Qingyun Sect
Lin Zhou was lying on a bamboo chair, toying with a spirit fruit between his fingers, his gaze seemingly casually sweeping across the void.
Just now, when he used his divine sense to probe Xiao Chen's movements, he vaguely sensed an unfamiliar divine sense, which was being transmitted across the boundary barrier.
The aura that quietly locked onto Xiao Chen and Shi Tou was cold and obscure, definitely not from the Xuanqiong Realm or the surrounding small worlds.
"Oh? You dare to lay your hands on me now, and you've even set your sights on my apprentice?"
Lin Zhou raised an eyebrow, a cold smile curving his lips, and the spiritual fruit in his hand instantly turned to ashes.
The next second, his figure vanished like water vapor in the sect hall, and when he reappeared, he was in a boundless void.
A semi-transparent boundary barrier floated before them. On the other side of the barrier, a massive black palace was vaguely visible, and in front of the palace...
A figure dressed in a black robe stood there, his face shrouded in black mist, making it impossible to see his features. He exuded a powerful aura that was far beyond what one would expect from someone who had just reached Nirvana.
The man in black robes was clearly taken aback by Lin Zhou's sudden appearance. He was startled at first, then stared at Lin Zhou warily.
His voice was slightly hoarse: "Who are you? How dare you trespass on the edge of my 'Black Meteor Realm'!"
Lin Zhou was too lazy to waste words with him. He put his hands behind his back and said in a calm but undeniably authoritative tone: "Your Black Meteor Realm's reach has gone too far."
"I can't control what you do in your own world, but you dare to mess with my apprentice, you've got some nerve."
The black-robed man's pupils contracted slightly; he hadn't expected the other party to know the Black Meteor Realm's purpose!
The Black Meteor Realm is a vast world that regularly sends agents to infiltrate lower-level worlds, capturing exceptionally talented geniuses. Once back in the Black Meteor Realm, these geniuses are brainwashed using secret methods to force them to serve the realm.
If a prodigy refuses to submit, the ancestor of the realm will forcibly seize their body and talent.
The reason they targeted Xiao Chen and Shi Tou this time was because the potential they showed in Misty Valley far exceeded that of ordinary geniuses from lower-level worlds.
"Fellow Daoist, you misunderstand," the black-robed man tried to argue. "My Black Meteor Realm was merely conducting a routine patrol; we were not targeting anyone..."
"Misunderstand?"
Lin Zhou chuckled, his eyes suddenly turning cold. "My divine sense isn't so bad as to be wrong."
Before he finished speaking, Lin Zhou suddenly raised his right hand and gently probed the boundary barrier.
His palm ignored the barrier, instantly piercing through the semi-transparent screen, to the astonishment of the man in black robes.
It transformed into a giant golden hand, tens of meters in size, and with overwhelming power, it grabbed at the man in black robes!
"What?!"
The black-robed man's expression changed drastically; he had never seen anyone break through the boundary barrier so easily!
He dared not hesitate for a moment, his spiritual power erupted wildly, and he shouted in a low voice: "Law of Heaven and Earth!"
With a roar, a colossal black shadow hundreds of feet tall appeared behind the black-robed man. The shadow was identical to him and surrounded by black mist.
It exuded the peak aura of the late Nirvana stage, clearly his trump card. The black giant shadow raised its massive hand and slapped towards Lin Zhou's golden giant hand, attempting to block it.
But the next second, the man in black robes was in despair. Lin Zhou's golden giant hand easily grabbed the neck of the black giant shadow as if swatting a fly. Before the giant shadow could resist, the golden giant hand squeezed hard!
"Bang!"
The giant black shadow shattered instantly, turning into a cloud of black mist that dissipated. The man in black robes coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his aura instantly weakened.
He looked at Lin Zhou, his eyes filled with fear, his lips trembling. Just as he was about to say "You are...", a golden sword light suddenly shot out from Lin Zhou's fingertip, passing through the boundary barrier like lightning and piercing his brow with precision.
The man in black robes froze on the spot, his eyes filled with unwavering fear, before slowly collapsing and dissipating into a wisp of black mist, leaving not a trace behind.
Lin Zhou withdrew his hand, and the boundary barrier returned to its original state, as if the battle had never happened.
He glanced at the black palace on the other side of the ramparts, a disdainful smirk playing on his lips. How dare a nobody act so presumptuously in front of him.
"Forget it, I'm too lazy to argue with them."
Lin Zhou stretched, and his figure vanished into the void once more.
"Anyway, those who should be killed have been killed. They won't dare to mess with Xiao Chen and Shi Tou again for a while. Time to go back to sleep."
Lin Zhou of the Qingyun Sect reappeared on the bamboo chair, as if he had never left.
He picked up a new spiritual fruit, took a bite, and casually glanced at the void, continuing to watch Xiao Chen and Shi Tou's movements. This time, however, there was a hint of relief in his eyes.
He just thought to himself, "Oh dear, no one cooks for me. Maybe I should find an apprentice who can cook for me?"
Meanwhile, in the Black Meteor Realm, on the other side of the boundary barrier, several figures in the black palace sensed the disappearance of the black-robed man's aura and all showed expressions of shock.
However, no one dared to mention capturing prodigies from lower worlds again. The overwhelming aura they had just witnessed instilled fear in them from the bottom of their hearts, and they dared not provoke that mysterious powerhouse again.
"It seems I must report this to the Ancestor."
………………
Lin Jingxing and the other prodigies, including Luo Qingyang, spoke in hushed tones for a moment and quickly finalized their plans.
First, investigate the battle traces around the valley to find any surviving cultivators, and then adjust the defense line according to the movements of the demons.
"Everyone, stay alert, follow me into the mountains!"
At Lin Jingxing's command, he took the lead and walked towards the valley ahead, golden spiritual energy swirling around him, serving both as defense and as a guide for the team.
Thousands of cultivators followed closely behind, with Xiao Chen and Shi Tou mingling in the crowd as they entered the valley with the group.
Upon entering the valley, a strong stench of blood assaults the senses. The ground is uneven and riddled with marks from sword and knife strikes and black claw marks, clearly indicating that a fierce battle has just taken place here.
"Look! There's a body over there!"
A monk pointed to the center of the valley and exclaimed in surprise.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw more than a dozen cultivators' corpses lying haphazardly on the ground.
Some clutched their broken magic swords, their knuckles white, clearly still resisting before death; others had huge bloody holes torn in their chests, the black blood already dried, their faces frozen with pain and fear.
Not far away, there were still several corpses of demon soldiers scattered around. They were all horned demons and bone spike demons that had been seen before. Their bodies were incomplete, obviously because they had been killed by the cultivators and then most of them had been dragged away by their companions.
"These cultivators... must be the rogue cultivators who previously teamed up to hunt down demons."
Luo Qingyang crouched down, examining the wounds on a corpse, his brows furrowed slightly.
"The wound was caused by the demon's claws, but the fragments of their magical artifacts were scattered, as if they were ambushed while fleeing."
Xiao Chen's gaze swept over the fragments of magical artifacts on the ground: a broken iron sword, a shattered jade talisman, and a cracked bronze shield with the "Qingmu Sect" mark engraved on its surface, clearly belonging to a disciple of a small sect.
He thought to himself, "The demons deliberately set up an ambush to kill rogue cultivators, probably to weaken the resistance forces on the border and make us panic."
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