Chapter 175

Chapter 175

That day, everyone in the metaphysical world learned of Shen Wang's situation.

This time, without any further ado, Shen Wang demanded boldly, and numerous sect leaders actively brought their sect's treasures.

They lined up, one after another entering the Gu family's place, no one speaking, just silently placing their items down, bowing deeply to Shen Wang, and then turning to leave.

Those treasures, which once caused fierce fights in the metaphysical world, were now casually set aside, no longer drawing any second glances.

Shen Wang was forced to sit at the head, receiving the bows and farewells from each person.

The leader of the Ghost Mastery Sect, who once was tricked by Shen Wang for hundreds of thousands, placed down a soul-calling banner, breaking the silence: "Friend Shen, as long as the Ghost Mastery Sect exists, you will always be our honored guest."

Others followed suit: "Friend Shen, it's the same with our Dragon Tiger Sect!"

"Friend Shen, we'll wait for your safe return!"

Only after everyone had left their items and departed, did Grandfather Gu step forward and, to Shen Wang's surprise, bowed to him.

Startled, Shen Wang quickly jumped up and helped Grandfather Gu up: "Grandfather! No!"

"Since you've called me Grandfather, I'll boldly accept you as my grandson." Grandfather Gu patted Shen Wang's head, his eyes filled with sorrow, "At this critical juncture of survival, we old bones are powerless and have to burden you alone. It's our incompetence."

"The Gu family doesn't have much, but there's one heirloom passed down through generations, which I hope can be of use to you."

Shen Wang looked down and found it to be a piece of gleaming white bone, radiating a clear glow, not the ghastly white of ordinary bones, but rather like exquisitely beautiful jade.

It was even surrounded by a golden light invisible to ordinary people.

This was the spiritual bone of a person of great virtue, an excellent defensive magical tool. Not only could it drive away ghosts and dispel evil, immune to any spirits, but it could also regenerate flesh and bone, and revive the dead when used in grave injuries.

No wonder Tang Jiu coveted it, joining forces with Gu Manling and Wei Jiujiu to annihilate the Gu family just to get it.

Shen Wang quickly handed the spiritual bone back; "Grandfather Gu, this item is too precious, I can't accept it."

"You can accept things from other sects, why not from my Gu family?" Grandfather Gu immediately became angry, asking with a cold laugh.

Shen Wang was at a loss for words and turned to Gu Dongting for help, only to find him standing quietly in the distance, like a handsome but silent wooden stake.

With no other choice, Shen Wang reluctantly accepted: "Grandfather Gu, thank you."

"No, it's I who should thank you." Grandfather Gu looked deeply at Shen Wang, his expression incredibly complex.

Once, he went to the battlefield to protect his country.

Now... he could only watch as his grandson's beloved willingly walked towards death.

Grandfather Gu slowly closed his eyes, swallowing the tears in his eyes; Oh Lord, if you are there in heaven, if you truly exist...

Let Shen Wang return alive, I'm willing to exchange my old life for his.

Unaware of Grandfather Gu's sadness and anger, Shen Wang didn't delay long and soon left for Immortal Mountain with the array jades he had prepared.

Accompanying him were not only Gu Dongting, Cong Zhuo, and Shi Yan, but also many sect leaders, who silently escorted Shen Wang.

Seeing this, Shen Wang didn't say much, his expression as usual, as he set up the formation, using an entire box of array jades, encompassing the entire Immortal Mountain within it.

After everything was prepared, Shen Wang took a deep breath, his gaze firm as he looked at Gu Dongting: "Wait for me to come back."

Gu Dongting smiled softly, his voice equally gentle and resolute: "I will always wait for you."

Shen Wang looked at him intently for a few moments, then resolutely turned and stepped into the formation.

As he disappeared from sight in an instant, the gentleness and calm on Gu Dongting's face vanished, his grip on his sword tightening, his gaze over the island cold as ice.

Shi Yan glanced at him but dared not strike up a conversation.

Only Zhuo Zheng, beside him, clicked his tongue and said: "I really don’t understand you humans. You clearly can't bear to part with him, so why let him go to his death? If it were me, I'd abduct him to my cave, lock him up, and never let him leave me."

The little flower on his body, upon hearing this, not only wasn't frightened, but nodded its bud in agreement.

Gu Dongting stood as if he hadn't heard, like a cold jade statue.

Shen Wang slowly approached the giant black stone. Beneath his feet, golden formation runes flickered incessantly, devouring the black runes.

By the time he reached the monolith, the golden runes, overwhelming like an invading army, had forced the black runes into a retreat.

As the last bit of black rune vanished, the huge stone suddenly flickered and then disappeared abruptly, leaving behind a vast, deep cavity.

Simultaneously, a powerful aura emanated from the black hole. Shen Wang stepped back a few paces, avoiding the reach of this aura.

Shen Wang's expression grew more solemn, and soon, Gu Yuanjun leaped out from the hole.

He surveyed his surroundings, first taking in the area, before fixing his gaze on Shen Wang: "You're actually alive."

Gu Yuanjun had doubted his subordinates' report that Shen Wang had survived. He knew his own strength well, as well as the importance of spiritual consciousness to a cultivator.

He had crushed Shen Wang's spiritual consciousness, convinced that even if Shen Wang didn't die, he wouldn't live long. Yet, unexpectedly, Shen Wang was still lively and appeared before him.

Shen Wang replied unfazed: "Am I a disappointment to you?"

Gu Yuanjun laughed heartily: "Disappointed? No, why would a god care about the life or death of a mere ant?"

Now, nourished by countless yin and evil energies, his strength had reached its peak in hundreds of years. He was certain that even hundreds, or thousands of years ago, he was truly the foremost cultivator. All the more so in this era of declining cultivation.

His formidable strength gave him immense confidence, to the point where he even considered himself a god.

"A god?" Shen Wang scanned him from head to toe with a skeptical look. "You, of all people?"

Gu Yuanjun suddenly lost his smile, turning to Shen Wang with a casual flick of his wrist, sending a wave of spiritual energy his way.

Shen Wang appeared relaxed, but he was always on high alert. Reacting swiftly to Gu Yuanjun's sudden aggression, he threw out several magical artifacts.

The spiritual energy wave shattered the artifacts, its force greatly weakened, allowing Shen Wang to easily dodge it.

But this was just a casual attack, one that Gu Yuanjun didn't take seriously.

"It seems you came fully prepared," Gu Yuanjun snorted coldly. "Alas, it's just a futile effort, like a moth trying to shake a tree."

This time, he didn't hold back his power, with each attack being incredibly forceful.

Shen Wang quickly summoned hundreds of magical artifacts, including top-tier defensive talismans, blocking the attacks. However, he couldn't avoid the aftershocks completely and grunted as a trickle of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

As Gu Yuanjun's attacks grew more frequent and fierce, Shen Wang found it increasingly difficult to defend. He kept summoning artifacts and talismans, not even having time to see what he was using.

Beneath his feet, broken artifacts fell continuously, piling up layer upon layer.

Gu Yuanjun had exhausted the resources of an entire world for his benefit, while Shen Wang had the support of the entire mystical world, willingly offering him all their resources.

"Do you think you can last long with these tricks?" Gu Yuanjun, no longer interested in playing such child's play, sensed the right time had come. Today was the perfect day to break through the world's barrier!

With a sweep of his sleeve, a tremendously powerful surge of spiritual energy was unleashed towards Shen Wang. Gu Yuanjun didn't even look back, certain of Shen Wang's inevitable death.

Under this most powerful attack, Shen Wang rapidly retreated, continuously pulling out magical artifacts to weaken the force of the attack. Yet, even after retreating several hundred meters, it was futile.

Shen Wang was struck hard, feeling a chaotic surge of spiritual energy within him and a sharp pain. He spat out a mouthful of blood, spraying several meters and staining the ground beneath him red.

Still, he looked at Gu Yuanjun, baring a bloodied smile.

Gu Yuanjun had expended so much effort just to escape this declining world and reach another world more suited for his 'genius' cultivation.

However, the current world no longer allowed ascension, so he had to enhance his strength as much as possible, to exceed the world's capacity, then tear open a crack and sneak into another world.

Now believing the time was right, Gu Yuanjun didn’t regard Shen Wang, as weak as an ant, as a threat. He furiously attacked his surroundings, striking at the air in front of him.

His efforts were not in vain. Soon, under the force surpassing the world's endurance, a spider-web-like black crack appeared in front of Gu Yuanjun, showing signs of expanding.

This was the world rift he had forcibly opened! Gu Yuanjun was invigorated: "Truly, it’s the world's weak spot I carefully selected!"

Soon, very soon, he would escape this accursed world!

Even after planning for hundreds of years, suppressing his emotions for so long, seeing the crack in front of him, Gu Yuanjun was still trembling with excitement.

Gathering all his spiritual energy, Gu Yuanjun was about to deliver his strongest blow to open the visible rift when he suddenly paused.

Then, he violently spat out a mouthful of blood, his spiritual energy draining like a tide.

His pupils contracted: "What's happening?"

Seeing the hard-earned world rift gradually closing, Gu Yuanjun completely broke down, roaring and disregarding the draining of his spiritual energy, desperately trying to attack.

But just then, a thunderclap sounded overhead. Gu Yuanjun stiffened and looked up.

The sky, clear just moments ago, was now shrouded in dark clouds, with numerous purple lightning bolts weaving through them, ready to unleash a massive thunderstorm at any moment.

Gu Yuanjun's face paled; he hurriedly tried to tear open a rift in the world to escape, but when he looked down, the rift that was there just a moment ago had completely vanished, as if it had never existed.

He had waited five hundred years, planned for five hundred years, and spent every one of those years in the pitch darkness underground!

Just as he was about to see the dawn of victory, everything was ruined in an instant!

Gu Yuanjun's eyes were bloodshot as he furiously turned to Shen Wang: "It's you! What have you done! You've ruined my grand plan!"

Shen Wang lay on the ground, his face still smeared with blood, yet he wore a particularly smug smile, his eyes crafty: "You didn't really think you could deceive me, did you?"

Gu Yuanjun's subordinates all believed that he stayed in the sunless underground, trapped in a formation by his own choice, to focus more on his cultivation, all for their grand cause.

Because of Gu Yuanjun's power, no one considered that he used the formation to hide his aura and stay in the dark underground, revealing not even a hint of his presence... all just to evade.

Before Gu Dongting, Gu Yuanjun had also used the ruse of a false Chosen One, stealing the Chosen One's destiny for himself. In reality, for someone who had committed such apocalyptic crimes and heinous acts, that bit of destiny was insignificant and of no use to him.

The only thing he could do was use that bit of destiny to confuse the heavenly thunder ordained by the heavens.

Using the Chosen One's destiny to conceal himself, hiding in the formation and underground, without revealing even a hint of his aura... Gu Yuanjun had no equal in this world.

The only thing that could counter him was the will of the heavens.

Shen Wang looked up at the dark clouds overhead, his smile unrestrained: "Though I am not the Chosen One, I might as well be considered a true son of the heavens."

If even this couldn't kill Gu Yuanjun, then the heavens don't deserve to be his 'father'!