Chapter 177: Suspected Assassins from the Human World and Hell

The probability of Zhang Xuan clashing with Qingdi does not seem very high, but it is better to be prepared; Zhang Xuan never pins his expectations on the mistakes of others.

"If I were to compete on talent alone, I probably wouldn't be Qingdi's match, and adding a Nine-Orifice Stone Man likely wouldn't suffice either."

Zhang Xuan is not being self-deprecating, but rather has a clear and profound understanding of himself; after all, for existences like Holy Spirits, which Great Emperor hasn't killed at least two of them would be too embarrassed to step out the door.

Holy Spirits are invincible under heaven, causing all races of the heavens to fear them, but precisely because of this, it further highlights the invincible majesty of the Great Emperors.

Whether it is the Ruthless Great Emperor, Void Great Emperor, Wushi Dadi, Hengyu Great Emperor, or Qingdi, they have basically all beaten Holy Spirits to death, and they were all Great Accomplishment Holy Spirits at that.

The Ruthless Great Emperor wiped out an entire Forbidden Zone composed of Holy Spirits in the Heaven-Severing Mountain Range.

Hengyu Great Emperor seems to have beaten two Holy Spirits to death in the God Ruins, and there are also records of Wushi Dadi leveling Holy Spirits...

Therefore, based solely on a single Holy Spirit, Zhang Xuan does not feel that he can surpass Qingdi in terms of talent and comprehension; Qingdi's talent and comprehension are among the best of all the Great Emperors throughout history.

"If I rely solely on myself plus the Eight-Nine Profound Art, and if we were to cultivate from the same starting line, Qingdi would very likely walk ahead of me, so I must find a way to accelerate a bit."

After all, Qingdi also possesses the Eight-Nine Profound Art.

"If I want to speed things up, it's not that there's no way; after all, both I and Qingdi only have the concepts and essences of the Eight-Nine Profound Art as explained by the Heavenly Venerable of Morality.

"It is very thorough in theory, but in actual practice, it is still primarily based on the Eight-Nine Profound Art and has not been completely tailored to myself.

"If I go find two 'experience babies' and turn on some accelerators, I should be able to surpass Qingdi within the same cultivation realm."

Where should one find these experience babies?

Naturally, in the Yishi Zhi Zun World.

After all, in other worlds, no one has cultivated the Eight-Nine Profound Art, nor has anyone walked a very long distance on a specific rule.

"And in the Supreme World, the ones whose concepts are most compatible with mine are not the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, Lingbao Heavenly Venerable, or the Heavenly Venerable of Morality; the ones most compatible with me should be Sun Wukong and Yang Jian."

Zhang Xuan's gaze is bright and crystalline; he has a very accurate grasp of his own advantages.

"The concept of this Nine-Orifice Stone Man of mine is very similar to Sun Wukong; it is very much like him.

"Sun Wukong's cultivation experience is of great reference value to me and can save me from taking a huge detour.

"And when it comes to the cultivation of the Eight-Nine Profound Art, Yang Jian is the preeminent figure among them, having walked a very long distance; if I want to draw upon cultivation experience, the experiences of both Yang Jian and Sun Wukong are very important."

And what is even more mysterious is that both Sun Wukong and Yang Jian have intricate connections with the Heavenly Venerable of Morality.

As long as the Heavenly Venerable of Morality says the word, Yang Jian and Sun Wukong would absolutely share their cultivation insights and experiences.

It wouldn't even require Yang Jian and Sun Wukong to speak personally; by virtue of the Heavenly Venerable of Morality's own abilities, he could directly replicate the cultivation experiences of these two people, as the Heavenly Venerable of Morality has watched their entire growth processes.

"Hmm, the method exists, but now the question arises: how do I go about this round of exchange with the Heavenly Venerable of Morality?"

Zhang Xuan scratches his head.

The Heavenly Venerable of Morality is nearly devoid of desires; the only thing he pursues is the Dao Fruit.

Other things are completely meaningless to the Heavenly Venerable of Morality.

And now that the Heavenly Venerable of Morality has Meng Qi as his substitute, he naturally has no need to covet anything else.

Even if one wanted to trade, one couldn't find anything to trade with.

"Trading with Meng Qi is possible; Meng Qi would definitely be willing. If Meng Qi were to take the initiative to ask the Heavenly Venerable of Morality for the cultivation insights of Sun Wukong and Yang Jian, it should be useful, but what do I have to trade with Meng Qi?"

Zhang Xuan scratches his head again.

He prepares to think deeper, but he truly cannot think of anything else.

"Forget it, I can only temporarily give up on this aspect. Qingdi might not even look at these trifles, and besides, even if Qingdi did, who wins and who loses is still a toss-up."

Zhang Xuan grits his teeth, and at this moment, he suddenly senses a peculiar murderous intent.

A bright, snowy Heavenly Blade suddenly slashes down from behind him; there was no sound before the blade light appeared, and the moment the blade light bloomed, a terrifying fluctuation at the level of a Saint Master permeated the air.

For a split second, Zhang Xuan feels a sense of relaxation, but in just a moment, his entire Essence, Qi, and Spirit jump into action. The Secret of Fighting is activated, and a massive Stone Coffin appears before him. Inside the Stone Coffin, it seems as if there are mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and endless, boiling, ocean-like aura flows out from the gaps in the Stone Coffin.

That bright, snowy Heavenly Blade shatters in an instant, and the figure who appeared behind Zhang Xuan has their chest pierced through by a single punch, with bright red blood splashing high.

Their face still bears a look of astonishment and pain. In that split second, Zhang Xuan retracted a large portion of his power in the nick of time; otherwise, the opponent would have been beaten into ashes and smoke by him.

But the next moment, a look of astonishment appears on Zhang Xuan's face, because a brilliant light rushes out from the primordial spirit of the person whose chest he had already pierced, heading straight for Zhang Xuan's glabella.

Zhang Xuan strikes out casually, and that primordial spirit light is pierced through, but Zhang Xuan's brows do not relax; instead, they furrow even deeper.

Because the moment that primordial spirit rushed out, the flesh and body were already turning into light rain. They actually turned into light rain in that split second; the opponent never intended to harm him at all, but rather, upon discovering they were no match for him, resolutely chose to commit suicide.

Zhang Xuan looks down and discovers that this place has not left behind many traces; apart from a broken corpse, there is no other information.

The storage bag and weapons the opponent carried were already destroyed in that instant, and there are no obvious marks on them.

Even as Zhang Xuan ponders, the corpse begins to glow, and after a moment, it turns into a pile of ashes, leaving not a single scrap behind.

It can be said that, from this point of view, the opponent's actions were clean and neat, leaving behind very few traces.

This was a quite professional figure; it would be very, very difficult for others to find more from the traces here, because basically no information was left behind.

And after pondering for a moment, Zhang Xuan does indeed raise an eyebrow.

Sometimes, being too professional and fluent is, in a sense, also exposing information.

"A professional assassin organization..."

Zhang Xuan whispers above the sky, sensing something special and different.

Only the most professional assassin organizations could achieve such fluency and smoothness; other cultivators would not be able to handle the entire affair so cleanly and neatly.

The entire incident highlights one thing: fluency, and one thing: professionalism.

Even powerful cultivators or the death squads of aristocratic families and Holy Lands would not have such fluent actions and operations.

"So decisive, could it be one of those three legendary mysterious assassin organizations?"

Although Zhang Xuan has not spent much time walking the world, he has a very clear understanding of the power structure of the entire Zhetian World. In the ancient stars of Beidou, there were once three famous assassin organizations: Heavenly Court, Hell, and Human World.

The reason he has such a deep impression of these three assassin organizations is that for a period of time, the assassin organizations were at odds with the protagonist, Ye Fan.

Except for the Heavenly Court, which stood on Ye Fan's side, the other two assassin organizations both wanted to kill Ye Fan and stain their hands with Ye Fan's blood.

The methods and styles of these three assassin organizations are quite peculiar.

Zhang Xuan cannot help but lower his head, falling into deep thought.

"The problem is, I remember I haven't offended these three. Since the assassin organizations appeared, I have basically been cultivating diligently, and I have rarely even walked between heaven and earth."

On this point, Zhang Xuan had a profound realization.

He had always believed that there were a great many powerful existences hidden in Beidou, so he tried his best not to wander around aimlessly.

Even though he had now reached the Saint Master level, and his cultivation could traverse the entire world, apart from the appearance of terrifying monsters from the older generation, basically no one could harm him.

But he was still prepared to wait until he reached the Zhandao Realm before walking the world.

He was never arrogant, nor would he become overly inflated.

"Before this, I had only taken action twice. Once was manifesting as a saint in the human world before the Demon Race, fooling Kongque Wang and Yan Ruyu; the other time was allowing God King Jiang Taixu to recover."

"And according to common sense and the current situation, it shouldn't be the Demon Race who made the move. After all, my prestige and status within the Demon Race have already reached an extremely high level, and Kongque Wang basically follows my every command."

"And even if there were some problems or trickery that caused the Demon Race to suspect me, if they were to make a move at that time, it should have been figures from the Demon Race coming with an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon. After all, the information I revealed to the Demon Race was very shocking; if they wanted to make a move, they would definitely bring an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon."

Zhang Xuan thought for a moment and felt that the probability and possibility of it being the Demon Race were not very high.

After all, the figures within the Demon Race today either had basically never heard of him, or those who had heard of him revered him like a God, not daring to get too close to him at all, let alone send assassins to kill him.

"Is it because of the matter regarding the God King?"

Zhang Xuan frowned. He had intervened in the God King incident, but the overall matter should not have been leaked too much.

After all, even in saving God King Jiang Taixu, what Zhang Xuan did was very secretive.

Beforehand, it was figures within the Demon Race who took the initiative to inform the other party of the situation, and Zhang Xuan only went to the Dragon Transformation Pool on the night the God King recovered, giving the God King the remnant of the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill and the essence of the Undying Divine Medicine.

"I also rarely showed my face during the God King incident. With my current keenness of divine sense, if anyone had hostility or dissatisfaction toward me at that time, I would have been able to detect it long ago. Who exactly wants to kill me?"

Zhang Xuan's brows were tightly locked; he truly could not find an answer.

The other party's primordial spirit had even shattered into dregs, without a single piece of useful information.

Rather than saying the other party came to kill him, it was better to say they came to test him, and the scale of the test was also very shocking: a terrifying assassin at the Saint Master level.

In the current era, this definitely counted as a top-tier figure.

"It's hard to determine which aspect went wrong."

Zhang Xuan shook his head. If calculated seriously, he had actually taken action three times; he had also taken action when allowing Gai Jiuyou to recover, but Zhang Xuan felt that that time was basically completely unrelated to this incident.

After all, a figure like Gai Jiuyou could not possibly plot against him in the dark.

"In that case, this matter is quite troublesome."

A sense of pressure arose in Zhang Xuan's heart.

His previous rhythm of conduct had been entirely under his control, and every step had been taken steadily, allowing him to plant his roots deeply in the Zhetian World and on Beidou Gu Xing. However, today's event was entirely an accident; this matter beyond his control made him feel uneasy, while at the same time, he felt an inexplicable sense of stimulation.

"Hell, Human World? Is it really them? Perhaps I am just scaring myself."

Zhang Xuan whispered, yet he did not dare to be too negligent. After all, if this guess was wrong, and he was negligent, careless, or made a mistake, the price paid would be his own life.

"I'm afraid the original rhythm needs to be adjusted slightly..."

Zhang Xuan raised an eyebrow, looking at his other Red Packet that had yet to be fully received.

That Red Packet came from above Sheng Ya, from that huge ancient coffin.

The body of the Great Saint Body that Gai Jiuyou brought over from Sheng Ya did not just contain the Great Saint Body inside, but also a powerful corpse.

Its eyes were blue-purple, and there were extremely deep marks on its throat from being gripped by a hand; it had been strangled to death alive by the Great Saint Body back then.

This person was the controller of the Heavenly Court back then, a powerful Great Saint.

Both were brought down from Sheng Ya by Gai Jiuyou together, but this person's presence was much smaller than that of the Great Saint Body.

Of course, no matter how small, this person was an invincible existence in the current era. A Great Saint—even a dead Great Saint—had an Origin within their body that was thick to an inconceivable degree.

"I originally planned to reach the peak of the Zhandao Realm after Zhandao, partly by relying on the Strongest Bloodline Evolution Fluid and partly by relying on the power of this body, to soar into the sky as quickly as possible. Now it seems I need to change the rhythm slightly."

Zhang Xuan raised an eyebrow. A Great Saint's body, even from an extremely far distance, could make Zhang Xuan feel his body stinging, making it difficult to suppress.

The life level of a Great Saint and an ordinary person was simply no longer on the same line; it was powerful beyond common sense and far exceeded ordinary people.

Zhang Xuan had also considered absorbing the Origin of a Great Saint before, but he could barely maintain a normal state in front of a Great Saint's body; the difference between a Saint and a non-Saint was immense.

After thinking for a long time, Zhang Xuan still clicked to receive it.

Suddenly, a body appeared before him, carrying powerful pressure and a terrifying aura. Zhang Xuan's entire body was tense, as if it would shatter the next moment.

Even his human body was trembling, unable to help but want to kneel down.

But at this moment, Zhang Xuan's eyes faintly transformed into a pair of pupils with the color of stone; some characteristics of the Nine-Orifice Stone Man emerged on him, allowing him to maintain a normal state.

The Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art circulated, and then a wisp of extremely subtle Origin flowed down from that body. Under Zhang Xuan's precise control, it turned into a stream of golden light and red glow, thicker than the great sun, and submerged into his body.

And even though he had controlled it with all his might, at this moment, Zhang Xuan still felt his body was about to burst, as if it were about to explode.

(End of this chapter)