The other three thought about it and agreed that it was not against the rules. They didn't attack Lu Li. All they did was set up some Divine Patterns and some secret measures. Lu Li was down there and didn't come up. He wanted to take advantage of the situation.
Dong Yeying thought about it and said again, "Let's each do some small Divine Patterns and see what happens. So many powerful warriors are watching us out there.
If the Holy Lady Sect thinks we have broken the rules, we can stop and let it go.
I don't think the Holy Lady Sect will disqualify all four of us just because of Feng Wuding. "
They all nodded in agreement. They all knew what the Discussion of Dao in Hua Yang was really about — the competition was just a means. The real purpose was that the Holy Lady Sect wanted to select the best talents and disciples of the most powerful forces to form a marriage alliance with them. If they offended all of them, then what would be the point of the Discussion of Dao in Hua Yang?
The four of them were all core disciples of major sects. In the future, they would become leaders of the four sects. Forming a marriage alliance with the four of them would bring great benefits to the Holy Lady Sect.
Of course, the four of them wanted to form a marriage alliance with the Holy Lady Sect.
For one thing, the beauties of the Holy Lady Sect were too attractive. For another, they needed the support of the Holy Lady Sect.
They needed not only the support of elixirs and resources, but also the secret operation of the Holy Lady Sect to help them become leaders of the sect.
This was a win-win situation!
The Holy Lady Sect would have a closer relationship with the other forces, which would lay a good foundation for them to fight against the Heaven Emperor Sect.
The four of them would not only gain the beauties and rewards, but also the support of the Holy Lady Sect, which would help them rise up quickly and stand at the peak of the endless abyss.
Therefore, the four of them were sure that the leaders of the Holy Lady Sect would turn a blind eye even if they played some tricks. As long as they did not attack Lu Li openly, everything would be fine.
Hua Tiandao hated Lu Li the most. He didn't even think about moving up.
He took out several beads and threw them down. The more than a dozen beads glowed as they rolled down and then disappeared.
The beads contained strong energy. Usually, they would be led into the ground. Once someone approached, the beads would come out and attack. Those with weak defense would be blasted to death.
Dong Ye Ying thought for a moment and smiled. He quietly waved his sleeve, and a black powder flew out and fell on the stone stairs below.
The smoke was no different from normal smoke, but it was a highly toxic substance that could silently float into a martial practitioner's body and quickly corrode their divine power.
He had used this smoke in the previous battle, and it was very powerful.
However, if someone knew of such a method, they would be fine as long as they avoided it in advance and did not touch it.
The fact that Dong Yeying was able to advance all the way was due to the smoke.
"Hmm?"
It seemed that Lu Li was sitting down there with his legs crossed. Actually, he had been using the trace of Dao to sense what was going on above. He noticed what Hua Tiandao and Dong Yeying had done. Lu Li frowned. He did not expect them to be so shameless.
Wen Xiang and Tu Ying, on the other hand, didn't do anything. They wanted to wait and see if the Saintess Sect's experts would stop them.
Hua Tiandao and Dong Yeying looked at each other nervously.
After waiting for a while without any movement, the two of them were completely relieved.
Dong Ye Ying took out an Armored Kui Ox from his spatial artifact. This was once one of his mounts and also one of his secret treasures. It was a vicious beast with combat strength comparable to a mid-stage Lord.
This was a gift from his master, who took him to tame it in person.
This Armored Kui Ox was large, but Dong Yeying made it smaller. The Kui Ox let out a cry and rushed up slowly.
It had just climbed more than a dozen steps when a white glare lit up above. Then, 10 attacks came at it.
"Boom!"
The Iron Armored Kui Ox was blasted down, and Dong Yeying had already prepared a divine ability. An invisible net condensed in mid-air, trapping the Iron Armored Kui Ox.
"Good!"
They took a look at the Armored Kui Ox and found that it was not seriously injured. It was just that some scales on its chest were broken and it was bleeding.
Dong Yeying fed the Armored Kui Ox a pellet at once. The Armored Kui Ox's wounds began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Everyone was overjoyed to see this. It seemed that the Armored Kui Ox could hold on for some time.
"Brother Dong Yeying!"
Hua Tiandao said in a heroic manner, "Just let your Kui Ox go up. I have many healing pellets. As long as it is not dead, we can save it!"
Wen Xiang and Tu Ying nodded. Dong Yeying smiled and waved his hand to let the Kui Ox continue to rush up. The Kui Ox roared and rushed up but was knocked down again and again.
Dong Yeying and the others kept feeding it the pellets. The Kui Ox was strong in defense. It rushed all the way up and soon, it reached the stairs of 3000 steps.
Along the way, Tu Ying and Wen Xiang made their moves secretly. They set up some ingenious Divine Glyphs or some wretched traps. The traps were well hidden. If one was not careful, one would fall into their trap.
Nobody from the Holy Lady Sect came in to send a message. It seemed that nobody had noticed.
How could they not notice when so many Great Emperor Realm warriors were watching?
As a matter of fact, not only Great Emperor Realm warriors, even regular lords had noticed what was going on.
Some patriarchs of the Holy Lady Sect asked the Shadow Queen if she should stop them. But she shook her head gently.
Hua Tiandao and the others were right. The Shadow Queen had changed her opinion of Lu Li, but it didn't mean that she would disregard the position of the Holy Lady Sect.
The purpose of the Forum of Hua Yang was to make connections through marriage. That was to unite with more forces and marry the best girls of their families to disciples of the major families and then help the disciples to rise up.
When these outstanding disciples became the upper echelons of a big sect, that sect would naturally be tightly tied with the Female Sage Sect.
Feng Wuding was a genius, no doubt about that. But the Feng Family behind him was not particularly strong.
The progenitor warrior of the Feng Family was only at the Great Emperor Realm. Strong as he was, there was no hope for him to reach the Saint Emperor Realm. This had been confirmed.
Therefore, the Feng Family alone was not worth the Holy Lady Sect's full effort to rope in. If they were to offend the other four for the sake of Feng Wuding, then the loss would outweigh the gain.
Lu Li didn't go up himself. He could not blame others. If he had gone up at the very beginning, it would be hard for others to plot against him.
He wanted to reap the benefits without doing anything. Then he could not blame others for setting up traps for him.
Lu Li didn't care about the traps the others had set up.
This was because he had sensed all the traps set up by these people. He knew how to set them up and where they were. In that case, they wouldn't be called traps anymore.
More importantly!
Just now, Blood Fairy sent a message. She had made some headway in her investigation of the Peak of Empress. She had made some progress.
Given more time, she might not be able to solve the runes on the Peak of Empress, but at least … she could point Lu Li in the right direction.