Chapter 158

Chapter 158: Underground Kingdom

The Heavenly Sovereign Society’s methods were still unknown, but Li Shuang was not anxious. [Third Senior Brother has been undercover for months. If their method could really cause us unavoidable harm, he would have warned us.]

Third Senior Brother had never mentioned it.

[That likely means their method cannot touch us for now.]

[Maybe it only affects the Qi Refining Stage while we are at the Foundation Establishment Stage. Or maybe we have not been here long enough, and controlling us would need more time.]

Li Shuang’s eyes flickered.

[If that is the case, then on this flying boat, the people not yet bound might only be us.]

By common sense, Lord Copper should have watched them more closely.

Instead, he was hiding and would not even show his face. Clearly, he felt a growing wariness.

He might not suspect only them. More likely, the whole group of cultivators from Peacehaven Town had been placed on a key watch list.

[Once we reach their headquarters, the Heavenly Sovereign will not give us much time.]

It was very likely that as soon as they arrived, a battle would break out.

That was fine. Their plan had always been to reach the headquarters and use crushing force to destroy the entire Devil Path group.

In the world of cultivation, no matter how many schemes there were, in the face of absolute strength they were nothing.

[Now it depends on how many tricks the Heavenly Sovereign really has.]

With a few days still left, Li Shuang sat down to regulate her breathing.

For the coming fight, she needed to keep herself in top form.

The others had the same idea. Luo Ming Yue and the rest also entered meditation. The cabin was crowded, yet a strange quiet spread through it.

Ye Zhao Zhao had never trained seriously before, and now her heart stirred.

In cultivation, even Sheng Yuan and Shen Yue worked hard and dared not slack off.

Her earlier cultivation had come too easily, which made her look down on the work of training.

But what if, while stealing Li Shuang’s cultivation, she also trained herself with effort? Would she gain even more?

With a new identity, Ye Zhao Zhao’s drive for success awakened.

She glanced at Li Shuang with a blank face.

After this ordeal, she finally understood a harsh fact.

[As a Transmigrator, I do not have many built-in advantages in this world. If I want to go higher and farther, I must give up that pride and fully blend into this world.]

[Li Shuang! You are diligent, right? You work hard, right? Starting today, I will be more diligent and work harder than you!]

[Sooner or later, I will settle the old score between us.]

Thinking this, Ye Zhao Zhao actually began to train in earnest.

This body’s spiritual roots were not top tier, but they were far better than her former Mixed Spiritual Roots.

Holding her breath and her temper, Ye Zhao Zhao kept at her cultivation through the next few days.

Four days later, the flying boat slowed.

Lord Copper’s voice rang out: “We have reached our destination. Everyone, leave the boat.”

People stood up with different looks on their faces.

Soon, under the lead of the Copper Devil Guard and a group of black-clad subordinates, everyone left the cabin and came to the deck.

They were over a wasteland. As far as the eye could see, there was no sign of people in any direction.

After the cultivators disembarked in good order, Lord Copper held a compass. Its needle shook wildly for a while and then pointed to a certain direction. He followed the compass. When the needle finally stilled, he stopped.

Then he formed hand seals and struck them onto what had looked like empty ground. The true scene quickly appeared.

Li Shuang’s expression moved.

[This is an Illusory Formation.]

The entrance to the so-called Heavenly Sovereign Society had been hidden by an Illusory Formation.

The barren land was wide, and there were no landmarks. Without a compass, even the Copper Devil Guard might not find the place again, let alone anyone else.

When the Illusory Formation was dispelled, a round copper cover appeared on ground that had been plain yellow dirt.

They lifted the copper cover to reveal a pitch-black hole, with a stairway leading deep, deep underground.

A normal cellar lies only three or four meters below ground, and you can see the bottom at a glance. That kind of depth still gives some sense of safety.

But this stairway led to pure darkness, with not even a thread of light.

At the instant the cover opened, the Supreme Emotionless Art started to circulate. Li Shuang sensed a wave of danger.

Danger was certain, but for her it was not a mortal threat.

Besides, she had Luo Ming Yue and the others with her.

[If it is only like this, then this Heavenly Sovereign Society will be swept away by us.]

[Will it really be that easy?]

Li Shuang lowered her gaze and kept her face calm.

The Copper Devil Guard raised his voice with passion: “Our Heavenly Sovereign Society has built a vast kingdom underground! Welcome. You are about to become part of this underground kingdom! Our noble Lord has even decided to meet you in person. This is your supreme honor.”

After that, he and his men lined up on both sides to watch everyone file down below.

Following the flow of people, Li Shuang and her group entered the hole.

It was so dark under the ground that you could not see your hand in front of your face. If not for the fact that these were all cultivators, they might have been driven mad by the deep black the moment they stepped in.

There was some noise, but most people held themselves together.

They kept going down the stairs for at least a hundred meters before their feet hit solid ground.

At the bottom, luminous pearls were set into both rock walls, finally giving a bit of light.

Among mortals, these pearls were worth a lot. Among cultivators, they were merely glowing beads.

To cultivators, anything without spiritual power had no value.

With her feet on the ground, Li Shuang looked around and frowned.

The Heavenly Sovereign Society had only shown signs of activity in the past few months, which was why Third Senior Brother took this task.

Groups of Devil Path gangs rose up again and again. After the Sword Sect investigated this one, they judged it had not yet become a real threat, so the mission rank was low. A Golden Core Stage Third Senior Brother could take it alone.

But this underground world was crisscrossed with wide passages, clearly not something dug in a short time.

After they walked out of a short tunnel, the space opened up. Halls rose one after another, and the roads were full of people. It looked lively and crowded.

To build something on this scale in only a few months was impossible.

They were still inside the borders of the Chenrong Kingdom. Though cultivation sects usually did not meddle in mortal affairs, the Sword Sect stood within the Chenrong Kingdom. Right under the Sword Sect’s nose, someone had built a whole kingdom beneath the ground.