“How can you be so powerful?” Zhang Xuan’s face warped in horror as he cast aside his sword and retreated in a fluster.
His current fighting prowess was only that of an Aureate Body realm consummation cultivator. As long as the enemy did not feel threatened by his existence, they would not make a move on the hostages.
Seeing how the young man had decisively chosen to escape as soon as his assassination failed, the black-armored Otherworldly Demon harrumphed coldly. “Do you honestly think that you still stand a chance at escaping?”
The next moment, the force of his palm strike intensified. Immense pressure gushed over in waves, leaving Zhang Xuan feeling as if he was standing before a giant.
“Break!” Zhang Xuan roared with a hint of panic in his voice.
Hong long!
The Saint pinnacle sword, which the black-armored Otherworldly Demon was still holding onto, shattered in the air, producing a shockwave comparable to the force of a Saint 9-dan cultivator imploding their dantian. The immense force caused the black-armored Otherworldly Demon’s attack to waver, thus buying time for Zhang Xuan to escape.
Using this precious time that he had bought by sacrificing his beloved weapon, he immediately flitted away as quickly as he could.
“Hold it right there!”
Hualala!
Seeing that the assassin was going to get away, the surrounding Otherworldly Demons immediately drew their weapons as they prepared to make a move.
“Lay down your arms. That fellow interests me. Leave him to me!” The black-armored Otherworldly Demon chuckled softly as he took a step forward and thrust his palm downward.
The explosion of a Saint pinnacle weapon was plenty formidable, but it was simply too weak to faze a Sempiternal realm cultivator.
Hula!
Another massive palm appeared in the air above Zhang Xuan. At the same time, the space around him seemed to have frozen, rendering him unable to move at all.
“Damn it!” Zhang Xuan cursed with a savage look on his face.
The next moment, blood spurted from his mouth. As if he had ignited his bloodline ability, his aura suddenly surged by twofold. With his newfound strength, he attempted to break free of the frozen space around him.
“You are powerful for an Aureate Body realm cultivator, but the gap between the Aureate Body realm and Sempiternal realm is not something that one can bridge with just talent and wits… Get down here!”
Huala!
The black-armored Otherworldly Demon placed his hands together, and sonic booms suddenly echoed relentlessly in the air. Zhang Xuan was still unable to break free of the spatial restraints around him. As if a tightly-bound crab, no matter how he struggled, he was unable to get away at all.
“Come here!” The black-armored Otherworldly Demon beckoned with his hand, and Zhang Xuan floated helplessly toward him.
At this moment, Zhang Xuan’s face was completely pale. It seemed as if he had been drained of all his strength due to the ignition of his bloodline.
Knowing that his fate was sealed, Zhang Xuan spat a mouthful of saliva at the black-armored Otherworldly Demon as he bellowed furiously, “Kill me if you will, but I, Xuan Zhang, will never submit to you!”
“Kill you? Hahaha! Rest assured, I’ll allow you to live a little longer. The more formidable a master teacher is, the purer their zhenqi would be. You are the perfect tribute to our god… I was still worried that we might not have enough tributes here, but now that you are here, my worries are allayed…”
With a light chuckle, the black-armored Otherworldly Demon tossed Zhang Xuan over to Hu Yaoyao and the others. “Shackle him! He shall be used as one of our tributes!”
“Yes, Commander!”
Two Otherworldly Demons rushed up to Zhang Xuan, and with a light grasp of their hands, a narrow thread wrapped itself around his wrist, sealing his cultivation. In such a state, he would not be able to exert his zhenqi at all.
After that was done, the Otherworldly Demons swiftly returned to preparing the altar.
With everything working out as he had planned, Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief. Just as he was able to study the narrow thread wrapped around his pulse, he suddenly heard a sigh in his ears.
“You shouldn’t have come here. You are sacrificing yourself for nothing!”
The one who had spoken was an Introspective Convalescence realm elder not too far away from him.
“Elder, do you know why they have prepared this altar?” Zhang Xuan asked.
He was slightly surprised to see that the other party was completely awake, unlike the lifeless looks on the other cultivators around him. However, he swiftly attributed the matter to the elder’s higher cultivation. Perhaps the Great Sage artifact did not work as well on him.
“They are intending to tribute us to break open space to construct a bridge that leads straight into the Temple of Confucius!” the elder said with a suppressed voice.
As his cultivation had been sealed, he was unable to use zhenqi telepathy.
“Break open space? Construct a bridge that leads straight into the Temple of Confucius?” Zhang Xuan was slightly taken aback. “Isn’t there an exit in this snow dimension? As long as they find the exit, they should be able to reach the Temple of Confucius. Is there a need for them to go through so much trouble for this?”
“Exit?” Hearing that, a bitter smile appeared on the elder’s face. “There’s indeed an exit here, but it’s impossible to enter the Temple of Confucius through these exits!”
“Impossible?” Zhang Xuan frowned doubtfully.
Having traveled from one dimension to another, he had deduced that the ancient domain had a structure similar to a dungeon. As long as he went deep enough, he would eventually reach the Temple of Confucius.
“The Temple of Confucius has six Subordinate Halls and one Prime Hall. The Subordinate Halls should correspond to each of the dimensions. The exits and entrances of these dimensions are connected to one another, so if we progressed from one exit to the other, we would only be traveling among the six dimensions. It’s impossible to reach the Temple of Confucius in such a manner!” the elder said.
“Take this snow dimension for example, if we continued moving from one exit to another, after passing through five dimensions, we would only return here!”
“Ah… Is that the case?” Zhang Xuan was taken aback.
He had thought that as long as he traveled through all of the dimensions, he would eventually arrive at the Temple of Confucius. Who could have thought that the dimensions actually formed a closed-loop?
Did that not mean that he was traveling in circles?
“But this is a secret that even the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters isn’t aware of. How do you know about it?” Zhang Xuan asked doubtfully.
Despite all of the positions that he had, he was unaware of such critical intelligence. If Pavilion Master Ren of the Master Teacher Pavilion headquarters knew of this matter, he would have told him… It did not make sense for the elder before him to know of this matter!
“I happen to be fairly proficient in the tongue of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe, and I heard them discussing the matter earlier. It seems like the only way to enter the Temple of Confucius is to break open the space of one of the dimensions and enter its corresponding Subordinate Hall!” the elder said.
“Enter the corresponding Subordinate Hall? If I’m not mistaken, only those who possess the Celestial Amulet of Legacy are able to enter the Subordinate Halls, right?”
If everyone could enter the Subordinate Halls just by breaking open the space in the ancient domain, what would be the point of distributing the Celestial Amulets of Legacy in the first place?
Similarly, there would be no need for the world to vie over them.
“It’s indeed impossible to enter the Subordinate Hall without the Celestial Amulet of Legacy, but they will still be able to reach the exterior of the Subordinate Hall. That’s the true outer perimeter of the Temple of Confucius, and the spiritual energy is much more concentrated there. Those who cultivate there will be able to raise their cultivation swiftly. Furthermore, even if one is unable to enter the Subordinate Hall, one will still be able to camp at the exterior and snatch the loot of those who managed to get in! As such, most experts have chosen to camp at the exteriors, and it’s said that… there are Ancient Sages among them!” the elder explained.
“Ancient Sages? They are camping at the exteriors, too?” Zhang Xuan narrowed his eyes in horror.
“Indeed. Due to the restrictions placed on the Temple of Confucius, they won’t be able to enter the Subordinate Halls or the Prime Hall. Nevertheless, they will still be able to camp in the area and snatch the possessions of those leaving the area. After all, those who enter the Temple of Confucius will eventually have to leave the area. In fact, that’s probably where the true danger lies. Ordinary cultivators like us can only be content with roaming around the dimensions. If we really reach the exterior, we will probably lose our lives before we know it!” the elder said bitterly.
“Forget it, there’s no point talking about it now. We’ll become tributes very soon anyway, so it’s not as if those things have anything to do with us!”
“I guess so,” Zhang Xuan replied perfunctorily while he processed the massive load of information that he had just received.
He had thought that Ancient Sages would not be able to enter even the dimensions that they were in, but they were actually able to reach the very exterior of the Temple of Confucius…
A thought emerged in Zhang Xuan’s mind.
If the Otherworldly Demons are aware of such information, does it mean that they have already finished scouting all six dimensions, or could it be that one of their experts have already reached the exterior of a Subordinate Hall?
He had already traveled through three dimensions so far, but Zhao Ya, Wei Ruyan, and the others were nowhere to be seen. At the same time, he did not see the Hundred Schools of Philosophers, and even Luo Ruoxin and the others were nowhere to be found.
Was there a chance that they had already reached the exteriors of the Subordinate Halls?
