“How dare they?!”
Chu Kuangren exclaimed as a chilly gaze shot out from his eyes.
Xue Zheng’s heart shuddered at the sight of that. Was Chu Kuangren truly capable of destroying the unknown lands?!
“Forgive me. I’ve overreacted.”
Chu Kuangren retracted the coldness from his eyes and smiled.
He was truly a good-looking man, especially when he smiled, he looked even more charming. At that, Xue Zheng’s nerves calmed a little, and he slowly relaxed.
“Brother Chu, shall we continue our journey?”
“Alright.”
Chu Kuangren nodded slightly.
Deep down, he secretly praised himself.
It seemed that he had managed to intimidate Xue Zheng. When the latter got back, he would surely report to the Ethereal Rapture, and by then, their side would be wary of him too.
Did the Black Heaven Sect, or more accurately Chu Kuangren, have the capability of taking on the unknown lands? Truth be told, it would be extremely difficult for him.
Nobody knew how deep the unknown lands’ resources ran, but one thing was for sure — their resources were much more than any sage orthodoxy that Chu Kuangren had encountered in the past, so much more…
Although the Black Heaven Sect had improved by leaps and bounds the last few years, they could never compare with the unknown lands, which had several hundred thousand to even millions of years’ worth of resources. There was still a discrepancy between their powers.
They would never win this fight if they just went on them hard.
In fact, slaying Great Sage Zhang Guang’s spiritual thought form and threatening the Heavenly Golden Palace was all a gamble!
Moreover, the biggest bluff that he had was the Headless Woman!
He hinted that he had some sort of connection with the Headless Woman, hoping that the Heavenly Golden Palace would be intimidated by him. He did it so they would not dare to act rashly, and he could buy the Black Heaven Sect more time to increase their strength.
That was his last resort given the circumstances back then.
If he had revealed any fear or hesitation, he knew for sure that the Heavenly Golden Palace and even the rest of the unknown lands would strike at him and the Black Heaven Sect.
This was because his mere existence had already impeded all the unknown lands’ opportunities of becoming Emperor!
“I’m now in the teeth of a storm. I can be struck down at any given moment.” Chu Kuangren stared into the faraway sky and sighed with a forlorn look on his face.
To the outsiders, he was at the peak of his powers, but Chu Kuangren knew very well that he was currently on thin ice. One slip and he, or even the Black Heaven Sect, would not make through this!
However, there was no way back for him now!!
As such, he chose to toughen himself and march forward, battling it out with these pesky unknown lands.
…
Soon, Chu Kuangren arrived in front of a mountain peak with Xue Zheng’s lead.
The Ethereal Rapture was actually a secret realm, and a moving secret realm at that. It was abstruse and illusory, extremely hard to find.
Only the disciples of Ethereal Rapture would have some sort of searching technique to find it.
“Open!”
Xue Zheng tossed a jade order into the sky. That jade order shone with a bright brilliance, opening up a space passage.
“Brother Chu, after you.”
“Let’s go.”
The two stepped into the space passage and arrived at the Ethereal Rapture.
Once they had gotten in, the first thing that met their eyes were mountain ranges shrouded in clouds of mist. There were unique floras grown everywhere on those mountains, and they were surrounded by strange, rare beasts.
“So, this is the Ethereal Rapture. It’s indeed as surreal as the heavens.”
Chu Kuangren complemented.
“Brother Chu, that’s an overpraise,” Xue Zheng said with a smile.
Then, he led Chu Kuangren to the Ethereal Rapture’s main mountain peak. On their way there, they met quite some Ethereal Rapture disciples.
By Chu Kuangren’s observation, these Ethereal Rapture disciples were all top-notch talents. Simply pick one and they would be as strong as a true disciple or even a Daoist of the various great sage orthodoxies in this world.
“Senior Brother Xue.”
A female disciple walked up to Xue Zheng and bowed at him.
She flashed Chu Kuangren a curious glance.
As the empyrean walker of Ethereal Rapture, Xue Zheng was regarded highly amongst all their disciples. Since he had brought a stranger back to their place this time, a little bit of curiosity was warranted.
“Senior Brother Xue, who is this Daoist Brother here?”
This female disciple looked at Chu Kuangren with a dazzled look in her eyes. She found this guy in front of her to be good-looking, more so than any other man she had seen before, including her Senior Brother Xue Zheng.
“My name is Chu Kuangren. Nice to meet you.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Brother Chu. My name is Cai Yun. Are you here as a guest, Brother Chu?” The female disciple, Cai Yun greeted him warmly.
“I guess you can say that.”
“Then you have to stay for a few more days, Brother Chu. We have so many fun attractions here in the Ethereal Rapture. I wouldn’t mind bringing you around then.”
“Sure, thanks for that.”
Beside them, Xue Zheng’s lips could not help but twitch. As the real Senior Brother of his own place, he felt like he was being ignored.
He gave Chu Kuangren a side glance, feeling a little jealous.
He was just that little bit more handsome than Xue Zheng, was he not?
Did she have to treat him with such hospitality?
It was not only Cai Yun. Xue Zheng had, all of a sudden, noticed that quite a lot of disciples had gathered around them too.
Moreover, most were female disciples. All of them were staring at Chu Kuangren with glittering eyes, and some even gulped.
It certainly looked like a scene where a pack of hungry wolves had stumbled upon a sheep.
“I didn’t know such a handsome man existed in this world.”
“I thought Senior Brother Xue Zheng was the most handsome man I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe there’d be someone in this world who’s more handsome than him.”
“Who’s this guy?”
“Ethereal Rapture has not had any guests for so many years. Could he be a new disciple that Senior Brother Xue has brought back?”
“Is that true? If so, that’s great. If he were to become a Junior Brother, I’d surely guide him in cultivating every day.”
Seeing the passion amongst the female crowd, the male cultivators felt rather envious.
They flashed Chu Kuangren with hostile looks.
However, after a good moment’s glance, they conceded.
“D*mn it. How can there be such a handsome man in this world? If I were a girl, I’d totally sleep with him too.”
“Actually, it doesn’t matter if it’s a guy or a girl to me. The most important thing is that I like what I see.”
“Get out of here.”
Xue Zheng listened to the heated discussions of the disciples around him and realized that Chu Kuangren’s looks were even scarier than his cultivation.
“Alright, Cai Yun. This one’s our Sect Leader’s guest. We need to go and see the Sect Leader now. See you around.”
Xue Zheng explained.
“The Sect Leader’s guest?”
Cai Yun was stunned. The Sect Leader’s guests should be Sages and whatnot, and those people were usually much older.
What association could this handsome young man have with an old man like the Sect Leader?
Of course, she did not dare say her thoughts out loud.
Just when her mind was going places, Xue Zheng had already left with Chu Kuangren and arrived at a palace on top of the mountain.
Inside the palace were a few elders. The middle one was wearing a blue-white Daoist robe and held a whisk in his hand. He looked extremely transcendent.
This man was the leader of the Ethereal Rapture, Master Daoist Yun Tao.
His cultivation base was similar to that of Sager Ruler Zhang Guang as he, too, was a Sage Ruler.
When his eyes met with Chu Kuangren’s, Master Daoist Yun Tao’s eyes lit up. He smiled gently and said, “Ethereal Rapture has been blessed by Junior Brother Chu’s presence.”
Meanwhile, the few other elders looked at Chu Kuangren with different expressions.
In fact, they had no vengeance nor hatred towards Chu Kuangren, but his existence had affected the many great unknown lands’ competition of becoming Emperor. This in itself did not give them good feelings about this guy.
Nevertheless, their adversary had not caused any trouble during his visit here so they did not have any reason to take him down.
“Greetings, Brother Yun Tao.” Chu Kuangren smiled.
