Zhang Han’s eyes returned to the normal color, and a gentle smile appeared on his face.
“I was just playing some moves in my head. You must have been worried after all the waiting. How much time has passed?
“Two and a half days. I’m already out of snacks.” Mengmeng gestured to the small bed on the side.
It was a pink princess bed with gauze curtains. Zi Yan specially asked Mengmeng to bring it with her, for she was afraid that Mengmeng would not sleep well in the Kunlun Immortal World. She was very considerate.
On the ground at the head of the bed, there were some empty bags of snacks. They didn’t bring many snacks here. There was a grill on the other side. In the past few days, Zhang Mu’s subordinates had caught some spirit beasts to barbecue.
“Han, you…”
Zhang Mu walked over and said, “When you broke through, strange scenes appeared. First, there was a golden boulder, then came a towering tree, waves, flames, and ancient and desolate land. Each of the bizarre items was three meters high. They rotated around you and turned into the sun and the moon. Then, the sun and the moon collided. After that, something like a separated space showed up, where stood a demon-king-like figure. It was unnervingly huge…”
“Demon King? The great demon?”
Zhang Han’s eyes paused. After brooding for two seconds, he suddenly began to feel his Elixir. And a weird look climbed onto his face.
Elixirs were normally golden, including those with energy attributes. But this Elixir of his was completely pitch-black. How could that be?
“Oh, no, there is a pattern shaped like a crescent moon over the black Elixir.
“What the heck?”
Even with Zhang Han’s broad knowledge, he still couldn’t figure it out.
When he slept with Zi Yan for the first time, he saw a strange vision when he was in her body. What he saw was the bright moon rising into the sky. After that, his dantian became 10-inch wide. Thus, he could not help but wonder if the crescent moon hanging over his Elixir had something to do with Zi Yan.
“The Elixir is utterly pitch-black. Its attribute is… the power of darkness.
“I’ve been wondering why my cultivation has progressed so fast after I chose to cultivate the Athanasia Demon Gong. My speed is several times faster than that when I cultivated the Treasure-searching formulas. Could it be that my physical constitution is very compatible with the demonic cultivation arts?
“Does my power come from the Yin spirit? The Yin soul? Or the divine ghost?”
“Well…”
Zhang Han puckered his brows. He was puzzled. But there was no doubt that these strange scenes had improved his combat capability several times. Even the thunder mark in his soul sense sea had been strengthened a lot. The origin of Taiyi Wood Thunder seemed to have fortified a little.
“It’s okay. The thunder power can be cultivated and improved. It’s just that I don’t know if it can absorb the energy of thunderbolts with other attributes.”
Zhang Han deliberated for five seconds, then shook his head and said, “Let’s get down to business.”
“Yes.”
Zhang Mu nodded. The group of people then set off and flew low in the air.
“You’re at the Elixir Realm Early-Stage now, aren’t you?” Zhang Mu asked, succumbing to his curiosity.
Generally speaking, after entering the Elixir Realm, one could no longer hide his aura. Yet, Zhang Han’s aura was unearthly profound, so others could not tell anything from it.
“Also, considering the previous odd visions, could he have directly broken through to the Elixir Realm Middle-Stage?”
“Yes, I’m at the Early-Stage,” Zhang Han answered, nodding.
He did not say the next half of his remark out loud. But he secretly employed the Designated Voice-transmitting Technique to inform Zhang Mu.
“After I consolidate my cultivation, I can fight against those at the peak of the Elixir Realm.”
“Pfft…”
Zhang Mu choked on his saliva. He quickly stared at Zhang Han as if looking at a lunatic.
“How could you be so confident?
“I’m at the Elixir Realm Last-Stage. Even I can’t defeat those at the peak. Thus, what made you think you can rival those at the peak of the Elixir realm?
“You gotta be kidding!”
However, thinking of Zhang Han’s words and looking at his expression, Zhang Mu was bereft of speech.
“Oh my, is it that the ways of the world have changed?”
Zhang Mu was suddenly at a loss.
“Daddy, this river is so wide,” Mengmeng exclaimed.
“Eh? The forest over there seems to be packed with squirrels.”
Squirrels were quite cute. With a stir of his mind, Zhang Han made countless squirrels float in the air in a daze.
They traveled while having fun. They also admired the great view along the way. Finally, half a day later, they were near the Deep Valley.
There were two 10,000-meter-high peaks on both sides of the Deep Valley, which were extremely steep. Halfway up the peaks, there was a line of small mountains connected from end to end. Those mountains formed a long line, which looked parallel to a big river below. The river cleaved the Deep Valley into two parts—the east part and the west part. The terrain here was precipitous. A natural formation was in place. Coupled with the Heaven-earth Formation, it had become a heavily guarded area.
The other party had stationed its men all around the Deep Valley. But Zhang Mu had his way to circumvent the guards. He led the others to a cave on a hill 10 miles away from the Deep Valley.
With a smile, Zhang Mu remarked, “This is our last way to escape. There is an underground river hundreds of meters deep. The whole river, from here to the sect, is protected by a concealing formation, so it’s very hard for others to spot it.”
“Is it really that hard?” Zhang Han smiled.
He abruptly stuck his right hand into the cave.
“Swish!”
Strong energy fluctuations came out, and a blue-robed man was towed out of the cave.
At this moment, his eyes had widened and his body was motionless. He gawked at Zhang Han in disbelief and uttered, “No way! H-How did you find me?”
“Your cheap concealing formation can’t fool my eyes.” Zhang Han shook his head slightly.
“Hiss!”
The faces of Zhang Mu and the others changed dramatically. They now looked pale and feeble.
“Even the secret passage has been discovered? Has something happened to the Deep Valley?”
“Are you a disciple of the Green Flame Sect? How did you discover this place?”
Zhang Mu took a deep breath and tried his best to repress the surging waves of shock inside him. But as soon as he opened his mouth, he found that his voice was hoarse.
“Hahaha.” Knowing that he couldn’t escape, the man laughed sinisterly and said, “You can’t flee. The Deep Valley is doomed to be destroyed, and all the frosty crystal stones will be pocketed by us. Zhang Mu, prepare to die!”
Hearing this, Zhang Mu’s right hand trembled slightly.
Now, he had lost his last way out.
“Have you already taken down the defense and occupied the Deep Valley?” Zhang Mu asked again.
“Just kill me. You can’t get anything out of me.” The man closed his eyes, waiting for death.
Everyone fell silent. No one, not even Zhang Mu, had noticed that the man in front of him was at the Elixir Realm Middle-Stage, yet Zhang Han had caught him as if he was just a toy.
Nobody knew what to say. Perhaps the situation was worse than they had imagined.
“Want a chance to live?”
Suddenly, a calm voice broke the silence. It was Zhang Han who spoke. He merely asked that one simple question.
The man still ignored him.
“I swear to the Way of Heaven that as long as you tell me what has happened, I’ll spare you,” Zhang Han added.
“That’s right. Tell us what’s happened, and you can leave in one piece,” Zhang Mu echoed.
The others also made their speech, trying to persuade him.
Finally, the man opened his eyes and said flatly, “Who are you kidding? This kind of trick won’t work on me.”
Everyone felt helpless. There was really no way to make this kind of pig-headed guy come around.
“Hehe.”
Zhang Han laughed with disdain.
He cast the Qing Ming Seal to suppress the man’s soul.
Then, he unhurriedly took out a silver needle and remarked, “This needle is called the Soul-devouring Needle, which will constantly eat away a cultivator’s soul. The space inside the needle has an extremely cold fire. This kind of fire will make you feel distinct pain. You’ll feel like thousands of arrows are piercing your heart. When the needle nibbles away at one-third of the soul and absorbs enough energy, it will stop attacking your soul. But when your soul energy accumulates to the previous amount, it’ll repeat the process. I dare you to taste this kind of feeling. Oh, right, almost forgot to tell you, in the space of this silver needle, you can’t even kill yourself by implosion.”
“Rumble!”
Zhang Han performed a formation that covered the man, then injected the silver needle into his body.
For a moment, Zhang Mu and the others were in consternation.
“You made it sound quite impressive. The space inside the silver needle? That’s just a formation you employed to fool him!”
“Ahhhh!”
“Ah…”
The blue-robed man seemed to be in unbearable pain. Cold sweat was streaming down his face, and his eyes were as round as saucers. He looked around as if the world in his eyes had completely changed.
“Aargh! Just kill me! I dare you!
“Let me out!
“No, no, I don’t want to die!
“Ahh…”
Finally, after 15 minutes’ howling—
“Fine, I’ll tell you. I’ll confess everything. Let me out!”
Seeing this, Zhang Han withdrew the silver needle and dispersed the formation.
“Phew.”
Letting out a long breath, the man started to explain the situation in detail.
Three days ago, he stumbled on this place. After entering the passage, he saw that it led to the Deep Valley, so an evil idea surfaced in his head. Without telling anyone about his discovery, he planned to pass himself off as one of the disciples of the Deep Valley to go seize the frosty crystal stones and then quietly exit. Just as he was about to leave, he ran into Zhang Mu and the others.
“I’ve told you everything. Either let me go or kill me.”
With fear in his eyes, the man said, “I’ve come clean now. Can you just let me off? You just promised me.”
“That was what we thought a moment ago.”
Zhang Mu frowned and launched an attack to finish the man off.
What he didn’t notice was that although the man had lowered his head, there was a hint of madness in his eyes. Obviously, the truth was not as simple as what he had said.
“Whether it’s a storm or a hurricane ahead of us, we have to go there and take a look.”
Zhang Mu took a deep breath and then led the way into the cave.
On the whole way, Mengmeng was still in a daze. She didn’t quite understand this kind of thing. After all, she had little experience in scheming and deception.
“Mengmeng, do you think what the man just said is true?” Zhang Han looked at her and abruptly asked.
“Huh?” Mengmeng blinked, stuttering, “I, I don’t know either.”
“If this happened to you, what would you do?” Zhang Han asked again.
“I… If Mummy and Daddy were in the valley, I would definitely go into the valley to save you.”
Hearing her answer, Zhang Han didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “That’s not what I mean. Well, this is actually a way to look at things. Say, if your Mummy and I were trapped there and it were you who faced the previous situation, what would you do? You’ll still say you don’t know, won’t you?”
He knew what the little girl was going to say, so he continued, “Therefore, you need to observe the enemy at all times. From that man’s tone and expression, you may believe he was telling the truth. But there was an imperceptible madness in his eyes before he died, so his words were all lies, or perhaps only a little portion was true. He should have a backer who knows this passage leading into the Deep Valley. His force is also studying how to seize the frosty crystal stones, so there is a more than 70% possibility that only one force knows about this passage.”
“Well, I feel that it’s more than 90%.”
Zhang Mu sighed deeply. “The strength of the Green Flame Sect is slightly stronger than the Deep Valley. Their Sect Master, Li Qingyan, is very strong. He is even more powerful than Deep Flame. He is good at fire skills and has monstrous strength. I’ve seen Li Qingyan in a fight. He killed more than a dozen people with that one move called the Outer Space Fire. The Deep Valley is located right between the East Domain and the South Domain. The Green Flame Sect is at the upper reaches of this river, about six hours’ travel from here. If Li Qingyan comes, we’ll really be in big trouble.”
“This is the underground river. We’ll go to the valley by swimming.”
Zhang Mu took the lead to dive into the dark river. The water was running very fast and it was quite dark. Seeing this, Mengmeng was a little scared.
“Daddy.”
Before she could say anything else—
“Swoosh!”
Zhang Mu took out four glowing gems and lit up the surrounding area.
After jumping into the river, he suddenly found that the river was so deep that he couldn’t see the bottom.
“It’s more than 200 meters deep here.”
Zhang Han replied, “There is nothing to be afraid of in this kind of place. You can carefully feel the flow of the water. If there is anything coming your way, you will notice it in advance.”
“…”
No matter where he went, Zhang Han would always talk to Mengmeng about the insights he gained from his experience.
Regarding the understanding of the Cultivation World, Mengmeng was learning quite fast.
They swam like that for an hour in the dark river before they saw the exiting cave and safely arrived at the Deep Valley.
