Chapter 448: The Great Disturbance in the Xuanyuan Kingdom (Part 1)

"You know Xiao Su and Xiao Ling?" Sun Qiang frowned.

"I... I've met them once!" Hearing Sun Qiang refer to two 4-star master teachers so informally, Jin Conghai didn't dare respond immediately, his mouth twitching. These two were influential figures in the Myriad Kingdom Alliance, yet this person spoke of them as if they were nobodies... Even seeing it firsthand made him feel dizzy.

"Since you know them, then you're an acquaintance, so there's no harm in telling you!" Sun Qiang's expression softened. "Our master, Yang Xuan, is a master teacher. As for his rank... our master has never mentioned it, so I don't know, but Master Su once discreetly indicated that he has definitely reached... six stars or higher!"

"A master teacher... six stars or higher?" The "Young Master," Jin Conghai, Gu Mu, and the others were all startled. The most powerful individual in the Myriad Kingdom Alliance, Hall Master Kang, was only at the peak of 4-star, still some distance from 5-star, let alone 6-star. The higher the master teacher's rank, the greater the disparity. While a 6-star and a peak 4-star might seem only two major ranks apart, their actual cultivation levels were worlds apart. If such a powerhouse truly wished to act, all the experts in the Myriad Kingdom Alliance combined would be no match! Their master was actually such a powerful being... No wonder Sun Qiang, despite being only at the Dingli realm, dared to be so arrogant and showed no fear of them. With such a formidable backer, let alone Supreme realm peak or Transcendent Mortal realm... even the incredibly powerful Flowing Cloud Sect would surely not dare utter a single word of nonsense.

Elder Wei Yuqing, who was standing nearby, also trembled, almost fainting from fright. He hadn't met the "master" mentioned by Sun Qiang, but he had met the "young master"... who was none other than the incredibly talented Master Zhang Beast Tamer! Taming beasts was like catching dogs, and clearing challenges was like snaring chickens! He had thought Master Zhang was merely a highly skilled disciple of a grandmaster beast tamer; he never imagined his teacher was a super master teacher beyond six stars! No wonder he was so formidable at such a young age...

"I must report this to the Hall Master immediately when I get back!" His expression grave, he made up his mind.

"Indeed! However, our master, Yang Shi, has always been elusive. This time, the one who wants Hall Master Gu to come along is our young master, Zhang Xuan. Get ready quickly; it's best to bring plenty of poisons. That way, if they're needed, you won't be caught off guard!" Seeing the group intimidated, Sun Qiang nodded with satisfaction. Who was Master Yang? A super master teacher beyond six stars! As the steward for such a powerful individual, he naturally had to maintain a certain demeanor. If he were easily intimidated by a few small fries, how could he face anyone in the future?

"Yes!" Knowing that this "Senior Martial Uncle" was actually a master teacher beyond rank six, Gu Mu immediately recalled every little detail of his interactions with him. Curing his internal ailment, helping tame the Lava Beast, resolving the Great Apothecary's contract gu... All of these methods demonstrated extraordinary capabilities. Thinking of these, he suddenly understood... this fellow might not have been boasting. This Senior Martial Uncle "Master Yang" might truly possess such formidable abilities.

"Young Master, is what he said true?" Jin Conghai and the "Young Master" also communicated telepathically. Although the Young Master was not old and his cultivation wasn't as high as Jin Conghai's, his insight was exceptionally sharp, and he was very accurate in judging people.

"When he spoke, he was full of confidence, without the slightest pretense. I'm afraid that Master Yang is not simple!" The "Young Master's" expression was calm.

"Then..." "It's also simple to determine if what he said is true or false. Aren't they going to Xuanyuan Royal City? I recall that on the way to Tianwu Kingdom, we also pass through there. We can go and see. If the master he mentioned truly is a 6-star master teacher, befriending him would undoubtedly bring immense benefits. My problem would certainly be easily resolved." The "Young Master" continued, "If he's not, you can decide how to handle it!"

"Yes!" Jin Conghai nodded quickly. The other party spoke with such conviction, yet he couldn't be entirely sure. If this fellow truly was a servant of a 6-star master teacher, offending him would mean incurring the wrath of such a powerhouse, leading to great trouble. Since they were going to Xuanyuan Royal City anyway, they could seize the opportunity to check, perhaps discerning the truth and understanding the full extent of the situation. Understanding this, the two said no more.

Gu Mu had nothing much to prepare; all his belongings were in his storage ring. He quickly got ready, and the group left the Poison Hall, heading straight towards Xuanyuan Royal City.

In the quiet room, Zhang Xuan opened his eyes again.

"What a pity..." A hint of helplessness appeared on his face. He had begun his secluded cultivation after Sun Qiang left, and it had been nearly three days now. On the first day, his physical strength reached 30,000 ding. Over the next two consecutive days, he consumed five drops of spirit beast blood, but his strength only increased to 35,000 ding before stopping.

"There's no problem with the cultivation itself; it's the spirit beast blood that's no longer effective!" Zhang Xuan exhaled and shook his head. The second stage of the Heaven's Path Golden Body, a cultivation method that uses spirit beast blood to advance physical strength, naturally had no issues. It wasn't that he had reached full mastery and could no longer progress, but rather... the effect of the spirit beast blood had disappeared. The essence blood collected by the Beast Hall of Xuanyuan Kingdom was only from level-1 spirit beasts. This substance had a significant effect when the user's cultivation was low, but once they reached the Supreme realm late stage, its effect became extremely weak. It was like two ponds: when there's a large difference in water levels, the flow is rapid, but when the levels are nearly the same, the water stops flowing. The essence blood of these level-1 spirit beasts had allowed his physical body to reach the Supreme realm late stage, similar to water levels reaching equilibrium; even if he used more, his strength would hardly increase.

He performed an internal inspection. Each drop of blood within his body was round and full, containing power like mercury. Individually, they were no worse than the previous level-1 spirit beast blood. Although his cultivation hadn't progressed much in the last two days, it wasn't wasted effort. It allowed him to thoroughly consolidate and familiarize himself with his strength, ensuring that situations where his physical strength surged but he couldn't control it, almost causing him to drop someone, would no longer occur.

"There are seven drops left: three for Yuan Tao to help him find a way to activate his Spiritual Rhinoceros bloodline, and four for the Howling Sky Beast!" He had obtained a total of thirty drops of spirit beast blood from the Beast Hall. After his cultivation, seven drops remained. Keeping them would be useless, so it was better to give them all away to make full use of them. Yuan Tao possessed the Spiritual Rhinoceros bloodline, and spirit beast blood was precisely the treasure that could stimulate it. As for the Iron-toothed Howling Sky Beast, his current *zhenqi* cultivation hadn't increased, so he couldn't help with its bloodline advancement. However, by giving it the spirit beast blood to consume and then finding a special guiding method suited to its constitution, promoting it by one or two minor ranks was still achievable. Even without that, having read all the books from both the Xuanluo Mountain Range and Xuanyuan Kingdom Beast Halls, coupled with the Eye of Insight, he still possessed this ability. It could be said that even without using master teacher techniques, purely through beast taming, he was stronger, not weaker, than a 3-star beast tamer.

Acting on his thought, Zhang Xuan stood up and walked out. He called Yuan Tao and the Howling Sky Beast before him, distributed the remaining seven drops of spirit beast blood, and instructed them in detail on how to use them.

Just as he finished these tasks, Hall Master Xie Jiuchen walked over, a joyous expression on his face.

"Master Zhang Beast Tamer, I'm pleased to report that I've fulfilled your request! All the books you asked for have been collected!" After the Azure Nightmare Beast submitted to the Beast Hall, Zhang Xuan had requested cultivation manuals and secret arts. After three days of searching, they had finally gathered over a thousand cultivation methods for the Half-Supreme and Supreme realms. *Whoosh!* As he spoke, Xie Jiuchen flipped his palm, and two enormous bookshelves appeared before them, densely packed with books, easily more than two thousand volumes. Fearing Zhang Xuan might be dissatisfied, these cultivation methods had been acquired from various major families and influential powers at great cost, involving favors and significant expenditures, making them quite formidable. Although they were all handwritten copies, gathering so many in such a short time undoubtedly demonstrated the Beast Hall's power.

"Thank you for your effort, Hall Master Xie!" A glance told him that acquiring these items must have come at a considerable cost. Zhang Xuan, full of gratitude, asked, "How is the Azure Nightmare Beast's taming progressing?"

"Its injuries have begun to recover, and it's not as resistant to me as before... I must also thank Master Zhang Beast Tamer for making it possible!" Xie Jiuchen nodded with a smile. Although the Azure Nightmare Beast was somewhat unwilling, it had already signed the contract, and the master's words were commands. Its attitude towards them was now significantly better. As time passed, even if they couldn't completely tame it, ensuring it coexisted peacefully and acted when crucial moments arose shouldn't be difficult.

"That's good!" Seeing that everything was going smoothly, Zhang Xuan chuckled.

"Master Zhang Beast Tamer, you must be busy, so I'll take my leave now!" Knowing that Zhang Xuan wanted these secret arts probably for cultivation or research, Xie Jiuchen turned and bid farewell.

After Hall Master Xie left, Zhang Xuan ran his fingers over the many secret arts, absorbing them into his Library of Heaven's Path.

"Correct!" A low exclamation. Two secret arts materialized in his mind. They were precisely the Heaven's Path secret arts for the Half-Supreme and Supreme realms.

"Continue!" With a slight smile, Zhang Xuan looked them over. In a short while, he had perused both books, and their contents were fully imprinted in his mind.

"Cultivate!" Not daring to waste time, he sat cross-legged. With a flick of his wrist, spirit stones appeared in his palm, and he began to cultivate. He had obtained ten spirit stones from the Lin Clan, and another five as a reward for winning the Beast Taming Competition by challenging the Ten Beast Cage. This meant he now had a total of fifteen spirit stones in his possession (Liang Qingming and Lin Long had been crushed into pulp by the Heaven's Path Tome, their storage rings were nowhere to be found, so any spirit stones they might have had were not acquired).

Although the number wasn't large, it should be enough to significantly boost his strength.

*Crack! Crack!* One after another, the spirit stones were completely absorbed of their spiritual energy, turning into powder. A massive amount of spiritual energy immediately circulated throughout his body along his meridians, causing his aura to continuously increase and his strength to steadily rise. *Boom!* A dozen minutes later, his body trembled. His cultivation broke through from the Grandmaster peak to the Half-Supreme realm. Jiang Shu, Mo Tianxue, and others had cultivated their entire lives without reaching this level. If they knew this fellow had easily accomplished it in just over ten minutes, they would probably vomit blood and die on the spot.

Half-Supreme meant having one foot in the Supreme realm; his life had already undergone a transformation. With his cultivation progressing, Zhang Xuan didn't stop, continuing to devour the spiritual energy from the spirit stones like a whale, constantly increasing his strength.

*Crack!* Half an hour later, he trembled again, successfully advancing to the Supreme realm. From Grandmaster peak to Supreme realm, it didn't even take an hour. Truly worthy of Heaven's Path cultivation art; as long as spiritual energy was abundant, cultivating was as simple as eating and drinking, with no barriers whatsoever.

Breaking through the realm, his *zhenqi* rolled through his meridians. He carefully felt it. At this moment, even without using his physical body, his *zhenqi* strength alone was a full 10,000 ding, truly entering the ranks of peak martial artists.

An hour later. He stopped and sighed. As his cultivation increased, the demand for spiritual energy grew higher and higher, and the need for spirit stones also became greater. Previously, five spirit stones were enough to allow him to reach Grandmaster peak, but now, fifteen only brought him to the Supreme realm, not even fully consolidating the early Supreme stage. For anyone else, it wouldn't be this exaggerated; the main reason was that his Heaven's Path *zhenqi* was too pure and too heaven-defying. These low-grade spirit stones had a significant effect on other Supreme realm experts, but he could only absorb a fraction of their energy. Roughly eighty to ninety percent of the spiritual energy was practically wasted.

Although his cultivation had only recently reached the early Supreme stage and his spirit stones were depleted, his *zhenqi* strength had still increased by 5,000 ding, reaching a total of 15,000 ding, which was considerably stronger than that of an average early Supreme realm practitioner.

"Adding my physical strength of 35,000 ding, I can easily crush even peak Supreme realm experts. With the Eye of Insight and my other abilities, I can even contend with Half-Transcendent Mortals!" His eyes gleamed as Zhang Xuan revealed strong confidence. With 15,000 ding of *zhenqi* and 35,000 ding of physical strength, he had a combined total of 50,000 ding, considerably more powerful than the 40,000 ding of a peak Supreme realm expert. Furthermore, with numerous Heaven's Path martial techniques and master teacher methods, it would likely be very difficult for a Half-Transcendent Mortal to defeat him.

On the fourth day of his arrival at the Xuanyuan Royal City Beast Hall, and the seventh day since Lu Chong was severely injured and fell unconscious saving him, Zhang Xuan finally made a breakthrough from Grandmaster peak, leaping forward to possess power beyond the Supreme realm peak!

This also meant... he had the capital to seek revenge!

"Lu Chong, watch as your teacher... avenges you!" His eyes narrowed, and a murmur escaped Zhang Xuan's throat.

With his strength achieved, it was time to act. However, before that, he needed to understand the opponent's situation.

Walking out of the quiet room, Zhang Xuan knocked on the door and saw Princess Mo Yu waiting inside.

"How did it go?" He didn't waste time on pleasantries and spoke directly. Before his seclusion, he had asked Sun Qiang to find Gu Mu, Xie Jiuchen to search for secret arts, and also arranged for Mo Yu to go to Xuanyuan Royal City to inquire about Ding Mu. To kill the Crown Prince of Xuanyuan Kingdom, the Beast Hall couldn't know, otherwise, no one could guarantee the news wouldn't leak. If the fellow escaped and hid somewhere, with the Myriad Kingdom Alliance being so vast, where would they find him? Therefore, he sent Mo Yu to inquire. After all, the fact that Zhao Ya and the others were his students was already widely known in Tianwu Kingdom, making it easy to trace. Sending them to ask would easily expose their intentions. Furthermore, as a 1-star master teacher with high status, Mo Yu would find it relatively easier to investigate an individual.

"I've already inquired..." Mo Yu nodded, her brows furrowed, and her face pale with anger. "As soon as Ding Mu returned to Xuanyuan Kingdom, he hid inside the Master Teacher Pavilion and hasn't come out since!"

"The Master Teacher Pavilion?" Zhang Xuan's brows furrowed. It was truly a case of 'what you fear most comes true.' Mo Yu had previously said that if one were to truly confront a Conferred Kingdom, the biggest obstacle wasn't the kingdom itself, but its Master Teacher Pavilion. The Master Teacher Pavilion maintained stability in its region and wouldn't easily allow people to attack. Otherwise, with so many experts in the Myriad Kingdom Alliance, who wouldn't want to become a king? If people killed wantonly, the kingdom system would surely have collapsed long ago. He had originally thought that since Ding Mu was only a Crown Prince, not the king, his status as a master teacher would make the other party consider their reputation. Now, it seemed he had thought too simply.

"It's said that Hall Master Luo Qianhong of the Master Teacher Pavilion, who once received royal favor and is also his closest friend, intends to mediate!" Mo Yu relayed the information she had gathered. The other party had deliberately released the news, making it very easy to inquire about.

"Hmph!" Zhang Xuan's eyes narrowed, and a surge of killing intent emerged. "If Ding Mu surrenders his life, then I'll naturally allow for mediation!" Mediation? If he truly accepted that, how could he face Lu Chong, who was still unconscious? What a pipe dream!

"Zhang Xuan, there's another piece of news that isn't very good..." Seeing his expression, and knowing that he was determined to kill Ding Mu, Mo Yu's face showed worry as she spoke.

"Hmm?" Zhang Xuan looked over.

"King Ding Chong of Xuanyuan Kingdom has already announced to the world that he has decided to abdicate and pass the throne to Ding Mu!" Mo Yu said.

"Abdicate?" Zhang Xuan's brows furrowed. The target was merely a Crown Prince; while killing him would be troublesome, his identity as a master teacher might still allow him to resolve the fallout. But once Ding Mu became king, he would be the ruler of a nation. Killing him then would inevitably cause turmoil throughout the country, and even other Conferred Kingdoms would seize the opportunity to act. At that point, lives would be lost and disaster would spread. Even if the Master Teacher Pavilion cared about its reputation, it would certainly have to intervene.

"It seems he's made full preparations!" As soon as Ding Mu arrived, he hid in the Master Teacher Pavilion, then had the king issue the abdication announcement, waiting to inherit the throne. Once he succeeded, it would be difficult to act against him. It seemed this fellow had been terrified by the scene of Zhang Xuan crushing Liang Qingming to death with a book and had planned ahead. But... what if he becomes king? What if the Master Teacher Pavilion tries to stop him? Since he dared to ambush and injure Lu Chong, he should be prepared for my retaliation! If the kingdom obstructs, then destroy the kingdom. If the Master Teacher Pavilion obstructs, then destroy the Master Teacher Pavilion! At worst, I'll find a way to form another golden page. Even if I have to make enemies of everyone, what do I, Zhang Xuan... have to fear?!

With his decision made, his face remained calm. Zhang Xuan continued to ask, "When is his enthronement?" A king's enthronement was no small matter; it required gathering royal relatives, high-ranking officials, and even inviting other surrounding Conferred Kingdoms to witness the ceremony... All these procedures would certainly take time. It had only been seven days since the fellow escaped. Even if he announced his succession immediately upon arrival, the enthronement shouldn't happen so quickly.

"It's... today!" Mo Yu gave a bitter smile. As a princess of a kingdom, and even having been groomed by Mo Tianxue to be an empress, she was very familiar with such procedures. The other party had flown back from Tianwu Kingdom for two full days, meaning... in just five short days, he had completed all the procedures. He truly was in a rush. Before the enthronement ceremony, he hid in the Master Teacher Pavilion. Once the ceremony was held and he became king, killing him would be difficult... Even she hadn't imagined that this young man could push a Conferred Kingdom's Crown Prince to such an extent.

"Today?" Zhang Xuan swung his sleeve, stood up, and strode out.

"What are you going to do? You... you're not going to crash his enthronement ceremony, are you?" Mo Yu's face turned pale.

"That's right!" Zhang Xuan nodded.

"But your strength... didn't you say you needed to reach the Supreme realm peak before going? This is too reckless..." Mo Yu hastily said.

"Supreme realm peak?" Without turning his head, Zhang Xuan's aura erupted with a *boom*, like a dragon ascending to the heavens or a fierce tiger emerging from the forest, exuding intense pressure and an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. "...I've already reached it!"