"What?"

"This... this is... an ancient celestial beast—the Phoenix?"

"How... how is it possible? How could there be a phoenix in our place?"

Immediately, everyone fell into chaos, screaming in shock.

Xu Que continued to manipulate the formation plate while laughing loudly, "Idiots, come on, come on! Let me enlighten you fools, this is called a Vermilion Bird. And you still have the nerve to call yourselves cultivators! You're all such bumpkins, can't even tell the difference between a Vermilion Bird and a Phoenix. If I were your sect leader, I'd definitely kick each and every one of you out of the sect, it's so damn embarrassing..."

Triumphant and elated, Xu Que wanted to further ingratiate himself with these rustic cultivators, but no one paid him any attention. The elders were all aghast, their eyes filled with terror. Seeing the appearance of the Vermilion Bird, they didn't even have time to flee.

"Not good, run!"

"Go back and find Emperor Tianwu, this matter is no longer something we can be involved in."

"Retreat quickly!"

At a few commands, everyone mounted their flying swords and soared into the sky, attempting to escape.

But just at that moment, three beams of white light shot up into the sky not far away.

Accompanied by a few deafening roars, a gigantic azure dragon flew from afar, coiling in the sky above, its massive body almost obscuring the entire firmament.

A robust white tiger, swift as lightning, darted through the mountain forest and suddenly stopped beside Xu Que, glaring intently at the group of cultivators.

A mountain peak was moving, ethereal and immense, it was actually a giant Xuanwu tortoise.

In this instant, the four symbols appeared together!

Everyone was stunned!

"The... the four ancient divine beasts..."

"My God, how is this possible?"

"Although the ancient scrolls recorded it, hadn't they already ascended to the celestial realm? How could they possibly appear here?"

The crowd was in a panic, with the divine beasts blocking both the sky and the ground, leaving no way out.

A mythical beast, the Vermilion Bird, had already scared them out of their wits earlier, let alone now that all four divine beasts had appeared.

The might was overwhelming, reaching the heavens and penetrating the earth. These cultivators had no way to escape, completely trapped by the Four Divine Beasts.

Xu Que stood leisurely at the top of the mountain, his gaze sweeping towards Elder Liu. He smiled faintly and said, "Now... do you still think this formation can be broken?"

"Impossible! Impossible! Absolutely impossible! With your level of cultivation, how could you possibly set up such a formation?" Elder Liu was utterly shocked.

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He had long been quite accomplished in the field of formations, but this formation to summon ancient divine beasts was something he had never heard of or seen before. How could he believe that it was actually set up by Xu Que, a young junior who was merely at the Core Formation stage?

At that moment, a disciple suddenly pointed at the azure dragon in the sky and exclaimed, "Something's not right, Elders! Look quickly, the figure of that dragon is very illusory, it doesn't seem real."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was immediately startled awake.

Everyone's eyes gathered together, then shone brightly.

"That's right, the other three divine beasts are the same; their physical bodies are not tangible."

"Just transformed by light."

"In other words, these aren't the real Four Divine Beasts?"

Elder Liu also looked up, his expression gradually turning joyful, and then he burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, I understand now, you little bastard, you're so cunning! You actually played tricks again."

"So this formation was just a trick, you created the illusion of the four divine beasts to deceive us into leaving. Fortunately, we realized it in time, otherwise we would have really fallen for it."

Elder Liu became more and more excited as he spoke, as if he had the thrill of escaping from death.

In the end, his expression gradually turned to mockery, and he looked at Xu Que with a cold smile, saying, "Come on, I'm standing right here. Let those four mythical beasts attack me and see what happens."

At this moment, Elder Liu was no longer in the awkward state of fleeing for his life in panic; instead, he appeared gallant and fearless.

Standing in the circle surrounded by the four mythical beasts, he remained calm and composed, feeling quite powerful and majestic.

The other elders and disciples, upon seeing this, seemed to understand the "truth" and suddenly calmed down. They all displayed teasing smiles and shouted to Xu Que:

"Ridiculous, do you really think such a trivial trick can deceive us?"

"Come on, let's stand here without moving. Go ahead and let those four divine beasts try to attack us!"

"That's right, come on, if I move, you're my grandson."

"???"

Seeing the expressions of these cultivators below, Xu Que was also dumbfounded, with question marks practically hanging all over his head!

What's going on here?

Are these people collectively out of their minds?

Standing still, letting the four divine beasts attack?

Sure, cultivators are truly impressive, their courage is astounding!

I've always been the one showing off by myself, but I didn't expect you guys to be so impressive at it too!

"Alright, since you insist, I have no choice but to grant your wish."

Xu Que chuckled, his fingertips swiftly turning on the formation plate, manipulating the Four Symbols Array to switch from defense to offense!

Boom!

In an instant, the four divine beasts let out a roar simultaneously, targeting the elders and disciples of several major sects as intruders.

Immediately, they began to roar madly, and with an awe-inspiring murderous aura, launched a fierce attack on the cultivators below!

Elder Liu and the others still wore expressions of mockery. In the face of the four divine beasts, they remained calm and composed, truly standing still in their original spots.

"Mere illusions, no matter how real, cannot deceive us."

"Kid, I have to say that all your schemes were executed perfectly, without any mistakes or flaws. But the one thing you did wrong was underestimating the sharp eyes of our Elder Liu."

"Watch how I shatter your ridiculous illusion!"

A disciple, eager to impress the elder, immediately formed a spell with his fingers, mounted his flying sword, and soared into the sky, heading straight for the Vermilion Bird.

The body of the Vermilion Bird, though as illusory as light and shadow, was enveloped in flames that were undeniably real.

This is the fire of the Vermilion Bird!

Even though it cannot compare to the flames burning on the true Vermilion Bird, it is definitely not something these minor cultivators can withstand.

The disciple had just taken to the sky when suddenly a wave of heat rushed towards him, and the smug expression on his face froze instantly.

"This... this isn't an illusion... ah..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the disciple was immediately engulfed by the flames from the Vermilion Bird.

After a scream, it turned into a pile of ashes.

A gentle breeze blew, and the ashes of the disciple slowly drifted down from the sky!

The petals fell onto the cultivators below, and everyone was stunned, as if time had completely frozen at that moment.

"Ding, congratulations to the host 'Xu Que' for killing a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, gaining ten thousand experience points."

The system prompt sounded in Xu Que's mind!

The scene fell into a deathly silence!

All the cultivators were dumbfounded by this scene, their faces blank with shock..

Wasn't it agreed that this was an illusion?

Wasn't it agreed that it was all fake?

How... how did this... become real?