The storage rings of the two Kings could easily qualify as a treasure vault. Putting aside the many powerful weapons and potent pills, there were more than ten thousand high-tier spirit stones within!
Most likely, these are the resources they were given for the mission, Zhang Xuan guessed.
Given that the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe had paid a heavy price to allow two Otherworldly Demon Kings to bypass the seal and enter the Subterranean Gallery, there was no doubt that they were on an important mission. Naturally, the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe would have offered them the best resources so as to ensure that the mission would be successful.
However, it seemed like it had only ended up benefitting him.
Their superiors probably couldn’t have imagined that the many subordinates they had dispatched to the Subterranean Gallery would have been wiped out by a mere Nascent Saint lad before they could achieve anything at all.
“Hmm? What is this?” Flicking his wrist, a round platform appeared before his eyes. It was inscribed with innumerable unique runes that bore some resemblance to those he had seen back in the Palace of Runes.
Vicious took a glance at it and said, “This is an altar!”
“Altar? Could this be the artifact the Otherworldly Demons used to transport their tribesmen over?” Zhang Xuan asked doubtfully.
Given the seal their predecessors had left in the depths of the Subterranean Gallery, it should have been impossible for the Otherworldly Demons to appear in the Subterranean Gallery. Yet, not only did they appear, there were so many of them on top of that.
Could it be the effects of this altar?
Vicious took a look at the runes on the altar and said, “That is unlikely. This altar is used for offering tributes to summon certain special items. It has little to do with spatial transportation.”
“Summoning certain special items?” Zhang Xuan frowned.
He didn’t have much of an understanding of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe. After studying the altar for some time, he was still unable to make sense out of it, so he could only return it to his storage ring.
After which, he rummaged through the items in the storage rings once more, and a pile of books appeared before his eyes.
Upon glancing at them, Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up. Are these… books on the study of souls?
To his delight, the pile of books before his eyes were all related to the cultivation of souls.
Beyond Spiritual Perception realm, the importance of one’s soul became more and more important. As Saint realm 4-dan experts, it was normal for these two to have a handful of books on the topic in their possession.
After collecting them into the Library of Heaven’s Path with a glance, Zhang Xuan began to browse through the books.
However, a frown soon emerged on his forehead. Something is wrong here. Didn’t the soul oracles pledge loyalty to the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe back then? It follows that the soul cultivation techniques that the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe possess should be superior to those of mankind… but why are there so many mistakes in here?
Those soul cultivation technique manuals were extremely flawed, each of them having over several thousand mistakes. It was truly a wonder those fellows had managed to cultivate their souls safely.
He had thought that the soul cultivation techniques of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe would be far superior to those he could procure from the Master Teacher Continent, allowing him to advance his soul cultivation further through them. However, that clearly wasn’t the case.
If he were to cultivate using their soul cultivation techniques, even if his cultivation didn’t go berserk, it would also be extremely weak, possibly collapsing at any moment.
Zhang Xuan shook his head. Perhaps it is due to humans and the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe being of two different species, so the soul cultivation techniques do not overlap.
This was the only logical explanation he could come up with at the moment.
During the time he spent studying the items within the storage ring, the puppets slew all fifty of the Otherworldly Demons trapped within the formation and returned with their storage rings in hand.
Searching through them, Zhang Xuan gathered quite a few artifacts, spirit stones, and a handful of books regarding souls as well.
After dealing with that, he calmly retracted the Beguilement Formation and had the puppets clear up the corpses of the Otherworldly Demons. After which, he assumed his disguise as the Goldenleaf King and stood on the spot.
There were more than two hundred Otherworldly Demons, and he had only killed fifty of them thus far. There were still another a hundred and fifty or so combing the area. Since Zhang Xuan had begun making his move, he had to make sure to eliminate all of them to be safe.
Standing on the spot, it didn’t take long for the Otherworldly Demons to return one by one.
Zhang Xuan had the Saint realm 3-dan puppets lying in wait in the surroundings, and the arriving Otherworldly Demons would be instantly killed and removed from the spot by them. Knowing that these ordinary soldiers couldn’t possibly know anything about the secrets concerning the seal, Zhang Xuan couldn’t be bothered to interrogate them either.
Within just four hours, the Otherworldly Demon scouting party was completely annihilated.
I should take a look at the seal now…
He had already found out where the seal was located from Lu Feng and the others earlier.
After eradicating all of the Otherworldly Demons, he began making his way toward the seal.
…
Hu!
In a small valley within the Subterranean Gallery, a group of master teachers had removed their Concealment Formation with a sharp glint in their eyes.
They were Lu Feng and the others.
After the past few hours of recuperation, they had recovered most of their strength. There were some severe injuries that they couldn’t resolve at the moment yet, but that couldn’t be helped.
“Since we have recovered considerably from our injuries, we should head over to help!”
“Indeed, Zhang shi won’t be able to deal with so many Otherworldly Demons alone. Even if he does possess some life preservation means, his true strength is still a little too weak. I fear that he might meet with danger!”
“He risked so much in order to save us, so how can we simply watch idly as he braves through a dangerous situation alone?”
“No matter what, we should head over to take a look first!”
…
The master teachers stood up with a resolute gaze in their eyes.
Zhang shi had willingly gotten himself in deep trouble in order to save them, not giving up on them despite the trouble they had caused him. How could they simply sit still, knowing that he was in a perilous situation?
Seeing that everyone shared the same opinion, Lu Feng said, “Since that’s the case, let’s go look for him together.”
Even though he wasn’t the eldest master teacher amid the group, he had the highest standing and strongest cultivation. On top of that, he was an old acquaintance of Zhang shi, so naturally, he had the greatest say as well.
“Alright!”
The crowd nodded as they took out their weapons and began making their way over to the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe’s base.
The further they flew, the stranger they found the situation to be. Eventually, a master teacher couldn’t help but ask, “Weird, why is there no movement at all? Furthermore, did you all notice that the killing intent in the area seems to have thinned?”
Each of them had been in the Subterranean Gallery for at least two months, so they had gained some understanding of its layout. The killing intent within the Subterranean Gallery was known to be particularly concentrated in this area, creating a constant, heavy pressure on them.
However, that pressure seemed to have weakened considerably, to the point where they could hardly feel it anymore.
And more importantly, if Zhang shi had truly gone to eradicate the Otherworldly Demons in the area… how could there be no movement at all? Not a single Otherworldly Demon, who were supposed to be combing the area for them, was in sight.
A slightly older master teacher of the group said, “There is something peculiar with the situation. Everyone, remain on guard!”
The others nodded in response as the group carried on.
Not too long later, they arrived at the base constructed by the Otherworldly Demons.
They had tried to scout it on numerous occasions, but each time, they would either be discovered or fall to its formation. Over the past two years, there were at least ten of their comrades who had died due to it.
But at this very moment… there was not a person to be seen. More importantly, the grand buildings, which had once stood tall, had been reduced to rubble.
“These buildings…”
Everyone was dumbstruck.
Scattering to comb the area for clues, a master teacher suddenly shouted, “Come over, look! What is this?”
Hearing his shout, the others hurriedly rushed over as well.
On the ground before that master teacher was a puddle of blood that carried overwhelming killing intent, completely different from the blood of a human.
Lu Feng walked over and sliced the ground beneath the puddle of blood lightly with his finger.
Huala!
A bunch of corpses that were hidden in the ground came into appearance. Stacked on top of one another, there were more than two hundred of them. To the astonishment of the master teachers, even the strongest two Kings were among them.
“T-this… they are all dead?”
“Could it be that… Zhang shi actually killed all of them?”
“How could that be possible? More than two hundred Saint realm 1-dan and two Saint realm 4-dan Otherworldly Demons… Even if all of the elders of the Master Teacher Academy were brought here, there is no guarantee that we could win. For a person to do it all alone…”
…
Everyone was bewildered by the sight before their eyes.
Having fought with the Otherworldly Demons on multiple occasions, they knew full well how powerful they were. Even with the entire force of Hongyuan Empire combined, it would be difficult to achieve a victory against them. Yet, for Zhang shi to have annihilated them singlehandedly… and within such a short period of time at that…
How did he do it?
“I can now confirm that he is indubitably Zhang Xuan; only he is capable of pulling off such inconceivable feats that others dare not even imagine,” Lu Feng said with a bitter smile.
If he had still harbored some doubts before, the sight before his eyes had vanquished all of them.
He couldn’t imagine anyone else in the world who could pull off such an unbelievable deed other than that unfathomable young man.
With just a Perfect Harmonization to Ethereal Treading realm cultivation back then, he had been able to raise a huge ruckus in the Master Teacher Academy, unimpeded by anyone. Considering that he had already reached Half-Saint pinnacle at this point in time, it went without saying that those Otherworldly Demons couldn’t have been a match for him.
“Slaying so many Otherworldly Demons and foiling their ploy… the contribution he has earned from this deed is tremendous! We have to report this matter to the headquarters swiftly so that Zhang shi’s deeds will be not be buried,” a master teacher said.
“Indeed!” The others nodded in agreement.
Protecting mankind from the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe wasn’t an individual’s responsibility but the collective responsibility of the entire human race.
A person who had killed so many Otherworldly Demons and foiled their plot would surely be generously rewarded by the headquarters. There was no one who could refute that.
It was based on such impartiality that the Master Teacher Pavilion had been able to operate for several ten thousand years without its reputation being sullied.
Lu Feng nodded. “Alright, I will report the matter then.”
…
While the master teachers were intending to report Zhang Xuan’s contribution to the headquarters, the person in question finally halted his footsteps.
He had arrived at the very end of the Subterranean Gallery, where the barrier that severed the connection between the otherworldly battlefield and the Master Teacher Continent was located.
From a distance away, one could see that it was a vast light barrier that stretched for several hundred kilometers, sealing the entire path, blurring whatever was on the opposite end.
But walking up to the barrier, Zhang Xuan could still feel concentrated killing intent spilling forth from the other side from time to time, seemingly trying to rip apart everything.
The cold aura within the Subterranean Gallery had probably come to be after innumerable years of such killing intent spilling over.
This is the seal? Examining the light barrier before him, Zhang Xuan couldn’t help but narrow his eyes in astonishment.
It was even more formidable and sturdier than he had thought. For one of his strength, his attacks wouldn’t even leave a mark on it.
Such a powerful seal, how did the Otherworldly Demons and the Greenleaf King bypass it? Zhang Xuan couldn’t help but be perplexed.
He could still have understood it if the seal was worn out or damaged, but the seal before him felt powerful and wholesome. In other words, it wasn’t damaged at all! How did the Otherworldly Demons manage to bypass it under such circumstances?
Baffled, Zhang Xuan willed in his mind, Flaws!
