The Sacred Ruins

As danger arrived, Chu Feng and the two oxen awoke from deep sleep; their bodies involuntarily tensed up and their hairs stood on end.

"Move!"

Chu Feng tore through the airplane with his bare hands and jumped down, with the other two in tow.

"I don’t have wings!" the black yak miserably cried. He could not fly and faced with the rushing wind, he was pumped full of cold air.

Boom!

Just after they had jumped, a resounding explosion was heard from above them as the whole airplane was blown to bits, forming a huge ball of fire.

The violent and eye-catching flames were visible even from the ground.

This was an aerial disaster for the humans—a rocket suddenly appeared and struck the plane’s fuel tank, destroying the whole vehicle in a sea of scorching flames.

After the plane was disintegrated, the remnants were all dissolved.

Because at the point of impact, a mushroom cloud bloomed. It was terrifying; the destructive force warped the whole area in the sky.

A blazing light originated from the mushroom cloud surged tidally towards the four directions.

Although their preemptive cautiousness had allowed them to escape, Chu Feng and party were still affected by the shock.

The three of them let out a muffled groan; they had narrowly escaped being swallowed by the brilliant yet destructive light. The rocket had actually carried a nuclear warhead—a specific measure prepared to kill king level entities.

The wind whistled as the three plummeted toward the earth, the world spinning around them.

Although they were a considerable distance from the center of the explosion, they were still affected by the blast waves. They all coughed up blood; their wounds were evidently heavy.

"That was close!" Yellow Ox was palpitating as he looked back at the sky; resplendent lights were still surging through the mushroom cloud.

"I easily get seasick, plane sick and now I’m sky-sick! Most of all, I can’t fly..." the black yak was roaring and shouting nonsense; apparently, he was in a state of panic. Even a beast king as valiant as Demon Ox would, no doubt, die if he fell from such a height.

Chu Feng shook his head, finally recovering from his daze. He had suffered severe concussion previously and was stunned for a period.

The reason was the huge bag of crystals that he had been hugging all along; he had used up considerable spiritual energy to protect it. He was afraid that the bag would burst, scattering the crystals through the sky.

Fortunately, the bag was made of the Mount Pan Ancestor’s skin. This king grade material was naturally very sturdy and remained intact despite the impact.

This was an item Chu Feng had prepared well before he set out for the West. This "qiankun" [1] bag was specifically for storing items.

After he had thoroughly awakened, he started circulating his spiritual arts to control his body, grasping onto the black yak all the while.

At the same time, he looked at Yellow Ox and asked, "Will you be ok?"

"Just so-so, but I think I can control my own body somewhat," Yellow Ox replied.

After arriving at Mount Kunlun he had lent the scarlet flying knife to Yellow Ox, allowing him to comprehend the arts within.

The Yellow Ox was indeed very talented and possessed stunning mental capacity. After some time, he was also able to grasp the basics of this inheritance.

However, according to the Yellow Ox, when one had reached a certain level with the special breathing technique, he would also be able to control blades in a similar fashion.

The breathing technique was not only focused on the physique but also strengthens the mind. Its miraculousness was boundless, but now, they were only in the initial stages of this art!

The black yak’s spiritual energy was only normal, but his physique was astonishing. He was not suitable to learn spiritual arts; he walked the path of physique sanctification. And that was also the reason why he was in a panic right now.

"Don’t worry, we won’t die." Chu Feng laughed. It was rare to see the black yak in such a frantic state, grasping onto the former’s arms desperately.

Their descending speed was continuously slowing down; the howling by their ears had reduced by quite a bit.

It was hard to ask Yellow Ox and Chu Feng to fly through the air, but to control their descent and momentarily levitate was not a big problem.

Finally, as they approached the mountainous terrain, their falling speed reduced drastically. This, finally, allowed the black yak to let out a sigh of relief; he swore never to ride a plane again—his life and death were completely out of his hands in the air.

In the end, they safely landed on the ground. That area was close to the sea; they were somewhere in Southern Italy. As soon as they crossed the channel, they would arrive in Greece.

If they wanted to return to the East, they would have to take the shortcut in Greece. This would allow them to reach the Turpan Depression in Xinjiang.

However, they were shot down before reaching their destination.

"What’s happening, I’m sleepy again. I just want to lie down here and go into deep sleep," the black yak was puzzled. Were they being affected by the previous nuclear explosion?

Normally, king level entities were immune to radiation; as long as they were able to avoid the terrifying temperatures produced by the explosion, they wouldn’t die so easily.

"I’m also feeling drowsy!" Chu Feng agreed.

Back when they boarded the plane, they had also fallen into deep sleep. Otherwise, they probably wouldn’t have come so close to being blasted apart.

"There are some problems with that brightly colored tree. Its pollen has extremely serious side-effects." Yellow Ox’s expression became solemn.

Very quickly, they progressed to a state where they could barely hang on. They would fall asleep as soon as they stopped deliberating keeping their mind alert.

At the same time, they felt their bodies heat up; their blood started boiling and surged throughout their body.

"Things aren’t looking good. This is a sign of severe side-effects." Yellow Ox’s expression grew uglier.

Just after that, as if he had remembered something, he cried, "I was careless! Oh god. I’ve actually missed something so good. It’s a Myriad Spirit Blood Medicine!"

"What’s going on? I’m about to fall asleep!" The black yak’s eyes were dull and tired.

"Quick! Let’s look for a cave or dig one out ourselves. We need to hide ourselves," Chu Feng exclaimed.

They had even utilized nuclear warheads; it was easy to imagine the resources that were at the Vatican’s disposal. It was hard to say what methods they would use!

Along the road, the Yellow Ox was drunk with remorse. He sighed. "We should’ve cut down that little tree and brought it along with us!"

According to him, those flower buds were indeed extraordinary. However, they were not as potent as the tree itself; that was where the essence was gathered after absorbing all the spiritual blood.

"Ancient records described various methods to promote the maturity of mutant trees and fruits. However, most of them utilized spiritual blood to irrigate the plant; it was cruel and evil. One after another, I remembered the only thing I overlooked: the Myriad Spirit Blood Medicine. Schiller must’ve grasped a secret technique."

The flowers that they had ingested had side-effects. They were lethargic and sleepy—this could be considered relatively light ones. Serious side effects could be life-threatening.

"Schiller is truly vicious. These flower buds would allow one to evolve, however, those who ate them would be temporarily weakened due to the backlash from the blood medicine. If I’m not wrong, they were intended for the Black Dragon and the Arctic King," Yellow Ox mused.

Once the two experts entered a state of weakness, Schiller would easily do them in.

"Will there be lasting effects on our bodies?" Chu Feng frowned.

"As long as we endure past this period, there will be a lot of beneficial effects. We will achieve advanced evolution and even our constitution will be improved by a great margin. If we are unable to pass this tribulation, then we will die," Yellow Ox explained.

"Most of the tyrannical components were transported to and accumulated in the buds and fruits of the Myriad Spirit Blood Medicine; it could be considered as purifying the little tree. When the flowers and fruits drop off, the tree itself would remain mild and flawless."

"Dammit, that means we just ate the dregs?" The black yak was furious.

"Those aren’t dregs; it is just that the effects are wild and unrestrained. We’re lucky we only ate the young buds, so there’s a good chance we can get through this. During the initial budding stage, what gathers within it is mostly beneficial vital energy," Yellow Ox explained, "without the five flower buds, there is nothing left to purify the tree itself, rendering its effects wild and tyrannical. I wonder if Schiller will dare to ingest something that could easily take his life."

"I can’t... hold on anymore." No sooner had the black yak muttered these words than he fell asleep on the ground, snoring thunderously.

Following that, Yellow Ox also collapsed onto the grass.

Chu Feng was doing relatively better since he had only taken one flower bud. He dragged the two oxen and ran at full speed.

Finally, he reached the sea. He buried the two oxen in the sand, leaving only their nostrils above the ground.

After that, he also dug into the sand and blacked out completely.

If only he could keep going, he definitely wouldn’t choose to sleep here. However, the side-effects produced by the flower buds were too tyrannical.

Naturally, their gains would also be abundant. If they were able to endure past this stage, they would surely become more powerful.

Chu Feng slept very soundly. After god knows how long, he was jolted awake by a sudden premonition of danger; the two oxen were still sound asleep.

With danger encroaching upon them and yet the two oxen had still not recovered. It was not difficult to imagine the side effect the flower bud had on them.

"Wake up!"

Chu Feng shook them; the sense of danger was increasing rapidly.

The two oxen were still in a sleepy daze.

"Go, into the sea! Hide!" Chu Feng dragged them and rushed into the sea.

The sea was extremely dangerous; there were a large number of powerful marine lifeform,

however, Chu Feng no longer had the time to think of these things. They needed to escape as soon as possible!

As the salty water entered their mouths and noses, the two oxen completely woke up.

"Shh, don’t make a sound. There is danger nearby!" Chu Feng reminded. According to his indications, the three submerged to the seabed.

At their level of power, staying underwater for long periods on a single breath was not a problem.

Boom!

Not long after they had left, the area which they were previously at, surged with brilliant lights as it suffered from powerful bombardments. Although it was not a nuclear bomb, it was a missile powerful enough to kill a king level entity.

The whole bay was shaken as huge waves rolled and crashed.

Not only that, but the surrounding areas also came under this fiery onslaught.

"What kind of situation was this? Is it a world war? Are they crazy?" The black yak was astonished; he was now fully awake.

"Schiller is pretending to go berserk... as for the Black Dragon and the Arctic King, they are probably truly upset," Chu Feng commented.

Meanwhile, in the Vatican’s Sacred Garden.

The Black Dragon and the Arctic King were absolutely furious and had almost gone mad. They had invested so much time and effort; they had risked offending all the other races to kill a large number of king level entities just to end up with nothing in the end.

The flower buds had been stolen—someone had "stolen the peach midway", leaving nothing for them.

"Old man, you didn’t plan all of this, did you?!" The Arctic King raged.

"The flowers hadn’t even bloomed. Do you think I would be stupid enough to pick them?!" Schiller’s expression was gloomy and calm at the same time.

He added, "Moreover, Chilin King’s group had been waiting here all along. They would know who did this."

"Is this the truth?" the Black Dragon inquired.

"It’s possible that Chu Feng’s group did this," Chilin King replied.

"A mere human boy dares to touch my treasured medicine. I’ll tear him apart!" the Black Dragon roared.

"Augustus has ordered over ten passenger flights to be shot down. At the moment, we are confirming which of them had escaped," said Schiller.

Additionally, he informed them that, if they gave chase right away and swallowed the flesh and blood of the thieves, the medicine could still be effective. As time dragged on, the flower buds would be thoroughly refined and there would be no medicinal effect left.

"Augustus has confirmed that it is indeed Chu Feng’s group that has escaped. There were traces of them at the airport."

In truth, as they were reporting to Schiller about these findings, Augustus had already made use of his own connections to launch several missiles and bombarded the possible areas.

He was one of the few powerful king level humans in the West and had a lot of authority.

This had resulted in the carpet bombing that had almost struck the sleeping trio.

"Unfortunately, I’m wounded and won’t be able to rush over!" The Arctic King’s voice was ice cold. In order to kill that expert with six severed shackles, he had paid a huge price.

The Black Dragon was also in a similar state; one of his wings had almost fallen off, and there was no way he could travel long distances. Moreover, he was not able to bring back the Undead Phoenix’s head, causing him to be in a supremely foul mood.

Schiller replied, "Ovidius and his men have been mobilized. Even if they cannot kill Chu Feng, they will surely be able to chase them down and find clues as to their whereabouts. We three can stay here and recover while our men search for them."

For the whole night, Chu Feng and the two oxen were crossing the sea. They slept when they were too sleepy and kept on swimming as soon as they woke.

Luckily, they did not encounter any terrifying sea beasts.

"Oh, I forgot. This is actually the Mediterranean sea; there are no terrifying sea beasts here," Chu Feng exclaimed. Now they could all let out a sigh of relief.

However, later that night, they encountered trouble. Within the vast waters, a huge black object came rushing towards them.

"What is that thing?"

It was indeed a beast, but there was no way to distinguish its type—it looked like a fish, but it also possessed sharp claws.

Boom!

A huge battle erupted as Chu Feng and the two oxen took the initiative to launch a preemptive strike.

This was a king level entity.

The battle was intense, but finally, the beast surrendered. Despite the sea being his home ground, he was up against three beast kings.

"I’m a sea fish," it narrated its story. It had fatefully eaten a shining plant under the sea and had, since then, undergone several mutations.

Chu Feng and the others sighed; it seemed that the ocean floor was also a land of hidden treasures. This was only the Mediterranean Sea; it was a barren place with unfavorable environmental conditions that could not be compared with the open seas.

"Take us to Greece!" Chu Feng commanded.

They could only communicate with it telepathically since it did not know the human language.

Boom!

Suddenly, huge white waves surged toward the skies, increasing their speed by a great margin as they traversed the straits and headed straight toward Greece.

The black yak and Yellow Ox were lying asleep on the sea beast’s back. Chu Feng was also drowsy as he fell asleep in a prone position.

After three days of travel, they successfully reached the other shore. The current size of the Mediterranean Sea was several times larger than before the great change, and the speed of water travel was much slower than flying.

Even at this time, the three were not fully alert.

However, they finally saw land in the distance.

How was the outside world? They did not know at all. It must have caused a huge sensation, but the most important for them at the moment was to return to the East in one piece.

...

[1] 乾坤袋 — Qiankun means heaven and earth or universe in its literal meaning.