Lu Zhou was not afraid of being laughed at. For him, none of this mattered as long as he could resolve the immediate crisis.
He nodded, and his eyes moved from the faces of his third, fourth and fifth disciple, and finally stopped on his ninth disciple.
"What about you, Yuan'er?"
"Mas...Master." Little Yuan'er hesitated.
"It doesn't matter...Just say what you have to say. I've lived long enough to see all kinds of storms. When your Eldest and Second Senior Brothers left Golden Court Mountain, they were much more determined than you." said Lu Zhou in a faint voice.
Little Yuan'er went down on her knees. "Master, this disciple dares not."
"Ding! You've completed the side quest 'The will of others is not ours to see'. The reward is the Eye of Truth, and the effect is permanent."
That gave Lu Zhou a pause. Suddenly, special labels appeared in his eyes over the few villainous disciples in front of him.
"Duanmu Sheng, Divine Court realm. Loyalty 23%, declining..."
"Mingshi Yin, Divine Court realm. Loyalty 15%, declining..."
"Zhao Yue, Divine Court realm. Loyalty 35%, declining..."
"Ci Yuan'er, Divine Court realm. Loyalty 60%, increasing..."
"Hint: When a disciple's loyalty is below 0%, he or she will betray the sect and become an enemy. When loyalty is more than 80%, the disciple will not betray, while over 90% is absolute loyalty."
The decline of the first three disciples' loyalty was within his expectation, but Lu Zhou was slightly surprised by the fact that Little Yuan'er's loyalty was increasing.
"In this case, there is no need for me to continue pretending..." said Lu Zhou deliberately. "Yes, I did get hurt..."
His disciples' eyes gleamed. Meanwhile, the cultivators outside the shield were eager to rush into the shield and rip the old villain into pieces like a pack of savage wolves.
Lu Zhou noticed that the loyalty of the first three disciples had reduced by 5%.
But then, his tone changed suddenly.
"But, this doesn't mean you can lift your finger against me!" Lu Zhou crushed a 'Ji Tiandao's Peak Form' experience card. In a flash, his dried-up meridians, dantian and sea of Qi were filled to the maximum levels.
With him at the center, a powerful blast rolled out in all directions!
"Ah!"
"How is this...possible?"
Duanmu Sheng, Mingshi Yin and Zhao Yue flew backward, each spitting out a mouthful of blood, while Little Yuan'er's eyes grew wide as she stared incredulously at her master.
Waves of powerful blast poured forth and shattered the shield, which was already on the verge of collapsing. In the blink of an eye, the shield disappeared. Tens of thousands of cultivators watched in astonishment, and the whole world fell silent.
"Isn't he hurt? How can he still emit such powerful blasts?"
"I clearly saw him running back into the shield in panic!"
"I have a bad feeling..."
"Stop saying that, I can feel my legs shaking!"
The top ten experts also stared angrily at Lu Zhou and looked incredulous. On the other hand, the latter took a deep breath and did not even look at his three villainous disciples.
The feeling of peak form was really good. He felt as if everything was under his control, and everyone in front of him had become ants he could crush with just the flick of a finger.
As soon as Duanmu Sheng and the other two disciples fell to the ground, they rolled over and knelt on both knees as they said in unison, "This disciple begs Master's pardon!"
Blood trickled from the corners of their mouths and fell on the backs of their hands. Their fingers kept trembling, and they did not dare to even breathe too loudly.
Lu Zhou glared at them and lifted a hand. A powerful blast poured toward the three disciples like a huge wave.
"You have disobeyed me, and you will be punished!"
Bam! Bam! Bam! Three beams of golden light smashed onto the three disciples, causing them to vomit blood again.
"I'll deal with you when I come back!"
Lu Zhou did not look at them in the eyes but glanced at the remaining time: He still had some twenty-nine minutes. It did not take him too much time to teach the three disciples a lesson.
Now, what was left for him to deal with were the tens of thousands of cultivators and the ten experts of the Nascent Divinity Tribulation realm.
Staring at Luo Changfeng, who was in midair, Lu Zhou said, "Let me see how much stronger have you become in the past month!"
BOOM!
He pushed against the ground with a foot, and propelled himself up into the air like a missile at the speed of lightning. As he flew upward, he cried out in a loud and clear voice, "Avatar, the Hundred Tribulations Insight!"
An avatar with a height of more than a hundred feet and a width of twenty feet appeared in the sky, surrounded by golden light. A golden lotus with eight leaves could be seen spinning rapidly beneath it.
At the sight of it, Luo Changfeng quickly moved backward with a look of shock on his face.
"Stop him!"
The other nine experts flew into the air and produced their avatars as well.
Ten avatars joined together to form a wall while the rest of the cultivators quickly retreated and hid behind them.
Even so, many weaker cultivators were stunned and fell to the ground because they did not retreat in time, and some even died on the spot with blood gushing out of their seven orifices.
"Heavens! I can't believe he used his strongest move right away!"
"This is one of Ji Tiandao's strongest moves, the eight-leaf avatar of Hundred Tribulations Insight!"
"Don't panic! Although his Hundred Tribulations Insight is powerful, it consumes a lot of energy. As long as we can withstand this attack, he will be finished!"
This was also what the top ten experts thought.
Led by Luo Changfeng, the ten avatars were constantly resisting the corrosion of the Hundred Tribulations Insight. Everything within a hundred miles was illuminated by the bright light from the eleven avatars while beasts and birds fled in panic for their lives.
After using the peak-form experience card, all of Ji Tiandao's major skills appeared in Lu Zhou's mind. The avatar of Hundred Tribulations Insight was one of his strongest skills.
But, why did he use it right away?
Because it was an experience card that would disappear once the time was up. So, he might as well use it without scruple!
"Since you like to use a sword, I'll use a sword too!" Lu Zhou lifted his right hand.
A blazing white light appeared between his index and middle fingers, forming a dazzling sword. Then, energy swirled around the blade and converged into a sword beam.
"The Imperfect Divine Intervention?" Instinctively, Duanmu Sheng looked up, and his body trembled. After all, this move was one of the Divine One Technique's strongest moves.
The Divine One Technique consisted of sword moves and spear moves. Duanmu Sheng had always wanted to learn all of its sword moves, but it was too bad that Ji Tiandao refused to teach him the last move.
He never thought he would see this move on such an occasion.
Duanmu Sheng was wrong, Mingshi Yin was wrong, and Zhao Yue was wrong too. Their master could not only use his avatar of Hundred Tribulations Insight with ease, but also the Imperfect Divine Intervention.
The move, of course, was also one of his strongest skills.
More terrifyingly, under the influence of the avatar, the power of the Imperfect Divine Intervention was multiplied.
Luo Changfeng's eyes grew wide and his lips shivered as he said, "Retreat!"
"Retreat?"
"If we don't retreat now, all ten of us will certainly be seriously wounded! Not only is this old villain not injured, but he is stronger than ever!" Luo Changfeng said reluctantly.
"How did this happen?" Chang Jian of the Duanlin branch was full of doubts. They did not have such a hard time fighting Ji Tiandao a month ago, and they were sure that they had injured him during the battle.
But now, it seemed that...they were also wrong.
Lu Zhou floated in front of his avatar, looking as if both of them had merged into one. Then, his Imperfect Divine Intervention approached quietly, as if it had split the void.
Swoosh!
Ten avatars faded away at the same time as the top ten experts moved back in the sky. And when they retreated, it was those weak cultivators hiding behind their avatars who suffered.
In the next instant, the powerful sword beam fell from the sky and slashed through the crowd.