A Tangle of Questions

"Has this guy gone mad?"

If Zhang Xuezhou had reached what he considered the pinnacle of survival, then after witnessing Donghua's madness, he realized he was still far from it.

As if just to teach him a lesson, Donghua immediately used a "mutual destruction" tactic upon meeting him.

Although Zhang Xuezhou is very adaptable, he was still bewildered by this situation.

Zhang Xuezhou felt things shouldn't have turned out this way, but that's exactly what happened.

After crawling up from the ruins and wriggling for a while, Zhang Xuezhou finally emerged from the layer of rock and soil that was pressing down on him.

His body is sustained by the Nine Revolutions Qi Uniting Technique. Although he can't transform like Yang Jian, his body can be hard or soft, and can extend or shrink to a certain extent without any problem.

But despite surviving this collision in the secret realm, Zhang Xuezhou showed no joy at his remarkable survival skills.

He couldn't understand Donghua's behavior. The other party acted as if he had seen a ghost when he saw him, and before he could even finish a few words, the other party started fighting him.

"Liu Xuan, what do you think of the opponent I've encountered?"

Zhang Xuezhou looked at the greenwood staff with half of its bark scraped off, and then at the half of the glass staff wrapped around the spiritwood staff.

"Madness!"

Liu Xuan's figure appeared in the glass, and after a low evaluation, his figure quickly faded away.

Zhang Xuezhou was severely impacted, and Liu Xuan was clearly not faring well either.

"I've inherited the fortune of Emperor Qin and the King of Huainan, so I should be riding high right now. Is encountering this a stroke of luck or bad luck?"

Zhang Xuezhou pressed his hand to his forehead, and a bright light appeared behind his head, illuminating the dark area.

Looking ahead, Zhang Xuezhou saw the Emperor's mangled body, wrecked and broken from being pulled, squeezed, and exploded, slumped on the bronze chair.

In Zhang Xuezhou's conjecture, Donghua, using the body of the Emperor and being proficient in various Technique Method abilities, was not confident that he could defeat the new Emperor and Divine Lord Zhenyuan, even if Zhang Xuezhou had won them over.

He just wanted to try it out, and the current result is undoubtedly hard for him to accept.

"I don't believe you're that crazy!"

Zhang Xuezhou stood before the bronze throne and reached out to touch the emperor's body.

Hair began to gradually appear on the dead body, and the Emperor's demonic form was revealed.

The impact of the shattering of the secret realm was immense and lasted a long time, but this power was dispersed, and everything in the secret realm was a victim of it. The destructive power on individuals was not as great as the blow that the Demon-Revealing Mirror delivered to Zhang Xuezhou.

Zhang Xuezhou withstood the strain, but the Emperor's physical body couldn't withstand it; his body exploded after being squeezed and stretched.

Without this special bronze throne to maintain his form, the Emperor's physical body would not be so intact.

"You're not dead! I don't believe you died so easily!"

Zhang Xuezhou walked around the bronze throne three times, observing every part of the emperor's physical body.

He even unleashed a long-dormant Yin Entity Tracking Technique to search for Donghua's whereabouts.

How could he have died and his soul had vanished?

The Yin Entity Tracking Technique almost transformed into a purple fireball in his palm, its power enveloping an area of several hundred meters around him.

There was no movement whatsoever; Zhang Xuezhou couldn't even detect any lingering traces of the great gods like Wangliang, Taowu, Chong, and Changqin after their deaths.

The uncontrolled collisions in the secret realm caused many demon gods to be repeatedly stretched and crushed, ultimately resulting in their deaths and the dissipation of their souls. Even the wraiths with the will to survive could not survive.

"Things shouldn't be like this!"

Zhang Xuezhou felt a conflict between his thinking and the facts. He couldn't believe that Donghua was really dead, but reality provided a direct answer.

Instead of rushing to find a way out, he continued to examine everything that remained in the secret place.

If Donghua is dead, Zhang Xuezhou doesn't need to rush to leave; if Donghua is alive, the other party's hiding place will make him difficult to guard against.

Moreover, having lost the Emperor's physical body, Donghua should be very weak right now.

"He must have had a motive. Why then did he end up alone in the Kunlun ruins?"

No trace of Donghua could be found in the secret location, and Zhang Xuezhou also found no relevant clues.

He couldn't help but think back to the beginning, after all, it was very strange for Donghua to appear alone in the Kunlun ruins.

Who is he waiting for?

"If I hadn't shown up here, would he have also resorted to this kind of suicide?"

Who does he want to eliminate?

Zhang Xuezhou had many questions in his mind. When the faint voice calling his name came, Zhang Xuezhou quickly used the Demonic Sound Technique to respond.

"It's definitely here, dig down!"

The new emperor's voice came, followed by a series of hammering sounds.

The sound grew closer, and Zhang Xuezhou estimated that the distance between them was between tens and hundreds of meters.

"This has turned into iron!"

"My banner can pierce through this place!"

"Shuo Xian, move aside! Master is about to open the mountain; don't face us directly!"

Divine Lord Zhenyuan, Yuanshi Tianzun, and Nanji all spoke up, and Zhang Xuezhou quickly moved aside, then shouted to the crowd to indicate that he had moved aside.

"Boom!"

A thunderous sound echoed from the ground, as if a giant sledgehammer had struck this secret place. Zhang Xuezhou saw a stone wall suddenly crack open, and a lot of soil and gravel exploded out.

"Shuo Xian, what's the situation inside?"

Yuanshi Tianzun asked a question, followed by the sound of Divine Lord Zhenyuan spreading his sleeves.

"The Celestial Venerable's attack was truly immense in power; we are far inferior to him. This place is narrow, and the Celestial Venerable is so tall. Perhaps I should climb in and see what's going on!"

"I'll go take a look too!"

Divine Lord Zhenyuan and the new emperor spoke up one after another. Yuanshi Tianzun stopped asking questions and instead crawled in through the hole that had been drilled.

In just over ten seconds, Yuanshi Tianzun had already entered, carrying a banner. His gaze swept across the room and he spotted the corpse lying on the bronze chair.

"How... how did he die?"

Even the Yuanshi Tianzun, who had seen the world, found it hard to believe that the Emperor would die here.

"You killed the Emperor?" Yuanshi Tianzun asked suspiciously.

"I don't have that kind of power," Zhang Xuezhou shook his head repeatedly. "I don't know what possessed him, but he shouted 'Let's die together,' and then this secret place was destroyed!"

"Is this a secret place?"

"This is the secret location where the Kunlun Heavenly Court's council hall is situated!"

If it weren't for the remnants of the ancient Heavenly Court in this area, and the bronze throne that once symbolized the power of the Heavenly Court, Yuanshi Tianzun would hardly believe that this was a secret place, let alone that it was once the secret place of the Kunlun Heavenly Court, which covered an area of ten miles.

Beneath this snow-capped mountain, the once vast secret place has dwindled to less than 300 meters in size, and everything has changed beyond recognition.

"The Jade Pearl Secret Realm of the Kunlun Heavenly Court Council Hall was once hailed as the Pearl of Kunlun, yet it has fallen to such a state!"

Yuanshi Tianzun frowned as he looked at the Emperor's corpse, realizing that things had gotten much worse.

"Master, adjusting the Western Heavenly Gate shuttle is extremely risky. Did the Emperor make a mistake that led to this fatal disaster?"

Upon seeing the corpse on the bronze chair, Antarctica was understandably horrified before recounting his speculations.

The Emperor is the most powerful cultivator in the Three Realms. Not only is Zhang Xuezhou unable to kill him, but even the Yuanshi Heavenly Lord is not confident in his ability.

"Donghua seems to want to kill Yuanshi Tianzun!"

If there were any cultivators worth Donghua mobilizing a large force to target, Yuanshi Tianzun would definitely be one of them.

The position of Yuanshi Tianzun is similar to that of the Sect Master Jieyin of the Western Sect, and his Zhutian Qingyun Technique possesses infinite defensive power.

Donghua manipulated the Kunlun Secret Realm to crash into Lingxiao, and Yuanshi Tianzun relied on this tactic to resist and thus protect the Immortal Court. Yuanshi Tianzun was undoubtedly a thorn in Donghua's side.

If the target were Yuanshi Tianzun, such a show of force would be entirely understandable.

The only question is whether this targeting is worth Donghua risking his life for, and why the other side used this opportunity on Zhang Xuezhou.

In Donghua's view, the other party seemed to believe that the risks posed by Zhang Xuezhou were greater than those posed by Yuanshi Tianzun.