In the blink of an eye, Zhang Dong had spent thirty years in the Illusory Light Sea. He had explored over a hundred thousand islands, large and small, and the World Rings he had picked up were worth more than a billion Hunyuan Units combined.
But that wasn't the point.
In thirty years, he had encountered six assassination attempts in total—a frequency so high that it seemed downright unbelievable.
"The records didn't say the Illusory Light Sea had such frequent assassination attempts." Zhang Dong was baffled. Had he wandered into a den of bandits and thieves, or was the Primordial Universe really this savage?
Anyone who didn't know better would have thought he'd ended up in the wrong world—in the Cangyuan Map Universe, where the Black Demon Hall's members were everywhere beyond the borders, and you'd be attacked no matter where you went.
Each time, three to five Alien Race Kings from all kinds of alliances would go berserk the moment they saw him. They would cast Space Seal first, then charge at him in a frenzy.
In the end, he killed every one of those Alien Race Kings with a single slap, and their World Rings fell into his hands.
Assassinations were normal in a Cosmic Secret Realm, but not at such an abnormal frequency.
When something strange happened, there was always a reason.
Zhang Dong once again expanded his Inner World Projection and locked onto a Demon Race King thirty million kilometers away. He planned to capture an Alien Race member and enslave him, so he could find out what exactly was happening in the Illusory Light Sea.
The Hong Alliance's intelligence database might have the answer, but he hadn't joined the Hong Alliance yet. Looking up the records directly wouldn't reveal anything about these events. Intelligence and records were two different things.
Intelligence focused more on real-time information, while records offered an overall summary of a secret realm.
To join the Hong Alliance, one had to be certified as having King-level strength. When Zhang Dong had advanced from Domain Lord to World Lord, he had only comprehended the sixteenth level of the Heavenly Bridge.
World Lord Level was the fastest stage for Law Comprehension. Normally, one continued to advance through Life-and-Death Trials, reaching the eighteenth level before attaining King-Level Combat Power at the twentieth.
Dark Lord and Dark Marquis Lord had originally planned to let Zhang Dong join the Hong Alliance under another identity once he had King-Level Combat Power.
Boom!
Thirty million kilometers away, the Demon Race King had been searching for something on an island when he suddenly realized, to his horror, that he was pinned in place and couldn't move at all.
Even burning his Immortal Divine Power or self-destructing was useless.
Everything within a radius of over a hundred million kilometers was completely immobilized.
With a single glance, the Third-Heaven World Deity White Sand City Lord could immobilize everything within hundreds of millions of kilometers. Zhang Dong's technique was similar, though its range was much smaller.
"W-what's going on?!" The Demon Race King had dared to wander the Cosmic Secret Realm alone because he possessed combat power at the Peak King level. Yet he couldn't even see his opponent, and he was already pinned in place, unable to move.
Peak King level! Even if a true Invincible King—or even an Elementary Venerable—wanted to kill him, he should at least have been able to see them make a move.
How could he be immobilized without seeing anything at all? Even everything in this boundless area had stopped moving. The mist no longer flowed, and the sea seemed to have solidified, frozen completely!
The disparity between someone capable of this and him had to be unimaginable.
Whoosh!
A figure wreathed in emerald-green light appeared. The Demon Race King stared at him in terror. He wanted to speak, but couldn't utter a sound.
Zhang Dong glanced at him coldly and blew out a breath. The resulting storm annihilated his Immortal Divine Body.
Then his Immortal Divine Body regenerated, though his aura had weakened considerably. Only then did Zhang Dong use Soul Enslavement. His soul power formed a spike and slowly pierced toward him.
"No!!!" The Demon Race King roared in despair inside. His eyes bulged with rage, but he couldn't fight back at all. He was easily enslaved.
To be safe, Zhang Dong had deliberately annihilated part of his divine body before using his soul technique to enslave him. After all, he wasn't a soul expert.
Annihilating part of the divine body before enslaving him was the safest method.
A moment later, the Demon Race King opened his eyes and bowed respectfully. "Master, my name is Boluo King, and I'm a member of the Demon Race royal family."
Boluo King stood six meters tall, but he was terribly ugly, looking like the offspring of a mule and an alien creature.
By Zhang Dong's standards, though, he was a lot better-looking than a centipede.
"Boluo King, Peak King?" Zhang Dong didn't care much about his thrall's strength. He had chosen this method simply to gather information. "I've been exploring the Illusory Light Sea. Why have I been attacked so often these past few years?"
Even if people were targeting him because he was exploring alone, the attacks shouldn't have been this frequent.
"Master, you didn't know?"
Boluo King asked in puzzlement, "Thirty-three years ago, a native encampment was discovered. A Universe Venerable from the Zerg Alliance personally hunted them down. The leader of the native group fought to the death to hold him off, while the remaining tribespeople fled toward the sea with their treasures. But they were all killed, and the treasures were swept into the currents."
By Zhang Dong's reckoning, that had happened exactly three years before he came to the Illusory Light Sea.
Zhang Dong understood.
The entire Illusory Light Sea was constantly shifting. The islands moved around frequently as well, and any living being might find an Aboriginal Relic.
The treasures had been swept into the sea currents. Finding them would require the intervention of a great Universe Master, who could Control Space-Time and search the vast sea for a needle in a haystack.
The Universe Venerables had no patience for that. Those who came to explore the Illusory Light Sea were all after Heavy Treasures. They usually stayed in dangerous areas to cultivate, waiting for the moment one appeared.
There were Heavy Treasures in secret realms too, and with good luck, one might even encounter a Supreme Treasure coming into existence. But most appeared in extremely dangerous areas.
No wonder they attacked as soon as they saw me. Zhang Dong guessed they saw anyone wandering alone and figured they might have found a relic, so they attacked first and asked questions later.
The Aboriginal Relics were probably worth several hundred billion, or even a trillion Hunyuan Units. The bulk of them had surely been claimed by that Universe Venerable.
For most King-level Immortals, this was an immense fortune—more than they could accumulate over countless ages.
Boluo King asked, "Master, are you going to look for those relics? With your abilities, finding them shouldn't be difficult."
In his mind, Zhang Dong was a Special Lifeform Immortal.
Special Lifeform Immortals had enormous divine bodies and high gene multipliers. At the King level, they could possess hundreds of millions of times the World Lord Power, naturally allowing them to handle him as easily as a Universe Venerable.
Zhang Dong shook his head.
It was too much trouble. The sea was so vast that searching for the relics without powerful detection methods would be a waste of time.
"No need to rush." Zhang Dong ordered, "Go around to the various islands and help me collect anything valuable. If you find a treasure, contact me right away."
He was planning to visit the most dangerous areas and test his luck, to see if he could come across a Heavy Treasure appearing.
Fermo Venom was too expensive. A single kilogram cost a full three thousand billion Hunyuan Units. How much wealth could an ordinary Peak King possibly have?
The wealth he had gained from killing Robber Cultivators over the years was just enough to meet the Virtual Universe Company's requirements. He couldn't even afford a kilogram of Fermo Venom.
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