Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
In the Pond of Illusive Ripples that had been torn apart, there were some mingled white powders and shadows of Primordial Fierce Beasts. Like a predator who spotted its prey, Giant Void Hands were grabbing all the broken pieces – the left rushed about, the right dashed around, resolute to grasp those white powders and fully refine them. These hands were exactly the Giant Void Hands of Zhou Bao.
After having shattered the entire Pond of Illusive Ripples by three hammer strikes, Zhou Bao’s eyes had instantly turned to the white powders, the remains of those Giant Clam Primordial Fierce Beasts left many years ago. This was also the underlying reason why this meteorite could evolve into the Pond of Illusive Ripples in the first place.
People in the two Star Areas did eye those remains at one time or another, but those remains were left too long ago. If you only collected a bit of them, it would be of little power. If you collected an awful lot, the power of the Pond of Illusive Ripples would be offset. Furthermore, those remains were the common property belonging to both Star Areas. Therefore, all of it was still stored in the Pond of Illusive Ripples, allowing Zhou Bao to acquire another gain.
Standing beside Zhou Bao were Monk Huan Ri from the Bigwheel Temple and Hong Taihe.
They did not make many movements but just silently gawked at the Giant Void Hands of Zhou Bao dashing about among the remains of that Pond of Illusive Ripples and gathering all of the remains into them for refining while the shocking scene that happened just now was still replaying in their minds.
The moment the whole meteorite exploded was the most impressive picture to them. The Divine Lord of Red Sun and his subordinates fleed in a rush, having no chance for revenge at all. Later, when all the clouds and mists had dispersed, the only scene they could see was Zhou Bao clutching an eccentric Green Bamboo Stick in his hand while ordering his Innate Qi Catching Hand to collect the remains of the Giant Clams. There was no trace of any other person there.
Obviously, these two were saved by Zhou Bao. But how did he do that? They may never know.
These two both fixed their eyes on the two green hammers that were hanging on Zhou Bao’s hips, each hammer having the size of a watermelon. And a trace of doubt could be found in their gazes.
For sure, they were rescued by Zhou Bao, because in this Star Area there were just Zhou Bao and these two left. Zhou Bao was on the same side as them. But there was just one thing they were uncertain of: did Zhou Bao truly have such a powerful strength to accomplish such a thing?
Huan Ri was a Seven-tribulation Lord of Heaven while Hong Taihe was an Eight-tribulation Lord of Heaven. Of course, Huan Ri had already solidified his Self-world. As for Hong Taihe who had lost his Self-world, we shall just address him as a Venerable. Now, those two did a little self-examine and came to one conclusion: even if Hong Taihe had not solidified his Self-world and still maintained a standard strength at the level of an Eight-tribulation Lord of Heaven, provided that there was no further pressure, it would still be extremely difficult for him to break out of such an eccentric place like this Pond of Illusive Ripples, let alone making such a scene like Zhou Bao did.
Hong Taihe had fought against Zhou Bao once. Although he lost that fight, he was confident that he had seen Zhou Bao’s limit. Thus, now, he was at a total loss. “Was I really saved by Zhou Bao? Does Zhou Bao truly have such a capability? When he confronted me last time, he never revealed such strength. Otherwise, I would be smashed into meat paste long before. Could all this be attributed to the two newly-added hammers behind his butt?”
The two watermelon-sized hammers hanging behind Zhou Bao’s butt were quite conspicuous. When he moved, these hammers would plink and plunk like a symphony corresponding to his movements, so it would be difficult to make them less eye-appealing. The two hammers did look like something fancier than ordinary weapons, but could they really be that powerful?
In contrast to Hong Taihe’s confusion, Monk Huan Ri took a more clear-cut action. He said, “It turns out that King Wuyang personally gave us a helping hand. I, Huan Ri, owe you one for your kindness!”
“It’s nothing worth mentioning, Hierarch Huan R. You praise me too much!” Zhou Bao gave a smile and cupped his hands at Hierarch Huan Ri. “It’s just like lifting a finger. Anyway, this time the reason I came here is exactly for you two!”
“Oh? For us? How come?!”
Right then, Zhou Bao had finished gathering all the remains of the Giant Clam Primordial Fierce Beasts. And he withdrew the Giant Void Hands and accounted the cause and effect of the whole matter with a smile.
When they had heard that Yukun Buddha and Great Dark Lord Du were scared out of their wits and destroyed the Transmitting Formation connecting the Four Eastern Regions with the Infinite Star Sea, the two had been so furious that their faces went greenish. Hierarch Huan Ri was even more indignant because, if we had a closer look to find out, Yukun Buddha was his nephew. Now that Yukun Buddha had committed such an embarrassing misconduct, Hierarch Huan Ri felt quite embarrassed.
“Such an accident is really out of everyone’s expectations!” Hong Taihe, who was standing nearby, also gave a sigh. He looked up at Zhou Bao and continued saying, “King Wuyang, it seems that this time we have no choice but to be in your debt!”
“Don’t say that. As I have said a moment ago, the reason I did this is that the five biggest sects have offered me a fairy weapon as my compensation. It is just a deal. If you have to express your gratitude, just say those words to your respective sects!” Speaking of this, he gave Hong Taihe a significant look. “Senior Grand Tutor Hong, your Self-world has been solidified. But then, you didn’t conduct a closed-door training at the Divine Wind Palace but went here to fight and kill. Why is that?”
When Hong Taihe heard that, he displayed a trace of a wry smile. “I’m a member of the Divine Wind Palace. Accordingly, I know it would still be impossible to recover my Self-world even if I stayed in the Divine Wind Palace. That’s why I came to this Infinite Star Sea, hoping that I may run into some upper immortal and get a chance to fix my problem. However, I am far from meeting an upper immortal, almost fell into a serious trap, and now, owe you a big favor!” Saying this, he raised his head to look at Zhou Bao. “King Wuyang, last time, we were just fighting for our own masters. Although you ruined my Self-world, I have no complaints about that. This time, you even saved my life. Thus, the animosity between you and our Hong Family shall be written off once and for all. From now on, regardless of what the Divine Wind Palace will do, our Hong Family will definitely not be your enemy. Additionally, whenever you need help, our Hong Family will exert all our effort to help you. What do you say?”
Zhou Bao felt a bit taken aback by this reply. The commitment Hong Taihe just made was a big one, and the change of his attitude was really surprising too. But giving this a second thought, Zhou Bao figured it out. Despite that the Hong Family claimed to be the second biggest family in the Divine Wind Palace, its strength was far below that of the Yu family. There were three Lords of Heavens in the Yu family, namely Yu Taicang, Yu Taixu, and Yu Taixuan. Meanwhile, the Hong Family only had one person with a Lord of Heaven cultivation, and that was Hong Taihe himself. Now that his Lord of Heaven cultivation had been downgraded by Zhou Bao’s strike, keeping the Hong Family’s position as the second biggest family would be a problem itself, let alone competing with the Yu family. The conflict between the Hong Family and the Yu family had been growing bit by bit over many years; it had been irreconcilable. But the conflict between Zhou Bao and Hong Taihe was not very deep. Now, Zhou Bao obviously had made a great accomplishment. And his strength was extraordinarily strong, so it would be unwise to go against him. Hence, Hong Taihe had decided to compromise in the first place.
‘A great man shall be able to take temporary setbacks.’ After being a Senior Grand Tutor for so many years, Hong Taihe naturally knew about this little principle.
Hearing that Hong Taihe caved in, a surprised look appeared on Hierarch Huan Ri’s face but soon faded away. Then he said, “King Wuyang, now that this matter has gone so far, we’d better find others. Our whereabouts have already been exposed, and our backgrounds also have been detected by those in the two Star Areas. Let’s hurry up and go back to the Heaven Realm. If we wait any longer, some unforeseeable event may happen to us!”
“Right. After all, the Infinite Star Sea is someone else’s territory. We are vulnerable and outnumbered here; we can’t accomplish much. If we stay here for too long, we will get caught up instead. Now the most pressing task is passing this news to others: Try everything possible to rescue the disciples of our sects, go back to the Seven-deity Regions, and close up the Transmitting Formation. And in no case shall we allow practitioners from the two Infinite Star Seas to acquire the location of the Heaven Realm. Otherwise, the Heaven Realm will certainly face an immense catastrophe!”
“That’s hard to say. Even if the sky falls down, there are those tall guys who can prop it up. Don’t forget that the Seven-deity Regions is only a small part of the Heaven Realm. The major part belongs to the Sea Emperor. Maybe when the time comes, the Sea Area will come out and handle this!” Zhou Bao smiled, expressing his disagreement with Hierarch Huan Ri’s view. “But Hierarch does have a point. No matter what, we are not those ‘tall guys,’ so it’s better to pull back our people as soon as possible. It’s just that this Infinite Star Sea is too huge; I really have no clue about how to contact others. So, how should I look for them?”
“No need to worry about this. We have a way of contacting each other. And they must have heard that we were trapped in this Pond of Illusive Ripples. They might be waiting in the vicinity to meet us right now. You’ve made such a scene this time, and it certainly has attracted their attention. I believe we are able to go back in no time!”
“I wonder how the others are doing in the search for their disciples!” Hong Taihe said with a sigh.
“At this point, no matter whether they have found their disciples or not, they have to go back!” Hierarch Huan Ri heaved a sigh. “Moreover, for the sake of our safety, when we return to our region, we have to send those sects’ disciples who are stuck in the Infinite Star Sea to their reincarnation!”
When those words were said out loud, Zhou Bao’s eyes immediately focused. He got what Hierarch Huan Ri was saying. Those sects’ disciples who were stuck in the Infinite Star Sea were all elite disciples from their respective sects. They knew a lot of secrets of their sects, particularly those Individual Immortal disciples whose cultivation had reached the Mysterious Realm. Once those disciples fell into the hands of the two Star Areas, it was inevitable that other influences would exercise some means to dig out those secrets from them. If so, secrets of various sects would not remain secrets anymore. Thus, it was better to annihilate their life by directly using the power of the Golden Book of Fate and send those Individual Immortals whose Genuine Spirits still clang to the Golden Book of Fate to step on their journey of reincarnation. That would be a neat move. As for those expert disciples who had not reached the Individual Immortal Realm, since the number of secrets they knew about were much less than of those of Individual Immortals, they could not reveal much confidential information even if they were caught by others.
Those words of Hierarch Huan Ri were indeed relentless, but his views were seconded by Hong Taihe. “Well, now that there are no alternatives, that’s the only thing we can do!” Hong Taihe said and heaved a long sigh. “Let’s go. I’ve sensed that someone is approaching us. Let’s meet them!”
Zhou Bao and Hierarch Huan Ri both nodded. As their figures started to flash, the three of them vanished from the hollow.
…
