Returning from the Immortal World

Hun Sen suddenly trembled and quickly pointed to the left side. “Jiang Shuisheng, you can sense a huge danger seems to be coming in our direction, can’t you? Those… demonic beasts should be very strong ones.”

“Yeah, I can sense it too.” Jiang Shuisheng nodded. “This is a fucking shitty situation. The smell of blood in this mountain valley must have attracted those demonic beasts. Let’s hurry up and avoid them!”

“Got it!”

Two minutes later, in a hidden spot of a peak, the two men went into hiding with pale faces. The sense of crisis they just felt was simply off the mark. It wasn’t brought by one particular powerful beast but from the howls of hundreds of demonic beasts.

“There must be at least 400 of them.” The corner of Hun Sen’s mouth twitched a few times as he couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

Jiang Shuisheng took out the binoculars he got from Duanmu Lin and quickly aimed it at the valley. Disbelief quickly appeared on his face when he saw the situation there. There were neither humans nor demonic beasts over yonder. Neither was there any fight. And yet, the ground was incarnadined by blood literally everywhere. The only obvious evidence that a fierce battle had occurred there was the messy environment in the surrounding area.

“I’m damn sure some people fought demonic beasts there. Dammit, could it be that Tang Xiu and his people became their meals?” Jiang Shuisheng cursed. He didn’t find Tang Xiu to his liking, but they were now facing a common enemy, while there was also no enmity between them. Naturally, he didn’t want to see Tang Xiu’s early death to the demonic beasts either.

Hun Sen had taken out his binoculars as well and saw the situation in the valley. A bitter smile betrayed itself on his square face as he said, “What’s there to guess? That surnamed Tang and his men must’ve been surrounded and killed by those demonic beasts. Alas, he was young and so frivolous. To think that he was so reckless to die!”

For a moment, Jiang Shuisheng was silent. Then, he said, “We can’t stay here much longer, Hun Sen. If those demonic beasts were to search around, it would be easy for them to find us here. Let’s get the hell out of this place and go back. We must report Tang Xiu’s death to Duanmu Lin.”

The two men made up their minds. They no longer hesitated and quickly flashed toward the periphery of the Himalayas.

On the periphery surrounding the Himalayas.

When Tang Xiu came out with dozens of his sect’s disciples, several cultivators immediately greeted him. Duanmu Lin squeezed to the front and gasped upon seeing the appearance of everyone around Tang Xiu. Through their injuries, he could tell that Tang Xiu’s sect disciples had just been engaged in a fierce battle.

“Are you all right, Tang Xiu?” Respect could be seen in Duanmu Lin’s eyes as he asked with concern.

“It’s nothing big.” Tang Xiu shook his head and smilingly said, “Regardless, some of them have serious injuries, but they will recover soon as long as they rest well. Senior Duanmu, is this blockade line still safe?”

“It is safe for the time being, though I don’t know for how long,” answered Duanmu Lin with a bitter smile. “The Intelligence Department’s personnel have installed surveillance devices at the risk of their lives. The footage showed that a large number of demonic beasts have been gathering for a long time and number up to nearly 3,000, yet they haven’t rushed outside to attack. I’m just worried now if there are more of them gathering there. We won’t be able to face them should they attack together at the same time.”

‘Nearly 3,000 of them? And more are still flocking?’

Tang Xiu’s face turned extraordinarily solemn. Then, he asked, “Does such gathering happen every time before the tide of demonic beasts appears?”

“Yeah. Such gathering is the case as the number exceeds 1,000 every time.” Duanmu Lin nodded. “It has been a short-time gathering, but this build-up is much longer and the number is a bit higher. As for the countermeasure, we can manage this time. I’ve already talked with the military, and they can only use the bombing from the aircraft once the number of demonic beasts exceeds 1,000.”

Tang Xiu’s heart gradually sank. If they used bombs, the likelihood was that these beasts wouldn’t be utterly decimated even if the bombing yielded a good result. Further, it would just enrage them completely, causing more demonic beasts to come over. The most important issue was that the bombing would destroy the demonic beasts’ bodies and he would lose the chance to let Tang Sect’s disciples practice in a life-and-death situation.

“Senior Duanmu, don’t rush to bombard them yet. For now, I need the precise coordinates where those demonic beasts have gathered. I’m crystal clear how powerful the tide of demonic beasts is. Using an aircraft to bomb them would be ineffective if we can’t stop them in advance. We can expect to suffer a heavy blow in case a lot of them are able to break the blockade and rush outside,” said Tang Xiu with a solemn face.

“I know that!” Duanmu Lin forced a smile and said, “It’s just… Alas, there’s nothing we have to make them disperse. Neither do we know how to stop them from gathering and giving up attacking our blockade lines.”

“Alright, then.” Tang Xiu took a deep breath and said, “Just leave it to me. But you’re responsible for continuing the surveillance.”

“What exactly are you going to do?” asked Duanmu Lin quickly.

“I have yet to come up with an idea. Let’s just put this off for after I go to the interior,” answered Tang Xiu.

Having said that, he turned to look at the Tang Sect’s disciples and said in a deep voice, “Xue Sha, bring them to the encampment to rest. Quickly distribute the healing pills and make the best of their time to restore their strength faster. Gu Yin, you’re a Golden Core Stage expert, so protect them!”

Xue Sha and Gu Yin nodded at the same time.

Tang Xiu looked back at Duanmu Lin and said, “Senior Duanmu, let’s keep in touch while I probe the situation. Please remember to tell Aquababe to send me the precise coordinates of where those demonic beasts are gathering.”

After saying that, his figure flickered and moved lightning-fast, disappearing into a distant mountain peak in just a few breaths.

Dozens of practitioners around Duanmu Lin stared dumbfoundedly at the direction where Tang Xiu disappeared. One of them, a burly middle-aged man, wore incredulous look and muttered, “His speed is so fast. There’s no way an expert at the Foundation Establishment Stage would be that fast, right? Is he at the Golden Core Stage?”

Duanmu Lin shook his head and his eyes then landed on Gu Yin as he asked with a strange voice, “What did Tang Xiu just say a while ago? About you being an expert at Golden Core Stage. Is that true?”

“Yeah.” Gu Yin nodded and said, “I’m a Golden Core Stage cultivator.”

Duanmu Lin stared dumbly with eyes wide open, as was everyone else around him. Then, he said with incredulity, “How can that be? You’re so young. Even if you started cultivating since birth, it’s just impossible to reach such a cultivation level, no? This…”

“Director Duanmu, there are some people in this world who are known to have unusual innate gifts. As the disciple of Sect Master, Gu Yin is naturally endowed with extraordinary talent in cultivation. Anyhow, we’re all injured, so we can’t accompany you to talk. But we’ll fight side-by-side with you again once we’ve recuperated.”

With that said, he didn’t give a chance to Duanmu Lin to reply and led the Tang Sect’s disciples towards the camp outside. They soon disappeared from the sight of Duanmu Lin and the dozen practitioners.

A tall and burly middle-aged man looked at the direction they left, shaking his head and commenting, “I could believe if it was Tang Xiu that had a cultivation at the Golden Core Stage, albeit barely; but for a 10 years old girl to have such cultivation level is simply a joke. I’ve been cultivating for more than 40 years, yet I’m just at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment. It’s extremely difficult to advance to the late-stage of Foundation Establishment.”

Another cultivator nodded and echoed. “True that. This old man has been cultivating for more than 140 years, taking a lot of heavenly and earthly treasures, but I was only barely able to break through to the Golden Core Stage. I even still haven’t stabilized my cultivation level yet. I just can’t buy it that a small girl is stronger than me at the mid-stage of Golden Core.”

Duanmu Lin pondered for a moment. Then, he suddenly let out a smile and said, “It’s possible, mind you. The cultivator just now, the one called Xue Sha, said it very clearly. There are indeed some people in this world who have unusual innate gifts and are talented in cultivation. Maybe she did have broken through to the mid-stage of Golden Core! Besides, I’m really looking forward to Tang Xiu more and more now.”

“Nah, I don’t buy it.”

“I don’t buy it either, man.”

The others shook their heads, each unable to believe that Gu Yin’s cultivation level had reached mid-stage of Golden Core. To them, no matter how talented and innately gifted you are, breaking through the Golden Core Stage at the age of 10 was too heaven-defying, against everything they dared to imagine. They could barely accept it if Gu Yin was in her 20s or something.

“Let’s drop it, shall we?” Duanmu Lin smilingly said, “The urgent issue at hand now is to hurry up and arrange our defense line. We must prepare for a deadly battle and a fight to the death once those demonic beasts rush out. Hold on… where are Hun Sen and Jiang Shuisheng? They followed Tang Xiu and his men and entered the depths of the mountains before. Tang Xiu already came out, but how come they are not here yet?”

‘Hun Sen and Jiang Shuisheng?’

‘Both of them also entered the mountains?’

Everyone around wore quaint expressions. But as they recalled that Tang Xiu and his men could come out of the mountains alive, they thought that those two men probably lost their way, so they were unable to come out of the mountain yet!

“Hey, look! Isn’t that those two guys?” one of the middle-aged men suddenly pointed to the depths of the mountains.

Duanmu Lin and the rest followed the direction his finger was pointing and immediately saw two wretched figures approaching them lightning-fast from the mountain’s depths. In just tens of seconds, the two figures then appeared in front of them.

“Director Duanmu.” With a regretful look on his face, Hun Sen shook his head and sighed. “I’m afraid what I’m about to report is a bit regretful.”

“Huh?” Duanmu Lin frowned and asked, “What is it?”

“I’m afraid that kid surnamed Tang and the people he brought with him have met their demise in the mouths of those demonic beasts and became their food. We both followed and pursued them for a long time and still didn’t find any traces of them, even though there were traces of fights between them and those demonic beasts.”