The Glutton Directly Crushed It

Gu Changyuan tilted his head up, looking at the strange beast flaunting its might above.

Then, he frowned slightly.

The trace of interest in his eyes vanished completely in an instant.

Making such a huge scene, he had thought they would bring out something truly impressive.

But in the end...

This is it?

He carefully examined the strange beast—three eyes, a mouth full of fangs, and a body covered in scales. It certainly looked intimidating.

But it only looked intimidating.

To his eyes, that ferocious aura was as crude as a child's doodle. That so-called oppressive might was even more utterly ridiculous.

Sigh.

Gu Changyuan sighed softly, his tone full of helplessness and disdain.

That sigh was not loud, yet it pierced through all the chaos and roaring, clearly reaching the ears of everyone present.

Hearing their master's sigh, a trace of confusion instantly appeared on the faces of Ye Qingxue, Lin Jingyu, and Yue Lingxi. They exchanged glances, secretly speculating in their hearts.

Behind them, Zhuge Dancheng, Gongsun Xiangming, and Xuanyuan Feiyue, as well as the five family heads and elders on the high platform.

Their attention was also instantly drawn to this sigh, and the calmness on their faces was gradually replaced by worry.

Could it be... is it really that hard to deal with?

Ye Qingxue hesitated for a moment before asking softly,

Master, did something happen?

Gu Changyuan shook his head slightly, a hint of regret in his tone,

Nothing. It's just that my expectations were raised for nothing.

Raised... for nothing?

Everyone was stunned.

Before they could react, Gu Changyuan had already raised his right hand.

Bringing his index and middle fingers together, he pointed at the strange beast bearing its fangs and brandishing its claws above.

He spoke, his voice not loud, but it exploded like heavenly thunder,

Taotie.

As his voice fell, a massive, pitch-black formation instantly appeared high in the sky.

The formation was entirely ink-black, its runes flashing with an eerie dark red light. It was even more colossal and ferocious than the Imperial Court's grand black formation.

Contained within the formation lines was the monstrous oppressive might of an ancient ferocious beast—cruel, violent, and domineering. It intertwined and clashed with the evil aura of the Imperial Court's formation, yet instantly suppressed it.

The formation took shape extremely fast. In just a few breaths, it completely stabilized. Immediately after, a beastly roar that shook heaven and earth erupted from within the formation.

The next second, an incomparably huge phantom of a creature violently charged out of the pitch-black formation—it was the phantom of the Taotie.

With the body of a sheep and the face of a human, tiger teeth and human claws, its pair of eyes grew under its armpits, looking like two massive blood-red suns.

The moment the Taotie phantom appeared, it did not hesitate at all. It directly opened its bloody maw, which contained a terrifying suction force capable of devouring heaven and earth, and madly dashed toward the strange beast summoned by the Imperial Court.

High in the sky, the three Immortal Kings of the Imperial Court saw the Taotie phantom suddenly appear below. Their faces instantly turned as pale as paper, their eyes filled with unbelievable terror.

What... what kind of ferocious beast is this?! Why does it have such a terrifying ancient violent aura?!

They had no time to overthink. Instinctively, they pushed the crystal cores within their bodies, using all their strength to control that strange beast, sending it into a frenzied attack against the Taotie phantom.

Roar!

Sensing the fatal threat brought by the Taotie, the strange beast let out a berserk roar. It swung its two massive, scale-covered claws with a momentum that tore through space, viciously swiping at the Taotie's head.

However, facing the strange beast's attack, the Taotie phantom appeared incredibly calm. With a slight shift of its body, it easily dodged the strange beast's sharp claws.

Before the strange beast could react, it took a sudden, vicious bite right onto the strange beast's arm.

Crack!

A crisp sound of bone fracturing instantly echoed through the high sky. The strange beast's arm was bitten off by the Taotie in a single mouthful, and black blood gushed out.

The Taotie did not pause in the slightest. With a fierce bite and a tear, it forcefully ripped the strange beast's entire arm from its body.

Boom!!!

The strange beast let out a heart-wrenching roar of agony, its massive body trembling violently.

The Taotie raised its head and directly swallowed the bitten-off arm of the strange beast into its stomach in one gulp, its throat rolling once.

Then, it pounced again!

This time, it was the other arm!

Crack!

Another bite!

SquELCH!

Another tear!

The strange beast's other arm was similarly torn off.

The three from the Imperial Court now had faces ashen as death.

They desperately activated their formation, wanting to make the strange beast counterattack, wanting it to escape—but the Taotie phantom's speed was too fast, so fast they simply couldn't react.

The Taotie phantom did not stop.

Its body expanded once again!

Opening its massive maw capable of devouring heaven and earth, it swallowed the strange beast's entire upper body—along with the still-operating black formation—in a single gulp.

Rumble!!!

That black formation explosively shattered inside the Taotie's mouth.

Countless fragments scattered and splashed, turning into a sky full of light specks.

As for that strange beast, before it could even let out a scream, it completely disappeared into that endless abyssal maw.

Just as the Taotie was about to completely devour the three Immortal Kings of the Imperial Court, Gu Changyuan's voice slowly rang out again. His tone was plain, yet it carried an undeniable command,

Keep them alive.

That Taotie phantom, clearly just a phantom without independent consciousness or life force, seemed to understand Gu Changyuan's command and paused slightly.

It raised its head and used those eyes, bright as the sun and moon, to glance in Gu Changyuan's direction.

Immediately after, its phantom violently shattered, dissipating into the air.

At the same time, three figures fell from the high sky like kites with cut strings.

It was precisely those three Immortal Kings of the Imperial Court.

At this moment, they were covered in blood and breathing their last, having long lost their previous majesty.

The crystal cores implanted in their bodies were now dim and dull, covered in cracks.

That bite from the Taotie not only swallowed the strange beast but also shattered their crystal cores along with it.

Gu Changyuan raised his right hand.

A small black coffin appeared out of thin air in his palm.

That small coffin was only the size of a palm, entirely pitch-black.

He waved it gently.

The small coffin flew out, growing rapidly against the wind.

In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a massive black coffin several zhang long.

The coffin lid automatically opened, and a powerful suction force surged out from within, drawing all three falling figures into it.

Bang!

The coffin lid closed.

The black coffin rapidly shrank, turning back to the size of a palm, and flew back into Gu Changyuan's palm.

As for the Imperial Court's secret formation, he naturally learned it in passing.

Although this formation, compared to the ancient formations in his hands, was inferior by more than just a single tier, appearing extremely crude and useless.

He didn't even need the Four Perils and Six Phenomena to act together; just a single Taotie was enough to easily destroy it outright.

However, when destroying the Ten Thousand Demon Alliance previously, one would have actually been enough. But in order to let his disciples see the world, he chose to use a cannon to shoot a mosquito.

Yet, the formation displayed by these Imperial Court Immortal Kings was, after all, a thing of the Imperial Court. Keeping it would eventually be useful.

In the future, if he faced people from the Imperial Court, he would use this very formation of the Imperial Court to deal with them.

Presumably, the expressions on their faces would definitely be quite spectacular.