An assault!
Lowering his head, Zhang Xuan saw a lush forest beneath him. The massive buildings of Drifting Specter Royal City were no more than five meters behind him.
In other words, as soon as he left Royal City, there was already someone who could not hold himself back from making a move on him.
He had not told anyone about his intention to use the Great Displacement Teleportation Formation today except for Sun Qiang, Qi Ling-er, and his parents. Yet, they were still able to lay an ambush for him there in advance.
It seemed like someone had been keeping tabs on his movements.
He had underestimated the temptation of the Breakthrough Pill and the Beauty Pill.
The ground was moving toward Zhang Xuan at an accelerating pace. It would not be long before he finally crashed into the ground. However, what he really had to be wary of were the ones above him.
There were six aerial celestial beasts charging toward him from above. Each beast had a black-robed person standing above them with a spear in hand.
One of them had killed his celestial aerial beast.
In the Firmament, only God Kings possessed the ability to fly. Even though Zhang Xuan’s cultivation had already reached high-tier Celestial God, it was still impossible for him to maneuver in the sky without the help of an aerial beast.
It seems like I’ll have to learn how to fly before I perfect my sword art, Zhang Xuan thought.
With his current strength and his experiences from the Master Teacher Continent and the Azure, it should not be too difficult for him to figure out how to fly. It was just that it had not been long since his cultivation reached high-tier Celestial God, and there had been no time for him to spend on it.
Given his current plight, if he did not learn how to fly within the next few seconds, even though he would not lose his life from falling from such a high altitude, he would have still lost half of his fighting prowess as a result of that.
It would be difficult for him to deal with the encirclement of enemies in a weakened state.
Boom!
The six people in the sky brandished their spears and pierced them right toward Zhang Xuan, causing a gust of cold air to be blasted in his direction.
They were all high-tier Celestial Gods!
Furthermore, they had chosen to use their full strength right from the start.
With the resilience of Zhang Xuan’s body, he was not too bothered by the assault of the six. Not even the claw swipe of a Pureblooded Dragon could make him bleed, so what could the spear thrust of those six possibly do?
The only issue was that if he faced the spear thrusts directly, the impact of the collision would further accelerate the speed of his fall. If so, the fall might prove dangerous, even for him.
While his physical body was much tougher than before, he did not want to gamble on something that he was not certain about, especially not in the face of his enemies.
I guess I have no choice. I can only do this…
As the spears came closer and closer to him, Zhang Xuan closed his eyes.
Question marks popped out on the heads of the charging six.
Was their target giving up just like that?
Why don’t you at least try to struggle a little?
Do you know how many strategies we have prepared beforehand to deal with you? It will be awkward if we manage to take you down so easily after spending long hours coming up with countless countermeasures against you!
At that moment, Zhang Xuan’s consciousness was already immersed in the Great Codex of Spring and Autumn.
The enemies were swiftly approaching him, but from the looks of it, there were still two more seconds before he reached the ground. In the Great Codex of Spring and Autumn’s terms, that would be 20,000 seconds or five and a half hours!
That was more than enough for him to figure out a flying technique so that he could stand his ground even in an aerial battle.
The reason he had such confidence was because he had cultivated a technique called the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps back on the Master Teacher Continent.
That technique had allowed him to fly back when his cultivation was still in the Transcendent Mortal realm. Although his environment was a little different from before, he should still be able to get the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps working as long as he made some adjustments to the technique.
With such a thought in mind, he quickly took out the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps from the shelves of the Library of Heaven’s Path and fused it together with the other books he had collected in the Firmament.
Compile!
A new book was created.
With a tap of his finger, the knowledge contained within the newly compiled book flowed into his head.
It seems like it’s impossible to directly convert the techniques from the Master Teacher Continent over to the Firmament…
He had thought that he would be able to compile a Heaven’s Path technique through compiling the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps together with the books that he had gathered in the Firmament, but what he received was mostly gibberish.
As the heavens of the two worlds differed, the meridian network and constitutions of the cultivators were vastly different from one another. As such, he could no longer practice the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps as it was.
He had to manually modify it to fit his own constitution before cultivating it.
So, he began reviewed the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps and making modifications to it bit by bit. It took some time before he was finally done with his work.
The Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps required the cultivator to circulate his zhenqi in a certain manner to offset the pull of gravity. The principles behind it were not that tough to understand, but pulling it off was another matter.
It was the kind of technique that a cultivator would either have to perform impeccably, or it would fail.
As such, even if a new practitioner had fully grasped the concepts behind the technique, it would probably still take quite a few tries before they could start maneuvering themself around the sky.
Fortunately for Zhang Xuan, he had used the technique before. As such, he should be able to use it adeptly right away.
Driving his zhenqi around his body, he could feel himself swiftly gaining control over his surroundings.
At this moment, he was already less than twenty meters away from the ground, and the spears were right before him.
A sharp glint flashed through his eyes as he verbalized two powerful notes from his mouth.
“Moo! Mou!”
Eight Notes of Heavenly Dragon!
While they were less effective on beasts that were not from the Dragon Tribe, similar to the ferocious roar of a lion, it could still shake their spirits and reduce their fighting will.
He was a little too close to the surface for comfort. He could not afford to make any mistakes now!
After disorientating the six celestial beasts to mess up the assault of the six black-robed individuals momentarily, Zhang Xuan swiftly executed the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Steps to break his fall.
By now, the speed of his fall was already too great for him to stop entirely, so he still ended up landing on the ground with a loud explosion, the impact creating a large crater with a ten-meter radius around him. Even so, he managed to overcome the crisis with minimal injuries.
As soon as he landed on the floor, he immediately leaped upward and maneuvered past the six aerial celestial beasts to fly in the air.
Meanwhile, the six aerial celestial beasts, together with their riders, continued to fall with increasing velocity. They were not able to stop earlier due to the effects of the Eight Notes of Heavenly Dragon momentarily befuddling their senses.
By the time they snapped out of it, the ground was only a mere meter away from them.
Peng! Peng! Peng! Peng! Peng! Peng!
Six resounding explosions ensued as the six celestial beasts and their six riders charged right into the ground one after another, causing massive craters that spanned several hundred meters in their wake.
Zhang Xuan had been flying at an altitude of more than two thousand meters earlier, and under the effects of gravity, the speed that he was moving at was already scary enough. On the other hand, those six assailants were dashing right toward him in order to catch up with him.
As one could expect, the fall had nearly cost them their lives.
This was especially so for the six celestial beasts, who bore the brunt of the impact. Their organs had ruptured. If they were not treated in time, they might pass away.
Looking at the mess beneath him, Zhang Xuan snorted coldly.
He had no sympathy for those who went after him in order to fulfill their greed.
With a flick of his finger, he sent six surges of sword qi toward the six assailants below.
Puhe!
The sword qi passed through their glabellae without any resistance. Before they could even say a word, they had already breathed their last breath.
After killing them, Zhang Xuan swiftly collected their storage rings and spears with a wave of his hand.
Those spears were high-tier Celestial God artifacts, so they were still rather useful to him. As for the storage rings, there was quite a bit of money inside, but other than that, there was nothing worthy of note.
After looting everything of value, Zhang Xuan walked up to one of the aerial celestial beasts. He was intending to heal it to continue on his way, but all of a sudden, his temples started pulsating.
It was the feeling of danger encroaching on him.
Alarmed, he immediately darted to the side.
Huala!
The next instant, a surge of sword qi sliced through the spot where he had been standing a moment ago, creating a gorge several hundred meters long.
Even the tough bedrock beneath was sliced in two so easily as if it was a blob of tofu.
Despite his powerful body, he would have sustained severe injuries if he had taken that attack head-on.
With a grim look on his face, Zhang Xuan turned to look in the direction where the attack came from. There, he saw a middle-aged man making his way toward him one step at a time from the sky.
Flight… He’s a God King? Zhang Xuan clenched his fists tightly together.
It seemed like the true mastermind who wanted his pill formulas had finally made an appearance. To think that a God King would actually be behind this!
Every single God King was highly respected in the Firmament, but this one was so eager to claim his possessions that he made a move on him as soon as he was out of the protection of Royal City!
“I’m surprised. You are able to fly despite not being a God King, and you were able to kill six of my strongest subordinates without a hitch. I should have expected as much of the person behind the Beauty Pill and the Breakthrough Pill. I must say that this is quite an eye-opener for me,” the middle-aged man said as he stopped around thirty meters away from Zhang Xuan.
He had thought that he would be able to capture a mere apothecary without having to make a move himself, but the target turned out to be more formidable than expected. Before he knew it, all his subordinates had passed away.
Looking at the middle-aged man coldly, Zhang Xuan asked, “Who are you, and what do you want? Are you not afraid of offending the Qi Clan?”
According to what Qi Ling-er said, it seemed like the Qi Clan had already made it known that they were protecting him. Yet, this God King still dared to make a move on him. Was he not afraid of the wrath of the Qi Clan?
“The Qi Clan? Hahaha, of course I am afraid of them! How could I not be afraid of them? Someone as intelligent as you should have already guessed my intentions. I don’t wish to make an enemy out of the Qi Clan, so as long as you hand over the pill formulas, I am willing to let you go,” the middle-aged man said with a smile.
Hearing those words, Zhang Xuan frowned.
Those words did not tally at all. The God King should have known that he would definitely face the wrath of the Qi Clan if he get out of there alive, which meant that…
He took a swift glance around him, and his complexion immediately darkened.
There were special formations set up around the forest in order to conceal any traces of battle! He had been so preoccupied with cultivating earlier that he failed to realize that his aerial celestial beast had led him right into this formation!
The enemy might have even used some sort of method to lure his aerial celestial beast into this formation.
“Are the pill formulas all you want?” Zhang Xuan asked.
“Indeed. If you die here, the Qi Clan will surely scour the entire world just to hunt me down. I don’t want that to happen, you see,” the middle-aged man said. “However, since I’ve made a move, I have no intention of leaving here empty-handed. You might be thinking that you are powerful enough to give me the slip, but I can tell you frankly that your strength is still far beneath the level of God Kings like me!”
“And what if I refuse?” Zhang Xuan said.
“You wouldn’t want to do that. I am quite a short-tempered person myself. If you make me angry, I might accidentally hurt you,” the middle-aged man replied as his lips curled up sinisterly.
The middle-aged man would likely kill him regardless of whether he brought out the pill formulas or not. He could not possibly risk allowing the Qi Clan to get on his trail, or else he would be placing himself in grave danger.
“So, you are determined to achieve your goal no matter what happens?” Zhang Xuan looked at the middle-aged man in the eye and asked.
“You seem to be awfully confident in your strength.”
