Chapter 717 - 717: Stone Wall

Hearing what the special envoy from the Martial Soul Hall said.

On the sects' side, the leaders of the various teams exchanged glances and nodded. They saw no problem in helping with the search.

After all, every single one of them wanted to find Venerable Thousand Blood's corpse as quickly as possible.

As for who would reap the greatest rewards in the end, that was a battle to be fought later. They would see who emerged victorious when the time came.

With this common goal, a rare scene unfolded in the mountain stream.

A group of Martial Kings from the Martial Soul Hall and the Sect Disciples were coexisting peacefully, a rare sight. They all carefully knocked, tapped, and probed every surface, searching for any place that might hide a mechanism or a secret door.

But even after turning the mountain stream practically upside down, they still couldn't find any mechanism or secret door.

Just then, Chu Qingyun shifted his gaze to the cliff face from which the waterfall cascaded.

The cliff face was about ten meters high and so steep it was nearly vertical. The surface itself was relatively flat, and aside from the small waterfall in the middle, it was covered with shrubs and weeds.

The shrubs and weeds swayed in the wind, and the small waterfall cascaded down with a continuous RUSH.

At a glance, the cliff face seemed perfectly normal.

However, Chu Qingyun was an Alchemist whose Soul Power far surpassed that of an ordinary person. His Perception Ability, in terms of both range and precision, was much stronger than anyone else's.

Chu Qingyun noticed that whenever he got close to the cliff, he would feel a peculiar sensation emanating from within it.

But as soon as he moved away, the feeling would vanish.

Chu Qingyun tried this several times, and the result was always the same.

Therefore, he was almost certain. 'If the Martial Soul Hall envoy's divination was correct, then the so-called mechanism and secret door must be here in the cliff face!'

Chu Qingyun walked over to the cliff and searched along its edge, but he still came up empty-handed.

'That can't be right... Could it be hidden inside?'

Chu Qingyun pressed one hand against the rock face in front of him and applied a bit of force.

A glint of understanding flashed in his eyes.

'The mechanism! It really is hidden inside this cliff face!'

From that light press, a large section of the cliff near his hand crumbled away. However, the part that broke off was only a layer about a finger-width thick.

The rock face underneath had actually withstood his push!

He hadn't used much force, but Chu Qingyun was an expert at the second-level Martial King Realm. An ordinary cliff like this should have been as fragile as tofu in his hands.

Even a light press should have shattered a large hole into it.

CRACK... CRACK... CRACK...

After noticing this anomaly, Chu Qingyun began to swing his hand, repeatedly striking the cliff face.

Under the force of his Martial King Realm power, the cliff face continuously fractured, and large chunks of rock, each a finger-width thick, fell away.

As the rock crumbled away, everyone in the stream gradually discovered what was hidden behind it: an incredibly flat and smooth stone wall!

The entire wall was a deep, solid black, etched with faint yet complex, deep purple patterns.

Its appearance alone gave off an impression of extraordinary stability and fortitude.

Furthermore, under the continuous strikes of Chu Qingyun's second-level Martial King power, the outer rock layer was as fragile as tofu, yet this stone wall remained utterly motionless, completely unaffected.

"It really is here! There's a stone wall!"

"Hiding a stone wall inside the cliff face... those remnants of the Blood Sect are truly cunning."

"This wall looks incredibly sturdy..."

The members of the Martial Soul Hall and the people from the various sects separated into two groups. They gathered beneath the stone wall, looking up at the massive ten-meter-high structure, and a sense of awe filled everyone's heart.

"The stone wall is found. The rest is up to you."

With a final palm strike that shattered the last piece of concealing rock at the very top, Chu Qingyun retreated to the side, making no further moves.

"Chu Qingyun, since you went to the trouble of finding it, don't you want to see if you can break it?" the Martial Soul Hall's special envoy asked with a smile.

No one knew if this wall that had appeared so suddenly might have some kind of mechanism or trap.

Therefore, no one wanted to be the first to try.

"We found the wall. Breaking it should naturally be a job for you, the people of the Martial Soul Hall!" Qi Hao retorted from the side.

"Hmph! Don't forget who led you here in the first place!"

A sixth-level Martial King from the Martial Soul Hall snorted coldly.

"Could you have found this place without the Blood Origin?"

"Our special envoy traded an antidote for that Blood Origin!"

"Hmph! You found a traitor and used Gu Poison to harm us, and you have the nerve to talk about an antidote!"

The two sides—the Martial Soul Hall and the Sect Disciples—began to argue over who should be the first to strike the wall. The argument grew more and more heated, reaching a point where it seemed they were ready to draw their weapons at the slightest provocation.

Chu Qingyun, however, simply stood to the side, watching with a cold and detached gaze.

'In any case, regardless of how their argument turns out, I'm certainly not going to be the one to attack that wall. After all, I'm only at the second-level Martial King Realm. It's better to leave a job like breaking the wall to someone else.'

The argument continued for a while with no resolution.

Just then, the special envoy from the Martial Soul Hall suddenly spoke up. "Enough. Stop arguing. Since they found the wall, we'll take care of breaking it."

"Tian Ji, you go give it a try. See if you can break that wall. Be careful."

If this argument continued, a fight was likely to break out.

The Sect Disciples had the advantage in numbers; if a fight were to break out now, the Martial Soul Hall would surely be at a disadvantage.

That was why the special envoy had chosen to concede.

Since their special envoy had spoken, the members of the Martial Soul Hall said no more.

Tian Ji, the Fifth-level Martial King who had previously attacked Chu Qingyun, acknowledged the order and stepped forward.

"Break!"

Tian Ji merged his Primordial Power and Martial Soul Power, then threw his hand forward, blasting a black ray of light that slammed into the left side of the stone wall.

BOOM!

A tremendous impact echoed through the air. The ground itself trembled slightly from the force of the Fifth-level Martial King's strike.

And yet, the stone wall remained utterly motionless, showing not even the slightest reaction.

'What... '

Everyone was stunned. They hadn't expected the wall to be so durable.

The moment he launched his attack of Primordial Power and Martial Soul Power, Tian Ji immediately retreated a step, raising his guard and bracing for a possible counterattack from the wall.

However, after absorbing his strike, the stone wall gave no reaction whatsoever.

Tian Ji breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, a sense of shame quickly turned to anger.

'How could he, a dignified Fifth-level Martial King and an expert of the Earth King Realm, be unable to do a thing against a mere stone wall?'