Chapter 1724: Supreme Elder
The heaven-shaking aura was definitely much stronger compared to ordinary Transcending Tribulation Experts. Nascent Soul Experts like Zhang Feng couldn’t help but unconsciously bow their heads in surrender when they felt it.
The effect of an aura was very strong, especially towards other cultivators. There were many times where cultivators didn’t believe their instinct and would believe in an expert’s aura even more.
Because of this, the influence of this heaven-shaking aura was apparent to all the cultivators present.
But instead of being startled, Zhang Feng was happy as he exclaimed, “The Supreme Elder has come out!”
Hearing Zhang Feng, Zhao Hai stared for a moment. He looked at Zhang Feng and asked, “Senior Brother, who is that? Why are you happy?”
Zhang Feng turned to Zhao Hai and said, “Right, you don’t know this. I heard that the Supreme Elder started his seclusion more than a thousand years ago. The Supreme Elder is the last clan member of the Black Tiger Gang’s first sect leader. He’s from the Black Tiger Race. Although he’s the youngest of the clan, he’s probably tens of thousands of years old. His cultivation is immeasurable. But ever since ten thousand years ago, the Supreme Elder began to stop taking care of the sect’s matters. He would only take action when the Black Tiger Gang is in a critical moment. Thousands of years ago, when the Supreme Elder went into seclusion, people thought that he had entered his final rest. It was also because of this that the major families dared to make a mess. Even I didn’t expect the Supreme Elder to still be alive. The Black Tiger Gang no longer has anything to worry about.”
Just as Zhang Feng finished talking, a shadow approached from a distance. The shadow’s speed wasn’t fast, but its imposing aura made everyone stop breathing.
Zhao Hai also came under the influence of this imposing aura. But as he was about to submit to the aura, the s.p.a.ce suddenly sent out a spiritual fluctuation that canceled the effect of the aura.
However, Zhao Hai still pretended to lower his head. He didn’t dare stare at a long-lived old monster. This would only cause him trouble.
After a while, Zhao Hai felt a huge black shadow above him. Then the aura that suppressed everyone disappeared. Zhao Hai, like everyone else, sighed in relief. Then he stole a glance and looked up, which stunned him.
Above him was a person wearing a black robe. His stature was grand. Although his hair and beard were gray and his face was covered in aged spots, he didn’t have a confused look in his eyes. Instead, one could see endless wisdom in his gaze. It was as if he understood everything in the world.
The old man stood on top of the head of a huge black tiger. The tiger was no smaller than the black tiger s.h.i.+ps. Its fur was s.h.i.+ny and its eyes were staring straight in front. Although it didn’t do anything, its appearance made everyone not dare look at it.
The old man captured everyone’s attention just by standing there. They could feel their bodies submitting in front of the old man, it was as though they were subjects in front of their monarch.
The old man looked at the people from the Wandering Soul Group and said, “It turns out to be descendants of the old ghost. No matter what, I have a relations.h.i.+p with the old ghost in the past. With respect to the old ghost’s face, I won’t embarra.s.s you people. Go and return. If you continue to cause trouble to my Black Tiger Gang, I’ll go to your nest and destroy it.”
The Transcending Tribulation Experts of the Wandering Soul Group were stunned. Some of them knew of the old man’s ident.i.ty. However, they weren’t sure if it was him. They thought that he was dead, they didn’t expect that he was alive.
Although they couldn’t confirm the old man’s status, the imposing aura that they felt previously couldn’t be faked. This caused the people from the Wandering Soul Group to hesitate. They looked at each other in dismay.
They were unwilling to retreat. It can be said that the Wandering Soul Group’s losses in the battle were very heavy. If they retreated, they would have lost all of those things for nothing. The Wandering Soul Group would need a long time to recover from their loss.
But how could they continue fighting? Just looking at the old man caused the Transcending Tribulation Experts to lose their courage. They were in a dilemma.
The old man swept them with his gaze before he coldly snorted. The old man’s snort was so loud that it shook the surrounding s.p.a.ce. This caused the Wandering Soul Group cultivators to vomit blood. Those who were below the Core Formation Stage were directly killed. At the same time, the ghost-face s.h.i.+ps began falling down like dead flies.
Seeing this, the Wandering Soul Group’s Transcending Tribulation Experts were stunned. Then their complexion paled. They quickly gave the old man a salute before leaving. They didn’t even collect the ghost-face s.h.i.+ps.
Seeing their Transcending Tribulation Experts retreating, the other cultivators also turned around and retreated. In a blink of an eye, they were gone. The cultivators of the Black Tiger Gang couldn’t help but cheer. They all looked at the old man with their utmost respect.
The old man looked towards the cultivators of the Black Tiger Gang and then turned to Tie Zhantian and said, “You’re the current Gang Leader?”
Tie Zhantian didn’t dare neglect the old man. He quickly gave a bow and said, “Black Tiger Gang’s 57th Gang Leader, Tie Zhantian, has seen the Supreme Elder.”
The old man coldly snorted and said, “ My glorious Black Tiger Gang has been beaten back to its front door. But because you still have some backbone, you can still be the Gang Leader. If there’s anyone in the gang who dares disobey you in the future, come to me.”
When Tie Zhantian heard the old man say this, he froze for a moment before he excitedly replied, “Thank you for the help, Supreme Elder.” The old man nodded before unintentionally sweeping Hu Liangchen and the others with his gaze. Hu Liangchen and the others immediately lowered their heads. In front of the old man, Hu Liangchen didn’t dare to be arrogant. If he did, then the old man could easily destroy his whole clan.
However, the old man didn’t say anything to Hu Liangchen and the others. Instead he looked at the treasure s.h.i.+p and said, “The Black Tiger Gang finally has a worthy talent. Kid who drove the s.h.i.+p, come meet me.”
Upon hearing the old man, Zhao Hai didn’t dare say anything. A snort from the old man can kill countless cultivators. He didn’t expect this kind of strength. He wasn’t sure whether the old man could break the barrier to the s.p.a.ce or not.
Therefore, Zhao Hai hastily flew out of the treasure s.h.i.+p and then gave the old man a bow as he said, “Black Tiger Gang disciple Zhao Hai has seen the Supreme Elder.”
The old man nodded and said, “Not bad, come and cultivate with me for a while.” After he said that, he waved his hand. Zhao Hai felt a strong force that pulled him into the black tiger. Then the huge tiger flew back to the sect with the speed of light.
The old man left as quickly as he arrived. He just waved his hand and then took Zhao Hai away. This caused the people from the Black Tiger Gang to be unable to say anything. They just looked at the direction that the old man vanished from with red eyes. They were naturally jealous of Zhao Hai. To be able to cultivate beside the Supreme Elder was such an honor for anyone in the sect.
Tie Zhantian was the first one to respond as he immediately commanded, “Tie Yi, lead people to clean the battlefield. Restore all the formations in the Black Tiger Wall. The others, come with me. We’ll go to the Roaring Flame Sect’s side. Let’s see what those fellows would look like upon seeing us.” As soon as he said that, people suddenly remembered that there was still the Roaring Flame Sect to deal with. They immediately complied as Tie Zhantian used the transmission formation to go to the Inferno Valley.
Zhang Feng also commanded his people to take charge of the treasure s.h.i.+p and follow behind Tie Zhantian and the others. There was a large-scale transmission formation on the Black Tiger Wall that allowed large artifacts to go through. This was to help reinforce the wall whenever it was attacked.
At this time, Zhang Feng had a bitter expression on his face. This was because he knew that the maintenance of the large artifact was largely dependent on Zhao Hai. Now that Zhao Hai was taken by the Supreme Elder, it would be very hard to repair the large artifact in the next battle.
…………………………………………………..
Meanwhile, Zhao Hai followed the old man as they stood on the back of the black tiger. As time pa.s.sed, Zhao Hai realized that although the tiger looked life-like, it was made of energy. This energy was something Zhao Hai was familiar with, it was energy from the dao avatar. It can be said that the black tiger was the old man’s dao avatar, an incomparably solid dao avatar.
Zhao Hai had certain understandings about dao avatars. He knew that even if he reached the metal dao avatar stage, it would still appear incorporeal. He hasn’t seen a completely solid dao avatar like the old man’s.
Before long, Zhao Hai and the old man arrived at the forbidden area of the Black Tiger Gang. This was the most restricted area of the sect. Even the Gang Leader couldn’t enter whenever he likes.
When they entered the forbidden area, the black tiger landed on the ground. There were plenty of caves on the cliff face. The black tiger flew into one of the caves and vanished from sight. On the other hand, the old man went to another cave. Zhao Hai followed him closely behind.
The cave had a huge interior. This cave was different from the other cave residences that Zhao Hai had seen before. Generally, cave residences would have multiple rooms for various tasks like alchemy, refining, and others. However, the old man’s cave was just a huge s.p.a.ce, nothing else.
There were no decorations in the cave, just a thick layer of hay in the middle. Compared to the ident.i.ty of the old man, the way he lived was very simple.
The old man sat on the pile of hay, each of his movements extremely slow. It was as if he was afraid of wasting energy on unnecessary movements.
After the old man sat down, he let out a long breath as he looked at Zhao Hai and said, “You’re quite good. Although I don’t know who you are, I can see from you that you have much more faith power compared to the entirety of the Black Tiger Gang. You’re one of those people who encountered fortuitous events.”
Hearing the old man, Zhao Hai’s complexion immediately changed. He knew how vigorous his faith power was. But he didn’t study faith power concealing techniques, so he has no means of hiding it. In fact, he was worried that he would meet someone who could see the amount of faith power in his body and would covet it.
However, after being in the Great World of Cultivation for a long time, n.o.body was able to see Zhao Hai’s level of faith power. Tie Zhantian didn’t react nor did the old fox Hu Liangchen. This caused Zhao Hai to think that only he could detect his faith power. He didn’t expect to be discovered by the old man.
Seeing Zhao Hai’s reaction, the old man smiled faintly and said, “There’s no need to be afraid. I don’t have any intentions of harming you. Having someone like you in the Black Tiger gang means that the sect has someone powerful in it. This is a pure benefit with no downsides. You might have already noticed, but I have very little life force remaining. I don’t have any other wish to ask of you. I only hope that you can help me protect the Black Tiger Gang.”
Zhao Hai didn’t say anything. He didn’t dare to take the old man’s words lightly nor did he believe him completely. Prisonheart said the same things to him before, only for Prisonheart to attempt to take over his body. However, Zhao Hai didn’t have any dislike toward the old man. This was because he couldn’t feel any hostility from his body.
Zhao Hai didn’t believe Prisonheart in the past because he could feel the hostility coming from him. On the other hand, he didn’t feel any threat from the old man. But Zhao Hai didn’t fully trust him either. It might be because the old man had a high level of cultivation that Zhao Hai wasn’t able to sense any hostility from him.
The old man looked at Zhao Hai and continued, “I was aware of what’s happening in the Black Tiger Gang in the past few years. However, I didn’t make a move. Do you know why?”
He didn’t wait for Zhao Hai to reply as he said, “It’s because I need to save my life force in order to live longer. Only by doing so can I a.s.sure the Black Tiger Gang’s survival. More than a thousand years ago, I discovered that I don’t have long left to live. With no choice, I was forced to go into seclusion and be indifferent to the sect’s matters. Although I know the plans of the major families, I still didn’t make a move. This was because every action I make would consume my life force. It would be a tragedy if I don’t have enough energy to help the Black Tiger Gang when a truly threatening situation arrives.
Speaking up to here, the old man sighed and said, “The heavens have truly helped me. In the last minutes of my life, not only did I solve the danger to the Black Tiger Gang, I even solidified Tie Zhantian’s status. Moreover, it helped me meet you. Hahaha. The heavens are treating me well!”
Hearing the old man, Zhao Hai couldn’t help but stare. Then all of a sudden, an alarm rang inside his heart. He immediately went on guard.