Mission Complete and Return

Zhou Zheng put away the treasures left behind by the two Transcendentals after their deaths, then turned to look in Herk's direction.

As a Demon, Herk possessed an immensely powerful physical body and was naturally highly effective against Transcendent Mages.

However, the old woman fighting Herk had summoned a massive doll phantom over a thousand meters tall. For the moment, she was evenly matched with him in battle.

"Herk, do you need my help?" Zhou Zheng transmitted his voice through the power of heaven and earth.

Upon hearing Zhou Zheng's words, Herk immediately became wary. He replied directly, "She forced herself to use this forbidden technique and is already at the end of her rope. There's no need for your concern!"

"Fine!"

Zhou Zheng nodded. He had already agreed to leave this Transcendent Mage to Herk, so naturally, he would not go back on his word.

"But when you deal with Wilco later, remember to bring me along!" Zhou Zheng suddenly added through voice transmission.

The moment those words left his mouth, Herk, who was still fighting in the distance, was greatly shocked. He was even distracted for a moment and nearly got struck by an attack from the gigantic doll phantom.

"Damn it!"

Herk cursed inwardly. He immediately stopped paying attention to Zhou Zheng and focused completely on the enemy before him.

Not long afterward, the enormous doll phantom shattered with a crash as though its strength had run dry. The Transcendent Mage hiding within it was almost instantly blasted to pieces by Herk.

With that, this entire Cyclic Reincarnator team had been wiped out.

Herk reverted to his fat man's appearance and flew toward Zhou Zheng with a grave expression.

"You figured it out long ago?" Herk asked directly.

"You mean Wilco?" Zhou Zheng said calmly, arms folded. "It wasn't anything too complicated. It wasn't hard to guess!"

"I do have a way to find Wilco!" Herk said. Then he asked, "But why should I take you with me?"

"You already made a huge profit by killing a Transcendent Mage, didn't you?" Zhou Zheng said. "I was the one who brought you there!"

"That counts as a condition?"

Herk was somewhat speechless. This had clearly been a mutually beneficial cooperation. After all, if he had not held back that Transcendent Mage, how could this man have defeated the other two so easily?

"If you think it counts as a condition, then it counts as a condition!" Zhou Zheng said. "There are less than two days left before this mission ends. You can try and see whether you can shake me off!"

"You—"

Herk's eyes widened. Why had he never noticed that this fellow had such a shameless side?

"So which one of us is the Demon, you or me?" Herk asked.

"Of course it's you!"

Zhou Zheng answered with certainty.

Herk: "..."

Time passed quickly, and nearly two days went by in the blink of an eye.

In the end, Herk still could not withstand Zhou Zheng's pressure and brought him to find Wilco.

In fact, from the first time he had fought Wilco, Herk had wanted to kill him. Back then, Herk had secretly left a tracking method he had exchanged from the Temporal Temple on Wilco, intending to kill Herk when the mission was nearing its end and make a fortune in the process.

This tracking method was silent and invisible. Other than Transcendentals who had mastered the mysteries of certain specific laws, few could detect it.

Wilco was merely a newly advanced Transcendental, and the mystery he had mastered was only the extremely common fire-element mystery. Naturally, he had no idea from beginning to end that something had been done to him.

Thus, under Herk's guidance, the two of them found Wilco with ease.

At this time, Wilco was inside a specially constructed dark prison, using all sorts of horrifying methods to torture a King-level lifeform from the Wang Family. Clearly, this person was Wilco's true enemy and the chief culprit behind Wilco's desire to destroy the Wang Family.

Zhou Zheng and Herk waited patiently until less than a quarter of an hour remained before the mission ended, then chose to reveal themselves.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The two entered the prison. The stench of blood made Zhou Zheng frown slightly, but Herk revealed an expression of enjoyment.

The place was filled with souls shrouded in fear and despair, and such souls were a Demon's favorite.

"It's you?"

Wilco recognized Herk, who had once stopped him. He was about to say something, but in the next moment, Zhou Zheng had already drawn the pitch-black longsword from his back.

Whoosh!

Zhou Zheng's figure vanished in a flash. Seeing this, Herk could no longer care about the delicious souls filling the prison. He immediately revealed his Original Body and charged forward.

"A Demon?!"

Wilco was horrified. Great flames instantly erupted around him as he tried to leave the prison first.

But in the next moment, everything abruptly slowed.

Slash!

A sword containing terrifying might tore a massive hole through Wilco's body. Immediately afterward, a Demon's claw came at him. Wilco dodged with difficulty, but half his body was still swatted away by the claw.

Slash!

Zhou Zheng twisted his longsword, and Wilco's head instantly shattered.

In the blink of an eye, a newly advanced Transcendental—a Transcendental who should have possessed boundless prospects—had died at their hands.

A quarter of an hour later—

An incomparably vast Space-Time fluctuation descended with a roar. In the blink of an eye, Herk and Zhou Zheng, who had been inside the prison, vanished without a trace.

At the same time, in a village far away, another Space-Time fluctuation descended. Feng Zhuhong, who had been cultivating, instantly disappeared as well.

Even farther away, inside an underground tunnel more than a hundred li below the surface, a Space-Time fluctuation similarly descended. In an instant, Jit, who had left the team from the very beginning, also vanished, leaving behind only a bewildered young boy.

In this Normal Tier mission with a twenty percent mortality rate, not a single person from Zhou Zheng's team had died. Every one of them survived.

Zhou Zheng only felt everything changing at incredible speed. Before his eyes seemed to be the ordinary lives of countless mortals, as well as many powerful Transcendentals engaged in frenzied slaughter.

He even saw a great many Demons.

In the blink of an eye, Zhou Zheng's vision returned to normal. He had arrived in an entirely white yet empty room.

The room was only a little over ten zhang in length and width. For Zhou Zheng, who was already a Transcendental, it was undoubtedly cramped.

Suddenly, Zhou Zheng felt a trace of heat on his left wrist. He raised his arm and saw that a strange pattern had silently appeared there.

The pattern resembled a whirlpool. If one stared at it for too long, one would feel as though one were about to fall into endless Space-Time.

"Xia Transcendental Zhou Zheng, congratulations on passing the newcomer mission and officially joining the Temporal Temple!" A voice suddenly rang out within the room.

"Hm?"

Zhou Zheng raised his head and asked, "You are?"

"I am a sub-consciousness of the Temporal Temple Artifact Spirit. You may call me 3327. Within this room, you may ask me any question you have!" the voice rang out again.

"Oh?"