About half an hour later, Zhang Han saw a moderate sized lake located at a village in the east, while looking down from the helicopter. With his soul sense he detected that the outer walls of the houses around the village had the words “Demolition” written on them.
Obviously, this place had also been affected by the emergence of the gate of the small world.
A man always makes his living according to his given circumstances. There were plenty of fish in the lake here. Although many elders were not willing to have their houses demolished, they had been persuaded by their children.
Nowadays, as the saying goes, “Once the house is demolished, the house-owner will get a Lamborghini or a Panamera.”
Since each owner would receive sufficient compensation to buy a new apartment even though the village was not a high-ended one, most of the villagers were in high spirits.
A dozen teenagers who were playing at the east end of the village pointed to the craft that was flying lower and lower, “Look at the helicopter! It’s flying so low!”
“Our village chief told me we will receive a high relocation fee so we can settle down in cities and live in buildings there. How excited I am.”
“That’s really true. I saw a great number of soldiers coming to the lake yesterday. It seems that the craft is also headed there. Shall we go over and take a look?”
“Let’s go!”
A total of 13 people, including those in their early teens and those aged fifteen or sixteen, ran swiftly toward the west, as if they were chasing after the craft.
They arrived at a slope as the helicopter landed slowly and looked toward the center of the lake not far away, “The craft is on the island.”
“All the ships belonging to our village are docked on the island.”
“What are they going to do here?”
“…”
They had come over several times to watch the bustling scene because someone would stop them once they approached. However, they could not see clearly from afar, so they were very curious.
“Mr. Zhang, you can take a rest on the island or go to the ship over there.” The man said to Zhang Han after the craft landed on the flat ground.
Zhang Han nodded and went straight to the island, where nearly a hundred people had gathered. They were standing at the entrance of the worldlet in groups.
Many young martial artists stood there, their expressions aloof as most of them were at the Grand Master Peak. Apart from their group, there were five middle-aged men at the Divine Realm, who stared at the entrance of the worldlet in front of them calmly.
A thin mist with a radius of 20 meters hovered over the water thirty meters away from the shore, rendering the lake almost invisible. His soul sense, however, could clearly feel the strong waves there.
There were about fifteen small wooden boats over there. Most of them carried three to five people, while the others only carried one person.
Some sawdust were scattered on the water. Obviously, there had been a fight over the location of the boats.
“Here comes Zhang Hanyang!”
“Is he going to the Kun Xu World?”
The instant Zhang Han appeared, many people present looked at him. Only a few men turned back after staring calmly at him, for they were so confident that they did not care much about Zhang Hanyang.
Zhan Han ignored them totally and certainly had no intention to snatch a place on the boat. Instead, he sat directly on a flat stone at the side and took out his mobile phone to chat with Zi Yan on WeChat.
But he did not realize that plenty of people burst out laughing on account of his aloof attitude.
“Those who adapt their behavior to the times are wise. It seems that Zhang Hanyang also regards himself as a nobody in the face of the worldlet.”
“So, at least he is smart. He has offended many forces since he debuted. The Luo Fu Sword sect supporting Mu Xue, the Lihun Sect backing Ye Longyuan, the Wind Snow School cultivating Shi Fenghou and the Li Clan are all fostered by the worldlet. But it’s too late for him to learn to be tolerant at this time.”
“There were numerous talents who fell even before they were set up because they offended some powerful forces. He is neither the first, nor will he be the last. That’s an indisputable fact.”
“…”
These people transmitted their voices secretly as they chatted with each other.
In their opinion, what Zhang Han did was reasonable. In the face of the masters of the worldlet, a man at the Divine Realm was undoubtedly as weak as a common disciple.
As time went by, some other people arrived on the island. Among them, a martial artist at the Divine Realm, seemingly in his thirties, drove the people on the boat away in a very domineering manner.
The people there almost got into a fight, but luckily nothing happened. Everyone was waiting for the gate of the small world to open.
Boom!
At two o’clock in the afternoon, as a thud rang out from the entrance of the worldlet, the mist dissipated and its outline disappeared. The stars in that direction twinkled from time to time.
“Hiss!”
“The worldlet is here!”
“The gate of the small world is eventually opening!”
“Haha, I can finally go back and make a breakthrough!”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The men on the boats moved immediately and jumped forward, disappearing all of a sudden. It seemed that they turned into stars once they arrived at the horizontal disc-like entrance.
But in fact, they entered a stable affiliated space, namely the worldlet.
With the figures entering the worldlet in succession, the number of people present gradually decreased. However, Zhang Han kept calm, still sitting there and looking ahead.
Swish!
Finally, the first figure showed up.
It was a middle-aged man in a cyan shirt. As his spiritual sense energy swept around the area, he frowned slightly,
“Did the exit move to another place?”
Swish! Swish!
Five figures emerged at the same time behind him.
They were all in their early twenties, each of whom was at the Divine Realm. As for the middle-aged man, he had already reached the Earth Realm.
“Why am I here?”
“Eh? I remember the exit was located in the forest deep within the plain. How did it appear over the lake this time? Did they cultivate the forest into a lake over the past five years or so?”
“Where am I?” The middle-aged man at the Earth Realm glanced at the island and asked coldly.
“My lord, this is a lake near the edge of the suburb of Sanmen City, which is not the same place where the exit appeared before.” The protector, as the leader of the men from the National Security Agency on guard duty here, answered hurriedly.
After he finished speaking, the middle-aged man moved eastward quickly without any hesitation.
The disciples behind him kept pace with him.
They were soon out of sight.
Swish!
Seven figures showed up. They immediately looked around and muttered to themselves.
Only one of them was at the Divine Realm, while the other six were at the Grand Master Peak. After briefly inquiring about the case and learning the news, they left directly.
Among the five groups of people who appeared in the next half an hour, two were led by martial artists at the Earth Realm.
Going by the situation, Zhang Han had a rough idea, “It seems that there are not many martial artists at the Earth Realm in the worldlet.”
The twenty people who kept looking on outside were not in a hurry to go in, but Zhang Han could not wait any longer.
“I can’t wait. Let me go into the worldlet.”
Zhang Han moved, as he stood on a small boat.
Swish!
Three minutes later, a man at the Early-stage of the Divine Realm emerged.
“Did the exit move to another place?” The man who had a long angular face was stunned at this point.
“Hello, do you have a map of the worldlet?” Zhang Han asked as he stared at him.
“What?” The long-faced man glanced around and said haltingly at the end, “Are you talking to me?”
“What else would I be doing?” Zhang Han nodded.
“You want the map? Aren’t you from the worldlet? Which sect are you from?” The long-faced man asked.
Zhang Han did not reply but said, “I can exchange some treasures for the map.”
“Great!” The long-faced man’s eyes narrowed slightly. “At least one Earth… Heaven-grade treasure!”
His words revealed that the map could be traded for a low price.
Zhang Han, however, did not care about its value. He took out a gem and threw it over.
“How straightforward you are.”
Something was better than nothing. After the long-faced man took the gem, he took out a piece of jade slip and gave it to Zhang Han. He did not leave immediately and instead stared at Zhang Han.
Zhang Han checked it with his soul sense, suddenly becoming speechless.
The map showed that the worldlet was as large as the three provinces in the east, but the sects’ individual locations were not labeled on it.
“I have a more detailed map, but you need to exchange a Divine-stage treasure for it.”
When they heard the long-faced man’s words, everyone on the island looked at each other, “Was Zhang Hanyang about to be deceived?”
Zhang Han became impatient with him and he condensed the Eight-thousand Thunderclouds into a huge amount of soul sense, which spread in an instant.
The long-faced man’s face changed greatly, “Is he a formidable master?”
“Wait, I’ll give it to you.”
Swish!
He threw the real map over and ran away quickly after Zhang Han took it.
With his soul sense, Zhang Han saw the real map, on which the locations of each sect and city were marked.
“Haha.” The long-faced man who was now a thousand meters away sneered, “What a naive guy.”
As soon as he finished speaking, his expression turned a little gloomy, “How did he find out? Is the soul sense he showed real?”
His scalp tingled as he thought about this for a moment. Judging from his Qi and blood, he knew that Zhang Han was just a martial artist at the Grand Master Late-stage. He thought that Zhang Han mastered a frightening secret technique, so he played a trick on him on purpose, intending to teach the newcomer a lesson.
Unexpectedly, a few seconds later, the soul sense marks hidden in the map by him were devoured.
He looked back at Zhang Han and found that he was also staring at him. Since he was scared, he hurriedly flew away.
Zhang Han ignored him but moved on, disappearing into the worldlet.
The real map in the jade slip was kept in his mind.
“Clatter!”
The next moment, the scenery in front of Zhang Han changed. What he saw at this moment was the same as that of the outside world. The only difference was that he was on the slope of a mountain, surrounded by hills and ravines.
The top of the mountain glowed constantly and this was an entrance to the worldlet.
“This is Mount Jianfeng.”
After checking the direction, Zhang Han flew quickly along the east side of Mount Jianfeng.
He suddenly found that the area of the worldlet was much larger than what he expected, which meant that the proportion shown on the two maps he got was somewhat different.
But Zhang Han figured it out after a while.
After going eastward for a few miles, Zhang Han discovered that each sect occupied a large area.
“It seems that the Heavenly Knights Sect is a little farther away.”
Zhang Han pinpointed the direction and flew over at a high speed.
After flying for over ten minutes, he eventually flew across the sect on the left. During this period, he caught sight of continuous mountain ranges and several spirit beasts sometimes.
Suddenly, a fluctuation in the air came from the right.
He found that a man in his early twenties was fighting against a python with his soul sense.
The man was at the Grand Master Late-stage, but the python was only at the early stage. It, therefore, was instantly suppressed.
Zhang Han moved quickly.
As he approached, the young man had already killed the python.
“Who are you?”
After seeing Zhang Han, the young man immediately became alert and took out a jade slip.
“I just want to get some information.” Zhang Han stopped about 50 meters away from the young man.
“What do you want to know?”
“The Heavenly Knights Sect.”
“The Heavenly Knights Sect? It’s in the same location where it used to be.”
“What did they do in the past?”
“They continued to fight against the Wind Snow School.”
“Could you tell me the details?”
“Who are you?” The young man frowned.
Zhang Han replied after pondering for a while, “I’m a mortal seeking my lost relatives.”
The young man’s expression relaxed after hearing his simple words. He thought for a moment and answered, “It’s a known fact that the worldlet closed more than five years ago. From then on, without any external assistance, the Wind Snow School has been suppressed by the Heavenly Knights Sect. The Wind Snow School used to have 700 disciples in the past, but now there are only less than a 100 of them. As for the Heavenly Knights Sect, it suffered minimal losses and now, it’s a force with 3,000 disciples. If the Wind Snow School had not asked three other sects from the Kun Xu World for help and paid a heavy price for that, it would have been destroyed. If you were from the Wind Snow School, you’d better hurry and check on what is happening.”
After he heard what he said, Zhang Han let out a long sigh of relief and nodded to the young man, saying, “You wielded your sword so rapidly in the last three minutes. If you held on for half a second longer, you would have gained something.”
Swish!
Then, Zhang Han moved and continued to fly eastward.
The young man had been accustomed to seeing people at the Divine Realm, but he frowned at this moment, “Did you ask me to wait for half a second? Why not half a year? According to the secret method, I should perform the move as quickly as possible!”
“What did he mean? Did he understand the skill?”
The young man pondered for a while, but he could not restrain his curiosity and tried out the sword move in the end.
Buzz!
He waited for half a second to draw his sword. His eyes gradually widened as he felt a powerful force emerging from his arm to the sword all of a sudden.
“I did it!”
Swish! Swish!
As Zhang Han continued to move eastward, two figures suddenly appeared in the center of the lake of the outside world. The masculine man was probably in his forties, while the woman, with long hair down to her shoulders, wore a bamboo hat and a cloak.
They two of them flew northward at a high speed, quickly disappearing in midair.
Heading for Shang Jing City, they arrived at their destination about six hours later.
They were Zhang Guangyou and Rong Jiali.
“We’re approaching!”
Zhang Guangyou looked at the familiar area and found that the Zhang Clan was not far away!
He could not help the quiver in his voice.
He felt somewhat afraid.
He was afraid of being close to home.
He was not worried about the others except for Zhang Han and Zhang Li.
In fact, his palms were trembling at this point.
Rong Jiali was usually not the vocal type and along the way only uttered a few words. But this time, she choked with sobs, “We’re back. What shall we do if they are not here?”
“Well, well.” Zhang Guangyou patted her on the back and said, “It will be good to see them soon. Perhaps Zhang Han will introduce his wife to you.”
“We should go a little faster.”
Rong Jiali stopped sobbing and became a little anxious.
Swish!
They increased their speed.
Five minutes later, the two of them appeared behind the manor of the Zhang Clan.
“Why aren’t they here?” Rong Jiali said and was instantly overwhelmed by anxiety!
What she said also showed the level of her soul sense currently, that was, she had already reached the Divine Realm.
“I’ll do a check.”
Zhang Guangyou frowned, for he perceived all the people in the manor, including Zhang Nan, the current head of the Zhang Clan. But he failed to find Zhang Han and Zhang Li.
He planned to ask Zhang Nan in person, but when he took a few steps inside, he caught sight of a boy about 16 or 17 years old, sitting on a chair at the edge of the lawn, playing with his mobile phone.
“Hello.” Rong Jiali could not help going over instantly and asked, “Excuse me, where are Zhang Han and Zhang Li?”
“Who?” The young man put down his cell phone and asked as if he did not hear her words clearly.
However, Rong Jiali’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing what he said.
“Zhang Han and Zhang Li!” Zhang Guangyou responded in a deep voice.
“Eh?” The young man suddenly hummed as if he was lost in thought and then he replied subconsciously, “This is my granduncle’s home. Since I have only visited a few times, I don’t actually have any details. But when I came here the year before last, I learned that Zhang Han was driven out because he made a big mistake and his sister ran away from home. I can’t remember the details clearly, so you’d better ask someone else.”
Boom!
Rong Jiali trembled slightly.
Zhang Guangyou had a cold look on his face all of a sudden.
After saying that, the young man turned back to his mobile phone, seemingly chatting with a girl.
Swish!
Zhang Guangyou, with Rong Jiali, suddenly turned into a stream of light and rushed into the main residence located in the distance.
“Ah!” After chatting for a while, the young man suddenly exclaimed, “It seems that the man looks really like the man in the photo of the former patriarch!”
But he could no longer see those two people when he looked up.
The young man scratched his head, mumbled inaudibly and continued to play with his mobile phone.
At this point, Zhang Nan, together with the five superiors of the Zhang Clan, were negotiating with the two men of the Chen Clan. Zhang Han had previously asked Chen Changqing for help. With the permission of the elder of the Chen Clan, it supported the Zhang Clan and this partnership had never been severed at any time, but the resources of the Zhang family were limited and they had to take it one step at a time.
As such, with its overall assets improving very quickly, it thrived well.
“Brother Chen, thank you so much this time. We are so sorry to ask for more. Let’s cooperate according to our intention.” Zhang Nan said with a smile.
He looked truly radiant at this moment.
“Well, our Chen Clan will reap the benefits again.” A middle-aged man from the Chen Clan burst into laughter, “We’ll provide you with better projects after you become more competitive in the future. That’s all. I’ll go back and report to my superiors.”
“Okay.”
Everyone present stood up and saw them off with a smile.
Swish!
Before he reached the door, two figures showed up all of a sudden.
All the people present were stunned and their faces changed slightly when they saw who they were.
“You’re back?”
Guilt and shame flashed across Zhang Nan’s eyes, followed by amazement.
Zhang Guangyou, however, clearly saw the change in his eyes.
“Zhang…” The two Chens smiled and were about to greet them.
Suddenly, a heart-palpitating pressure suffocated them.
“Where’s my son? And where’s my daughter?”
Zhang Guangyou suddenly questioned them in a cold tone, “Huh? I heard that you drove them out. I’ve made great contributions to the Zhang Clan, right? How could you do that? Did you think that I would not be able to get out of the worldlet?”
Swish!
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Guangyou appeared in front of Zhang Nan, who stood with his head down and stared fiercely at him.
Everyone felt their scalps tingle as if they had fallen into an ice cave. They shouted inwardly, “This is a misunderstanding!”
