Shi Wanshan, standing at the forefront of the team with his hands clasped behind his back, appeared calm, but a cold glint hid in the depths of his eyes.
He stared at the Demon Extinguishing Cauldron in the hands of the Demonic Heaven Sect's patriarch, then glanced at the swaying Blood Soul Banner held by the Blood Soul Sect's patriarch, his fingertips gently forming incantation seals within his sleeves.
He secretly sent a voice transmission to Li Xuanfeng: "Don't panic, hold your ground. The patriarch already has a plan. Let's steady our formation first and wait until Ruobai and the others come out."
Receiving the transmission, Li Xuanfeng's tense shoulders relaxed slightly, but he still didn't withdraw his spiritual energy. He truly couldn't set his mind at ease; those were five peak King Realm patriarchs along with two Saint Weapons. Even with their patriarch's protection, the risk was still immense.
Meanwhile, in the dense forest of a side peak overlooking the valley, a figure stood quietly.
The Fifth Patriarch had taken off his Azure Profound Sect disciple uniform and changed into a set of dark, form-fitting martial attire. His originally honest and simple features were now as sharp as a blade. His aura was completely concealed, making him seem to blend seamlessly with the dense forest.
He looked at the five demonic sect patriarchs throwing their weight around in the valley, a cold smirk curling the corner of his mouth. "Truly courting death. Just a few slightly larger ants, yet they dare to target the disciples of the Azure Profound Sect. Do they think my Azure Profound Sect has no one left?"
Inside the bamboo pavilion on Purple Bamboo Peak, a water mirror clearly reflected the scene in the valley.
Xuanyangzi gripped his jade talisman, his beard trembling with anger.
"These demonic brats are going too far! Five peak King Realm experts bullying two juniors, and they even brought out Saint Weapons! No, what if the Fifth Patriarch can't handle it? I need to go support him!"
Gu Changge raised his hand and gently pressed down on his wrist. His fingertips carried a trace of slightly cool spiritual energy, and his tone remained as flat and unrippled as ever.
"Senior brother, calm down. Let's just watch and see how things unfold."
Xuanyangzi paused his movements and turned to look at Gu Changge.
Seeing him holding a teacup, his gaze resting on the water mirror without a single trace of anxiety between his brows, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Right, Ruobai and Hanyu were Gu Changge's personal disciples. How could a master sit still like a fisherman while watching his disciples fall into danger?
For him to be this composed, he must definitely have a backup plan.
"Patriarch!" Mo Luo and Xue Wushang hurriedly stepped forward and bowed in greeting, their postures respectful to the extreme.
The First Patriarch of the Demonic Heaven Sect swept his gaze over their miserable states, his voice as cold as ice.
"Trash! You can't even deal with two Cave Heaven Realm cultivators, forcing us old bones to personally take action!"
The Second Patriarch of the Blood Soul Sect, however, was in no mood to scold. His eyes were fixed dead on the entrance to the secret realm, the Blood Soul Banner vibrating gently at his fingertips.
"Don't waste time. The spiritual energy of the secret realm is dissipating faster and faster; those two brats could come out at any moment. Once we catch them, we'll first force them to reveal the method to control the Heaven Reaching Pagoda, and then torture them slowly!"
Right at this moment, a violent tremor suddenly came from the entrance of the secret realm. The pale golden light patterns began to dim, and the surrounding space faintly distorted—clearly, the secret realm could no longer hold on and was about to sink into the spatial rift.
Inside the secret realm, Xiao Ruobai and Fang Hanyu were standing in the exit passage. Feeling the overwhelming demonic energy and peak King Realm pressure outside, their faces darkened.
"Senior brother, there are at least five peak King Realm experts outside, as well as the auras of Saint Weapons..."
Fang Hanyu gripped his Flowing Frost Sword tightly, his voice carrying a trace of solemnity.
Xiao Ruobai nodded, golden light glowing in his palm as the phantom of the Heaven Reaching Pagoda slowly materialized in front of him.
"The secret realm won't last much longer. Even if it's a dragon's pool or a tiger's den outside, we have to go out. This Heaven Reaching Pagoda can draw upon spatial power and temporarily block the attacks of Saint Weapons. We'll figure out a way once we're out."
As soon as he finished speaking, the gate of light at the end of the passage suddenly began to collapse, with rubble rustling down.
The two no longer hesitated. Xiao Ruobai kept the Heaven Reaching Pagoda guarding his front, and Fang Hanyu followed closely behind as they charged out of the secret realm's exit together.
"They're out!"
Mo Luo shouted first, his voice full of excitement.
A hint of ruthlessness flashed in the eyes of the Demonic Heaven Sect's First Patriarch. He raised his hand and hurled the Demon Extinguishing Cauldron. The pitch-black cauldron expanded wildly in midair, smashing fiercely toward Xiao Ruobai.
"Brat! Hand over the Heaven Reaching Pagoda, and I'll spare your life!"
The Blood Soul Sect's patriarch also made his move at the same time. With a wave of the Blood Soul Banner, countless blood shadows condensed into a giant blood claw that grabbed straight at Xiao Ruobai's heart.
The combined pressure of the two Saint Weapons caused the surrounding air to freeze, making even the cultivators watching from afar feel suffocated.
Xiao Ruobai didn't dare to be careless. He poured all his spiritual energy into the Heaven Reaching Pagoda. The pagoda's golden light surged, transforming into a massive shield of light that forcefully blocked the combined strike of the two Saint Weapons.
"Bang—"
The moment the golden light collided with the demonic energy and blood shadows, the energy aftershocks spread outwards. The rocks in the valley were instantly crushed into powder, and over two hundred demonic cultivators were forced back repeatedly, many coughing up blood.
"This Heaven Reaching Pagoda is indeed peculiar!"
The Second Patriarch of the Demonic Heaven Sect narrowed his eyes. "Don't hold back! Channel the Saint Weapons with all your might and break his defense!"
Just as the Fifth Patriarch gathered spiritual energy at his fingertips and was about to strike, a sharp but not ear-piercing cry suddenly rang out. Little Black on Xiao Ruobai's shoulder actually moved at this moment.
In an instant, Little Black transformed into a giant bird thousands of feet long. Time inside and outside the valley seemed to have been put on pause.
The hand of the Demonic Heaven Sect's First Patriarch holding the Demon Extinguishing Cauldron suddenly froze. The pitch-black cauldron was still radiating a fierce demonic light, but only the sky-blotting shadow of the giant bird remained in his pupils. He even forgot to regulate his breathing.
Having lived for nearly two thousand years, he had climbed from an errand boy of the Demonic Heaven Sect to the position of patriarch. He had seen Saints from Holy Lands take action and had fought to the death with King Realm experts, but never for a moment had he been terrified to the point of his soul trembling by pure pressure like now.
It was a terrifying aura far surpassing the Saint Realm, as if it came from the primordial antiquity. Just the wind whipped up by its wings suppressed the demonic energy in his body, causing it to stagnate inch by inch.
"Th-this is a primordial ferocious bird?!"
The voice of the Blood Soul Sect's patriarch cracked, and the hand holding the Blood Soul Banner trembled uncontrollably.
The vengeful souls on the banner's surface had been roaring and pouncing toward the secret realm's entrance, but now they huddled together like mice encountering their natural predator, not daring to show the slightest bit of ferocity.
He wanted to channel his Saint Weapon to defend himself, but his spiritual energy had only circulated halfway to his fingertips before it was forcefully driven back into his dantian by the giant bird's pressure, sending a tearing agony through his meridians.
Little Black's crimson, slit-like pupils slowly swept over the five demonic sect patriarchs. Without any superfluous movements, the moment its sharp beak opened slightly, a faint black soundwave spread out silently.
The first to suffer was the Demon Extinguishing Cauldron.
This sect-guarding Saint Weapon, which had accompanied the Demonic Heaven Sect for thousands of years and had once forcefully withstood a strike from a Saint Realm expert, now trembled violently in the soundwave.
The demonic patterns on the cauldron dimmed and cracked at a visible rate. Finally, with a crisp crack, it shattered into countless black fragments. Even the demonic souls sealed inside were crushed by the soundwave, not leaving a single wisp of black smoke behind.
Seeing this, the First Patriarch of the Demonic Heaven Sect spewed out a mouthful of black blood. He pointed at the giant bird, wanting to say something, but couldn't even spit out a single complete word.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
