"Run!" one of them shouted, flying off swiftly while clutching his chest. The rest of them followed suit, flying off as quickly as possible. They were already severely injured just from the surge of power from his body. Mo Lingtian wasn't someone they wanted to test, even if he appeared to just be at the Vessel Cleansing stage.
Mo Lingtian simply stretched his hand, watching them as they ran for their lives. Abruptly, all four of them paused mid-air, their bones loudly cracking under the intense pressure squeezing their bodies.
No one came to their aid. Everyone watched them groan in pain as their bones cracked loudly mid-air. Their joints, fingers, and backbones were slowly shifted and dislocated by Mo Lingtian's terrifying control of the space around them.
"Until this Dao tribulation ends, anyone that interferes with this beast will end up like them," Mo Lingtian said, closing his palm into a fist. Immediately, the four Qi Refining cultivators were crushed into drizzles of blood and powder.
The fear and dread was almost palpable. Everyone watched Mo Lingtian like predators, only this time, their prey was the one hunting them. Even the two Dao Realm elders unconsciously became wary of him; their eyes darted as they gazed at him, trying to figure out their next move, or perhaps his next move.
"Does that apply to both of us?" a voice challenged from behind the scores of cultivators present in the sky. It was the second Dao Realm elder. He and the hunched old man furrowed their eyebrows, provoking Mo Lingtian to make his next move.
But Mo Lingtian didn't reply to them. He simply turned around, flying toward the mighty dragon beast's body while its consciousness was still stuck in the Dao plane.
"Let me see what that place looks like," Mo Lingtian muttered to himself, slowly bringing his forefinger toward the mighty dragon's forehead. But he was stopped abruptly by a devastating spear strike suddenly launched at his back.
With a swift wave of his hand, he deflected the strike into the ocean, releasing an explosion of air currents upon contact. Large, violent ripples traversed the waters as a result of that strike.
"It's interesting how you have killed the five most powerful cultivators in our group and still managed to manipulate us into not retaliating," the Dao Realm elder said. He and the hunched old man crossed the void with a single step, appearing at the forefront just a few meters away from Mo Lingtian in the sky.
The hunched old man struck his staff slightly on the solidified air beneath him, forming visible cracks in space.
"I was right all along. Only an immortal can manipulate space and gravity. You must be a young master from one of the twenty-two factions, aren't you?" the old man said, stroking his beard.
Murmurs erupted among the cultivators behind them. "No wonder he is this powerful. He must have carried a space-type treasure from an immortal with him," they muttered, glaring at him with hunger visible in their eyes.
"I have a thousand more where that came from," the second Dao Realm elder said, raising his hand. Almost immediately, hundreds if not thousands of spear projections shaped from a colorless energy appeared behind him, shifting subtly as they arranged into an attacking formation. The energy-formed spears turned, flickered, and vibrated with lethal intent, ready to strike relentlessly at Mo Lingtian once given the order.
"If you could just turn a blind eye and leave this place, we could pretend nothing ever happened. There is no need for a clash between us," the second Dao Realm elder said, amplifying the exuding energy of the multitudes of spear strikes behind him as they spun and rattled with a sharp metallic sound.
Mo Lingtian didn't answer. He simply looked around, observing every inch of the space around him.
"The treasure on you probably has a limited number of times it can be used. Even if you manage to get through two Dao Realm practitioners, with one of us in the mid-stage of the Dao Realm," he said, pointing at the hunched old man, "there are still scores of cultivators waiting for you behind us. And unlike us, they don't care about what faction you are from. They only follow the rules of the jungle. They will tear you apart the second you are injured."
And for the first time since he stepped into the Demon Realm, Mo Lingtian's heart beat nervously, because the two Dao Realm elders were not entirely wrong. Although he didn't have any space-attribute artifact from an immortal, the power he was currently wielding did come from a source that had a strict time limit.
In the devilish cultivation system, he was only in the late stage of the Qi Refining Realm. When he absorbed the lunar crystals of the dragon beast and formed a demon core, he immediately stepped into the Vessel Cleansing stage of the demon cultivation system. Then, he accidentally fused the energy of the demon core with the energy of his devilish core, granting him the power of an early-stage immortal which unfortunately could only last for a limited time.
This was because although the fusion technique was immensely domineering and powerful, the two energies he had fused were simply too weak. On one hand was the energy of the late-stage Qi Refining Realm, and on the other was the energy of the Vessel Cleansing stage. These energies were not just low, but highly unstable; they were realms apart in fundamental power and capability.
The one remaining problem that made his heart beat nervously was the hunched old man. From beginning to end, every word, every action, and every speculation he had made was designed to manipulate everyone present into turning against Mo Lingtian.
Looking back at what had prompted the first Dao Realm elder to suddenly attack, it was the old man's calculated speculation. He had deliberately elevated Mo Lingtian's threat level in the mind of the hot-tempered Dao elder, framing it to look like Mo Lingtian had masterminded this entirely coincidental scenario using well-placed, logical facts.
The simple-minded Dao Realm elder took the bait and died. The hunched old man had wanted to take advantage of the devouring mist to eliminate as many rivals as he could, but what he hadn't expected was for Mo Lingtian to actually pose a real threat. He had never regarded Mo Lingtian as a predator; the boy was only a piece in his chess game, a disposable bait to catch the big fish.
Given his cautious nature, the old man wouldn't confront this unexpected variable just because he suspected Mo Lingtian relied on a space artifact with a limited time usage. If he dared to confront Mo Lingtian directly, it meant he was at least ninety percent sure he would be able to kill him.
The hunched old man was the real wolf in sheep's clothing, and undoubtedly, he was the one who had silently prompted the second Dao elder to launch that first spear strike.
But as for Mo Lingtian... well, even the Empyrean was destined to become his chess piece.