Chapter Ninety-Five: The Kunlun Secret Realm (Please recommend and bookmark!)

Zhang Daoyi held his spear and braced himself against the long staff, staring in stunned silence at the behemoth before him.

On a snow-blanketed slope stood a bronze giant ape, fifty meters tall, towering proudly amid the white drifts. No matter how many avalanches came down, they could not bury this magnificent statue.

The giant ape roared to the heavens, its defiant aura of battle and conquest sweeping across earth and sky.

By now, the golden staff that had been blocking Zhang Daoyi had shrunk to only about two meters in length, yet it still stubbornly kept him from drawing nearer.

After repeated clashes and gradual approach, when Zhang Daoyi came within ten meters of the giant ape, the staff paused, then flew back into the ape's hand.

In the giant ape's once empty palm, there suddenly appeared a bronze staff fifty meters long, equal to its own height.

Then the ape's already heaven-defying aura changed again, surging outward with even greater ferocity.

Before Zhang Daoyi could make sense of why the staff no longer tried to stop him, he saw the giant ape begin to tremble violently.

This time the trembling did not trigger any avalanche. The surroundings were unnaturally quiet, with only the giant ape shaking incessantly amid wind and snow.

Spear in hand, Zhang Daoyi stood ready. In the face of the unknown, it was always best to be prepared.

The bronze giant ape's trembling grew more and more violent, and the pressure in the air intensified accordingly.

Zhang Daoyi could clearly feel the changes around him. At first the bronze statue's pressure had been only on par with his own, around the tenth rank. But now that aura was already close to breaking through the tenth rank and advancing toward the eleventh.

Zhang Daoyi slowly retreated a few steps, his qi circulating through his whole body, ready to strike at any moment.

After a long while, the giant ape's trembling began to subside, but the oppressive aura around it continued to rise steadily.

Frowning now, Zhang Daoyi sensed the increasingly dangerous force nearby and thrust his spear forward.

His body followed the spear like a divine dragon crashing toward the giant ape.

Boom, crash...

The instant the spear touched the ape, something Zhang Daoyi had not expected happened: the giant ape suddenly exploded.

Watching the bronze fragments scatter in all directions, Zhang Daoyi felt an overwhelming sense of unreality. Just moments ago the giant ape had been releasing pressure comparable to an eleventh-rank powerhouse, yet a single spear thrust from him had actually made it shatter like an ordinary bronze statue.

He withdrew his spear and stood in the snow, staring blankly at the shattered bronze pieces.

Then, all at once, Zhang Daoyi tightened his grip on the spear again, and his aura erupted. It shot upward like a rainbow piercing the sky.

The instant his feet left the ground, the Kunlun Mountains began to change.

Mist billowed up, and in mere moments it had already enveloped a hundred li around the place where the bronze giant ape had stood.

Then lightning flashed and thunder rolled within the fog, and a vast amount of spiritual energy scattered through the air.

Zhang Daoyi, already hovering in the air, stared in astonishment at everything below him.

About an hour later, the lightning and thunder vanished, but the fog still covered a hundred li of heaven and earth.

Zhang Daoyi steadied himself and once again flew into the mist.

As he approached the edge of the fog, a gate made of mist suddenly appeared.

He leveled his spear across his chest and walked forward.

About a hundred meters into the fog gate, another gate of mist appeared. Before it stood a golden staff, and beside it a stele formed of mist.

Zhang Daoyi stepped forward. The staff hummed and trembled, but made no move. His gaze shifted to the mist stele.

Kunlun Grotto-Heaven

The strong stand aside; the weak may advance

A great calamity is imminent; blessings will grace heaven and earth

...

Ruins

Northward-Defying City, which had still been basking in the joy of victory, suddenly became orderly and methodical.

Orders were issued from the command center one after another.

All martial practitioners below the fifth rank who were to take part in the battle at the eve of war assembled at once.

Yang Fan, Hu Dao, Li Xianyi, and the others gathered at the Summoning Platform in Northward-Defying City.

Then, without any unnecessary words, the troops set out and began evacuating to the rear.

The students from the cultivation academy who had arrived later in the city watched the formation depart. Zhou Yiyi, Zhou Ting, Mu Qingshan, and the others also said farewell to Yang Fan once more.

...

Standing before the space passage that gleamed like reflective glass, Yang Fan was still utterly bewildered.

What was going on? Hadn't they said he would be staying in the ruins for the long term? Why was he leaving together with so many others now?

Li Xianyi was equally at a loss. He had only just come in himself, so why was he being sent away too?

No one gave Yang Fan or the others an explanation.

At the front of the column, Zhang Daoyi wore a dark expression, and Yang Fan and the others did not dare to ask.

After leaving the ruins, Yang Fan and the rest immediately boarded a massive transport aircraft sent by the military.

Without any explanation at all, they were flown to Kunlun Mountain.

By the time they arrived at Kunlun, Yang Fan and the others were stunned.

The mountain was still covered in white snow, but the spiritual energy in the air...

Sensing spiritual energy so dense it seemed ready to condense into water, Yang Fan drew in breath after breath.

At the same time, he ran the Ninefold Heaven of Frenzied Battle technique, greedily absorbing the surging spiritual energy around him.

Yang Fan could clearly feel that the spiritual density of Kunlun was beyond anything the ruins could offer. There was simply no comparison.

The group pressed onward. Everyone silently circulated their qi, devouring the rich spiritual energy all around them.

When they reached the mist-covered region, a gate of fog suddenly loomed before them. Led by Zhang Daoyi, the crowd entered and continued forward.

When they reached another gate, a golden staff shot out. Zhang Daoyi met it with a forward point of his spear.

The two exchanged a single blow without making contact again. The staff hovered in the air and tapped toward Zhang Daoyi twice, as though issuing a warning.

Zhang Daoyi's already grim face darkened even further.

He said nothing, merely waved the group onward while he remained behind.

By the time Yang Fan and the others reached the second gate, the staff had already flown back to the front of it. After tapping the gate twice, the doors swung open, revealing a wall of reflective glass beyond, just like the passage in the ruins.

Zhang Daoyi's voice came from behind them.

"Go in. Inside is the Kunlun secret realm. I don't know what's in there either. Stay safe. Be careful at all times."

The people in front hesitated slightly after hearing this, then stepped inside.

There were three thousand martial practitioners from Northward-Defying City in total, all below the fifth rank.

They filed into the Kunlun secret realm one after another.

After everyone had entered, the staff appeared once more before Zhang Daoyi.

It swept back and forth in front of him.

Zhang Daoyi said with a troubled expression, "Don't push it too far."

The staff whistled through the air, spun around, and slammed into the ground.

Its overwhelming aura kept rising, clearly ready to fight at the slightest provocation.

After his eye twitched once, Zhang Daoyi tightened his grip on the spear and turned away without another word.

The staff followed behind him until he left the mist's range, then stopped.

After that, it plunged back into the fog and trembled there again and again, as though laughing.

Even through the mist, Zhang Daoyi could feel the staff's mockery.

Steadying himself, Zhang Daoyi sat down cross-legged before the fog and guarded this stretch of heaven and earth.

But his expression was truly awful.