Chapter 1188: Tian Qing Is Dead

Before him, a massive altar floated silently in the air under the force of the formation. Unactivated, it looked somewhat dim, as if stretching into the depths of the night, spanning history.

"This altar... is very similar to the one I got from King Redleaf. Could it be... an altar of the Spirit Race?"

His face darkened.

This altar was almost identical to the one from King Redleaf, only much larger. Clearly, it was something that belonged to the Spirit Race.

Using his Insightful Eye, he saw countless characters carved on the altar. These characters were extremely strange—neither human script nor beast race script.

But with just one glance, Zhang Xuan recognized them.

"It's... the script left by Qiuwu Gusheng!"

He had seen this script before; it was the same as the characters left by Qiuwu Gusheng. Writing them extensively could generate spatial power.

"It's probably a teleportation formation... capable of transporting Spirit Race members here!"

He had previously speculated that this Chen Zhe might have betrayed humanity and defected to the Spirit Race. Now it seemed certain.

The altar was powered by the eight-star formation below. If he wasn't mistaken, it could very likely teleport Spirit Race members here... The large-scale invasion of the Spirit Race twenty years ago might be related to this!

Otherwise, with the underground caverns sealed, how could so many Spirit Race members have come down?

"It seems this Tian Qing has also betrayed humanity..."

Knowing that Chen Zhe had defected to the Spirit Race, Tian Qing's involvement became obvious.

Chen Zhe was just an unremarkable master teacher in the Master Teacher Hall. It was impossible for him to accomplish such a major feat and conceal it from his teacher!

The only possibility was... that the other had also participated!

In other words, this Vice Hall Master Tian Qing, once the most powerful seven-star pinnacle master teacher in the Master Teacher Hall, had long defected to the Spirit Race and was a spy!

"I was wondering, I just arrived at Qingyuan City, did nothing, kept a low profile, behaved myself... why did he directly come after me? So that's it..."

Understanding this, combined with his previous deductions, Zhang Xuan suddenly saw the light.

He had been in Qingyuan Imperial City for less than a week and had always kept a low profile, unlike his time at the Master Teacher Academy where he caused trouble everywhere... Yet despite that, the other still wanted to target him...

He hadn't understood before, but now it seemed they wanted to avenge King Tianye and the others.

All ten kings of the Qingtian lineage had fallen at his hands. It would be false to say they didn't want revenge.

"Qingtian lineage, Tian Qing, Loyal Qing King... Hah, I should have thought of that!"

He shook his head.

The Qingtian lineage had been utterly crushed by him—nine of the ten kings dead, one subdued... practically annihilated.

Under these circumstances, hearing the name Tian Qing should have immediately triggered a connection.

However, the other's identity was special. He only felt that his actions were unfair and never imagined it was related to the Qingtian lineage.

Tian Qing... Qingtian, Loyal Qing King... Loyal to the Qingtian lineage?

Moreover, both of them had risen to prominence during that Spirit Race war, earning countless merits...

"Forget it, no matter who it is, I'll destroy this altar first. Once destroyed, even if they want to teleport over, they won't be able to..."

Knowing that these matters were deeply entangled, and although he had guessed most of it, he still needed solid evidence to confirm. Zhang Xuan stopped overthinking. With a flick of his wrist, the Ice Rain Sword appeared in his palm again.

Swish!

True qi surged within him, and sword qi flickered unsteadily.

After three days of study in the War Teacher Hall, his Heaven's Path swordsmanship had improved further. If the Ice Rain Sword were at the level of a mid-grade saint artifact, he could easily cut down Hall Master Gou without even using formations.

"Break!"

Raising his sword, Zhang Xuan was about to cleave the altar before him, severing the connection with the Spirit Race, when he felt a special force suddenly assault him, causing his mind to spin.

Then, he felt a tremendous tearing force, pulling at his soul, as if trying to shred it apart.

"This is..."

His body swayed, unable to continue his attack. Zhang Xuan involuntarily staggered twice.

He had experienced this sensation of his soul being pulled before.

Cang Xu had once used it on him.

But that power was weak, and with his strong soul, it had no effect. Now, however, the pulling force was extremely powerful. If he couldn't hold on, he would likely be sucked away on the spot.

"They're using this formation..."

After swaying twice, he circulated his Heaven's Path true qi and steadied himself. His eyes fell on the altar again, and he suddenly understood.

The other must have used this formation to greatly amplify the power. Otherwise, given the state of his soul, even if the power were ten times stronger than Cang Xu's, it probably couldn't shake him.

"Such a pure soul attack—this person must be the one who killed Chen Zhe..."

The other, using the altar, could even affect his soul. Killing Chen Zhe would certainly be very simple.

It seemed his guess was correct: Chen Zhe was killed by this person.

"I was luring them... and they were luring me. No wonder it was so easy!"

Knowing that someone was still hidden nearby, using the altar to devour his soul and trying to kill him, Zhang Xuan narrowed his eyes.

He was only low in emotional intelligence; in other aspects, he was very intelligent, and with the increase in his mental state, he was almost demonically shrewd.

Having Master Wu publicly commend Chen Zhe was meant to lure Tian Qing out. Tian Qing did appear, but then he himself was attacked by a soul strike... It seemed the other wasn't stupid either. He knew it was a trap but still came, not to destroy the altar, but to lure him here and... hunt him down!

He had thought the other was the prey, but instead, he became the prey.

"Could it be related to the Cruel One?"

His heart stirred, and he quickly contacted that fellow in the storage ring.

"Master, this is my secret technique, but the one using it is not me. Even if it's just a part of the body, if used with this altar, even Master cannot withstand it!"

The Cruel One's voice sounded.

Zhang Xuan nodded.

Although his Heavenly Dao Soul was powerful, its level was too low... If the other party was truly a ruthless person, absorbing his soul would be a simple task.

"If it's not part of you... then who could it be?"

While he was wondering, his mind grew dizzy again, and the same force struck once more, even fiercer than before.

It seemed that after failing once, the other party had launched a second attempt.

"Let's go over and take a look..."

Since the other party wanted to absorb his soul, he might as well play along and go over to see.

After discussing with the ruthless person and learning some secrets of this method, Zhang Xuan approached the altar, took out a brush, and drew something on it. Only then did he stop suppressing his soul.

Whoosh!

His soul flew out from between his brows.

"My soul body is too large. If I go over like this, they'll be prepared... Better shrink it a bit!"

His soul body was a full ten meters tall. Once sucked over, it would reveal his strength. Zhang Xuan smiled lightly and pointed a finger, activating the spatial power within the Book of Space-Time.

In the blink of an eye, the ten-meter-tall soul body compressed to the size of his physical body.

Although he had only cultivated the first level of the Book of Space-Time, he could still manage to seal his soul power.

Whoosh!

No longer resisting, Zhang Xuan's soul body was suddenly sucked in by the force emanating from the altar and flew over.

Hum!

The altar flashed with light, and the soul body vanished from its original spot.

...

When Zhang Xuan entered the underground palace and saw the altar, Vice Hall Master Tian Qing, besieged by the crowd, was also struggling to hold on.

He was covered in blood, his body battered and torn.

Surrounded by six experts no weaker than himself, even with his formidable combat strength, escape was nearly impossible.

"Tian Qing, surrender now, or we have the right to kill you on the spot!"

Wu Shi sneered.

Previously, Hall Master Gou had declared that anyone encountering Vice Hall Master Tian Qing could kill him on the spot.

If this fellow remained obstinate, they wouldn't mind bringing back a corpse.

"Kill me? Then... let's all die together!"

Knowing he could no longer escape, Tian Qing's face twisted with ferocity. With a roar, the power within him surged rapidly.

"Damn it, he's going to self-destruct! Seal off the surroundings!"

His pupils constricted, and Master Wu bellowed.

The self-detonation of a half-step Out-of-Body realm expert was immensely powerful; if it were allowed to explode, an area of over a thousand meters would likely be turned into hell in an instant.

Chen Zhe deserved to die, but his family and the countless innocent civilians around were blameless. As a renowned master, he could not allow them to be harmed.

"Yes!"

Everyone's expression turned solemn as they released their inner true energy to protect the surroundings.

Doing so would surely result in severe injury or even death, but none of them hesitated or wavered.

"No need for all that trouble; here comes Lord Ding!"

Just as they were prepared to face death, they heard a shout, and a huge furnace cauldron descended from the sky.

With a "thud!" it landed on Vice Hall Master Tian Qing, who was about to self-detonate, pressing him into the ground.

Fearing danger, Zhang Xuan had released the Jinyuan Cauldron in advance and left it outside.

This fellow only charged over when he saw that the group could no longer hold out.

Whoosh!

After smashing Tian Qing into the ground, the Jinyuan Cauldron's massive body spun around, its lid opened, and it swallowed Tian Qing in one gulp.

Boom!

Just after swallowing him, a violent roar sounded from inside the cauldron, then the lid opened, emitting a puff of white smoke, as if it had burped.

Plop!

A tattered corpse was spat out.

"Tastes terrible, really awful..."

The Jinyuan Cauldron wobbled, as if wanting to vomit, but remembering it had no stomach, it reluctantly gave up.

As a mid-grade sacred artifact, although the power of the opponent's self-detonation was great, it was still not enough to shatter it.

Everyone's eyebrows twitched.

Master Wu had been through life-and-death situations with the Jinyuan Cauldron and knew how powerful it was, but he hadn't expected it to become even stronger after this awakening.

Swallowing someone who was about to self-detonate and coming out unscathed... it seemed that over time, it was only a matter of time before this fellow reached the true Out-of-Body realm.

"He's already dead..."

Zhang Jiuxiao approached the corpse, took a look, and said.

"Dead?"

Master Wu strode over in two steps.

After examining it, Master Wu found it hard to believe.

This Tian Qing had fled so quickly; logically, he should have been ready to die, so how could he have died so easily?