King Shangping had been putting on an act for so long. Now that he saw Jiang Chen had fallen into his trap, there was no need to keep up the pretense anymore. He ripped off his hypocritical mask and instantly revealed his true colors.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Chen's brows shot upward, and a cold, murderous gleam shot from his eyes: "King Shangping, you've schemed to the bitter end — did you really think you had me cornered?"
King Shangping was about to respond when a miserable scream suddenly came from nearby.
Hearing the sound, King Shangping's expression shifted instantly. He recognized it — the voice belonged to his attendant, Old Shen.
"Old Shen, what's going on?"
Jiang Chen merely smirk coldly, knowing that the Green Stinging Ginseng must have already struck.
Sure enough, countless tentacles suddenly erupted from the surrounding shadows. Plumes of green mist sprayed wildly toward King Shangping.
King Shangping's pupils contracted sharply, and he scrambled in a panic.
He realized that once this green mist washed over him, it carried a subtle binding force. Within the swirling haze, tumor-like tentacles lashed out at him by the hundreds.
King Shangping was horrified.
His long blade whirled, slicing through a dozen or so tentacles in front of him. But the moment these growths were severed, they quickly regenerated.
Its regenerative ability was so formidable that King Shangping nearly wanted to weep.
Jiang Chen gave a sly laugh, raised his hand, and a small golden mountain suddenly appeared in his palm. With a series of hand seals, countless tadpole-like runes swirled around it at blinding speed. The tiny mountain surged in the wind, swelling into a massive mound that slammed down toward King Shangping.
King Shangping had no shortage of tricks — he was skilled in formations, had obtained eight statues, and his own divine abilities were far from weak.
But today, his eyes had been opened. This mysterious young man possessed even more techniques and divine abilities than he did, and was far harder to deal with.
Once the golden mountain loomed overhead, King Shangping felt as though the sky itself was collapsing.
A jolt of terror shot through him, and his soul nearly fled his body. He had plenty of other techniques he hadn't yet deployed, but under the crushing weight of the mountain, even a thousand tricks were useless now.
The green mist alone carried a binding force — and this golden mountain carried yet another. Two distinct binding forces worked in tandem, making King Shangping feel as though his body was barely under his own control.
In that instant, how could he dare linger any longer?
He didn't even have time to recall his eight statues. He activated a talisman in his hand, shattered the golden light's binding, and shot off into the outskirts at breakneck speed.
The golden light of the Magnetic Gold Mountain was fast, but compared to the escape speed granted by the talisman, it still fell short by a fair margin.
Jiang Chen pressed down several times, but none of it could halt King Shangping's flight.
The moment King Shangping fled, the formation's power plummeted. Jiang Chen used the Moon-Shattering Awl to break through the formation directly. Cut off from the formation disc, the eight statues collapsed like deflated balloons, their momentum gone, one after another toppling to the ground.
Jiang Chen wasted no time. He swept his hand and collected all eight statues into his Storage Ring.
These eight statues were extraordinary. Jiang Chen had repeatedly used his Star River Slash divine ability and still couldn't destroy them — the attacks only left a few shallow marks.
To actually destroy one of these statues at his current level of offensive power, he would probably need to hammer away at it with the Star River Slash nonstop for an entire hour just to barely break a single one.
Such absurdly high innate defenses left Jiang Chen genuinely awestruck.
But he had no time to marvel at the moment. He recalled the Ice Fire Demon Lotus, called back the Green Stinging Ginseng, and praised it: "Good work — I'll mark it down as a merit for you."
He glanced at the shriveled husk of Old Shen, knowing that all of the man's essence had already been absorbed by the Green Stinging Ginseng. He felt not a shred of sympathy. Supporting Huang'er, he left the spot without hesitation.
Trapped by the formation for a while, the battle had already consumed a quarter to half an hour. Jiang Chen had no desire to waste any more time.
The Emperor's Armor Talisman's defensive power would only last about an hour — he had to make the most of that hour and break through this sinister valley as quickly as possible.
If Jiang Chen had been on his own, surviving inside for ten days to half a month would have posed no problem. But Huang'er's Hundred Lives Heart Binding Curse meant she could not endure even the slightest taint of evil energy.
Right now, all Jiang Chen wanted was to find the Soul-Calming Wood immediately and begin treating Huang'er on the spot.
……
As for King Shangping — he had fled a considerable distance in one breath, but his heart was still pounding with lingering fear. His face was pale, and every so often he activated his pupil technique to scan behind him, worried that Jiang Chen might be charging after him.
"Damn it — that kid was playing the pig to eat the tiger!" King Shangping's eyes burned with fury. He had always believed himself to be the one playing the pig to eat the tiger.
He never expected that his opponent had been even more ruthless, hiding his true depths far deeper.
"Just what is this kid's background?" The more King Shangping thought about it, the more unsettled he became. "Even a true inheritor of a first-grade sect couldn't be this monstrous, could he?"
It wasn't as though King Shangping had never encountered true inheritors of first-grade sects. Truth be told, he had killed more than one in the past.