Chapter 195 - 176: The Man Who Fell From the Sky! He’s Alive!

Chapter 195: Chapter 176: The Man Who Fell From the Sky! He’s Alive!

At the back mountain of Dao Yi Mountain, the lake and the mountain breeze were serene.

Chen Sha stood suspended in midair. Below him was the lake. Song Yu and the others looked up in curiosity and awe, gazing at the temple here.

After Chen Sha arrived in front of this temple, words surfaced on the Southern Heavenly Gate in his mind:

"Zhang Gong. During the Mid-Nine Tribulations Stage, he passed through the Southern Heavenly Gate with the Broken Great Vajra Realm, entered the First Heaven, and achieved the Immortal Rank. Bestowed an Immortal Mud Body, preserving his life from decay..."

Chen Sha’s heart stirred slightly. As expected, the Southern Heavenly Gate in his mind was the Immortal Realm gate that had received one Ascender after another over untold years. As long as these people entered the Nine Heavens through the Southern Heavenly Gate, they would naturally leave their information here. It was like a registry where the Southern Heavenly Gate recorded their identities.

Chen Sha remained suspended in the air. He stared intently at the incredibly ethereal Earth God Temple before him. More than half of its physical form was still within the First Heaven; it had not yet completely transitioned to the Divine Land. Looking at the blurry figure of the Daoist inside the temple, he wondered, "Is it a person named Zhang Gong, not the two I was expecting?"

He was actually somewhat disappointed, because the identities he most wanted to see in the temple were his father, Chen Canxuan, and that Ancestral Master of the Ninth Tribulation, Chen Fuyao. After all, his father had disappeared right on Dao Yi Mountain. The coffin was completely empty. He was suspected to have achieved Broken Void and ascended. Furthermore, that Great Yellow Court Ancestral Master of the Ninth Tribulation could be considered the grandmaster of Dao Yi Mountain’s Cultivation Technique inheritance. Both of them had the potential to return to Dao Yi Mountain during the revival.

Regardless of which one returned, Chen Sha knew them well enough to be certain they were not enemies. If either could return from the First Heaven, it would be a blessing for Dao Yi Mountain. But now, things hadn’t gone his way. It was a Daoist he had never even heard of.

"Zhang Gong," Chen Sha sighed inwardly, looking at this Broken Great Vajra Daoist from the Mid-Ninth Tribulation Stage.

At this moment, new words cascaded down the Southern Heavenly Gate in his mind:

"Captured the Dao Rhyme traces of ’Zhang Gong.’ Can evolve a Cosmic Light Fragments scene behind the Southern Heavenly Gate..."

Chen Sha’s mind stirred. He slowly floated down, landing beside Song Yu, and told him, "From today onwards, I will live in the back mountain. Apart from you, senior brother, no one else is allowed to come here under normal circumstances."

Based on the current speed at which the temple was solidifying, it would take about two hundred days—just as the Southern Heavenly Gate had indicated—for the Broken Great Vajra expert inside to truly materialize. However, that was enough for Chen Sha to declare this place a forbidden zone. If it wasn’t impossible, he would have even considered moving the illusory temple above him to another location.

"I understand. Please be careful here, junior brother," Song Yu replied. He also realized the severity of the temple hanging over their heads.

Chen Sha nodded. After watching Song Yu leave, Chen Sha stood his ground, and his Heart Spirit appeared within the Southern Heavenly Gate.

Since he could still enter this Daoist Zhang Gong’s scene, Chen Sha naturally wanted to understand his background and personality. If he was a benevolent Daoist, Dao Yi Mountain wouldn’t need to be so tense. But if he was someone with a vicious disposition, then the day he revived on Dao Yi Mountain would mark the day of a great catastrophe for the sect. Chen Sha had to take this seriously.

His Heart Spirit walked through the Southern Heavenly Gate. The Dao Rhyme captured by the gate immediately began to evolve within the First Heaven behind it, and a line of text manifested in his mind:

"Do you wish to enter Zhang Gong’s Chapter, Section One: ’Yellow Heaven Dao Technique’..."

"Enter!"

Chen Sha’s body was instantly pulled into the familiar Cosmic Light Fragments.

A moment later, the world shifted. Chen Sha found himself in a mountain forest. In the distance, a tall mountain stood prominently. When Chen Sha saw this towering mountain, his pupils shrank violently.

"Dao Yi Mountain!"

He immediately looked around, only to realize that the Dao Yi Mountain he was looking at was not the same one that housed his Dao Yi Sect. He quickly took to the air, Flying over a hundred zhang above the ground.

Looking down, he saw a great river similar to the Canglang River raging and flowing around this mountain that resembled Dao Yi Mountain. However, the river was larger, and its currents roared much more fiercely. It was distinctly four or five times wider than the Canglang River at the foot of his Dao Yi Mountain.

Yet, when Chen Sha turned his head, the peaks and terrain of this "Dao Yi Mountain" behind him were identical in shape, even though the lushness of the vegetation in certain areas differed from his own mountain. The overall structure and layout had not changed.

He immediately understood. "This is... Dao Yi Mountain during the Ninth Tribulation Period!"

Chen Sha had entered a Dao Yi Mountain era from several thousand or even over ten thousand years ago, evolved by the Cosmic Light Fragments. This was the Ascension Land of the Daoist named "Zhang Gong."

At this time, he looked at the Southern Heavenly Gate in his mind again and found that the clearance conditions had also appeared.

"Sect Leader has entered Zhang Gong’s Chapter, Section One: ’Yellow Heaven Dao Technique.’

"The key figures in this scene are: Zhang Gong and Huangfu Yun.

"The Sect Leader must defeat both key figures to clear the stage and unlock Section Two: ’Rebel Yellow Heaven Path’..."

Chen Sha looked at the words in his mind and muttered softly, "Rebel?"

Just as he was deep in thought, Chen Sha’s sharp hearing caught the sound of trampling hooves four or five miles away.

Ever since Chen Sha stepped into the Broken Void Realm Level, his hearing and vision had long been able to roughly perceive movements within a ten-mile radius. With a shift of his body, he immediately flew over through the air. Upon reaching the Broken Void Realm, his stamina was so abundant that he could fly through the air for several days without even needing to catch his breath, almost entirely without relying on Teng Zijing.

In merely the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, Chen Sha arrived in the sky above the galloping hooves. Peering down from high above, he listened to the conversation below.

A middle-aged general wearing a golden helmet coldly ordered, "Search! Dig three feet into the ground if you have to. You must find that rebel."

"Yes, Lord Huangfu!"

Sensing from high above, Chen Sha realized that this Golden Helmet General’s Cultivation was actually at the Upper Innate Level. He couldn’t help but be slightly surprised. "The clearance condition for Zhang Gong’s first section requires facing a Great Innate Level? Is the starting point this high?"

His mind whirred, and he vaguely realized something. "Could it be related to Zhang Gong being from the Mid-Nine Tribulations Stage?"

According to Zhang Daoxuan’s theory on the fate of the world—progressing from infancy, to youth, to prime, and finally to twilight—the Mid-Nine Tribulations Stage happened to be the period when the world was at its absolute peak. In other words, the cultivation environment of this era was a golden age. On top of that, there were already precedents of early pioneers achieving the Broken Void, and Sister Taie had created the Dharma Sect of Broken Great Vajra, establishing the Vajra Fourth Realm.

It was imaginable that cultivators of the Mid-Nine Tribulations Stage were unlike those from the early stage, like Sister Taie. They didn’t have to grope in the dark without prior methods to guide them. Nor were they like Zhang Daoxuan’s group from the Late-Nine Tribulations Stage, who had many methods but were restricted by an environment that no longer permitted cultivation, forcing them to change directions and fiercely compete internally just to progress.

Therefore, compared to the early and late stages, the Mid-Nine Tribulations Stage was the golden era of the Ninth Tribulation, both in terms of the natural environment and Cultivation Techniques.

Thinking this way, Chen Sha vaguely understood why the clearance condition for Zhang Gong’s first section was at the Great Innate Level. Perhaps in Zhang Gong’s era, Great Innate cultivators weren’t scarce at all. Just like Grandmasters in the Divine Land World?

However, when the Soldier addressed this man as Lord Huangfu, Chen Sha had already locked onto him as the "Huangfu Yun" mentioned in his clearance conditions.

Below, Huangfu Yun continued coldly, "We absolutely cannot let that Zhang Gong escape this Heavenly Yellow Mountain..."

Chen Sha was in no rush to make a move. Instead, he wanted to wait until Huangfu Yun found Zhang Gong. Then, he would strike them both simultaneously, sweeping them away to clear this stage. Thus, Chen Sha remained hidden high in the sky, raising his altitude even further.

At a height of one or two hundred zhang, Chen Sha looked like nothing more than a black dot from the ground. Even if a soldier looked up, they wouldn’t think the speck above them was a person.

Just like that, Chen Sha trailed this squad of soldiers and their leader, Huangfu Yun, for half a day. He watched as a soldier reported to Huangfu Yun that they had found traces of a fire in a cave ahead.

Chen Sha watched silently as the group arrived at the cave, only to suddenly let out a series of agonizing screams. It turned out that the "protagonist" of this scene, Zhang Gong, had already spotted them. Hiding nearby, he struck without hesitation.

That Zhang Gong only possessed Middle Innate Cultivation, yet he could actually fight Huangfu Yun—an Upper Innate expert—to a standstill. With a single glance, Chen Sha could tell that the other party’s Cultivation Technique was far from simple.

Astonishingly, during combat, Zhang Gong could continuously absorb a mysterious energy from heaven and earth. Moreover, what made Chen Sha’s eyes flicker with intrigue was something else.

"Why do I sense a faint trace of the Great Yellow Court in this Zhang Gong’s Cultivation Technique?" he wondered.

Yet upon closer inspection, Zhang Gong exhibited absolutely no characteristics of cultivating "Body Gods." He relied entirely on a peculiar True Qi Energy and an even stranger ’Will’, using the Middle Innate stage to fiercely battle against an Upper Innate.

The more Chen Sha watched, the more curious he became. And the more curious he became, the less patience he had. Since both targets had appeared... "Forget it. I’ll just strike directly and clear the stage. If Zhang Gong’s Cultivation Technique drops, I’ll naturally understand," he decided.

The two people locked in a fierce battle in the mountain forest below were stuck in a stalemate. Suddenly, an intense sense of crisis poured down from above, feeling as if the sky itself was shattering and collapsing on top of them.

"What? There’s someone else?!"

Huangfu Yun immediately looked up in horror. Even the young Daoist named Zhang Gong changed his expression drastically.

It was a Palm Seal descending from the heavens, enacting Broken Void and causing the world to tremble violently. Under this single strike, the figures of the two men were instantly annihilated.

Afterwards, the scene vanished. With Chen Sha’s Broken Void power, defeating two Innate Level combatants naturally required only a single blow.

"Sect Leader has successfully cleared Zhang Gong’s Section One: ’Yellow Heaven Dao Technique.’

"The dropped items from this scene are: [Huangfu Yun’s Thirty Years of Power] and [Yellow Heaven Dao Technique Volume One]."

Chen Sha appeared in the white space. He set Huangfu Yun’s Power aside and focused entirely on the volume of the Yellow Heaven Dao Technique. After opening and flipping through it, he muttered to himself, "So it’s a method of tempering the mind. By using one’s will to refine the mind and return it to the void, aligning with the ethereal heavens, one can continuously absorb the natural energy between heaven and earth. This has no connection to the Great Yellow Court’s Cultivation Technique. Why did I sense the aura of the Great Yellow Court from Zhang Gong?"

It was incredibly strange. Soon after, he looked at the words "Volume One" on the Yellow Heaven Dao Technique in his hands and murmured, "It seems I need to obtain the complete volume to uncover the true secret of this Yellow Heaven Dao Technique!"

"Do you wish to enter Zhang Gong’s Section Two: ’Rebel Yellow Heaven Path’..."

"Enter..."

While Chen Sha was deep in the back mountain of Dao Yi Mountain, investigating the past, Cultivation Technique, and origins of this temple master, some anomalous changes had already begun in other parts of the Divine Land.

In Yuan Country. Within the harem of the Primordial Palace.

The Imperial Garden here had become a forbidden zone. Originally, men were absolutely barred from entering the inner harem, but right now, the Imperial Army of Yuan Country had completely surrounded the area, rendering it airtight.

CLANG!

A sudden sound echoed within the Imperial Garden, as though a whole building had crashed onto the ground from high in the sky. The resounding noise of clashing metal rapidly spread throughout the Primordial Palace.

In the South Study, Gu Xuanong quickly asked what was happening. "What was that sound?"

Half a cup of tea later, the Little Eunuchs arrived, reporting in panicked voices, "Emperor, it’s terrible! That temple hovering above the Imperial Garden has become real! It suddenly fell from the sky, crashing and splattering mud everywhere. There’s a man standing inside it. When his body hit the ground, it was like a mountain crashing down!"

Gu Xuanong’s expression changed drastically. "Are you saying that illusory temple became solid, fell from the sky, and landed in my Imperial Garden—and there is a person inside?!"

At this very moment, another eunuch sprinting from the Imperial Garden screamed in terror, "Emperor! That man has come alive!"