. “You are the one who killed the people of Cheng Family and Xingyang Family a few days ago, aren’t you?” he said coldly. “Do you really want to be enemies with two great families at the same time? Have you ever thought of the consequences? These families with thousands of years of history can easily crush you with just a finger!”
“Families with thousands of years of history?” A sneer appeared on Yunxiao’s face. “I’ve offended many existences with millions of years of history.”
‘Crazy, he’s really crazy!’ Zhou Chuan was speechless. ‘How can there be such people in the world? He’s just unreasonable!’ If it were not for the importance of the Cauldron of Five Elements and he did not want anything bad to happen to it, he would not have held back his anger and reasoned with Yunxiao.
“Stop wasting your breath with him!” Face livid with rage, Pang Chengwen looked at Zhou Chuan and growled, “Just kill him!”
Among the three, Zhou Chuan was the leader, and without his order, the other two men could not attack. Although both Pang Chengwen and Shi Ruida were unhappy with this arrangement, they could not violate the Zhou Family’s rules, or they would have to face serious punishment.
Zhou Chuan was already fuming, so he clenched his jaws and shouted, “Attack!”
No sooner had his voice faded away than Pang Chengwen rushed out. He was already trembling with rage; he wanted nothing but to break this boy’s bones and rip him into pieces. He swore to himself that once he killed this boy and escorted the cauldron back, he would return to Yanwu again and kill everyone in the City Lord Mansion!
“Take it easy, young man!”
Suddenly, a flat voice rang out, and Xiao Qingwang appeared before Yunxiao in the next instant. He clenched his left palm into a fist and gently thrust it out. With it in the center, the surrounding air spun and turned into a whirlwind, which sucked over all the natural Primordial Qi within tens of meters around and compressed them as the fist smashed toward Pang Chengwen.
“An eight-stars Martial King!” Pang Chengwen’s pupils constricted as a look of horror appeared on his face. The punch, which was more powerful than his attack, had targeted him, and its pressure was so strong that he felt hard to breathe. He screamed in fear, “An eight-stars Martial King! How’s that possible! How can there be an eight-stars Martial King in such a tiny city!”
Zhou Chuan’s face fell as he said in shock, “You…You are Xiao Qingwang! The Martial King of Tianshui! How dare you go against the Zhou Family? Are you not afraid that you will bring a calamity that will destroy Tianshui?!”
Xiao Qingwang smiled and said indifferently, “It doesn’t matter.”
“YOU!” Zhou Chuan was rendered speechless. ‘Crazy, they are all crazy! If they are not afraid of even the elimination of their own state, how can they be afraid of being killed?’
Meanwhile, Pang Chengwen rotated his Primordial Qi to the maximum and threw both his palms out, countering the punch with a look of horror on his face.
Bam!
The impact knocked Pang Chengwen flying away, which startled Zhou Chuan. He knew they were in real trouble this time, because their opponents came prepared. “Help him, Shi Ruida!”
Although his heart sank, Zhou Chuan did not panic. Their opponent was, after all, a mere city lord, and if he had the strength to defeat them, he would have attacked them directly and not fooled them with an illusion that made them abandon their chariot.
Shi Ruida was about to strike when four rays of light, each coming in a different color, suddenly shot out of the ground in four directions. Then, a huge square emerged beneath his feet and quickly turned into the form of an array. Meanwhile, two men appeared out of nowhere and separately knelt on one knee outside the array, inserting one hand into each ray of light as they began to pour their Primordial Qi into them.
As the two different powers flowed into the array, the four rays of light grew stronger and spread out from all four corners, forming into a jail of four colors.