Chapter 1178.1: Ambush (Part 1)

In the following weeks leading up to the arrival of the lord from the Heavenly Dragon temple, Xuan Hao found a relatively deserted location in the middle of the empire that the outpost was located in before beginning to prepare a trap, while also asking both Yi Min and Pei Yang to come and help. Making sure that Pei Yang picked up Yi Min before coming, as it would take her at least a few weeks to reach his current location on her own.

Although Yi Min wouldn't be of much help when it came to fighting the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple, she was the strongest formation master that he knew about and only person who would be able to guide him and Pei Yang in setting up a killing formation strong enough to have any effect against someone in the Earth Immortal Realm. Only after the killing formation had been set up did Yi Min retreat to a safe distance, while Xuan Hao and Pei Yang both finished setting up a few more traps on their own before hiding themselves. Waiting for the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple to appear.

...

"Finally managed to escape, I never expected those old fools to notice something and have someone follow me. Given I left that fellow behind in the Light Mist Poison Swamp, I should have a few years without any interruptions. More than enough time."

Back at the outpost of the Heavenly Dragon Temple, a solemn looking middle-aged man walked out of the teleportation formation as he muttered this to himself with frown on his face.

"This humble one greets the lord!"

Standing only a short distance away from the teleportation formation, the senior among the three people from the Heavenly Dragon Temple in charge of ensuring nothing went wrong, instantly recognized the middle-aged man as respectfully greeted him before lowering his head-

"""We greet the lord!"""

Something that instantly caused the rest of the people present in the outpost to similarly lower their head before respectfully greeting the middle-aged man, while a few of the younger people in charge of the outpost sneakily peeked towards him out of the corner of their eyes filled with awe.

Given that most of the people who were in charge of managing the outpost were only around the Nascent Soul Realm with the leader of the outpost having reached the later stages of the Domain Lord Realm, none of them had expected that they would actually have the chance to encounter a revered existence like a lord in a remote empire far away from the core of the continent.

"Hui, is everything according to plan?" Not at all caring about the people respectfully bowing to him, the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple simply turned to look towards the strongest of the three who had been left in charge of ensuring that nothing went wrong before his arrival.

"Yes! Everything has been going smoothly and there are no movements from the Blue Sea Empire, as they are currently busy looking for someone who killed one of their Earth Immortals. The only thing worth mentioning is that the sect currently occupying the Shattered Star Peaks has a formation strong enough to block someone at the Peak of the Soul Ascension Realm for a few minutes.

After personally investigating the Star Shattering Sect and finding no one capable of producing such a formation among them, it led me to believe that the formation had been obtained from the ruins on the Fifth Star Peak. Considering the lord's wish to keep things as hidden as possible, I decided to not destroy the sect on the Shattered Star Peaks to avoid raising any attention before the arrival of the lord."

As he finished relying on everything of importance, the strongest person outside of the lord, Hui, nervously lowered his head a bit further as he waited for a response. Knowing very well that if there was anything wrong with his report, he might end up losing his head.

"So, the Blue Sea Empire is busy and has no time to keep an eye on the surrounding small empires... Hehe, this is great! As for that sect you mentioned... Don't worry about them, it was good to leave them intact, as destroying them might lead to the Blue Sea Empire noticing something." Chuckling to himself as he said this, the lord slowly turned around to look back at the teleportation formation that had been set up in the middle of the outpost-

Bang!

"Ah!? The formation-"

Crack~

And before any of the people present had the time to react, he released part of his strength to directly destroy the teleportation formation. Only the panicked voice of the Domain Lord Realm Expert in charge of the outpost could be heard as the teleportation formation was reduced to dust.

"You three, let's get going." Once again ignoring the reactions of the people around him, the lord nonchalantly called out to Hui and the other two people he had left in charge of handling things before his arrival.

Whoosh~

Not wasting any time waiting for their response, he directly grabbed the three of them and dragged them out of the outpost before jumping into the sky in the direction of the Sky Empire where the Shattered Star Peaks were located.

During the entire process, he never mentioned the sect that had established itself on the Shattered Star Peaks over the last few years. Clearly showing how little, he cared about a weak sect outside the core region.

Even if he had some idea about the fact that the Star Shattering Sect being a sect with a Soul Ascension Realm Expert presiding over it and a formation that should have come from the ruins at the Ninth Star Peak, he didn't care in the slightest. On the other hand, the information that a weak sect like the Star Shattering Sect had managed to enter the ruins and come out with a powerful formation only excited him.

After all, for the Star Shattering Sect to be capable of getting their hands on such a powerful formation inside the ruins on the Fifth Star Peak not only meant that the ruins had already opened, but also that the ruins were far safer than he had first expected.

...

In the depths of a large desert stretching on for thousands upon thousands of miles with close to no demon beasts living inside of it and not a single human cultivator anywhere near it, Xuan Hao and Pei Yang glanced over at each as they noticed a terrifying presence entering the borders of the dessert before it reached the core of the desert over the next few seconds.

Rumble~!

It was at this moment that Xuan Hao and Pei Yang chose to activate the formation, causing the entire desert to tremble violently as a web of formation symbols covered the entire desert before a terrifying power rose up from the desert to form an endless number of sand spears that rushed towards the surprised lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple and the three people, he was carrying with him-

Boom-boom-boom!

Exploding violently on impact with a scorching power more than strong enough to reduce a Soul Ascension Realm Expert to ashes.

Although the formation that had been drawn up under the help of Yi Min was far from strong enough to pose any real threat to the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple, it was still using the scorching qi in the desert and the desert itself as a core. Allowing its power to reach a level beyond what was normally possible for a Master Realm Formation to archive.

"Who!?" Instantly realizing that he had been ambushed as he watched the countless sand spears raining down on him, the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple used his power to forcibly resist the spears as they exploded all around him while keeping his three subordinates safe.

Whoosh~!

Whoosh~!

Not bothering to answer the question posed by the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple, Xuan Hao and Pei Yang both made their move as they rushed out from the place they had been hiding before starting to attack the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple together with the killing formation that was already doing a good job forcing him to divide his attention on three different attackers at once.

BOOOM!

RUUUUUUUUMBLE-!

As the three began to clash in earnest and the lord of the Heavenly Dragon Temple stopped talking and focused his full attention on the fight. Knowing that even a slight lapse in his attention might end up costing him his life, the three subordinates that he had been carrying with him were all let go to fend for themselves-

"Ahh!"

"No-"

"Lord! Don't do-"

In the end, the three managed to last for less than a second as the sand spear of the killing formation violently tore them apart before they even had the time to react...