Chapter 821: Falling Out, Battle to the Death

In the next instant, the gargantuan hand descended towards Xiao Chen. It spread wide, not giving him a chance to dodge.

“Bang!”

The entire stone room shook violently. Rocks fell and the room rumbled. Heat waves surged out in all directions.

The arm of the old man with the family name Liu reverted to normal as he breathed heavily. Then he looked to the front at the deeply buried Xiao Chen. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and revealed merciless mockery on his face.

So what if you are a genius? Before you advance to Martial Sage, you are nothing before me. The old man advanced with large strides, walking towards the hole where Xiao Chen was.

The old man coveted the Martial Technique that Xiao Chen used to suppress the Nascent Flame. If he could find it, he would earn big.

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Xiao Chen’s body was embedded into the ground. The old man had great confidence in his palm strike. Even cultivators with a Rank 1 Sage Body would have their internal organs ruptured, dying instantly.

It would crush cultivators without a Rank 1 Sage Body directly into a meat paste, leaving them without an intact corpse.

Only someone who attained a Rank 2 Sage Body would be able to clash head-on with this move. However, generally, one had to be a grandmaster-level Martial Sage to achieve that. There were even cultivators who completely disregarded their physical body, reaching Rank 2 Sage Body only when they advanced to quasi-Emperor.

No matter how heaven-defying Xiao Chen was, there was no way he could have achieved a Rank 2 Sage Body as a half-Sage. Indeed, the old man saw Xiao Chen pressed into the ground with blood leaking out of his mouth. When he checked with his Mental Energy, there were no signs of life.

“Be more low profile in your next life.”

A suction came from the old man with the family name Liu. A strong wind blew towards him, trying to pull off Xiao Chen’s Universe Ring and bring it over.

“Hu chi!”

Just at this moment, Xiao Chen’s hand suddenly moved. He flicked his finger, and a white Astral Core flickering with electric light flew out.

The suction pulled it, and it landed smoothly on the old man’s palm.

Xiao Chen, who was lying on the ground, suddenly opened his eyes. The corners of his lips curled up into a smile. His sea of consciousness surged, and his Spiritual Sense instantly ignited the electric light on the Astral Core.

All of this happened in an instant. Before the old man could react, the horrifying energy in the white Astral Core exploded.

The energy of the Astral Core surged, knocking the old man back. He had just executed a big move, and the Astral Core blasted his body full of wounds and sent him flying.

Xiao Chen leaped up, easily dodging the blast. A bow appeared in his hand; then he nocked an arrow and drew the bow. He circulated all his Vital Qi instantly.

A piercing screech came from the Soul Slayer Bow, and a cold light flashed like a meteor, pursuing the old man with the family name Liu.

The arrow pierced through the old man’s heart. Then, the huge force pinned him firmly to the cavern wall.

Xiao Chen slowly landed on the ground. He took out a Medicinal Pill for treating internal injuries and swallowed it. Then, he looked at the bottle and glanced at the headless corpse of Elder Peng.

He sighed gently, carefully wrapped up Elder Peng’s body, and placed it in the Universe Ring.

After all, Elder Peng was from the same sect. Xiao Chen should at least give him a decent burial.

He stepped forward and arrived before the Evil King’s skeleton. Then, he swept all the items that Lu Weiping had poured out earlier into the Universe Ring.

Xiao Chen flicked his finger, and a black snake puppet appeared. When the old man hanging on the wall, breathing weakly, saw this, his final hope vanished.

Originally, he thought that Lu Weiping could come back and take revenge for him. Unexpectedly, Xiao Chen still had such a rare puppet snake Secret Treasure.

Xiao Chen’s figure flashed; in three steps, he arrived below the old man. After removing the old man’s spatial ring, he told him calmly, “It is better to enrage an old man than to bully a youth. Remember to be more low profile in your next life.”

Then, Xiao Chen entered the puppet snake and controlled it to burrow into the ground, vanishing from the stone room.

---

“Brother Liu, have you dealt with that brat yet?”

Ten minutes later, Lu Weiping came back with a relaxed expression after finishing off the two peak Inferior Grade Martial Sages.

However, when Lu Weiping saw the old man pinned to the wall by an arrow, he suddenly stopped speaking, and his expression changed drastically.

Lu Weiping initially held some hope as he glanced at the area before the Evil King’s skeleton. However, it was empty with nothing left there at all. His face turned utterly ashen.

---

At a flat stretch of land fifty kilometers outside the Yellow Soil Demonic Garden, the ground suddenly burst open. Dirt flew all over the place, and a black puppet snake leaped out.

Xiao Chen opened the mechanism and jumped out. He glanced at his surroundings and discovered a forest. First, he used his Spiritual Sense to scan the area before putting away the puppet snake. Then, he rushed into the forest.

He dug out a pit in the forest and placed Elder Peng’s corpse in it. After burying the body, he made a simple gravestone and carved Elder Peng’s name on it.

Looking at the humble grave, Xiao Chen thought about a lot of things. If one day, he failed on his path of cultivation, falling on the way to the great Dao, he wondered if there would be anyone to bury him.

The path of a cultivator was full of thorns and peril. One wrong step could easily result in death. Sometimes, even when one did everything correctly, they might still fall.

Xiao Chen bowed lightly to the grave. He was in somewhat of a rush and did not want to remain here.

He took to the sky and stopped there. After finding his bearings, he quickly flew off. Thunder Dragon Steps was an explosive Martial Technique. Naturally, it could not be used for long-distance journeys. However, he had the Azure Dragon Cloud Soaring Art, so he traveled at a fast clip.

After half a day, when Xiao Chen looked into the distance, a small city appeared at the limits of his vision. He increased his speed and rushed to an inn before the sky turned dark.

He washed up and rested for a night before taking account of the things he gained on this trip.

There were a total of four King Grade Secret Treasures. Xiao Chen checked them and discovered that three were already severely damaged. It would not be worth repairing them.

Such a result was disappointing. Elder Peng’s and the others’ deaths had been in vain. This was also further evidence supporting the Evil King’s sudden death.

The Evil King had not had enough time to preserve several Secret Treasures before dying. If he just left some superficial restrictions on them, these would have lasted fifty thousand years.

Of the four King Grade Secret Treasures, only one was perfect and complete. That was an ancient lamp. Its wick had extinguished long ago, but the materials and the formation patterns were very well preserved, with no signs of damage or deterioration at all.

The Evil King was a Sovereign Martial Emperor from the Ancient Era. He was one of the ones who had participated in the legendary War of the Emperors in the Savage Battlefield. Since then, it had been fifty thousand years.

For this ancient lamp to have lasted until now, it had to be extraordinary. The other Secret Treasures had deteriorated with age, completely corroded from the inside out.

Only this lamp survived. Not only were its materials undamaged, but there were also layers of complicated formation patterns and traces of Dao. All Xiao Chen had to do was use his Spiritual Sense to place his imprint, and he could use it immediately.

However, this was a King Grade Secret Treasure. Given his cultivation realm, even if he managed to refine it, he would not be able to bring out its full power.

Xiao Chen first set this lamp aside and continued checking the other items. There were not many things that could last until now without deterioration. However, there were some thick pieces of metal the name of which he did not know.

This metal felt very heavy in his hand. This should be forging material, so he called Ao Jiao out and asked, “What are these metal pieces?”

Ao Jiao weighed them in her hands for a while before revealing a smile on her face. “These seem to be Black Patterned Gold. They are something necessary for forging Divine Weapons or Emperor Grade Secret Treasures.”

Xiao Chen rejoiced in his heart. He had heard about Black Patterned Gold long ago.

In the Ancient Era, the Sovereign Martial Emperors all held either a Divine Weapon or an Emperor Grade Secret Treasure. At that time, there was a lot of Black Patterned Gold, but it was now extremely scarce.

Only if one was lucky would they be able to collect some in the depths of the starry heavens. If sold at an auction, it would fetch an astronomical price.

“There are more than ten pieces of Black Patterned Gold here. Would these be enough to upgrade the Lunar Shadow Saber?” Xiao Chen asked.

Ao Jiao thought for a while before replying, “There is definitely enough. However, you will still need other materials, such as Astral Cores, ten-thousand-year-old Frost Iron Core, Blood Ice Rock, and many more.”

Xiao Chen carefully put away the Black Patterned Gold and said, “That is not a problem. Although those items are precious, they are not materials that can no longer be found. As long as we have the Black Patterned Gold, we can slowly search for the rest.”

Forging a Sub-Divine Weapon was not easy. Normally, only Sovereign Noble Clans could do so. Upgrading a Heaven Ranked Spirit Weapon to Sub-Divine Weapon was even more difficult.

However, the Lunar Shadow Saber was different. Ao Jiao had spent a long time nourishing it. All Xiao Chen had to do was collect the materials, and he would be able to upgrade it successfully.

Xiao Chen stopped thinking about this matter. There was still one more interesting thing: the Heavenly Mystery Gate old man’s Universe Flags.

With a flip of his palm, seventy-two small red flags formed a slowly spinning circle in the room. Each flag had mysterious talisman scripts and vast Spiritual Energy.

Xiao Chen infused his Spiritual Energy into his eyes. Then, he started inspecting the seventy-two Universe Flags, searching for something. After a while, he fixed his gaze on a flag that was particularly bright.

This should be the main flag. He extended his hand and grasped that flag. His Spiritual Sense forcefully broke the various restrictions on it and entered the flag’s interior.

Soon, he found the spiritual mark left by the old man with the family name Liu. However, he was in no rush to destroy it. In fact, he swallowed it up, instead.

Instantly, the various mysteries about this set of Universe Flags appeared in Xiao Chen’s mind.

This set of Universe Flags came with a formation. When used, it could trap something or protect one’s residence.

Aside from these, they had another function. One could use them as formation flags. Using them when laying other formations would make the process easier.

Formation flags were items forged by cultivators of the Immortal Epoch. The forging method no longer existed.

Now, formations were normally laid with Spirit Stones, Astral Cores, and other kinds of energy stones or crystals.

If one had formation flags, one could save immensely on resources and even make the formation both more convenient and more powerful.

Xiao Chen set his own spiritual imprint on the flag in his hand. Then, he waved his hand, and the other seventy-one flags turned into beams of light that quickly merged with the one he held.

“Not bad, in the future, no matter if it’s trapping someone or protecting myself, this set of formation flags would be very useful. If I learn to lay more formations, I can put it to greater use.”

After putting away the Universe Flags, he revealed a faint smile on his face. Having taken stock of everything else, he shifted his gaze to that black beast-skin letter.