Lu Yun didn’t want to stay his hand anymore. He’d been keeping his temper in check and avoiding conflict ever since entering Life Province, refusing to take the bait no matter how others taunted him. He’d hunkered down in his fortress ship, no matter what. It wasn’t that he feared death, he just didn’t want to make an enemy out of the many factions in Nephrite Major.

However, he’d had enough.

This time, his opponents had sent local thugs to taunt and force him into mistakes. This was a threat and a humiliation. He would not back down again.

There was no need for him to back down again.

……

Midair, a man with an icy expression ignored the expanding rimesnake king and charged at Lu Yun, unleashing the power of a peak golden immortal. A spear manifested in his hand while endless killing intent converged from all directions into a river, wanting to rip Lu Yun apart into pieces.

Qing Han blanched. This was more than a little confusing, how dare a golden immortal openly assassinate Lu Yun in the capital?!

However, the governor had already responded with his move.

“Kill!!” At his declaration, nine crimson figures emerged beside him and lunged at the golden immortal.

“There are nine of the arcane immortal zombies!!” The golden immortal’s confidence crumbled. Taking out one or two bloodcorpses with his treasure was a given, but nine of them… that was too much!

Before he could come up with a plan, the bloodcorpses transformed into crimson shadows and tore through his killing intent, attacking him directly.

“Blasphemy! This seat is the deputy commander of the capital guards!” hectored the golden immortal. “You would dare kill me?!”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Lu Yun sneered.

Thud!

Nine crimson shadows barrelled into the golden immortal’s body, tearing the haughty man apart from the inside.

“How dare you!”

“Utter impudence, you’ve crossed a line!”

“You deserve death for your crimes, Lu Yun!” various voices sounded in censure as soon as the deputy commander died.

“Governor of Dusk Province, Lu Yun, murdered the deputy commander of the city guards in broad daylight. Such a crime will not be tolerated! Soldiers, take him down!”

“Understood!” As if previously agreed upon, countless immortals swarmed the area from all directions, crowding the outer city.

Weak in the knees, the thugs of the Blue Dragon Gang collapsed in a trembling heap on the ground. They finally realized who they’d been hired to hit: Governor Lu Yun, the top cultivator in the world, one capable of killing golden immortals!

“You were willing to sacrifice a golden immortal deputy commander to force me into a mistake. What an honor.” Hands behind his back, Lu Yun looked up at the dense swarm of heavenly soldiers with a cold smile tugging at his lips. Qing Han paled slightly. The scale of this ambush was a little too much, even for him.

“Are you afraid, Qing Han?” the Dusk governor asked quietly.

“Hahahaha!!” Qing Han lifted his chin with a peal of hearty laughter. “I’ve ventured into even the tomb of an ancient immortal empress with you. What do I have to fear from a bunch of trash?”

Trash!

Instead of openly challenging Lu Yun, these assailants slunk around with cheap tricks, forcing him into mistakes so that they could slap crimes onto his head. That made them complete trash in Qing Han’s eyes.

“Good!” Lu Yun guffawed. “Since you’re not afraid, then let’s you and I hack our way to the inner city and see what these Nephrite elites can do to me!”

Hack their way to the inner city! His declaration instantly reached all parts of the capital.

“Lu Yun is the top youth sovereign, alright!” Jin Heyi, hot on Lu Yun’s heels, immediately discarded his plan to sneak up on the governor. “Heroes always emerge in chaotic eras of struggle and conflict. If he survives this, he’ll establish himself as a great personage in the world! ...so I am not his match,” he concluded slowly after taking in a deep breath.

“You’re not going to attack him, big brother?” Jin Heyi asked in surprise.

“If he survives,” responded Jin Heyi offhandedly, “I’ll make my move the day he ascends to golden immortal.”

……

“Kill!” commanded Lu Yun. The nine bloodcorpses morphed into crimson shadows and engaged the enemy, while he took to the air to stand on the head of the rimesnake king with Qing Han and Ge Long. A twist of the giant snake’s body propelled them toward the inner city.

“Do you think nine zombies are enough to get you into the inner city? How naive! Hear my command, soldiers, kill Lu Yun!”

“Understood!”

“Kill!” The area was completely sealed off. Three armies, totaling more than three hundred thousand soldiers, arranged themselves into three concerted battle formations, ignoring the nine bloodcorpses and targeting only Lu Yun.

“Wauuuuuugh!! Wauuuuuugh!! Wauuuuugh!!” The nine bloodcorpses threw their heads back and howled, each of them disintegrating into twelve smaller bloodcorpses. Every one of the smaller bloodcorpses was a golden immortal, with a total of a hundred and eight of them.

Grinning wolfishly, Lu Yun manifested twelve black command flags that radiated a subtle crimson glow.

“Heavenly fiends, open!!” With a wave of his hand, the governor cast the twelve flags into the air. They formed an odd formation in midair and became one with the hundred and eight bloodcorpses.

“Waugh!! Waugh!!! Waugh!!!” Unified shrieks from the bloodcorpses created a hair-raising, uneerie din while thick blood energy suffused the air.

Growl!

A giant crimson claw ventured out of the strange formation.

“The Great Formation of Heavenly Fiends!! Five thousand years ago, Fei Nie, City Lord of Duskwater, employed this formation to slay thirty-six peerless immortals in quick succession.” Jaws dropped at the sight of the crimson claw. The Great Formation of Heavenly Fiends! Its name alone had shaken the world of immortals five thousand years ago!

Those thirty-six peerless immortals had been monster spirit kings, the loss of which had greatly devastated the North Sea monster spirits to even today. Full recovery yet lay out of reach. And today, the formation was reborn upon the stage of Nephrite Capital!

“Grrrr!!!” A beastly roar traveled out of the great formation. The giant crimson claw slashed viciously at one of the formations, ripping through the images created by a hundred thousand soldiers like they were paper.

Dyed red by a ray of crimson light, the soldiers lay prone on the ground, incapacitated. Lu Yun reared into the air from atop the rimesnake’s head.

“I, Lu Yun, will enter the inner city today. Who dares block me?” His voice rumbled through all parts of Xiankan.

“Listen to that arrogance!” a peerless immortal scoffed. “Back in the day, the Duskwater city lord was a golden immortal who set up the great formation with the legendary connate-grade treasure, the Formation Orb. That was how she slew the peerless immortals. Your poor, hacked together imitation uses only zombies and some banners as foundation. I’d like to see who you’ll be able to kill!

“Break!” Manifesting an arc of blade light, the peerless immortal slashed at the formation.

“You’re quite wrong.” Lu Yun smirked at the moonlight blade of energy. “The great formation centered around the Formation Orb is the inferior one.”

Boom!

A shake of the formation turned all twelve flags crimson. Red ripples undulated from them and spread in all directions. Previously only covering three hundred meters, the formation expanded ten times over to cover an area of three thousand meters. An arm running the entire span of the formation poked out, swiping at the arc of sword energy.

“What?!” The peerless immortal felt the threat of death loom over him.

“Get into formation and protect the commander!” The two other armies moved as well, manifesting their battle images and slamming into the formation.

“I said I would hack my way in there, and I will! Kill!”

Bam!

A flower of bloody mist bloomed in midair. Thus marked the end of a peerless immortal.