Who Can Outshine the Protagonist

The arena began to shake violently, and the people standing on it struggled to keep their balance.

But the “Xu Mu” on the arena was completely unaffected. It continued charging toward Li Hongdou with murderous intent.

Just as Li Hongdou was preparing to counterattack, a vast golden formation suddenly flickered into existence beneath their feet.

In the next moment, all those golden formation markings shattered. The “Xu Mu” suspended above them also came to a halt before automatically dissipating.

Rumble!

The arena split apart and began collapsing downward.

Seeing this, Li Hongdou covered the wound on her chest with one hand and grabbed Chen Xuan with the other, hovering in midair.

As the arena crumbled, Xu Mu’s figure leaped out from below.

“Brother Mu!”

Chen Xuan shouted.

“This formation has been dealt with.”

As Xu Mu spoke, he looked up. Sure enough, the armored old man in the stands vanished as well.

As the area continued to collapse, the surrounding sections caved in one after another. The barriers trapping everyone disappeared completely.

Rael immediately flew to Dorothea’s side.

Xia Jiang of the Celestial Clan also flew toward Tian Yunchu.

However, most of the people present had yet to reach the Boundary-Breaking Realm. They could only follow the collapsing ground as it fell downward.

Xu Mu used his perception to examine everyone and also saw what lay below.

“We’re going down! There’s water below!”

With that, he immediately cast Cloudstep and pulled Lin Ruoshi into his arms.

[Affection +10]

Lin Ruoshi’s face instantly flushed red, and she felt as if smoke were about to pour from her head.

“We’re going down,” Xu Mu said to Lin Ruoshi.

“Okay.”

The moment Lin Ruoshi nodded, the two of them landed on the surface of the water below.

Water splashed in all directions, droplets landing on Lin Ruoshi’s face. The heat in her cheeks eased somewhat.

“Xu Mu, what kind of technique is this?”

Lin Ruoshi was astonished to discover that her feet were not actually touching the surface of the water. Instead, they hovered about ten centimeters above it.

Yet beneath her feet seemed to be something like solid ground, allowing her to stand there.

“I know a technique that can temporarily compress the air,” Xu Mu explained with a smile.

Splash! Splash!

Everyone nearby who could not fly fell into the water like dumplings being dropped into a pot.

Zhong Ci also plunged into the water. She surfaced not far from Xu Mu, her head emerging almost immediately.

She had originally assumed that Xu Mu would save her, but he did not even look in her direction.

Still, Zhong Ci did not blame him. After all, she had been married and even had a daughter. Xu Mu needed to avoid giving people the wrong idea.

She simply did not understand why she felt slightly uncomfortable. She was clearly so close to Xu Mu.

“Zhong Ci, come up.”

Xu Mu extended a hand toward her in the distance.

Zhong Ci slapped both hands against the water and leaped out. She landed steadily on the compressed air beneath Xu Mu’s feet.

After being soaked, the dress she wore clung tightly to her body. The power of thunder around her flat abdomen seemed even more pronounced.

Zhong Ci immediately released her qi, driving the water off her clothes. She gave Xu Mu a faint glance before deliberately turning around and presenting her back to him.

“Ahem! Sorry. It was just too… prominent. I noticed it at a glance.”

Xu Mu gave an awkward laugh.

He wanted to look away, but it really was too prominent.

He had not expected Zhong Ci to have such a perfect figure even after giving birth, without the slightest trace of excess fat.

But that was only natural. She was not a woman of Li Yun’s age.

Zhong Ci was only around twenty-four or twenty-five.

The only reason she had a child was that Hat Bro had ruined her life. Otherwise, she might not have married even by now.

Zhong Ci said nothing, but she was not angry either. She had long been accustomed to people’s gazes because of her figure.

As long as they did not go too far, she would not bother with them.

“Brother Mu!”

Chen Xuan shouted from above.

Xu Mu raised his head and saw Li Hongdou holding Chen Xuan with one hand and Yun Yao with the other, slowly descending onto the surface of the water.

Nearby, Jiang Cisui was also holding Wang Fugui and Shi Yao as they slowly descended.

Only Yan Jingqiu and Wang Tao plunged into the icy water.

“Fortunately, none of us are seriously hurt.”

Li Hongdou glanced at everyone around her before turning her gaze to Xu Mu.

“The formation is broken. Where do we go now?”

Xu Mu used his perception to examine the surrounding area. Every detail of their surroundings simultaneously appeared in his mind.

“Down!”

As Xu Mu spoke, he dispelled the compressed air beneath them. Lin Ruoshi and Zhong Ci, who had been standing on it, immediately dropped into the water.

He had just noticed that someone had vanished from the bottom of the lake.

Seeing this, Li Hongdou said to the remaining people, “Follow him!”

High above in the air, both Dorothea and Tian Yunchu kept their eyes on Xu Mu.

It had been Xu Mu who destroyed the formation trapping them.

They therefore confirmed that his attainments in formations were extremely high. Rather than wandering around blindly, it would be better to follow him.

When they saw Xu Mu and the others sink into the water, they said at the same time, “Follow them.”

Xu Mu and the others reached the bottom of the lake. He went to the place where someone had vanished moments earlier.

After arriving, he crouched down and pressed his hand against the ground. Sure enough, he detected traces of a formation.

He pointed at the spot and activated the formation, vanishing without a trace.

The remaining people followed Xu Mu into the formation.

A moment later, Xu Mu and the others appeared before a cave. The light ahead made him narrow his eyes slightly.

After walking out of the cave, they found scenery similar to what they had seen before, but the difference was fundamental.

In the basin surrounded by mountains, the lake and boats were gone.

In their place were bones scattered across the ground. Massive cracks split the earth, already covered by vegetation. Clearly, a very long time had passed.

In the distance, two people had already begun searching through the bones below for treasures.

“We finally made it inside! Judging from this, this ruin was probably breached by someone back then, leading to the destruction of the entire sect. In the end, the ruin activated its protective formation.”

Li Hongdou gazed at the bones in the distance.

“As for whether anyone escaped, that depends on how valuable the treasures here are. If there weren’t many treasures, then there’s a good chance someone survived and took them away.”

Jiang Cisui smiled.

“If that’s the case, shouldn’t we hurry and search? We can’t let the others get there first!”

As he spoke, Jiang Cisui flew toward the distance.

Xu Mu also turned his gaze toward Chen Xuan.

“Old Chen! Get moving!”

“Got it!”

Chen Xuan nodded.

The others also rushed toward the corpses scattered across the mountainside.

This was Zhong Ci’s first mission of this kind. When she saw the spatial rings on the bones around her, she was utterly stunned.

She remembered that when she had first joined the sect, the Artifact Sect had explicitly stipulated that one had to reach the late Grandmaster stage before being allowed to apply for a spatial ring.

Yet at least sixty percent of the skeletons around them had spatial rings.

She casually picked one up and examined it. Then she took a black token from inside.

“This is an Earth-grade technique?”

Zhong Ci could hardly believe it.

Was this what trials in the Inner World were really like?

“Senior, aren’t you going to look for treasures?”

Xu Mu glanced at Li Hongdou.

“Why aren’t you looking?”

Li Hongdou countered.

“I’ve eaten too many good things lately. Ordinary treasures don’t interest me anymore.”

This space ring hadn’t exploded like the one in the Battlefield of the Gods, and nothing inside it had appeared outside. That proved its power was far from top-tier.

There probably wouldn’t be any supreme treasures inside. Besides, Chen Xuan had already made his move.

Who could snatch an ordinary opportunity from the protagonist?

Just then, Xu Mu and Li Hongdou turned around at the same time. The people from the Holy Light Clan and the Celestial Clan had also emerged from the cave behind them.