~shua~shua~shua~

The embers sped up, and soon it was as if a tide of embers was drowning King Hong. In less than three seconds, the man was completely covered in embers and looked like a flowing red man without any features.

Adviser Liu didn't know if this was good, but in the current situation, he could only think bad. His heart shuddered, and he just hoped that some miracle would happen.

~Crack~

All of a sudden, a resounding crack was heard and King Hong's fist, that had been frozen in one place started to move.

"It's… it's rising!" Hua Wu Shouted.

~Huala~

The aura of King Hong appeared again, but this time, it had transformed. Previously, the dauntlessness in his aura was like a secondary factor, but now it seemed to have fully assimilated within it..

"BEGONE!" King Hong's voice echoed.

~BOOM~

The tribulation bolt was forcefully dissipated by the King and it disappeared.

~shua~

Wind started to stir as the spirit Qi in the air became volatile.

"Wha-what's happening?" Hua Wu was concerned.

"Are… are the tribulation clouds angry?" Hua San was in a similar state.

"No," It was at this time that Lin Mu spoke.

"It's time…" Lin Mu muttered.

~HONGLONG~

The spirit Qi in the air started stirring as a vortex formed above the King. Since the fire attribute spirit Qi was concentrated and was present in the highest amount, the air was tinted fire red.

The spirit Qi started to pour into King Hong at a rapid pace as his cultivation base rose.

~KACHA~

An audible crack was heard and the moment it did, a heavy pressure exuded from King Hong's body.

"HE BROKE THROUGH!" Hua Wu exclaimed.

"Qiqiang broke through…. QIQIANG BROKE THROUGH!!!" Adviser Liu said out loud with joy.

But this was merely the start of the change. The pressure exuding from the man kept on increasing and soon it reached a state where it was getting uncomfortable for Hua San, Hua Wu and Adviser Liu.

Seconds passed by and after about two minutes, it was hard for them to even breath.

"This… ugh…" Hua Wu grunted in slight pain.

Lin Mu was the only one who was fine in all this and noticed their state. King Hong's aura was still increasing and he had already broken through to the Nascent soul realm. But the spirit Qi infusion was far from over.

"Come over to my side!" Lin Mu called.

The three men heard him and hesitated since they were supposed to be Dharma protectors.

"Come on, your work is over. If you stay there, you will just get injured." Lin Mu spoke again.

They nodded their heads and went over to Lin Mu in the next second.

~shua~

Lin Mu took out the formation array controlling plate and tapped on it a few times. Hundreds of runes appeared in the air in the next moment as the entire formation array was revealed.

"Let me make it a bit more accommodating." Lin Mu said before waving his hands in the air.

Runes started to fly around and arranged themselves into a different format. The Tribulation attenuation formation had already been broken earlier due to the increased power of the Tribulation and thus Lin Mu was basically recycling the remnants.

While his skill was not enough to make a tribulation attenuation formation on his own, he did have enough skill to remake it into something of a defensive formation. Tribulation attenuation formations fell into a defensive category of formations any way and the complexity only came from the fact that they needed to process tribulation lightning.

Other than that factor, they could work in any defensive formation once the necessary parts were removed. And the thing was, the tribulation lighting damaged that very part which processed the lightning.

That was also why normal defensive formations and spirit tools were either not effective at all or were very less effective against tribulation lightning due to its inherit property of piercing against all defenses.

There were numerous foolish cultivators who had thought that they could hide somewhere strong to stop a tribulation, but that was just being ignorant. Even if someone hid all the way inside the depths of the earth, hundreds of kilometers deep, the tribulation lightning will still find its way there.

If anything, the lightning will merely feel some resistance, but for that, the tribulation clouds will just increase the power of the tribulation to compensate for the weakening over the travel period.

In fact, there were several species of spirit beasts that lived underground and actually never went to the surface. There were many that also reached the Nascent soul realm and would break through underground. They still managed to experience tribulations there.

And as Lin Mu had already experienced, hiding away in a different world or plane would not work either. Tribulation lightning would literally tear through space to hit you. Thus, manipulating the defensive part of the formation was far more easier for Lin Mu.

But as he was doing this, Hua San and Hua Wu were watching on in surprise.

"Senior Lin Mu is proficient in formations too?" Hua Wu said.

"I'm just learning, I'm barely a beginner." Lin Mu replied.

But hearing this was just even more stunning to Hua Wu and Hua San.

'Casually manipulating runes of a broken formation and re-purposing without the use of assertive spirit tools is a beginner? Then what are we? Less than beginners?' Hua San couldn't help but think.

"Hmm…. This should be enough." Lin Mu said.

He then pulled his hands apart and pointed them in six places around them. The runes turned into six flags and planted themselves on the six points Lin Mu had pointed at. Then strings of runes joined up from the six points and formed what looked like a tent around the four of them.

"Hexapole Tent Defensive formation?" Hua Wu recognized.

He then looked at his senior brother in confusion before coming close to him and speaking.

"Does the tribulation attenuation formation even use the same lower formations as that of the Hexapole Tent formation, I don't think I've seen this before in our records?" Hua Wu asked.

Hearing his junior brothers' words, Hua San furrowed his brows.

"No… it's not. This isn't even the normal Hexapole Tent formation… the runes… they're all different…" Hua San said after observing it for a few seconds.

"The runes are different?" Hua Wu said, as he focused on the runes specifically.

Once the runes turned into the components of the formation, it was hard to tell what they actually were. It was either because they became too small to see, or that they would merge directly. But Hua Wu and Hua San were Nascent soul realm cultivators and thus had a high enough sensitivity to observe it in detail.

"Wh-what?! What script is even this?" Hua Wu was confused.

Lin Mu heard their little conversion and knew that they were unable to recognize the Dao Script.

'So even the top sects do not know about it fully…' Lin Mu thought to himself.

He quickly finished up the formation and the pressure that was on the three men was lifted. Lin Mu himself didn't feel it at all and could stand there freely for days with no problems. But for them, it was still harder.

~phew~

Adviser Liu took a breath of relief once the pressure was lifted from him, and his back straightened. He had not even realized the level of pressure he was in and felt that he was starting to hunch over. Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

"That should be enough," Lin Mu nodded his head.

He looked back at King Hong and saw his cultivation base continually increasing. He tried to use his spirit sense to probe it, but met a block when he got closer.

"Huh? How?" Lin Mu was surprised.

So far, his spirit sense has been strong enough to go past several formations as well. But in front of King Hong it was like it had met a steel plate, unable to pierce through. The aura around King Hong was continually forcing his spirit sense away.

It was like he was trying to swim against the river and it was only getting more difficult as time passed by.

King Hong who was now fully encapsulated within the embers, was hard to see. More and more embers flew in from the area around them as the Hong Lin trees continued to burn.

The area that they were burning in had continued to expand and now the entire mountain they were on was bare of Hong Lin trees. All of them had been turned to embers, yet not a single spec of ash could be seen where they were.

Instead of that, only plain ground was visible. Seeing the strange state of King Hong only one thought came to Lin Mu's mind.

"It's his dormant physique… it is awakening." Lin Mu muttered in realization.

~Crack~

The sound of coals crackling could be heard as a long crack appeared in the encapsulated form of King Hong.