"What's your name?" Mo Lingtian asked the very first commanding vanguard who had talked with him when he entered the death zone.
"I can't seem to remember," he replied.
"Good. From now on, your name will be '四 (Sì)'."
Then Mo Lingtian sealed his sea of consciousness. The geometric dome faded, and the gray fog began to thin out, losing its terrifying pressure.
"Let's go," Mo Lingtian said, leaping onto the dragon's back and pulling Wang Ping's junior and the Dao realm elder up behind him.
– Outside the Death Zone –
"Where did you say he entered?" the young monk asked.
"He is the one," one of the elders stuttered, pointing a trembling finger toward the death zone as a massive, thick tunnel-like gateway filled with gray fog suddenly opened at the entrance.
The young Buddhist monk stepped forward, his body glowing with an intense golden light that clashed with the energy coming from the gateway.
From the gateway, a massive black dragon slowly emerged, its mammoth body shaking the atmosphere as it flew out.
On its back sat Mo Lingtian, his face devoid of emotion, the golden and crimson lines on his skin slowly fading beneath his robes. Behind him was Wang Ping's junior, clenching his robes tightly, and the incapacitated Dao realm elder sitting on the dragon's back, meditating.
The cultivators at the foot of the mountain who had earlier seen Mo Lingtian's killing spree on the dozens of Dao realm practitioners fled the scene, including the four Dao realm practitioners. They retreated several hundred meters away, watching the scene play out in front of them.
"Dao You, could I have a talk with you?" the young monk said, his voice echoing like a ringing bell as he drifted closer to Mo Lingtian, putting his palms in a prayer-like stance just like a Buddhist statue.
"Wang Ping," Mo Lingtian muttered to himself, completely ignoring the young monk as he looked down at Tu Xin's cave upon sensing his heartbeat.
"Are you by any chance the one who did the slaughtering at the ocean?" the young monk pressed again, not minding Mo Lingtian's blatant attitude.
"Yes. Am I in some kind of trouble?" Mo Lingtian said, looking intensely at the young monk.
"No, you're mistaken. My captain is just very interested in meeting you," the young monk said in reply, drifting closer toward him.
"No, I'm not interested," Mo Lingtian answered, releasing a pushing force of wind that sent the young monk backward by a few meters.
"Dao You, you are clearly not in the vessel cleansing stage. Even a qi refining practitioner cannot stand before me without being crushed by my pressure. My leader is just interested in you, let's not make this harder than it should be," the young monk replied, bringing his hand down as golden energy slowly shifted around his muscular body.
"Sorry. I have a friend in dire need of my help. I need to treat him before it's too late," Mo Lingtian said, pointing toward Tu Xin's cave where he had sensed Wang Ping's heartbeat.
"How urgent could it be? Senior Tu Xin has probably already handled it," the young monk replied.
"Is that the name of the second person I sensed in the cave?" Mo Lingtian said to himself.
The dragon beast he was riding on grunted angrily.
The young monk's continuous pestering was becoming too annoying for him, and to make matters worse, his master refused to take action.
"His aura has grown a lot stronger since they left the death zone. He could easily take care of this monk, why is he still going back and forth with him?" the dragon said to himself as he watched angrily.
"Since you came out of that place, you have been actively watching my steps. You immediately pushed me back when I became ten meters away from you," the young monk continued, moving his fingers.
"An old friend of mine warned me of the dangerous reality of the wilderness. I can't trust anyone past the ten meters boundary," Mo Lingtian replied, still staring at him, observing the shifting golden energy around his body.
"Dao You. My captain just wants to have a talk with you. My squad is an immortal level mission squad from the strongest faction in the wilderness, you can take my word for it, we won't harm you," the young monk replied, hoping he would drop his defenses and not escalate the matter anymore.
Mo Lingtian glanced at him indifferently. He didn't say a single word.
"Dao You, I have no choice but to forcefully take you back. Forgive me," the young monk said, bowing his head slightly before forming a punch, dragging it through the air toward Mo Lingtian.
A massive glowing golden fist, vibrating with a violent golden metallic energy, shot forward toward Mo Lingtian.
"Hypocrite, clear the way! You're no match for me," Mo Lingtian said before controlling a wisp of wind into a terrifying large slash that effortlessly dispelled the approaching fist.
"What a domineering elemental control, I didn't know natural elements could be used this way," the young monk said to himself as he summoned around them three golden Buddha phantoms which towered above the clouds.
"Fall!" the young monk yelled as he shot higher past the clouds, dragging his palms downwards. The golden Buddha phantoms followed suit, dragging their palms forcefully, tearing past the clouds directly unto Mo Lingtian still on his flying dragon.
Wang Ping's junior clenched his garment tightly as the pressure fell down on his fragile body. Even the dragon and the disabled Dao elder felt the downward push of the pressure released by the descending palm strikes of the Buddha phantoms.
The cultivators who retreated several meters away watched from afar as the young monk controlled the terrifying palm strikes of the Buddha phantom.
Everyone watched anxiously, wondering what the killing demon Mo Lingtian would pull off this time.
"The force of this palm strike is approaching that of an immortal," one of the four Dao realm practitioners said, watching slightly very minuscule space fissures open and close rapidly around the descending palms.
Mo Lingtian looked up, not flinching even in the slightest bit. He simply raised his right hand and gently pushed his palm downward.
He enacted the Immortal Basic Gravity Law.
The space around the golden monk instantly collapsed. The massive golden phantoms immediately shattered into tiny fragments of light before it could even reach Mo Lingtian. A terrifying, invisible weight slammed onto the monk's shoulders.
"What..." the monk managed to gasp.
He was swatted out of the sky like a fly. The monk crashed headfirst into the sandy earth at the foot of the mountain. The sheer gravitational force continued to crush him, flattening the ground into a crater. His invincible golden body cracked, splintered, and gave way, snapping his bones into dust.
In seconds, the Great Perfection Dao Realm expert was reduced to a bloody smear on the ground as the soil soaked wet with his blood.
Total silence fell over the mountain peak. All the cultivators gasped from afar as they watched the young monk crushed in one move. The four Dao Realm elders turned pale, their legs shaking violently.
"This... this is the gravity law that slammed us down from the sky. He is the immortal in the death zone!" the four Dao elders yelled in shock as they immediately fled the scene, not wanting to even comprehend how what they said was possible. Some of the cultivators followed suit while others just retreated farther away; they wanted to see if Tu Xin would act.
He then turned his gaze towards Tu Xin, who already came flying up from his cave with Wang Ping, who was now conscious and stable.
"Thank you for taking care of my friend. I will surely repay your kindness in the future," Mo Lingtian said, bowing slightly.
"He was severely injured. I just gave him some pills to dispel the strain his body had been through," Tu Xin replied as Wang Ping swiftly reached to hug his junior who was seated on the dragon's back. They embraced each other for a long time.
"Senior, thank you for bringing him back safely," Wang Ping said, bowing down with his head touching the dragon's back.
"There's no need to thank me. You entrusted him to me, naturally, I had to bring him back safely," Mo Lingtian replied.
"Can you bow a little more softly, your head is poking at my back," the dragon murmured.
"But senior, your back is literally covered with dragon scales, one of the hardest substances in the demon realm," Wang Ping replied confused.
"He's just teasing you, what kind of dragon has a back pain from a head bump. Shouldn't you be called a lizard?" said the disabled Dao elder, his eyes still closed as he smiled mockingly.
"You... I'll throw you off of me now! What do you know about a dragon's back," the dragon beast replied, snorting angrily.
"Let's get going, we've been here for too long," Mo Lingtian said, nodding his head at their back and forth quibbles.
"Senior, we..." Mo Lingtian said to Tu Xin, to which he just raised his left hand telling him there was no need for any other formal pleasantries.
"Then we'll get going," Mo Lingtian said. With the path clear, Mo Lingtian patted the dragon's body. The beast let out a low rumble, bending its knees to launch its massive body into the clouds.
Tu Xin did not move, his mind was filled with so many questions. A vessel cleansing stage cultivator enacting the gravity law unique to the immortal pathway, what kind of existence could he be?