I defeated the saint with a parry.

The Spirit Platform Realm!

"Damn! How did this old monk suddenly become so strong?"

Xu Ling was terrified and practically turned and ran.

That was definitely the aura of the Spirit Platform Realm.

He had come into contact with quite a few cultivators at the Concentration Realm and had already thoroughly grasped their aura. However, when the old monk Sumi rushed up from underground, the aura he released with his roar was clearly several times stronger than before.

He felt his hair stand on end even at the top of the cave.

"This old bastard even cheated his own disciple."

Xu Ling never imagined that the little monk had also become one of the sacrifices, and that the only beneficiary was clearly Xumi.

With this thought in mind, Xu Ling shouted into the cave, "Manager Li, it's this old man! He's the mastermind!! He's fooled us all!"

"..."

Li Hong did not respond, and Xu Ling did not wait for his reply before he had already fled the ancestral hall.

Li Hong, along with his underlings, stood at the landslide site, cold sweat beading on his forehead, looking at the figure floating in mid-air.

This person, the younger version of Sumeru, does bear a striking resemblance to the little monk who was swallowed.

Li Hong murmured to himself, not daring to move at all, as did the others following behind him.

This is the suppressive power that those in high positions exert on them.

At this moment, he also understood some things. No wonder Li west was able to survive in the temple. With such a powerful figure behind him, what couldn't he do?

The "deception" Xu Ling mentioned is most likely because Li west has also become part of the sacrifice. If he is not mistaken, none of them can escape and they will all become nourishment for this person.

This is all a huge trap. If they don't take down the person in front of them, they won't be able to escape, and Li west's death will be meaningless.

The person in front of me has an unstable aura, so he must have just broken through from the Concentration Realm to the Spirit Platform Realm. His plan is probably also for the sake of cultivation, so everything makes sense.

"Your surname is Li?"

Xumi looked at Li Hong indifferently. Only after the latter nodded did he laugh out loud: "Good, good, good. It's good to have the surname Li."

He recognized Xu Ling's voice. Li west was Xu Ling's employer, and the people in front of him all shared the surname Li; they all came from a prominent family.

Xu Ling and Li west certainly did not have the strength to destroy the altar. Without a doubt, the twenty-odd small fry with an average level of Nascent Soul Realm were the instigators of everything.

He could have used the altar to steal most of the evil god's cultivation, but now that the altar is destroyed, the cultivation was only transferred halfway before it was forced to stop. This unexpected turn of events not only caused the young monk to die suddenly and the evil god's descent to end, but he himself almost suffered a backlash.

Although Sumeru has now entered the Spirit Platform Realm, he is only one step away from it, and because of his injury, his realm may fall at any time.

How could he not be angry?

"My life's scheming has been ruined in an instant! You will all pay with your lives!!"

"Form ranks."

Both sides understood everything, and a major battle was imminent.

The battle formation consisting of more than ten Nascent Soul Realm cultivators and ten Meridian Opening Realm cultivators barely reached the same power as the Spirit Platform Realm cultivators, and the two clashed together.

The already collapsed altar was now completely reduced to ruins.

A massive tremor spread from underground.

Xu Ling, who had just run out, suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet soften. Looking back, the land and houses centered around the ancestral hall resembled a surging sea, constantly rising and falling... rushing towards him.

It's not that the land is softening; it's clearly an "earthquake."

After this process was repeated twice, the ancestral hall seemed to have been hollowed out from underground, and it collapsed instantly.

If Xu Ling had run slower, he would have gotten trapped too.

Immediately afterwards, a figure shot into the sky and rushed out of the ruins, followed by another group of people who formed a formation and followed closely behind.

Xu Ling hurriedly ran back to the courtyard, but Li west and the other person were no longer in the room. When he went to Zhao Yi's room next door, he found that the floor had collapsed and the pit was pitch black. Zhao Yi and his group had long since disappeared.

Without hesitation, Xu Ling ran towards the peach orchard at the edge of the village.

As soon as he reached the edge of the village, he saw two people watching a play: "Quick, hide first, let them hit us."

People from such a prestigious family are indeed clever; they didn't need him to come to their rescue at all, they had already run to safety on their own.

When Xu Ling ran over, he only managed to hide in the peach grove, a good place, thanks to the reminder from the two people, which conveniently blocked the view of the two groups.

In just a short while, most of Taoyuan Village sank into the ground, looking as if someone had dropped a "bomb" underground, instantly turning it into dust.

Only the peach grove side was still okay. Luckily, they lived close to the peach grove, otherwise it would have been really difficult for them to hide.

Hou Le said, "This place has been sealed off. The person behind it is extremely knowledgeable about formations. Once trapped in the formation, no one can get out. We tried it; once we left the peach grove, we would automatically return here."

"A ghost wall?"

"That's roughly the idea."

"But I and the Li family have already broken the formation."

"What happened?" Li west asked in a low voice, "What did you do?"

Xu Ling chuckled and said, "It's nothing to mention. Now, the evil monk behind the scenes treats the Li family as our accomplices, while the Li family sees the old monk as our powerful backer. And you've already become a sacrifice for the evil monk..."

Li west and Hou Le were greatly puzzled.

"How did you do that?"

"It's quite a coincidence."

Xu Ling explained the whole story, and the two of them were impressed by how quick-witted he was. If it were someone else, they might have started fighting with Li Hong and the others in the cave. Although that would have eventually led to the appearance of the monk Sumeru, the outcome would have been completely different.

"It seems you only destroyed the altar, not the core of the formation," Li west said. "Now, only that old monk probably knows where the core of the formation is."

Therefore, if they want to leave this place, they can only work on Sumeru.

"Your battle formation is indeed impressive, but it's ultimately not the true power of a Spirit Platform Realm cultivator."

Sumeru stood on the void. The collapse just now only made his clothes slightly dirty. Xu Ling even suspected that the dirt on it was from when the old man was on a lower level when the altar collapsed for the first time and the ceremony was interrupted.

Compared to him, Li Hong and the others were in a much worse state. The formation gave them the ability to share the damage, but even so, that attack still made their faces turn pale, and those with lower cultivation levels even had blood on the corners of their mouths.

"Ha! His cultivation level only came from wiping out the entire village with evil magic. He's not even as good as us dirty workers. How dare he mention it?"

Li Hong knew he couldn't avoid it, but he wasn't intimidated at all: "Judging from your appearance, you look somewhat like the little monk. That little monk is probably not your offspring, is he?"

Sumeru's face remained expressionless, he merely chuckled twice calmly: "So what? His existence was for this day. If he were lucky, he wouldn't have become my seed, and I naturally wouldn't have used him as a lure to deceive that extraterrestrial demon. But unfortunately, he is my seed, of humble origins like me, with no path to cultivation. Therefore, becoming the catalyst for that sacrifice is his best destiny. Otherwise, how could I have come to this point..."

Speaking of this, Xumi felt angry: "If you guys had interrupted the ritual halfway through, I could have at least gone one more step."

"Further discussion is pointless!"

Xumi flipped his hand and took out a palm-sized statue, which he casually tossed into the air. The statue grew taller in the wind and instantly transformed into a two-zhang-tall monster, which opened its mouth and swallowed Li Hong and his group whole.

Afterwards, it shrank back to the size of a palm, flew back into Sumeru's hand, and became a big-bellied deity with a smile on its face.

This strange thing looks exactly like the god worshipped on the altar earlier.