Chapter 252 - 80: Elder Huang 2

"I call upon the Alliance—as urgent as a Law Order!"

With a thought, he activated the Technique.

"Rune Summoning: Spirit Nurturing Summoning Technique - Dragon Turtle!"

A white ball of light condensed in Zhang Deming’s hand, rapidly taking the form of an old man’s figure.

At that moment, Zhang Deming’s eyes rolled back as if he had fainted. In reality, his consciousness had transferred into the Mirror Image Summoning’s body.

Only then did Li Shifan react, finally understanding what Zhang Deming had meant by "hold on." The instant Zhang Deming started to fall, Li Shifan reached out and grabbed him.

However, because Zhang Deming had "fainted," the barely maintained Twin Swords Unite formation broke, and they both plummeted downwards.

After grabbing Zhang Deming, Li Shifan saw that the ball of light in the sky before him had vanished. An elderly figure had appeared in its place.

’This is... Elder Huang!’ Li Shifan was utterly shocked.

The elderly figure paused for a moment, then raised his head to scan his surroundings, spotting the two people plummeting from the sky.

With a casual wave of his hand, the two figures stopped their fall and floated before him.

As a Dragon Turtle of the Three Talents Dragon Clan at the Peak of the Celestial Realm, his Mastery of Escape Skills might be debatable, but his ability for Flying was beyond question.

Besides, they were still inside the Secret Realm, so this Mirror Image of his could be considered half an Earth Spirit.

’Experience Points -100.’

After taking action, Zhang Deming froze. ’This is the first time I’ve ever encountered a deduction of experience—in other words, a loss of Cultivation.’

’The Blessed Fortune Path... So it’s true that only those who manage not to die can become top-tier cultivators.’

’Damn it, with abilities deducting your Cultivation, how many people can actually survive long enough to become that powerful?!’

"Greetings, Elder Huang." Finding himself suspended in mid-air, Li Shifan immediately bowed to Zhang Deming—er, to Elder Huang.

At the same time, a Scroll materialized above Li Shifan’s head. A young man floated out of it, also bowing to Elder Huang. "This junior greets Elder Huang," he said.

Zhang Deming’s expression was indifferent. He frowned slightly and said, "What is going on? Why is the air thick with the Karma of immense sin?"

"Has some faction committed a world-shattering sin? Does the Celestial Spirit Sect simply ignore this?"

"In response to Elder Huang, this junior is not certain. I suspect it’s caused by those things down below," Li Shifan replied.

Zhang Deming glanced down below, his brow furrowed. "Karma, an Earth Spirit, Demon Souls, and the aura of the Outer Realm... What is all this, just a chaotic stew thrown together?"

Li Shifan: "..."

Zhang Deming glanced at Li Shifan. Seeing that his bluff had worked well enough, he said, "No matter. I will take you away from this place first. As for the rest, I will investigate myself."

With that said, Zhang Deming waved his hand. A current of water enveloped the two of them and shot skyward.

’Experience Points -300.’

Seeing that Zhang Deming paid him no mind, Li Cheng retreated back into Concealment after his initial greeting.

Zhang Deming flew upwards for a while until he felt himself pass through a faint membrane. His vision blurred, and by the time he recovered, he was already in the skies of the Hongmeng Realm.

Looking back, he saw the vista of half the Secret Realm hanging in the sky nearby, like a mirage.

Looking down, he could see the entrance to the Secret Realm of the giant tree. Even now, the valley below was still crowded with people.

But at this moment, the Secret Realm’s entrance had closed, and the giant tree had vanished.

Down below, the four Duality masters who had noticed the anomaly in the Secret Realm were looking up, their attention fixed on the changes.

The instant Zhang Deming appeared in his guise as Elder Huang, all four were startled. Before he could descend, they exchanged a glance and shot up into the sky.

Zhang Deming’s expression remained neutral. With his hands clasped behind his back, he calmly watched the four people fly up from below.

When the four of them came closer, they discovered that the figure before them was an Energy Body.

’The Outer Body Incarnation Technique?’

’If the Incarnation is a Three Talents Great Cultivator at the Peak of the Celestial Realm, how terrifying must his Main Body’s Cultivation be?’

A tremor ran through each of them. They bowed respectfully to the figure and said, "Inner Sect Elders of the Celestial Spirit Sect—Zhou Tong, Fang Qing, Dang Qian, and Yang Sinan—pay our respects to this senior."

Zhang Deming nodded slightly and asked, "Who is in charge of the Celestial Spirit Sect nowadays?"

The four of them were taken aback for a moment. Zhou Tong replied, "To answer senior, the current Sect Leader is Master Dang Jun’an, who took up the position two hundred years ago.

"He has already entered the Celestial Realm and reached the Peak of Three Talents.

"I wonder, Senior..."

Zhang Deming’s brow furrowed. "I didn’t ask about your Sect Leader. I asked who is in charge. To put it in your terms, who is the Supreme Elder of your Sect that hasn’t gone into seclusion?"

"Er... Senior, matters concerning the Sect’s Supreme Elders are not for the likes of us to know." Zhou Tong’s expression stiffened, and his heart sank a little as he spoke.

’If you knew, would I even need to ask?’

’If I let this conversation go on any longer, I’ll be completely exposed!’

Zhang Deming looked at them and said casually, "Fine. In that case, hurry up and notify someone from your Sect who can actually make decisions. Your level of Cultivation is completely inadequate."

Hearing this, the pupils of all four contracted.

Zhou Tong replied, "To answer senior, before you emerged, we had already notified the Sect. They should be arriving shortly.

"May I ask senior’s name, and how you came to be in this Secret Realm—"

"What?" Zhang Deming said, his face a mask. "Does this old master need to report his actions to the likes of you?"

Zhou Tong immediately bowed his head. "Senior misunderstands. This junior was only trying to clarify the situation to report back to the Sect."

"Don’t try to use the Celestial Spirit Sect to pressure me," Zhang Deming said. "Even if Dang Yu himself were here, he couldn’t intimidate this old master."

Dang Yu was a legendary figure from the Celestial Spirit Sect that Zhang Deming knew of—the kind of legend written into the Sect’s history books, though he was from several thousand years ago.

When Zhou Tong and the others heard this, they grew even more terrified. The man before them was a monster who was thousands of years old. No wonder his Outer Body Incarnation possessed such a high level of Cultivation.

’Can’t provoke him! We can’t provoke him!’

’Let’s leave the task of figuring him out to the Masters of Three Talents from the Sect!’

Zhou Tong’s mind raced. His gaze shifted to the figures behind the old master: Li Shifan, encircled by a current of water, and the presumably unconscious Main Body of Zhang Deming.

’Those robes?’

A flicker of recognition crossed Zhou Tong’s face. He looked at the old master and asked, "Senior, this is...?"

The old master glanced back. "Oh, these two have some connection with me. You could call them juniors from a later generation. They also have a rather significant connection to your sect."

Zhou Tong looked at Li Shifan and the other young man, certain that he didn’t recognize them. "Senior is referring to...?" he asked, confused.

The old master replied, "They are both Disciples of your Celestial Spirit Sect now. It is because these two were blundering about that I had no choice but to come and take a look.

"Well, now that the people in charge have arrived, I’ll entrust them to you.

"I am a great distance away. This Outer Body Incarnation was summoned here by this boy, and with his meager Cultivation, he won’t be able to sustain me for much longer."

As he finished speaking, while the four elders were still stunned, the old master tossed Li Shifan and the unconscious Zhang Deming over to Zhou Tong’s group.

"Wait, Senior... could you please wait... the Sect..."

Before Zhou Tong could finish his sentence, the old master had already dissolved into a shower of light specks, vanishing completely.

’I had to get out of there fast,’ Zhang Deming thought. ’This Blessed Fortune Path is such a ripoff, docking my Cultivation every time I make a move.’

’If they had actually asked me to help, I wouldn’t have had nearly enough Experience Points to pull it off!’

The four Duality Elders watched as the figure of Elder Huang dissolved into light, then they looked at each other, speechless. After a long moment, Zhou Tong finally asked, "How should we handle this?"

Among the four, the refined-looking Dang Qian glanced at Li Shifan, who was carefully supporting Zhang Deming on his back with his head lowered, and said:

"What else can we do? Let’s go down and ask them what happened. We’ll wait for our Master to arrive before making any decisions.

"He said they were his juniors. A monster of his caliber personally acknowledged them, passed on a trump card like summoning his Incarnation, and even made a trip himself.

"Can you really just abandon a Disciple like that?"

Hearing this, the others nodded and flew downwards.

Li Shifan, guided by Zhou Tong, flew down as well.

A moment later, they landed on the ground. All four elders turned to Li Shifan and said, "This... this fellow cultivator, please tell us what happened."

Hearing this, Li Shifan bowed in trepidation. "Outer Sect Small Hui Peak Disciple Li Shifan pays his respects to the honorable Masters."

Seeing Li Shifan’s respectful gesture, they exchanged a look. ’He really is a Disciple of the Sect?’

Zhou Tong waved his hand, and a Light Screen appeared before him. He asked with a detached expression, "Little Hui Peak? When did you enter the Inner Sect, and when were you assigned to the Outer Sect’s Small Hui Peak?"