Gate of God

For the first time, the woman’s heart trembled. While this was her first time meeting Fang Zhengzhi, something stirred in her heart…

The man opposite her was a highly unstable element in the Holy Region.

Most importantly, the Yin Yang Hall was now his enemy. Even if he had nothing to do with Wan Lei’s death, he was surely responsible for Shi Fan’s demise.

To form an alliance?

Or to kill?

This was an extremely difficult choice because, with the current position of the Yin Yang Hall, there was no way it would submit to Fang Zhengzhi.

Hence, with Fang Zhengzhi’s brazen attitude, how could the Yin Yang Hall make an alliance with him? Furthermore, how could they convince their disciples to accept it?

It was extremely difficult!

However, if they chose to kill him…

With Fang Zhengzhi’s current strength, only a few elders working together could fight him. Furthermore, they would only have a 50% chance of victory.

After all, Fang Zhengzhi killed five Sages consecutively earlier on.

Hence, killing Fang Zhengzhi would not be easy too.

For an unstable element like him, allying with him was difficult, killing him was even more difficult. What would the presence of someone like him mean for the Holy Region?

She rarely worried about any particular matter. However, this time, she was truly worried.

Of course, after spending some time thinking about it, she opened her mouth to speak again. This time, her words were simple and direct. “Walk east from this pavilion and you will see a stone pavilion called the ‘Thousand Herb Hall’. Every seven days, master will choose to cultivate pills during the ‘opportune moment’. Right now, it is close to his cultivation period.”

“It’s already the seventh day?” Fang Zhengzhi narrowed his eyes into slits. He wanted to find out what the woman was really thinking but her expression was calm. It was so calm until he could not see anything wrong with it. He had no choice but to believe her.

“Yes, after tonight, it’ll be time for master to cultivate his pills,” said the woman as she nodded her head. Her face was serious and she seemed as if she was making an important decision.

“Why are you telling me this?” Fang Zhengzhi asked.

“Because this is your last chance to defeat master. Afterward, you can bring him away from the Yin Yang Hall and find someone who is well-versed in alchemy too, such as the Heavenly Oasis Saint from the Shadow Sect. Under his supervision, you can force master to save Yan Xiu!” The woman said calmly.

“Get Heavenly Oasis to monitor him?” Fang Zhengzhi finally understood. Indeed, like what the woman had said, this was his only way of saving Yan Xiu.

However, if he wanted to defeat Dao Hun…

It was akin to fighting the entire Yin Yang Hall alone.

Could he do it?

“No one comes to my pavilion other than master. You can put Yan Xiu here temporarily. Then, you can go there alone,” the woman continued.

Fang Zhengzhi fell silent. He did not reply to the woman and he did not ask any more question. All he did was to look at the sky outside the pavilion quietly.

Millions of stars twinkled and the moon was out in her full glory.

It was a beautiful scene, particularly in the mountains. As he looked, it was as if a huge hand had placed the moon in the sky.

“It seems like… you don’t dare to go?” The woman looked at Fang Zhengzhi, who was silent, and said disrespectfully to him after a while.

Fang Zhengzhi looked away from the night sky and then, he looked at the woman. A smile crept across his face.

“So beautiful!” When Fang Zhengzhi said that, his eyes became calm once more. The pavilion turned icy-cold once more.

“What’s so beautiful?!” The woman looked at Fang Zhengzhi’s smile and her heart quivered. She did not know if he was talking about the night sky or about her.

Of course, none of this was important. Most importantly, she saw the metal stick appear in Fang Zhengzhi’s hands again. He lifted it high up into the air.

“What are you doing?!”

“Thump!”

A loud thud answered her.

Then, the woman felt the world around her spin. Everything turned dark but of course, she could still see a man smiling at her.

The woman did not know what was going to happen next. However, she knew that the man who stood opposite her was definitely shameless.

Furthermore, he was a shameless person who did not care about anything!

She could not guess what he would do. At the same time, she did not want to guess.

Silence.

When the woman collapsed on the ground once more, the pavilion became silent. Fang Zhengzhi looked at the moon hanging in the sky.

“Tonight is so beautiful!”

As he said that, Fang Zhengzhi carried the woman up from the ground. Then, he slowly walked over to the bed in the room.

He carefully placed her next to Yan Xiu.

Fang Zhengzhi’s gaze moved from her to Yan Xiu. On Yan Xiu’s face, he could see a paleness that came from his bones.

Even though Yan Xiu’s face had a cold look on it.

However, this was a weak cold look. He was like a blade of grass as winter approached. Shriveled and coated with frost, it did not know if he would get to see spring next year, or if it would make it through.

However, Fang Zhengzhi clenched his fists at this moment. His smile disappeared and look of seriousness replaced it. It was a resolute and serious look.

He said nothing.

In front of Yan Xiu, he knew that there was nothing he needed to say. Yan Xiu would know what decision he was going to make.

Hopeless?

Fighting the entire Yin Yang Hall alone?

Yes, for someone who was a tad more intelligent, he would know what to do. However, so what? Fang Zhengzhi did not need intelligence now.

He just needed to know…

For some matters, he would surely do them.

Fang Zhengzhi turned around and the blanket on the bed flew up. Then, it spread and covered Yan Xiu and the woman underneath it.

…

The Great Xia Dynasty, the Wintry Land.

This was where the Nangong Clan lived. It was perpetually frozen all year round and snow-covered stone steles were erected in the snowy ground.

At this moment, among some steles, two corpses lay on the ground.

These two corpses were not completely frozen over. They wore wide black robes, had white hair but looked young.

These were two Sages.

However, these were two dead Sages.

In front of these two dead Sages, a slightly plump middle-aged man stood. He wore a thin layer of clothes and a fur coat. As the snow fell, he stood there quietly.

The current head of the Nangong Family, Nangong Tian!

“The Nine Pinnacles Mountain?” Nangong Tian looked at the two corpses on the ground and looked into the distance. It was very quiet. If not for the broken steles and hot gusts of wind which blew apart the snow, no one could have noticed that this was the site of a major battle.

After a long while, Nangong Tian did not retract his gaze. In the snowy sky, a peculiar starlight shone.

The starlight appeared to be rapidly approaching.

Instantly, it fell from the sky and with a loud boom, it landed on the ground. Cracks started to appear in the snowy ground of the Wintry Land.

Nangong Tian finally retracted his gaze from the sky and looked at where the star had fallen. Over there, he noticed that a seedling was sprouting.

It was a very small seed but it made a huge hole in the snowy ground.

On top of that, when the seed landed on the ground, a verdant green, like that of springtime, started to glow. Roots started to grow from the seed, planting themselves in the ground.

“Crrack, crack…” The voice was not loud as the roots entered the ground and broke through the ice and snow. A huge tree rushed out from the snowy ground, growing so fast that the naked eye could see its progress.

It was so strange.

Three feet, five feet, ten feet…

The giant tree continued to grow as if it wanted to reach into the sky.

As the giant tree continued to grow, white flowers started to blossom on it too. Each flower had snow-covered flower petals and a faint silver light shone on them.

It was a very strange scene.

However, Nangong Tian did not look shocked. Instead, his face betrayed a faint excitement.

“Finally, is it here?” Nangong Tian wanted to say something but instead, he just mumbled to himself. He seemed to have waited for this moment for a thousand years.

…

As this odd scene took place in the Nangong Family’s residence, many odd things started to take place around the Holy Region, particularly next to the Heaven Dao Pavilion.

Mu Qingfeng, in his usual white robes, stood before the doors of the ruined black stone palace on top of Sword Peak. He frowned. The doors of the palace were open but it was dark inside.

Of course, this was not important.

Importantly, 100 meters in front of Mu Qingfeng, there was a beast the size of a small mountain crouching on the ground. It roared non-stop.

As for the Holy Region…

It was no strange to see a beast like this because, in the Holy Region, there were many of these beasts.

However, this beast was not considered ferocious or strong by the standards of the Holy Region.

The reason was simple. Mu Qingfeng knew what beast this was. He saw it underneath the Sword Peak. It was an Iron-Armed Stone Ape whose left arm had a scar.

This beast was common. If not for its scar on its arm, Mu Qingfeng would not have been able to recognize it.

However, while its wound was still present, it had expanded to ten times its original size. Its iron arm now shone with a golden light.

“Master, five kilometers away, we found a Black-Striped Silver Panther, but… it’s now a Black-Striped Gold Panther and it’s even bigger than this Iron-Armed Stone Ape!” A Heaven Dao Pavilion disciple leaped down from the sky and landed in the ruined palace.

“Understood,” said Mu Qingfeng as he nodded his head. He did not say anything else. Instead, he slowly raised his finger and pointed at the Iron-Armed Stone Ape.

“Aooo!” The Iron-Armed Stone Ape roared in pain. Its mountain-sized body trembled before it fell forward and landed heavily on the ground.

“Bring this Iron-Armed Stone Ape back to the Heaven Dao Pavilion and hand it over to Third Elder,” said Mu Qingfeng. Then, he turned and walked into the ruined black palace.

“Yes!” The Heaven Dao Pavilion disciples replied instantly.

…

The western mountains of the Holy Region, the Yin Yang Hall.

The light of the moon and the shine of the stars dimmed. This night did not pass that quickly, but it did not pass slowly too. The disciples of the Yin Yang Hall worked for the entire night. Only when the sky started to light up did they slowly fall asleep.

Of course, many of them were patrolling.

This as a rule that that has always existed in the Yin Yang Hall. Tonight, the rule remained the same. However, the Yin Yang Hall disciples were chattier.

“The Thousand Herb Hall is in front!”

“I wonder what master is making today?”

“We lack ‘Frosty Dews’ recently so I guess he’s making them today. Let’s take a look in the Thousand Herb Hall!”

“Who doesn’t want to see? However, master lives in the Thousand Herb Hall and we are but lowly disciples. We don’t have the right to take a look.”

“That’s right. We have to continue working hard and one day, we may be able to learn under master. If that happens, it’ll be great!”

“Let’s continue patrolling!”

As the Yin Yang Hall disciples discussed, they looked around them distractedly. Some of them even yawned.

Not far from them, on top of a tree in the Yin Yang Hall, a figure stood. He was completely hidden among the trees.

“Thousand Herb Hall?” The figure looked at the stone pavilion and the wooden signboard, made from ancient, aromatic timber, on top of it. On it, the words ‘Thousand Herb Hall’ could be seen. “After ten acres of land has been stolen, your security is still so lax. This trap is really too obvious!”

The figure smiled and then looked at the brightening sky. Then, he moved and under the cover of the surrounding trees and bushes, it slowly approached the Thousand Herb Hall.

After a while, he arrived next to it.

It was not an elaborate stone pavilion. However, the stones it was made from seemed different. They were a lot more ancient.

Other than that, on top of the signboard, there was a black and white Yin Yang Diagram. Of course, it was no ordinary black and white paint. Instead, they were made from one black and one white gem.

Like two human eyes!