UGB Chapter 1772 Another year of anger!
Chapter 1772 Another year of anger!
call out--!
A blurry black streak tore through the dark seawater.
With resolute force, it crashed into the center of the slowly rotating, menacing vortex of evil energy.
The light flashed and disappeared in an instant.
The surface of the vortex only rippled a few barely perceptible circles before quickly resuming its slow, rhythmic rotation.
It was as if what it had just swallowed was nothing more than a speck of dust.
The vortex continued to spin for a few more breaths, with an indifferent rhythm, as if completing its final inhalation and exhalation.
Its area began to shrink visibly, and its edges gradually blurred.
The intense malevolent energy that permeated the surroundings and was powerful enough to erode one's soul also collapsed inwards like a receding tide.
In a few breaths,
The enormous whirlpool shrank to a black dot, eventually disappearing completely into the boundless, dark seawater along with all the malevolent energy, leaving no trace.
The underwater canyon has returned to its deathly silence.
The cold seawater flowed slowly, with only a few luminous plankton silently flashing, reflecting off the jagged rocks.
It was as if nothing had ever happened here, except for a faint, lingering spatial fluctuation.
This proves that something unusual had occurred here.
After a while...
Deep within the Dragon Tomb, inside a majestic and ancient black stone palace.
The pillars of the hall are carved with menacing dragon totems, which appear and disappear amidst the ever-present gloomy atmosphere.
suddenly,
A low growl, suppressed to the extreme yet containing boundless rage,
It exploded like a thunderclap, causing dust to fall from the roof of the palace.
"Who?"
"Who on earth has plucked my fruit?!"
Sha Minghong's figure appeared in the center of the empty hall. The storeroom in front of him, which should have been filled with treasures and glittering treasures, was now so empty that echoes could be heard.
The huge shelves were completely empty; even the jewels that had been inlaid on them had been pried off.
All that's left are ugly dents.
The ground was covered with a thin layer of gray, which made the place seem even more desolate.
Sha Minghong's already dark face was now even more somber, like an unyielding inkstone.
The veins on his forehead throbbed slightly, and the low pressure emanating from his body seemed to freeze the surrounding air.
His hands, clasped behind his back, were clenched into fists, his knuckles turning white from the force.
After a while...
The violent heaving of his chest gradually subsided, and his heavy breathing also decreased.
He forcefully suppressed that overwhelming rage with immense willpower.
It's like forcibly pressing an erupting volcano back into the ground.
Obviously,
Sha Minghong's anger came swiftly but subsided with remarkable restraint.
As expected of an old monster who has cultivated for countless years, his mental cultivation is indeed remarkable, far surpassing that of ordinary cultivators.
If it were an ordinary cultivator, seeing the "fruit" that they had painstakingly planned and obtained over countless years, they would feel immense relief.
Just as the harvest was about to be completed, it was stolen silently.
They have probably been consumed by rage and are desperate to destroy everything around them.
Simultaneously,
At that very moment, after suppressing all the restless emotions in his heart,
The rage in his sharp, dagger-like eyes faded, replaced by a deep, thoughtful expression as he began to calmly analyze the incredible situation before him.
"This Dragon Tomb Secret Realm is the most heavily guarded forbidden area of the Golden Dragon Clan."
It is separated by many ancient restrictions, making it extremely difficult for ordinary cultivators to even find the entrance, let alone sneak in!
Moreover, outside this main hall, there are hordes of fearless and valiant ghost dragons guarding it, and they are extremely sensitive to the presence of living people.
The only entrance to the secret realm is personally guarded by two senior half-saint elders of the clan, whose divine senses constantly cover the surrounding area…
"This means that even high-ranking members of the Golden Dragon Clan, without a legitimate reason and a written order from the clan leader,..."
There is absolutely no way they could sneak into this place undetected and steal the treasures from the vault.
The key is,
I just conducted a soul search on the two guardian half-saints and learned from their fragmented memories that no one has entered this secret realm through normal means recently.
The most recent record is that of the Demon Lord of the Underworld Sea who entered this secret realm.
However, based on the timeline, it should be before heading to the Forbidden Sea.
"But what reason would the Demon Lord of the Underworld have to empty his own treasure vault?"
unless……
He had long anticipated the danger of perishing during his trip to the Forbidden Sea and worried that the treasure vault would fall into the hands of outsiders, which is why he moved it in advance.
But how is this possible!
Let alone the fact that he is only at the Nascent Soul stage, even the legendary Tribulation Transcending stage experts in the Spirit Realm might not have the ability to predict their own fortunes and misfortunes so accurately.
Moreover, Minghai's vision is limited; he is merely a demon cultivator from the lower realm. How could he possibly possess such extraordinary abilities?
That doesn't make any sense!
"If this treasure vault wasn't emptied by the Nether Sea, then there must have been an extremely powerful expert before my arrival."
It's even possible that during the period after the Nether Sea heads to the Forbidden Sea, when the guardians of the secret realm are relatively weak,
They sneaked in in some inexplicable way and swept the treasure trove clean.
and,
This person was able to perfectly deceive the senses of the two half-Venerables outside the secret realm!
even……
It is possible that even the tokens they carry with them, which they use to sense the secret realm and open the restrictions, were temporarily taken and used by this person, and then returned without anyone noticing afterwards.
But how can this be done?
Even if a Nascent Soul cultivator could barely manage to subdue a Half-Venerable through a sneak attack,
However, if the other party recalls it even slightly afterward, with the keen intuition of a semi-saint, who has reached the pinnacle of power, they can always detect a slight sense of discord and incongruity.
It's impossible to have no flaws.
after all,
As a half-saint who is only one step away from breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm, his six senses are already at an inhuman level of sharpness.
Then,
Sha Minghong's mind raced, as if he had grasped something crucial.
"wrong!
It's not entirely impossible to remedy this flaw...
Unless, after succeeding, the infiltrator, possessing overwhelming cultivation, does not simply launch a sneak attack, but instead uses swift and decisive methods to simultaneously suppress two half-Venerables,
And with great supernatural powers, they forcibly erased their memories of the relevant time period!
In this way, everything makes sense.
This also perfectly explains why, during the soul search just now, the memory of the time window during which the treasure vault might have been stolen was completely blank;
Why is the treasure vault empty even though there are no entries?
Why can't we find a single trace of magical energy or spatial fluctuations left by the intruder at the scene?
moment,
Numerous trivial and seemingly unrelated clues, coupled with Shark Minghong's brutal guesses based on experience,
He quickly pieced together a general outline of the event in his mind:
A mysterious Nascent Soul level expert seized the opportunity and completed the theft with overwhelming force.
follow closely,
The problem has returned to its starting point:
Who exactly has the ability and the intention to infiltrate the Golden Dragon Clan's forbidden area and do this?
Such cultivation level indicates that he is at least a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator!
Otherwise, it would be impossible to subdue two half-saints so easily at the same time and complete such a delicate operation as memory erasure.
However, at present, almost all the Nascent Soul stage cultivators of the human and demon races have been confirmed to have perished in the shocking upheaval in the Forbidden Sea.
this moment,
Two faces involuntarily surfaced in Sha Minghong's mind.
One is a Nightmare Clan Deity who always has a faint smile on his lips and whose whereabouts are mysterious;
The other one is of the "traitorous brat" who betrayed his tribe but unexpectedly gained a great opportunity.
next moment,
Sha Minghong shook his head slightly, rejecting both guesses.
"wrong.
The Nightmare Clan's Nascent Soul cultivator, though skilled in transformation and concealment, possesses unparalleled stealth abilities and is capable of accomplishing this...
But he should still be in the Forbidden Sea at this moment, unable to spare any attention.
It is absolutely impossible for them to be in two places at the same time, separated by such a great distance.
He doesn't possess the legendary, heaven-defying talent of being able to create countless clones.
Similarly, that traitorous junior certainly has some tricks up his sleeve.
But he is also in the Forbidden Sea, deeply immersed in comprehending the 'legacy' left behind by me, and it is impossible for him to escape in the short term, let alone have time to come here.
"If it wasn't them, could it be in this vast world of cultivation...?"
Is there also a hidden, never-before-seen, unknown Nascent Soul cultivator?
Thinking of this possibility, Sha Minghong frowned deeply and fell into deep thought.
If that's the case, what is this person's intention?
Is it targeting the Golden Dragon Clan, or...?
Targeting all forces that might covet the treasure here, including Sha Minghong?
A few moments.
Faced with an almost unsolvable mystery and scattered clues, Shark Minghong had no choice but to accept the most logical conclusion—
There are indeed hidden Nascent Soul cultivators in the cultivation world.
Taking advantage of the golden opportunity presented by the gathering of top forces from all sides in the Forbidden Sea and the resulting vulnerability in the rear, this person secretly intervened and stole the fruits of victory that should have been his.
"very good……"
Sha Minghong muttered to himself, his voice as cold as ice that had stood for millennia.
"Well hidden!"
I hope you, you cowardly coward, won't give yourself away.
If I were to catch even the slightest trace of it...
"I will make you spit out double what you've swallowed, with interest!"
"The many spiritual items in this secret treasure trove will be temporarily stored with you."
"I'd like to see how long you can keep this up!"
this moment,
Despite his seemingly calm demeanor, a fleeting, chilling glint flashed in the depths of Sha Minghong's eyes, more piercing than the dark seawater outside the palace.
Clearly, he hated that imagined Nascent Soul cultivator hiding in the shadows to the extreme.
Then,
Sha Minghong seemed to have thought of some more pressing practical problem, and a helpless, bitter smile involuntarily appeared on his lips.
"That mysterious Nascent Soul cultivator is nowhere to be found, and the investigation requires careful planning. We can put it aside for now."
The most pressing issue now is how to appease the clan elders under his command and the expeditionary army.
After all, in order to boost morale and mobilize the army, he had previously made a solemn promise that there would be generous spoils to be distributed after capturing the core territory of the Golden Dragon Clan.
Now, the greatest expected reward—the Dragon Tomb Treasure Vault—has vanished without a trace, and the promise cannot be fulfilled.
If appeasement and redistribution of benefits are not carried out in a timely manner, it is highly likely to trigger internal turmoil or even a mutiny.
It's important to understand that the reason why the semi-elders and elite troops of the Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan were willing to follow him, a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, on his expedition was certainly due to his strength and prestige.
But to a greater extent, it is based on clear expectations of benefits.
Without tangible benefits, how could those cunning and shrewd semi-regents willingly obey his commands?
This is simply not realistic.
"Oh, that's all!"
Sha Minghong shook his head slightly and sighed.
"This is a problem we will have to face sooner or later; there is no escaping it."
The most urgent task is to stabilize morale before considering any further plans.
Thinking of this,
Sha Minghong took one last, heartbreaking look at the empty, desolate shelves and the dimly lit ceiling that seemed to be silently mocking him.
It was as if they wanted to etch this shameful scene into their minds.
Then, his figure swayed slightly.
Like a ghost, they vanished silently from this now-empty treasure trove.
……
Time passed by, little by little.
A year has passed since the theft of the Dragon Tomb Treasury.
In this year, the cultivation world, having lost its top-tier combat power and effective constraints, became increasingly chaotic.
The conflict between the various factions escalates as they vie for the remaining resources and territory.
Every day, countless small and medium-sized sects are destroyed in the flames of war, and low-level cultivators fall in droves like weeds. The number of cultivators who have perished is staggering.
It is already an astronomical figure that cannot be estimated.
same,
The spiritual veins, which form the foundation of this world's spiritual energy, were also affected and many were shattered in the continuous battles.
This has led to a decline in spiritual energy and environmental degradation in many areas.
As the former hegemon who maintained order, the three major alliances, composed of several large forces, now appear powerless and are no longer able to effectively suppress the turmoil in the entire cultivation world as they once were.
They can now barely hold onto the areas they control.
As for the chaos in more distant places, it was beyond our reach and we had no time to attend to it.
As for the Black Tiger Shark Clan's expeditionary force...
Under Shark Minghong's leadership, although morale was initially dampened by the loss of the treasure vault, the team eventually stabilized thanks to Shark Minghong's strong suppression and subsequent redistribution of benefits.
During this year,
Like autumn winds sweeping away fallen leaves, they displayed the formidable strength of a long-established overlord, successively conquering and annexing several peak clans that had previously been friendly or hostile to the Golden Dragon Clan.
Although, upon conquering the core secret territories of these tribes, they often found their most important treasuries to be completely empty.
The fact that neither the semi-saint level experts in the army nor Shark Minghong himself ever obtained the crucial treasure they so desperately wanted for breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage—
Such as spiritual objects, innate malevolent forces, and the turbid energy of the earth.
However, as a long-established and top-tier race, their ordinary reserves, resource points, and territory itself still possess a very deep foundation.
therefore,
Aside from missing out on the top-tier loot, the ordinary Black Spirit Tiger Shark Clan cultivators who participated in the expedition reaped a considerable harvest through plundering, enough to make up for most of their losses.
In addition, Shark Minghong's tough stance and the allocation of some resources to appease her afterwards,
There were no major internal disturbances, and the expedition plan was able to continue.
on the other hand,
Cheng Buzheng's avatar, having successfully returned from the perilous True Dragon Sea, quietly returned to Ping'an City, located in a hidden space...
I immediately shared all the spoils of this trip.
Including the silver page obtained from the Golden Dragon Clan's treasure trove, which was handed over to the main body.
...(End of this chapter)