“My palace…”
Looking at the collapsed palace, Sovereign Chen Ling finally came to his limits and spurted blood.
He and his predecessors had spent many millenniums building that palace, but to think that it was blown to smithereens just like that…
Can anyone tell me what’s going on?
“Sovereign Chen Ling…”
The two Ancient Sages who had been fighting with Ancient Sage Mo Ling earlier flew over. One of them whose face was exceptionally pale lowered his head and reported, “Your Majesty, the person named Zhang Xuan set up a formation with over a thousand formation flags. When he activated his formation, the formations in the palace came to life as well. Could the explosion also be his doing?”
“Wait a moment… he managed to set up a formation here?” Sovereign Chen Ling was stunned.
The whole of Sovereign Chen Ling’s palace was filled with tens of thousands of inscriptions and several hundred formations of different sizes. It was due to these formations that he had been confident in going against Sovereign Chen Yong and the others. Its destruction effectively meant that his final defense line had been breached, and he was exposed to the public.
The fact that he was severely injured at the moment only made the situation far worse than it was. At this rate, if Sovereign Chen Yong really made a comeback, would he not be powerless?
Sovereign Chen Ling clenched his jaws and bellowed, “Bring all of the artifacts that the appraisers have valued over!”
“Your Majesty, we have yet to verify the actual value of the artifacts,” the pale-faced Ancient Sage replied anxiously.
In response to that, Sovereign Chen Ling waved his hand impatiently and exclaimed, “There’s no time for that anymore! I will have already died by the time they are done appraising everything!”
“But… Your Majesty, you are also aware of the rules. If we fail to value the artifacts properly, I fear that not only will your injuries not recover, we might even end up placing ourselves in a worse predicament…”
“Cut the nonsense and bring the artifacts here. We don’t have time anymore! Our survival banks on this final gamble!” Sovereign Chen Ling roared furiously.
Since the dragon blood had been stolen from him, he had no choice but to resort to the riskier method. It had not been easy for him to come so close to victory, and he would do anything to ensure that he was the last one standing.
The five Ancient Sages might look as if they were on his side, but if he really became powerless, there was a good chance that the first ones to make a move on him would be them!
“Yes!” Hearing that Sovereign Chen Ling was adamant on the matter, the pale-faced Ancient Sage hesitated for a moment before nodding slightly. He quickly turned around and left the area.
“I won’t lose this fight. There’s no way I can lose this fight…” Sovereign Chen Ling clenched his fists tightly as a vicious glint flashed across his eyes.
…
Weng!
Some distance away from the capital, the space suddenly wavered before a crack materialized. From the depths of the crack, Zhang Xuan rolled out and crashed heavily onto the floor.
“Guild leader!”
A soul oracle swiftly rushed to his side to support him. Following which, the soul oracle scanned his surroundings, and an incredulous look appeared on his face. He could not help but turn to Zhang Xuan with a look of awe.
Despite only being at Sempiternal realm consummation, he had actually managed to create such a huge commotion and flee from so many Ancient Sages…
He was probably the only one who had the ability to perform such a feat.
Zhang Xuan suddenly recalled something and asked in alarm, “Where’s your physical body?”
“One of the greatest weaknesses of a soul oracle is the risk of having the physical body assaulted while the soul is drawn out. Thus, I specially crafted a small space that my soul can carry around,” Ancient Sage Mo Ling replied with a smile.
It was only then that Zhang Xuan realized that there was a spatial ring made out of soul energy on Ancient Sage Mo Ling’s finger.
Hu!
With a thought, Ancient Sage Mo Ling brought out his physical body before diving right into it.
“Not bad!” Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
He had never thought of doing something like that before. If he could bring his physical body around with him, he would indeed be in a much safer position.
“Judging from our surroundings, we should be at the Battlefield of Firefeather, which is roughly about a million li away from the capital. I don’t think that Sovereign Chen Ling and the others will be able to track us here… Guild leader, what do you intend to do now?”
Ancient Sage Mo Ling had already turned against Sovereign Chen Ling, so there was no way that he could return anymore. Thus, all he could do was follow the new guild leader.
“For the time being, let’s rest and recover our strength before deciding on our next course of action!” Zhang Xuan said with a wave of his hand.
Setting up and activating the formation earlier had depleted him greatly, so he needed to rest and recover his strength. More importantly, now that he was out of danger, he really had to have a good heart-to-heart with the gourd about their future.
Otherwise, if that fellow appeared at random moments and made shocking moves each and every time, it was only a matter of time before his heart popped from the immense stress.
“You’re right. We should take a rest first!”
Hearing Zhang Xuan’s words, Ancient Sage Mo Ling also felt exhaustion setting into his body. He quickly set up an isolation barrier in the area before sitting down to replenish his depleted soul energy.
Seeing that Ancient Sage Mo Ling had started to cultivate, Zhang Xuan also quickly placed the Book of Heaven’s Path back into the Library of Heaven’s Path and the Otherworldly Demon Ancient Sage corpses back into his storage ring before diving into cultivation.
Through using the Great Codex of Spring and Autumn in the Library of Heaven’s Path, he was able to speed up his recovery rate by ten times. As a result, all it took was several minutes for him to be fully revitalized.
With that done, he took a deep breath before turning his consciousness toward his dantian.
At that moment, the gourd was lying leisurely inside in a seeming comfortable position. It did not seem like it had any intention to leave at all.
Seeing how the gourd had been resting lazily after messing around and putting him in great danger, Zhang Xuan suddenly felt rage surging into his head. He roared angrily, “Hurry up and spit out the dragon blood!”
Even though the gourd did manage to snatch the dragon blood away from Sovereign Chen Ling’s hands, the problem was that it was of no use to him even if the gourd did assimilate the dragon blood!
If the Dragonbone Divine Spear had swallowed it, there would be no need for him to escape anymore. He might have been able to defeat everyone in the Sovereign Chen Ling’s palace, and even Sovereign Chen Ling could have been killed with a single pierce.
“Calm down, young lad… The zhenqi in your dantian is really comfortable. Don’t worry, I’ll leave after I finish assimilating the dragon blood…” The gourd shook its bottom slightly as it replied lazily.
“Get out right now! Back then, when I gave you the meteorite, didn’t you promise me that you wouldn’t enter my dantian anymore? Are you reneging on your promise?” Zhang Xuan was so furious that it felt as if his carotid artery might just burst.
This is my dantian! Why are you lazing around in here? Get out!
How in the world did a person so prim and proper like me end up taking in a shameless treasure like you?
“Fine, fine! I’ll go out then, happy? I, the Great Dongxu Gourd, am a gourd that honors its promises!” Seeing that Zhang Xuan was on the verge of losing his temper, the Dongxu Gourd murmured in displeasure before leaving his dantian.
“Where’s the dragon blood?” Glaring down at the Dongxu Gourd, Zhang Xuan questioned coldly. “Spit it out right now!”
The Dongxu Gourd shook its bottom lazily and replied, “I have already assimilated it!”
“Assimilated it? Didn’t you say a moment ago that you’ll only leave my dantian after you finish assimilating the dragon blood?”
“This… Well, I have already assimilated a portion of it at least. Besides, I was the one who swallowed the dragon blood, so there should be no question that it’s mine,” the Dongxu Gourd replied indignantly, as if Zhang Xuan was a bully trying to steal sweets from a young child.
“No matter how much you have assimilated, spit out whatever’s remaining and give it to the Dragonbone Divine Spear. Otherwise, don’t blame me for getting nasty with you.” Zhang Xuan harrumphed coldly.
“But I was the one who snatched it away from that tall fellow back then! Do you have any conscience threatening a weak plant like me like this?”
At this point, the Dongxu Gourd suddenly straightened its body, and its voice changed from a whiny one to a solemn one. “But I think what you have just said makes perfect sense. The dragon blood isn’t of much use to me. It’s just that I found it particularly hateful, so I wanted to eat it. I’ll spit it out for you right now… Here you go. So, can you move the saber away now?”
With a cold harrumph, Zhang Xuan finally pulled the Infernal Blacksaber away from the Dongxu Gourd.
Humph! Continue spouting nonsense, and I’ll sever you into two!
With a look of pity on its face, the Dongxu Gourd’s body protruded outward before a tiny droplet of dragon blood was squeezed out from within.
Just like the Dongxu Gourd had said, it had already assimilated a large portion of it, such that there was not even a fifth of it remaining.
Even though there was less than a fifth remaining, due to the enhancement ritual conducted, the pressure that it emanated was still impressive. Zhang Xuan quickly waved his hand and took out the Dragonbone Divine Spear.
“Go and swallow the dragon blood. Let’s see if it’s enough for you to undo your seal!”
While it was a pity that there was much less dragon blood, it was still better than nothing.
