The highest Mountain on the Blue Whale Island began to tremble as if an earthquake was happening. Thunderous rumbles sounded and spread to afar, while waves of the space rippled and an invisible and intangible force enveloped the entire Blue Whale Island.
"Eh, I've never sensed this kind of space fluctuation before!"
Zhou Bao excelled in the Three Realms Division and the Space Division Skill, so he was quite sensitive about space fluctuation. But at the moment, this exotic space fluctuation was utterly different from those he had felt in the past. He even sensed that a strong mysterious force was surging up from somewhere and was forcefully tearing the surrounding space into pieces. This strong force was not only tearing up the space, but it was showing a vague sign that it was integrating itself with the nearby space.
This was infusion!
This was something that never crossed Zhou Bao's mind. "What kind of force could infuse into the force of space?"
Precisely for this infusion, the surrounding space fluctuation seemed to be unique. Zhou Bao's spiritual mind sprawled in all directions like tentacles, thoroughly detecting the overlayed and almost endless space fluctuation.
All of a sudden, his expression altered, "What is this place?"
Exactly! What the hell was this place?
After wandering through a somewhat special part of this space fluctuation, a fine tentacle of his spiritual mind sprawled among the multilayered space fluctuation, suddenly stretched into a pretty marvelous place. This was a greyish world, in which everywhere was fused with greyish and blurry fog. There was no essence of the world, but this place was not utterly empty like a hollow space, because it was full of ever-changing storms and endless hollow.
This was a weird space!
Yes, a weird but stable space!
"What is this place? Could it be the legendary Taiyuan Heaven?" This thought flitted across Zhou Bao's mind. All at once, he felt a compelling force charging at him, which split his spiritual mind apart. He gave a violent shudder and came to his senses.
A whirring noise sounded!
All these insights, mental activities, and discoveries occurred in just a split second, even less than one-tenth of the time it takes for you to blink your eyes. Therefore, no one noticed anything abnormal about Zhou Bao. But when he came back to his senses, after that one-tenth of a blink of an eye, everything on the Blue Whale Island had changed.
Rampant Space Storms swept through the entire Blue Whale Island, scooping up numerous tiny space fragments that looked like pieces of glass in the air. Everything on the Blue Whale Island was carried into the storms.
"What a storm! With so many space fragments in it, even if I turn on my Gang Qi, I still cannot get enough protection!" Zhou Bao, who was terror-stricken, said to himself. At that moment, a layer of fuzzy blue light emitted out of his body and shrouded around himself, Wang She and Mo Yinyang. The moment those raging storms got contact with the blue light, they automatically gave way to it.
"No wonder the rule is that each Taiyuan Token can only allow three people to come onto the Blue Whale Island regardless of what kind of influence the newcomers have. If the number exceeds three, the Taiyuan Token would not be able to protect all of them. Facing such a Space Storm, even a Level Nine expert may have to head backward with regret!"
As the Space Fluctuations and Space Storms grew increasingly violent, the blue light of the Taiyuan Token became more and more bright. When the light grew to the brightest extent, the space fluctuation around them suddenly surged up, swallowing all the 20 blue light like ocean waves.
At the same time, on the other side of the island, a blue light dot was also engulfed by the fluctuation.
"What a great opportunity!" After being engulfed by the blue light, Zhou Bao's heart leapt with delight. Once more, his spiritual mind spread around like tentacles, taking advantage of this rare opportunity to apprehend the wonders of this space.
It was a pity that the time he had to apprehend was too little, but he did find something out in the end.
After a few seconds, an abundant burst of the essence of the world blew in his face, which almost made him choke.
In fact, at the same time, he heard several dim coughings, which were apparently made by someone who was choking on this extremely abundant spiritual qi.
"This is the Taiyuan Heaven!"
After breathing several times, everything was restored to its quietness, and there were about 60 men standing in a mysterious and exotic space.
After eagerly inhaling mouthfuls of rich spiritual qi, Zhou Bao cast his eyes around. Looking about, he was stupefied.
What a world it was!
Vast, peerlessly vast!
That was his first impression of the world.
Towering mountains stood afar, one after another, with their peaks floating in the air. At first glimpse, they looked a lot like those floating mountains he had seen in the film Avatar in his previous life. Although the mountains in front of him were far more numerous and much more magnificent than those in the film.
In this space, there was thick spiritual qi and mountains suspended everywhere in the air. However, there was not even a single patch of normal land.
Looking at distant views, there were assorted mountain peaks. Some of these mountains were huge in terms of volume—surely surpassing hundreds of thousands of miles in diameter. They looked like a suspending continent. But some were small, merely with the size of a house. The distance between those mountains also varied. Some of those vacant areas in the middle of two mountains were vast like a sea area, with nothing existing in the vicinity of hundreds of thousands of miles apart from the blue air. Meanwhile, some peaks were closely entwined, even linked with each other by some plant rattans.
The sky was navy. Touches of white fog and colorful clouds were flying in the sky, floating around those suspending mountains, which looked just like a fairyland.
"Alright, everybody, we've now arrived at the Taiyuan Heaven. According to the alliance treaty agreed a thousand years before, every batch of us visitors has to stay in a designated area, and no one is allowed to go outside of their own area without authorization. If you want to exchange your area with others, now is the time!"
A booming voice sounded in the crowd, which was suffused with compelling pressure and inviolable spirit.
"It's the idiot from the Divine Wind Palace!" Zhou Bao shot a glance at the man who was the source of that voice, cursed under his breath and then simply ignored him. Then, he nodded to Li Xiu, said some greetings and got ready to leave this place.
"Hold on!" Just when Zhou Bao was about to leave, another voice sounded and called him up. Turning back with a scowl, Zhou Bao saw it was exactly the expert of the Divine Wind Palace who made that announcement just now.
This man was eight feet in height, with a long black beard. His eyebrows were as sleek as silkworms and his eyes were as slanted as phoenix eyes, which made him sort of majestic-looking, like a tiger. If his face got redder, Zhou Bao would take him as a reincarnation of General Guan Yu.
"Your Excellency has some instructions for me?" Zhou Bao cupped his hand together and said with little enthusiasm.
"If I'm not mistaken, Your Excellency must be Zhou Bao, from the Jin dynasty in the Central Mainland Region?" That man enquired.
"Right, I am Zhou Bao. Your Excellency is..."
"Zhang Yunhao, from the Divine Wind Palace!" Zhang Yunhao raised his chin as he said the word "Divine Wind Palace" and his Qi Power also seemed to burgeon at that moment.
"I wonder what instruction Your Excellency intends to bestow me for calling me out!"
"Of course I have something to discuss with you!" Zhang Yunhao smiled and went on, "I have a presumptuous request!"
"Since it's a presumptuous request, you should say no more. I will not exchange my Taiyuan Token with you!" Zhou Bao's mouth cracked a thin slit, giving out a fleeting sneer. "Time is limited, and I will excuse myself!"
Zhou Bao cupped his hands once more. His figure flashed and brought up a beam of red Gang Qi, ready to take off.
"How dare you!"
Just as Zhou Bao was about to leap up and get away, a cluster of golden light twinkled and soared downright in the direction of Zhou Bao's head to enclose it.
"You're courting death now!" A shaft of chilling light flitted across Zhou Bao's eyes, and he saw the man giving off that golden light was exactly the golden-robed brute standing beside Zhang Yunhao. He lifted a hand, pointed one finger at him, and a jet of black and red Sword Qi flashed out, colliding head-on with that golden light.
"Eh?"
Upon crashing into the golden light, Zhou Bao's Sword Qi instantly disappeared. Zhou Bao felt that his Sword Qi had bumped against a soft wall, and all its power was consumed by it.
"You dare destroy my magic weapon?"
Almost simultaneously, that brute started barking wildly. That golden light took one collision with the Sword Qi of Zhou Bao's Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword Qi, and then, split into two parts. As its light paled, the physical body of that weapon was revealed in front of everyone.
It turned out to be a golden handkerchief.
"Humph, I will not only damage your magic weapon, but I'll also teach a lesson to you, you dumbass!" Zhou Bao shouted with a sneer. Moving like a flash of lightning, Zhou Bao already approached that golden-robed brute. Then, the moment he raised one hand, a shaft of Sword Qi burst out.
The golden-robed brute stamped his feet in fury. He bellowed in an undertone and a layer of golden Gang Qi rose from his body, covering every part of him.
"Crap!" At sight of this scenario, Zhang Yunhao knew that things would not go well. He was an expert of weapons. Though he didn't know what the black and red Gang Qi Zhou Bao shot out was, when he came to contemplate it for a second, the story of the Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword crossed his mind. Seeing this brute tried to resist this Sword Qi with his Gang Qi, Zhang Yunhao was startled. He abruptly raised one arm to push that brute away, but he was still one second late. The brute's body was shoved away, but the Sword Qi was so fast that he failed to escape it completely.
Swish!
The black and red Sword Qi cut open his Protective Gang Qi as if cutting a chunk of Tofu, which chopped off his left hand in a second.
"Ah!"
The Sword Qi was now highly aggressive. That wisp of killing intent in the Sword Qi crept into the brute's insides from the wound and invaded into his tendons and meridians. The brute felt a spasm of sharp pain and let out a growl out of anguish, but he could not say a single word even though he wanted to do so.
Zhang Yunhao's figure leapt to that brute like a flash of lightning, and he placed a punch right in his back.
Poof!
A torrent of blood spurted out from the end of that brute's handless arm and splattered onto the ground, resulting in a deep indent. After the blood gushed out, the brute seemed to have got better, though his face was still as white as chalk. Anyway, his breathing became smoother, and he slowly sat down with his legs crossed to regulate his breathing.
"Zhou Bao, how ruthless you are!" After confirming the brute was not in mortal danger, Zhang Yunhao raised his head and snapped at Zhou Bao reprovingly, "Are you truly going to go against the Divine Wind Palace?"
Zhou Bao blinked, let out a cold laugh and replied, "Humph, your Divine Wind Palace is really unbridled. You even breached the Thousand Year Promise in broad daylight. He launched a strike at me without even calling me out first, so what's wrong with me cutting off one of his arms?"
"You..." Zhang Yunhao suddenly became speechless for the moment.
It was true that the brute struck out against Zhou Bao first a moment ago, and it was also him who spoke rudely to Zhou Bao. Thus, Zhou Bao was only fighting back. Although his counter movement was too harsh, as a matter of fact, this was not a big deal.
In this world, power was the dominating factor to inspire awe. When someone overestimated his power and started a fight against the one whose power was stronger than his, people would think that he had asked for it, even if he was killed in that battle, let alone now where nobody was killed and there were still so many people watching them. Among those qualified to enter the Taiyuan Heaven, everyone must have some background, mustn't they? Even though the Divine Wind Palace possessed great power and massive influence, they could not always get their way by relying on their prestige.
Therefore, under such a circumstance, Zhang Yunhao truly had nothing to say.
But his silence did not prevent others from speaking up their views, "Zhou Bao, even though Emissary Chang struck first, he had no malicious intent towards you. He merely wanted to stop you from leaving, so why did you launch such a nasty counter-attack?"
Zhou Bao made a glimpse with the corners of his eyes, and then grinned. The one who said those words was exactly the First Young Master, Ma, whose teeth were all knocked out by Zhou Bao with one slap on the Blue Whale Island.
"F*ck, which bastard didn't buckle up his crotch and let you out? You say one more word and I will punch you back to your daddy's testicles, dare to try me or not?"
"Hahaha..."
Those words were so vulgar that the crowd on the scene all burst out laughing, among them Lei's laughter was the loudest.
"Wow wow wow! You dude, very good. You dude, really f*cking good. Hahaha, if you can walk out of here alive, I shall buy you liquor to celebrate! Hahahahaha, what a brilliant swear! I'll use this to curse others from now on, hahaha!" Lei gave Zhou Bao a thumbs-up, and then waved his hands and turned to the two behind him, "Okay, stop watching the fun. We still have our own business to do. Let's go!"
The three of them conjured three tornados around themselves and disappeared out of sight in a twinkling.
As they left, several other Demon Tribes also followed suit and disappeared in various directions. Other Human Tribes trotted off as well. After all, the opening time of the Taiyuan Heaven was limited and everyone should not waste it on watching the drama. In a few seconds, half of the crowd on the spot were already gone.
The face of that First Young Master Ma purpled in rage. He lifted one hand and pointed it at Zhou Bao, his beautiful fingertips shivering, trying to say something to save his dignity. But the middle-aged man nearby pulled him back. Finally, no words spurted out of his mouth.
"Well, it's alright then. I'll go now!" Zhou Bao shrugged and surveyed that Zhang Yunhao. "If you want to settle this issue here, scratch a line for the record then. I'll not mind having a play-around with you!"
Zhang Yunhao's face was frosty. He said, "Alright, this time, we Divine Wind Palace, admit our bad luck. But as the saying goes, green hills and green flows will always be there. This debt will be settled on your account one day!"
"Save your meaningless words!" Zhou Bao sneered. He exchanged a look with Wang She, and then the three men turned on their Gang Qi and shot to the sky.
"Bloke, today your temper is really on!"
When they were flying, Wang She grinned and said, "The Divine Wind Palace is not easy to mess with!"
"Pish! Hard to mess with, so what? Should I swallow down my anger just because their influence is immense?" Zhou Bao said in a cold voice. "Never attack unless being attacked. But when someone does attack me, I'll surely punch out all of his teeth, no matter who he is!"
"Hehe, you youngsters are always so cranky!" Wang She said, chuckling. "But there is nothing to worry about. Divine Wind Palace does have great influence, but the Central Mainland Region belongs to the territory of we Immortal Palace. No matter how far the Divine Wind Palace's arm can reach, they cannot stick in our place!"
Speaking of this, he shot a look at Mo Yinyang, "Am I right, Brother Mo?"
Mo Yinyang seemed to be undecided about this. Frankly speaking, after seeing Zhou Bao's act just now, he already started regretting following Zhou Bao in here.
He knew only too well how influential the Divine Wind Palace was. Although Wang She touched on the matter lightly and said that they shouldn't fear them because the Central Mainland Region was the territory of the Immortal Palace, he was a man of the Penglai Region, which was a territory thoroughly belonging to the Divine Wind Palace.
If the Divine Wind Palace took him as one of Zhou Bao's gang and failed to make trouble for Zhou Bao, they would unleash their fury on him in the end. Then, who shall he reason to seek justice?
However, what was done was done. Regret would not help. He could only wish that those three hadn't recognized him yet. Also, if he managed to find some good stuff as he wished in this Taiyuan Heaven, he would be able to break through his present phase.
Six hours later.
"Damn it. How far on earth is our area from there? Why haven't we arrived there after flying for such a long time?"
Every Taiyuan Token was processed with a special technique. Once entered the designated area, it would glow with blue light. However, after flying for six hours straight, their Taiyuan Token still remained the same, which really irritated him.
Remember, this Taiyuan Heaven was actually not as peaceful as you saw it. Spiritual Qi and pneuma were everywhere, while danger also lurked around. During the six-hour flight, they had met a dozen flying exotic demons and evil beasts, though their strength was at Level Nine, they were actually a bit stronger than ordinary Level Nine experts. When they came one by one, the three of them could still manage to fend them off through teamwork. But when those beasts shot at them in flocks, they would feel like weeping, but they had no tears.
Dozens of seconds ago, they had just escaped the attack launched by a flock of red birds. Those birds were no bigger than sparrows, but they were made of copper skin and iron bones. Even with their strength, it would cost them a great deal of effort to kill one of these birds. They would have nothing to complain about if there were only one or two of these birds. But in reality, this flock was formed by tens of thousands of birds, which formed a red cloud in the blue sky. They flooded at them from all directions, and each of them had steel feathers and iron claws. Once being trapped among these birds, they would have a job to fight a way out on their own.
What was more, this group of red birds not only had steel feathers and iron claws, but they could penetrate their Protective Gang Qi. Although their sizes were small, they could breathe fire at their enemies. Accordingly, those birds gave the three a really rough time.
"We can't continue like this. If we come across any more monsters, we won't even get the chance to know how we've been killed!" said Mo Yinyang with anxiety. He had come here for gains, not for death. That flock of red bird had already let them have enough strife and caused his heart to flutter in fear, but if they bumped into any more beasts again, they would face great trouble.
"Maybe we should find a place and take a break, and then continue our flight. Based on my knowledge, when you had entered the Taiyuan Heaven, if you keep flying to the biggest suspended continent in the east, you'll find our area. That continent is visible, but it's actually about 300,000 miles or at least 200,000 miles away from us. We've been flying for six hours, while the distance is still that long. Seems that it'll take much more time to fly there!" said Zhou Bao.
"That makes sense!" Wang She echoed. "There is a mountain right ahead of us, let's take a rest there!"
The three of them played down their Gang Wind and began to head for that mountain.
This mountain was not very huge, which could only be counted as a small hill when compared with the infinite space of the Taiyuan Heaven. But if you compared it with the size of a man, it was enormous. Those three descended in the direction of that mountain as if they were as small as three tiny ants. They landed on a boulder where plants were scarce and then sat down to regulate their breathing.
"33 Heavens does live up to its fame! The essence of the world is thousands of times denser than the outside world. Practicing here for one year shall equate decades of practice outside, or even hundreds of years of practice. If we could stay here for a long time, that would be fantastic!"
"Brother Mo, you'd better spend less time on those stupid thoughts!" Wang She said with a smile. "If one could really make a long-term stay in the Taiyuan Heaven, you really think the Divine Wind Palace would be unwilling to do so?"
"Just an idea. Even if there was truly something that good, it would not be available for me!"
"Not necessarily. With Brother Mo's strength, you must assume a high-level position in the Dark Sect!"
"My position is not low, but not that high either." Mo Yinyang giggled. All of a sudden, his expression altered and his eyes swiveled to the right front. Zhou Bao and Wang She also noticed the abnormity, both of whom also cast their eyes to the same place.
"Eh, no way!" When they caught a clear view of that thing, all three of them gasped.
What they saw was an eye, a huge eye. At first, this eye was closed shut and didn't emit any spirit, which was why the three of them hadn't detected it in the first place. But now, it seemed that their movements had alerted it, and the eye opened, giving Zhou Bao and the other two a great shock in return.
The height of that huge eye was already more than a hundred feet.
An eye with a diameter of a hundred feet! Exactly how big was it? Then, how huge could its body be...
They didn't need to really look at it to be terrified, because the imagination itself was formidable enough.
It was a pity that what they were facing at that moment was not imagined, but a real trouble!
As the earth began to quake and the mountain began to shudder, the three of them leapt up at the same time and speedily flew towards the way ahead of them.
"Roar!"
A howl thundered, and the three of them that had already flown miles away, slowed down simultaneously as if being bombarded by a heavy plummet. With this roar, their figures started stumbling in the air, wobbling to the left and right.
"F*uck, what monster is this!" Zhou Bao felt a fit of dizziness, and his ears began ringing, which almost made him fall from the sky.
Soon after, a wild wind sprang up. In an instant, it darted behind them.
"Everyone watch out! It's a Cloud-swallowing Beast!" As if remembering something, Mo Yinyang yelled with all his strength. Then, he turned into a faint whiff of grey smoke and disappeared out of the sight of the other two.
Cloud-swallowing Beast!
Zhou Bao never heard of it, but now it was not a good time for wondering what it was.
Without any hesitation, he made a waving motion and a jet of Sword Qi of the Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword Qi shot out. Instantly, Wang She and he darted sideways.
"Shut down your hearing!" Wang She barked. Almost at the same moment, the two closed their sense of hearing as the second roar sounded. Powerful sound waves even caused their Protective Gang Qi to shudder for a while, which almost fell into pieces under this vibration.
The figures of the two were now like withered leaves in the wind, pretty rickety under the impact of the strong sound waves and air flows. If they had not closed their hearing in time, they would already be deafened by this roar of that Cloud-swallowing Beast.
"Haha, a Cloud-swallowing Beast! It should be a Cloud-swallowing Beast! This one must have practiced to the degree of 50,000 years, and that's why it has grown so huge. Zhou Bao, hurry up and kill it! Every part of it is extremely useful!" Green Spirit's psywave arrived, revealing his utmost thrill.
"Kill it? How? Teach me!" snapped Zhou Bao. He had seen clearly the appearance of that Cloud-swallowing Beast—its body was as high as 10,000 feet, like a huge mountain, even covering up the sun and the sky. If it had not been for the special ability of his Fiery Eyes, he would not have seen its entire body from their present position.
The beast was covered in extremely hard and heavy scales. Even when Zhou Bao sent out two jets of Sword Qi of the Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword Qi in a row, it merely injured some scales and caused it to bleed a little.
"You git! It's been such a long time, but you haven't grasped the wonder of the Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword Qi yet? Look, that bloke is much better than you!"
Zhou Bao was taken aback at this. Not until then did he find that Wang She also launched the Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword. Judging by his Sword Qi, the two types of Evil Qi Wang She used in practicing his Yin and Yang Heavenly Sword was of inferior quality to those which Zhou Bao used, but the power it produced was much stronger. With only a few attacks, the Sword Qi penetrated the scales of that Cloud-swallowing Beast and injured it severely. But most importantly, Wang She's Sword Qi could pierce through that beast, which really gave Zhou Bao a huge shock.