Chapter 228

Tao Ming narrowed his eyes; a huge aura spread out, heaven and earth, everyone's heart jumped, shocked by the terrifying aura that suddenly erupted from the Void Refinement Great Perfection.

The words 'black metal' struck a nerve; Zhao Tianlei, who had just returned from the wasteland following the envoy, already knew what those black metals were.

So when Guan Yi mentioned the black metal beneath the Cangyun Mountain Range, he immediately realized something was wrong. Only he knew what consequences would follow if the Demon‑Sealing Stone were lost.

Speak! Who dares to defy the Alliance's order and secretly dig up those black metals? Speak!

Furious, Zhao Tianlei could no longer suppress his own Dao aura; the might of a mid‑stage Spirit Transformation exploded. Nascent Soul cultivators were still fine, but Golden Core cultivators couldn't help but hastily retreat.

Guan Yi, under pressure, spoke: "Reporting to the Alliance Leader, it was Jin Fu, He Hao, and others who acted together; I also learned of it unintentionally. Although I don't know what those metals are, I know that since the Alliance ordered it, they must be extremely important, so I dare not conceal it!"

Zhao Tianlei's face turned icy cold; he gave Guan Yi a cold glance, then turned his gaze to Tie Zhan and directly gave the order:

Tie Zhan, swiftly apprehend all those involved!

Tie Zhan loudly acknowledged the order, then sent a mental message telling Wang Ping to wait here, while he himself shot up into the sky.

As Tie Zhan departed, for a moment heaven and earth fell into an eerie silence.

Until Tao Ming spoke: "Daoist Zhao, may I first go take a look at the Cangyun Mountain Range?"

Zhao Tianlei hesitated a moment, then nodded. Just then, the jade pendant at his waist began to flash incessantly; he suddenly had a bad premonition, threw the pendant, and a burst of spiritual power shot out.

Then a cultivator clad in black spiritual armor appeared in the air.

Ancestor! The Cangyun Mountain Range has encountered an anomaly; vast amounts of purple smoke are rising from the ground, already shrouding half the range, and anyone enveloped by the black mist loses all vitality.

Over a thousand Golden Core cultivators have died! Moreover, the purple smoke is still spreading; at this rate, within three days it will blanket the entire Cangyun Mountain Range and continue to spread outward.

Whoosh!

Whether Nascent Soul or Golden Core cultivators, their faces drastically changed; over a thousand Golden Core cultivators have died, an event that hasn't occurred in thousands of years.

The key is they didn't die in battle but from the so‑called purple mist; upon hearing the news, all cultivators felt apprehensive toward the unseen purple mist.

Zhao Tianlei's face grew even icier, Tao Ming's expression also grim, and he directly said: "Daoist Zhao, there's no delay; let's go!"

A golden flash appeared, and Zhao Wují and the others vanished once again.

Wang Ping stood at the back, hearing the news, equally shocked, and directly asked in his sea of consciousness:

"Lord Transcendence, do you know what that purple mist is, that it possesses such power?"

Silver Stone Gate: 【Nothing much, just a leak of the Demon Emperor's Dao aura; rest assured, the old man from the Spirit Realm can handle it. However, the more troublesome part is that we don't know whether the Demon Emperor has escaped; if he really has, I advise you to enter the Spirit Realm as soon as possible!】

Wang Ping felt shocked in his heart; if merely a leak of the Demon Emperor's aura already wields such power, then should he truly emerge, this realm would have nothing capable of resisting him!

Even though he usually remains indifferent, facing this matter he cannot help but feel tense; now the envoy from the Spirit Realm has already departed, and we do not know whether they have a solution.

Now that such a thing has occurred, before the incident is fully investigated, nobody dares to leave privately.

Nascent Soul cultivators re‑entered the pavilion; before departing, many of them glanced down at Guan Yi.

Wang Ping, being sensible, did not go in again, and everyone waited silently for the outcome.

After receiving the order, Tie Zhan directly commanded the closure of the Alliance entrance, then mobilized the Alliance's formations; immediately afterwards, via token transmission, he ordered the remaining Golden Core cultivators to act and seize the several individuals on Guan Yi's list.

By the time he arrived, a total of eight people had been apprehended in a square.

Whoosh! Tie Zhan descended from high altitude, and everyone bowed in salute, saying: "Greetings, Lord True Monarch!"

Tie Zhan waved his hand, looking at the few people on the ground who had been sealed and were unable to move, and directly asked: "What's going on?"

Reporting, sir, these several people seem to have lost their minds; when we went to apprehend them, their eyes glowed purple, their expressions were somewhat strange, and they frenziedly attacked us, injuring five fellow cultivators; left with no choice, we subdued them and placed a binding seal.

Purple light?

A flash of surprise crossed Tie Zhan's eyes; he thought of what Guan Yi had said about the purple mist, perhaps they had already been mentally controlled, Tie Zhan thus thought. Nevertheless, he said:

Loosen Jin Fu's seal!

Yes!

With Lord War Commander present, no one hesitated, directly undoing the seal on Jin Fu's body.

As for Jin Fu, Tie Zhan still retained some impression; in the Alliance, he was regarded as a promising disciple possessing the aptitude to form a Nascent Soul.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

As soon as Jin Fu's seal was undone, he directly let out a mad roar, shouting the word 'kill' three times in succession!

His eyes burst with purple light, and his nails turned slender and elongated.

Seeing Jin Fu's appearance, Tie Zhan already knew his mind was lost; he could not elicit any words from him.

Lock them all away in the heavenly prison! Keep them under strict watch! Tie Zhan said.

Yes! Lord War Commander!

On the other side, Tao Ming and the others had already arrived deep within the Cangyun Mountain Range, gazing at the mist continually spreading in the distance; Zhao Tianlei and the other cultivators wore solemn expressions, someone extended his divine sense, and upon contact with the mist his divine sense actually suffered a slight loss.

"What an overbearing purple mist! It can even slightly corrode the divine sense of a Spirit Transformation cultivator!"

Tao Ming then said: "I will take this direction, Daoist Zhao will take another, the remaining two will pair up, and we will divide into eight directions to compress these mists."

These individuals are all Spirit Transformation cultivators, their mobility unmatched; once everyone had taken their eight positions, they all stirred their spiritual power, using their own spiritual power to continually squeeze the mist toward the center.

The spiritual power of Spirit Transformation cultivators can already be described as vast; although the purple mist can corrode their spiritual power, it does so very slowly.

When they had compressed all the mist into a size of ten zhang, at that moment the purple mist had already turned into liquid!

At that moment, Tao Ming slapped his storage bag, a white jade bottle appeared in the high air, and under Tao Ming's control the bottle's mouth was already aimed at the purple liquid.

Splash!

A sound of flowing water rang out, and the purple liquid was sucked into the jade bottle.

Within only ten breaths, not a drop of the purple liquid remained outside as it all entered the bottle, but beneath, a one‑zhang‑wide opening still revealed wisps of purple mist.

Tao Ming hesitated a moment, then jumped straight in; Zhao Tianlei followed without hesitation.

When the two reached the underground, the place was littered with white bones, and that huge, astonishing cluster of spiritual energy had vanished.

Tao Ming, at this point having no mind to worry about those things, seeing the purple mist still rising from below, directly condensed his spiritual power into a brilliant yellow palm and slammed it hard onto the ground.

Boom—

A tremor shook the earth, dust rose; when the dust settled, the traces of the two Tao Mings had vanished.

At a depth of three thousand zhang underground, Tao Ming stood on the ley line, gazing at its uneven, pitted appearance, his face grim to the utmost.

Zhao Tianlei's expression was equally unpleasant, yet he still asked, 'Envoy, I do not know whether that great formation will be affected?'

Tao Ming nodded and said, 'Indeed there is an effect, but it has not yet reached the worst case. Once the Demon‑Suppressing Stone is laid down, if taken out again it will lose its efficacy; for now we can only seal this place with the Demon‑Sealing Disk, await my report to the superiors, and then make a final decision.'

He said this to Zhao Tianlei, but the heaviness in Tao Ming's heart was known to no one. After such a long time since the incident, no one knows whether the Demon Emperor has escaped a wisp of his soul.

Tao Ming stood in place, his eyes constantly flickering; he did not know why the Demon Emperor had caused these disturbances.

The Spirit Realm has already been sealed by the immortal treasure; needless to say, even if he had only escaped a wisp of divine fire, even if his entire skull had escaped, he could not get out, only be trapped here.

Tao Ming could not understand these things, so he simply stopped thinking about them, leaving everything to be decided by the upper realm; to comprehend these matters, he directly sealed this place via the demon disk, preparing to return and await orders from the upper realm.

After an hour, Tao Ming and the others reappeared at the alliance headquarters; the long‑waiting Tie Zhan immediately went up to them and reported the investigation results to the envoy and the alliance leader.

With this incident, the welcome banquet obviously could not proceed; now the matter has been resolved, the culprit has been captured, and Wang Ping followed his master directly back to War‑Lord Peak!

A night passed without a word!

The next day, Wang Ping, who had just awakened from cultivation, received a message from Liu Xin; his first batch of resources had already been delivered, and it contained all the materials needed to cultivate the Yin Wood Divine Thunder.

With these resources he can cultivate the Yin Wood Divine Thunder.

Not long after the message arrived, Liu Xin had already come.

'Young Master, we have roughly thirty million spirit stones worth of resources here; the second batch will be delivered in three days, and the final batch will be gathered within ten days. The reason it is so slow is that some of the materials you need are relatively rare, requiring time to allocate.'

Wang Ping's expression was gentle as he smiled and said, 'Thank you for the trouble, Steward Liu!'

Liu Xin, as always cautious, said, 'It is my duty! Young Master, you need not thank me; the resources have been delivered, I will take my leave first!'

Liu Xin had just left when Tie Zhan's message arrived immediately.

Wang Ping transferred those resources into the silver magic cube, then proceeded to the War‑Lord Hall!

The War‑Lord Hall is where Tie Zhan usually holds discussions; when Wang Ping arrived, his master was already seated there waiting for him. Wang Ping bowed and then spoke:

'I do not know why the master has summoned this disciple; what are your orders?'

Tie Zhan's expression was somewhat complex, but he eventually laughed and said, 'Ping'er! In three days, prepare to enter the Spirit Realm!'

Upon hearing this news, Wang Ping stared in surprise—so soon?

Seeing his disciple's puzzled look, Tie Zhan laughed and explained, 'Three days from now, five geniuses from the Spirit Realm will be selected from the Spirit Realm to enter the Spirit Realm; your talent has already been acknowledged by the Spirit Realm envoy! At that time, Fellow Daoist Yuan will accompany you into the Spirit Realm!'

Wang Ping asked in surprise, 'Master, will you not enter the Spirit Realm?'

Tie Zhan shook his head and said, 'We cannot enter yet; in the coming days the Spirit Realm will have some events occurring. As for me and others including the alliance leader, we still need to stay behind. Once this matter passes, we will earn the right to enter the Spirit Realm according to our merits.'

Tie Zhan did not specify what those matters were, and Wang Ping did not ask. Afterwards, master and disciple engaged in their first lengthy conversation; at its end, Wang Ping begged his master to look after his friends in the western part of this place a little.

For Tie Zhan this was extremely simple, so he readily agreed.

Over the next three days, the news that Wang Ping and five others would enter the Spirit Realm spread throughout the alliance; for a time, the gate of Wang Ping's formerly deserted residence was crowded with countless Golden Core cultivators, not to mention many Nascent Soul cultivators as well.

Finally he saw Senior Zhong Peng once again.

'Young friend, I hear you have been gathering resources; I still have some here that are useless to me, so I'll just give them to you!'

Zhong Peng tossed over two storage bags with a grin; Wang Ping took them and saw that they contained exactly the heavenly materials and earthly treasures he needed.

This is worth at least around eighty million spirit stones; this heavy gift surprised Wang Ping, who immediately stood up and said, 'Senior, these gifts are too precious, junior…'

Zhong Peng chuckled and stopped Wang Ping from speaking, then said, 'I am a lone old man; these resources are already useless to me. Since that is the case, it would be better to use them to cultivate outstanding descendants for humanity. Your talent needs no mention; the most important thing is that I have an affinity with you, young friend. Otherwise, even if he were a once‑in‑ten‑thousand‑years peerless genius, I would not do this.'

To be honest, Wang Ping felt somewhat moved; he knew there is no such thing as a gratuitous investment in the world. Even though these resources are of no use to the senior, their value of roughly eighty million spirit stones, if placed in the lower realm, would absolutely be a staggering fortune.

The senior's action is certainly due to his good talent, but more importantly it is because he is about to enter the Spirit Realm; this is likely also the reason the senior gave these resources.

Just then, Tie Zhan also flew over, entered the room, and likewise handed Wang Ping two storage bags containing some resources as well.

Now Wang Ping's required resources are all gathered.

'Ping'er! I have already inquired clearly: in the Spirit Realm there is a one‑day genius ranking, divided into Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Spirit Transformation; if one can enter the top three thousand, it allows three lower‑realm cultivators to enter the Spirit Realm to train. This time the quota for entering the Spirit Realm may be greatly reduced; if you can enter the top three thousand of the Golden Core Genius Ranking, then at that time I may need your help!'

After Tie Zhan threw the storage bags to Wang Ping, he got straight to the point and said.

Wang Ping came to his senses, clutching the four storage bags worth nearly two hundred million spirit stones in his hand; he felt a mix of laughter and tears, but still said, 'Senior, rest assured; if I truly make it into the top three thousand of that genius ranking, I will certainly not forget today's kindness.'

Having said that, he turned his gaze to Tie Zhan, gave a bitter smile, and said, 'Master, you need not do this; even if you do not take these things, your disciple will still keep you in his heart!'

Tie Zhan replied impatiently, 'Take it if you're told to; although I have expectations for you, remember that once in the Spirit Realm you must not force things—if something truly cannot be done, just give up! We are master and disciple; I have not yet taught you some things, so I have left ten ways in the storage bags that can directly reach the fourth realm; study them well!'