Zero Rift, nestled among the mountains, is where dark red dust is whipped up by the wind, lashing against the jagged rocks and making a rustling sound.
A team of more than ten people is moving quickly across this desolate land.
Leading the way was a tall man in dark red armor, none other than Chen Kefa.
The armor has an ancient style, and its surface is covered with fine scale patterns. It was made from the complete hide of a seventh-tier Magic Lizard King, which is enough to make him ignore most attacks below the seventh tier.
The Bamboo Sword on his back was unremarkable in appearance, its color a dull yellowish-green, looking no different from a hiking stick picked up by the roadside.
But only those who are enemies of Chen Kefa know the true power of this sword...
After Chen Kefa relearned the National Qi Induction Technique, with the help of the massive resources allocated by the Alliance, his cultivation level had already returned to the Grandmaster realm.
His foundation is more solid than before, and his combat power has increased rather than decreased. Now he is firmly in the top twenty on the East Continent Grandmaster Ranking.
Following behind him were men and women younger than Chen Kefa, their faces showing a mixture of nervousness, excitement, and curiosity.
"Good heavens, is this Zero Rift? It even smells of blood in the air."
"That's right. We were captains in the A-level Rift, but here we feel like newbies who just left the starting village."
"As the saying goes, there are more Grandmasters in Zero Rift than stray dogs on the street..."
"Sigh, I hope I won't be eliminated in the first round of this selection?" A young man with a baby face sighed.
A tall young man next to him patted him on the shoulder, winked and grinned, "Relax, it's normal to lose. Be nice to me from now on, and when I get elected, I'll protect you!"
Get lost!
"By the way, which team is the strongest on our Zero Rift side right now?"
"I'm not sure. Senior Chen should explain things to us once we've settled in."
These young people are elites selected from various A-level Rift Military Department in the East Continent, and they are the backbone of the Alliance's future. Chen Kefa's mission this time is to guide these newcomers to familiarize themselves with the environment.
The Alliance's top brass intends to promote him; individual combat power alone is not enough, he must have his own team.
Mentoring newcomers is the fastest way to build connections and prestige.
Hearing the chattering discussion behind him, Chen Kefa smiled.
Back when he first stepped into Zero Rift, his feelings were similar to those of these little guys.
Just then!
A sharp, piercing sound suddenly rang out from behind a rocky outcrop a hundred meters ahead!
Chen Kefa's smile vanished instantly, almost instinctively, as his right hand gripped the Bamboo Sword on his back.
"Clang!"
The Bamboo Sword was drawn, bringing with it a condensed cyan sword aura. It struck first, arriving with pinpoint accuracy towards the approaching black shadow.
The dark figure was shattered into pieces by the sword energy in mid-air.
It was a bone spur about half a meter long and completely black. After it shattered, it did not dissipate but instead exploded with a "boom," turning into a cloud of grayish-green poisonous mist that rapidly spread toward the location of the team.
Wherever the poisonous fog passed, even the hard rocks on the ground were corroded and hissed.
"Retreat! Form ranks! Enemy attack!"
Chen Kefa roared, his voice like a thunderclap, instantly snapping the still somewhat dazed young people out of their reverie.
He didn't retreat a single step. Instead, he stomped his foot and shot into the sky like a cannonball. He twirled his Bamboo Sword, creating a gust of wind that forcefully blew the poisonous fog in another direction.
Having done all this, his gaze sharpened, locking onto the rock face.
"Roar!"
A roar that sounded inhuman rang out.
A gaunt figure leaped out from behind the rocks, carrying a terrifying aura of death, and pounced straight at Chen Kefa in mid-air.
The monster's appearance made Chen Kefa's eyelids twitch.
With a blue face and fangs, and its body shrouded in a strong aura of death, it was clearly a high-level demon called " Hanba ".
Strangely, this Hanba's eyes were not the crimson or eerie green of ordinary demons, but two pure black eyeballs, without a trace of white in them, like two black holes that devour light.
What made his heart sink even more was the Hanba's right arm!
It was not a body of flesh and blood at all, but a hideous arm made entirely of black crystals, with five hook-like fingers that shimmered with a chilling eerie light.
"What the hell is that?"
Chen Kefa had no time to think. The opponent's speed was ridiculously fast. The black crystal arm was already tearing through the air with a sharp whistling sound, and it was grabbing fiercely at his face.
He parried with his sword.
"Clang!"
A loud bang, like two pieces of steel colliding head-on.
A tremendous force traveled through the Bamboo Sword, causing Chen Kefa's arm to go numb and his entire body to fly backward uncontrollably for more than ten meters.
He forced himself to steady himself in mid-air, and for the first time, a serious expression appeared on his face.
What incredible strength!
This demon gave him the feeling that it was definitely at the level of Eighth-Rank Great Demon King, and one of the most troublesome ones at that!
"Everyone, don't move! This is not something you can handle!"
Chen Kefa shouted down, reminding the eager young people.
After roaring, he took a deep breath, and his Divine Firmament True Essence exploded without reservation.
Azure lightning rose from his body, and the ordinary Bamboo Sword in his hand now shone with a dazzling azure light, causing the air around the sword to distort slightly.
"Cut!"
Chen Kefa took a step forward, and his figure instantly disappeared from the spot.
The next second, he appeared to the left of the Hanba and slashed straight at its neck with his sword.
Fast! Accurate! Ruthless!
This sword strike embodied the full strength of someone ranked among the top twenty on the Grandmaster Ranking.
However, the Hanba reacted even faster.
It seemed to have no thoughts, relying purely on its fighting instincts. Its black crystal right arm parried back at an incredible angle, precisely blocking the sword's edge.
"Clang!"
Another ear-piercing sound of impact rang out.
Sparks flew everywhere.
Chen Kefa's all-out sword strike only left a faint white mark on that crystalline arm.
"How is this possible!"
Chen Kefa was greatly alarmed.
Before he could react, the Hanba's other intact left hand suddenly grabbed out, its five fingernails growing several inches long and gleaming with a ghostly green poisonous light.
Chen Kefa reacted extremely quickly, striking out with his left palm. A powerful palm strike repelled the opponent's claws, and he used the force to drift backward.
After creating some distance, he stared intently at the monster, his back already beaded with cold sweat.
This thing is so hard!
Moreover, from beginning to end, there was no emotional fluctuation in those pure black eyes, only pure killing and destruction.
Like a... puppet being manipulated!
Just as Chen Kefa's mind raced as he considered countermeasures...
Mutation and Regeneration!
After being repelled, the Hanba did not pause at all, nor did it attack him again.
Its stiff neck snapped shut, and its two pure black eyes peered over Chen Kefa in mid-air, locking onto the group of young people who were waiting in ambush behind it!
A murderous aura ten times more violent than before suddenly erupted!
"Not good!"
Chen Kefa's expression changed drastically, and he instantly understood the other party's intention.
This beast actually wants to clear out the small fry first!
Chen Kefa's reaction was remarkably swift.
The moment those pure black eyes locked onto the newcomers behind him, the ground beneath his feet suddenly exploded, and using the force of the recoil, he forcibly traversed dozens of meters to stand in front of the group of young people.
"Spread out! Form the ' Small Heavenly Cycle Hunyuan Formation '! With me at the core, quick!"
Chen Kefa's voice boomed like a bell, startling the martial artists who were frozen by the murderous aura.
These young men were, after all, elites from their respective Military Department. After a brief moment of panic, their survival instincts spurred them into action.
A dozen or so fluctuations of True Essence instantly merged into one, forming a semi-circular transparent light shield.
Standing at the core of the formation, Chen Kefa felt streams of complex yet powerful energy surging from the soles of his feet into his limbs and bones.
This feeling was unpleasant, like countless tiny snakes wriggling inside his meridians, but he didn't have time to worry about it.
"Shenxiao, rise!"
Chen Kefa ran two fingers across the Bamboo Sword, and the originally emerald green blade was instantly covered with dense cyan lightning patterns.
The Hanba had already pounced upon them.
Its black crystalline right arm, like a heavy hammer, reeking of a suffocating stench, slammed down on you.
"Ding ding ding ding--!!"
A series of rapid, crisp cracking sounds exploded in the air, so fast it was as if hundreds of woodpeckers were working simultaneously in a single second.
The Bamboo Sword in Chen Kefa's hand transformed into a hazy blue light screen, with Thousand-Fold Bamboo Shadows shadows stacked one on top of another, each afterimage precisely striking the Hanba's crystalline arm.
With each impact, Chen Kefa's face paled a little more.
This monster's power is utterly unreasonable.
"What the hell is this thing?"
Chen Kefa cursed inwardly.
He had seen the Hanba before; although it was strong, it was definitely not at the level to withstand the combined power of more than a dozen grandmasters.
The monster before them resembled a sophisticated machine that knew only how to kill.
"Senior Chen... actually blocked it?"
Behind them, the baby-faced youth stared wide-eyed, his voice trembling.
"Nonsense! That's Senior Chen! But this monster is too powerful; it actually managed to fight Senior Chen to a standstill, even with the enhancement of the formation?"
"That's equivalent to the combined strength of more than ten of us!"
The newlyweds were shocked, but they didn't dare to slow down, desperately pouring their True Essence into the formation.
Chen Kefa had no interest in listening to such flattery; he knew this balance wouldn't last long.
More than a dozen streams of True Essence from different cultivation methods surged and crashed through the meridians. These external forces were ultimately like a tree without roots; for every breath, the Martial Dao Golden Core had to endure an excessive amount of tremors.
The current balance is extremely fragile.
"Shut up, all of you! Hold your ground!"
Chen Kefa brought his two fingers together and used his left hand to draw an ancient rune in the air.
The Sky Curtain, already tinged with a dark red by malevolent energy, now took on a more oppressive leaden gray hue. A muffled rolling sound emanated from the depths of the clouds—the gathering of thunder.
" Heavenly Thunder, strike!"
The formula was formed.
A thick golden beam of light pierced through the heavens and earth without warning, striking the Hanba's head, which was covered in black hair.
The blinding light robbed everyone of their sight.
An eerie, deathly silence descended upon the surroundings.
Chen Kefa felt his tiger's mouth go numb from the shock, the recoil traveling along the Bamboo Sword into his chest cavity, and a metallic taste rising in his throat. He forced down the blood, his eyes fixed on the center of the light mist.
Logically speaking, even a peak eighth-tier demon king would be severely injured if struck head-on by this level of lightning magic.
But when the light faded, Chen Kefa's heart sank.
The monster actually raised its black crystalline arm and withstood the bombardment of the Heavenly Thunder.
An eerie dark light flowed across the surface of the crystal, absorbing and neutralizing all the violent lightning energy.
"Hiss--"
Chen Kefa gasped.
This black crystal is actually immune to lightning magic?
The monster let out a piercing scream, and its form vanished once more.
"Oh no, the car is going to overturn!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Chen Kefa noticed that several newcomers with slightly weaker cultivation levels had begun to vomit blood, and the array's protective barrier was on the verge of collapse.
In this situation, even though the distress signal has been sent out, by the time reinforcements arrive, these young seedlings will probably be completely wiped out.
Chen Kefa took a deep breath, his eyes turning ruthless.
He reached into his robes and, in full view of everyone, pulled out a seemingly ordinary booklet.
That was a "picture album" that Chen Yan casually tossed to him before going into seclusion.
The newlyweds behind them were completely dumbfounded when they saw this.
"Senior Chen... why are you taking out a book at this time?"
"Could it be some kind of unparalleled martial arts technique, something I just learned and immediately put to use?"
"Big brother, what time is it? Help!"
The tall young man's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets; he even wondered if Senior Chen's brain had been damaged by the monster.
Chen Kefa ignored the commotion behind him.
Whether you live or die depends on you.
Chen Kefa roared and poured all the True Essence gathered in the formation into the picture book in his hand.
The picture album suddenly trembled, emitting a blinding blood-red light.
The Hanba, which had been pouncing in mid-air, suddenly froze.
"Roar--!"
The monster seemed to sense the threat and swooped down recklessly, its black crystalline arm leaving a ten-meter-long afterimage.
A strong wind blew in their faces, and the newcomers could even smell the strong stench of decay coming from the monster's mouth.
Just as the giant crystalline claw was about to touch Chen Kefa's scalp...
A huge, red-scaled claw suddenly emerged from the picture book!
The dull thud made the entire earth tremble three times.
That giant crystal claw, powerful enough to shatter a grandmaster's weapon, was actually firmly grasped in the hand of this red claw.
Immediately afterwards.
"Eh--!"
A resounding dragon roar echoed across the wilderness.
To everyone's horror, a huge, blood-red dragon with wings on its back leaped out of the palm-sized picture book.
That's not all.
As Chen Kefa continued to pour in his True Essence, the album pages flipped rapidly.
A giant ape engulfed in golden Fire Authority, a Cyan Strange Bird with wingspans that blot out the sky, a nine-headed serpent, and a rock giant wielding a giant axe.
Five terrifying eighth-tier demon kings suddenly appeared in this desolate valley.
Five distinct demonic energies converged, directly dispersing the surrounding dark red sand and dust.
The newlyweds were completely stunned.
Their mouths were agape, their minds blank.
What... what kind of tactic is this?
Does he carry a demon king's army with him?
Chen Kefa was also stunned at this moment.
He originally thought that Chen Yan had left behind some powerful talisman or one-time use True Essence, but he never expected that it would actually be five living eighth-order demon kings!
Although these demon kings had slightly dull eyes, their powerful aura was undeniable.
Seeing the once arrogant Hanba surrounded by the Five Great Demon Kings, Chen Kefa's last bit of tension disappeared.
He sheathed his Bamboo Sword, casually brushed the dust off his armor, and a mysterious smile appeared on his face.
He turned his head and said calmly to the group of petrified young people.
"Hmph, nothing special."