Chapter 1085: Map Fusion

The Ten Kings of the Qingtian lineage, each a Saint 4-dan expert capable of operating independently, were so formidable that any one of them could have instigated a bloody storm in the Hongyuan Empire, or even the Qingyuan Empire, leading to the devastation of countless human lives.

They had believed that with their intervention, this ancient ruin would be effortlessly claimed, and that the Qingyuan Conferred Empire would suffer significant damage, losing countless master teachers in the process.

However, when the eight kings were dispatched, they were utterly annihilated without a single ripple. They had initially presumed that reinforcements from the Master Teacher Pavilion or the Combat Master Hall headquarters had prevented the kings from even escaping... but it turned out they had all been killed by someone who was merely a Half-Saint.

The more he pondered, the more frustrated and infuriated he became.

Fortunately, Emperor Qingtian remained unaware; if he ever learned of this news, he would surely faint from anger on the spot.

What kind of deep-seated animosity was this?

To inflict such devastating losses on their Ten Kings!

"I no longer want to search for any relics; I just want to go home..."

His heart was heavy with frustration, but there was no time for him to dwell on it.

Most of this formation had been set by him, having already reached the peak of Level 7 with immense power. Even with all his strategies, he was now helpless within it, only able to endure passive attacks.

Just as he dodged a few attacks and sought an escape route from the formation, the young man's voice echoed from above.

"President Han, operate the formation and kill this fellow as quickly as possible..."

As soon as the words were spoken, the formation seemed to be powered by an even greater force, and its might increased significantly once more.

"You..."

Red Leaf King's face turned deathly pale.

Although he had set up this formation, he didn't know its specific type. It would take him at least half an hour to study it and locate its vital gate.

The opponent was only a Half-Saint, so operating the formation was very taxing for him; even if he got injured, Red Leaf King could still endure... but if Han Xu were to operate the formation, he truly wouldn't be able to resist.

This man himself had reached the peak of Saint 4-dan and was the president of the Formation Master Guild, possessing a deep understanding of formations. If he operated it, the formation's power would be significantly amplified. Escape, it seemed, was now impossible!

As Red Leaf King despaired, President Han and the others above the formation saw their eyes light up.

Hearing the call, they emerged from their hiding places and discovered that Red Leaf King was already ensnared within a formidable killing formation!

They needed no additional maneuvers; simply operating the killing formation would be enough to slay him.

"Teacher Zhang... if I'm not mistaken, this formation should be at the peak of Level 7, right? Did you... set this up?"

As he operated the formation, President Han couldn't help but glance over.

They had been hidden earlier and thus didn't know how Zhang Xuan had dealt with Red Leaf King.

This killing formation had already reached the peak of Level 7; even for him, setting it up would require immense effort and time. Yet, Teacher Zhang was merely a Half-Saint—how could he have completed it so quickly?

"I didn't set it up; it was Red Leaf King..." Zhang Xuan shook his head, refraining from taking credit.

"Red Leaf King?" Everyone was dumbfounded.

Setting up a restrictive formation only to trap himself within it... Was this guy insane?

"Perhaps he couldn't think straight and wanted to commit suicide..." Zhang Xuan said, shaking his head with a smile. "You know, Otherworldly Demons aren't exactly known for their intelligence..."

He couldn't elaborate on how he had tricked Red Leaf King; otherwise, his impersonation of Purple Leaf King would be difficult to explain.

While President Han and Teacher Wu cooperated to operate the formation and kill Red Leaf King below, Zhang Xuan moved behind the group, found a spot, and sat down cross-legged. His consciousness was immersed in the Library, where he began to study the ruin introduction he had acquired from Red Leaf King.

The entire book was written in what the opponent referred to as "Ancient God Language," none of which Zhang Xuan recognized. However, he could vaguely discern that many of the characters were remarkably similar to those found on Wu Yangzi's previous map.

With a flick of his wrist, an item appeared in his palm.

It was an ancient piece of parchment, its age unknown, upon which a map was densely marked with peculiar characters.

"The topography on this map bears no resemblance to this place at all..."

Zhang Xuan glanced down, filled with surprise.

Although he didn't recognize the characters etched on the parchment, he could clearly discern the terrain and geographical features, yet there was not a single similarity to the current location.

Precisely for this reason, he had never imagined that this map would be connected to this particular ruin.

"This map is probably tens of thousands of years old..." Zhang Xuan mused, a thought stirring in his mind. "Could it be that the topography was like this when it was drawn, but now, after eons, it has transformed into a completely different landscape?"

Continents and terrains are not static but change over time. Could it be that the terrain shifted over long periods, causing the map to become completely different from the current location?

"No, that's not right... This is a folded space. There are no tectonic movements or water erosion here. How could it have changed?"

This thought didn't last long before Zhang Xuan shook his head.

A folded space differs from the outside world; it's unaffected by various natural changes. Furthermore, formations are ubiquitous here, so even if changes occurred, they couldn't be so complete that not a single feature remained the same.

"Hmm..."

As he was pondering, he suddenly noticed that the book in his hand and the parchment before him seemed to share some similarities.

With a flick of his finger, he placed the two items together.

With a soft hum, the map and the introduction slowly drew closer, then with a "whoosh!" they merged, forming a brand-new parchment map in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Xuan was startled. "This... are these actually two halves of the same map?"

No wonder the separate introduction was incomprehensible and the individual map was unclear; they were, in fact, just pieces of a complete map.

He quickly picked up the merged parchment and looked down at it.

What he saw was now entirely different from before, depicting an entirely new scene.

"Is this the lava we passed through just now? This is the Sea of Thunder, and this is the Black Annihilation Dust?" Feng Xun, who had appeared behind him at some point, couldn't help but exclaim, pointing at the features on the map.

"Yes!"

Without Feng Xun needing to say anything, Zhang Xuan also recognized it. The merged parchment vividly depicted all the contents of the ruin; the scenes within the map seemed to come alive, animating automatically as if they could leap out at any moment.

"Could this red line be... the correct path? There's actually this path; how did we never discover it before?" Feng Xun exclaimed.

Hearing this, Zhang Xuan looked over and indeed saw a light red line, starting from the lava, extending across the entire map.

"This line is indeed the correct path," Zhang Xuan said, shaking his head, "but without this parchment, it simply wouldn't appear..."

If they had possessed this item before entering the ruin, they could have followed the marked route on this line, proceeding unhindered and encountering no danger. The reason they hadn't discovered this path before was not due to poor eyesight, but because without the complete map, this route simply would not have appeared.

It involved spatial mysteries that he couldn't comprehend at that moment.

Following the map, he quickly located the Heavenly Palace.

"So the deepest part of the ruin is behind this waterfall..." Having quickly confirmed the direction and path, Zhang Xuan breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and looked at President Han and the others.

President Han and Teacher Wu, two Saint 4-dan experts, had joined forces. Coupled with the peak Level 7 killing formation, even the powerful Red Leaf King could not hold on and had now been forcefully slain.

If the previous Fire Leaf King's miserable death—being instantly crushed by the Golden Origin Cauldron—was already disheartening, Red Leaf King's demise was surely even more so.

To be forcefully killed by a formation he himself had set up—the dignified Second King truly met a miserable end.

"Let's go. With the map, the rest will be safe..."

With the hidden danger of Red Leaf King resolved, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Zhang Xuan smiled, and with an uplift of his palm, the parchment in his hand flew up, instantly transforming into a rainbow-like bridge that extended over the Heavenly Palace towards the depths of the waterfall.

"Let's go!"

He called out, then stepped onto the bridge first. After taking a few steps, remembering something, he reached out and collected the formation flags from the killing formation below into his ring. At the same time, with a light tap, Red Leaf King's storage ring from his fingertip dropped into his palm.

As the dignified Second King of the Qingtian lineage, he surely possessed many valuable items; it would be a waste not to take them.

Following the bridge straight ahead, they quickly passed through the Heavenly Palace, which had previously been impassable, and then entered the waterfall.

They had realized earlier that this waterfall and the Heavenly Palace were actually part of a massive scroll painting, concealing another world. Upon passing through the waterfall, the scene shifted, and they immediately found themselves inside a grand palace.

"Such dense spiritual energy..."

The moment they entered, they felt their pores open wide and their True Qi surge within them.

Inside this palace, the spiritual energy was incredibly dense, as if it could condense into liquid at any moment. Cultivating here would greatly accelerate one's cultivation progress, even without high-grade spirit stones!

"That... is it carved from spirit stones?"

After taking a few steps forward, everyone's breathing quickened.

Before their eyes stood a massive stele, crystal clear and radiating dazzling light, incredibly carved from a single, enormous piece of high-grade spirit stone.

"There are spirit stones this large in the world?" Everyone swallowed, and even Zhang Xuan's eyes widened so much they seemed about to pop out.

The stele before them stood five to six meters tall, two to three meters wide, and over half a meter thick. Such an enormous object, entirely carved from high-grade spirit stones, was truly astounding.

The largest high-grade spirit stone he had ever seen was only the size of a baby's fist, yet this one weighed hundreds of tons...

If it were to be divided into individual high-grade spirit stones, how many would there be?

Hundreds of thousands? Millions?

They had just entered the depths of the ruin and already encountered this; how many treasures must be inside?

"Qiuwu Palace... Could this be the ruin left by Ancient Sage Qiuwu?" Teacher Wu exclaimed, staring at the clearly carved characters on the stele with a look of astonishment.

Zhang Xuan also noticed at this moment that the stele indeed bore three large characters: "Qiuwu Palace!" The script was identical to that found on the "Traveler Without Bounds" secret manual.

"It seems... this was indeed left by Ancient Sage Qiuwu..."

He turned to glance at Luo Ruoxi, and both of them nodded simultaneously.

What was merely speculation before could now be confirmed with one hundred percent certainty.