Immortal of the Nine Realms

"What counts as good performance, you ask? That's an excellent question, as brilliant and wonderful as a stroke of divine inspiration," praised Old Fei.

Shi Zhan's face went rigid, turning a bit red. He didn't understand what was so good about his question or why it had earned him such high praise from the other party.

Old Fei suddenly exploded with anger. "Of course it's military merit! How do you get military merit!? Kill the bandits, kill the Flame Bandits! Killing the slave soldiers under their command counts too! How do you dare ask such a simple question? Tell me your surname, boy! I want to know which family raised a son so foolish!"

Shi Zhan's expression was a storm of shifting emotions, his heart filled with both anger and anxiety.

"My Lord, Shi Zhan is from the Shi family, the one belonging to... Half Saint Shi..." someone answered on Shi Zhan's behalf.

Old Fei almost plummeted from midair. After finally stabilizing his posture, he looked at Shi Zhan with a face full of shock, unable to believe it.

"A bloodline of the Half Saint Shi family? No, what is a noble clan descendant like you doing in the Great Mang Warzone? There isn't even much military merit to earn here. Even if you wanted to gild your resume, you shouldn't have come to the Envoy Division of the Gale Valley..."

If it had been before, Shi Zhan would have definitely told the other party his intentions with great arrogance. But at this moment, he took a deep breath, cupped his hands, and said, "My Lord, I am only from a branch of the Shi family and don't actually have much of a background. I came to the Damang War Zone for military merit and to temper myself. Please do not have any reservations in your heart."

"Is that so..." Old Fei said thoughtfully, a friendly look appearing on his face as he added, "Don't take the words I said earlier to heart."

"Yes."

***

A few days later, a camp gradually appeared before everyone's eyes. There, quite a few martial artists with abundant vital energy were visible. There were also many divinity users similar to the group. Not far from this camp, an open-pit mineral vein was visible, and those martial artists were responsible for excavating spiritual ore from it.

Old Fei smiled. "Listen up, this place is called North Wind Ridge. I have been stationed here for a full four hundred years. As long as I stay for another hundred years, I can return to report on my duties. I hope you won't cause trouble for me. Work hard, and if you let me return to report on my duties peacefully, I won't forget you."

Stationed for a full four hundred years? Doesn't that mean he has already collected four hundred years of salary? someone thought in astonishment.

Despite receiving salaries for so many years, the other party didn't seem to have reached the ninth transformation. His talent was either too poor or advancing to the ninth transformation was much harder than they imagined.

Upon seeing Old Fei's return, several powerful experts whose cultivation bases were a level higher than the group immediately soared through the air to greet him.

"Lord!"

Old Fei nodded toward the group with a faint smile. "Yes, I've brought back eighty new recruits this time, and one of them is an elite. While I was away, did the Flame Bandits come to cause trouble?"

Just as the subordinates were about to speak, a chilling and murderous sound echoed from the distance. Immediately following that, hundreds of figures tore through the sky, launching a charge directly at the camp!

The skin of these individuals was fiery red, and the fire-attribute spiritual energy surrounding them was extremely dense. But what surprised Fang Chen was that every single one of them was riding an exotic beast. The aura of these exotic beasts was highly similar to that of the Demonic Beast Race!

"What audacity! The Flame Bandits are here, follow me to slay them!" Old Fei bellowed, unleashing an earth-shattering aura.

He immediately led everyone to converge with the hundreds of divinity users in the camp, charging toward that group of Flame Race divinity users.

To blend in, Fang Chen fished in troubled waters among the crowd, while Old Fei had already clashed fiercely with the enemy side.

Meanwhile, Fang Chen was shocked, thoughts whirling. They really are the Demonic Beast Race. Could these demonic beasts be the slave soldiers of the Flame Race? If so... are these the ancestors of the Demonic Beast Race? The Seeking Dao Faction?

He hadn't expected to see existences suspected to be the ancestors of the Demonic Beast Race inside the History Immortal Book. Inexplicably, a connection to the Nine Realms had been established.

The Luoxue Alliance is at war with the Flame Race, and this conflict has clearly not been a matter of one or two days. It must have been going on for many years. Therefore, the human race also became entangled with these demonic beast ancestors during this period. For the human race to be able to go to the Nine Realms, could it be that they extracted the coordinates of the Nine Realms from them...

Thinking of that, Fang Chen increasingly felt that his deduction was highly likely to be the truth.

Gathering his thoughts, Fang Chen began to observe the Flame Race member he was fighting.

The opponent's cultivation was also at the Awakening Realm. The mount beneath him was stronger than a martial artist but weaker than an Awakened, likely at the Golden Core Realm.

That indicated that at this time, the cultivation system of the demonic beast ancestors was still the same as the Nine Realms. They had not yet evolved to the Three Foundation Realms. They still followed the Lower Four Realms, Middle Three Realms, and Upper Three Realms.

The appearance of Saints among the demonic beast ancestors only happened after they were enslaved for hundreds of thousands of years. Right now, it's probably still a very, very long time before Saints appear among them. Otherwise, they wouldn't still be adhering to the breathing and meditation system. Perhaps during this period, something else happened between the Demonic Beast Race and the Human Race that caused the location of the Nine Realms to be revealed.

The demonic beasts possess the method of breathing and meditation. Perhaps it is precisely because of this that they gained the possibility of becoming a Saint Clan.

It's highly probable that during this period, many Outsiders e also mastered this method through the demonic beasts...

Thinking of that, Fang Chen couldn't help but frown slightly. If these Outsiders had also mastered this method, they could similarly replicate what he had done to Fang Hai and Fang Ling, forcibly stimulating divinity.

The Flame Race member fighting Fang Chen noticed that his opponent before him was absent-minded and instantly flew into a rage. "What audacity, die for me!"

He spewed a mist of fire from his mouth, as if looking to burn everything to ashes.

Fang Chen still paid it no mind. Instead, he caught the glint of resentment and unwillingness in the eyes of the mount beneath the enemy. That was not directed at him, but likely at their current plight.

Fang Chen sighed inwardly. You still have a path of hundreds of thousands of years to walk, but you are also fortunate. At least you made it out of this path.

A lightning blade appeared in his hand. Controlling his cultivation level, he cleaved the Flame Race divinity user before him to death with a single strike.

The mount beneath the rider was startled and immediately lunged at Fang Chen with desperate madness.

"Having become slave soldiers, you are no longer masters of your own fate. I will grant you liberation," Fang Chen murmured as he swung his blade down.

The demonic beast's head instantly soared high into the air. Yet, as if it had understood Fang Chen's words, a flash of bewilderment and a hint of faint gratitude appeared in its eyes.

Following that, as Fang Chen controlled his own cultivation level to a degree that would not arouse suspicion from others, he successively slew several Flame Race divinity users and their mounts.

By then, Old Fei had finally repelled the enemy leader. The opposing force immediately retreated with its battered survivors.

Shi Zhan and the others, their blood boiling from battle, wanted to pursue them. However, they were furiously barked at by Old Fei, "Pursue my ass! What if there's an ambush ahead!?"

Shi Zhan and the others were instantly jolted awake.

"Let me give you a first lesson right here. Our duty is to guard this mineral vein. If the opponent retreats, no matter how miserable they look, do not pursue them," said Old Fei with a dark expression.

Hearing that, many veteran soldiers smiled knowingly as they watched Shi Zhan and the others get reprimanded. They remembered how they, too, had been scolded like this back then.

After finishing his scolding, Old Fei turned to look at Fang Chen with a beaming smile. "I saw it just now. You killed a total of five Flame Bandits and five of their slave soldiers. I will credit you with merits."

Whoa!

Everyone was startled. When they fought the Flame Race just now, they felt it was extremely difficult, especially since the opponents had the coordination of their mounts. Forget about killing them, it was already incredible enough to preserve one's own life.

Yet, this person had managed to kill five Flame Race divinity users in such a short amount of time?