Just imagine it—if they had faced an assassination like this, would they have been able to evade it?
They had no confidence.
Who was that man in black? There were not many supreme experts in the Azure World, and they knew most of them, yet they had never heard of such a figure.
"Trying to run? Did This Emperor permit you to flee?"
Zhou Kuang snorted coldly, his eyes filled with towering fury and killing intent so dense it was about to solidify. Someone had actually tried to assassinate his son right before his eyes. They simply had not taken him seriously at all!
And he had not even noticed immediately. It was simply a humiliation!
If Qiongtian had not sent him a voice transmission just now, and if he had not placed a layer of protection on Qiongtian, Qiongtian might very well have been assassinated!
Zhou Kuang took one step forward and instantly appeared before that mass of shadow. He reached out and grabbed. "Get out here for This Emperor!"
The man in black was immediately dragged out by Zhou Kuang, but Zhou Kuang's expression suddenly changed.
"This is not the aura of an Azure World cultivator. You are from the Shadow Continent! You carry the aura of that old bastard Shadow!"
The Shadow Continent was precisely the continent Zhou Kuang had previously conquered. There was also a Great Emperor on the Shadow Continent. Though inferior to Zhou Kuang, he was still extremely powerful.
The Shadow Continent had only night and no day. Most cultivators there excelled at assassination and concealment; they were assassins born of heaven.
Zhou Kuang had never expected the Shadow Continent to send a supreme expert to assassinate his son. This supreme expert even carried a technique of the Shadow Great Emperor. No wonder Zhou Kuang had failed to notice him at once.
"That old bastard Shadow is truly courting death!" Zhou Kuang's eyes brimmed with incomparably dense killing intent, along with a trace of lingering fear. He had nearly lost his only son because of his own carelessness and arrogance.
Zhou Kuang directly crushed the supreme expert, tore out his Divine Soul, and searched it.
The hearts of the other Saint Kings and supreme experts skipped a beat. A supreme expert had been killed by Zhou Kuang as easily as slaughtering a chicken. Was that not a little too casual?
Could Zhou Kuang kill them as easily as chickens too? At that thought, all the Saint Kings and supreme experts felt ice run through their bodies.
"Let us continue!" Zhou Kuang said flatly. The other Saint Kings and Great Sages did not dare let out even a fart.
Could they not see that the Great Emperor was in a bad mood? What if they accidentally enraged him and he slaughtered them like chickens?
The Saint Kings and supreme experts remained trembling with fear until the banquet ended, then fled the Zhou Clan as though escaping for their lives, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
"Qiongtian, your father will be leaving for a while. Rest assured—with your father's methods protecting you, no one below the Great Emperor Realm can kill you."
"Those little brats from the Shadow Continent dared to sneak into my Azure World and even dared to touch Zhou Kuang's son. They are tired of living!"
Zhou Kuang shot into the sky. Two supreme experts, ten Saint Kings, one hundred and eight Saints, and tens of thousands of Feather Ascension Realm experts had long been waiting.
They stood there in neat ranks without making the slightest sound, like merciless killing machines.
The killing intent around them was so dense it seemed tangible, forming a blood-red dragon of killing intent that danced and roared above their heads.
"Bring me my axe!" Zhou Kuang roared. From the rear mountain of the Zhou Clan, a massive blood-colored axe soared into the sky and landed in Zhou Kuang's hand.
Dark bloodstains covered the blade of the giant axe, and no one knew how many enemies it had slain.
This was an imperial artifact—the Savage Blood Axe!
"My men, follow This Emperor! Conquer the Shadow Continent, slaughter that old undead bastard Shadow, and hack those little brats of the Shadow Continent to death!"
"Yes!" Tens of thousands of cultivators shouted in unison, like tigers roaring and dragons howling, shaking heaven and earth.
Zhou Kuang swung his axe, directly tearing open a spatial rift!
Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Kuang stepped inside. The other cultivators swiftly followed after him.
Watching the spatial rift vanish, Zhou Qiongtian's eyes gleamed. "This is power! Even if two continents are separated by an unknown distance, one can still strike straight into the enemy's lair. When will I possess such strength?"
The assassination attempt by the Shadow Continent's supreme expert made Zhou Qiongtian thirst for greater strength.
"Sister Xinchi, there is something I would like to ask you to help with." Zhou Qiongtian looked at Zhou Xinchi as he spoke.
Zhou Xinchi's Heart Pond Empire extended throughout the Azure World. In terms of connections, even the Zhou Clan could not compare with the Heart Pond Empire.
With the Heart Pond Empire investigating the Northern Region, they would surely be able to identify the person who might be a Child of Destiny in the shortest possible time.
Of course, Ye Xuantian would not rely solely on the Heart Pond Empire. He would also make use of the Zhou Clan's power.
"Tell me, little brother. No matter what it is, your sister will get it done for you." Zhou Xinchi confidently patted her surging chest.
Northern Region, Anyang City, Spirit Treasure Pavilion branch.
The master of the Spirit Treasure Pavilion branch looked at the letter in his hand with a puzzled expression, utterly dumbfounded.
"Investigate people blessed with good fortune? Especially those surnamed Ye, Lin, or Xiao—things like geniuses becoming trash, or trash suddenly making a comeback?"
"Suddenly saying incomprehensible things, muttering to themselves, doing things no one understands, and improving their strength very quickly?"
"Falling off cliffs without dying and unexpectedly obtaining fortuitous opportunities?"
"Wearing strange rings, having their fiancées break off engagements, and shouting, 'Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—do not bully the poor young man'?"
"What is all this? Why is headquarters investigating people like this? Forget it. Since headquarters has ordered it, I still have to do it."
This branch master only knew that the order had come from Spirit Treasure Pavilion headquarters. He did not know that headquarters itself had received the order from above and was equally bewildered.
The Spirit Treasure Pavilion's sphere of influence in the Northern Region was vast, with branches in every major city.
It was not only the Spirit Treasure Pavilion. Most other trade-oriented factions in the Northern Region had also received orders from above.
Many sects and Lineages in the Northern Region had received similar orders as well. The order seemed to have come from a super faction in the Central Region. They wanted to cling to the thigh of such a super faction, so they searched with exceptional diligence.
Yet they could never have imagined that the one issuing these orders was the Azure World's overlord, its sole immortal Lineage—the Zhou Clan!
Because of these orders, the entire Northern Region was thrown into turmoil.
Such people were neither particularly scarce nor particularly common throughout the Northern Region.
In only a few days, Zhou Qiongtian received a great deal of information. More than a hundred people met his requirements, and that number continued to rise!
Zhou Qiongtian frowned slightly. He had not expected there to be so many.
"Looks like I will have to make a trip to the Northern Region."
After cultivating these past few days, Zhou Qiongtian's cultivation had already broken through to Spirit Aperture Great Perfection.
Condensing ninety-nine spirit apertures counted as Spirit Aperture Great Perfection, but one could condense as many as one hundred and eight spirit apertures.
Every additional spirit aperture condensed caused one's strength to surge dramatically, made breaking through to the Spirit Channeling Realm easier, and smoothed the path of future cultivation.
However, condensing each additional spirit aperture was several times more difficult than the last!
Cultivators capable of condensing one hundred and eight spirit apertures were one in ten thousand. Even within the Zhou Clan, very few disciples could condense one hundred and eight spirit apertures.
Yet the spirit apertures inside Ye Xuantian's body had already reached one hundred and seven!
Before you continue