He roared in place, unleashing countless formation flags with both hands, trapping Wu Tao once again in an instant.
The old man chanted a hand seal, and a five-colored glow emanated from him. At this moment, he slowly floated upwards, as if without any support.
The earth-attribute spiritual energy was abundant, and majestic formations rose from all directions.
A terrifying aura permeated the air, and in a flash, Wu Tao was once again under control.
"Hmph!"
Wu Tao snorted coldly, unwilling to comply with the opponent's wishes.
The next moment, a monstrous sword cry echoed again. Pure golden sword light illuminated all directions, cleaving through all the formation flags.
Gaining the upper hand, Wu Tao merged with the Chuxi Sword, transforming into a snow-white sword rainbow that shot directly towards the old man.
Of course, as a formation master, this old man also had his trump cards.
He threw out a formation disk, which instantly exploded and transformed into a Sky-Sealing Ground-Trapping Grand Formation, aimed at Wu Tao.
With a "boom," the formation disk, which was suddenly thrown out, collided head-on with the sword rainbow formed by Wu Tao. The snow-white sword rainbow immediately shattered inch by inch.
Wu Tao felt a powerful backlash force surge through the body of the Chuxi Sword and into his meridians.
Alarmed, he leaped into the air, thrusting the sword tip into the ground, channeling the powerful backlash force into the earth, thus avoiding serious injury.
This was not the end. As the old man's fingers continued to move, the Sky-Sealing Ground-Trapping Grand Formation unleashed countless stone ropes, which coiled and wrapped around Wu Tao like lightning.
Seeing this, Wu Tao shouted, "You want to trap me? It's not that easy!"
His muscles bulged, and his entire body turned golden. Wu Tao used his Buddha Golden Body to directly break through the dense stone ropes.
With a series of thuds, Wu Tao dismantled the Sky-Sealing Ground-Trapping Grand Formation with his Buddha Golden Body.
The next second, Wu Tao held the Chuxi Sword to the old man's neck.
"Surrender, or die! Choose yourself."
Facing the chilling sword at his throat, the old man had no choice but to surrender.
Thus, Wu Tao had completed ten consecutive victories in the duels.
...
On the other side, outside the small world.
"Summon the Taiyi Immortal Immemorial Town Immortal Stele!"
The sect leader of the Taiyi Immortal Sect, Zhu Shenzi, calculated with his fingers and, realizing that three hours had passed, uttered a cold, emotionless voice.
...
The next moment, the voice echoed in everyone's ears.
As the voice, which was like decree and golden pronouncement, fell, a shocking spectacle appeared in the sky.
Not long after the cold voice subsided, under the watchful eyes of all the observers seated in their cities and palaces, a thunderous roar suddenly erupted from the depths of the earth.
Then, everyone watched as the ten-thousand-zhang peak of Mount Qionghua slowly cracked open.
Before long, the sound intensified abruptly, and an extremely vast and pure heaven and earth spiritual energy poured out.
...
"Boom!"
"It's out."
A massive, pure white jade stele slowly rose, ascending into the high heavens amidst continuous rumbling.
It was incredibly shocking.
The jade stele was a hundred zhang tall, piercing the clouds, with dense heaven and earth spiritual energy swirling around it.
The stele was entirely pure white, exuding a heaven-shattering aura, and was another unimaginably powerful sect-guarding artifact.
...
"A spiritual treasure! It must be a treasure with the legendary ability to be invincible and reshape the heavens and earth."
"Heavens, how terrifying! As expected of one of the Ten Great Orthodox Sects, they possess many treasures of this caliber. Their foundation is far deeper than anyone imagined."
Even those who had studied the procedures of the Taiyi Immortal Sect's five-hundred-year celebration and knew them in advance were stunned by this scene.
After all, things in ancient texts were merely recorded in words; they could not compare to experiencing them firsthand.
Whether it was the ten divine giant demons from before, the small world that formed its own realm, or the colossal white jade stele before them now.
To everyone present, it was a profound shock.
Within the Taiyi Immortal Sect's territory, in addition to the over a thousand inner disciples who had been eliminated, there were also some outer disciples and stewards who did not need to participate in the grand competition.
At this moment, most of them, like the attending cultivators of immortal, demonic, monstrous, and ghostly beings, were watching from the sidelines, maintaining security and order.
"Look! Look! Look!"
"There are words on the jade stele, and it seems to be a disciple ranking."
In the palaces and cities, the observing immortal and demonic cultivators turned their gaze towards the hundred-zhang jade stele.
Some cultivators with deep cultivation and powerful divine abilities immediately noticed that on the hundred-zhang jade stele, there were densely packed small characters, resembling golden tadpole script, arranged neatly.
Each small character was enveloped in light and flickered, constantly moving.
...
"One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine people!"
Continuous exclamations erupted from the cities and palaces.
Gasps of surprise rang out one after another.
Almost everyone who could clearly see the flickering small characters on the jade stele had the same reaction: their faces were filled with astonishment, and they cried out in amazement.
...
Most cultivators in the Kyushu Continent's immortal cultivation world were aware of the terrifying power of the twenty great Orthodox super-sects and demonic super-sects.
Almost every super-sect had tens of thousands of disciples, making them undisputed hegemons in the Kyushu immortal cultivation world.
However, when the actual, quantifiable strength and numbers that described these ruling powers appeared before them, they could not suppress their surprise and shock, even with prior preparation.
This was true for those who were unattached rogue cultivators, as well as for cultivators from smaller sects.
Even large sects like the Purple Heaven Sword Sect, the Vast Qi Gang Intent Gate, and the Extreme Death Ruthless Sect were similarly astonished.
Only the other nineteen ruling powers, who were also among the twenty great ruling powers, were not overly shocked, as the power difference between them was not particularly significant.
...
On the colossal, pure white jade tablet, each small character represented a person.
As the densely packed small characters flickered and moved, they began to change.
In a very short period, one by one, the small characters began to jump wildly.
Then, a small portion of them suddenly extinguished, disappearing from the jade stele.
The many cultivators attending the ceremony could judge the progress of the grand competition within the small world by observing the changes in the number of characters on the jade tablet.
The disappearance of names belonging to inner disciples of the Taiyi Immortal Sect indicated that the person had been defeated, lost the ability to continue fighting, and would be directly expelled from the small world, with their name being erased.
...
"Look, now only eight hundred people remain!"
Within a mere three hours, the jade stele flickered violently, and the individual small characters seemed unstable.
The next moment, golden light surged, covering a large portion of the small characters, which then completely disappeared from the jade stele.
Although many small characters had disappeared in this manner before, this was the first time such a large number of inner disciples had been expelled at once.
Three hours was enough time to eliminate the weaker ones.
Many inner disciples had already been defeated due to their lack of strength.
Some unfortunate ones had encountered disciples far stronger than themselves, were severely injured, and were subsequently teleported out of the small world.
The number of people on the jade stele dropped from one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine
directly to eight hundred. More than a thousand people were kicked out, leaving eight hundred people remaining in the small world at this time.
...
"Huh, interesting. Have the rules changed? After completing ten consecutive victories, participants now enter a hundred-person free-for-all.
The high-level officials of the Taiyi Immortal Sect truly seek strong individuals with both combat prowess and mental fortitude.
Winning ten duels against opponents of the same realm requires considerable combat strength.
And to emerge victorious in a free-for-all battle among a hundred participants requires not only combat strength but also sufficient intelligence.
Sensing the information transmitted from the small world into his sea of consciousness, Wu Tao knew that he had won ten consecutive matches and qualified for the free-for-all.
...
He was also assigned to the third free-for-all area.
This meant that before Wu Tao, many others had already achieved ten consecutive victories.
Considering that each free-for-all area would accommodate at least one hundred people, and there were three such areas before him, this implied that at least two hundred people had qualified for the free-for-all before Wu Tao.
Although he was somewhat surprised, Wu Tao did not overthink it.
As the space twisted and transformed, Wu Tao was teleported to a more expansive continental fragment.
"Whoosh!!!"
The familiar sensation of spatial transformation washed over him again.
He slowly opened his eyes, and the first things that met his gaze were countless mountains and a continental fragment that stretched as far as the eye could see.
At a glance, Wu Tao noticed that this continent was also extremely vibrant with life.
It had mountains and water, and the spiritual energy was exceptionally dense. Compared to other barren continental fragments, it was quite a good place.
As soon as Wu Tao appeared, dozens of gazes shot towards him from various directions.
...
Immediately, several people cried out in surprise, seemingly recognizing Wu Tao's identity at first glance.
Following this, these few individuals let out cold snorts, and almost simultaneously, several powerful auras combined to suppress him from afar.