It didn’t take long before a burst of laughter replaced the silence after Li Qiye’s declaration.

“Kneel? Are you insane from wanting to stay the king? You’re a king in name only, why should we kneel before you?” Someone couldn’t help but laugh.

“Your Majesty, don’t tell me you want us to perform a full ceremonial kowtow to you?” Another sneered. 

Li Qiye sat straight and was unmoved by the taunts. He looked quite gentle as he said: “I suppose no mercy for the foolish. Today is finally time for blood and massacre.”

“Massacre?” Jinming snorted and coldly said: “You can’t even defend yourself, let alone talking about a massacre? Better start thinking about how to get out of here alive.”

Li Qiye smiled in response: “So you wish to kill me?”

“You tell me.” Jinming began walking up the steps with aggression in his eyes: “An eye for an eye. You have killed my cousin so I shall have my vengeance!”

Of course, this wasn’t only about his cousin since he had a personal feud against Li Qiye.

“Looks like Brother Ma stole my chances.” Yang Bofan smiled and said: “I’ve been wanting to teach this fool a lesson, but I suppose I can let you do it in our stead.”

Bofan made it sound as if Li Qiye were completely helpless before them.

“Don’t worry, Brother Yang.” Jinming laughed: “I can give you a chance to vent some frustration too by taking off an arm or leg off him.”

“Thank you then, Brother Ma.” Bofan smiled and cupped his fist.

“Cease your clownish antics, come together so I can save time and send you both to hell.” Li Qiye chuckled.

“Fool!” Jinming’s expression soured as he leaped for Li Qiye.

“Boom!” Suddenly, a huge foot stomped down with the force of a mountain.

Jinming twisted his body and propelled himself backward like a carp reaching the dragon gate, able to dodge the stomp.

The sudden attack wasn’t from Li Qiye but rather one of the stone statues. It looked gigantic with the attack, not allowing anyone to insult Li Qiye.

This shocked everyone, causing them to stagger backward.

“Clank!” A second statue raised its spear and threw it straight for Jinming’s chest with lightning speed.

“Break!” Jinming roared and summoned a vajra scepter, smashing it straight at the stone spear in order to shatter it.

“Boom!” Sparks went flying but unfortunately, the spear wasn’t broken as he would have liked.

On the contrary, the impact caused him to fall from the sky. Though his scepter had massive power, it wasn’t enough to handle the spear.

“Boom!” He slammed onto the stone steps.

Before he could get up, the first statue stomped down again.

“Go!” The aghast youth raised both hands and summoned a defensive shield.

“Boom!” The large foot stomped on the shield, sending off a vibration causing everyone’s ears to ring.

“Crack!” The stone steps below him started cracking. His arm muscles bulged as he mustered all of his strength to resist the foot.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough. His own shield was being pressed down on his chest.

Everyone gasped in response. The statues coming back to life and their power shocked the crowd.

“Die!” Bofan suddenly joined in and unsheathed his sword.

Its glint flashed as he rushed forward. However, he wasn’t trying to save Ma Jinming. His target was Li Qiye since he wanted to finish the guy off with one move.

“Clank!” Before the thrust could reach Li Qiye, it was intercepted by the statue closest to him with a swing of its spear.

“Buzz.” Bofan raised his hand and summoned a sword formation with metallic hymns.

An ocean of sword emerged behind him and all flew for Li Qiye like a tsunami of steel.

“So strong!” The crowd was impressed by this awesome display. This all-piercing wave of swords could annihilate the world and kill the gods.

Even someone from the last generation murmured: “That’s Eight Formation True Emperor’s disciple for you. A few more years and no youth can match him.”

Bofan was undoubtedly stronger than Jinming by a large margin.

“You overestimate yourself.” Li Qiye didn’t bat an eye, continuing to sit on his throne without lifting a finger.

“Clank! Clank! Clank!” Three statues threw their spears in unison straight at the ocean of sword.

“Boom!” The spears looked like true dragons entering the ocean. They ravaged and destroyed everything, quickly piercing through the formation.

It collapsed with swords flying everywhere.

“Whoosh!” The spears didn’t stop there and crisscrossed on their path towards Bofan.

“Shift!” He raised his hand again to control the formation and the swords came together to weave into a shield.

At the same time, he swung his physical sword, creating curtains of blades around himself. These two lines of defenses were quite amazing. The youth was truly impressive.

“He’s a master at sword formations.” Both the young and old praised after seeing this move.

“Rumble!” Alas, both the thick shield and defensive barriers couldn’t stop the three spears and were instantly penetrated.

“Damn!” The youth flew to the sky like a gust of wind, wanting to escape.

“Whoosh!” A virtually undetectable spear appeared behind him and thrust forward.

“No!” It was too late to dodge.

Before people could react, the spear pierced through him and made a twist in the air before pinning him down on the stone steps with blood gushing everywhere.

Meanwhile, Ma Jinming’s shield has crumbled so the statue directly stomped on his chest.

“Ah!” He screamed and spat out a mouthful of blood. His chest caved in completely as blood stained his robe.

Jinming and Bofan were subdued at the same time as their blood flowed down the steps.

“...” The shocked crowd stumbled backward after seeing this.

Jinming and Bofan were definitely some of the strongest geniuses around but they were instantly defeated. One was stomped down and the other pinned down.

“How boring.” Li Qiye covered his mouth and yawned, seemingly quite bored: “Mere ants, I can’t even bring myself to fight.”

The scene became silent. None of the pale crowd knew why these statues would suddenly spring to life on top of being so powerful.

The first to react was Tang Hexiang. He has already run out of the stone forest the moment he saw Bofan being taken down.