These golden armored soldiers were obviously only in sky sage realm, so Lu Shinan wasn’t afraid of them. However, they were extremely durable to the point where he could only knock them back and not destroy them, no matter what he did. This outcome was a bit depressing. It was at this moment that he felt a sudden tremor beneath his feet. Innumerable tentacles that looked like fleshy tumors suddenly shot towards him from all directions. 

It was the mint ginseng’s attack. Although it looked a little similar to the Bewitching Lotus of Fire and Ice’s attack, its effects were completely different. The creature’s strength was greater than even the lotus’, but it only had restrictive powers and lacked the attributes of fire and ice. Right now, Lu Shinan had been forced into a very desperate situation. The mint ginseng’s addition to the mix only made his burden heavier. It was at this moment that Lu Shinan abruptly detected a tremor from the air above his head.

When he looked up, a great domain abruptly pressed down on his head. This domain was accompanied by an energy that struck fear in people’s hearts, and it stifled Lu Shinan so much that he felt like he couldn’t breathe. In the next moment, an enormous paw appeared and attempted to grab him from the sky. The giant paw had five claws, and every one of them was sharp enough to rival any divine weapon in the world. There were black jets of air around the giant paw as well, and they blinked rapidly like black lightning. It was a combination of the dragon domain, the Claw of Crushed Mountains and Rivers, and the Black Cage. This attack was the fatal attack Long Xiaoxuan unleashed at Lu Shinan after materializing into his true body.

Lu Shinan looked up only to find the ever-present might of a dragon locking down every bit of space around him. The Claw of Crushed Mountains and Rivers instantly caught his body. Lu Shinan was instantly lifted into the air, unable to break free no matter how hard he struggled.

“A dragon, a true dragon!” Lu Shinan screamed at the top of his lungs as he commenced his final struggle. “Mercy, Daoist Huang, mercy! I am willing to betray the demon race!” At this point, he couldn’t do anything even if he possessed a million trump cards. The only thing he could do was beg for his life.

There was no reason for Jiang Chen to listen to his pleas of mercy, so he looked at Long Xiaoxuan. “Brother Long, he may be a degenerate, but he’s still an emperor realm expert. Do as you wish.”

Long Xiaoxuan cackled sinisterly and instantly tore Lu Shinan in half. He threw the man into his mouth and devoured him in three chomps. Lu Shinan’s bloodcurdling scream barely broke through the air before he was completely devoured by the dragon. A true dragon didn’t care if Lu Shinan’s body contained the aura of the demon race. The bloodline of an ancient true dragon could purify anything with its blood, and not even the demon race dared claim that their bloodline was stronger than the ancient true dragon race. After all, the dragon race was an ancient royal bloodline. Now that Lu Shinan had been destroyed, his cauldron naturally fell into Jiang Chen’s possession.

“To think that this cauldron can actually block my magnetic golden mountain! It’s definitely a good item. But I wonder what it is exactly?” Jiang Chen didn’t currently have the time to identify it, so he immediately stored it within his storage ring. “Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get the Prince of Shangping’s formation disk. Otherwise, those eight statues would have truly been a rather powerful offensive treasure.”

Jiang Chen had searched through Lu Shinan’s storage ring, but the formation disk wasn’t in there. After destroying the defector, Jiang Chen departed the area without even bothering to clean up the scene. He paid no attention to the human cultivators who had been corrupted by demonic energy. Everyone governed their own fortune and fate. These people had made the choice to throw away their lives here on their own accord. Jiang Chen had no reason to play the role of a savior and save them all.

…...

Inside the Ten-Thousand-Year Coffin, Demon King Nineshadows was at the final stretch. Since he possessed the Prince of Shangping’s body, the body needed to be tempered with demonic energy. After three days of work, the body was almost fully tempered. Suddenly, Demon King Nineshadows felt a change and his expression notably shifted, “Lu Shinan is dead?”

The demon king was very shocked by this outcome. “Lu Shinan is a skilled cultivator, and I gave him three thousand bone apparitions to aid him in his mission. So how did he get himself killed? How did he fail to run away while he was in my domain? Is Jiang Chen really that powerful?”

Demon King Nineshadows found this outcome a little unbelievable even as wrath grew within him. Lu Shinan was one of the pawns he controlled. While he didn’t really care for the man, the human had still been a very useful and loyal dog as of late. Lu Shinan had also done many other things for him. For example, he was the one who had spread the rumors of this place to the outside world, lured cultivators into the desolate wildlands, and damaged the formation that the Prince of Shangping had left at the valley entrance...

But now that his dog was dead, many of his plans had suddenly been ruined. Thankfully, the formation in Myriad Corpse Valley had already begun operating. Even without Lu Shinan, the mission wouldn’t stray off course too much. Moreover, the recently completed corpse puppets would serve as useful assistants after the demon king gave them the proper training. The corpse puppets retained most of their host’s consciousness, but their first instinct was to obey the demon king’s order. Therefore, they were in some ways more useful than Lu Shinan himself. Although Lu Shinan was an obedient dog, he had plenty of his own schemes. For example, Lu Shinan had gone after Jiang Chen out of his own greed. Naturally, Demon King Nineshadows was privy to his little schemes. He just had no reason to burst the human’s bubble and stop him.

“This brat! If I allow him to run wild in my Myriad Corpse Valley and leave unharmed, he will absolutely think lightly of my domain!” Demon King Nineshadows was no kind demon. It was only natural that he feel deeply offended by Jiang Chen’s act of insolence in his domain and at the murder of his dog. 

Why should you be the sole exception when everyone else is turned into corpse puppets? Why are you able to enter and exit Myriad Corpse Valley in a flamboyant fashion and even take the life of a dog that belongs to me?

When the demon king thought of this, he felt like going right after Jiang Chen. But another thought quickly followed, “My physical body isn’t complete yet, and I have reached a critical moment. If I were to chase after him now while my physical body is still unstable, everything I’ve done for the past three days would have all been for naught. In fact, the damage may even extend to my consciousness. Worse, if this brat is powerful beyond my expectations, I may even suffer enormous damage by engaging in a fight with him in this imperfect body, so forget it. I’ll allow that arrogant brat to live for the moment. When I leave the desolate wildlands, the first person I’m sacrificing for the supreme ceremony that summons the demon race is you!”

Demon King Nineshadows undeniably possessed some semblance of rationality despite his inherent brutality. This was thanks to the infinite tempering of time. All these years had cultivated some shrewdness atop the demon king’s foundation of ruthlessness.

…...

Jiang Chen finally stepped out of Myriad Corpse Valley after killing Lu Shinan. However, the ease at which he made his escape puzzled him a little. 

Why does it feel like my luck is holding up a little too well? I even ran into the emperor realm aura of the Wood Demon King earlier, but Shadow Demons haven’t come after me for some reason. I wonder what level the monster that controls the Shadow Demons race is at? It can’t be an average demon considering that it is able to control an emperor realm cultivator like Lu Shinan.

He was feeling much better after stepping out of Myriad Corpse Valley. One might say that the most dangerous part of his journey had passed. After leaving Myriad Corpse Valley, Jiang Chen unsealed Huang’er’s senses once more. The trip to and from the desolate wildlands had caused her illness to worsen. But now that he had obtained the Soul Requiem Wood, they could afford to waste a few days. When he left, Jiang Chen noted that wandering cultivators were continuously pouring into this place like dumplings dropping into a pot. He was dumbfounded at the sight. Just how many people had rushed in?

Some of these wandering cultivators were filled with hatred when they saw him. It was obvious that these wandering cultivators had recalled the rules set by the Prince of Shangping’s alliance upon seeing Jiang Chen, preventing them from entering the desolate wildlands.

“Everyone, this kid was one of the members of that alliance. Don’t you think that it’s despicable that they are the ones who profited from this venture while we received nothing?”

“Don’t you think we should get revenge?”

“Yeah, yeah! We number in the few hundreds while he’s alone. He has to give us an explanation today no matter what!” The crowd started jeering.

Jiang Chen’s ears were sharp, and he immediately noticed that some of these hooters were members of the Six Wolves of Sparrow Mountain. How shameless were they to hide themselves amongst the wandering cultivators, but pretend that they were one of the members of the groups who’d come in later? Jiang Chen wasn’t a blindly kind person, so he sneered, “Since when did the Six Wolves of Sparrow Mountain become so pathetic, hiding in the crowd and pretending to be a victim? Let’s not forget that you were one of those who benefited from the rules too.”

“The Six Wolves of Sparrow Mountain?” The group of hundreds immediately turned clamorous. These wandering cultivators had been the second group to enter the valley. They had all formed their own temporary alliances, and their plan was to fight the first group together should they run into them. There was no way they were allowing themselves to be bullied by the cultivators of the first group!

The Six Wolves of Sparrow Mountain was within the first group, so why had they purposely disguised and hidden themselves inside the second group? Just what were they plotting at? For a time, these wandering cultivators were all on edge, as if they faced a dangerous enemy. No one knew better than them what kind of people the Six Wolves of Sparrow Mountain were. There was no way the group would be kind enough to look after the crowd like a nanny. 

Jiang Chen began scanning the crowd with his God’s Eye. What on earth was the Six Wolves of Sparrow Mountain planning by mingling amidst the second group? They couldn’t have been transformed into dogs of the demon race just like Lu Shinan, could they? 

The more Jiang Chen thought about the possibility, the likelier he felt it was. It was impossible that a group as arrogant and domineering as them would lower themselves to join the weaker second group of cultivators otherwise. There was only one reason they would do so, and that was to fan the flames in order to lure more cultivators into Myriad Corpse Valley for the demons. 

“Don’t listen to this kid’s nonsense, everyone. He’s purposely trying to distract us. Let’s charge at him together and take him out! He’s gone in for so many days and he’s ready to leave. This means that he must have gotten a lot of loot. Who else do we rob if not him? Everything he possesses rightfully belongs to us!”

“Yeah, he’s purposely trying to make us fight. Let’s kill him first and talk about other details later!” The voices kept sounding amidst the crowd.

Jiang Chen kept his Ear of the Zephyr open and roughly locked down the locations of the Six Wolves of Sparrow Mountain. He abruptly declared in a loud voice, “Everyone, the opening of the desolate wildlands is a complete trap. The desolate wildlands is the forbidden land of the demon race, and almost all of the numerous cultivators who went inside were turned into corpse puppets. If you wish to meet the same fate as them, then enter as you so please. You will be met with no resistance. However, know that once you go in, you will never make it out of that place ever again.”

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