179: Chapter 179 The Thousand Souls Sect's Sneak Attack

Soul Stone Secret Realm.

The eight Xuan Ming brothers felt a blur before their eyes, and the world changed around them.

"Careful!"

Xuan Ming shouted, his vast and boundless Divine Soul spreading out like a celestial net, intercepting the wailing, shrieking resentful spirits that lunged at them.

"Woooo..."

The shrill, mournful wailing pierced their eardrums, evoking feelings of utter despair from the depths of their hearts.

Xuan Ming's roar snapped everyone back to their senses, though Chen Xuanfeng's expression remained grim.

To be affected by mere resentful spirits—how inexcusable!

"Move aside! Let me handle this!" Chen Xuanfeng barked, and a golden longsword manifested out of thin air above his head.

The sword's tip pointed straight toward the heavens, emitting bursts of dragon-like roars.

Xuan Ming felt his spread-out Divine Soul net beginning to tear, so he withdrew it without hesitation.

"Slash!"

With a sharp cry, Chen Xuanfeng brought the ten-thousand-foot-long golden giant sword crashing down upon the incoming resentful spirits.

The collision between the resentful spirits and the golden giant sword erupted into terrifying shrieks.

"Ahhh..."

Wherever the golden giant sword passed, the resentful spirits turned to ash, leaving not even a trace of their soul essence behind.

The golden light overwhelmed the pitch-black sky.

"Pfft!"

The Peak Golden Core Disciple of the Thousand Souls Sect spat out a mouthful of blood, scrambling to flee.

However, the golden giant sword came crashing down directly upon his head.

"Splat! Splat!"

The Thousand Souls Sect Disciple was split in two, falling to either side as blood and entrails spilled across the ground.

The golden giant sword left a bottomless sword mark on the ground of the Secret Realm before slowly dissipating.

Only then did those who entered the Secret Realm later realize that Chen Xuanfeng's strike had not relied on any Magical Artifact!

It was simply Spiritual Qi condensed into a sword!

Zhong Ziqi stood amidst the crowd, watching Chen Xuanfeng with a look of deep wariness.

His eyes flickered as he glanced at Zhong Jiang. Although he hadn't originally intended to bring Zhong Jiang along, he spoke up in the end.

"Cousin, the Secret Realm is dangerous. Let us two brothers move together."

Zhong Jiang withdrew his thoughtful gaze. When he looked at Zhong Ziqi, his eyes were calm and somber, and he silently lowered his head to signify agreement.

Zhong Ziqi glanced back at Chen Xuanfeng and the others one last time before saying in a low voice, "Let's go!"

Not knowing where they were going, Zhong Jiang followed him woodenly.

Xuan Ming noticed the movements of the two and glanced over. Seeing that they were not heading in the direction of the woman their father had ordered them to capture, he didn't pay them any further mind.

He shifted his Divine Sense, focusing on the Thousand Souls Sect Disciples who had appeared last.

Feeling the warning from this dangerous Divine Sense, the group of demonic cultivators—who had been instructed by their Sect Master to attack others upon entering the Secret Realm—froze.

Xuan Ming sent a voice transmission to the others, "They want to attack. Should we..." strike first?

Su Xin suddenly lifted his somber eyes.

"Swish, swish, swish..."

Countless pitch-black spirit devouring vines shot up from the ground.

Everyone else, whether of the Righteous Path or demonic, immediately fled for their lives.

As they wove through the sky-filling spirit devouring vines, neither the Righteous Path cultivators nor the Hundred Insect Sect Disciples suffered any harm.

Seeing this, the Thousand Souls Sect Disciples attempted to slip through unnoticed.

But little did they know, just as one of them followed a Hundred Insect Sect Disciple and rushed between two spirit devouring vines, watching as the Hundred Insect Sect Disciple escaped, a look of joy appeared on his face.

"Swish!"

A spirit devouring vine suddenly shot up from below, skewering the Thousand Souls Sect Disciple like a kebab.

His entire body's demonic energy was continuously drained and extracted by the spirit devouring vine; his Dantian shattered, and he suffered thousands of torments before finally expiring.

The process, which seemed long, actually only took a few breaths—not even one ten-thousandth of the time he had spent tormenting others to obtain resentful spirits.

Stained with demonic energy, the spirit devouring vines looked increasingly formidable.

Su Xin's aura was slowly rising.

He easily broke through to the Peak Foundation Establishment.

The Golden Core Bottleneck had yet to be reached.

The Thousand Souls Sect Disciples had already been drained dry by him.

Su Xin shook his head regretfully. "Not enough."

He feared he would need to absorb a Nascent Soul demonic cultivator to help him break through to the Golden Core.

Su Xin sighed. "I had hoped to break through within the Soul Stone Secret Realm, but it seems that won't be possible now."

Xuan Ming raised an eyebrow. "That might not necessarily be true."

Xiao Tian immediately leaned in. "Brother Xuan Ming, you have a way?"

Xuan Ming rubbed his chin and looked at Su Xin. "What do you still lack to break through to the Golden Core?"

Su Xin spoke frankly. "The Cultivation Technique I practice requires absorbing powers of different attributes every time I break through a major Realm. I thought there would be many demonic cultivators here, so I wanted to absorb their demonic energy, but it turns out the demonic energy on those cultivators simply wasn't enough."

"At least one Nascent Soul demonic cultivator is needed, perhaps more." Su Xin shook his head. "There aren't many Nascent Soul demonic cultivators in the entire Southern Wasteland. I chose wrong this time; I shouldn't have chosen demonic energy."

Xuan Ming chuckled. "No, you chose correctly."

Several pairs of eyes turned toward Xuan Ming, waiting for what he had to say next.

Unexpectedly, Xuan Ming stopped talking and changed the subject. "I sense that the person Father told us to capture has fled in this direction."

Xuan Ming stroked his chin. "Interesting. How did she know we were coming to capture her?"

"She must have chosen to flee without hesitation the moment she entered the Secret Realm; otherwise, it would have been impossible for her to vanish without a trace in such a short time."

"And the actions of those Thousand Souls Sect demonic cultivators—it looks more like they were muddying the waters so that no one would notice..."

"Brother Xuan Ming!" Even someone as good-tempered as Xiao Tian couldn't help but grit his teeth.

Seeing that he had incited the group's anger, Xuan Ming laughed heartily and drifted away like a wisp of smoke.

"Father's instructions are most important. We can discuss Xiao Jiu's matter later."

Xiao Tian suddenly transformed into lightning and gave chase to Xuan Ming.

The others looked at each other, then helplessly chased after Xuan Ming.

Xuan Ming was soon caught; the movement technique he had switched to still couldn't compare to the movement technique that came with an Immortal-Grade Cultivation Technique.

Before his brothers could give him a hard time, Xuan Ming raised his index finger and made a "shh" sound.

"It's just up ahead."

Su Xin raised his pale hand and pressed it against the impulsive Xiao Tian. "Brother Tian, no rush."

Xiao Tian helplessly glared at Xuan Ming in secret.

Xuan Ming wasn't afraid in the slightest, even though Xiao Tian's body was flickering with the power of the Tribulation Lightning that countered him the most.

His figure moved like a ghost, appearing beside Xiao Tian, and he brazenly bumped his shoulder against Xiao Tian's.

The lightning power flowing on Xiao Tian's body instantly retracted, not harming Xuan Ming in the slightest.

Xuan Ming thought triumphantly: Honest guy, handled!

Feeling a gaze, Xuan Ming swept his Divine Sense over.

He saw the only other demonic cultivator among the brothers looking at him with envy in his eyes.

As if sensing his Divine Sense, the other party quickly lowered his head.

Xuan Ming had long been curious about Chu Feng's situation. It hadn't been convenient to ask in front of their father, but now he had finally caught a free moment.

He sent a voice transmission to ask Xiao Tian, "What's up with that guy over there?"

Xiao Tian's expression froze, looking conflicted and complex. "Brother Chu Feng, he... he just couldn't get over it himself."

Xuan Ming rubbed his chin, looking extremely interested and gossipy. "Tell me about it."

At this moment, he was no longer mentioning how important Father's instructions were.

Xiao Tian, perhaps because he was good-natured or perhaps because he was worried about Chu Feng and wanted another person to help think of a solution, told him everything about how Chu Feng had indirectly caused the death of Bai Ji.

Xuan Ming understood. In truth, he didn't quite get it—a brother they had never even spent time with, was it really worth it?

"Do you all blame him too?"