Lin Mu's hand left a trail of light, as the Rune Shaping Brush kept on making tens of runes in a second.
"Just a bit more… they're getting closer too…" Lin Mu muttered to himself while keeping a part of his focus on the cultivators.
He was close to finishing the Sky Cull Grounding Formation and only needed a little more time.
Second after second passed, as Lin Mu's work approached completion. But the cultivators had sensed something strange by this time as well.
A couple of kilometers from where Lin Mu, a pair of Fourth Tribulation Stage Immortals were hidden.
"They've been silent for half an hour now." Daoist Jugu said to his companions.
"Yeah… they should have run away by now if they were able to." Daoist Rueshi replied.
"From the scene we saw, the attacks were very strong. Do you think the survivor is injured and can't move now?" Daoist Jugu asked, a smile appearing on his face.
"Probably. Or they would have attempted to run. Even if they are strong, I don't think they'd be willing to fight multiple immortals at once." Daoist Rueshi replied.
"True…" Daoist Jugu agreed while his immortal sense spread around.
He could pick up on multiple cultivators that were around him. He was someone who had refined his immortal sense more than others and thus had a better advantage. Though compared to Lin Mu it was still lacking and couldn't pick up on the formations that he was setting up.
"The others are still cautious and watching from afar." Daoist Jugu stated.
"Hmm, that is expected. The clash earlier was quite strong. We couldn't estimate their cultivation bases either from the torrent of immortal Qi waves that spread." Daoist Rueshi replied. "But I don't think they are that strong. Or even if they are, they've expended most of their energy." He added.
"I think so too." Daoist Jugu agreed. "Plus, if we attack first, we'll have the advantage." He spoke.
"What do you think? Should we let the others go ahead, or take the chance ourselves." Daoist Rueshi asked, though internally he was tempted to jump the gun.
"Well, the early bird gets the worm." Daoist Jugu stated. "It'll surely add to our contributions for the rewards if we defeat someone this strong." He added.
"Yes," A smile of greed appeared on the face of Daoist Rueshi as well.
They two never thought that this was exactly what Lin Mu had wished for. He had already known that if multiple immortals attacked at once, they might have a harder time. But if only a couple of them approached at a time, they would be able to handle them a lot more effectively.
Plus, he also knew that it was unlikely for others to make teams bigger than two members. They wouldn't be able to trust each other after all since they didn't know who was going to be the winner in the end. With limited positions and no knowledge about the spatial planes closing, they only thought about there being two positions for the winners.
This lack of information also factored into Lin Mu's plan.
~WHOOSH~
Having come to an agreement, Daoist Jugu and Rueshi didn't waste a moment and rushed to the site of the battle.
"So they finally couldn't resist, huh…" Lin Mu sensed two individuals approaching at high speed.
His hand didn't stop moving despite that though and he continued to make runes. He possibly had less than a minute or maybe just a few tens of seconds before they would reach him. His mind didn't waver though and his focus prevailed.
~SHUA~ SHUA~
Two silhouettes could be seen in the sky, coming towards them. With every second, they covered large tracts of the area before finally, they were just at the edge of the circle that Lin Mu had set up.
~HONG~
But just as they were about to enter it, Lin Mu's hand stopped moving.
~HUALA~
The entire area hummed with energy but wasn't felt beyond its boundaries. A large formation was completed and quickly activated on its own.
Daoist Rueshi and Jugu who had smiles on their face while thinking about a weak target, were quickly changed.
"Huh… AAAAAAA!" as soon as they were within the limits of the formation, their ability to fly was gone.
"What the hell!" Daoist Jugu shouted.
"Why can't we fly?!!" Daoist Rueshi tried to mobilize his immortal Qi to propel him, but he couldn't.
It was as if the immortal Qi around them was not willing to listen to their commands.
"SHIT!" The two plummeted from the sky, quickly reaching the ground.
~THUD~ THUD~
~CRACK~
Two depressions were left on the ground, as the two immortals crashed into the ground. A loud sound was also heard, while the two let out grunts of pain.
"Ugh!!" Daoist Jugu held his arm that ached.
"Damn this!" Daoist Rueshi on the other hand, bled from his mouth, the impact having hit in the worst.
The two wouldn't die from falling from a height like this, but they certainly would sustain injuries.
Normally this could have been avoided if they quickly mobilized their immortal Qi to defend their bodies. But the sudden change and stopping of the immortal Qi had left them surprised.
It led to them not reacting fast enough, and falling without their defenses ready. It was a momentary lapse of judgment like this that had gotten them injured.
Though it was also normal that they had not expected this. After all, formations that could restrict the flight of an immortal were limited. The one in the capital city and the Tournament rings were expected. After all, they were set up by experts and were there for security.
They would have never expected a complex formation like that would be set up in the Spatial Plane. No one in their sane minds would try it either, as it was too difficult to make and would take a lot of effort. Plus there was always the chance of getting caught while making it, and then being knocked out by surprise.
It was also something that took up a lot of immortal Qi, and one might spend more immortal stones in making it than they would make from this round. Overall, it was not a trade off that one would want to make.
Of course, no one would factor in the fact that a specialized Dao Embryo would be used for it and a faster version of the formation would be made.
The Sky Cull Grounding Formation had already been modified by Lin Mu to be able to be deployed faster due to his experience with making the Diamond Mountain Talismans. He had gotten used to making complex formations and could now apply it to others as well.
"It's a trap!" Daoist Jugu and Rueshi quickly understood.
After all, they might have been caught off guard, but they were still immortals who had reached this far. They wouldn't have been able to do this if they were stupid.
"Do we retreat?" Daoist Rueshi was conflicted. "The earlier battle might have been a bait to attract the cultivators." He expressed his doubts.
"No, it'll be too disadvantageous. Our positions are already revealed to both the cultivator who set this trap up and the others who were behind us." Daoist Jugu said while gritting his teeth. "We need to do this no matter what now."
Daoist Rueshi frowned, but knew that his companion was right. They had taken a risk and now they needed to bear the consequences of it.
"I guess we just need to get rid of the person who set this trap up. A formation like this would have drained them of a lot of energy. We might still have a chance." Daoist Rueshi said after thinking for a bit.
Daoist Jugu just gave a simple nod before rushing towards where he could feel a few immortal Qi fluctuations.
He knew they had already lost the advantage of surprise and needed to be as quick as possible. Daoist Rueshi did the same and the two rushed towards where the immortal Qi fluctuation were coming from.
~shua~
But unknowingly they stepped on a befuddling formation that subtly changed their directions.
~THUD~ THUD~
"Ugh!" Daoist Rueshi and Jugu ended up crashing into each other.
"Shit! There are more traps." Daoist Jugu realized. 'I can't sense them with my immortal sense… someone has set up an entire illusory array to hide everything.' He started to realize they might have misjudged from the start.
"There sure are." A low voice spoke from behind them.
~SHING~
"Who!?" Daoist Jugu didn't even realize before a sword slash struck him. "ARGH!' he cried in pain, and a long cut appeared on his shoulder.
"Ambush!" Daoist Rueshi tried to respond but didn't expect another attack to come from his back. "Argh!" this time blood spilled from his waist, as a spear was stabbed into it.
"Time to end it." Qian Wen said, quickly using a Qi skill while the two were distracted.
