Chapter 1075 - Garuda

A golden blur appeared in the distant skies accompanying that burst of cold laughter.

Golden light flashed and transformed into a tall, thin young man. His hair was long and golden, and his features were handsome. His eyes glinted as sharp as a sword’s edge.

“Little Goldy!” Ye Luo exclaimed.

Su Yi’s eyebrows shifted slightly.

This handsome man was one of his thirty-six honorary disciples, Garuda!

A primordial variant species. The blood of the Golden-Winged Great Pengs flowed through his veins!

Su Yi remembered it clearly. Eighty thousand years ago, Garuda had knelt outside the Grotto of Abstruse Force’s gates, kowtowing for ten days and ten nights, all in the hope of staying by his side and learning from him.

In light of his sincerity, Su Yi let the bird cultivate at his side, and he accepted him as an honorary disciple.

He would never have expected that, five hundred years ago, when he reincarnated, Garuda would take advantage of the chaos to steal his Heaven-Smelting Furnace!

Even now, Su Yi vividly recalled how delighted Garuda had seemed while carrying off the stolen furnace…

And now, this traitor had appeared before him in the Blue Ox Yao Emperor’s territory!

“Ye Luo, mind how you address me.” Garuda glanced coolly at Ye Luo, then said slowly, “Back in the Grotto of Abstruse Force, you were my senior apprentice brother, so it was fine for you to address me informally. But now, you’re a dog under that Su person’s mind control. You’re in no way worthy of calling me that!”

His voice was utterly disdainful.

Ye Luo’s expression darkened, and his expression filled with murderous intent.

Meanwhile, the Blue Ox Yao Emperor and the other old monsters arrived near Garuda, gathering around him like stars clustering around the moon.

Seeing this only deepened Ye Luo’s frown.

There was no doubt about it; Garuda had been inextricably involved in this deathtrap!

Su Yi’s expression was as calm as ever, but the depths of his gaze shone with cold luster.

“Come on out, everyone! Let’s send this Su person on his way,” Garuda said leisurely.

“The boy’s combat prowess is indeed heaven-defying. He’s worthy of us attacking together.” Pleasant laughter emanated from the distant skies, and a rain of flowers fell. As their fragrance permeated the air, a beautiful woman in rainbow raiment appeared out of nowhere. She had a detached, ethereal quality about her.

The Falling Star Butterfly Empress!

She was one of the Nine Great Yao Emperors of the Ten Directions Yao Mountains. Her true body was a Solar Demon Butterfly, and her cultivation base was deep and unfathomable. Of the Nine Great Yao Emperors, she was definitely in the top five.

Meanwhile, three other figures appeared from other directions. Each had a monstrous, terrifying aura powerful beyond imagination.

They were the Blueflame Yao Emperor, the Astral Winds Yao Emperor, and the Stalwart Silver Yao Emperor!

All of them were old monsters, and all of them were members of the Nine Great Yao Emperors!

Ye Luo couldn’t help but find this surprising. Master was right; this trap is nowhere near as simple as it appeared on the surface.

Wang Zhuofu’s expression gradually turned grim.

When Su Yi broke the combat formation and rescued the three Wang Family elders, Wang Zhuofu’s spirits soared. He thought they could turn this operation around.

But seeing one enemy pop up after another was truly shocking and oppressive.

However, it wasn’t over yet——

“Fellow Daoist Red Pine, Fellow Daoist Dark Mountain, shall we go out too?”

“It would be impolite to refuse.”

The sound of conversation emanated from afar, and three more figures appeared.

The leader was a middle-aged man in black robes. He had a face like crown jade and a willowy beard.

He was followed by a graying elder with youthful features, a thin face, and plain cloth robes, as well as a tall, hulking saber-wielder.

Their arrival provoked uproar throughout the surrounding area.

Ye Luo recognized the elder in plain cloth robes at a glance. That was the Red Pine Yao Emperor, the strongest old monster of the Nine Great Yao Emperors! He was also the only Profound Unity expert among them. His name had long since shaken the Wilds and its subsidiary worlds! Rumor had it that a full sixty-four Emperors served under his banner!

When Ye Luo saw the Red Pine Yao Emperor arrive, his heart sank. We’re in for trouble! Profound Unity Emperors aren’t at all comparable to Profound Serenity Emperors!

And the tall, hulking saber-wielder beside him wasn’t simple either. That was the Dark Mountain Yao Emperor, a peerless yao expert second only to the Red Pine Yao Emperor. He was in the peak of the Profound Serenity Realm, just one step from achieving Profound Unity!

“Blue Ox, Ghost Fox, Primordial Chaos, Falling Star, Blue Flame, Astral Wind, Stalwart Silver….. Add Red Pine and Dark Mountain, and all of the Nine Great Yao Emperors of the Ten Directions Yao Mountains are here!” Ye Luo’s heart shook.

It wasn’t that he was scared, but that he couldn’t imagine how Pi Mo had convinced all nine of the Nine Great Yao Emperors to work together to set this trap!

Add Garuda and the other mighty Profound Serenity Yao Emperors, and you had a first-rate lineup even by the standards of the Wilds as a whole. They could have gone anywhere without fear, striking terror into the hearts of even peak factions!

In stark contrast with Ye Luo’s calm, Wang Zhuofu was visibly shaken, and his back was drenched in cold sweat.

And here he’d thought the Heavenly Yao Refining the Heavens Combat Formation was terrifying. Who’d have thought the true lethal threat was yet to come?

Against so many mighty, terrifying yao, it seemed they had no hope of victory at all.

Su Yi must really be the reincarnation of the Swordmaster of Abstruse Force! Otherwise, why would Pi Mo go to such lengths to rally so many experts? How could anyone else be worthy of all of the Nine Great Yao Emperors joining forces?

Wang Zhuofu’s heart shook, but he was finally convinced of Su Yi’s identity, and he finally realized that Pi Mo was undoubtedly a traitor to the Grotto of Abstruse Force!

That was the only way to explain everything that was happening.

As for Wang Que? He was nothing but bait.

Pi Mo’s goal was to erase his master’s reincarnation in the wilderness of the Ten Directions Yao Mountains!

“Master, that black-robed middle-aged man’s aura is truly strange, and extremely unfamiliar. I can’t tell where he’s from,” Ye Luo transmitted at top speeds.

He’d realized that after that middle-aged man in black appeared, the Yao Emperors and Garuda both took the initiative to approach and greet him respectfully, like ministers greeting their lord.

Even the mighty Yao Emperor Red Pine dared not walk shoulder-to-shoulder with the man in black!

All of this made it obvious how extraordinary the black-robed middle-aged man’s status was.

“An old-timer from the Studio of the Heart. He might be able to intimidate the Yao Emperors, but to me, he’s not even worth mentioning,” Su Yi said casually.

His expression was a bit strange.

The experts of the Studio of the Heart controlled the Laws of Spirit Nirvana. Here in the Wilds, they were absolutely invincible against others of the same cultivation. They even had the heaven-defying ability to fight foes of higher realms.

The man in black was in the late-stage Profound Serenity Realm, which meant that if it came down to a fight, he could absolutely contend with an early-stage Profound Unity cultivator like Yao Emperor Red Pine!

And then there was his status to consider. Thus, the Yao Emperors had no choice but to lower their heads before him.

However, to Su Yi, the middle-aged man in black was no different from any other Profound Serenity Emperor.

Su Yi thought to himself, It seems Pi Mo still hasn’t realized that I’m the one who killed Feng Ji and Fei Yun at Profound Sky Academy. Otherwise, there’s no way he’d use that old man in black as his secret weapon against me…

The landscape was withered, and heaven and earth were stifled.

Off in the distance, the Nine Great Yao Emperors, their subordinates, and Garuda the Golden-Winged Great Peng gathered around the middle-aged man.

Their lineup was strong enough to make the Wilds tremble!

My traitorous disciple sure is ‘filial’.... Su Yi couldn’t help but sigh to himself. A trap like this was enough to take down a Profound Unity Emperor!

“Garuda, how do you think we ought to send our Fellow Daoist Su on his way?” The middle-aged man in black asked suddenly, his gaze landing on the distant Su Yi.

He ignored Ye Luo and Wang Zhuofu completely.

Garuda clasped his fist. “Please arrange it as you see fit, Elder Yin.”

The middle-aged man in black, Elder Yin, smiled. “Very well. Lead your fellow Daoists into battle. Fellow Daoist Red Pine and I will provide support. How about it?”

As he spoke, he glanced at the graying elder with youthful features.

“Very well.” The Red Pine Yao Emperor straightforwardly agreed.

Garuda promptly stepped forth, his sharp eyes locking onto Su Yi. A hint of a cold, cruel smile tugged at his lips, and his words brimmed over with murderous intent. “Everyone, attack together!”

Boom!

He soared into the air, waved his sleeves, and summoned a scroll painting that unfurled in midair.

The painting depicted a strange chessboard. The squares combined to form the eight trigrams and nine palaces.

The painting of the chessboard suddenly expanded until it was a thousand feet across, and Garuda jumped into it, occupying the square corresponding to the trigram “qian.” He was like the leader among dragons.

Immediately afterward, the members of the Nine Great Yao Emperors and the various Profound Serenity Realm Yao experts shot into the painting of a chessboard too.

Boom!

The chessboard immediately lit up. Firelight surged into the heavens, and its boundless radiance swept out in all directions.

All of heaven and earth were instantly enveloped in the world of the chessboard within the scroll painting!

Those within the chessboard, Garuda, the Blue Ox Yao Emperor, and the others, were shrouded in the mysterious, inscrutable power of the Grand Dao. Their imposing auras were instantly terrifying beyond measure!

Ye Luo and Wang Zhuofu looked stunned. Their keen senses told them that the scroll painting was a supreme treasure. The chessboard it manifested was full of unfathomable, terrifying power. It made Garuda and company significantly stronger. Furthermore, the experts’ auras linked and merged into a singular entity!

This wasn’t a combat formation. No, it was even more wondrous and terrifying!

Su Yi’s eyebrows rose slightly, but his expression was at most a little strange, as if he were surprised, but also contemptuous.

Within the chessboard, Garuda’s gaze was calm and proud, and his golden hair shone like the sun. He said coldly, “Su Yi, if you lower your head, I guarantee that I’ll let you die with dignity! Otherwise, don’t blame me for using the Starry Combat Diagram to reduce you to ash!”

The Blue Ox Yao Emperor and the others watched coldly, brimming over with murderous intent.

Although the battle had yet to begin, their dense, endless murderous intent made heaven and earth change color. Everything seemed dimmer by comparison.

Ye Luo and Wang Zhuofu instinctively looked at Su Yi.

However, Su Yi just took a sip of wine, as if all of this was perfectly normal. Then, he said flatly, “Stay here and wait. I’ll be back shortly.”

Before his voice had even finished echoing through the air, Su Yi gripped Moonlit Shadow, walked into the sky, and shot toward the giant chessboard manifested by the Starry Combat Diagram.