Chapter 509: The Stationing Tower

Zhang Nuo stood motionless in his original spot, several Flying Swords hovering incessantly around him! He narrowed his eyes slightly, watching the demonic beast in the lake! This was his first time seeing such an aquatic demonic beast, so he could not help but take a few extra looks!

The demonic beast, having had two of its tentacles severed by him, harbored deep hatred for Zhang Nuo. Although it had not yet opened its spiritual wisdom, driven by the primitive impulses of a beast, it let out a long howl toward the sky. It coiled its two remaining tentacles in front of its body, and a ball of light, a full foot in size, instantly appeared!

Within this ball of light, Spiritual Qi was abundant and surging; it looked quite formidable on the surface!

"Whoosh!"

The demonic beast's two tentacles parted, and the ball of light struck toward Zhang Nuo's body! When Ling Hua and the others saw that Zhang Nuo did not dodge or evade, they were all greatly alarmed! Regardless of anything else, that was still an Eighth Rank demonic beast!

Just as the ball of light flew halfway, a gray glow suddenly erupted from Zhang Nuo's body. Under a transformation, the gray glow turned into a phantom image over a zhang tall!

The phantom image reached out a single hand, fingers spread, and swiped toward the ball of light launched by the demonic beast!

Boom! A muffled sound came; the moment the palm of the Underworld King phantom made contact with the ball of light, the ball of light burst open immediately! However, it caused not the slightest damage to the Underworld King phantom!

A cold sneer curled the corner of Zhang Nuo's mouth! Since the demonic beast could not break the phantom's defense, he had nothing to fear! With a light stomp of one foot on the ground, his entire body flew into mid-air!

Following that, the Underworld King phantom threw several punches, the biting wind of the fists slicing through the void and striking the demonic beast squarely! The surrounding lake water was kicked up several zhang high, and the demonic beast let out a long, shrill roar! Although its body felt the pain, the demonic beast was naturally thick-skinned and fleshy; while the Underworld King phantom's attacks were biting, they did not injure its interior!

In the midst of its roaring, the demonic beast opened its large mouth, and a water sword sprayed out, aimed directly at Zhang Nuo in mid-air! Unexpectedly, after taking a few punches, the demonic beast had become even more irritable!

Zhang Nuo opened his mouth as well, and a clear, spiritual phoenix cry rang out. Immediately, a dark red firebird flew out from his mouth—it was the Red Glow Fire Spirit!

The firebird flapped its wings, its form swelling to over two zhang. Its beak opened, and a pillar of fire as thick as an arm lunged forward to meet the incoming water sword!

"Squeak, squeak!"

Water and fire are inherently incompatible. When the two met in mid-air, the sound of water being boiled and then evaporating immediately followed, and clusters of white water vapor rapidly permeated the air above the lake!

After blocking this strike, Zhang Nuo did not give the demonic beast a chance to attack again. His figure flickered as he rushed toward the top of the demonic beast's head. The Underworld King phantom threw a few more punches, and at the same time, Zhang Nuo flipped one hand, and a small golden hammer appeared in it! He poured Spirit Power into it frantically, and the small hammer instantly grew to over a zhang in size!

Mixed with a fierce wind and carrying immense power, it slammed toward the demonic beast! At this moment, the water surface around the demonic beast's body scattered outward continuously, unable to withstand the might of the "Heaven Breaking Hammer"!

Boom! The large golden hammer smashed exactly onto the demonic beast's skull! The power of this strike—let alone an Eighth Rank demonic beast—even an Integration Stage cultivator would absolutely be unable to withstand!

With a flash of Golden Light, the demonic beast's head was smashed into a thousand pieces! Fresh blood dyed a large portion of the lake water red! Seeing that the demonic beast was dead, Zhang Nuo moved his Divine Sense, retracted his divine ability, and drifted down in front of Ling Hua and the others!

At this moment, apart from Ling Hua, the eyes of Zuoshi Kuo and Han Feiyi were nearly popping out! Just like that, in three moves and two strikes, an Eighth Rank demonic beast had been killed! Even if Zhang Nuo were a Spirit Severing Stage cultivator, it shouldn't have been this fast!

Because Ling Hua had previously seen Zhang Nuo slay a Ninth-Rank Demonic Beast, he was not surprised. This time, Zhang Nuo seemed to have held back some of his power! He hadn't dealt the killing blow immediately!

"Senior Zhang truly has great divine abilities!"

Han Feiyi had nearly been dragged into the water by the demonic beast; the consequences would have been unthinkable! She hurriedly stepped forward, approached Zhang Nuo, and bowed deeply!

However, she suddenly noticed that the way Zhang Nuo was looking at her was not right! There was a strange feeling to it! The woman's thoughts turned, and she hurriedly looked at her own body!

Upon looking, she was so ashamed her face turned bright red! She saw that the clothes around her waist had been torn to shreds because they had been grabbed by the suction cups of the aquatic demonic beast; in her haste to escape, she hadn't noticed!

Her slender, delicate waist was completely exposed to Zhang Nuo's eyes; the clothes on her upper body were just enough to cover her small breasts, while her lower body was nearly completely revealed!

A glow of light surged over her body, and in an instant, Han Feiyi changed into a new set of clothes. She had been watching Zhang Nuo's duel with the demonic beast the whole time and hadn't noticed this point!

Ling Hua and Zuoshi Kuo, standing behind, had also seen it clearly. Seeing the fair, jade-like back without a single blemish, they couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. Only after Han Feiyi had finished changing did the two of them walk over!

Zhang Nuo's expression remained unchanged, as if nothing had just happened. He turned his head back, looked at the demonic beast in the lake, and said:

"Bring it up! Let's see what usable materials there are!"

Hearing Zhang Nuo's instruction, the three of them worked together to drag the massive demonic beast to the shore! After a series of dissections, they did manage to get some useful things; among them was a Demon Core from an Eighth Rank demonic beast!

"Senior, this Demon Core is for you! We can just take some other things!"

Looking at the Demon Core in Ling Hua's hand, Zhang Nuo was stunned. Could there be some rule about how to divide these things?

"How are the spoils in a squad usually distributed?"

Seeing Zhang Nuo ask this, Ling Hua scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed, and said:

"Actually, things in a squad are normally distributed equally, but in reality, it isn't like that. Usually, the captain does more of the work, so the captain naturally takes more than the others! I once went on an external patrol, and that was the distribution method used!"

Zhang Nuo chuckled. It seemed that whether in the Human Realm or the Immortal World, the practice of skimming off the top existed everywhere. But to be just a squad captain and want to carve up the belongings of other cultivators in the squad—that was a bit too unreasonable!

"In my squad, you don't need to do that in the future! If it's not something I have my eye on, I won't take any of it; the three of you can divide it yourselves!"

These words caused Zuoshi Kuo and Han Feiyi, who were busy sorting the demonic beast materials, to look up in surprise. Zhang Nuo was being too generous! This external patrol would take twenty years; if Zhang Nuo didn't take a single thing during these twenty years, they would have made a fortune!

After the three of them were stunned for a moment, they suddenly came to their senses and thanked Zhang Nuo repeatedly! Before long, the three of them finished dissecting the demonic beast! They sat down to rest for over a day before setting off again!

Along the way, Zhang Nuo killed quite a number of demonic beasts. Ling Hua and the others had their eyes opened wide—what it meant to be as smooth as flowing water! What it meant to kill with a single strike! What it meant to strike like lightning! These terms could be said to be manifested to the fullest in Zhang Nuo!

As long as it wasn't a demonic beast above the Ninth-Rank, it wouldn't last more than ten moves in Zhang Nuo's hands! Every time a demonic beast was slain, Ling Hua and the others would happily go to dissect the materials. Before they even reached the location they were meant to guard for the patrol, the three of them had already filled their pockets!

Watching the three of them happy along the way, Zhang Nuo had no heart to pay them any mind! Those demonic beast materials were treasures in their eyes, which could be exchanged for Spirit Stone, but to Zhang Nuo, they were trash and of no use at all. He still had half a piece of White Profound Crystal Stone on him; as long as he was willing, he could take out just a tiny bit and exchange it for piles of stones. Why bother scraping together scraps like this?

One year later, the four of them finally appeared at the external patrol's stationing point! Ahead stood a black giant tower over ten zhang tall; that was the destination of this trip, the Stationing Tower!

For the next twenty years, Zhang Nuo and his group would use this tower as the center to monitor the region for tens of thousands of miles around! Looking at the black tower from afar, a sense of suspicion rose in Zhang Nuo's heart.

This tower was located in the Wilderness; how could there be no Restriction around it? Were they not afraid of a sudden attack by demonic beasts?

"Ling Hua, where was the location of your last external patrol? Was there a high tower like this one too?"

Among the four, only Ling Hua was a veteran, so Zhang Nuo asked him.

"The last time was a different place, not here! But high towers of this kind are the same at every external patrol location!"

Seeing that Zhang Nuo's expression was somewhat unusual, Ling Hua really didn't understand why this senior was asking this.

"Take a close look and see what is different about this tower compared to the place you went to last time?"

Hearing this, Ling Hua raised his head and looked toward the black high tower, but after a long while, he shook his head slightly.

"There is no difference; the external structure is cut from the same cloth!"

Zhang Nuo sighed softly. This person was sturdy on the outside, but his mind was also extremely careless! Han Feiyi and Zuoshi Kuo were both on their first external patrol, so naturally, they didn't know what Zhang Nuo was referring to. The three of them looked at Zhang Nuo in confusion, waiting for him to give the answer!

"Being in the Wilderness, is it possible that the tower body has no Restriction at all?"

When Zhang Nuo mentioned the word "Restriction," Ling Hua's face changed color in a flash! He had been too busy looking at the structure of the tower and had neglected such an important point!

At this moment, the Stationing Tower stood there all alone, and there was not a single ripple of Restriction around it. Could it be that something had happened inside the tower?

"Senior truly has eyes like torches! This junior neglected this point!"

Only then did the three of them understand the meaning behind Zhang Nuo's previous words!

"It seems there is definitely something fishy here! Don't move for now; wait for me here! I will go over and take a look alone. Without my order, no one is allowed to approach!"

There was a sense of natural authority in Zhang Nuo's words, and the three of them nodded in unison, floating quietly high in the air.

Turning into a streak of startling rainbow light, Zhang Nuo charged toward the black tower, and at the same time, he released his powerful Divine Sense, instantly enveloping the entire Stationing Tower within it!