Chapter 276: Delivered to the Door

Hearing the old man's words, another gatekeeping cultivator also sighed softly. In the Zhai, no one could contend with Miao Chi; if he wanted someone dead, that person certainly could not survive! Especially for male cultivators who had too much contact with Su Haizhen, there was basically no good ending!

Just a cup of tea's time after Zhang Nuo left the Zhai, the black-faced man who had been monitoring Su Haizhen beside her Stone House previously also walked out of the Zhai in a hurried manner.

The two gatekeeping cultivators exchanged a glance, both understanding what was going on in their hearts, but neither spoke another word. Disaster comes from the mouth; this principle was something they understood deeply!

Zhang Nuo did not immediately drive his escape light after walking out of the Zhai, but instead walked forward slowly. Coming out this time, the first goal was to search for Spirit Beasts, and the second was to investigate the surrounding environment.

Why would cultivators sucked in by the Maze Sea Vortex build a Stone Village in this place? There must be their reasons! Now, the entire Zhai knew that Zhang Nuo was being targeted by Miao Chi, so no one dared to get too close to him. As for trying to pry information from these people, that was out of the question!

Therefore, all of this had to be figured out by Zhang Nuo himself. After walking forward for nearly half an hour, Zhang Nuo's brows suddenly twitched, his figure stopped abruptly, and his Divine Sense sensed that a cultivator seemed to be approaching him from behind.

Although it was pitch black all around, the sharpness of his Divine Sense could not be wrong. After a moment of contemplation, Zhang Nuo strode forward again toward the darkness ahead, only his walking speed increased significantly.

The person behind kept following Zhang Nuo, refusing to relax in the slightest. After turning several circles in the darkness, that person never turned to another direction. By this time, Zhang Nuo could be absolutely certain that the cultivator behind him was coming for him.

Gritting his teeth slightly, he simply headed toward the distance. When he had walked nearly a thousand miles away from the Stone Village, Zhang Nuo finally stopped his steps, turned his body, and waited quietly for the person behind to catch up.

Sure enough, within half an incense stick's time, a figure rushed toward him rapidly in the darkness. When they were close, Zhang Nuo finally saw clearly that the person who had been tracking him was indeed the black-faced man who had beaten him up that day.

"Hmph! What a narrow road for enemies!"

Recalling the events of that day, Zhang Nuo felt his teeth itch with hatred. If not for the fear of exposing his cultivation, ten of such cultivators would not be his match.

The black-faced man was slightly startled to see Zhang Nuo standing in front waiting for him, but then an insidious smile appeared on his face.

"Hehe! Kid, don't blame me today! I am only following the orders of the Leader!"

Arriving in front of Zhang Nuo, the black-faced man sneered, his hand slowly reaching toward the Storage Bag at his waist.

"I won't blame you! By the way, what is your cultivation level?"

Zhang Nuo stood with his hands behind his back, his face neither angry nor surprised, speaking as if chatting about daily life.

"Why are you asking this?"

The black-faced man was stunned; he had not expected that in such a situation, Zhang Nuo could still ask such a question.

"Nothing much, just want to know!"

"Don't think that just because your cultivation is high, you can defeat me! You must know that this is not a place to discuss cultivation! Without the nourishment of Spiritual Qi, even if you are at the Golden Core Stage, you will drop to Foundation Establishment!"

Glancing sideways at Zhang Nuo, the black-faced man said disdainfully. Zhang Nuo naturally understood this principle; without the nourishment of Spiritual Qi, even if a Golden Core formed, it would easily dissipate, causing the cultivation to return to the Foundation Establishment Stage. However, because he had switched to cultivating the Underworld's techniques, his four Divine Seas were filled with Yin Qi, and his Golden Core was also nourished by Yin Qi instead of Spiritual Qi!

It was just that in the Zhai, no one could sense the fluctuations of Yin Qi, which was why he had not been discovered!

"Hurry up and tell me what level of cultivator you are!"

Zhang Nuo appeared somewhat impatient. He rubbed his chin as if considering some problem, not taking the black-faced man opposite him to heart at all. This made the other party quite annoyed. To be on the verge of death and still put on an indifferent appearance was truly unbearable.

"Golden Core Middle Stage! So what?"

The black-faced man said irritably, then took out a long sword over three feet long from his Storage Bag; the bright blade shone with cold light! In the pitch-black environment of this place, it appeared even more daunting!

"It's not bad to obtain a Golden Core from a middle-stage cultivator!"

Facing the long sword in the black-faced man's hand, Zhang Nuo muttered to himself, then twisted his neck a few times and said with a stern expression:

"Come on! I'll send you on your way!"

"You..."

The black-faced man was so angry that smoke seemed to rise from his seven orifices. He had clearly come to finish off Zhang Nuo, but the other party's demeanor was as if he wanted to finish him off, and he even had designs on his Golden Core.

A sword thrust out fiercely. Without using Spirit Power, body techniques had become the most mainstream method of attack here. Zhang Nuo flashed his figure, easily dodging the long sword, then turned his feet and quickly moved behind the black-faced man.

The black-faced man thrust his sword out and found that Zhang Nuo had disappeared. His heart was immediately shocked. How could the other party's movement technique be so fast? Could he also be a Body Refining cultivator? But judging from his usual performance, he should be a Dharma Cultivator!

Just as the black-faced man hesitated, Zhang Nuo's voice sounded from behind him.

"Over here!"

Hearing the sound, the black-faced man was terrified and swung his sword behind him! However, when his gaze turned, he saw that it was empty behind him; where was there any shadow of Zhang Nuo!

Sensing that something was wrong, the strength Zhang Nuo had displayed in the Zhai previously was not high; how could his movement technique suddenly be this fast, to the point where even his eyes could not keep up!

*Slap*

After a crisp sound, the black-faced man was slapped with a heavy blow, sending him flying sideways for more than ten zhang. After rolling on the ground a few times, he finally stopped. Before he could even stand up, a figure rushed to his front like lightning.

"A few days ago, you had a great time beating me, didn't you? Get up! Come and hit me again!"

Zhang Nuo had used almost all his strength in that slap; all the teeth in the black-faced man's mouth were knocked out, and blood foam flowed from the corners of his mouth.

However, this person's cultivation was not weak; he jumped up from the ground abruptly, spat out all the broken teeth in his mouth, and stared at Zhang Nuo in front of him with a cold gaze.

"Good kid! So you've been pretending all along!"

With no teeth left, plus the side of his face that had been hit being swollen high, the black-faced man's speech was somewhat unclear, but Zhang Nuo could clearly understand the meaning of his words.

"Hmph! Don't talk about you, I don't even put Miao Chi in my eyes! It's just that you're unlucky today! Let's start with you!"

As he spoke, Zhang Nuo lunged forward, swung his palm, and slapped the other side of the black-faced man's face fiercely! His palm carried the sound of wind; although it did not contain the power of cultivation, the raw physical strength alone was already hard for anyone to bear.

Just at this moment, the black-faced man's hand suddenly reached into his Storage Bag. When he took it out again, a cyan-glowing metal gauntlet appeared on half of his arm!

The tiny bit of Spirit Power in his Divine Sea was released without reservation. Instantly, the entire gauntlet shone with brilliant cyan light, like a meteor streaking across the sky in the dark space, whistling as it smashed toward Zhang Nuo's body.

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Nuo did not expect the other party to have such a trick. He immediately withdrew the palm attacking the black-faced man and swept his figure violently backward, stopping only after retreating more than ten zhang.

Missing the strike, the Spiritual Qi in the black-faced man's body was also exhausted, and the gauntlet that had just erupted with cyan light dimmed instantly.

"Still have a backup plan!"

Zhang Nuo smiled coldly. The moment the black-faced man made his move, he felt the fluctuation of Spirit Power on him, but the fluctuation did not last long and disappeared in the blink of an eye. It seemed the other party had used up the last bit of Spiritual Qi on his body. Now he was like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

The arm wearing the gauntlet was trembling slightly. Having failed to hit Zhang Nuo with one strike, the black-faced man understood that his life was not going to be saved this time! Looking at Zhang Nuo's agile movements, there was no sign of Spiritual Qi exhaustion, but why was there no Spirit Power fluctuation emanating from his body? This was too bizarre!

Just as Zhang Nuo was about to rise to finish off the black-faced man, the Spirit Beast Bag in his bosom suddenly became restless; the 'Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect' seemed very anxious to come out.

Why would the Spirit Insect, which had been sleeping for over ten years, suddenly wake up? Zhang Nuo could not figure it out. Through their mental connection came a strong message from the Spirit Insect wanting to come out. Scanning the surroundings with his Divine Sense and seeing no other cultivators, Zhang Nuo patted his chest. A streak of Golden Light shot out and hovered above his head.

"Nascent Soul!"

Seeing the thing that flew out, the black-faced man let out a long exclamation. He saw that above Zhang Nuo's head, an infant wrapped in golden armor, its face shrouded in a mass of Golden Light and looking blurry, was waving its little hands and flipping continuously.

The appearance of the 'Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect' after its Transformation Stage was very similar to the Nascent Soul condensed by a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, so the black-faced man mistakenly thought that what Zhang Nuo had released was a Nascent Soul!

Ignoring the black-faced man's shock, he couldn't escape anyway! Zhang Nuo looked up at the Spirit Insect in mid-air, his expression becoming increasingly grave. It was very clear that the Spirit Insect coming out at this time was not waking up naturally; it seemed to have been attracted by something, forcing it to rush out from its state of sleep!

"Iya iya!"

Vague and unclear words came from the mouth of the Spirit Insect after reaching the Transformation Stage; the look of confusion on Zhang Nuo's face instantly turned into astonishment, and he immediately turned his gaze toward the black-faced man in front!

Being stared at by Zhang Nuo's wolf-like and tiger-like gaze, the black-faced man had the feeling of falling into an ice cellar! His whole body shuddered violently, and he couldn't help but retreat a few steps.

"You... what do you want to do?"

His voice became trembling, and a bone-chilling cold rushed from the tips of his toes all the way to the ends of his hair!

"Give me the gauntlets on your hands!"

There was not a shred of emotion in Zhang Nuo's voice, his expression was uncertain, and he pointed a single finger at the gauntlets worn on the black-faced man's hands, speaking coldly.