That figure could only once more focus its soul energy on helping Long Chen. But at the same time, it decided it would definitely kill him in the future. It had actually been ordered around like a dog.

BUZZ! 

Future Lake trembled. The trembling grew stronger and stronger, until a loud explosion rang out. Huge waves erupted from the lake, and the entire Nine Netherworld Path began to shake.

Outside the Nine Netherworld Path, the vice sect master’s expression changed. The mountain valley was shaking intensely. He had no idea what was happening.

Suddenly, in front of everyone’s shocked gazes, the chessboard in the vice sect master’s hand crumbled to dust.

That chessboard was an extremely precious and special Enchanted item that was capable of monitoring the entire Nine Netherworld Path. But an Enchanted item like it had actually crumbled. Even a Sea Expansion expert’s attack wouldn’t necessarily be able to damage it. Even the vice sect master, who could easily destroy it, wouldn’t be able to make it instantly crumble to dust like this.

The vice sect master’s expression completely changed. “Something’s happening in the Nine Netherworld Path.”

“What? We have to go save our disciples then!” cried Shui Yuncong.

“Sea Expansion experts cannot enter. They’ll be destroyed by the laws of the Nine Netherworld Path,” said the vice sect master. “Let’s just keep watch. The Nine Netherworld Path is connected to the other four regions, so it’s not necessarily our side that is causing this.”

At the same time, in front of the Western Desert, Southern Sea, Northern Source, and Central Plains’ Nine Netherworld Paths, countless experts were completely dumbfounded. They had never seen such a phenomenon before.

It was the same mountain valley and the same trial. The only difference was that the people were different.

In the Central Plains, at the head Xuantian Dao Sect, a Sea Expansion disciple ran into the Xuantian Palace. Pushing open the doors without a care for the glares from the countless experts, he hastily cried, “Cracks are appearing on the Reincarnation Mirror! The grand sect formation is becoming unstable!”

“What?!”

The palace’s countless experts hastily flew off. All of them were shocked. They knew what the Reincarnation Mirror was, and that was why they were so shocked.

They quickly arrived at an underground palace. There was a mirror atop an altar there.

The mirror was three hundred meters wide. Runes revolved within it, appearing like stars. A powerful pressure came from it that made it so even Sea Expansion experts couldn’t approach it.

This was one of the Xuantian Dao Sect’s core treasures, the Reincarnation Mirror. But countless faint cracks had started to appear on the edge of the mirror.

All those experts turned pale upon seeing that. If the Reincarnation Mirror exploded here, then the power it would release would instantly destroy the Xuantian Dao Sect.

“Close the Nine Netherworld Path’s projection.”

An old voice suddenly rang out in their ears.

“Sect master!”

…

Within the Nine Netherworld Path, Meng Qi was filled with shock as she looked at the berserk Future Lake. Before anything could appear, the lake had erupted like a volcano, as if it had been destroyed by some terrifying force.

“What did you do?!” raged the illusory figure.

BOOM!

Future Lake completely exploded. The endless water transformed into Spiritual Strength that rapidly dissipated into the surroundings.

“Bastard!” The illusory figure charged at Long Chen. It released a berserk Spiritual Strength, aiming to directly possess him.

“Long Chen!” shouted Meng Qi.

“It’s fine.”

Long Chen pushed Meng Qi back. He smiled at the figure charging at him.

Thunder filled the air, and a huge lightning arrow shot forward.

“AHH! How can you possess tribulation lightning?!”

BOOM!

They were too close, and Long Chen was too strong. That figure let out a mournful shriek upon being pierced by the lightning arrow.

“Lei Long, trap it!” Following Long Chen’s words, a huge lightning dragon flew out and wrapped around that figure.

“This is impossible! How can any human possibly control tribulation lightning?!” That figure desperately struggled, filled with terror.

“Idiot, I have plenty of experience dealing with people like you,” sneered Long Chen.

From the very start, Long Chen had known that this soul was trying to trick him. The first thing he thought of was the Corrupt corpse he had encountered in the monastery’s trial, Gui Sha.

The soul that was sealed inside the corpse had vainly wanted Long Chen to bring him out. But just from his fiendish aura, it was obvious it wasn’t some good fellow. Back then, he had relied on some weak thunderforce to escape from his control.

Now, the same thing repeated itself. But with Lei Long, how could he be afraid of some spiritual body?

No matter how strong a spiritual body was, it would be suppressed in front of tribulation lightning. Thunderforce was the bane of souls, and considering his thunderforce came from the heavens, there was no way this spiritual body could have done anything to him. Otherwise, Long Chen wouldn’t have dared to talk to it like he had.

However, having seen a part of his past, the risk had been worth it. The only frustrating thing was that he hadn’t expected the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art to be so terrifying. Future Lake hadn’t even been able to start divining its past before being destroyed.

What Long Chen didn’t know was that if the Xuantian Dao Sect hadn’t closed the projection fast enough, even the Reincarnation Mirror would have shattered.

Meng Qi was filled with shock as she watched that terrifying figure being easily captured by Long Chen. Although she was used to Long Chen’s ability to cause trouble, this was on a whole new level.

“Meng Qi, prepare yourself,” said Long Chen.

“What?”

BOOM!

Lei Long suddenly increased its strength, and that figure was completely crushed by its thunderforce. Following its destruction, countless spiritual crystals appeared in the air.

“We really struck gold this time. Meng Qi, hurry and absorb them!” exclaimed Long Chen. Ordinary spiritual beasts were only able to leave behind some spiritual gas and liquid. But this existence had actually exploded into this many crystal bodies. These crystal bodies would only appear when Spiritual Strength was compressed to the peak. The amount of pure energy inside them was unimaginable.

“There’s too much energy inside these crystals! I can’t absorb this much at once,” cried Meng Qi.

“Aiya, my wife, when did you become so foolish? Just seal them within yourself and then slowly refine them in the future. I’ll help you, quick!”

As soon as Future Lake had exploded, the mist here began to dissipate rapidly. It wouldn’t be long before everything became clear.

Long Chen didn’t want others to know what had happened here, so he quickly released his Spiritual Strength and caught the crystals in the air, bringing them toward Meng Qi.

Meng Qi immediately pulled all of them into her mind-sea. That caused her to turn pale.

Those crystals were too terrifying, and each one of them contained over ten times the Spiritual Strength she possessed. Immediately absorbing so many of them caused a burst of pain in her soul.

“Let’s go.”

Long Chen pulled Meng Qi into a run, and they hurriedly left this destroyed location. He also stealthily transferred his Spiritual Strength to her to help her seal the crystals.

Over a thousand crystals were now in her mind-sea. That was like storing over a thousand explosives in a storagehouse. If even one exploded, Meng Qi’s soul would disperse.

But now that the mysterious figure had been destroyed, those crystals lacked any master, so Meng Qi could control them.

“Boss!”

Long Chen was in the midst of rushing away when someone called out to him. He hastily stopped to see Guo Ran.

“Haha, little fellow, you’ve finally become a Celestial!” laughed Long Chen.

When Long Chen had pulled the five of them into the storm zone, he had decided to give each of them a Heavenly Dao Fruit after the Xuantian Sea disappeared. He had given Guo Ran the fruit from Huo Wufang.

Guo Ran was the weakest of them, but he was also the one with the best head. When it came to leading troops, he definitely had a talent.

So this second rank Heavenly Dao Fruit would help the Dragonblood Legion the most when given to him.

“Hehe, it’s all thanks to boss,” laughed Guo Ran.

Long Chen had told them not to mention some secrets during the trial to avoid others hearing about it. But in truth, he was being overcautious. It was impossible for people outside the Nine Netherworld Path to hear them, and even the chessboard had been destroyed.

“How were your gains?” asked Long Chen.

“Hehe, amazing. I never thought that I, Guo Ran, would ever possess such Spiritual Strength. This is incredibly important to me, and it’ll be extremely helpful for my forging!” 

Forging Masters also required Spiritual Strength. But it was just that Guo Ran’s natural talent was limited, and his Spiritual Strength could only be described as ordinary. Now, with a rank two Celestial’s power, he had slaughtered a horde of spiritual beasts, which made his Spiritual Strength much stronger.

Guo Ran felt like a completely new person. The current him had the qualifications to boast to anyone. He was incredibly grateful to Long Chen, and he had already forgotten his misery in the storm zone.

“All disciples, crush your jade plates to leave the Nine Netherworld Path! A mishap has occurred with this trial, so it ends now.”

The vice sect master’s voice rang out. Everyone crushed their jade plates, and after a brief spatial fluctuation, they appeared outside the mountain valley.

“Heavens!”

Long Chen and the others had only just exited when startled cries rang out. Countless gazes concentrated on them.