Chapter 48: Power surges, surpassing divine abilities!

Thereafter, Cang Bai Zi led Yuan Jian Kong and the others to sit and wait in the main hall of the Sky Courtyard for Chen Zheng's return, determined not to rest until he was slain.

This matter quickly spread throughout Yuhua City, causing quite a stir.

Even many idle disciples came to the Sky Courtyard to watch the spectacle.

A few elders and true transmission disciples also heard that Chen Zheng openly killed Xiao Shi.

They merely treated it as a joke, casually remarking something like "the ignorant fear nothing," and then gave it no further thought.

After all, once Chen Zheng emerges from the Heavenly Demon Battlefield, Cang Bai Zi will mercilessly slay him.

A person destined to die, and merely a mortal of the Mortal Secret Realm—who would care?

Though few care about Chen Zheng, it does not mean nobody does.

For example, Elder Ma of the outer sect entrance examination, and also a certain group of women.

These are matters for later; for now, let us not mention them.

First, speak of Chen Zheng.

As soon as he entered the transmission gate, he felt a strong weightlessness surge, his whole body lifting up.

No light!

He could see nothing clearly.

It was as if he floated in the midst of a cosmic black hole, seeing no sky, touching no ground.

Accompanied by a violent spinning sensation.

Had Chen Zheng not been powerful, any other Physical Body Realm Warrior would have felt nauseous and vomited.

This feeling came quickly and left just as fast.

In the blink of an eye, he saw light again.

And once more stood firmly on the ground.

"Is this the Heavenly Demon Battlefield?"

Chen Zheng looked around; his vision was an endless desolate plain.

The ground was dotted with pits of various sizes, as if countless space meteorites had struck it.

Above, the sky was a bluish hue.

Occasionally, starlight flickered across the firmament.

The transmission gate through which he had come had vanished without a trace.

Not a single person was in sight around him.

It seemed as if all the outer sect disciples who had entered the transmission gate together to take the test had completely disappeared.

In fact, they had not disappeared.

This was the Feather Ascension Sect's upper echelon preventing disciples from forming teams to jointly resist the heavenly demons.

Especially to prevent some powerful disciples from leading weaker ones to pass the examination easily.

Thus, during transmission, they deliberately scattered all disciples entering the Heavenly Demon Battlefield.

One can see that the inner sect examination is far harsher than the outer sect examination, a true life-and-death tempering.

One can only rely on oneself.

Moreover, warriors' bodies are saturated with vigorous yang energy, which most easily attracts heavenly demons.

Just now, Chen Zheng had not yet grown familiar with the environment of the Heavenly Demon Battlefield when a pitch-black, invisible heavenly demon drifted over from afar, letting out a strange "jie jie" cry.

The heavenly demon accelerated and lunged at him!

"Heavenly demon, good! Heavenly demon, wonderful! Heavenly demon is the excellent medicine for my advancement to the Shen Tong Mi Jing!"

Chen Zheng laughed.

At the instant that heavenly demon turned into a ferocious great maw and lunged to bite, he flicked his wide sleeve; the numerous pores on his arms suddenly opened, his muscles compressing and pulling like bellows, exhaling a powerful suction that drew it into his body.

Immediately, the dark gold true fire in the demon's cavern ignited, causing the heavenly demon to scream before it could even utter a cry, instantly turning into a wisp of pure primordial energy.

"Indeed effective." After absorbing that wisp of primordial energy, Chen Zheng felt his power increase slightly.

Though this increase was minuscule, if enough heavenly demons were gathered, even tiny amounts could accumulate into something great.

This was exactly what he wanted.

However, he did not search everywhere for heavenly demons.

Instead, he found a deep pit over ten zhang deep, leapt into it, and let the heavenly demons and people on the surface fail to notice him.

As Chen Zheng's body trembled slightly at the pit's bottom, his qi and blood boiled like boiling water, gurgling loudly.

Instantly, a surging, vigorous yang aura erupted like a volcanic explosion from within him, condensing above his head into a thick, water-tank-sized column of essence and qi smoke that shot straight up from the pit, standing out conspicuously on this desolate plain.

What did Chen Zheng intend by this?

Very simple: to attract heavenly demons.

The Heavenly Demon Battlefield is a deserted star; its vastness unknown, so searching for heavenly demons himself would be inefficient, far less effective than using himself as bait and his qi and blood as lure.

This is akin to preparing bait before fishing.

This novel you are at

Sure enough, as soon as Chen Zheng released the essence qi beacon, many heavenly demons wandering in all directions immediately took notice.

Especially from the far horizon, one after another, massive tornadoes formed by congregated heavenly demons blew wildly toward his direction.

They blew sand and rocks, shaking the earth and moving mountains!

"Eh, someone? Such strong qi and blood! At least thousands of martial artists must be gathered there? Haha, the Feather Ascension Sect finally sent us food; now we can eat our fill."

"Hmph, last time the Feather Ascension Sect sent disciples for the examination, you lot sucked dry dozens of female disciples' yin essence; I could only stand aside watching, not even catching a single hair; today I finally caught the opportunity—none of you can compete with me for it!"

"Tsk tsk, I'm too lazy to fight you over those smelly women; I feel lonely and empty, only wanting to find a few strong-bodied young men to comfort me..."

The heavenly demons surged forth, dense and countless, numbering in the thousands and tens of thousands; some took the form of women clad in thin gauze, like long-abandoned resentful ladies in deep chambers.

Some Heavenly Demons burst into a hoarse laugh, their laughter filled with lewdness and malice, turning into naked, bulging‑muscle, robust and violent hulking men.

But!

As soon as the many Heavenly Demons approached the edge of the great pit where Chen Zheng stood, before they could discern the interior, upon seeing how many people were inside, they were seized by a massive pulling force that dragged them into the pit.

"Ah! Ah! Ah…"

One after another, the Heavenly Demons were pulled into Chen Zheng's body; no matter how they struggled, it was futile, as his inner Dark Golden True Fire instantly refined them into primal Qi.

These Qi were exceedingly pure—far surpassing even the finest elixirs—swiftly dispersing through Chen Zheng's limbs and bones, continuously augmenting his strength.

Meanwhile, the Heavenly Demons outside the pit, unable to see its bottom and of low intellect, kept converging from all directions toward Chen Zheng, scrambling forward for fear of lagging behind the others and missing the blood feast.

Like moths flying into flame.

Thus, Chen Zheng's power kept climbing step by step.

Seventy horses…

Seventy‑five horses…

Time passed.

After half a day, Chen Zheng finally reached the astonishing Hundred‑Horse Strength, instantly surpassing countless cultivators of the first tier of divine abilities.

And it kept rising.

As if it would never cease!

Just as Chen Zheng frantically refined the Heavenly Demons, far away in the Great Hall of the Sky Court within the Xuanhuang Great World, Elder Zhou seemed to sense something, and a flash of surprise flickered in his eyes.

Then he snapped his fingers, a beam of refined light shot out, landing on a massive cyan mirror hanging on the front wall of the Great Hall.

"Hm?"

"Elder Zhou, why did you open the Mysterious Light Mirror? Is there some situation on the Heavenly Demon Battlefield?"

Cang Baizi, Yuan Jian Kong, and the many onlookers who had rushed to the Sky Court turned in puzzled curiosity toward the cyan mirror at the front of the Great Hall.

In the next instant, everyone's pupils contracted.

(End of Chapter)