"Why are you trembling?"
Chen Xuan eyed him with suspicion.
"Was I trembling?"
"If you weren’t trembling, then what was that?"
"My hands were just shaking, just shaking..."
Old Deng replied.
"..."
’Shaking, my ass.’
’You’ve lived for centuries and are on the Heaven Roll, yet your hands are shaking?’
’No wonder Chu Shanhe beat you up!’
’Utterly useless.’
"Alright, stop shaking. I can feel people in the shadows getting closer."
Chen Xuan sent via voice transmission.
The seismic waves in his mind were closing in on them at an extremely fast speed.
It was like an ambush from all sides.
Except for the path directly ahead, experts were charging in from every other direction...
"Yes, they’re coming. Are we going back to the Chai family or not?"
Old Deng transmitted nervously again.
"Go back, my ass!"
Chen Xuan replied, "Even if we went back to the Chai family, they’d just die with us. Their Outer Saint has gone into the deepest darkness; they definitely can’t stop a powerful enemy. Besides, they only have one Outer Saint. You just have to hold him off. Don’t ask about anything else!"
"But I might not be able to hold him off..."
Old Deng replied cautiously.
He knew his own limits better than anyone.
Out in the world, he was basically last place on the Heaven Roll...
"..."
Chen Xuan was speechless for a moment. "Do you have any friends in the outside world? Why don’t you contact them and ask for help..."
"There’s no time. The people around us are closing in faster."
Old Deng sent via voice transmission, "Forget it. I’ll hold them off myself. Kid, you run. I might have some trouble, but I’ll be fine in the end. As for whether you’ll be fine, I have no idea!"
The two of them picked up speed, darting swiftly toward the Grotto Heaven’s exit ahead.
Behind them, from all directions, figures clad in black were rapidly approaching.
From one direction came a lone individual. His aura was obscure and unfathomable, his entire body shrouded in a strange light that concealed his face, even without a black cloth mask.
Only his eyes were visible—cold and demonic.
As if they didn’t belong to a human.
Anyone who met that gaze would feel their heart tremble as if their very soul were being pulled from their body.
Without a doubt, this was an Outer Saint Level existence.
He flew through the air, his aura chilling. A dark cloud seemed to roil behind him. Though he was just one man, he created the illusion that half the sky was collapsing upon them.
From another direction, two figures advanced together at an equally abnormal speed. Although they weren’t accompanied by a dark cloud like the Outer Saint Level expert, the effect was much the same.
These were two experts equivalent to the Earth Roll.
Why say "equivalent to the Earth Roll"?
Because they came from a Grotto Heaven, so they were never listed on the outside world’s Earth Roll.
But if they were to go out, with their strength, they could make it onto the Earth Roll in minutes.
What is the Earth Roll?
To put it crudely, it’s for those who are half a step from being an Outer Saint.
They have reached the absolute limit of the Inner Realm.
With one great leap, they could break out of the Inner Realm and fully enter the Outer Saint stage at any moment.
But for some reason, they could never make that final half-step, which is why they were relegated to the Earth Roll...
And these two figures were exactly such individuals.
"To be honest, it’s a shame about this Chen Xuan. If he had joined our Shizipo and been properly nurtured, he could have shaken the heavens and the earth one day. But alas, he went down the wrong path. Death is his only option," one of the figures murmured.
"Nothing to be ashamed of. It’s impossible to tame a character like him. If he doesn’t die today, we’ll be the ones dying in the future," the person next to him immediately whispered back. "We were lucky to get help from an Outer Saint expert. We must make sure Chen Xuan doesn’t leave this place alive today."
"A flawless Great Saintly Physique... His origin-source must be immense. Refining him into a puppet would be a true masterpiece!" the first figure murmured.
Suddenly, the Jade Pendants on their bodies lit up.
"That senior is about to reach Ancient Star River! Let’s go faster!"
The two of them sped up and shot forward.
...
At this moment, Chen Xuan and Ancient Star River were focused only on fleeing to the outside.
Suddenly, the sky in the area behind them darkened, as if a great darkness had descended. A terrifying aura, thick with dreadful energy fluctuations, swept toward them.
The Outer Saint had arrived!
Ancient Star River let out a sudden roar. A green light erupted from his body, and gigantic ancient trees shot up from the ground, their booming sounds accompanied by a powerful and fearsome aura as energy waves exploded outward.
"I am Chu Shanhe’s master! Who dares to touch me?"
Old Deng bellowed, his roar shaking the mountains, as he declared the name of his disciple, Chu Shanhe.
However, it was completely useless.
A massive, pitch-black hand, pulsing with dense energy, descended to strike him.
"Insolent!"
Old Deng flew into a rage, meeting the attack with a palm strike of his own. A massive, indigo hand shot skyward.
CRACK!
BOOM!
The sound of the explosion rocked the world, its rolling thunder unleashing waves of terrifying, unfathomable energy.
The two were then instantly locked in a swift and brutal battle.
Chen Xuan moved at lightning speed, focused only on fleeing into the distance.
As he charged forward, his expression suddenly tightened. The malice-perception in his mind flared up once again...
There were experts blocking the Grotto Heaven’s exit ahead as well.
But after sensing them more carefully, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
SWOOSH!
Chen Xuan’s figure flickered, and he covered an unknown distance in an instant.
「At the entrance to the secret realm.」
An old man was sharpening a blade...
He was honing a horse-cleaving saber until it gleamed brightly, the blade scraping against the whetstone, sending up sparks with a piercing sound.
The old man wore a tattered robe. His face was ancient, and most of the hair on his head had turned withered and white...
His beard was also unkempt and messy.
He was completely absorbed in his task, his eyes seeing nothing but the horse-cleaving saber. From time to time, he would pick it up and breathe warm air onto its edge.