Chapter 885

Tianlong Zunzhe.

Tianlong Zunzhe.

As they approached the central location where many powerful cultivators gathered, they encountered more and more cultivators along the way, all of whom respectfully bowed to Ao Yu.

Ao Yu breezed through, nodding casually as a response.

Those cultivators paid no special attention to the strangers behind Ao Yu, Tang Luo and the others, merely glancing at them a couple more times, treating them as newcomers.

Among all "people," Ao Yu had slain the most heavenly demons and discovered the most "lost cultivators," although he had previously brought back some fifth-columnists.

But in the past three to five years, such situations had not occurred.

Tianlong Zunzhe Ao Yu had self-realized and mastered a set of methods to identify fifth-columnists: upon seeing an unfamiliar cultivator, he would directly designate them as a fifth-columnist and beat them on the spot, the kind of beating that would kill someone in the Upper District outright—very brutal.

No fifth-columnist could withstand this method of identification; they would absolutely be exposed immediately.

Those with strong willpower and perseverance would not become fifth-columnists anyway.

To put it bluntly, sixty percent of the cultivators in this main base had been beaten by Ao Yu.

They had reason to be so respectful toward Ao Yu.

The strong are honored, after all.

Soon, a group of people arrived at the most important area of the underground labyrinth base—a simple underground chamber roughly the size of a football field, about twenty meters high.

It was already relatively spacious.

Just as they entered, someone walked over.

Dressed in white, with a sharp aura, appearing young yet not young—the former referring to her appearance, looking about twenty or so, the latter referring to her demeanor.

If not for her sharp aura dulling the sense of composure, one could even see a hint of vicissitude in her brow.

"Indeed, it's her." Ao Yu Lie muttered inwardly.

Qing Lan approached, followed closely by several people behind her.

Seeing Ao Yu, Qing Lan nodded slightly, about to say something, but her steps suddenly halted, her gaze fixed on Tang Luo.

Him!

"Amitabha." Tang Luo smiled and intoned a Buddhist phrase, appearing as an enlightened monk: "Female Bodhisattva, long unseen, your grace remains."

"Pfft!"

Qing Lan's mouth slightly opened, her expression changed, and she suddenly spat out a large mouthful of fresh blood.

"..."

"She spat! She spat! Sure enough, she spat!" Ao Yu Lie exclaimed as if he had won a hundred-thousand lottery.

As expected of a master, this is truly the deepest soul-longing dream.

"Master!"

"Senior Sister!"

"Immortal!" a group of people behind her exclaimed in shock.

Qing Lan staggered slightly, then steadied herself, wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth: "It's fine, just an old injury flaring up—don't make such a fuss."

"It's you!"

A middle-aged man behind Qing Lan pointed at Tang Luo and shouted loudly.

He recognized who this white-haired man was. The demon monk Tang Xuanzang from back then—wasn't this fellow already dead? Unexpectedly, he had reappeared, truly a persistent ghost.

"Who are you?" Tang Luo felt this person looked somewhat familiar, but he was too lazy to think.

"I..." Haotian nearly blurted out, "Who am I? I'm the person you slapped to the ground with your true dragon mount back then."

He definitely couldn't answer like that.

"Oh, Master, it's the little thing I once pressed to the ground with a claw—called... Haotian Lai Zhe? You can make up your own name." Ao Yu Lie recognized Haotian and gave a thumbs-up.

Little guy, you really have ambition.

"How come every time we meet, you're injured? Do you have a hundred percent injury-prone constitution?" Tang Luo looked at Qing Lan strangely.

He had completely forgotten that he himself was the one who had been injured and never healed.

Qing Lan said nothing, merely gazing at Tang Luo.

Tang Luo extended his hand; the Merit Jade Lotus appeared, flew to Qing Lan's head, and descended with warm radiance.

Qing Lan closed her eyes, quietly feeling a sensation she had not experienced for many, many years, as images continuously flickered in her mind.

For a moment, it seemed as if she had returned to the beginning.

At that time, she was not yet the Supreme Elder of the Longya Dao Sect, Qing Lan the Immortal, but merely the talented senior sister of the Wuyai Sect, undergoing training down the mountain.

Things had initially gone smoothly, until in a small town, she encountered this self-proclaimed Great Thunder Monastery Fighting Victory Buddha demon monk, Tang Xuanzang.

From then on, inner demons gradually arose, entangling her for life.

Upon meeting again today, old wounds were instantly triggered, and spitting blood was merely a routine occurrence.

Being healed also counts, right?

After a while, Tang Luo recalled the Merit Jade Lotus: "Alright, I've helped you illuminate and treat your hidden injuries and accumulated damage. If it weren't for the current problems in this heaven and earth, you would achieve Void Refinement within a hundred years. No need to thank me."

Qing Lan reopened her eyes, looked at Tang Luo for a moment, softly sighed, and bowed: "Thank you, Great Master, for your intervention."

"As a monk who has left home, I harbor compassion, seek to save all beings—this is basic practice." Tang Luo smiled.

The aura of an enlightened monk was unmistakable.

It had been a long time since he had pretended... now re-emerging as a holy monk, feeling quite good.

"Demon Lord, so you two know each other?" Ao Yu turned to Tang Luo strangely, "Could it be that this world also has a Heavenly Court and Great Thunder Monastery, which you destroyed?"

"Pa-ta!"

A crisp sound rang out as she flew to the nearby rock wall, her whole body forming a "大" character embedded within it.

Tang Luo leisurely withdrew his hand, continued to smile while holding a flower, completely ignoring Ao Yu: "This monk has descended from the mountain this time to save and transform the world-destroying heavenly demon."

Qinglang looked at Ao Yu cowering inside the wall, afraid to move, withdrew her gaze, and suddenly smiled: "Master hasn't changed at all."

"Since Master intends to save the world, nothing could be better. Let's go, we'll discuss in detail on the way."

Tang Luo and Qinglang went to discuss in detail.

Leaving a group of people staring at each other in blank dismay.

Ao Yu pulled herself out from the wall, floated up, and nearly forgot Demon Lord Tang Xuanzang's nature of tearing gods and buddhas apart with his bare hands.

"Little girl, your path has narrowed." Ao Yulie walked over and mocked.

"Hehe." Ao Yu didn't back down in the slightest, "This is a show of intimacy, what do you know? Haven't you ever been beaten?"

Ao Yulie's dragon body suddenly shuddered, reminded by Ao Yu like this.

Only then did he recall that Master hadn't beaten him in a very long time.

Could it be, he had truly fallen out of favor?

"Is there a quieter place here? No one to disturb me, I plan to forge artifacts." Zhu Bajie asked.

"Come with me, do as you please." Ao Yu wasn't one to play host; leaving Ao Yulie behind, she took Zhu Bajie to find a quiet place to forge artifacts.

Ao Yulie naturally wouldn't be afraid; facing the gazes of the crowd of cultivators, he held his head high and chest out: "You've lived in my home for so long, this fee, shouldn't we calculate it? I'll give you an eighty-eight percent discount, just hand over eighty-eight tons of heavenly materials and earthly treasures. The world-saving fee will be calculated separately later."

I, Ao Yulie, am the King of Socializing.

On the other side, in a specially isolated, quiet and clean stone chamber, Tang Luo and Qinglang sat facing each other.

Qinglang was briefing Tang Luo on the situation of the Apocalypse Knights.

She was one of the few in this world who had truly made contact with the Apocalypse Knights, although the contact was likewise with their avatars.

That is, the "Dark Green Knight" image seen by other gods and demons walking the world.

The Death Knight's image is red, the Famine Knight is gray; honestly speaking, quite ordinary.

"Meaning, you don't know where their true bodies are hiding either?" Tang Luo asked.

Qinglang nodded, then frowned: "I feel... they don't seem to simply want to destroy everything."

"Oh?" Tang Luo looked at Qinglang.

Qinglang's gaze shifted slightly: "They might be searching for certain things."

"Certain things, what would those be?"

"Unknown. With the World-Destroying Heavenly Demon's strength, if they truly set their hearts on completely destroying this world, we actually couldn't have held out this long." Qinglang shook her head.

"Let this poor monk think..." Tang Luo pondered for a moment, "As for what they're searching for, I have a guess — probably the 'Concrete Manifestation of the Source'."

"Concrete Manifestation, what is that?" Qinglang asked.

"Just treat it as a kind of rather special, higher-tier power 'crystallization'." Tang Luo said, "Perhaps that is exactly what they're searching for."

The Concrete Manifestation of the Source, Tang Luo had one in hand — the Summoning Heart.

There are also some others, which unexpectedly are also Concrete Manifestations of the Source, such as the special crystallized ore Sun Wukong and Yang Jian used to heal the world.

It has a certain weakening effect on cultivators for a short time.

Qinglang shook her head: "Even if they are searching for that, we still don't know what that thing actually is."

"Regardless, it's certain they want to destroy the world." Tang Luo said.

The Apocalypse Knights' power comes from "Destruction"; the wars, plagues, famines, and deaths they stir up all enhance their power.

"Cultivators are absolutely one of their targets as well, just not necessarily that important."

"Master's meaning is..." Qinglang inquired.

"Let's have a grand decisive battle directly." Tang Luo reached out and tapped lightly, "You gather all cultivators. The Apocalypse Knights will definitely be drawn out, and then this poor monk will convert them."

"How confident is Master?"

"Ten out of ten. At worst they merely escape." Tang Luo was extremely certain.

"Good." Qinglang didn't say another word, stood up and immediately went to mobilize.

Truly swift and decisive.

Persuading other cultivators to gather together for a grand decisive battle is theoretically a difficult matter.

After all, both sides' strengths are laid out there; acting rashly is just going to die.

But Ao Yu and Qinglang, one is the Demon-Slaying Dragon, Heavenly Dragon Venerable, the vanguard against Heavenly Demons.

Two, Qinglang the Immortal, leader of the surviving cultivators, and also a spiritual pillar, her status even more important than Connor from Terminator.

With both speaking together, even if cultivators felt this wouldn't work, no one raised any objection.

At worst, follow the two of them and die together.

Just like that, taking three days, Qinglang and the others gathered nearly ten thousand cultivators in total, with over a thousand remaining cultivators kept as the final spark.

Another several hundred cultivators truly didn't look favorably on this battle's outcome, and chose to leave.

Nearly ten thousand cultivators gathered together, rushed into the sky together, and jointly released the anger, despair, pain, and sorrow suppressed for decades, transformed into surging fighting spirit, thoroughly and completely unleashing it.

The frenzied fighting spirit soared into the heavens; soon, the silhouettes of the Apocalypse Legion emerged on the horizon.

Surging forth like a tide.

Good, the cultivators successfully attracted their attention.

"Boundless Dharma."

Tang Luo mixed in the crowd, didn't act immediately, but instead gave all cultivators a BUFF.

After Boundless Dharma, he drew talismans in the void and casually flung them.

Blood light flashed, a large number of Iron Armor Talismans were thrown by him, landing on every cultivator.

The remaining Blood Talismans, due to insufficient quantity, were randomly given to a few people.

BUFF application complete, you've been strengthened, go!

Tang Luo played the role of a perfect support, the kind that easily becomes the enemy's focus-fire target.

Quick, come hit me!