Wu Chang shook his head slightly, redirecting his thoughts to the present. The existing intelligence was too limited to allow him to make a complete deduction.
Instead of blindly guessing, it would be better to search for more clues.
This place was the Inheritance Land of the Wind Demon King, but all they found here was an abandoned Celestial Sacrificial Altar; an existence similar to an Immortal connection was nowhere to be found.
Could it be that they took a wrong turn?
As he watched around him, he suddenly heard a thunderous noise not far away. Turning his head to look, he saw the silent An Rong approaching the altar, with the Fangtian Halberd in his hand flashing with thunder, striking the altar heavily.
The altar seemed ordinary and unimpressive, but An Rong struck with all his might, and he couldn’t even chip off a piece of stone dust. Instead, An Rong was hit by a counterforce and flew backward, slamming into the inside of the cave.
Wu Chang’s True Self approached An Rong and asked:
"Brother An, what are you doing?"
An Rong got up, looked at his slightly trembling palm, and said helplessly:
"To use the Ziwei Exorcism Grand Array to break the Demon Realm, we must first clear all four Demon King territories. I thought since the Wind Demon King is dead, we might remove one Demon King territory before the Ziwei Exorcism Grand Array forms."
"Now it seems it’s truly impossible with individual strength alone."
Wu Chang True Self approached the altar, found a corner of the altar edge, and tried to break a piece off with all his strength. Using his Desolate Realm top-level 500 Power, he still couldn’t manage to chip off a corner.
An Rong noticed Wu Chang’s actions and said:
"I’ve tried it already, it doesn’t work. Until the Ziwei Exorcism Grand Array breaks through a line in the Demon Realm, earth, water, fire, and wind elements form a cycle, with the four Demon King territories acting as array cores."
"Unless our attack can shake the Demon Realm, otherwise it’s useless to damage the altar here."
Wu Chang clicked his tongue after hearing this, understanding from An Rong that the Demon King’s inheritance altar is integrated with the Demon Realm, similar to his "Titan" Title.
Unless the attack is strong enough to destroy most of the Tianlan Province’s Demon Realm, the altar cannot be destroyed.
Though the altar cannot be destroyed, it doesn’t mean they can do nothing about it.
True Self gave Leng Shan a look and asked: "Is placing the Faith Virus here more suitable than in the Earth Sacrifice ceremony?"
This place once gathered the Power of Faith, one of the altars of the Celestial Sacrificial ceremony, connecting to the deep Abyss, and hard to detect, is an excellent place to place it.
The only issue is that they are unsure if the Bright Society will act from the Celestial Sacrifice ceremony or the Earth Sacrifice ceremony.
Leng Shan took out a small black box, similar to the Divine Rune Decipherer. When Wu Chang and Hunter infiltrated the Bright Society’s private space, they had placed a sub-body of the Divine Rune Decipherer on the stone altar. Leng Shan used this item, which could calculate the current distance to the Bright Society via the sub-body.
The Faith Virus is meant to target the Bright Society, and the closer it is, the more suitable it is to place.
Leng Shan circled the altar detecting for a while, then shook his head and said:
"The distance here to the Bright Society is farther than from the Earth Sacrifice ceremony. Their target seems to be the Earth Sacrifice ceremony."
They carefully searched within Gourd Mountain for a while longer, confirming they couldn’t find more intelligence, then left Gourd Mountain and regrouped with those outside.
Upon leaving Gourd Mountain, they didn’t return directly but instead took out the all-terrain transport, heading towards the central area of the Demon Realm.
Although enough intelligence was gathered from Gourd Mountain, having already come so far, how could they leave without taking a glance at the Celestial Gate?
With a sense of resignation, the group boarded the all-terrain transport. After over four hours, they finally reached the central area of the Demon Realm.
Compared to the perimeter, the central area of the Demon Realm was enveloped by a red barrier with a frosted texture, obscuring the view beyond the barrier.
Approaching the barrier, Wu Chang noticed it wasn’t formed from overly concentrated Demon Qi, but more like the barrier protecting the Wind Altar. Even with 100% resistance to Demon Qi, he couldn’t force his way through the barrier.
No wonder the Blue Feather Bird said there are only two ways to enter the central area:
Become a demon or completely break the Demon Realm, removing the inheritance lands of earth, water, fire, and wind’s four Demon Kings.
Despite not being able to venture inside, Leng Shan used his instrument to confirm once again that this place was farther from the Bright Society than the Earth Sacrifice ceremony.
They discovered the true form of the four Demon King inheritances, gathered information regarding the Celestial Sacrifice ceremony, and completed the probe of the Wind Demon King, so even not seeing the Celestial Gate firsthand counts as exceeding the task’s expectations.
Since leaving Zhenyue City, more than ten hours had passed, and seeing the late hour, everyone began their journey back.
Following the original route back to the ship, they crossed East Lake by wooden boat, re-entering Shuanghu City, and finally relaxed and let out a sigh.
Like Wu Chang did after completing the Demon-breaking Army trial initially, returning from the Demon Qi region to the Spiritual Qi region felt like they had lightened two pounds off their bones.
The speed at which they returned from the Demon Realm exceeded the expectations of the city-guarding cultivator in Shuanghu City; to his knowledge, it takes two to three days to explore the Demon Realm and return.
The fact Wu Chang and others returned within a day indicated they probably hadn’t even seen the Demon King before being rushed out, thankfully without any casualties.
The guarding cultivator was curious about what happened in the Demon Realm to make two Earth Immortals flee, but his status wasn’t even that of an Elder; he dared not speak or inquire, only waiting for the matter to escalate for Zhenyue City to investigate.
Suppressing his curiosity, he told Wu Chang:
"Master Tang, you all returned too quickly, the Teleportation Array isn’t prepared yet. Please rest in the city for half an hour, and I’ll have someone find you once it’s ready."
During the half-hour stay in the city, Wu Chang let everyone roam freely and explore.
The group relaxed naturally and began to talk about the spoils of this mission.
They received 300 Contribution Value each for participating in repelling the demon horde at Gourd Mountain, counted as part of the Wind Demon King’s defeat.
This propelled Leng Shan and Sword Star to tie for third place on the Contribution leaderboard, while others surpassed Meng Yawen from the Immortal Mansion and Super Core, collectively reaching fourth place.
The person in second on the leaderboard was the Painter who took the Yuheng Immortal Mansion, entering the instance simultaneously with Leng Shan and Sword Star, yet uncatchable even with both of them joining forces.
Wu Chang marveled at how the Painter had certain abilities in instance strategy, though he prided himself in having even more, knowing the Painter needed practice to match him.
During the team’s rest, Wu Chang used his True Self to approach the Shadow, pointing to the Teleportation Array being prepared nearby.
He said: "While they’re preparing, infiltrate and listen to their discussions, and check the array activation records to confirm if it was activated this morning. If it was, see who the transporter was."