Shocking the Nine Heavens With My Sword
Chapter 494 - 478 A Bunch of Country Bumpkins (2/3)

Chapter 494: Chapter 478 A Bunch of Country Bumpkins (2/3)

"What made you say that, young friend!" Heavenly Venerate Qingyang spoke with rigorous words, his righteousness piercing fiercely.

Zhou Heng truly admired him, able to portray shamelessness to such a confidently righteous extent. Such a feat certainly wasn’t the hallmark of a life lived as a canine. He couldn’t help but burst into laughter, saying, "Heavenly Venerate Qingyang, won’t you introduce these four first?"

"Hehe, my oversight!" Heavenly Venerate Qingyang chuckled and said, "This is Thousand Peaks Heavenly Venerate, this is Tiger Poison Heavenly Venerate!" He pointed at the other Two Tribulations Quasi-Immortals from Dragon River Continent respectively.

"And these two—" Heavenly Venerate Qingyang paused and said, "This is Linghu Xuan, Young Master Linghu, the Ninth Young Master of the Linghu Clan, and this is Liu Anqi, the... brother who serves as the Young Master’s guard!"

Zhou Heng silently nodded, his guess was correct; the middle-aged man, though an Immortal, lacked a certain dominance and confidence, merely a servant!

Such a person, even if talented, had limited achievements!

Martial Artists cultivate against the natural order, how could one succeed without an unwavering, relentless heart? This Liu Anqi had completely lost any ambitious spirit, unable to stand upright even before a mere Martial Artist of Divinity Transformation Third Layer Heaven, let alone dominate as an Expert.

He must be one of the "natives" from the Immortal Realm; living in such a blessed place like the Immortal Realm makes becoming immortal much simpler. They needn’t worry about Spiritual Energy, but exactly because of that, they lacked necessary hardships!

There are also several levels of Experts in the Immortal Realm. If one were to estimate, Liu Anqi might only amount to a Land Cleaving Realm Expert in the Mortal Realm. Such a minor character indeed had nothing impressive, at most dominating a small city.

The funny thing was, up until now, Heavenly Venerate Qingyang was still hiding the true identities of Linghu Xuan and Liu Anqi, not wanting Zhou Heng to know.

Indeed, he feared that once Zhou Heng knew, he would immediately flee—wasn’t that obvious? Can mortals contend with Immortals? Even a Quasi-Immortal was only nearly an Immortal, not a True Immortal!

Normally, it wouldn’t matter; if he fled, he fled. They wouldn’t think of pursuing to kill a Heavenly Venerate with the Battle Power of a Two Tribulations Quasi-Immortal. But now, it was different; the Star Core was on Zhou Heng, and they would never let go of such a treasure!

Therefore, they needed to first ease Zhou Heng’s emotions until they saw the Star Core to make their move!

Zhou Heng was too lazy to expose them, knowing an inevitable battle loomed. Why bother with pointless talk, he said, "After all this, why haven’t I seen the Immortal Palace yet?"

He wasn’t afraid of Liu Anqi.

Firstly, in the Mortal Realm, even an Immortal could only exhibit the Battle Power of a Three Tribulations Quasi-Immortal, which wouldn’t be much stronger than Zhou Heng! Secondly, although the opponent was an Immortal, his rank was very low, definitely only at the Moonlight Realm, meaning his defensive power definitely wasn’t as monstrous as Rong Jianlong’s!

It might only be equivalent to a Magic Artifact of the Divinity Transformation Realm.

This would be invincible in the Lower Realm, but Zhou Heng had two Immortal Artifacts in his possession, both of extremely high rank. As long as a Heavenly Venerate level of power drove them, it would be sufficient to slash through a Divinity Transformation Realm Magic Artifact!

—If he utilized all methods available, he indeed had a chance to slay a Low-Tier Immortal unexpectedly!

Because this was the Mortal Realm!

"Immortal Palace, far as the horizon, close as in front of the eyes!" Heavenly Venerate Qingyang extended a hand pointing. A ripple spread out, and the surrounding seawater surged. Shimmering ripples danced across the water’s surface, and a massive structure suddenly emerged, as if it had been veiled by a layer of gauze that was abruptly drawn away.

Majestic, magnificent, the Immortal Palace was primarily silver-white, made of some unknown material that emitted a gentle glow, inspiring a sense of refreshment and pleasure upon sight.

They were exactly at the entrance, and on the plaque were the words "True Yang Immortal Garden," each character sharp like a sword, bursting with an aura of dominating the world.

Indeed, this was definitely an Immortal Object, emitting an aura similar to that of Gu Yan’s Bone Palace!

Heavenly Venerate Qingyang and the others were laying a trap for Zhou Heng, but the bait was genuine.

"Young friend, don’t waste any time!" Heavenly Venerate Qingyang urged, his scalp tingling with excitement even as a Two Tribulations Quasi-Immortal.

He had no choice; one side was the Star Core, the other was the Immortal Palace, both immensely precious to an Immortal, and he was no exception.

Thoughts raced through Zhou Heng’s mind, and he instantly made a decision, taking out the Star Core from his bosom—he had left the Nine Mystic Trial Tower with Huo Tian, to facilitate her protection of everyone. This time, he only brought several not-so-large Space Artifacts.

This Mortal Realm treasure was sealed by his Spiritual Power, showing not the slightest anomaly. If thrown on the street, it would probably be considered a slightly valuable jade stone, but definitely not associated with the Star Core!

Even Linghu Xuan, a scion of an Immortal Realm family, and Liu Anqi, an Immortal, had no right to see the Star Core—how many billions of years does a planet need to form from birth to destruction?

Immortals live longer than mortals, but not that exaggeratedly!

Is this the Star Core?

The others were somewhat uncertain, unable to confirm until they sensed the formidable power of the Star Core!

"A bunch of country bumpkins!" Black Donkey commented on the side, quite audibly.

Whoosh, including Linghu Xuan and Liu Anqi, whether they were Immortals, scions of Immortal Realm families, or pinnacle experts from the Mortal Realm, all their faces reddened, burning both with shame and annoyance.

Are they country bumpkins?

Who would dare say that!

But in front of a treasure like the Star Core, they are indeed country bumpkins, and extremely so!

The treasures they have seen are just some Spirit Grass aged tens of thousands, or even over a hundred thousand years, or precious metals forged by Earth Fire for millions, even hundreds of millions of years. Yet, these are nothing compared to the Star Core!

All these are things fostered by planets, but the Star Core is a concentrated essence of a planet itself. How can they compare?

In front of such a treasure, I’m afraid many of the family heads from the immortal realm’s major clans would turn into country bumpkins as well, let alone them!

Although this is the truth, considering who they are, can they really say this out loud?

All five of them coldly swept their glares over Black Donkey, exuding killing intent.

After killing Zhou Heng, they swore to torment this despicable donkey!

Killing intent from one or two people can be concealed, but from five people at the same time, that’s definitely something Zhou Heng couldn’t miss. He immediately stopped his movements and looked coldly back at the five, saying, "The gate isn’t even open yet, and you are already thinking of crossing the river and demolishing the bridge?"

"Young friend, you misunderstand, how could that be!" Heavenly Venerate Qingyang hurriedly responded, mainly because he couldn’t yet confirm whether the object in Zhou Heng’s hands was actually the Star Core. How could they afford to fall out now?

"Hmph, then apologize!" Zhou Heng pointed at Black Donkey. "Don’t think I don’t know you’ve already harbored the intent to kill it! Although this donkey is truly despicable, it’s not for you to kill whenever you wish!"

"Woof, Zhou, do you deserve a bite?" Black Donkey roared angrily.

Apologizing to a despicable donkey, how can this be!

They all had such high status, if they were to apologize to a donkey, how would they face anyone in the future?

Linghu Xuan, a proud scion of a distinguished clan in the immortal realm, immediately lost his temper, his face darkening as he was about to explode. But before he could speak, Liu Anqi had already placed a palm on his shoulder and shook his head slightly.

Now was not the time to turn against each other, they must first confirm the existence of the Star Core!

"Apologize!" Zhou Heng demanded in a deep voice, his voice not loud, but thunderous like echoing thunder.

Linghu Xuan and the others were extremely angry, for they were of such high status, yet they were forced to apologize to a despicable donkey? But Zhou Heng’s stance was firm, and if they didn’t make amends, Zhou would certainly not continue further.

Crucially, they couldn’t be sure of the Star Core’s authenticity. Although Zhou was holding something, they couldn’t see it as the Star Core at all!

The five of them exchanged glances and finally nodded in agreement.

They bowed their heads for now, as both Zhou Heng and Black Donkey were going to die anyway. Apologizing or making amends to the dead meant nothing to them!

They comforted themselves with these thoughts, feeling much more at peace. They then bent over and performed a gesture of respect toward Black Donkey, saying, "We were wrong!"

"When you’re wrong, you must correct it. You mustn’t acknowledge the wrong and fail to amend it! You must reform if you know your faults! Mysterious Venerate has said, a person is not faultless, but the key is to be able to recognize and rectify those faults! Your realization of your mistakes shows that you still have a chance of redemption, so I grudgingly agree to teach you how to recognize and correct your errors!" Black Donkey immediately got smug, spewing words that had Heavenly Venerate Qingyang and the others completely baffled.

By the time Black Donkey talked non-stop, they soon realized something was off. This despicable donkey was actually treating them like juniors and scolding them!

For the Star Core, for the Immortal Palace, they had to endure it!

Black Donkey got increasingly spirited as he spoke, while Zhou Heng showed no intention of stopping him, just watching with amusement. As Black Donkey spoke relentlessly for half an hour without a single pause, he scolded Heavenly Venerate Qingyang and the others from head to toe, sparing not even their ancestors.

Just as Black Donkey was about to launch a verbal attack on the fourth generation of ancestors, Linghu Xuan finally couldn’t stand it anymore and jumped up shouting, "Despicable donkey, you shall speak no further!" His eyes were blazing with fire, as the fourth generation of elders were the backbone of the Linghu Family. If he let Black Donkey continue his foul speech and it reached back home, he was doomed to suffer endlessly!

"What, I’ve only spoken about one-tenth, and you dare command me to stop?" Black Donkey immediately became furious, pointing a hoof at him, "I saw a bit of remorse in you guys earlier and spared no effort to speak some sense to you. Do you think just anybody is eligible for my scolding? Ah, you disrespectful child, wasting my good intentions!"

To have insulted someone’s three generations so horribly and still call it kind intentions, only Black Donkey could have the audacity to say something like that.

It wasn’t just Linghu Xuan, even the other four could no longer control themselves, their faces twisting with rage.

They were confused by the scolding earlier, but now they realized—they had been played!

Such audacity!

"Boy, hand over the Star Core!" Liu Anqi finally stopped beating around the bush and showed his true colors.