Chapter 1644 Encountering the Eight Mahayana Masters of the Central Ancestral Vein

After cleaning up the battlefield and erasing most of the traces, the group gathered again.

"We should not linger here. The commotion we made just now has attracted attention. We must leave as soon as possible," the Ghost King said in a deep voice, looking around.

Everyone nodded, but their eyes all fell on Zhang Xuan.

The shock brought by that complete, ethereal Great Dao Tree still lingers in everyone's hearts.

This battle has solidified Zhang Xuan's strength and potential, firmly establishing his unique and unshakeable position within the team.

“Let’s go!” Zhang Xuan nodded and said.

Leaving the ruins of the Black Abyss Rift Nest, the group traversed the increasingly desolate and lifeless region of the Central Ancestral Vein.

The corrupt laws of heaven and earth, like an invisible tide, constantly assaulted the protective spiritual light of everyone, and even Mahayana cultivators felt that the operation of the laws had become somewhat sluggish.

On this day, they encountered eight human Mahayana cultivators in a meteorite desert formed by the accumulation of shattered star debris!

They wore robes that, though slightly worn, were still magnificent, and their spiritual aura was pure and vast, clearly the pure Daoist essence of the human race.

However, they all wore a constantly writhing black armband on their arms, emanating an aura that was the same as that of the Heavy Water alien race.

The two sides suddenly clashed, and the atmosphere instantly became extremely tense.

However, the expected thunderous strike did not come.

After the eight human Mahayana cultivators clearly saw the appearance of the Ghost Emperor and the others and their pure human aura, a look of extreme surprise flashed in their eyes. This surprise was quickly replaced by a mixture of vigilance, scrutiny, and even a hint of subtle calculation.

The leader, a refined and scholarly Mahayana cultivator named Xuanjizi, waved his hand, and a law capable of concealing the secrets of heaven and cause and effect enveloped everyone.

Xuanjizi's actions greatly puzzled Zhang Xuan and the others.

Xuanjizi stepped forward, cupped his hands slightly, and said, "Fellow Daoists, you are all unfamiliar faces. You are not cultivators of my ancestral lineage. May I ask where you come from and what brings you here?"

The Ghost King's crimson eyes swept over the eight people, then glanced at the black rings on their arms, and said coldly, "We have stumbled into this place by mistake. But you gentlemen, as Mahayana cultivators of the human race, why are you wearing items of a foreign race?"

A hint of embarrassment flashed across Xuanjizi's face, but he quickly regained his composure and sighed, "Fellow Daoist, you may not know this, but it is a symbiotic ring, not an act of enslavement, but rather... a token of cooperation. The Chongshui Sacred Clan is powerful, while our human race is weak. In order to preserve the survival of our entire clan, we have no choice but to do this."

His words were sincere, but his eyes flickered slightly.

A burly Mahayana cultivator standing nearby said impatiently, "Xuanjizi, why waste words with them! Since they are outsiders, according to the rules of the Holy Clan, they should either be captured or killed!"

He spoke fiercely, his body surging with murderous aura, manifesting the phantom of the main trunk of the Broken Army Killing Path, his imposing presence was overwhelming, but the murderous aura locking on was not a full-force attack, but more like a deterrent.

“Brother Li Gang, please calm down.” Another gaunt old man spoke in a sinister tone, “You are guests from afar, why fight and kill? Fellow Daoists from the Dragon Spine Divine Realm, you must be quite capable to have crossed realms to reach this place. However… this Central Ancestral Vein is no longer a safe place. If you rashly intrude, you may face certain death.” His words carried a warning, but also a hint of probing.

Zhang Xuan observed coldly. Under the Heavenly Pivot Dharma Eye, he could clearly see that these eight people were not completely controlled puppets. Their souls still retained autonomy, but their fear of the Heavy Water alien race was deeply ingrained.

Ghost King and his ilk were no ordinary people; they immediately understood the situation before them.

These eight men were not die-hard lackeys, but rather had compromised their principles for survival. Now that they had encountered strong outside reinforcements, their minds began to stir.

They wanted to maintain the status quo and profit from the heavy water aliens, but they also wondered if they could gain benefits from these outsiders, or even take the opportunity to break free from their control.

At the very least, they absolutely do not want to fight to the death here and deplete their own strength.

Zhang Xuan stepped forward and asked, "Besides you, are there any other Mahayana practitioners here?"

Li Gang roared angrily, "What are you, a mere Nascent Soul cultivator, doing here to make a racket in our Mahayana cultivators' conversation? You have no right to speak here!"

At this moment, the Ghost Emperor said leisurely, "No, he actually has the right to speak here."

"what?"

“If it weren’t for Fellow Daoist Zhang, we wouldn’t be here. We all look up to him here,” said the Ghost Emperor.

Upon hearing this, Xuanjizi and the others were greatly alarmed to learn that this group of Mahayana cultivators all regarded this Integration cultivator as their leader. They speculated that this Integration cultivator might have an extraordinary background, perhaps with an elder in his family possessing the cultivation of a True Immortal.

They were incredibly lucky; their guess came true.

However, it was not an elder in Zhang Xuan's family who became a true immortal, but his good son-in-law You Wuyai.

"Can you answer my question now?" Zhang Xuan asked again.

Xuanjizi shook his head and said, "Besides the eight of us Mahayana cultivators, there are no other Mahayana cultivators in the Central Ancestral Lineage."

Zhang Xuan was taken aback upon hearing this.

Where is his son, Stick?

But it's not appropriate to ask directly.

"In the past, how many Mahayana cultivators were here?" Zhang Xuan asked indirectly.

"9."

"Which one is missing? Is he/she dead?"

"No."

"Have they been taken control of the Heavy Water alien race?"

"nor."

"What's going on?"

"He escaped."

"Don't try to fool us. The central ancestral vein's boundary membrane is incredibly strong; it's not something you can just escape from."

"That kid... is an anomaly. Back then, we were ordered to besiege him and had already driven him to the brink of destruction. The imperial city was about to fall. Who knew... that billions of enslaved humans, for some unknown reason, burned their remnant souls at the same moment, sacrificing themselves to bestow upon him an unimaginable power!"

"Under the impact of that psychic power that gathered the last bit of luck and despair of the entire human race, that kid actually... actually broke through in the face of battle, triggering the True Immortal Tribulation Light! Although it was only a fleeting moment of glory, his status had already reached the True Immortal realm!"

"Using the power of that instant, he broke the blockade, and with the shattered imperial city and part of the core fire seed, he tore through the void and escaped. According to the later speculation of the Holy Race's high-ranking officials, he may have sensed a great terror from the deeper void that even the Holy Race feared, which was approaching, so he left in a hurry and disappeared without a trace."

This news reached Zhang Xuan's ears.

Zhang Xuan was deeply shocked, but remained outwardly calm.

The stick is not dead!

Moreover, he achieved true immortality through the sacrifice of hundreds of millions of compatriots!

But why did he leave in such a hurry?

What exactly is that great terror?

Zhang Xuan suspected that this great terror was probably the Dark Chains or the monitoring system of the other two Immortal Realms.

“Alright, can we talk about cooperation now?” Xuanjizi asked directly.

"Oh? Cooperation?" The leader of the Burning Heaven Holy Sect scoffed. "But how exactly will this cooperation proceed? Will you help a foreign race slaughter your own kind?"

Xuanji Zi's expression remained unchanged as he calmly said, "Fellow Daoist, you flatter us. The Holy Race only needs resources and labor, while we are responsible for management. It is better to ensure that the human race in one region can barely survive than to become food for all of them. This is choosing the lesser of two evils."

"To speak of being a slave or a dog with such righteous indignation, there's no one else like it," Elder Ni Yuantianhe said sarcastically.