One person said: The essence of Wuhou Qimen lies not in Qimen, but in Wuhou.

Having done all this, Zhuge Ming turned his gaze back to the ashen-faced old Celestial Master, adding one last reassurance with a half-smile:

"Master, the shielding formation has been set in place. Not even a fly outside can see what's happening here."

Don't even think about feigning defeat by showing a weakness and letting me knock you down in one move—if you dare to fool me, my task force's 'compliance guidance' will be focusing on Longhushan's fire safety and financial audit after we return to Beijing."

This somewhat roguish joke, made in the officialdom, utterly crushed the last vestige of the old master's desire to "expose the fake competition and ensure safety" into dust.

Zhuge Ming's expression turned solemn, his body slightly lowered, and faint sounds of dragon roars and tiger howls emanated from the major acupoints around his body:

"Show me your true, unparalleled skills! If you win, win fair and square; if you lose, make me accept it wholeheartedly! Don't worry about my status; before the true Daoist path, there is no hierarchy, only superiority or inferiority! Please!!"

……

It’s over.

It's all over.

The old master slowly closed his eyes, his chest heaving violently, and exhaled a long, almost desperate breath.

He had experienced countless fierce battles in his life, and even when he was surrounded by dozens of Quanxing demons, his mind was not disturbed in the slightest.

At this moment, the old Celestial Master felt that the burden on his shoulders was ten thousand times heavier than the entire majestic main peak of Longhu Mountain!

Even more deadly was that at the very moment Zhuge Ming unleashed his full power, a monstrous storm suddenly surged within the Old Celestial Master's usually calm and collected heart—

Unfathomable!

The young man before him, not yet thirty years old, possessed a life essence that surged within him like a reversed galaxy, which was in no way inferior to his own centuries of arduous cultivation! This was no mere brat who bullied others; this was a monster who was his equal, and might even drag him to the brink of life and death!

Meanwhile, in the stands, Tian Jinzhong, Lu Jin, Wang Ai, Lü Ci, Feng Zhenghao, and others were already pale with fright, clinging to the backs of their chairs in unison, wishing they could shrink into the cracks between the bricks on the spot.

run!

Run!

These cunning old men were screaming the same sentence in their minds.

Under this terrifying aura that dominated the entire arena, their knees felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead, and even moving an inch was a luxury.

When gods fight, mortals suffer. If these two monsters of our time were to truly clash with all their might in this cramped space, whether these old bones of theirs could survive and leave the barrier would depend entirely on the good deeds of their ancestors!

However, amidst the extreme panic and suffocation, a wisp of uncontrollable, frenzied trembling quietly crept up from the depths of their spines, as elders of the supernatural beings who had dedicated their lives to pursuing the ultimate power.

The most epic and unbelievable battle of gods in the world of supernatural beings in the past century is about to unfold right under their noses!

"well……"

A desolate sigh echoed through the training ground.

The old master Zhang Zhiwei slowly swept open the wide sleeves of his black Taoist robe. The moment his cloudy eyes opened again, the light in the entire training ground suddenly dimmed!

That was an unusual phenomenon where the extremely concentrated golden light spell forcibly devoured the natural light of heaven and earth!

The old Celestial Master's face was solemn. He took a step forward, and a circle of golden water rippled out from the void beneath his feet. His invincible aura, which had dominated the world for sixty years, was awakened without reservation at this moment:

"Young friend Zhuge... since you insist on seeing this heaven beyond the heavens."

The old Celestial Master's long beard twitched slightly, and his voice sounded like a divine decree from the heavens:

"Then this old man, with his frail bones, will risk his life today... to accompany you on this journey!"

……

The open-air martial arts arena on the back of Longhu Mountain, which was originally large enough to accommodate nearly a thousand people celebrating and cheering, is now completely shrouded in a suffocating silence.

On the grayish-white bluestone ground, the cracks left from the earlier competition have not yet been completely cleaned up.

The old Celestial Master Zhang Zhiwei, dressed in a coarse black Taoist robe, with his white eyebrows lowered and his hands tucked into the wide sleeves of his robe, stood quietly at the edge of the western field. He was like an ancient pine tree that had weathered a hundred years of wind and frost, exuding no vitality, yet so heavy that it seemed as if even the ground beneath his feet was sinking slightly.

Directly opposite him, about thirty paces away, Zhuge Ming stood in the shadows cast by the mountains in the morning light.

The dark navy blue executive jacket was still neatly pressed, but the national emblem representing the righteousness of the system on the left chest had been removed by his own hands.

His youthful face had lost its usual composed and gentle demeanor typical of officialdom; instead, it revealed a sharpness as unfathomable as an ancient, cold well.

In the chairman's seat of the stands, Tian Jinzhong kept his eyes closed, Lu Jin's body was stiff as iron, and Wang Ai, Lü Ci, Feng Zhenghao and Gong Qing didn't even dare to breathe.

In this almost frozen, suffocating atmosphere, a very slight mechanical sound suddenly came from the heavy bronze door at the entrance to the stands.

"Da, da, da."

The chaotic and hurried footsteps shattered the deathly silence.

Then, Zhao Fangxu, the chairman of Nadutong, strode in, leading several figures.

As Zhao Fangxu walked, he took out a handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, his expression revealing an undisguised bewilderment and anxiety. He had just been coordinating the aftermath of the evacuation of personnel from various factions on the front mountain when he suddenly received an urgent instruction from Zhuge Ming through an encrypted internal line, requiring him to bring the Zhuge family's accompanying relatives to the main venue on the back mountain as quickly as possible.

Behind Zhao Fangxu were Zhuge Gong, the current head of the Zhuge family, his wife Zhuge Ying, and the brothers Zhuge Qing and Zhuge Bai.

At the very back of the group, there were two uninvited "tails" hanging there – Wang Ye and Zhang Chulan.

The two were chatting idly with Zhuge Qing by the sacred path when they saw Chairman Zhao come to pick up the Zhuge family with a solemn expression. Zhang Chulan, whose mind was as quick as a devil, was not about to let go of this first-hand inside information. He dragged Wang Ye, who wanted to run away, and followed them all the way under the pretext of "helping to maintain order at the venue".

Zhao Fangxu was extremely anxious at the time and didn't have time to carefully examine and check the two pieces of plaster. He simply took them up the mountain with him.

However, when this group of people stepped onto the edge of the highest stand and saw the scene on the training ground below, their steps froze as if they had been weighed down by molten lead!

"Chairman Zhao... Chairman Zhao..."

Zhang Chulan's smug, fake smile instantly cracked, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets, and he gurgled as he gasped for breath. "I... did I not sleep well last night? Did I get struck by lightning and start hallucinating? The person standing below... is that the Old Master? And the one standing opposite the Old Master... is that Leader Zhuge?! Is the big boss going to... personally get involved in this fight?!"

Wang Ye's droopy eyelids suddenly opened, and his usually calm, lifeless eyes were now filled with unprecedented horror and shock.

He didn't even bother to rub his aching neck, his hands gripping the marble armrests of the stands so tightly his knuckles turned pale from the force: "It's madness... This world has completely gone mad... Chu Lan, pinch me, pinch me now! That's the Heavenly Passage Master! That's Zhang Zhiwei, who's lived for over a hundred years and dominated the world of supernatural beings for sixty years! What on earth is that high-ranking Teacher Zhuge thinking?!"

The brothers Zhuge Qing and Zhuge Bai were struck dumb.

Zhuge Bai was so frightened that he grabbed his mother Zhuge Ying's clothes, his face turning pale; while Zhuge Qing's fox-like eyes, which were usually narrowed to slits, opened wide in that instant, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpoints, staring intently at his younger brother who stood tall and straight in the audience.