Zhang Jie said: "However, according to the news that has been sent back, someone has proposed a conjecture and it requires the commander to make a decision."
"Speak."
"This wolf pack is gathering in mass and fearlessly aggressive, perhaps driven by a demonic beast. That's the conjecture." Zhang Jie stated his guess.
"Hm?" Wang Bo'an frowned, instantly understood his meaning.
Although there is not much information circulating about the Sky Wasteland, he is privileged enough to know some things.
He also knew that in the Sky Wasteland, demonic beasts exist. These beasts, as superior beings, are innately capable of controlling ferocious beasts.
Since people from the ancient country Xue can return, it is not impossible for these beasts to do the same.
He thought for a moment and said: "Invite the strong ones from the Spirit Realm here, tell them that the commander has important matters to discuss!"
Regardless, since this possibility exists, it calls for an investigation.
On Shenxiao Mountain, Xue Hanyue asked Xue Hanyi: "Big brother, why did you warn them?"
Although they can move freely around Shenxiao Mountain, they are ultimately restricted to just that place. They have not been given a chance to leave in these two years, so it's no wonder they harbor resentment.
Therefore, Xue Hanyue doesn't understand why his elder brother would actively warn them.
Xue Hanyi's face became solemn, and he said sternly: "Little sister, remember one thing. Even if we have any conflicts with them, it is an internal matter among the human race. Demonic beasts are our enemies, we must never bring joy to our enemies by hurting our own kin!"
He was also dissatisfied with being placed under house arrest but he would not waver on such major issues.
The struggle between the human race and demonic beasts must never be confused – it's the foundation of the Tianhuang World Human Race.
When Pei Xuanjing opened his eyes again, everything around him had already changed.
Having experienced the fate of being a specter in the World of Myriad Manifestations once before, Pei Xuanjing was now quite well-versed in the procedure.
He carefully felt his current state and the information in his mind began to resurface at this moment.
After digesting the information in his mind for a while, he had a rough understanding of this world.
This time, his projection didn't begin at the age of one as before, but directly at the age of seventeen. That meant he had less than three years left until the imminent danger of death in this simulated life.
This world was shared by the human race and demonic beasts. The whole world was focused on the struggle between humans and demonic beasts, where both species had been entwined in a death match for survival for thousands of years, with victories and defeats on both sides.
Pei Xuanjing was currently at a boundary city where the human race and demonic beasts met. Underneath this city, members of the human race and demonic beasts had fought countless times – no one knows how many heroes of the human race and demonic beasts died here.
In this world, the mainstream practice was to forge the physical body, refining the Heaven and Earth Essence Qi into the body, unlocking the potential of the human body, connecting the meridians, and condensing an extraordinarily powerful physical body.
The division of the realms in this world was also extraordinarily simple and straightforward. As soon as one was able to refine the Heaven and Earth Essence Qi into the body, one would become a Human Race Warrior. Above that were ranks of a Centurion, Thousand Leader, War General, King and Lords, and the highest realm – the Emperor.
Pei Xuanjing was a soldier in the border army of Boundary City. Judging by his current strength, it should be comparable to a martial artist who has achieved the third layer in the Daming World.
"Great Strength Bull Demon Fist?" Pei Xuanjing remembered the skill his current body had been practicing and frowned, saying: "Although the name of this skill sounds rudely, it is more ingenious than some of the intermediate martial studies in the Daming World and is considered top-notch among them. However, for me, it still falls short."
Given Pei Xuanjing's strength, this skill was insignificant to him. Not to mention comparing it with his Shenxiao Mysterious Skill – a body refining method, it even fell short to his original Dragon Elephant Art.
Naturally, Pei Xuanjing immediately decided to change his internal skill. He transformed the skill of his current body into his own Shenxiao Mysterious Skill.
Half a month later, Pei Xuanjing was sitting cross-legged in his room, shirtless. Light danced and flowed over his strong body, his muscular frame seemingly contained terrifying power.
"If simply cultivating hard, even if the Essence Qi of Heaven and Earth in this world is rich, I don't know when I can recover my strength." Pei Xuanjing opened his eyes and thought.
In this half month, he has completely transformed his skill and even reached the peak of the Warrior Realm.
Such a rapid progression, if others knew, would surely shock them. However, for Pei Xuanjing, he was still not satisfied.
In his view, his improvement in strength was too slow. Owing to his previous cultivation of the Way of Essence Refinement in the second layer of the Spirit Realm, he could almost match the strength of a War General in this world.
If he went on in this organized manner, Pei Xuanjing would surely be able to quickly reach the War General Realm, but to him, it still felt too slow.
"Perhaps, I can learn from the Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill!" An idea emerged in Pei Xuanjing's mind.
In this world, aside from hard cultivation, one could also kill demonic beasts and use their bodies to refine elixirs to assist in cultivation.
Since hard work was a waste of time, Pei Xuanjing couldn't help but think that he should make use of the Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill to accelerate his cultivation.
He didn't need to fully cultivate this skill, he only needed to use the techniques in it to absorb the essence and blood of those demonic beasts to speed up his own cultivation.
"Even if there are side effects, then I'll just consider this life simulation wasted anyway!" Pei Xuanjing made a decision.
Since he had made a decision, he, who was not the type to procrastinate, immediately left the room.
The warriors defending the Boundary City fell into two categories: one was the conscripted warriors. They had an allowance disbursed by the Human Race Council, but they had to stand guard at their posts at all times and were not allowed to leave without permission.
The other kind belonged to the identity the body has occupied by Pei Xuanjing, which was similar to a mercenary. Although there was no allowance, they had more freedom. They were only summoned when demonic beasts invaded. In normal times, they could leave the Boundary City to enter the Demon Domain to kill demonic beasts in exchange for goods and cultivation resources.
Pei Xuanjing walked out of his residence, passed through the city streets, and exited the Boundary City which separated the human race and the demon race.
Behind Pei Xuanjing, a majestic stronghold stood tall, rising from the ground like a natural barrier blocking the road.
The towering city wall was made of huge black stones that were about a foot wide. Black iron was poured into the gaps between the stones, reflecting the luster of metal and making it impregnable.
Such a majestic and formidable city wall should have been impenetrable. But he discovered some traces that seemed to have been left by beast claws.
"Is this the power of demonic beasts?" Pei Xuanjing looked at those claw marks and muttered to himself.
Seeing these traces, Pei Xuanjing's understanding of the power of the demonic beasts in this world became more clear.
Stretching for tens of thousands of miles were undulating ranges of mountains. From deep within these mountains, the dull roars of beasts erupted periodically, sounding like thunderclaps or raging tsunamis.
At the edge of the forest, a few tens of miles away, giant trees towered over, shrouding the woods in deep shade.
A gigantic Qing Wolf, baring its fang-like teeth, the scarlet pupils of its eyes transfixed on the audacious human standing in front of it, daring to challenge its authority.
Roar!
The massive Qing Wolf howled and sprang forward, its sharp claws ripping through the air. The massive wolf's claws stirred the air, creating a gust as forceful as if splitting mountains and rocks apart.
Pei Xuanjing channeled the True Qi within his body, gripping the Hundred Tempered Longsword in his hand. A layer of black sword light shrouded the sword, its black gleam flickering erratically. A strong wind howled as it charged towards the colossal wolf's claw.
Clang!
Sparks flew as the black sword light struck the wolf's claw. Instantly, a transparent shockwave spread dozens of meters, stirring up clouds of dust.
Failing to land its attack, the Qing Wolf opened its blood-soaked mouth, spewing out a dense, stench-filled Blood Qi as it lunged towards Pei Xuanjing. As if it wanted to swallow up this despicable human in a single gulp.
Pei Xuanjing's eyes turned cold, his Blood Qi surging. His figure moved in an altered trajectory, wheeled around – strong and lean like a drawn Sharp Arrow – leaped several meters into the air, spun once, and aimed right for one of the wolf's eyes.
Swish!
All of this happened in just about a fraction of a second. Almost as soon as the Qing Wolf had a chance to react, the Hundred Tempered Longsword was already brutally stabbed into its left eye – piercing it right through the other side. Mixed fluids of red and white instantly erupted out of the wound.
Boom!
The Qing Wolf let out its last howl, but its fate was sealed. Eventually, it fell, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Pei Xuanjing let out a sigh of relief. Without any trace of hesitation, he sat down next to the wolf's corpse to meditate. An unseen force enveloped him.
Next to him, Blood Qi emanating from the Qing Wolf's body was endlessly flowing towards Pei Xuanjing, who was now surrounded by countless streams of the Wolf's Blood Qi.
Although the savage Qing Wolf was at the same realm as Pei Xuanjing, the Blood Qi contained in its massive body was several times more than his own.
However, instead of immediately absorbing these streams of Blood Qi, Pei Xuanjing concentrated on condensing and refining them. Eventually, he managed to form a thumb-sized blood pellet, its purity incomparable to what it was moments ago.
At Pei Xuanjing's command, the blood-colored pellet burst apart, and the pure Blood Qi seeped into every crevice of his flesh and bones, beginning the process of tempering his body.
As countless flows of Blood Qi integrated into his flesh and bones, his body was enveloped in faint red light. His body's pulse rang in harmony, and wisps of foul-smelling grime emerged from his pores, instantly burnt to ashes by the Blood Qi.
When the purified Blood Qi was completely consumed, Pei Xuanjing didn't open his eyes immediately. Instead, he savored the transformations occurring within his body – not just the growth in strength, but also the astonishing firmness of his muscles, skin, and flesh, as well as the blood flowing like molten mercury within him.
After a few moments, he abruptly opened his eyes and stood up. Then, he threw a punch, the force of which created a gigantic sound that rent the air.
"In one year, I've recovered my strength to the first-grade pinnacle, and I'm on the verge of re-entering the Spiritual Realm," Pei Xuanjing's lips curled up into a satisfied smile.
Over the past year, he treaded through the Savage Demon Domain, killing demonic beasts, using the Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill to enhance his Cultivation, and finally managing to regain his current level of prowess. This proved to be a much faster path than practicing in solitude.
After a year of survival battles, Pei Xuanjing better understood conflict of humanity and the demonic beasts in this world.
In the savage demon domain, between humans and demonic beasts, beast against beast, man against man, there were no rights or wrongs, no good or bad. All that prevailed were the bare laws of the jungle, survival of the fittest and natural selection.
Pei Xuanjing had made attempts before, distinct from the tolerance of the World of Myriad Manifestations, the mainstream approach of this world favored the Way of Essence Refinement. His Cultivation of Dao of Qi Refining and Cultivation of Refining Spirit were significantly repressed, resulting in a fraction of the power they once held.
"But at least, this world hasn't been a waste of my time," Pei Xuanjing murmured with a cold smirk.
Whether it was in the World of Myriad Manifestations or in the Daming World, Pei Xuanjing's strength had reached its limit, even with the looming threats from the ancient powers, they couldn't make Pei Xuanjing genuinely feel a crisis of life or death.
Pei Xuanjing's Cultivating Three Ways Simultaneously had brought him formidable power, so much that for a while he found it difficult to focus all his attention. His training in the Refining Foundation was somewhat lagging, and only in the savage demon domain could he abandon all his ambitions and cast himself into the brink of life and death, disregarding everything else to simply hunt demonic beasts and hone his own skills.
After a year of battling, he more deeply understood various martial arts of the Way of Essence Refinement, and he also gained a lot of insights on the cultivation of physical body.
"But this 'Ten Thousand Spirit Body Forging Skill' is domineering, the flaw is quite evident." Pei Xuanjing, feeling the overflowing power in his body, frowned slightly.
Even though every time he absorbed the energy from the blood of these demonic beasts, he would use True Qi and Yin Spirit Power to compress and purify it, yet it was still difficult to completely remove the will of those demonic beast's essence.
Over this period of time, Pei Xuanjing found himself somewhat affected and showed a hint of ruthlessness and bloodthirstiness in battle.
But this was nothing for Pei Xuanjing. With his current realm, he would only need to closet himself away for a while and adjust accordingly.
Of course, if this much could already affect him when he was simply using it to absorb the essence of the blood, one could imagine how much it would affect those who truly cultivated this skill.
Hence, Pei Xuanjing yearned even more for the realm of the most powerful beings in Nine Realms of Spirit.
In the following days, Pei Xuanjing continued his journey in the savage demon domain, treading the line between life and death, battling demonic beasts to increase his own strength.
Another year later, since he had already stepped foot into and had experienced refining the Spirit Realm Second Layer with the help of countless beast's blood essence, Pei Xuanjing's strength had once again made a breakthrough and he had regained the Fourth Level of the Spiritual Realm.
Having experienced two years of survival fighting, Pei Xuanjing's understanding of the Refining Foundation got deeper still, but just around this time, he also ended his cultivation journey.
With his current Fourth Level of the Spiritual Realm, he was equivalent to the warriors of this world, matching the Demon Generals in the Demon Race.
Such strong beings, whether in the human race or the demon race, could be considered the backbone of their respective races, they were also the advanced forces on the battlefields.
If Pei Xuanjing continued to stay in the savage demon domain, he would certainly attract the pursuit of Demon Generals. Even though he considered himself powerful, he wouldn't choose to do so.
Next, Pei Xuanjing returned to the Boundary City to recuperate. He began to meditate and heal the after-effects of absorbing the essence of demonic beasts' blood, and adjust his Shenxiao Mysterious Skill.
However, his leisurely days didn't last long. After about half a year, Pei Xuanjing was drafted by the Boundary City Guard and was informed that he was to report to the Town Guard Mansion.
Against the draft order of the Town Guard Mansion, Pei Xuanjing had no choice but to comply. He had to put his own matters on hold and head to the mansion.
After arriving at the mansion, someone informed him of the purpose of this draft.
The main purpose of martial arts in this world is to start with refining one's essence. Considering the varied nature of these skills, Pei Xuanjing, having come to this world, would naturally not pass them by.
Although his identity didn't offer him much wealth, selling the flesh of the demonic beasts he ruthlessly trained and killed in the Demon Domain over the last two years granted him a handsome fortune.
Moreover, by submitting proof of these beast killings to the boundary guards, he also earned several merit points, sufficient for him to exchange for some martial skills that he could study.
In less than six months, Pei Xuanjing simply skimmed through these martial skills, making some changes to Shenxiao Mysterious Skill, but this activity was unexpectedly halted.
"So, you're saying that this time it's for escorting an important person to the Demon Domain?" Pei Xuanjing confirmed.
"Yes!" replied one of the officials from the Town Guard Mansion sitting before him.
A crease formed between Pei Xuanjing's eyebrows – he was somewhat hesitant about accepting this task.
At this very moment, he's unsure whether this task is the same one he encountered during the simulation of his death.
Moreover, this seemingly appeared to be a bodyguard sort of affair, something that Pei Xuanjing was actually not willing to do. After all, his purpose in this world was simple — on one hand, he wanted to enhance his power while on the other, he wanted to explore the path of cultivation in this world. He had absolutely no interest in anything else.
After all, this world did not compare to the World of Myriad Manifestations. The martial arts ceiling here was really high which even the legends of Emperor-level powerhouses could not ignore. Single-handedly, the human lords and Demon Race demon king powerhouses were not something that Pei Xuanjing, who currently couldn't manifest his full potential, could provoke.
As a result, he just wanted to quietly cultivate, then return home.
"If your excellency agrees, we can offer a top-level War General Level martial skill as a reward," the official said, offering a bigger bait upon witnessing Pei Xuanjing's hesitation.
However, what the party didn't know was that, their offer only brewed more suspicions in Pei Xuanjing's heart.
Pei Xuanjing was currently displaying his Thousand Leader-level strength. Such warriors are innumerable in this city full of martial practitioners. So why pick him?
A top-level War General martial skill for a soldier of Thousand Leader-level? This reward was too high, suspiciously too high.
A top-level War General martial skill was equivalent to a Spirit Realm Third Level skill, which normally would only be offered to a martial arts master in the Upper Three Realms for their assistance.
"Could I know why?" Pei Xuanjing asked.
The official noted a hint of contempt in Pei Xuanjing's voice but it vanished in an instant, "Because we need you as a guide!"
"A guide?"
"Your Excellency survived for two years in the savage wilderness of the Demon Domain with the strength of a soldier, and even rose to the rank of Thousand Leader. You must be very familiar with the outskirts of the savage wilderness of the Demon Domain. That's why we need you as a guide," the official explained.
They had a clear understanding of Pei Xuanjing's whereabouts over the past two years. Naturally, someone with a keen eye would notice a man who had survived in the Savage Wilderness of the Demon Domain with modest strength and rapidly progressing abilities.
This time, a VIP personally braved the Savage Wilderness of the Demon Domain. Naturally, they had to meet his requirements and did not hesitate to offer a top-level War General martial skill as a reward.
He didn't believe that given such a temptation, the other party would still resist.
Pei Xuanjing understood that even if he had quietly concealed his strength, his promotion from a soldier to Thousand Leader over the past two years was indeed noticeable and, therefore, understandable.
"I agree!" Pei Xuanjing finally consented.
"At age twenty: You're drafted to participate in a secret mission."
Upon hearing this clue, Pei Xuanjing became curious—what was there in the Savage Wilderness that was worth risking such a huge cost to obtain?
Three days later, Pei Xuanjing led a group of riders out of the Boundary City and into the Savage Wilderness of the Demon Domain.
In the group, Pei Xuanjing could feel that the weakest amongst them were at the Centurion level, there were even three individuals at the War General level. In particular, the VIP was a young lady clad in a gauzy veil.
From her voice, it was evident that she was quite young. However, her origins were absolutely extraordinary. The three War General-level individuals respected her a lot and were calling her a "Lady."
In addition to them, there was an old man with a white beard and gloomy complexion who was following them in silence.
According to the tidbits Pei Xuanjing managed to gather with his Yin Spirit, they were in the Demon Domain to find something.
However, what this something was, the group was very cautious about. Even in their private discussions, they were careful, so Pei Xuanjing was never able to eavesdrop on any useful information.
Along the way, they encountered many demonic beasts. However, as a guide, apart from telling them the places to avoid, Pei Xuanjing didn't have to lift a finger. The "Lady's" entourage killed all the beasts they encountered.
However, much to Pei Xuanjing's surprise, every beast they killed was taken with them, even common beasts.
"Given the Lady's standing, she should not care about the small amounts of honor that can be exchanged for these worthless beasts. If they are doing this despite that, it must be necessary for them," Pei Xuanjing thought to himself.
He has been very low profile all the way acting only as a guide based on the given map and following along with everyone to a place called the Dragon Cave.
"Right here?" Pei Xuanjing frowned.
The Dragon Cave was the said final resting place of the Demon King "Jiaolong King", who was the closest to the Emperor in the Demon Race. Why did they come here?
"Finally, the Dragon Cave!" The lady smiled.
An old man with white hair and few teeth stood by her side and cracked out, "Lady, we are now deep in the Demon Domain, we must hurry without any delay."
"For the next steps, we will need your assistance," the Lady nodded.
"You, throw all those demonic beast corpses in there!" One of the War Generals ordered his subordinates to dump all the demonic beast corpses collected along the way into a pit in front of him.
When the pit was filled with corpses, the snow-bearded old man took action.
"Hmm?" Pei Xuanjing observed the old man's movements and frowned, "They are preparing for a sacrificial ceremony. But why would they do that here and make a blood sacrifice in the Dragon Cave? What secrets are hidden here?"
Although Pei Xuanjing wasn't particularly skilled in magic arrays, he still had a good understanding of them, especially after compling the Eight Trigrams chart. He watched the old man's actions and immediately understood what he was doing.
After seeing the corpses of the demonic beasts placed in the pit by the group and the old man's preparations, Pei Xuanjing couldn't help but think of the function of a blood sacrifice array.
But what were they trying to sacrifice, and why make this unusually long journey to conduct a blood sacrifice? What secrets were hidden in the Dragon Cave?