Jiang He jumped in surprise despite his wild thoughts and quickly leapt backwards. Even so, the pitch-black Daemonic Qi was pouring out of the bottom of the ravine and rushing up to the horizon before unfurling, turning into a gigantic daemonic cloud that shrouds the night sky over hundreds of miles.
The bright-white moonlit night sky had instantly turned pitch-black.
Then, before Jiang He could look closely, the Graywolf King leapt out into the surging Daemonic Qi.
Ooom!
The Daemonic Qi cascaded, and the Graywolf King was gone without a trace.
“Eh?”
Jiang He frowned; he was rather surprised.
The Graywolf King… disappeared?
It was not hiding inside the Daemonic Qi—it was well and truly gone.
And though the Daemonic Qi was as black as ink, Jiang He’s eyes could pierce it in its entirety, not to mention that he had swept through it with his spirit without finding the Graywolf King at all.
Still, it made sense.
Heritage sites were similar to microworlds in Secret Realms, the inside of which was a separate space of its own. In the instant that the Graywolf King reached the Daemonic Qi, it must have entered the heritage site.
Jiang He could not help laughing.
Did that Graywolf King think that it could escape death by running inside the heritage site?
Striding out, he stepped within the Daemonic Qi.
Ooom!
In the spit second that Jiang He stepped onto the Daemonic Qi, a special power surged towards him, and Jiang He’s figure disappeared without a trace in the next instant as well.
Beside the ravine.
Yan Dehao the baldie dove down as well. He stared at the ink-blank Daemonic Qi hesitantly, before gritting his teeth and jumping inside it.
How could he give up when the heritage site was right in front of him?
After around five minutes, the ink-black Daemonic Qi slowly dispersed, and the daemonic cloud phenomenon which hovered up in the skies quickly faded as well.
The heritage site hence closed itself.
***
The inside of the heritage site.
It was a gray, obscure realm.
Jiang He could not help complaining even as he walked within the microworld, “No wonder heritage sites would not compare to Secret Realms, even though both were manmade—this dulls so much in comparison compared to the Womb Realm.”
The Womb Realm of the Diamond Sect had a moon and a sun, rivers as well mountains. Its scenic landscape stretches on vastly, and was ten times the size of Lingzhou city when it comes to surface area.
On the other hand, this heritage site was one-fifth the size of the Womb Realm.
The skies were a blurry gray and there were no celestial bodies above. The Yuan Qi here was quite abundant—twenty-times more concentrated than the outside, but if one observed it closely, they would notice that there were faint traces of Daemonic Qi in that Yuan Qi.
The Yuan Qi that contained Daemonic Qi must greatly benefit Ferals, but it would be a major problem if martial artists absorb it for cultivation.
On another note, it was a barren desert beneath Jiang He’s feet.
There was no greenery in this heritage site, and when he looked out, it was sand and weirdly-shaped boulders everywhere.
“Aaaaaaaaaah…”
A frightened cry sounded from the skies above out of the blue. Jiang He looked up to find a figure dropping out of the gray skies. Up in the air, he was flailing his limbs and squealing, yelling loudly when he saw Jiang He, “Help, Miaster Jiang…”
Jiang He was about to do something, but soon stopped.
And then…
Bang!
Yan Dehao slammed heavily on the ground.
Having a burly figure and almost weighing 250 catties, he smashed a human-shape crater into the sand no thanks to the accelerated gravitational force from dropping down from on high.
Jiang He walked up to him and exclaimed in surprise, “Indestructible Diamond?”
He had wanted to help, but stopped when he saw the golden glint over Yan Dehao’s body. The fall was only that far, and since the man had cultivated a competent level of Indestructible Diamond, he certainly would not have to worry about getting injured or dying from the fight.
Meanwhile, Yan Dehao dusted his backside and stood up from the ground, clutching his chest as he said miserably, “That was dangerous. If I hadn’t mastered Indestructible Diamond, I would be bleeding internally from the fall.”
Jiang He: “…”
You slammed face-on to the ground and all the sand was on your front—why are you dusting your butt instead?
After studying Yan Dehao a few times from head to toe, Jiang He then asked in surprise, “You’ve mastered Indestructible Diamond?”
It did not look that way!
Nonetheless, Yan Dehao’s body was dyed with a sheet of golden radiance once he charged his Indestructible Diamond. Origin Qi surrounded him, but there was no materialization of a golden bell.
“That’s it?”
Jiang He couldn’t help exclaiming, “You hadn’t mastered Indestructible Diamond, have you?”
“It is mastery!”
Yan Dehao said with utter confidence. “My grandfather was one of the Shaolin Temple’s eighteen Bronze Men, but was banished for breaking temple rules. I was adopted by him when I was three, and cultivated the Indestructible Diamond under his guidance, although I only gained Mastery half a month ago.”
Jiang He looked perplexed.
That was Indestructible Diamond?
Could he have created Indestructible Diamond wrongly like he did with the Dragon-Elephant Prajna as well?
It was really likely after he thought about it a little.
“Aside from a golden shine over my body once I charged Indestructible Diamond, I would be shielded with Origin Qi as well. It’s the symbol of mastering Indestructible Diamond, although the golden bell silhouette is rather weird…”
Jiang He soon came to a realization.
A golden bell silhouette?
Was that not a Golden Bell Shade in the first place?
In other words, his Indestructible Diamond was a fusion of Indestructible Diamond and Golden Bell Shade?
“Mister Jiang, where is the Graywolf King?”
Meanwhile, unaware of Jiang He’s thoughts, Yan Dehao began searching through the sand, and exclaimed ins surprise soon enough, “There’s blood over here, Mister Jiang. The Graywolf King must have run in that direction.”
Was there even a need to say it?
Jiang He gave Yan Dehao a look.
The heritage site was only that wide, and it was all twenty kilometers of sand dunes which ending was perfectly visible. Aside from the single barren mountain ahead, where else could the Graywolf King hide?
Still, Yan Dehao was quite a sack of luck since he could succeed as an undercover agent amongst the ranks of the Sky Demon Cult, even making his way up to their hierarchy. If his cover wasn’t blown over this incident on Mount Dadong, he might even make Cardinal in a few years.
Did the Sky Demon Cult perhaps believed that a person of this level of intelligence would not be a mole?
Either way, Jiang He strode forward towards the barren mountain.
He had only heard of ‘heritage sites’ before. He was not sure what the structure inside was like or if there would be dangerous elements, which was why he had to focus and be wary.
Yan Dehao stayed right behind Jiang He then, saying, “Mister Jiang, are you really divine-pinnacle?”
“By the way… who on earth planned this?”
“The Sky Demon Cult still believes that you’re rank-seven… no, they even thought that you’re rank-five. Now, they want to take Lingzhou City and kill you, losing a lot of their forces in the process… I don’t think I would have been promoted to Elder so quickly otherwise, Mister Jiang.”
“Oh, yeah, Mister Jiang, what is it with this heritage site? I keep having a bad feeling about this…”
Jiang He scowled and gritted his teeth then, but said nothing.
In the meantime, Yan Dehao was still asking every possible question, from where Jiang He lived, whether he had a partner to how many wells there were in his farm and how many Mu his farm area was.
A vein bulged on Jiang He’s forehead at that. No longer able to hold back, he icily seethed, “Yan Dehao, do you believe I would kill you with a single slap if you dare to squawk some more?”
“But…”
Feeling rather wronged, Yan Dehao scratched his nose and ears before quietly saying, “Mister Jiang, there really is something wrong with this heritage site. Ever since we came in, my nose and ears had become itchier, and now my face too…”
Even before he finished, he saw that Jiang He had stopped and was staring at him with widened eyes, and so quickly touched his face and exclaimed in shock, “Mister Jiang, are there flowers on my face, Mister Jiang?”
Jiang He said nothing, and merely continued staring at Yan Dehao’s face.
A layer of tiny hair that resembled a chick’s down had now grown out of Yan Dehao’s face. Indeed, his ears had become woolly, just as his nose changed a little, becoming rather aquiline.
It was not the standard aquiline nose either, but really hooked and curved like an eagle’s beak…
“What the heck!”
“I… what’s wrong with him?”
Noticing his own transformation, Yan Dehao quickly whipped out a mirror to check. His face dropped instantly and he exclaimed in shock, “Jiang He, help me, help me! How am I supposed to meet my girlfriend if I returned like this… surely I can’t tell her that I was a successful double agent for six years, but failed to protect the handsome face she likes so much?”
Jiang He scowled, his entire being becoming miserable.
Could you go away with that handsomeness?
Nonetheless, he smiled and teased, “No worries, Grandmaster Yan. As you’ve put it, you have been a double agent for six years. She must have thought you were dead… and after six years, her kid probably has learnt to use the soy sauce bottle by now.”
Thunderstruck, Yan Dehao spaced out for a moment before muttering bitterly, “No wonder Minister Wang was being vague when I asked about her awhile ago, even telling me not to mind too much about relationships…”
“…”
Jiang He did a double take.
He was actually on the money?
Nonetheless, now was not the time to care about such things. After feeling around a little, Jiang He soon discovered what was unusual with Yan Dehao and asked, “Did you absorb the Yuan Qi in this heritage site?”
When Yan Dehao nodded, Jiang He continued, “Stop absorbing the Yuan Qi here to cultivate. It’s thick with Daemonic Qi, and your mutation must have been because you absorbed it excessively, causing your body to change. Try to grind away the energies you just absorbed and see if the mutations fades.”
“Alright!”
Yan Dehao quickly did as he was told.
At the same time, Jiang He continued forward, but when he was just two and a half kilometers away from the barren mountain, he paused, his expression twitching as he looked ahead.
Boom!
The ground and the entire mountain were shaking just head. Soon, the ground split opened as nine figures climbed out from beneath: some were wolves, some were tigers or panthers, and two were eagles.
“Ferals?”
“No…. they aren’t real Ferals—they aren’t alive.”
Jiang He was quite surprised.
With a sweep of his spirit, he promptly noticed that those nine Ferals were different.
They looked identical to real Ferals but simply had no signs of life. The most unique aspect about them was that they were not flesh and blood on the joints, but a special material that were neither metal nor wood.
Special lifeforms?
Mechanical golems?
Meanwhile, the Graywolf King’s gigantic figure appeared upon the peak of the barren mountain too.
Rearing its head to howl at the skies, it then opened its mouth and laughed. “Jiang He! This king has been acknowledged by the heritage site and granted over control of the nine daemon golems, each of which are as strong as I am and could attack in a combined formation. They are capable of killing Feral Emperors too—so die!”
Awooooo!
The Graywolf King howled once again, and the nine daemon golems all charged towards Jiang He!
