Library of Heaven's Path

Before Zhang Xuan's eyes was a massive altar powered by the formation. It was floating silently in the air, and perhaps because it was not activated, it appeared to meld into the deep darkness. There was an ancient quality to the altar that felt as if it had traversed across the ages.

This altar… it's very similar to the one that I obtained from the Scarletleaf King. Could it be an altar of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe? Zhang Xuan's face darkened.

The altar was identical to the one he had obtained from the Scarletleaf King previously, just significantly larger. With a single look, it was apparent that the altar belonged to the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe as well.

Studying it with his Eye of Insight, he saw countless inscriptions carved on the altar. These inscriptions were extremely peculiar, being neither in the language of the humans nor the language of the beasts.

Nevertheless, these words were extremely familiar to Zhang Xuan. With just a single glance, he had already recognized them.

These words are in the language that Ancient Sage Qiu Wu used to leave behind his heritage!

The maps that Ancient Sage Qiu Wu had left behind were in the same language as the words carved on the altar. When these words were structured together in a certain manner, they would be imbued with a peculiar power over space.

It seems to be some kind of teleportation formation, serving to teleport Otherworldly Demons over here! Zhang Xuan pondered with a deep frown.

The presence of this very formation was the most direct evidence to show that Chen Zhe had betrayed mankind for the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe.

Considering the scale of the altar, and the sheer amount of energy it was powered with from the grade-8 formation below, it was extremely likely that it had played an integral role in the invasion of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe twenty years ago!

Otherwise, considering that the Subterranean Galleries had been tightly sealed, how could so many Otherworldly Demons have suddenly emerged?

From the looks of it, it seems like Tian Qing has betrayed mankind as well…

While Chen Zhe was a 7-star low-tier master teacher in the Master Teacher Pavilion, it was impossible for him to construct such a powerful formation by himself while concealing the matter from his teacher, Tian Qing.

The only possibility was that… Tian Qing was in on the matter as well.

In other words, Vice Pavilion Master Tian, the most authoritative 7-star pinnacle master teacher of the Master Teacher Pavilion, had been a spy of the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe all along!

Putting it together with the deductions he had made before, Zhang Xuan came to a realization. And here I was wondering why, despite how honest and humble I have been, the other party still came straight for me. Everything makes sense now…

It had only been a week since he had arrived at Qingyuan City, and he had not caused any trouble within this period, unlike back when he was at the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy. And yet, someone had still found such a crude reason to attack him, claiming that his butler was the 'founder' of the Poison Hall just on the basis that they shared the same name.

This matter had left him rather confused for quite some time, but looking at it once more, it could have been vengeance for the Skyleaf King and the others.

After all, the Ten Kings of the Qingtian Lineage had ended up dying in his hands. Even if not for vengeance, it was understandable why the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe would attempt to get rid of him.

The Qingtian Lineage, Tian Qing, King Zhongqing… I should have known earlier! Zhang Xuan shook his head.

The Qingtian Lineage had nearly been wiped out by him—nine of them were killed while the last one was tamed.

He should have suspected this from the moment that he learned that King Zhongqing and Tian Qing wanted to deal with him, especially given the fact that Tian Qing was the teacher of Chen Zhe.

However, due to their identities, he had only thought that they were negligent in their responsibilities back then.

Tian Qing and King Zhongqing… They were probably both from the Qingtian Lineage, right?

Furthermore, looking back on their records, both of them seemed to have come to power after achieving significant contributions in the war against the Otherworldly Demonic Tribe twenty years ago.

Forget it. For the time being, my priority should be to destroy this altar. Once I crush it, it'll be impossible for them to send any more men over.

As this matter had great implications, while Zhang Xuan was confident in his deduction, he knew that he needed to obtain concrete proof before doing anything. Thus, he decided to put the matter aside for now.

Flicking his wrist, he took out the Glacier Rain Sword.

Huala!

Driving his zhenqi, he shot a barrage of sword qi toward the altar.

In the three days he had spent in the Combat Master Hall, he had managed to bring his Heaven's Path Sword Art to greater heights. If he could raise his Glacier Rain Sword to Saint intermediate-tier too, even without the use of a formation, he would be able to subdue Pavilion Master Gou easily with his sword.

"Break!"

However, as Zhang Xuan's sword qi was just about to strike the altar, he suddenly felt a compelling power wrapping around him, rendering him light-headed.

Following which, an immense might suddenly tugged at his soul, attempting to forcefully drag it out of his body.

This… Zhang Xuan widened his eyes in astonishment.

With a powerful force tugging at his soul, he could not continue his attack anymore, and his body staggered weakly on the spot.

The tugging sensation on his soul was extremely familiar. He had experienced it once in the past.

Cang Xu had used such a technique against him.

However, due to Cang Xu's lacking strength relative to his soul, the technique was not able to faze him at all. However, the might that was pulling at his soul this time around was extremely powerful. If Zhang Xuan let his attention waver for a moment, his soul could very well be nabbed away.

Zhang Xuan swiftly drove his Heaven's Path zhenqi to ward off the force tugging at his soul, and only then did he manage to steady himself. Turning his gaze to the altar once more, he soon understood something.

So, this is how they carried out the killings.

Without a doubt, Tian Qing or the Otherworldly Demons must have made use of the grade-8 formation to amplify the prowess of their soul art to bypass the defenses of the Master Teacher Pavilion.

Given that it had nearly taken even his soul away, surely it would have been much easier to deal with Chen Zhe and the others.

While I was trying to lure them out, they were trying to do the same. No wonder everything went so smoothly!

Knowing that there was someone hiding in the area, using the altar to nab his soul and kill him, Zhang Xuan narrowed his eyes sharply.

As socially inept as he was, it did not mean that he was lacking in intelligence. On the contrary, as his Soul Depth increased, his ability to analyze and decipher situations was getting stronger and stronger.

He had told Wu shi to compliment Chen Zhe publicly in order to lure Tian Qing out, and Tian Qing did arrive in the end. However, he still ended up being assaulted… It seemed like the other party was no fool either!

Perhaps, from the very start, the other party's goal was not to retrieve the altar but to kill him!

He had set up this ploy in order to bait Tian Qing, but from the looks of it now, it was apparent that the other party had already seen through his ploy. They had chosen to go along with his ploy, sending Tian Qing over and forsaking him like a pawn just so as to lure him out and hunt him down.

A thought suddenly came to Zhang Xuan's mind. Could this be related to Vicious?

"Master, there's no doubt that the soul art is one of my secret arts, but judging from the lack of mastery in the technique, I am certain that it isn't another one of my body parts executing it. Otherwise, as powerful as you are, it's unlikely that you would have been able to survive it!" Vicious informed Zhang Xuan telepathically.

Hearing those words, Zhang Xuan nodded in agreement.

As powerful as his Heaven's Path Soul Art was, it was a pity that he was still too weak at the moment. If the enemy he was facing was truly Vicious, the latter would surely have been able to nab his soul easily.

But if it isn't another one of the body parts… who else could it be? Zhang Xuan frowned.

In this moment, another bout of dizziness struck his head, and a might even greater than before began tugging at his soul.

It seemed like the other party was giving it a second try after the first failure.

Perhaps I should just go along with the other party to take a look.

Instead of racking his head to figure out whom the culprit working against him was, it would be much easier for him just to let the other party take his soul and see the other party's face for himself.

After some discussion with Vicious to learn more about the various aspects of the soul art, Zhang Xuan walked up to the altar and wrote some things on it with his brush. Only after that did he release his grip on his soul, allowing the might to take away his soul.

Hu!

His soul flew out from his glabella.

My soul is currently a little too big. If I go over in such a form, it might cause the other party to put up his guard instead. It would be better if I can compress it slightly for the time being.

Zhang Xuan's soul was nearly ten meters tall, and if he were to appear in such a form before the other party, he would surely expose his proficiency in soul arts. Thus, with a tap of his finger, he began driving the Heavenly Art of Dimension Unravel.

In the blink of an eye, his ten-meters large soul became compressed into the size of his physical body.

Hu!

Under the powerful suction force from the altar, Zhang Xuan's soul was swiftly dragged into it.

Weng!

With a brilliant shimmer from the altar, Zhang Xuan's soul disappeared from sight.

…

While Zhang Xuan was exploring the underground cavern beneath Chen Zhe's residence, Tian Qing had been under the relentless assault of the master teachers, and he was swiftly approaching his limits.

His body was covered in wounds and fresh blood, and a mixture of desperation and despair could be seen in his eyes.

As powerful as he was, he was still unable to cope with the collaborative offense from six powerful experts.

"Tian Qing, give up. If you struggle anymore, we'll just have to kill you!" Wu shi harrumphed coldly.

Previously, Pavilion Master Gou had already issued a warrent to apprehend Tian Qing dead or alive!

If the latter still refused to submit, they did not mind dragging his corpse back to the Master Teacher Pavilion.

"Kill me? Try it then! I'll make sure to bring all of you down with me!" Knowing that it was impossible to escape, Tian Qing roared ferociously.

All of a sudden, an immense power surged within Tian Qing's body, and his body began glowing with a fearsome shade of red.

Narrowing his eyes in horror, Wu shi bellowed anxiously, "This is bad, he's going to blow himself up! Quick, seal the surroundings!"

The power that a Half-Leaving Aperture realm harnessed within his body was no joke. It could easily reduce everything within a radius of a thousand meters into cinders.

Chen Zhe deserved to die, but his family members and the civilians that lived in the area were innocent. As master teachers, it was their responsibility to protect them.

"Yes!"

The crowd swiftly created a barrier around Tian Qing with their zhenqi to contain the might of his explosion.

There was no doubt that their barrier would be insufficient to neutralize Tian Qing's explosion, and they could very well incur severe injuries or even die from the shockwave of the explosion. However, if their efforts could at least save the lives of some, they did not think that their sacrifice would be wasted.

Just as the crowd had resolved themselves to a bitter end, a voice suddenly sounded from above them. "There's no need to go through so much trouble. Let me do it instead!"

Raising their heads, they saw a massive cauldron falling from the sky.

Padah! In the blink of an eye, the exploding Tian Qing was suddenly crushed toward the ground.

On the off chance that Tian Qing managed to turn the tables, Zhang Xuan had left the Golden Origin Cauldron outside for the safety of the others.

And upon seeing that the master teachers were in a bad position, that fellow immediately rushed forward to deal with the situation.

Huala!

After pressing Tian Qing back onto the ground, the massive body of the Golden Origin Cauldron suddenly twisted as its cauldron cap opened, and it swallowed Tian Qing without any hesitation.

Boom!

Shortly after it swallowed Tian Qing, a deafening explosion suddenly sounded within the cauldron. Following which, the cap opened once more, and a puff of white smoke rose from it, as if a burp of contentment.

Putong!

A tattered body was coughed out of the cauldron.

"How revolting! It sure is hard to swallow this…" The Golden Origin Cauldron shook intensely, as if retching in disgust. However, it soon recalled that it did not have anything to vomit out, so it could only let the matter go.

As powerful as Qing Tian's explosion was, it was still insufficient to blow a Saint intermediate-tier artifact, especially one like the Golden Origin Cauldron, into pieces.

On the other hand, the eyebrows of the master teachers shot up.

Wu shi had gone through many life-threatening situations with the Golden Origin Cauldron, and he knew how powerful the latter was. It was just that he had not expected the latter to become so formidable after its reawakening.

To swallow Qing Tian and survive the impact of his explosion… At this rate, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before the Golden Origin Cauldron reached the Leaving Aperture realm.

Zhang Jiuxiao walked up to the corpse and muttered with a complicated expression, "He's dead…"

"Dead?" Wu shi walked up to take a look.

He examined the corpse and swiftly confirmed that it was Qing Tian, no doubt about it. However, he still could hardly believe his eyes.

Considering how tenacious Qing Tian had been all this while, he found his easy death a little hard to swallow.