Chapter 737: A Host of Heroes Arrives

Chapter 737: Chapter 738: A Host of Heroes Arrives

“This kid from the Human Race sure is lucky.”

Warscorn watched from the side, his eyes blazing with envy. But as a “servant,” he could only look on as Ye Xuan put away the Pill Furnace, “daring not” to voice the slightest objection.

“Let’s go. We’ll keep searching.”

Buoyed by their first find, Blood Sword Martial Emperor was full of enthusiasm. The three of them exited the stone chamber and flew onward.

「Meanwhile, in another part of the mysterious land.」

The other experts searching for treasure had also found desolate ruins. At the bottom of these ruins lay numerous identical tunnels, and they immediately darted inside.

「Inside one of the stone chambers.」

“The Xiao family? What family is that? Never heard of ’em. There are a dime a dozen families like that in the lower three heavens of the Profound Domain. Just two Tier Eight Third Layer Martial Emperors… Obediently hand over the Tier Nine Spirit Medicine you found, and we’ll let you live. I’m sure you don’t want to start a major conflict here, right?”

In the vast chamber, nearly ten Martial Emperors had surrounded a group of five, their faces twisted with malice.

Among these ten Martial Emperors were three at Tier Eight Third Layer, while the remaining six were all at Tier Eight Second Layer—an extraordinary force.

As for the five on the other side, the two leaders were Tier Eight Third Layer Martial Emperors, and the remaining three were at Tier Eight Second Layer. In terms of overall strength, they were outmatched two to one by the aggressive group of ten.

If Ye Xuan had been there, he would have recognized them at a glance: Xiao Wuji, Xiao Canglan, and the others who had entered the mysterious land with him. However, of the six from the Xiao family who had entered alongside Ye Xuan, only four now remained. The fifth person in their group was an inconspicuous old man who hadn’t been with them from the start.

Xiao Wuji stepped forward and said coldly, “Gentlemen, the Xiao family worked hard to obtain that Tier Nine Spirit Medicine. If you’re looking for treasure, there’s plenty more to be found in this underground palace. Why must you make things difficult for us? You’d be better off using this time to find something for yourselves.”

“Enough of this nonsense. Are you handing it over or not? If you don’t, you die.”

A burly, hot-tempered man roared in fury, his savage eyes radiating dense killing intent. He looked ready to attack at the slightest provocation.

A nearby Third Layer Martial Emperor, who had the refined look of a middle-aged scholar, instantly stopped him. “Brother Zhang Kuang, restrain yourself.”

The scholar then turned his cool gaze to Xiao Wuji’s group of five, his eyes narrowing slightly. “The five of you aren’t weak, but you are far inferior to us. If it comes to blows, you will be annihilated. Is it really worth dying for a single Tier Nine Spirit Medicine?”

Xiao Wuji replied coldly, “This isn’t about necessity; it’s a matter of principle. Expecting us to hand over our treasure is pure fantasy.”

“See? Why are we wasting our breath on them? We should’ve just attacked from the start! These people won’t learn until they’re staring death in the face.” The burly man named Zhang Kuang sneered, and two fiery red battle-axes appeared in his hands. With a WHOOSH, he swung them down at Xiao Wuji’s group.

Intense, fiery light flooded the chamber as a terrifying, world-shaking pressure emanated from the attack.

The two battle-axes instantly transformed into twin dragons of fire that lunged at Xiao Wuji. A direct hit would leave even an expert of his caliber severely wounded and spitting blood.

BANG!

But at that critical moment, a pair of hands suddenly appeared before Xiao Wuji. They were plain and unadorned, and while they seemed to move slowly, they instantly caught the blades of the two battle-axes, stopping them dead in midair.

An invisible force rippled out from them.

The two conjured dragons of flame shrieked before shattering with a BOOM, dissolving into sparks of light that vanished without a trace.

“Are the people of the Profound Domain always this ill-tempered?”

The old man whom Ye Xuan had never seen before stepped out from behind Xiao Wuji, his voice tinged with a sigh.

“What?”

All ten experts, including the burly man and the middle-aged scholar, were stunned. They all gasped in shock.

“A Nine Heavens Martial Emperor!”

Their pupils contracted as expressions of pure terror appeared on their faces.

They couldn’t imagine anyone other than a Nine Heavens Martial Emperor being able to catch those battle-axes so easily with their bare hands.

“Senior, please quell your anger!”

“Please spare us, Senior! We were reckless!”

The Martial Emperors, who had been so arrogant moments before, were now all begging for their lives in terror.

“You ask me for mercy? Did you offer us any?”

The old man sighed softly, and a deadly glint flashed in the depths of his eyes.

“AHHH!”

Agonized screams rang out.

「A few dozen breaths later.」

The stone chamber was now littered with corpses. Aside from the five members of the Xiao family, no one else was left alive.

“Ancestor, thank goodness you came with us. Otherwise, we would’ve been completely unable to survive here on our own.”

Xiao Wuji and Xiao Canglan said, their faces pale with lingering fear.

The old man shook his head, his expression grave. “The Profound Domain is full of experts. I’m sure Martial Emperors have already arrived by now. Even my presence here counts for very little.”

Xiao Wuji gave a wry smile. “We never expected a spatial tunnel deep inside that mysterious place in our Eastern Domain would lead to the Celestial Yin Valley in the Profound Domain. Had we known, we wouldn’t have been so hasty. I just wonder how the others who entered this place are faring.”

The old man sneered. “Did you really think powers like the Yuchi family, the Long family, Langxie Sect, and Lingkong Cave didn’t have experts hidden in the wings? When you first went to explore the mysterious land, I was concealed in the void not far behind you. I could sense that other major powers also had their own experts following along. They most likely entered this secret realm through the same spatial portal I did.”

When the great families of Celestial Capital Prefecture explored the mysterious land, all of them had secretly kept an ace up their sleeve.

This old man, Xiao Jingteng, was the Xiao family’s strongest expert and the very foundation of their power, allowing them to preside over the second-tier factions of Celestial Capital Prefecture. He was a Nine Heavens Martial Emperor.

“Let’s go. This underground palace has a bizarre aura and is filled with treasures, but it doesn’t feel like a place of the Human Race. I have a strange feeling about it. Moreover, this place is crawling with experts from the Profound Domain. We absolutely cannot reveal that we’re from Celestial Capital Prefecture, or the Xiao family will be doomed.”

Xiao Jingteng spoke in a low voice, then led Xiao Wuji and the others out of the stone chamber in a flash.

「Elsewhere in the underground palace.」

“Everyone, I am from the Slaughter Hall of the Profound Domain! I already gave you the treasure, don’t push things too far!”

A Tier Eight Third Layer Martial Emperor shouted, his voice fierce but his heart trembling.

“Pushing things too far? Heh heh, I’m just asking you to cripple your own cultivation, not take your life. You call that excessive?”

Opposite him stood several members of the Yuchi family from Celestial Capital Prefecture. The one in the lead wasn’t Yu Chi Bugong, but a gaunt old man who was now sneering sadistically. “If you don’t appreciate my kindness, then you can just die.”

“You bastard! The Martial Emperors of my Slaughter Hall won’t let you get away with this!”

The Third Layer Martial Emperor cried out in fury and terror, transforming into a streak of light as he shot backward.

“Slaughter Hall? Heh heh, as long as I kill you, who’s going to know I did it?” The old man laughed sinisterly. His gaunt, claw-like hand shot out and clamped onto the Third Layer Martial Emperor’s head. With a forceful squeeze and a sickening SQUELCH, the Martial Emperor’s head burst like a ripe watermelon.

THUMP!

The old man kicked out, and the Third Layer Martial Emperor’s headless body exploded into a fine mist of blood that scattered into the air.

“So this is a Martial Emperor from the Profound Domain. Doesn’t seem any harder to kill than one from our Eastern Domain!”

The old man licked his lips, a ferocious look on his face, and snarled at Yu Chi Bugong and the others, “We’re leaving.”

“Yes, Ancestor!”

Yu Chi Bugong and the others followed close behind, vanishing from sight.

「At the entrance to a ruin near where Yu Chi Bugong’s group had been.」

Clan Leader Long Yuan of the Long family and his men stood in a grand hall near the entrance to the underground palace’s tunnels.

The one in the lead, however, was not Clan Leader Long Yuan, but an imposing, middle-aged man who emanated a powerful and surging Profound aura.

“This is the place. It has to be.”

Clan Leader Long Yuan’s face was filled with excitement as he muttered to himself. He held a transparent scroll that was emitting an abstruse aura.

A massive palace was drawn upon the scroll. If Ye Xuan were there, he would have recognized it as the same mysterious palace they had seen in the spatially warped, misty region.

The imposing middle-aged man narrowed his eyes and murmured, “Six thousand years ago, the strongest ancestor of the Long family—the Celestial Dragon Ancestor—explored this mysterious land and never returned, leaving only a few cryptic messages for the family. Then, the mysterious land vanished. Now, six thousand years later, it has reappeared in the Eastern Domain and has even connected to the Profound Domain. Today, I will see for myself what secrets are hidden in this ‘Land of Ancient Demons’ the Celestial Dragon Ancestor spoke of.”

With that, the middle-aged man led the members of the Long family, and they vanished into the underground tunnel before them.

At that same moment, Ye Xuan was speeding through the tunnels under the lead of Blood Sword Martial Emperor.

The tunnels were seemingly endless, twisting and turning in a confusing maze with no discernible pattern.

The only thing to look forward to was the occasional stone chamber that appeared every so often, containing all sorts of strange and unusual treasures.

However, despite having found quite a few treasures, Ye Xuan couldn’t shake a deep sense of apprehension about the underground palace.

He couldn’t pinpoint the source of this feeling; it seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once.

‘Strange. There’s no apparent danger in these tunnels, so why do I have this feeling of dread?’

Ye Xuan remained on high alert. As a Soul Refiner, he had great faith in his intuition. This was especially true because of the Nine Profound World-Defying Art he cultivated; it was an incredibly perceptive technique and wouldn’t give him a sudden premonition without a very good reason.

If he had come alone, he might have attributed this dread to the black monsters guarding the stone chambers. But with Blood Sword Martial Emperor at his side, he hadn’t faced any real danger on their journey. So where was this feeling of unease coming from?

He also found the tunnels strange. They looked perfectly ordinary, yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were also somehow deeply, uncannily familiar.