Chapter 887: Storming Beast God Mountain

“Buzz, buzz, buzz—”

True Lord Nine Spirits’ Nascent Soul spirit body flickered with blood-red light, his face twisted in agony as he thrashed about, desperate as if drowning.

Lu Changsheng’s grip held his Nascent Soul spirit body tight.

A profound Yin-Yang magic force bound and suppressed him, and alongside it surged a tyrannical power mingling Buddhist, demon, and monster strength, eroding his Nascent Soul and crushing his attempt to self-destruct.

True Lord Nine Spirits was stunned and shaken—never had he seen such dominance.

A bitter sense of powerlessness settled in. He could neither flee nor even wound his captor with self-destruction.

“Roar—”

The heavily injured Gold Mane Lion King let out a furious bellow, golden fur on end as if wrapped in flame.

A cold, domineering dark-gold glow erupted from the horn atop his head, transforming into a spectral suanni—a lion-like monster—charging at Lu Changsheng to give True Lord Nine Spirits a shot at escape.

But Lu Changsheng’s calm, indifferent gaze just swept over the Lion King.

“Brahma Demon Earthshaker!”

The True Saint Skill of Brahma and Demons was a top-tier combat technique, boasting many combat divine abilities.

Lu Changsheng rarely let anyone get this close, and had barely touched upon these divine abilities—his Brahma Demon True Form was only at minor completion, so he usually relied on external treasures in battle.

But now, in order to completely suppress True Lord Nine Spirits, he unleashed his full arsenal.

This was also a show of force meant for True Lord Xuanjian, True Lord Juejian, and any demonic masterminds who might be lurking nearby.

Three heads and six arms, all covered in dark-gold dragon scales and woven with intricate Buddhist and demonic runes, fused the presence of a Buddha, demon god, and heavenly monster—the Brahma Demon True Form raised its head in a mighty roar that seemed to shatter the world. It then crashed toward the Lion King.

“Bang—”

As Beast God Mountain’s mightiest tamed beast, the Gold Mane Lion King didn’t even know what hit him.

A terrifying force battered him from all sides, slamming his massive body into the ground and carving out a pit a hundred yards wide, dust and rubble flying everywhere.

The Golden-Winged Roc immediately pounced on the Lion King to make sure he didn’t escape.

“With strength like this, it’s no wonder I lost,” thought True Lord Nine Spirits, dread chilling his heart.

He understood that, faced with this Yangming True Lord, there was no amount of preparation that would have let him win. No matter how the war went, it meant nothing if his enemy entered the fray.

“Xuanjian, did you bring the Binding Divine Net?” Lu Changsheng called over to True Lord Xuanjian.

His Sea Spirit Cloak had already been used to bind the Holy Maiden of Beast God Mountain, True Lord Tiancang, and True Lord Qianren’s Nascent Soul spirit bodies. Its spiritual energy was nearly exhausted and couldn’t restrain True Lord Nine Spirits any longer.

True Lord Xuanjian summoned the Binding Divine Net. Its razor-sharp silver threads wrapped tightly around Nine Spirits’ Nascent Soul, leaving it bound and helpless.

“Good.” Lu Changsheng tossed the tightly bound Nascent Soul into the Divine Maiden’s Furnace, saving his foe’s fate for after the fighting.

Just then, as he turned his gaze to the battered Lion King, a deafening roar erupted from Beast God Mountain and the land itself trembled.

Lu Changsheng peered into the distance—Beast God Mountain’s great formation flickered wildly, the entire mountain quaking.

Even from several hundred miles away, blocked by the formation, he couldn’t make out what was happening inside.

“Could this be connected to the secret art that Nine Spirits just used to send a message?”

Had Nine Spirits not given up struggling to cast that secret art, he might’ve lasted longer.

“I’ve sensed a vague but persistent danger lurking around Beast God Mountain these days,” said True Lord Xuanjian, eyes narrowed as he anxiously scanned the mountain.

“If something happens to Beast God Mountain, our Heavenly Sword Sect will lose the most. This mountain is our planned spirit vein stronghold.”

“Mm.”

Lu Changsheng looked at the Lion King locked in battle with the Golden-Winged Roc, then drew the Nine Calamity Sword—light flashed as it tore straight through the beast’s flesh, spraying blood everywhere.

True Lord Xuanjian and True Lord Juejian joined in immediately.

Already gravely wounded from merging with True Lord Nine Spirits, the Lion King didn’t stand a chance against four Nascent Soul experts.

In just moments, he lay bloodied and howling in agony—the Golden-Winged Roc’s barbed golden talons pinning him down like prey.

Then, the three cultivators and one roc raced off toward Beast God Mountain.

“Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Beast God Mountain shook violently. The great formation flashed on and off, straining under tremendous assault.

With the formation running at half-power and now under attack from inside as well, Lu Changsheng and Xuanjian could glimpse blurry scenes through the wavering barrier.

A gigantic, awe-inspiring Dragon-Croc cloaked in dark red scales rampaged through the innermost depths of the mountain.

Its blood-red eyes rolled in its skull as it howled to the sky. Each shriek sent a vortex of sound spiraling outward, warping and rupturing the very air.

Just one swing of its barbed tail shattered the air in a series of thunderclaps, flattening buildings with each blow.

All around, surviving cultivators of Beast God Mountain died in droves—bodies bursting apart, reduced to dust by the Dragon-Croc’s rampage.

“No!”

“Supreme Elder!”

“Patriarch! Save us!”

Desperate, the surviving disciples screamed for help, hoping their elders might save them.

But the truth was, Nine Spirits had already abandoned these people.

The sect’s kin, inner circle, and core disciples were either shipped off to the Endless Desert, to the Yuan Kingdom, or left with True Lord Yunmei, ready to flee to the Yuan Kingdom via the Barebody Sect.

Still, there were a handful of loyalists following Nine Spirits’ orders inside the mountain.

They’d just carried out their instructions—activating the formation, unsealing the sleeping fourth-rank Dragon-Croc, and sending word to True Lord Yunmei.

Now, faced with the carnage before them, their faces went slack and their eyes filled with tears—they realized their own Supreme Elder was doomed.

It was only when their defeat was total that their leader would release this beast to lash out at the Jiang-Yue army.

Otherwise, no one would ever let such a monster destroy their own sect’s home.

Bitterness weighed on their hearts—grieving for their elder’s sacrifices, mourning their own fate as abandoned pawns.

“That’s… the Lion King!”

Some fleeing disciples spotted the three cultivators and the roc outside the mountain gate.

Instantly, they recognized their ancestor, the Lion King, now blood-soaked and battered, dangling like prey from the claws of a golden bird.

“How could this be…”

The sight sent fresh waves of terror through the Beast God Mountain disciples.

The Gold Mane Lion King was their most powerful tamed beast, second only to True Lord Nine Spirits.

Even the sect’s elder Core Formation cultivators treated him with utmost respect.

But here he hung like a dead dog, dragged along by the golden roc.

“True Lord Xuanjian, True Lord Juejian—”

“Could that really be the legendary Yangming True Lord?”

“Then the golden roc must be his spirit beast mount!”

Many among Beast God Mountain had seen portraits of Xuanjian and Juejian, but Yangming True Lord—a new legend, and lord of Dameng City—remained a stranger.

“True Lord Nine Spirits has already been captured by Yangming True Lord. Surrender now, open the formation, and you may yet live,” True Lord Juejian thundered, sensing that the Dragon-Croc’s power was extraordinary.

“If this beast keeps rampaging, Heavenly Sword Sect will pay a heavy price rebuilding the mountain when we take over.”

“Our Supreme Elder captured by Yangming True Lord?”

At first, the disciples refused to believe it—but one look at the bloody, broken Lion King in the Golden-Winged Roc’s grip convinced them otherwise.

“We surrender!”

“Please, save us, True Lords!”

With the fourth-rank Dragon-Croc rampaging around and both their greatest champions defeated, the Beast God Mountain survivors had lost all will to fight.

What else could they do? Every path meant certain death—better to surrender.

Yet controlling a mountain-scale sect formation like this took many people. It couldn’t just be stopped by one or two.

“Hurry up!” Lu Changsheng urged—he didn’t want to see Beast God Mountain reduced to rubble.

If the chaos continued, not only would disciples die, but the buildings, spirit fields, medicine—and even the vital spirit and earth veins—would suffer.

Severe harm to the spirit and earth veins would cripple the entire land, requiring untold years to heal.

“Boom, boom, boom—”

The three cultivators and one roc attacked the front gate, aiming to break a fissure in the forbidden formation.

If things turned worse, at least there’d be a way to escape without getting trapped if someone like Mo Luo or the Liang forces attacked.

Inside the mountain, the Dragon-Croc’s blood-drenched, barbed tail smashed through a peak, bringing it crashing down as it sensed Lu Changsheng’s group approaching.

But its eyes, red as blood, fixed first on the Golden-Winged Roc and the wounded Lion King.

Under the twisted growth techniques used by Nine Spirits and Mo Luo, it had lost every shred of intelligence—now there was only the urge to kill and destroy, and a gnawing hunger.

Both the Golden-Winged Roc and Lion King were covered in wounds, and the Lion King bled heavily.

The scent of blood was pure temptation for a beast like this.

“Roar!”

The Dragon-Croc’s breath thundered out like a volcano—fetid, dark-red mist pouring from its throat as its jagged teeth clashed in a steel-on-steel screech.

It lumbered toward Lu Changsheng’s group, tail swinging like a giant axe, hacking apart everything in its path.

“It should have been just an early fourth-rank beast king, but the sect’s forbidden arts forcibly drove it to mid-fourth rank!”

As it approached and the formation cracked, True Lord Xuanjian sensed its overwhelming power.

Though lacking sanity, and its demon power couldn’t match a true mid-fourth-rank beast king, its body and brute force were still far beyond a rookie Nascent Soul cultivator.

Luckily—

True Lord Xuanjian glanced at Lu Changsheng, seeking leadership.

He himself could only just hold the Dragon-Croc back—defeating it would be up to the famed Yangming True Lord!

Lu Changsheng could tell how exceptional this Dragon-Croc was—no comparison to those weaklings he’d cut down before.

Defeating it would require enormous effort.

“If you want to live, hand over the Formation Plate!”

He barked at a few Core Formation cultivators fleeing from Beast God Mountain, a menacing aura radiating from him.

His plan was to use the formation’s power to fully unleash the Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror.

He was sure that True Lord Nine Spirits’ storage ring must hold the sect’s core formation tools. But there was no time to deal with its defenses now.

Under his pressure, the cultivators surrendered their formation tool without a fuss.

“Hold the Dragon-Croc off for a moment,” he called to Xuanjian and Juejian.

His keen gaze sharpened as he used the formation tool to study the barrier.

But he was only a third-rank master in formations—not enough to crack a fourth-rank forbidden grand array in such little time.

Luckily, he possessed the Taiyi Spirit—his divine sense rivaled a mid-stage Nascent Soul, and he excelled at divination.

Drawing on its insight, he quickly found one of the array’s cores.

Linking the formation tool to the node, he began to manipulate the formation’s might.

“Huh?”

True Lord Xuanjian looked on in surprise.

Who would have thought Lu Changsheng could master both divination and formation to this extent—discovering the array’s weakness so fast?

Every branch of cultivation demanded immense time and effort—getting even a second discipline to this level was outstanding.

Especially with divination and formation, both notoriously difficult arts.

“Ah Wu!” Lu Changsheng called, now channeling the array’s power into the Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror.

“Whoosh, whoosh—”

The Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror began to rotate in his hands like a rising, blazing sun, drawing in spiritual energy till a terrifying funnel of light twisted above the mountain.

The sight had every cultivator and beast in Beast God Mountain frozen, eyes riveted.

Even at this first taste of power, it shone so brilliantly that even Core Formation cultivators felt pain just looking at it—much less mere Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment followers.

The mountain’s lesser demon beasts trembled where they lay, too scared to move.

“Roar!” The Dragon-Croc bellowed, gripped by a strange, restless anxiety.

Still, bereft of reason and lost in bloodlust, it ignored Lu Changsheng—lunging instead at Xuanjian, Juejian, and the roc, who now dared to challenge it.

“Just as I thought,” Lu Changsheng watched quietly, unshaken.

If the Dragon-Croc had sensed the mirror’s power, he would have acted sooner. But with it focused elsewhere, he could test the might of his Solar Profound Light.

If this could kill a mid-fourth-rank beast king in one blow, he’d know exactly how fearsome this ability really was.

The Golden-Winged Roc could tell the Dragon-Croc’s true agenda was the wounded Lion King in its claws.

But there was no way the Little Roc King would willingly give up his prey.

He flitted about, dancing around the Dragon-Croc with a flurry of his hundred thousand feathers.

Yet no matter how much he struck, the beast’s dark-red scales barely showed a mark.

True Lord Xuanjian, True Lord Juejian, and the Golden-Winged Roc formed a triad, weaving around the Dragon-Croc without taking it head-on.

This battle proved it—these forcibly cultivated kings, wild and unrestrained, were no match for real cultivators at the same level.

“Whoosh—whoosh—”

Throughout the fight, the Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror kept drawing in spiritual energy, growing ever brighter till it seemed to become a second sun hanging over the mountain.

Lu Changsheng, still holding the mirror high, was nearly invisible in the divine radiance—like a god wielding the sun.

“Lure it over here. When I give the signal, stand back!”

Lu Changsheng’s eyes burned with excitement as he locked onto the Dragon-Croc.

This was his first time using the Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror to such a degree—and he couldn’t wait to see the Solar Profound Light’s true power.