Chapter 42: The Older, The Wiser   Lu Zhou did not choose to save the last peak-form experience card. On the day he became Ji Tiandao, his decision had been made: He was destined to keep going along this path.

There was no safe place in this treacherous cultivation world. Golden Court Mountain was his haven and foundation, and he would not allow anyone to take it away from him.

He had two more intentions: He wanted to take this opportunity to warn the world and those who were eyeing Golden Court Mountain that he did not rely on a secret drug but his own strength. Only the strength that truly belonged to him could erupt continuously. There was no secret drug, external force, or trick in the world that could do that.

The disciples of the Righteous Sect and Heavenly Sword Sect were struck dumb. Under the deterrence of the nine-leaf Hundred Tribulations Insight avatar, they seemed to have forgotten how to move. In addition to amplifying the caster’s power, an avatar had a certain deterring effect against enemies. Moreover, the greater the gap between cultivation bases, the stronger the effect would be.

As a result, cultivators below the Divine Court realm all lay face down on the ground, trembling. Even Fang Jinshan, who was the strongest among all, could not help but swallow and take a step back. He was scared and panicked, wanting to flee. He had the Shield of Dragonheart, and it could help him escape, but he must first find an opportunity.

Lu Zhou floated in the sky and looked down at the crowd before his eyes rested on Duanmu Sheng, “Duanmu Sheng!”

“Yes, Master!” Duanmu Sheng trembled.

“The final part of the Divine One Technique includes a sword technique and a spear technique. I will demonstrate them to you now, but only once. Watch carefully!”

Duanmu Sheng was overjoyed when he heard that. He joined the sect very early, but his progress was slower than other disciples. Although Ji Tiandao had taught him the complete Divine One Technique, he had failed to master the final part even after cultivating it for years. He had been studying it by himself though, which was no different from walking in total darkness, resulting in the slow progress.

Lu Zhou used his fingers in place of a sword, and a sword beam condensed from energy appeared on them. “Use your fingers to condense energy into a sword...Imperfect Divine Intervention!”

A terrifying power exploded out from between his index and middle fingers, accompanied by a blinding light. Then, the sword strike shot straight down toward Fang Jinshan.

“NOOOOOO!” Fang Jinshan’s eyes grew wide as he screamed at the top of his lungs. A powerful energy exploded out of him, and at the same time, the heaven-grade treasure was instantly triggered, from which came bursting out a beam of golden light.

“It’s the Shield of the Dragonheart!”

The primary function of the Shield of the Dragonheart was to serve as a defense, protecting Fang Jinshan from being defeated. It was also the reason why the sect leader of the Righteous Sect sent him here, because he could fight even a Nascent Divinity Tribulation expert. Even if he could not win, he would still have a chance to escape.

“Second Elder!” Cultivators around watched as the sword strike fell and exploded into a blinding light that forced them to close their eyes.

BOOM!

Before the cultivators could find out about the aftermath of the attack and whether Fang Jinshan was still alive or not, Lu Zhou’s old but powerful voice rang out again, “Use your palm as the base and condense your energy! Thousand Waves!”

This was the result when the Divine One Technique was used in the form of a spear technique. It was a ranged attack, and as its name implied, it overlapped a stream of energy into a thousand waves, which were then thrust out like a thousand spears. It was also a key ultimate move of the Divine One Technique.

At the sight of the attack, all Divine Court cultivators gaped while their expression changed drastically.

“Not good! Run!”

They quickly stopped forming the ridiculous array and turned around to flee. The attack was so monstrous that even a Nascent Divinity Tribulation expert would not dare to face it.

However, it was not targeted at the group of cultivators. Instead, it fell at the same spot where Fang Jinshan was.

BOOM!

No one knew if he were still alive after the attack, because their vision was blocked by a cloud of dust. No one knew if he could withstand such a mighty attack even with the Shield of the Dragonheart.

The collision generated powerful blasts that spread out in all directions, knocking and throwing all the Divine Court cultivators to the ground. For a moment, miserable shrieks and screams filled the air. Even Zhou Jifeng, a genius in cultivation, was hit by the blasts and had to block them with his own energy so that he could stand still.

‘He is stronger than when the top ten experts besieged Golden Court Mountain! Is it because of his nine-leaf Hundred Tribulations Insight avatar?’ thought Zhou Jifeng. He was sure about one thing: Ji Tiandao had become stronger!

However, he did not understand why Lu Zhou used such a mighty move to deal with Fang Jinshan, who was merely a Divine Court cultivator. It felt like using a sledgehammer on a gnat. There was no way the Shield of Dragonheart could withstand the attack. He had no doubts that the heaven-grade treasure was already destroyed when it was hit by the first strike. He reckoned that the reason Lu Zhou continued to attack was either to vent his anger or to guide his disciple.

After the two strikes, the winds subsided, clouds faded, and the dust and energy blasts that blotted the sky gradually dissipated as well.

Lu Zhou wore a calm expression as he clasped his hands behind his back. He glanced at the time on the system panel and saw that it had only been three minutes. It would be a loss if he only used the last peak-form experience card to deal with this group of cultivators. In fact, what he planned to do was more than that.

“Did you watch them clearly?”

Duanmu Sheng went down on his knees and said, “Yes, thank you, Master! It is better to watch Master demonstrate the techniques than to practice alone for ten years.”

“Very good!”

As the dust gradually settled, a huge pit was revealed on the ground below the avatar, but Fang Jinshan was nowhere to be found. He was completely gone!

Right then, the cultivators began to flee in all directions in panic.

“Master!” Little Yuan’er grew anxious. If he still did not let her attack, they would soon escape!

The group of cultivators was trying to replicate the approach they used during the last siege of Golden Court Mountain.

Lu Zhou was formidable, but he did not have three heads and six arms, and he could not clone himself. As long as they fled separately, he would not be able to catch them all. It was the perfect strategy they had thought of when they came, sacrificing a few people to save the lives of the majority.

Since they could not defeat him, they would run away!

“I’ve said that you all have to stay here, and that means none of you can run away from me!”

The nine-leaf Hundred Tribulations Insight avatar flickered and emerged over the Golden Court Mountain. Then, Lu Zhou drove it into the eyes of the mountain’s restrictive array.

“Master...” Duanmu Sheng was stunned. He did not know what the other was going to do. Little Yuan’er also looked up with confusion. Meanwhile, the cultivators dared not look back and kept running desperately.

Unfortunately, they were not Nascent Divinity Tribulation cultivators, and they could not use great divine abilities to escape.

Right then, Lu Zhou poured all the energy in his dantian into the eye of the array!

“Master is fixing the shield?”

“This...how’s this possible?”

The shield of Golden Court Mountain was constructed by generations of senior experts. It absorbed a great amount of energy and worked in conjunction with weather and geographical position. Previously, when Lu Zhou punished his third, fourth, and fifth disciples to fix it, it would take them at least three years to complete the work. Moreover, it would take at least ten years for one person to repair the shield!

‘Master is old. Shouldn’t he be conserving his strength? Why would he do that?’

This was Lu Zhou’s real intention, also his second intention!

Since the peak-form experience card could keep filling his dantian, and it did not take him too much time to finish Fang Jinshan, he thought why couldn’t he use the remaining time to fix the shield? How could he waste such a good chance?

As the tremendous amount of energy poured into the array’s eyes, a glass-like shield immediately appeared around the mountain, blocking the fleeing cultivators! The realization dawned on Duanmu Shen right then. ‘Master wants to trap them all with the shield and then catch them one by one!’

The old saying proved to be right: the older, the wiser!