Library of Heaven’s Path

From the looks of it, it seems like I’m lagging behind the others. I’ll have to hurry up…

He had already wasted almost ten hours traveling through the three worlds. If someone managed to make their way into the Subordinate Hall during this period of time, the treasures inside would likely have been emptied out already.

He really had to make haste. He could not continue wasting time on searching for exits.

Turning his gaze to the Otherworldly Demons, he noted that they were almost done arranging their artifacts on the altar in a specific manner. Knowing that there was no time to be wasted, he placed his finger on the thread sealing his pulse.

Weng!

With a jolt, a book materialized in the Library of Heaven’s Path.

Placing his finger on it, the content within the book swiftly flowed into his head.

“Soultheft Shackle, a Great Sage artifact capable of sealing an individual’s soul and zhenqi. It’s forged out of the tendons of the Sempiternal realm consummation beast, Primorigin Acheron Fish. Even Sempiternal realm consummation cultivators have trouble escaping from it. Flaws: …”

Reading through the content, Zhang Xuan nodded in realization.

Just as he had guessed, the artifact that had trapped the crowd was a Great Sage artifact. If he had chosen to really assassinate the black-armored Otherworldly Demon instead of letting himself be captured, Hu Yaoyao and the others would have been killed with just a thought from the latter!

I have to deal with this thing first… Zhang Xuan took a deep breath before activating his Eye of Insight.

Knowing the flaws of the thread, he swiftly devised a feasible way to discreetly snap the thread.

Huala!

With a thought, his Primordial Spirit flicked the thread lightly. His zhenqi immediately broke free of the Great Sage artifact and flowed smoothly through his body once more.

However, he did not let it show. Instead, he turned to the elder and sent him a telepathic message. “Elder, do you want to kill these Otherworldly Demons?”

The elder was taken aback.

The fact that the other party was able to send a telepathic message to him meant that his cultivation had not been sealed.

Fearing that the elder would speak and alert the Otherworldly Demons, Zhang Xuan hurriedly continued. “Don’t talk and just follow my orders. I have a surge of zhenqi here. I want you to follow my orders and channel it toward the thread wrapped around your wrist!”

Knowing that it was of paramount importance not to alarm the Otherworldly Demons, the elder nodded discreetly.

“In order to break free of the thread binding us, we’ll need ten people to cooperate with us. So, I need you to help pass the zhenqi on over to the next person!” Zhang Xuan added, and he infused several surges of zhenqi into the elder’s body.

The best way to deal with this Great Sage artifact was for him to tame it and use it for himself. The way to tame it was to strike ten of its flaws simultaneously. However, the crowd was trapped at the moment, and he did not dare to move too much for fear of alarming the Otherworldly Demons. Thus, he could only borrow their hands to exert his own zhenqi.

The elder nodded silently as he mouthed, Alright.

Using his body as a bridge, he passed the zhenqi onto the person ahead of him.

The person who had received the zhenqi was first stunned for a moment, but he swiftly received Zhang Xuan’s telepathic message. The cycle continued on and on.

Knowing that this was their only shot at survival, all of them followed the instructions strictly without saying a word. The surge of zhenqi swiftly went half a circle before reaching Hu Yaoyao.

It’s you…

Upon hearing the zhenqi telepathy and sensing the zhenqi flowing into her body, the image of a certain young man immediately surfaced in Hu Yaoyao’s mind.

Her body jolted, and she quickly turned her gaze over.

Xuan Zhang… Zhang Xuan! It’s indeed that fellow!

She could not help but smile a little when she heard the name reported by the other party.

If that fellow was truly there, they were in safe hands.

Even though she had gone to the Terpsichore Guild headquarters shortly after leaving the Hongyuan Master Teacher Academy, news about him had continued echoing in her ears.

In just a few short months, he had gained great prestige and standing on the Master Teacher Continent. With him making a move, there was no way that anything would happen to them.

Oblivious to the fact that someone had already seen through his disguise, Zhang Xuan sent a telepathic message to everyone. “Alright. Let’s make a move on my command. Make sure to exert the zhenqi at the coordinates that I have given you. There mustn’t be any mistake!”

The next moment, all of those who had received his zhenqi placed their fingers on the thread wrapped around their wrists.

“Begin!”

Weng!

The thread shuddered a little. Following which, Zhang Xuan felt a consciousness seeping into his mind.

The Great Sage artifact had submitted to him!

“Protect the crowd. If any of the Otherworldly Demons intend them harm, stop them at any cost!” Zhang Xuan relayed his orders to the thread before turning his gaze toward the Otherworldly Demons once more.

They continued setting up the altar, and roughly ten minutes later, they finally came to a halt.

Even though they looked extremely exhausted, there was an excited gleam that could be seen in their eyes.

One of the Otherworldly Demons clasped his fist and reported, “Commander, we have finished setting up the altar. It’s ready to be activated at any moment!”

“Very well! Tell the men to prepare themselves!” The black-armored Otherworldly Demon nodded in approval.

Flicking his wrist, an icy-cold crystal surfaced in his grasp. He placed it at the very center of the altar.

Weng!

A faint light slowly enveloped the entire altar, and an imposing surge of energy seemed to slowly diffuse into the surroundings.

Is that crystal… the core artifact that guards the snow dimension? Zhang Xuan wondered.

The guardian of the forest dimension was the Five Monarchs, and for the desert dimension, it was the Berserk Yellowsand Wood.

The icy-cold crystal was in perfect harmony with the snowy environment, such that it seemed as if it would be able to tap into the power of the dimension itself. From that alone, it was likely a similar existence to the Five Monarchs or the Berserk Yellowsand Wood.

Since it was possible for the guardian to be beasts or a plant, there was no reason that it could not be an ore.

Weng weng weng!

As the altar activated, the energy from the icy-cold ore seemed to grow stronger and stronger. A brilliant pillar of light burst into the sky, threatening to tear a dimension rift in the space above.

It seemed like the dimensions had a spatial seal limiting the movements of those within it to thirty meters and below. As a result, the pillar of light halted upon reaching thirty meters. It struggled frantically, but it was unable to overcome this limitation at all.

“Ignite!”

With a grim look on his face, the black-armored Otherworldly Demon tapped the altar, and the altar began to revolve. As if ice cubes placed in a burning cauldron, the artifacts placed on the altar began to melt, bestowing the pillar of light with greater power.

Under the augmentation from the ignition of the artifacts, the pillar of light finally broke through the restriction, and with a deafening roar, it surged up into the sky.

With the assault of the pillar of light, countless glaring dark lacerations appeared in the space around. The snow dimension trembled nonstop, as if someone was trying to tear it apart.

Are they trying to forcefully destroy a spatial law of this dimension? Zhang Xuan jolted in astonishment.

He had been thinking about how one could break open the space in the dimension to reach the Temple of Confucius. He never would have thought that the trick was actually this.

It turned out that the greater stabilization of space in the ancient domain was actually the result of a higher-order spatial law at work. As long as one ripped apart this higher-order spatial law, it would be possible to rip open a dimension rift and arrive at the Temple of Confucius.

Huala!

As more artifacts on the altar were consumed, the pillar of light rose higher and higher. Soon, it had already reached over fifty meters high.

Sixty meters!

Seventy meters!

Eighty meters!

Ninety-nine meters!

It seemed like this was the very limit of the sky. As the pillar of light struck this point, a faint seal came into sight. Ripples diffused on it with a brilliant shimmer of light.

No matter how the pillar of light knocked on the seal, it was unable to break through it.

A massive temple could vaguely be seen beyond. It seemed to be hiding on the other side of the seal.

“It’s the Temple of Confucius!” Zhang Xuan exclaimed as he turned his gaze back to the altar.

At this moment, all of the artifacts had already been depleted. The might of the pillar of light was starting to diminish.

As if having expected such a situation to arise, the black-armored Otherworldly Demon harrumphed coldly. “Prepare yourselves! We’ll be releasing the zhenqi of those tributes to pay respects to the Spirit God!”

Hualala!

A tall Otherworldly Demon walked to the back of the crowd before and whipped out a bizarre artifact, which floated quietly in the air.