Not long after he said this, the first expert came, and not wanting anyone else to get it before he did, his hand touched the mysterious lightning sphere.

Krrsshh…

****

The lightning, incensed at being provoked once more, exploded with unmatched fury!

“Aaaah!”

The expert couldn’t even finish screaming before he was incinerated entirely.

“W-What is this!?”

“Stop rushing in!”

"No!”

Those at the front saw what happened and were hurriedly telling those behind them to stop!

But those lost in the crowd couldn’t hear what they were saying and pushed forward to try to fish in muddled waters.

However, this became their undoing as the ones at the forefront were unable to stop themselves in time, and before long, they too were engulfed by the tribulation lightning!

If the lightning was normal by any means, there were experts who had a chance of defending themselves. However, this was Long Di’s tribulation lightning!

It possessed a powerful destructive affinity!

In addition, they were quasi-divine in nature. None of the experts among those present was qualified to undergo any sort of tribulation lightning attack. As a result, this was no different from them walking to their deaths.

Tens soon became hundreds before it became thousands to tens of thousands. This was the number of experts that were dying to the streaks of lightning that assailed the sky and ravaged the land!

The ones who were at the absolute rear were able to see this and had just enough time to get back before the explosion reached them.

Krsh…

The lightning sphere eventually calmed down, and not long after, an unassuming sphere of lightning energy swirled gently in place.

However, now everyone stared at this ‘treasure’ with fear in their eyes.

How could they not? A few tens of thousands of experts were thinned out due to one… thing!? When had these experts ever experienced something so terrifying!?

When Jinzi Buxia came out and saw this, a sneer ran across his face.

“Hmph! A bunch of rabble dares to take what belongs to our demon race!?”

When the survivors heard this, rage took hold in an instant.

“Jinzi Buxia, what is the meaning of this!? You knew this would happen, yet you said nothing!” an expert yelled in anger.

The one who spoke was an expert from the Soaring Cloud Immortal Sect.

Jinzi Buxia’s eyes narrowed at being talked to by an expert from a regular sect, “Who the hell are you to think you’re worthy to address me!?”

“Then what of me?” another person walked out from among the group of Soaring Cloud Immortal Sect disciples.

This was a dashing young man with long black hair that fell to the middle of his back. His eyes were piercing and his eyebrows were like crescent moon blades.

Additionally, his aura was awe-inspiring and oppressive. When this expert stood up, the rest of the disciples from the Soaring Cloud Immortal Sect looked as if they found their backer.

“It’s Cloud King Mu Ren!” an expert recognised this cultivator.

Though Jinzi Buxia was of the demon race and was second only to Er Jinshu, he was still renowned for his strength. So for this Cloud King Mu Ren to speak to him like this, meant his strength was either near or on par with the former.

“When did the experts of the Soaring Cloud Immortal Sect become so arrogant to talk to those from one of the ten great sects?” a disciple asked.

“Did you not hear?” his friend asked. He then went on to explain. “Apparently, one of the grand disciples of the Soaring Cloud Immortal Sect brought someone whom the Ice Phoenix Hall had been searching a long time for. As a result, the Ice Phoenix Hall rewarded the Soaring Cloud Immortal Sect with precious materials, spirit stones, and spiritual artefacts.”

“That’s right,” another one chimed in. “Because of this, though they might not be at the level of one of the ten great sects, their current strength puts them at the top of the regular sect and with the Ice Phoenix Hall being the most powerful of the ten great sects, no one dares to needlessly offend them.”

Cloud King Mu Ren stared at Jinzi Buxia before a small smile made its way across his face.

“I heard that Full Metal Er Jinshu is here. To be honest, I found it odd that the most powerful disciple of one of the ten great sects would consider coming here.”

A bad feeling arose in Jinzi Buxia’s stomach. “What’s your point?” he asked.

“Well, it’s just that… a lot of people are aware that the Iron Body Forge Sect only possesses ninety-nine spiritual ore deposits. One shy of a hundred and thus one shy of being one of the ten great se-”

“Shut up!” Jinzi Buxia’s face twisted in a scowl! “The qualification to being a great sect is the strength one wields and that we have in spades! You can eat sh*t, but can’t spew it! Not even one of the ten great sects yet you dare to speak as if you know! What qualifications do you have!?”

Normally, one of the ten great sects wouldn’t lose their composure to a regular sect, not that many regular sects would dare to anger one of the ten great sects. Still, most, if not all, of the ten great sects considered themselves above the regular sects.

However, the Iron Body Forge Sect only having ninety-nine spiritual ore deposits was always a sore spot for them. They hated anyone bringing it up, as it also brought to question their validity of being one of the top ten great sects.

“I wouldn’t dare to say that the great Iron Body Forge Sect is not a great sect,” Cloud King Mu Ren responded calmly. It was as if the earlier scolding didn’t affect him in the slightest.

Nevertheless, he went on. “Still, seeing as how this is something that your sect greatly values. Would it be too much for me to assume that this is a spiritual vein root?”

“What!?”

A furore erupted in the midst of the masses present!

A spiritual vein root was able to boost a sect’s standing and wealth many times over!

There were already talks of there being a spiritual vein root in the Spiritual Bingqi Realm this time around. However, to speak of it in such a public forum meant that whoever didn't know about it, was now aware.

If one disciple was able to bring back a spiritual vein root to their sect, they could very well be on their way to becoming the next sect master. That’s how important spiritual vein roots were to a sect.

A full-scale war wasn’t out of the question for such a thing.

The minute this revelation came to light all the experts here became red-eyed with greed.

Even though the lightning sphere caused such a large-scale massacre, the allure of a spiritual vein root was too strong.

Plus, it explained many strange things that were happening with this opening of the Spiritual Bingqi Realm. Everyone knew about the Iron Body Forge Sect only having ninety-nine spiritual ore deposits, so their number one expert coming to retrieve this spiritual vein root wasn’t that strange.

However, it was also said that Jixie Wudongyuzhong from the Divine Puppet Sect was also here. Yet this could be attributed to Er Jinshu’s presence.

Though the relationship between the ten great sects wasn’t the best, there was a clear hierarchy in place that they all adhered to. In addition, this allowed them to exist relatively in peace with each other. However, the relationship between the Divine Puppet Sect and the Iron Body Forge Sect was particularly bad, with the former wanting another spiritual ore deposit and the latter not wanting the former to grow stronger due to the body cultivating sect being a bane to the puppets they use.

Jinzi Buxia said nothing for the longest time and Cloud King Mu Ren seeing this grew bolder.

“If it is, with you being a great sect and all, is it something that you need to fight over? Is it not something you can leave to us lesser sects?” Cloud King Mu Ren asked with a smirk.

Jinzi Buxia wasn’t sure how to respond to this. Humans were known for being skilled in the tongue.

As a result of this, he didn’t want to say something that would give this Cloud King Mu Ren any leverage over him.

“Then do you think you are one of those who deserve it?"

A voice that caused goosebumps to appear on Cloud King Mu Ren's neck echoed out.

There was a cold unfeeling taste within it that caused everyone to experience shortness of breath.

They all looked over to see a bright silver demon with wounds all over his body walking towards them.

Blood ran down his body in rivulets but this didn’t take away from this prestige in the slightest. In fact, it added to it.

Soon his wounds all healed, and there wasn’t the slightest scratch remaining. He stood where the rest of the Iron Body Forge Sect’s disciples were.

“Er Jinshu.” one expert said in fear.

“I wonder when has it ever been the turn of a regular sect to question any of the ten great sects?” another said.

When this voice echoed out, people looked over to see another expert coming from the same direction Er Jinshu came from before changing his path to head to where his group stayed.

“Jixie Wudongyuzhong!”

“Their fight’s already over!?”

“Who won?”

“It looked like Full Metal Er Jinshu sustained more injuries!”

“Idiot, don’t you know how body cultivators fight?”

People immediately went into a heated discussion regarding the fight between the two.

It was then that Jinzi Buxia learned that young Lord Er Jinshu and Jixie Wudongyuzhong’s fight caused the earlier cave-in.

The fight had simply moved by the time he and the rest of the demons saw what was happening.

Cloud King Mu Ren internally panicked when the gaze of these two top experts locked on him.

None of the great sects would allow a regular sect disciple to question the prestige of any one of the ten great sects.

However, he put up a facade of appearing tough even now. But everyone could see it for what it was, a facade.

Seeing that he didn’t dare to answer, they changed their attention to the mysterious lightning sphere.

Realising that these two experts didn’t expound more on their battle, they all went silent as well.

A streak of fear flashed by in both Er Jinshu’s and Jixie Wudongyuzhong’s eyes when they saw this thing.

However, greed also resided within. This might be a much better harvest than what they were expecting.

After a while, Er Jinshu and Jixie Wudongyuzhong looked at each other and quickly came to an unspoken agreement.

At some point, the disciples of the Divine puppet Sect and the Iron Body Forge Sect had spread out.

When the experts saw this, a feeling of apprehension took root, and it didn’t take long for them to see that the gut feeling was right, but it came too late.

Jixie Wudongyuzhong and Er Jinshu looked at all the experts present with malicious grins before announcing.

“Everyone, let’s work together to break the seal on this spiritual vein root. We’ll supervise to make sure there aren’t any accidents.”

…

“So this is a spiritual vein root, huh?”

“Ugh!” Lu Pei was on the ground with his butt sticking upwards, his face dug into the ground from the blow he suffered.

“Ack!” Yaomu Baiyin coughed as she was in a position held solely by those who tried a backflip only to fail.

Yaomu Shou was comfortably ensconced in the safety of Long Di’s arm.

She answered with great ecstasy, “That’s it alright!”