Yuan's Ascension

Chapter 249: Unstoppable (1)

Within the Conference Hall of the Middle Land Immortal Hall, a massive three-dimensional projection of the map of the Middle Land was suspended in mid-air. Numerous green light dots, marked with a unique numeric identifier, moved around the map. Dozens of these dots headed straight toward the Huang Continent.

70 Heavenly Rankers sat in a circle within the hall, their connection to the Middle Land Immortal Hall maintained with a strand of Soul Force. In times as dire as these, the Wu Sect spared no effort to ensure the continued operation of the immortal hall.

"Fellow Daoists," Emperor Dong Pan began solemnly. "By altering the settings of your hall jade, you can share your real-time physical location in the Middle Land. Furthermore, I have granted everyone here authorization to project images of your surroundings into the immortal hall via the hall jade."

A series of light screens materialized above the Heavenly Rankers, capturing their actions in the physical world. Gradually, more and more screens appeared, displaying the scenes of individual Heavenly Rankers.

"The worm devil shares a mental connection with all its devil soldiers. Though they may appear scattered, they are actually a unified force capable of surrounding us with ease," Emperor Dong Pan stated. "Our only means of communication is the Middle Land Immortal Hall."

Nods of agreement rippled through the gathering of Heavenly Rankers.

These holographic projections connected via Soul Force allow us to communicate with zero latency no matter our position, be it in the sky, on land, or under the sea.

It was far better than the virtual metaverse, which lagged when one exceeded a certain distance in the real world.

And these are just some basic functions of voidrealms.

The immortal slips mentioned the existence of top grade voidrealms capable of forging instantaneous connections across dimensional planes and worlds. It seemed almost magical.

A voidrealm was the world of a soul!

The true immortal path is definitely not to become an ascetic that spends all his time cultivating in seclusion on some mountain in the wilderness, relying on the whims of the heavens to provide them with natural treasures.

He shook off his numerous thoughts.

I’ll soon reach the Huang Continent. Wu Yuan quickened his pace, comparing his location to the position of the green dot on the map. I should be among the first to set foot on the Huang Continent.

...

"Once all 58 Heavenly Rankers enter the Huang Continent, the map area displayed will narrow down to the Huang Continent, eventually shrinking further to a circle with a diameter of 20,000 li, known as the devil zone," Emperor Dong Pan relayed. "This will provide clearer positioning for each daoist."

“From Senior Wan Liu’s intelligence, devil soldiers rarely stray more than 10,000 li from the worm devil. Thus, limit the range of patrol to a radius between 500 li to 10,000 li from the devil’s lair. While patrolling, please scan your surroundings with Soul Force. Any area that has been scanned once will be marked in white, and will change to yellow once it has been scanned twice.”

“In the event that you encounter a Communion devil soldier, the green light dot representing your position will turn red, alerting nearby Heavenly Rankers to come to your aid. However, if faced with a Spiritual Body devil soldier, immediate retreat is advised.”

“Your mission is to eliminate as many devil soldiers as possible starting from the peripheral area of Huang Continent, ensuring that none are missed. Once the two arrays are ready for activation, we will form a circle with a 500 li radius around the devil’s lair, then charge in to eliminate the worm devil.”

The Heavenly Rankers listened silently to Emperor Dong Pan’s instructions. Without the Middle Land Immortal Hall, they would be as coordinated as headless flies, easily picked apart and killed by the devil soldiers under the worm devil’s control.

But with the Middle Land Immortal Hall, they could share and receive information instantly, giving the immortal cultivators of Middle Land a fighting chance. Whether it was the wars between mortal kingdoms or large-scale battles between immortals, intelligence was the key to victory.

...

The Huang Continent! Wu Yuan took another step and soared through the air, crossing thousands of li in the blink of an eye before landing. As he journeyed onward, the mountain peaks clawed higher, their stony brows furrowed against the sky. Emerald tendrils, woven by ancient trees, draped the landscape, and beneath them, and remote winding paths stretched across the land.

The Huang Continent is truly massive. The area designated as the devil zone occupies only a fraction of the entire continent.

...

"Make landfall!" commanded Qiong Sea King.

The fishermen on the shore watched in shock as the ocean writhed in sudden agony, then, a massive jiaolong burst out of the water. Its azure-scaled body stretching over 60 zhangs, undulating in the air. It headed straight inland, followed closely behind by a black turtle the size of a small mountain.

...

Within the Middle Land Immortal Hall, a figure in black robes spoke in a deep voice. "I have entered the devil zone and begun patrolling.”

"It’s Meng Geng from the Xi Continent.”

“He’s the first to enter the devil zone.”

Many Heavenly Rankers turned towards him. The Xi Continent bordered the Huang Continent, hence it was natural that he would arrive first.

"I’ve also entered the devil zone,” a voice tinged with an eerie quality rang out, belonging to a massive blood snake.

“Blood Snake King. He hails from the Huang Continent.”

As time passed, more and more Heavenly Rankers reached the Huang Continent, entering the devil zone demarcated by the Middle Land Immortal Hall and beginning to patrol the area.

This first wave of Heavenly Rankers who had arrived were a combination of local experts from the Huang Continent or individuals from the neighboring Xi, Nan, and Holy Continents. These three continents were situated closest to the Huang Continent.

"I have entered the Devil's Zone," a calm voice rang out, causing many Heavenly Rankers to look over in surprise.

"Is that Wu Yuan?"

"How did he arrive so quickly? Didn’t he set off from the Jiang Continent?"

“Wu Yuan arrived even earlier than Black Snake King, Fu Xinxia, and Jiang Yi.” Many Heavenly Rankers were taken aback.

They were all fully focused on getting to their destination in the shortest time possible and didn’t pay much attention to the movements of light dots on the map. Hence, not many had taken notice of Wu Yuan's speed.

"The displacement from the Jiang Continent to the devil zone in the Huang Continent exceeds 60,000 li! Even if Wu Yuan had left for the Huang Continent at the earliest possible moment, his speed is still 50 li per breath at minimum.”

“Heavens! 50 li per breath? Sustained over an extended period?”

“Even sixth-stage Qi Sea cultivators would struggle to reach such a speed.”

"Did he really just become a Heavenly Ranker?”

“Maybe Senior Wan Liu brought him there?” Speculations and conjectures swirled among the Heavenly Rankers.

It was worth noting that though Wu Yuan was qualified to join them in the Middle Land Immortal Hall, he was still in his early twenties. Thus, they treated him as a junior and didn’t pay significant attention to him.

However, his speed alone had altered their perception entirely. If he could reach such speeds through his own abilities, it was unlikely that he would be weak in other aspects. Hence, many Heavenly Rankers no longer treated Wu Yuan as a youngster who had just stepped into the Communion phase.

...

The setting sun cast a golden hue on the majestic mountains.

Dozens of us Heavenly Rankers have been scouring the devil zone. However, the other Heavenly Rankers are patrolling at an excruciatingly slow pace. Wu Yuan sighed inwardly.

Patrolling relied on more than just one’s vision. One's view could easily be obstructed, particularly with the rugged terrain of the Huang Continent. Not to mention, devil soldiers could choose to burrow underground. Hence, Soul Force perception was equally crucial!

The Soul Force of other Heavenly Rankers can only reach a range of several hundred meters. Wu Yuan extended his Soul Force. But my Soul Force? It can reach a radius of more than ten li.

Years of cultivating had swiftly augmented Wu Yuan's Soul Force range, and his sprint speed was equally astonishing.

So far, no Heavenly Ranker has surveyed the area in this direction. Wu Yuan quickly decided on a path from the map projection in the Middle Land Immortal Hall and commenced his patrol.

...

A quarter of an hour later, within a canyon.

Boom! A mass of soil and rocks tumbled down in a massive landslide.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Two black-scaled creatures, each exceeding 30 meters in length, burst out of the canyon, causing boulders to fly and the muddy soil on both sides to collapse.

A streak of earthy-yellow tore across the sky, charging straight for them.

Roar! One of the black-scaled creatures opened its cavernous mouth to take a bite at the incoming attacker.

Boom! The earthy-yellow figure slammed into its gaping maw and blasted straight through its skull, spattering blood and scales everywhere. The enormous body crashed to the ground.

Swish! Another blade ray cut through the air, sending the head of the other fleeing black-scaled creature flying.

Two juvenile devil soldiers were dead!

"The weaker juvenile devil soldiers possess the strength of Savant experts, while the stronger ones are on par with Grandmasters." Killing intent gleamed in Wu Yuan's eyes. "Ordinary folk stand no chance against them."

Only a quarter of an hour had passed since Wu Yuan entered the devil zone. Yet, he had already surveyed more than a thousand li, and these were already the seventh and eighth juvenile devil soldiers he had hunted down.

He had witnessed countless human settlements breached and their walls shattered, as well as scores of massacred wild beasts. Each devastating scene fueled Wu Yuan's killing intent.

Whoosh! Whoosh! With a mental command, the two devil crystals lodged in the decapitated heads of the devil soldiers flew straight into his palm.

These devil crystals are essentially energy crystals, similar to etherstone. Mm, the energy each one contains matches that of a piece of mid-grade etherstone of the same size.

According to the immortal slip, etherstone was generally classified as low-grade, mid-grade, or high-grade!

Ordinary etherstone used by the Middle Land's cultivators was considered low-grade, and the so-called fine-grade etherstone mentioned by the Heavenly Rankers was classified as mid-grade. As for high-grade etherstone? Wu Yuan hadn't seen any in the Middle Land.

The harvesting of devil crystals held little value in his eyes.

Unfortunately, the black pagoda is no longer releasing blood-red mist. Wu Yuan shook his head in disappointment.

Ever since Wu Yuan’s one-armed punch strength surpassed a million catties, he could no longer assimilate blood-red mist into his body. Consequently, Wu Yuan stopped replenishing the mist once it was depleted.

After becoming an eldritch warrior more than a year ago, Wu Yuan tried discreetly killing bandits on the Jiang Continent. But to his dismay, the black pagoda no longer produced blood-red mist. At that time, he had speculated that this might be due to the vast disparity in strength between himself and the bandits. Yet, he had no means to validate this assumption. Thus, for the past year or so, Wu Yuan refrained from utilizing the blood-red mist for cultivation.

Furthermore, I’m uncertain if the blood-red mist within the black pagoda remains effective after my transcension into an eldritch warrior. Can it still enhance my physical form?

The only way to find out was to experiment. Having experienced the mystical properties of the blood-red mist early on, Wu Yuan was reluctant to abandon this power. Until now, Wu Yuan had yet to unravel the secrets behind the black pagoda, even with his soul on par with that of Golden Core cultivators.