Returning from the Immortal World

At Tang Xiu’s words, Duanmu Lin’s heart sunk and his expression turned ugly. After some time, he murmured, “Then, what should I do now? If that horrifying demonic beast were to lead the rest of demonic beasts to attack our defensive line, there’s no way we could fend them off. If my estimation is correct, the number of demonic beasts in the Himalayas is definitely not as simple as tens of thousands. The number is likely much more than that.”

“I think you have a correct estimation.” Tang Xiu forced a smile and said, “The number of demonic beasts in this mountain range is definitely over tens of thousands. The Himalayas is too vast, and there must be a lot of demonic beasts in its depths we have no means to investigate. What is certain is that their number should be far more than 10,000.”

“Do you have any good ideas, then?” asked Duanmu Lin. “Can the array you arranged withstand that horrifying demonic beast?”

Tang Xiu nodded. But then he shook his head and forced a smile. “The array I arrange can kill that fearsome demonic beast, and I’m sure I can trap it and kill it inside if I control the array. But then again, there are too demonic beasts. The rest of them may not be that powerful, but if they and that particularly terrifying demonic beast were to team up, they could easily break the array.”

Prior to this, Duanmu Lin also pinned his hopes on the geomancy array Tang Xiu was about to arrange. But now, when he heard Tang Xiu’s explanation, a deep sense of powerlessness engulfed him.

In case the array couldn’t fend off those demonic beasts, what could he and the others do? Was there no other choice for him and the others but to come out and fight those demonic beasts head-on? With so many demonic beasts, the gap between the number of cultivators compared to the number of demonic beasts was too big. It was impossible to stop them!

After staying silent for a while, Tang Xiu asked, “Senior Duanmu, I’m afraid you’ll need to mobilize all the cultivators in the country. We cannot hide this issue anymore. If you can, I hope you can invite some cultivators overseas to return to China to help us. To the best of my knowledge, there are cultivators of some Taoist schools who migrated overseas many years ago. If you can secure their help, it’s likely that we can defend against the demonic beasts much easier.”

‘Foreign cultivators?’

Duanmu Lin let out a bitter smile and shook his head. “First of all, I know nothing about any of those monastic sects in foreign countries. Even if I did, they may not come back to help us. Tang Xiu, there are some things you don’t know. After the founding of China, the country exterminated some of the cultivator forces. I’m afraid those cultivator schools who have left our country just don’t like us anymore. Certainly, many of those purged cultivator forces were evil. Their actions then incited public wrath with their evil deeds, which was the very reason they had been targeted by the state.”

“That’s not necessarily true.” Tang Xiu shook his head and said, “As far as I know, there’s a Taoist monastic sect out of this case. The elders of this sect found a heavenly blessed land overseas. That place is suited for their cultivation, so they migrated there. They are not against our country and are also good people, I think.”

“Which sect are you talking about?” asked Duanmu Lin quickly.

“I don’t know about the others. I only know one.” Tang Xiu shook his head and said, “Also, didn’t you say there are still many hidden cultivation forces in China? We’re now facing a crisis, so it’s best to invite them all. The more powerful people we have, the better. Otherwise, not only will we get killed in case of a major crisis, but our country and its people will also plunge into misery and extinction.”

“Then you’re responsible for inviting the cultivators of that sect, Tang Xiu,” said Duanmu Lin. “See if they can return to China and help us. And I’ll contact other cultivators and try to get them to help.”

“Roger that!” replied Tang Xiu. After saying that, he returned to their camp with Mo Awu and the rest.

In the military tent, Tang Xiu took the Communication Signet from Daoist Zixuan. After contemplating for a moment, he then immediately activated it. He himself didn’t hold many hopes, but shortly after, a message was transmitted from the Communication Signet from the other side of the Earth and appeared in front of Tang Xiu.

“Tang Xiu, we’ve long been waiting on an empty island near your Nine Dragons Island. Since you’ve changed the trading location to the vicinity of the Himalayas in China, we’ll immediately catch up with you there. Don’t worry about the crisis there. We’ll aid you in fighting the enemies. Our sense of honor and duty does not allow us to neglect it.”

A satisfied look was cast on Tang Xiu’s handsome face. He secretly nodded and his impression toward the Whole Unitary Sect turned much better. At the very least, their willingness to return to China and help the country face those demonic beasts was very noble.

Quickly after, Tang Xiu no longer bothered himself with Daoist Zixuan and her Whole Unitary Sect. He fully devoted himself to his cultivation. His injury was recovering quickly and his strength was in constant improvement. After he communicated with the stars in the universe once again, he absorbed more and more astral power, so that the first planet in the universe formed in his Dantian immediately increased in size, about tens of meters in diameter. A strong life force and boundless energy could also be felt exuding from it.

‘Isn’t this at least five times stronger than before?!’

Two days later, Tang Xiu floated up and felt the huge force residing in his body. A satisfied smile appeared on his face. Prior to this, he could only fight that particularly fearsome demonic beast if he were to unleash various magical abilities, but now he was confident that he could defeat it with his own strength.

“I can easily kill demonic beasts at the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core stages if I encounter them now.”

Shortly after, he came out of the military tent with a happy smile. Just as his eyes swept toward the surroundings, however, the smile on his face receded, because 200 or so Tang Sect disciples cast their eyes on him with respectful faces and full of spirit.

“Your injuries healed already?” asked Tang Xiu after glancing at them.

Mo Awu glanced at Hao Lei and quickly went toward Tang Xiu. Then, he respectfully reported. “Our injuries have all convalesced, Sect Master. We can join the battle at any time, and everyone is waiting for you to finish your cultivation and bestow us cultivation resources.”

His report made Tang Xiu grinningly smile. “Well, well. No wonder you’re all waiting here, huh? It turns out that your heads are all full of cultivation resources! Alright, take out the demonic beasts you’ve hunted. I’ll count them and reward you with cultivation resources.”

“As you will it!”

A look of joy could be seen on Mo Awu’s face. After complying, he quickly took out demonic beasts’ remains from his interspatial ring. He was not the only one to do that, but also Jin Shi and Hao Lei. In but an instant, the place was full of demonic beasts’ dead bodies.

“You guys are very good!” Tang Xiu spoke with satisfaction. “All of them added up, you’ve killed more than 300 demonic beasts. Awu, start distributing cultivation resources now! Give them to the team captains and let them distribute the rewards according to their merits. Do remember, you don’t need to be stingy on the rewards, be it the pills, weapons, or various talismans. As I told you before, you can get handsome rewards as long as you score achievements in this battle. At least, you won’t be short of resources in the following battles.”

Finally, Tang Xiu’s eyes landed on Hao Lei and he smilingly said, “As of now, besides Gu Xiaoxue, Gu Yin, Tang Guang, and Tang An, Hao Lei is the first to become a Golden Core Stage expert among you all. With this, she has earned my admiration because her aptitude is not ranked the best among you all, and yet her cultivation speed is the fastest. Therefore, you deserve to have these.”

Tang Xiu then took out two jade bottles from his interspatial ring and threw them to Hao Lei. Then, he continued, “As promised, these are the rewards I promised. I’ve added some more for you in the hope that you can make persistent efforts so as to break through to the mid-stage of Golden Core earlier. I also hope that you can advance to the Nascent Soul Stage earlier later on.”

Hao Lei received the two jade bottles. After opening and observing it, a look of surprise suddenly appeared on her face. But as she was about to speak, Tang Xiu threw her an interspatial ring, indicating that this ring was also a reward for her, so she could store her personal belongings inside.

“Thank you, Sect Master!”

Hao Lei was completely overjoyed. Tang Xiu’s reward was truly rich. Especially this interspatial ring, which was something she really wanted.

Tang Xiu waved and said, “There’s no need to thank me. You deserve them. I already told you all that outstanding disciples of the Tang Sect can get a lot of resources. Those who have outstanding results will also earn themselves more and thus, will achieve greater achievements in the future. I want you all to compete with your peers. The more you compete, the more pressure you’ll face. Only by facing more pressure can you have more motivation. All I need is the elite of the elites, I don’t need any trash around me.”

At this moment, all the Tang Sect disciples looked more resolute and determined to fight for victory. They all gripped their fists tightly, and frantic looks could be seen glittering in their eyes.

Cultivate and become stronger!

Only by becoming the most outstanding disciple of the sect would they be able to have more resources for cultivation later, and only then would they be able to achieve greater achievements in the future.

Cultivation had become the common goal of Tang Xiu and the 200-odd disciples of the Tang Sect. It was also imperative for them to improve their strength as much as possible before the final crisis arrived.

When Tang Xiu returned to the tent, he directly took out a large number of Demon Cores. Due to his advancement in his cultivation level, the amount of demonic power essence he could absorb was ten times faster than before. Further, he also used these Demon Cores to arrange a Spiritual Energy Gathering Array and used 108 Demon Cores at one time.

That was a luxury and very extravagant in and of itself. Such a level of consumption was something he never dared to try prior to this. But now, he was filthy rich and had no less than 2,000 Demon Cores in hand. He didn’t hesitate to expend them as long as it could rapidly enhance his cultivation.

“What rich spiritual energy of the world!”

“How come the density of spiritual energy here increased so much?”

“This is so strange.”

All the disciples of the Tang Sect in the surrounding tents looked astonished. When they came out of their respective tents, they suddenly discovered that the world’s spiritual energy was coming from all directions, rushing into Tang Xiu’s tent just like tidal waves. In but a flash, they realized that it was due to the action of their Sect Master.

“This is an opportunity! Cultivating in this spiritual energy-rich environment will speed up my practice several times!”

A Tang Sect disciple muttered to himself with a pensive look.