Chapter 438: Void Anomaly

Hearing Qin Ming's instruction, Han Yuan and Liu Ye both immediately let out a long sigh of relief.

It seemed this Nascent Soul senior had just happened to pass by; his temperament was fairly normal, and their two lives were finally saved.

However, as Han Yuan gazed at the appearance of the Lingxiao Precious Carriage, thoughts churned and surged in his mind: a third-stage late-period Profound Water Giant Crocodile pulling the carriage, combined with such a youthful countenance, and piecing together the various rumors from before.

Furthermore, the other party had arrived from the direction of the Southern Wild Immortal Realm.

Subconsciously, he connected these dots to realize which senior expert stood before him.

'All these characteristics indicate that the senior before us must be the Wangyue Qin Zhenjun, whose name is causing an uproar across all the major Immortal Realms!'

Han Yuan and his companion were extremely excited, never expecting to encounter such a monumental figure.

Given Wangyue Qin Zhenjun's reputation, their safety was naturally guaranteed.

"Yes! Senior Qin Zhenjun, we will immediately lead you there."

Han Yuan and Liu Ye responded with utmost reverence, speaking carefully and cautiously.

"Mm, lead the way."

"As for those demonic cultivators' storage bags, they belong to you two."

Having said this, Qin Ming sat back inside the carriage.

Nowadays, he no longer cared for the meager possessions of Foundation Establishment cultivators.

"Thank you, my lord Qin Zhenjun!"

Han Yuan and his companion were instantly overjoyed and extremely excited; they quickly cleaned up the scene and then led the way, departing from this place.

Shortly after.

After flying for a little less than half a day.

Han Yuan and his companion brought Qin Ming to the vicinity of a barren canyon, where the ground was covered in dark, scorched soil, as if contaminated and eroded by demonic energy.

Within a radius of ten li, there was absolutely no sign of life.

"My lord Qin Zhenjun, the Void Anomaly is just ahead—"

Han Yuan was about to turn back and report to Qin Ming when he saw that the Lingxiao Precious Carriage, which had been following behind, had vanished without a trace, as if it had disappeared into thin air...

Clang clang!

"Hurry up for this seat! Before we are discovered, quickly construct the Reception Platform and prepare to welcome the descent of Qishang Mojun!"

A bald burly man, bare-chested and covered in pitch-black demonic tattoos, emitted a Jin Dan level of magic power aura.

With his explosive shout, the numerous low-ranking demonic cultivators busy in the canyon accelerated their work.

"Yes! Lord Demon Envoy!"

The bald burly man then shouted at his subordinates, "Any news from those two fellows, Green Scale and Blood Blade?"

"They merely went to hunt down two Foundation Establishment cultivators; why have they been gone so long?"

"Reporting to Lord Demon Envoy, the two seniors have not yet sent back any message," a subordinate below said trembling with fear, terrified that a slight mistake might offend this figure and get himself killed.

Just at this moment.

The bald burly man suddenly felt a strange sensation, then took out a demonic-blood token from his robe; after reading it, his expression changed abruptly.

"How is this possible? Blood Blade and Green Scale, along with the people they took, have been completely annihilated."

At the same time.

Qin Ming had already arrived above the canyon; he slightly released his divine sense to sweep the area, grasping the situation here with perfect clarity.

'There is only one Jin Dan demonic cultivator here, along with several dozen disciples of the Demonic Sect, still busy constructing what they call the "Reception Platform."'

The black stone platform in the center of the canyon must be used to receive demonic cultivators descending from another realm.

Qin Ming directly ignored these members of the Blood Refining Demonic Sect and fixed his gaze on a spot in the void above the canyon.

There, a pitch-black void rift spanning several zhang in size appeared in the shape of a vortex, continuously spewing out demonic energy as if to swallow and dissolve everything that fell into it, reducing it to nothingness.

Even Qin Ming's divine sense, upon entering it, vanished without a trace in an instant; near this void rift, two other slightly smaller void rifts also existed.

Those demonic sect disciples were currently on the nearby rocks, setting up formations and carving demonic runes, embedding coordinate stones into them.

"So this is the so-called 'Void Anomaly'."

Qin Ming was surprised; he immediately took out a recording jade slip and documented the entire situation here.

"Who goes there?!"

Qin Ming made no attempt to hide his figure, coming here openly to record the anomaly as if walking through an uninhabited land.

Naturally, any person with eyes could see him, let alone those demonic cultivators.

That bald Jin Dan demonic cultivator shouted in anger and flew over to investigate the situation.

But when the bald burly man released his divine sense to sweep across the area.

He saw only a young human cultivator standing suspended in mid-air, emitting not a shred of magic power aura, appearing just like an ordinary mortal; such a bizarre scene left the bald burly man utterly astonished, since clearly an ordinary mortal could not do such a thing.

Then there was only one possibility.

"A Nascent Soul great expert!"

A terrifying thought arose in the bald burly man's mind.

Just as he was about to retreat by flying away, a terrifying force of divine sense firmly locked onto his entire being.

The entire space around him seemed compressed by some kind of power, and the bald burly man instantly felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

He was frozen in mid-air, unable to move.

As for those Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators constructing the black high platform, upon seeing Qin Ming's appearance, they one after another dropped what they held and fled in panic, choosing any path but the right one.

However, in the next instant.

They were entangled by numerous black vines emerging from the void, and in a flash, their essence blood was sucked dry, turning them into dried corpses.

"S-Senior, spare my life!" the bald burly man begged with the last ounce of his strength.

He could not understand why, just after descending from another realm, they had encountered such a great cultivator; their luck was truly terrible.

Qin Ming gazed at him expressionlessly, placed one hand on the bald man's head, and began to employ the Soul-Searching Technique.

As Qin Ming's divine soul power invaded, the bald man let out a scream of excruciating agony.

Qin Ming turned a blind eye to this and continued searching the soul.

Just as his divine soul power was about to invade the bald man's sea of consciousness, a strange blood-colored restriction lit up within that sea of consciousness, poised to detonate within the bald man's divine soul.

"So it is this thing causing trouble." Qin Ming finally understood what kind of tampering the Blood Refinement Demon Sect had performed on the divine souls of these true disciples.

Having now become a Nascent Soul True Monarch, his magical abilities and means were far beyond comparison, naturally incomparable to what they were during his Jin Dan stage.

Qin Ming's divine sense abruptly condensed, instantly erasing that blood-colored restriction.

"Aaaah!"

The bald man screamed in terror and agony; without that blood-colored restriction, the endless pain originating from the soul level made him wish for death rather than life.

Half an incense stick later, that bald-headed Jin Dan demonic cultivator was searched to death by Qin Ming.

Qin Ming did not waste anything; he cast the Thorn Technique to turn the corpse into a blood pearl, then stored away the storage bag as well.

By the time he finished handling these matters, Han Yuan and the other arrived belatedly behind him; seeing that Qin Ming had already swept everything away with thunderous means, they could not help but sigh with emotion.

They witnessed a Jin Dan great expert who was about to flee at the first sign of trouble being dealt with by Qin Ming even more simply than crushing an ant.

From the bald man's mind, Qin Ming also obtained much useful information; for instance, the method to break the Blood Ring Curse Seal was actually held only in the hands of Nascent Soul Demon Monarchs.

"This is somewhat troublesome."

Based on the information gained from searching the soul, Qin Ming currently knew that within the Blood Refinement Demon Sect, at least three Nascent Soul Demon Monarchs had successfully descended realms and had already arrived in the Human Realm.

Among them, the one with the highest cultivation was a mid-stage Nascent Soul demonic cultivator named 'Heavenly Fiend Demon Monarch'.

As for the Blood Universe Realm, besides the Blood Refinement Demon Sect, this Huashenzong Sect, there were also four other major powers: 'Ghost Nether Hall', 'Wan Hun Ya', 'Boundless Mountain', and 'Longevity Observatory'.

The other four major Huashenzong Sects had successively descended into the other several major Immortal Realms within the Human Realm.

Among these five major powers in the Blood Universe Realm, the Blood Refinement Demon Sect was the strongest.

Currently, the territories of the three kingdoms in Central Province and the Beast Roar Mountain Range all fell within the scope of the Blood Refinement Demon Sect's realm descent.

Qin Ming pondered slightly.

"A mid-stage Nascent Soul Demon Monarch... actually, it is not too bad; after all, I possess a killing threshold of over four thousand years, so as long as it is not a demonic cultivator with an absurdly high realm of magical abilities, or a Soul Transformation Demon Venerable descending, I should be able to handle them with ease."

"No matter how strong a Nascent Soul Demon Monarch is, their lifespan does not exceed two thousand years."

Thinking of this, Qin Ming felt slightly more at ease in his heart.

"But relying on burning life span indefinitely is ultimately not a proper solution; I must raise my cultivation and strengthen my magical abilities and secret arts as soon as possible."

Qin Ming also learned from searching the bald man's soul that:

The so-called realm descent occurs when spiritual tides converge between interfaces among the three thousand small worlds below the Spirit Realm, creating a certain probability of opening void rift passages between the two realms.

When two small worlds undergo interface convergence, their scale, size, and duration vary; some exist for only ten years, while others may continue for several decades, or even hundreds of years.

As the void rifts continue to expand, not only will cultivators be able to travel freely through the void passages, but also everyone from low-ranking demonic cultivators up to Soul Transformation Venerables.

They would not even need realm descent talismans anymore.

Qin Ming's eyes flickered uncertainly: "It seems the void anomaly in the Blood Universe Realm has undergone a sudden change, evolving into a realm descent of such scale; it will likely continue for several decades, or even a hundred years, and probably will not end in the short term."

He stopped overthinking, immediately waved his hand casually, and destroyed the reception platform and formation beneath the void anomaly.

In the Blood Universe Realm, atop the Blood Refinement Demon Sect's realm descent high platform.

A burly and tall Demon Monarch was preparing to use the high platform for realm descent, emitting the spiritual pressure of a mid-stage Nascent Soul.

But in the next moment.

Only to see a burst of Bai Guang suddenly erupt from a certain void rift within the endless abyss below, followed by everything scattering apart.

The burly man's gaze was extremely sharp as he asked coldly, "What problem has occurred?"

"Reporting to my lord Qishang Mojun, the reception platform we established near the void passage in the Human Realm seems... seems to have been destroyed by someone."

"Contact has been lost."

A disciple of the Blood Refinement Demon Sect, seeing this big shot flying into a thunderous rage, answered cautiously.

Qishang Mojun snorted coldly: "Then do you still have the face to come see this seat?"

"Daring to delay this seat's descent to the lower realm!"

He made a virtual grab with his five fingers, instantly sucking the essence blood dry from that Jin Dan demonic cultivator who was reporting, turning him into a pile of withered bones.

"My lord Demon Monarch, spare my life! No!"

"Ugh-ah!"

In the Beast Roar Mountain Range, Qin Ming employed some means, attempting to destroy the void rift before him.

However, the resulting outcome was somewhat unexpected to him.

These rift passages drifting within the void seemed impossible to completely destroy using ordinary means.

However, without the reception platform, when demonic cultivators from the Blood Universe Realm descended through the void passage, it would become extremely unstable.

Rashly passing through the void passage could even pose the danger of death and the extinction of one's Dao.

Therefore, destroying the reception platform could temporarily prevent the demonic cultivators on the other side from descending.

"Thank you, my lord True Monarch, for taking action; otherwise, if more demonic cultivators came down, the consequences would be unimaginable." Han Yuan and the other bowed deeply to Qin Ming, offering thanks from the bottom of their hearts.

Qin Ming said indifferently, "It is nothing, merely a handy deed."

"By the way, you two came here to execute a mission; is there a base camp nearby?"

"Reporting to my lord True Monarch, indeed there is; ten thousand li away from here lies the main camp of the Dao-Protecting Alliance established to deal with realm descent—'Wei Yuan City'." Han Yuan replied respectfully.

Qin Ming asked indifferently, "Who is the person in charge within Wei Yuan City?"

"Reporting to my lord True Monarch, Wei Yuan City is the Dao-Protecting Alliance's primary city for resisting the demonic path; currently, it is under the command of Elder Qian of the Off-Li Huogong, and if there are special emergency situations, senior Nascent Soul True Monarchs of the Dao-Protecting Alliance will also come to command the battle situation." Han Yuan dared not hide the slightest detail and replied thoroughly.

Qin Ming pondered for a moment or two, "Hmm, take this seat to Wei Yuan City."

"Yes!"

Han Yuan had just agreed when he was suddenly startled, finding himself swept up by a force and immediately flown away from this place.

Two days later.

A magnificent, huge Xian City appeared in Qin Ming's line of sight; this was 'Weiyuan City' as Han Yuan had called it.

Weiyuan City's geographical location lay at the strategic pass between the Southern Wild Immortal Realm and the Beast Roar Mountain Range, situated at the junction of two massive mountain ranges.

They had just arrived outside Weiyuan City when a golden streak of light shot out from within the city, coming to a steady halt before Qin Ming's Lingxiao Palanquin.

"Qian Yue of the Brother Li Huo Palace pays his respects to True Lord Wangyue!!"

Sitting inside the carriage, Qin Ming cast a faint glance at Hua Tianxiong, this great backer of his.

Elder Qian possessed crane-white hair and a youthful face, yet radiated vitality with his spirit concealed within; his cultivation had reached the peak of the Jin Dan stage.

According to Hua Tianxiong, Elder Qian was now, within the Great Jin Immortal Realm, one of the top ten figures among all cultivators, second only to Nascent Soul True Lords.

Clearly, this Elder Qian had recognized his pomp and circumstance, coming out to welcome him from afar.

"Oh? So it is Elder Qian of the Brother Li Huo Palace. Are there any other Nascent Soul cultivators currently stationed within Weiyuan City? This seat has matters to discuss," Qin Ming said faintly from inside the carriage.

Hearing this, Elder Qian felt a chill in his heart and immediately replied, "Reporting to Senior Qin, currently only the night shift is on duty in Weiyuan City; if you have urgent business, please feel free to let this junior convey the message."

"The Old Ancestors of the Wei Dao Alliance can arrive within a single day."

"Mm, convey a message on behalf of this seat, saying that I have urgent matters to discuss," Qin Ming's voice drifted out faintly.

"This junior obeys True Lord Wangyue's instructions!"

Elder Qian dared not show the slightest negligence and hurriedly assented.

Qin Ming also found it somewhat amusing; he had never expected that one day he could casually command Hua Tianxiong, this great backer of his. "Han Yuan, Liu Ye, the two of you have performed great merit on this occasion; hurry to the Steward Hall to claim your merits."

After understanding the full story, Elder Qian realized that all of this was due to the immense fortune and fate of these two individuals.

However, during their exchange, drawing upon his deep experience in worldly affairs, Elder Qian perceived that True Lord Wangyue intended to shield Han Yuan and the other, so he immediately and tactfully did them a favor.

Subsequently, Elder Qian, with extreme reverence, invited Qin Ming into Weiyuan City and arranged superior guest quarters for his residence.

Only one day later.

A crimson rainbow arrived from the distance in an instant, revealing the figure of the Brother Li Huo Superior.

(End of Chapter)