206: Chapter 206: Max-Level Special Effects Terrify the Prince

"Help! Is anyone there? Help me!"

The clear cry for help, carrying a childish terror, drifted out from the black mist, making Su Changge freeze as cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

Eerie. It was too eerie.

The Northern Region of the Blood Abyss Realm had been a Forbidden Ground for ten thousand years, a place from which no one returned. Let alone a living person, even exotic beasts didn't dare approach. In this land of death, how could there be a child of the Human Race?

Su Changge froze in place, his feet seemingly nailed to the ground, unable to move. He knew very well that he only had the cultivation of the Qi Refining First Layer; he had no way of knowing if what was in the mist was a demon or a ghost, and rushing in blindly would be seeking death.

But he couldn't retreat.

He had just established an Immortal persona of "venturing alone into the Northern Region" in front of the Blood Clan Princes. If he were scared off by a cry for help now, his persona would collapse on the spot. Once those old monsters of the Blood Clan discovered he was just a paper tiger, his end would be nothing less than being swallowed alive.

Going in meant death, but not going in also meant death.

In a flash, a sharp light flickered in Su Changge's eyes; he had already made a decision.

With an expressionless face, he retreated three hundred feet, stopping exactly behind a distant mound at the edge of the Old Priest's and the Four Princes' vision. As expected, those old fellows were uneasy and were hiding there, secretly spying on him.

Seeing Su Changge retreat, the Old Priest's heart skipped a beat. He was about to reveal himself when he saw Su Changge actually sit cross-legged on a rock.

Su Changge closed his eyes and straightened his back. With a thought, he used the System to exchange for a layer of pale gold spiritual light special effects. The spiritual light, appearing and disappearing, enveloped him, instantly creating an ethereal feeling of being beyond the mundane world.

Behind the mound, the Old Priest gasped and hurriedly covered his mouth, his eyes erupting with fanatical reverence.

"The King... he is deducing the heavenly secrets!"

The Mad Blood Prince was about to speak when the Old Priest muffled his mouth. Seeing this, the Four Princes immediately held their breath and prostrated themselves on the ground in unison, not daring to move an inch. Deducing heavenly secrets was most sensitive to disturbances; if they ruined the King's great task, they couldn't atone for it even with ten thousand deaths.

On the surface, Su Changge was as steady as an old dog, but in reality, his mind had already sunk into his Sea of Consciousness, frantically calling upon the memories of the Xuantian Old Ancestor. Long-buried information about the Northern Region was being forcibly decompressed and read like a data stream.

Soon, he obtained the key information.

First, the curse of the Northern Region originated from the Blood Clan Progenitor and only targeted the Blood Clan Bloodline. As a pure human, he would be unharmed.

Second, a hundred thousand years ago, the Blood Clan Progenitor burned himself to Seal the Extraterritorial Heavenly Demons deep within the Northern Region. At the same time, he hid the "heart of the realm," a supreme treasure capable of completely purifying the plane, in the core's Ancestral Hall.

The heart of the realm.

This was the ultimate goal of this trip. Only by obtaining it could he truly take control of his own destiny.

Su Changge suppressed his excitement and continued to search the memories for the precise route to the Ancestral Hall.

Time passed, and the blood moon sank toward the west.

Su Changge sat quietly on the rock for six hours. Behind the mound, the Old Priest and the Four Princes also remained prostrated for six hours. Their limbs were numb, yet no one dared to move even a fraction.

Feeling that enough time had passed, Su Changge slowly opened his eyes. With another thought, he exchanged for the top-tier "Great Dao Golden Light Special Effect."

In an instant, a blinding golden light erupted from around him, with thousands of auspicious colors illuminating the surrounding hundred feet as bright as day.

Seeing this phenomenon, the Old Priest and the Four Princes were shaken to the core. No longer able to restrain themselves, they rushed out from behind the mound and threw themselves to the ground, their voices shaking the night sky: "We welcome our King! Our King's Divine Might is boundless!"

Su Changge rolled his eyes inwardly, but his face remained indifferent. He slowly stood up and patted away non-existent dust from his robes.

"The deduction is complete; the time has come." His voice was flat, yet it carried an inherent majesty.

"We respectfully see off our King!" The Old Priest wept tears of joy, kowtowing repeatedly.

Su Changge walked forward with his hands behind his back, stepping steadily toward the black mist barrier, his posture as upright as a mountain. Only he knew that his legs had long since gone numb. With every step, his muscles twitched uncontrollably, the pain making him want to grimace.

He forced himself to walk to a corner, and only after leaving the sight of the Old Priest and the others did he dare to slow down and quietly rub his aching legs.

He pulled up the System panel. After that series of actions, another eight hundred thousand emotion points had been credited, bringing the total balance to twelve million eight hundred thousand.

This wave of effort was worth it.

Just as this thought flashed through Su Changge's mind, that childish and terrified cry for help rang out in his mind again without warning.

Su Changge gazed at the rolling mist in the distance from the corner, calculating in his mind for a long while.

If he took a detour, this trip would add two days of trekking for no reason. The Opportunity for the heart of the realm was fleeting, and he didn't have many days left. A two-day delay might mean missing a god-given chance.

But if he didn't take a detour and encountered the human Cultivator who had cried for help earlier, with his Qi Refining First Layer cultivation, he would have absolutely no chance of winning.

He gritted his teeth and finally decided to temporarily avoid the brunt of the danger and take a detour. With his life on the line, a two-day delay was better than being buried here.

Su Changge turned around and moved toward the west. He planned to bypass from the western slope and find a remote entrance to the Northern Region to slip in.

Under the blood-colored sky, a dark red crescent moon hung high. The gale carried fine sand and gravel, hitting his face and creating a bone-chilling pain. The wind grew more violent, making Su Changge's robes billow and snap.

He had taken less than three steps when a whirlwind struck him head-on. His body became unstable, and he staggered forward, nearly falling face-first onto the ground. He hurriedly reached out his arm and grabbed the branch of a twisted withered tree beside him, barely managing to steady himself.

Su Changge's face turned pale with fear, and he almost revealed a flaw in front of the others. He quickly straightened his back, smoothed his wind-tossed robes, and his expression returned to one of indifference.

That moment of imbalance happened to fall into the eyes of the Old Priest and the Four Princes lurking behind to watch. The group was hiding behind some jagged rocks in the distance, and seeing Su Changge's movements, their faces were filled with reverence.

The Old Priest stroked his sparse white beard, filled with emotion: "The King's steps actually contain the rhythm of the Great Dao. That sway just now seemed like an imbalance, but it was actually in harmony with the world's great momentum; it is truly wonderful beyond words. I have lived for eight hundred years, and this is the first time I have seen someone walk the 'Dao' so naturally."

The Mad Blood Prince also nodded repeatedly, his eyes full of fanaticism: "Exactly! Our King's cultivation is unfathomable. Even his ordinary movements align with the Heavenly Dao. We don't even have the qualification to glimpse one ten-thousandth of it. Following such a Saint King, the day our Blood Clan returns to our ancestral home is just around the corner!"

The other three princes chimed in one after another, their admiration for Su Changge increasing by several more points.

Su Changge didn't know that his near-fall had been interpreted by these Blood Clan members as being in harmony with the Great Dao. After steadying himself, his pace quickened. He needed to get out of the Blood Clan's surveillance as soon as possible; this life of pretending was too much of an ordeal, and he feared he couldn't maintain it for long.

Su Changge activated all the strength of his Qi Refining First Layer, his figure moving like the wind as he sped forward.

After running for about half an hour, Su Changge looked back into the distance and confirmed there were no traces behind him before stopping. He leaned against the rough rock wall beside him, panting heavily, his lungs feeling as if they were burning. The physique of the Qi Refining First Layer was weak; running for half an hour was already his limit.