Chapter 297: Continuing to Play Dumb

"Quick, retreat!"

Xuanhe and Xuanfeng, the two old Daoists waiting anxiously outside the stone chamber, felt a bone-chilling terror the instant the explosion occurred; with a wave of their large sleeves, they swept up a group of Disciples and flashed away frantically.

Amidst the shaking of the earth and mountains, the peak where the Taiyuan Sect was located gave a violent jolt, and amidst the intense tremors, a large number of the simple palaces and Dao Courtyards that had been built began to collapse one after another.

"Run quickly, the mountain gate is collapsing!"

A large number of outer sect Disciples exclaimed one after another as they soared into the air and fled in all directions.

Even True Monarch Guiling, who was meditating in a quiet room not far away, felt an inexplicable dread; his body flashed and vanished from the stone chamber, and by the time he reappeared, he was already in the air dozens of miles away.

He looked at the mountaintop where golden-red light was erupting with horror, his heart beating like a drum, thumping wildly and unable to stop.

He did not take this tremor to heart.

But this aura made him feel terrified, as if an ancient demon god had descended, carrying a pressure that his Soul could not resist at all.

However, this terrifying aura came and went quickly, disappearing in just a few breaths of time.

In the stone chamber that had exploded on the mountaintop, the churning and erupting golden-red light also quickly faded.

At this moment, amidst the rubble covering the ground, Xu Chen stood in place with a pale face, while Eldest Senior Brother lay on the ground, his face equally pale and twisted, his entire body naked like a piece of burnt charcoal, with charred skin and flesh falling off his body with a crackling sound.

Although Eldest Senior Brother looked extremely miserable, his body emitted a strong, obscure, and deep aura, as if a prehistoric thunder beast were hidden within him; with every breath he took, a muffled sound of thunder could be heard.

"Chen'er, are you two alright!"

A Divine Sense Transmission from Xuanhe Zhenren suddenly rang in Xu Chen's ears.

Xu Chen wiped some cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and hurriedly replied via transmission: "Master, rest assured, we are both fine."

"Phew, as long as you are both fine!" Xuanhe Zhenren seemed to let out a long sigh as well.

Soon, the group teleported and landed once again amidst the messy rubble on the mountaintop, each of them looking at Xu Chen and his companion with nervous faces.

True Monarch Guiling also appeared in a flash, his face still bearing an inexplicable look of horror and shock.

His Divine Sense was incomparably powerful, so he had naturally already sensed the terrifying aura faintly emanating from Eldest Senior Brother lying on the ground.

Xu Chen turned his head to look at the entire mountaintop where buildings had collapsed in a mess, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead again, and chuckled dryly: "It happened suddenly, and I didn't expect it to cause such a big commotion. Eldest Senior Brother is already fine; please, Senior Brothers and Sisters, help find a place to settle Eldest Senior Brother. He still needs a long time of recuperation to recover!"

And so, a group of Senior Brothers and Sisters swarmed forward, and soon they were carrying Eldest Senior Brother away from the mountaintop to find a suitable place to settle him on a nearby peak.

Xuanhe Zhenren asked with a solemn expression: "What exactly happened just now? Why was there such a terrifying aura and commotion?"

Xu Chen could only smile bitterly and cup his hands: "Master, please forgive me. This was my first time using this method, and I am not entirely clear on the details. However, once I have figured it out, I will certainly report it in detail."

Xuanhe Zhenren's facial muscles twitched involuntarily, and he waved his hand: "Since you are not clear about it either, then let us not speak of it. I was only worried about your safety. Since you are both well, then it is fine. You have just returned, so there is no need to worry about other matters; find a place and have a good rest."

"Disciple obeys!" Xu Chen bowed with a dejected look, sensing his Master's utter frustration, yet he truly did not know how to explain it.

Because from beginning to end, even he himself was still bewildered.

The strange Blue Light Treasure Bottle, and the even more unfathomable Heaven-Suppressing Divine Stele.

No matter which of these two items were brought out, they were practically legendary; if he spoke of them, he feared no one would believe him.

Moreover, Youtong Demon Lord had solemnly warned him back then never to reveal anything about the Blue Light Treasure Bottle again, and he himself was very clear about the consequences, so he could only continue to play dumb.

True Monarch Guiling did not ask a single extra word.

He knew that Xu Chen harbored immense secrets.

But he had received too much grace from Xu Chen and had long ago decided to follow and repay him, so after a brief exchange, he returned to go into seclusion and cultivate once more.

He had only recently undergone the Transformation God Tribulation; although he had survived by luck and ascended to the peak of the Transformation God Realm in one step, his realm was not yet fully stabilized, and he had suffered violent impacts in the Mihun Shilin, so he still needed to meditate and stabilize his realm.

Furthermore, having been away from the Mortal World for too long, his body was extremely lacking in Spirit Qi, and he needed to replenish his Spirit Qi to the full before he could go with Xu Chen to the Immortal Alliance Assembly in Langya to establish authority and demand people.

The next two days.

The entire Taiyuan Sect's inner and outer sect Disciples began a new round of mountain gate construction projects.

Xu Chen did not participate; instead, he found a quiet place and slept soundly for an entire day. After waking up, he called his Disciple Su Zhao over, carefully imparted his own cultivation insights from the Kaiyuan Realm, and personally assisted him in refining a cup of Divine Blood Paste, supplemented with some Spirit Pills, pushing his cultivation to the mid-stage of the Kaiyuan Realm in one go.

Although following the steps one by one is the best method for cultivation, as it allows for the accumulation of sufficient insights, the current situation with the Nether Beasts was complex; with cultivation too low, one could not even protect oneself, let alone cultivate, so Xu Chen could only adopt this method to accelerate his maturation.

And he himself had no time to cultivate properly, his cultivation soaring to the point of realm confusion, all relying on the Blue Light Treasure Bottle and various fortuitous encounters; of course, it also required various extremely rare Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure.

Just for the Divine Blood Paste, he had drunk several jars in succession; ever since his successful Foundation Establishment, he had almost been "ripened" along the way like this.

Therefore, the unspoken common consensus among cultivators in the Immortal World is that practicing techniques is not as good as taking pills, and taking pills is not as good as having fortuitous encounters; opportunity is the best way to become an immortal.

Moreover, he would have less and less time to take care of this picked-up Disciple in the future, and such opportunities for face-to-face instruction would likely be rare.

In the end, Su Zhao's future would be much like his own cultivation after he first went up the mountain; how far he could go would depend entirely on himself.

After a full day of painstaking instruction, Xu Chen originally wanted to gift a Magic Treasure, but after searching through his storage space, he could not find any First Stage Magic Treasure suitable for the Kaiyuan Realm, so he could only spend an hour making a few second-grade and third-grade Spirit Talismans to give to Su Zhao, promising that once he rescued the two Senior Sisters, he would personally help him forge a Flying Sword.

Su Zhao was overjoyed, kneeling and kowtowing in thanks, choking up as he expressed his desire to follow Xu Chen to Nanyang City to see if his old Master was still there.

Regarding this matter, Xu Chen still felt quite guilty, and after thinking it over repeatedly, he agreed.

Although the area around the Taiyuan Sect was currently covered by Black Wind, he assumed that those who had remained in Nanyang City had already evacuated in advance, but no one really knew where the old Daoist had gone alone, or even if he was still alive, so they could only go and try their luck.

However, for the sake of safety, Xu Chen planned to take Fourth Senior Brother along, so that if he failed to look after things properly on the road, there would be someone to help out.

Langya Mountain, located in the Bohai Sea, sits between the Ming Kingdom and the Liao Guo; it was originally a peninsula continent isolated in the northeast of the Divine Continent.

The Bohai Sea is similar to the Eastern Wu Kingdom; there are many local cultivation sects, but not a single one that is famous or ranks among the top in the Divine Continent.

Langya Mountain is not particularly tall or majestic, and its Spirit Qi is not abundant, but its fame in the Divine Continent is not small. It is said that during the ancient human wars, several powerful monarchs once gathered their armies here to form an alliance and discuss the world, which is how the current layout of the Divine Continent came to be.

And at that time, there were no immortal cultivation sects in the mortal world, and each country was controlled by powerful cultivators; these imperial monarchs were also rare powerhouses, so Langya Mountain became a natural place for later Immortal Sects to hold alliances and discuss major affairs.

The one responsible for hosting the Immortal Alliance Assembly this time is the second-ranked super Immortal Sect in the Divine Continent, the Thunder God Hall of Longhu Mountain in the Tang Guo.

Xu Chen had naturally heard of the great name of the Thunder God Hall before, but it was all hearsay, and he actually knew nothing about its strength.

However, before returning last time, through his interactions with Wang Daolin, he had gained a relatively comprehensive understanding of this powerful Immortal Sect.

Although the information was from fifty years ago, for an immortal cultivation sect, as long as it does not encounter a sect-destroying disaster, its strength generally does not change much.

Especially the mid-to-high-end power of the Danyuan Realm and above the Transformation Spirit Realm, which is basically in a fixed state; even if there are slight changes, they are concentrated in the Danyuan Realm tier.

The Thunder God Hall specializes in Thunder Technique, and its most powerful cultivator is at least eight hundred years old, with the Daoist name Leiyunzi, and a cultivation of at least the mid-stage of the Transformation God Realm.

There remain eight Great Cultivators at the Spirit Transformation Realm and True Spirit Realm, at least one hundred or so Danyuan Realm cultivators, and nearly twenty thousand disciples under the sect, divided into the five sects of Heaven, Earth, Water, God, and Society; each sect, if taken out, possesses strength comparable to a large or medium-sized Immortal Sect.

With such abundant capital, Thunder God Hall can be called a force that summons wind and rain in Shenzhou, shaking the world with its might.

In order to quell this Nether Beast Catastrophe, apart from the Supreme Patriarch Leiyunzi, who has long lived in seclusion and ignores worldly affairs, the five sects have dispatched a total of five True Monarchs and forty Danyuan Realm powerhouses, along with nearly five thousand Zhenyuan Realm and Kaiyuan Realm disciples, which can be called unprecedented.

To demonstrate the determination to exterminate the Soul Beasts this time, Thunder God Hall issued the Shenzhou Immortal Alliance Elder Order, summoning over thirty large and medium-sized Immortal Sects from more than ten countries in the Southeast Shenzhou region that have Spirit Transformation Great Cultivators presiding over them, to gather at the Langya Alliance and discuss the grand strategy together.

Any Immortal Sect that receives the Immortal Alliance Order must not shirk under any pretext; unless their Spirit Realm Great Cultivators are all dead, they must crawl there if they have to.

(End of this chapter)