Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

However, the onslaught had not ceased.

As the Shocking God Sound and Devil Extinguishing Divine Thunder exploded, the hall suddenly filled with a sky full of "Sword Light," which turned out to be transformed by the Nascent Soul Divine Thought.

Along with the Sword Light, there came one after another, Nascent Soul level Divine Thought techniques.

Shocking God Bell!

Devil Extinguishing Divine Thunder!

Ten Directions Slaughter God Blade!

Soul Gathering Stab!

Great Black Sky Magic!

One by one, the formidable Divine Thought attacks followed one another in succession, and under the concentrated assault, the Sect Leader and Dingnan Venerable, along with other high-level Ghost Practitioners, were almost swept away in a single wave.

A few weaker Golden Core Ghost Practitioners were annihilated on the spot, while the Five Nascent Soul Ghost Practitioners were also severely injured simultaneously.

The Sect Leader, his body emitting a bright black light and surrounded by crackling electric light, shouted in a fit of desperate fury, "Stop! Otherwise, I will disperse the souls of these juniors!"

Without a doubt, the Sect Leader had already tampered with people like Tianluozi and Xiao Jiuke in secret; an action that was initially done on a whim, but now had become a life-saving straw.

"Qiu Longzi, if you surrender now, we will grant you a Life Path. If you remain obstinate, we will ensure your utter annihilation,"

No sooner had the voice outside the hall ceased than the roof of the Rebirth Hall suddenly shattered heavily, and then it was blown off into the distance.

Not far away, over a dozen Nascent Soul Ancestors each opened up their Nascent Soul Domains, creating layered and overlapping Light Domains that enveloped the Rebirth Hall, leaving no gap.

The Nascent Soul Ancestors stood mid-air, looking down at the high-level Ghost Practitioners with eyes that were as cold as ice, their expressions the epitome of indifference.

Watching a group of undying old men looking predatorily towards him, the Sect Leader's pupils flickered non-stop, his heart a tumultuous mix of shock, anger, and fear.

He had... utterly lost this gamble!

A mere few Golden Cores were not as valuable as any single Nascent Soul; how could they make the adversaries hesitate?

No, there was still a glimmer of hope.

The Sect Leader suddenly threw back his head and bellowed, "I am willing to surrender..."

...

The Qiu Ling Sect's treasure hunt ended in a way that surprised everyone.

Without a doubt, the real winners were the group of Nascent Soul Ancestors who had set up the trap, yet the biggest winner was not one of them, but someone else.

Zhao Sheng made it big—and not just big, he made it astronomically big!

No one would have expected that such an unremarkable Sanbao Taoist would not make a move until he did and that when he did, he would shock everyone to their core.

Who dared to lend him the audacity to abscond with the treasure?

Perhaps the Heavenly Dao Sect's blade was no longer sharp?

A mere Golden Core deserter, easily handled by any Nascent Soul as if a cleaver were cutting a chicken, with the utmost ease!

...

A cup of tea later, the originally calm sea surface suddenly erupted with massive pillars of water.

The next second, streaks of tunneling light shot towards the sky and then scattered swiftly in all directions, rapidly flying to the farthest reaches.

Hum, hum!

As the tunneling light sped across the sky, one could see the Nascent Soul Divine Thought expanding to its limit, covering a hundred miles in an instant.

Soon, thousands of miles of the sea area were completely turned upside down by the group of Nascent Soul Ancestors.

However, they were doomed to come up empty-handed.

Zhao Sheng seemed to have vanished into thin air, his traces undetectable by anyone.

As the Nascent Soul Ancestors searched for the traitor's whereabouts, the Sun Chasing Shuttle had already flown tens of thousands of feet into the sky, escaping thousands of miles away.

Within the Sun Chasing Shuttle, Zhao Sheng sat cross-legged, surrounded by eight palm-sized top-grade Spirit Jade floating around him.

At that moment, strands of red Karmic Fire tempered the eight pieces of Spirit Jade and, under Divine Sense's control, solidified into several flame spiritual knives. These knives inscribed spirit patterns and a multitude of ancient runes on the inside and surface of the Spirit Jade.

Time trickled by, and these eight third-tier Exorcism Talismans were progressing rapidly; they would be completed in just two days.

For Zhao Sheng, this escape was just the beginning, and more perilous challenges lingered ahead!

It should be understood that Sanbao Daoist is a true cultivator officially registered with the Heavenly Dao Sect, and since he has been entered into the Taoist Jade Scroll, naturally there is a Divine Soul Mark left on the Jade Scroll.

The Heavenly Dao Sect is by no means easy to deal with; this sect never shows mercy to traitors and always strives to utterly eradicate them.

With the Jade Scroll in hand, no matter if you flee to the ends of the earth or across the seas, ultimately, you will not be able to escape from the pursuit.

Zhao Sheng was well aware of the Heavenly Dao Sect's attitude towards traitors, so he did not harbor any illusions about his chances.

Of course, if he dared to flee with the treasure, he naturally had some confidence in his ability to stay alive.

In fact, he could have handed over the Heavenly Dao Fragment.

But Zhao Sheng did not wish to do so, not because he couldn't part with it, but because this treasure had a profound impact on his future cultivation path and was of great significance.

Moreover, with his current strength, it would be suicide for anyone below the Nascent Soul to come at him in numbers; and if a Nascent Soul personally took action, he... though he might not win, he could still escape.

There was another possibility.

The upper and lower ranks of the Heavenly Dao Sect might actually be unaware of the depth of his strength, and if they underestimated him, Zhao Sheng, with all his methods out, could even trap and kill a Nascent Soul Ancestor.

Of course, it's too early to talk about this now.

For Zhao Sheng, the first priority was to escape the influence of the Heavenly Dao Sect and, if possible, to flee into the territory of a hostile power, such as the Black Sky Sect, the Asking Dao Sect, and so on.

According to his estimates, he most likely had only a seven-day "time difference."

Wanhua Heavenly Mansion must have a secret technique for communicating with the Heavenly Dao Sect's main temple.

Within one day, the main temple would certainly learn the news of his flight with a heavy treasure.

Zhao Sheng would not delude himself, nor would he think that the Nascent Soul Ghost Practitioners like the "Sect Leader" would all be dead, nor would he believe they would keep their mouths shut, failing to mention "the whereabouts of the Heavenly Dao Fragment that could create an Emperor."

Since ancient times, interests have swayed people's hearts, let alone such heavy treasures.

Zhao Sheng guessed that there would surely be an intense debate once the main temple heard the news.

Once the blame and interests had been clearly divided and an envoy set off with the Jade Scroll at the fastest speed to reach Wanhua Heavenly Mansion, at least three days would be needed—even a late start by three to five days was possible.

In the Netherworld, the fastest way to travel was to fly out into the Outer Void and keep "drifting" at increased speeds in an almost vacuum environment.

Unlike other ordinary mortal worlds, any world abundant in Spiritual Energy resembles a sparkling sphere, enveloped by a "Spirit Halo" that extends for hundreds of millions of miles.

The "Spirit Halo" is a kind of spirit overflow phenomenon, produced when Spiritual Energy spreads and falls into the Outer Void, intangible yet substantial.

Unless one escapes beyond the range of the Spirit Halo, even a Nascent Soul Ancestor cannot escape the binding of the Gravity Law; they can merely rotate with the planet and never remain still.

By the time the envoys reach Wanhua Heavenly Mansion and join forces with the two Great Sacrificers of Demon Suppression.

Zhao Sheng speculated that it was most likely that only one Nascent Soul Ancestor would be dispatched to apprehend him "for trial."

After all, he was merely at the Golden Core realm, and the mobilization of a Nascent Soul was already showing him considerable regard.

Three days' time was enough for him to cast spells to conceal his Divine Soul aura.

Although this move might not be very effective, it could still substantially increase the difficulty of the pursuers' tracking.

Zhao Sheng would not be blindly confident; if it were so easy to avoid pursuit, the Heavenly Dao Sect's formidable reputation, built over tens of thousands of years with the blood of countless traitors, would be in vain!

After three days, he had already fled more than a hundred thousand miles away.

By the time the pursuers used spells to trace his Divine Soul aura and chase after him, finding his hiding place would take at least another four to five days.

Seven days was the fastest limit Zhao Sheng could estimate; if there were any delays in the midst of this, it would significantly prolong the time.

Once more than two or three months had passed, Zhao Sheng was quite confident that he could escape the pursuit of the Heavenly Dao Sect.

After all, hostile forces such as the Heavenly Rebel Alliance and the Old Mother Sect are still surviving under the siege of the Heavenly Dao Sect; they must each have their own ways to evade being hunted.

Coincidentally, Zhao Sheng had some connections with the Heavenly Rebel Alliance and had collected quite a few Avoid Tribulation Secret Skills.

However, all this required time.

Now, what he lacked the most was time.

"...It would be best to kill the pursuer and take the Jade Scroll from him... There are twelve more years before the Star Gate will open again... I hope by then, I can smoothly return to my homeland!"

Amidst Zhao Sheng's murmured words, the Sun Chasing Shuttle burst into large clumps of dazzling white light, like a meteor streaking across the sky with a long tail of flames, rapidly slicing through the Cloud Sky, and speeding far into the distance like lightning.

Twenty thousand miles southwest, lies the River Continent.

He could arrive within a day.