Returning from the Immortal World

It was just a game without a bet to spice things up. Tang Xiu himself was armed with his own powerful individual strength and an armory full of means to achieve it, while he also had a much stronger spiritual sense compared to Tang An, to begin with. After stuffing all the remains of fierce beasts from Tang An into his interspatial ring, he bolted away to Xuyang Town near Longquan Mountain.

The incident in the Longquan Mountain range required him to discuss it with Duanmu Lin, particularly regarding the ownership of such a pocket world. Tang Xiu had secretly made up his mind that he must own it no matter how much it costed him. This pocket world was literally a blessed land. It would be a wast if it was claimed by China or the Special Abilities Bureau. Just like one used the finest steel to make a sharp blade, that world would serve him best since he could fully use it.

Xuyang Town was a small town with only tens of thousands of inhabitants with six other small towns around it, while the nearest city was about 200-plus kilometers away.

At Wenxin Hotel.

The hotel was located in a block downtown. Except for a small square around it, the block only had some street vendors, whereas the other four extended streets were composed of two-story shops. The place may look dirty and messy, but nobody here disliked it.

In front of the hotel, Zhu Long was squatting while frowning and smoking. One of his arms was bandaged and he used his left hand to fiddle with his cell phone while observing the pedestrians in the surroundings. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he threw the cigarette butt to the ground and stamped it. Afterward, he got up and strode forward.

“Tang Xiu!” Zhu Long’s furrowed brows finally stretched and he called out with a mile.

Tang Xiu nodded to him in response. Glancing at his bandaged right arm, he smilingly asked, “You got some souvenirs? Is it serious?”

“Nah.” Zhu Long shook his head and smilingly replied, “Just need to get it fixed for a while, at least 2 days, before I can remove the plaster and bandages. I’ll be fully fine in 3 or 4 days at most and get into action again.”

Tang Xiu lightly smiled in response and asked, “What about Senior Duanmu?”

“I’ll take you up to see him,” Zhu Long said.

In the quiet room on the second floor, Duanmu was asleep after receiving very serious injuries after the battle. But he was finally able to slay the fierce beasts that surrounded him at the moment of crisis. The knock on the door woke him up from his sleep and opened his hazy eyes. He didn’t get up when Zhu Long came in, but after he saw Tang Xiu following behind him, he used his hands to prop himself up with difficulty. A smile then appeared on his aged face as he said, “You finally appeared, Boy! I thought you already got eaten by those ferocious beasts.”

“It was a close call, indeed.” Tang Xiu bitterly smiled.

Duanmu Lin was stunned and hurriedly asked, “What exactly happened? Did you encounter a powerful beast?”

“Yeah, it was powerful. Very.” Tang Xiu nodded and said, “If it wasn’t for Yan’er coming to rescue me, that ferocious beast would have eaten me alive. Alas, this incident was caused by my Tang Sect. I’ve made you rush here and you even got injured now. I’m really sorry.”

“What do you mean?” Duanmu Lin was puzzled and asked, “You mean, this ferocious beast outbreak is caused by your sect?”

“That’s right,” Tang Xiu said. “Tang Sect has been rearing fierce beasts in this Longquan Mountain. It’s just that I didn’t expect that the array would be destroyed, allowing the fierce beasts to escape the corral. Thankfully, we’ve set up some precautionary measures in advance, so these beasts are afraid of leaving the Longquan Mountain range. Thus, no harm was done to the civilians in the vicinity.”

Duanmu Lin looked a bit vexed and angry as he replied, “You’re really ridiculous! This place may be deep in the mountain and sparsely populated, but how could you rear such ferocious beasts here? We have been able to deal with it in time, else huge trouble would have broken out.”

Tang Xiu intentionally forced a wry smile and said, “I admit that it’s my sect’s fault for not taking more precaution measures. But I give you my word that such problems will never occur again.”

Duanmu Lin ponder for a moment and then asked, “How many places does Tang Sect have in entire China for rearing these ferocious beasts?”

“Aside from this one, there are only two others on two islands in the South China Sea,” Tang Xiu answered. “You should’ve long learned about those two islands leased to me, Senior Duanmu.”

“I do know about them, but I have no idea what plans you have in mind in this regard.” Duanmu Lin nodded and said, “Tang Xiu, rearing fierce beasts is not a minor issue. I wish you can kill or move all these beasts away—at least away from China’s territory.”

“Moving these beasts from this place will be very difficult, Senior Duanmu.” Tang Xiu forced a smile. “But I promise that I’ll have a lot more experts from Tang Sect to be stationed here while I’ll also arrange some more powerful arrays to make sure similar problems never occur again in the future.”

Duanmu Lin was silent for a long while and then bitterly smiled. “Forget it, then. I won’t force you to move these beasts since you resolved it timely. But I’m very curious about one thing—how many fierce beasts are you breeding here? And why wasn’t anything exposed prior to this?”

“The number is quite a lot, but my men have been carrying out in full secrecy, so it’s naturally impossible for anyone else outside to notice anything,” Tang Xiu replied with a smile.

Duanmu Lin shook his head. Then, he suddenly asked, “What about the tremors that can be felt across the country? Everyone is currently talking about it.”

“It’s because something happened in the in the small world where we’re rearing these beasts,” Tang Xiu explained. “One of the ferocious beasts mutated, causing its strength to explode hundreds of times and cause a destructive force when it transformed. But the crisis has been lifted since we’ve slain it. Besides, my disciple—Gu Yan’er, the one Senior Duanmu met at sea, is now holding the fort here. She’ll be staying here from now on.”

Duanmu Lin’s eyes stared wide and he incredulously asked, “Are you kidding me? The mutation of one fierce beast has caused so much disturbance? You know the tremors can be felt all over China, don’t you?”

“Senior Duanmu, what’s the most powerful beast you’ve ever encountered?” asked Tang Xiu calmly.

Duanmu Lin pondered for a moment and then answered, “The demonic beasts in the Himalayas we fought back then. They were so strong that I felt hopeless and desperate. There is that Fire Qilin as well. It’s very powerful and I don’t think the entire people from my Special Abilities Bureau are enough to kill it.”

Tang Xiu nodded and asked, “What if I told you that the strength of this mutated fierce beast is at least 100 times that of the Fire Qilin? Do you believe it?”

“This…”

Had Duanmu Lin not experienced the horrifying assaults of demonic beasts in the Himalayas, he wouldn’t have believed it even until he died. But now, he noticed Tang Xiu’s solemn expression, so he nodded silently. Then, he forced a smile and said, “That sounds horrifyingly powerful! Else, I can expect that only death awaited us if such a crisis did occur.”

Tang Xiu could only force a smile for the lie he fabricated. Yet, it was the most direct way to prevent the intervention from the country. Otherwise, if Duanmu Lin knew that he had found such a pocket world there, given his character, he would definitely demand a slice of it on behalf of the state. It wouldn’t change even though this man would likely become his underling several years later.

It wasn’t because he had selfish motives. The state machines were not under control of one person and there would be too many people flocking in along with a lot more troubles to deal with. All in all, a large number of resources would be wasted and he didn’t want it to happen.

Duanmu Lin’s tilted up. He looked at Tang Xiu and asked, “Can I have a look at the place you rear these ferocious beasts?”

“Well…” Tang Xiu reluctantly said, “It’s not like I don’t want you to visit the place, Senior Duanmu. We may have killed that mutant beast, but all the remaining fierce beasts are kind of frenzied because of it. Many experts from my sect are now dealing with this problem. It would be hard to get rid of the crisis in a short time. It would take at least a few months. If you were to enter the place with your current strength, you’ll easily run into problems. It’s even likely that I must assign someone to protect you instead.

Hearing this was quite a hit to Duanmu Lin’s face, and his old face almost went green. He just… got refused…?

However, he could only look at Tang Xiu with a helpless expression. He was at a loss of what kind of expression he could come up facing Tang Xiu except for crying or laughing at this time. Who would dare to flatly reject and shut him out aside from Tang Xiu in the whole of China?

After a long while, Duanmu Lin weakly raised his hand and said, “Just forget it, then. I won’t bother you since it’s not convenient. But remember to ensure an incident like this never happens again, Tang Xiu. And you’d better set up another array around Longquan Mountain range that won’t affect civilians as a double precaution.”

Tang Xiu’s eyes lit up. He was quite ecstatic inwardly. The suggestion from Duanmu Lin to set up a large array around the Longquan Mountain range meant that this place had been assigned to his Tang Sect!

Afterward, Tang Xiu gave 10 Holy Healing pills to Duanmu Lin and hurriedly left. In less than a minute after he left, all ability users of the Special Abilities Bureau received an order from Duanmu Lin to retreat.

In the next half month, Tang Xiu, Tang An, Jin Shi, and the remaining others combed the entire Longquan Mountain range and finally killed all the escaped beasts.

After Tang Xiu entered the pocket world again, Gu Yan’er told him that she had gathered all the precious treasures in this place. She only left some of these precious objects behind since there was no urgent need for them for the time being.

“These are what we have now, Master.” Gu Yan’er took out an interspatial ring and gave it to Tang Xiu.

Using his spiritual sense to check the ring, Tang Xiu was secretly shocked after he saw everything inside. Even when he was a Supreme in the Immortal World, he never had so many resources and wealth like this. It must be noted that then was the Immortal, while this place was just a pocket world attached to Earth.

“I get it now.” Tang Xiu sighed with a forced smile after receiving the ring.

“Eh?” Gu Yan’er was bewildered and asked, “What did you just understand, Master?”

“Only now do I understand why many experts in the Immortal World went all out to open up new territories. It turns out that their goal was not to obtain more domains but to gather resources. It was because they can obtain enormous benefits once they found some treasure-trove-like places with many resources.”