Zhang Tie’s heart tightened abruptly, and without a word, he hastily dropped the branches and firewood in his hands and sprinted towards the cave.
However, just as he neared the cave, another deafening roar echoed, like a bolt from the blue, reverberating ceaselessly through the valley.
Immediately following, a scorching hurricane howled past, like a raging Fire Dragon, instantly sweeping over him.
Zhang Tie’s body was instantly lifted by the surging heatwave, like a light, fluttering fallen leaf, sent flying through the air to crash into a thick, sturdy tree not far away.
With a dull thud, Zhang Tie felt his blood and Qi churning within him, a sweet, metallic taste rising to his throat, and with a “poof,” he spat out a large mouthful of fresh blood, then collapsed to the ground like a pile of mud, instantly losing consciousness and falling into a coma.
He didn’t know how much time had passed.
Cold rainwater mercilessly poured down, continuously striking Zhang Tie’s body.
Zhang Tie was gradually awakened by the bone-chilling cold, and he suddenly opened his eyes, gazing at the gloomy sky from which rain was pouring.
His thoughts instantly returned to the thrilling scene he had just experienced, and a tumultuous wave of terror surged within his heart.
One must know that he had Cultivated the Elephant Armor Skill to the third Realm.
Although there might still be a significant gap compared to those top-tier masters, he was certainly not some random nobody.
Moreover, he was so far from the battlefield, yet the mere aftershocks of the confrontation had left him utterly defenseless, which was truly inconceivable.
Zhang Tie composed himself and assessed his physical condition, noticing that he had regained some strength.
He gritted his teeth and struggled to his feet.
His figure swayed unsteadily, like a candle flickering in the wind, as he slowly and painstakingly walked towards the cave.
Zhang Tie walked and stopped, extremely cautious.
After all, individuals capable of causing such earth-shattering and ghost-wailing combat scales must be top-tier masters among the top-tier.
In the face of such unknown powerful forces, it was always better to be cautious and careful.
When Zhang Tie finally managed to reach the front of the cave, the shocking sight before him instantly left him dumbfounded.
The once sturdy cave had completely collapsed, surrounded by large and small rubble, a scene of utter devastation.
Many trees around the cave had been charred black by raging fires, some even reduced to ashes, the entire scene looking as if it had suffered a catastrophe.
Zhang Tie cautiously approached, his gaze falling on the rain-soaked ground, where he even discovered a small amount of white ash floating in the rainwater.
And all the people who were originally in the cave had now vanished without a trace; he didn’t know if they had all escaped in the Chaos.
Zhang Tie slowly approached the collapsed cave, trying to call out, “Is anyone inside?”
He called out several times, but the only response was the howling wind and the pattering rain from all around; no one answered.
It seemed that there were no living people inside the collapsed cave, at least at this moment.
Even at this point, Zhang Tie’s heart was still pounding like a frightened deer.
But at the same time, a hint of relief couldn’t help but rise in his heart, secretly Rejoice that he had managed to narrowly escape the astonishing catastrophe just now.
Otherwise, with such a terrifying scene of confrontation, he would surely have faced certain death, with no possibility of survival whatsoever.
Just as Zhang Tie’s mind was a tangled mess, a faint white light suddenly flashed out from the pile of rubble, shooting towards Zhang Tie’s head with lightning speed.
Before Zhang Tie could react, the white light instantly disappeared into his glabella without a trace.
At the same time, a voice filled with extreme ecstasy suddenly resounded in Zhang Tie’s mind: “Heaven does not forsake me! I never thought I’d encounter a small Cultivator at the Qi Refining second stage in this Mortal place. As expected, ah!”
However, it seemed the voice hadn’t finished speaking when a terrified shriek came, and then the voice abruptly ceased, as if it had never appeared, disappearing completely.
Zhang Tie instantly felt as if he had fallen into a fog, utterly confused and completely at a loss.
Just then, a sudden excruciating pain, as if being bitten by ten thousand ants, came from his head.
Zhang Tie convulsed, and then his vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground once more, completely unconscious.
He didn’t know how long he had been in this Chaos, but threads of chilling coldness, like countless tentacles, slowly transmitted through Zhang Tie’s body into his mind.
His consciousness gradually began to clear.
Zhang Tie laboriously propped himself up with his hands, slowly sitting up.
Just as he was about to stand, a segment of memories that did not belong to him suddenly appeared intermittently in his mind.
This surge of memory fragments came fiercely, lasting for more than half an hour, before Zhang Tie, like a small boat struggling in a stormy sea, slowly stabilized himself and gradually recovered.
His expression was extremely numb, his eyes vacant and lifeless, no longer remembering how many shocks and upheavals he had experienced today.
Now, he only felt his spirit was approaching the edge of numbness, and his whole being had fallen into a state of dreamlike Chaos.
It turned out that the white light was actually the Divine Soul of a Cultivator named Song Xingzhi.
Cultivators are Mortals born with a Spiritual Root, capable of absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi to Cultivate.
Once Cultivated to a profound Realm, they can fly through the sky, burrow into the earth, move mountains and overturn seas, and even achieve immortality and live as long as Heaven and Earth.
However, Mortals with a Spiritual Root who can embark on the path of Cultivation are one in a million, extremely rare.
Song Xingzhi was a Loose Cultivator.
A Loose Cultivator is a Cultivator without a Sect, without a Family, and without support.
Such people either embarked on the path of Cultivation through extremely accidental Opportunities, or their original Family or Sect declined and they were forced to wander.
Speaking of Song Xingzhi, one must mention another Loose Cultivator, Fu Zeyu.
Fu Zeyu, like Song Xingzhi, had similar Cultivation, both at the Qi Refining Perfection Cultivation, and both were Loose Cultivators.
Initially, Fu Zeyu heard that a low-grade Magical Artifact was to be transported from the Great Capital Country to Phoenix Crown City, the capital of Black Phoenix Country.
So Fu Zeyu found Song Xingzhi, with whom he had collaborated several times, and told him about it.
After some planning, the two of them came to this valley together, quietly waiting for the Opportunity.
At first, everything was normal, proceeding step by step, without any accidents.
However, after they eliminated all these Mortals, what they found in the box in the cave was not the low-grade Magical Artifact they had planned for, but a high-grade Magical Artifact.
The two were instantly overjoyed, their excitement overflowing.
And it was in this moment of ecstatic joy that Fu Zeyu suddenly harbored ill intentions, launching a sneak attack, directly plunging a sharp blade into Song Xingzhi’s back.
Under this sudden attack, Song Xingzhi knew he was doomed to die.
At this critical moment of life and death, he actually chose to self-detonate his Dantian.
Seeing this, Fu Zeyu grabbed the high-grade Magical Artifact, turned around, and was about to escape by attaching a Talisman.
With a world-shaking roar, Fu Zeyu was instantly blasted into oblivion by the powerful force.
And Song Xingzhi only managed to escape with his Divine Soul.
One must know that for Cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage, once the Divine Soul leaves the body for more than two hours, it will gradually dissipate into Heaven and Earth.
But at this moment, the surroundings were desolate and barren.
As time passed little by little, Song Xingzhi’s Divine Soul also gradually weakened, and just as he fell into despair, a young man at the Qi Refining second stage, Zhang Tie, appeared before the collapsed cave.
Song Xingzhi was immediately overjoyed, as if he had seen a glimmer of hope in the darkness.
Although the success rate of Possession at the Qi Refining Stage was less than one in a hundred, it was still better than his Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering directly, so he decided to give it a try.
Therefore, his Divine Soul quickly flew to the entrance of the collapsed cave, and as soon as Zhang Tie approached, it unhesitatingly rushed into his Sea of Consciousness, attempting to carry out Possession.
Just as Song Xingzhi thought the Possession was about to succeed, he unexpectedly discovered that there was a mysterious green orb in this Sea of Consciousness.
The orb rotated slightly, instantly generating a powerful suction force that instantly drew him into it.
Zhang Tie slowly digested the information that had suddenly flooded into his mind.
Besides understanding the cause and effect of this thrilling incident, he also gained some common knowledge memories of the Cultivation World.
For example, he learned that above Qi Refining, there were more profound Realms such as Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and Nascent Soul.
At the same time, he also learned the locations of some small markets where Cultivators often traded.
Of course, most importantly, he also obtained some fragments of Song Xingzhi’s Cultivation Technique and Spell content.
It was only later that Zhang Tie realized that what he had just experienced was the very dangerous Possession process in the Cultivation World.
Generally speaking, Possession has three major laws.
First, Cultivators cannot Possess Mortals, otherwise they will surely die;
Second, the lower the Realm, the lower the success rate of Possession, with a success rate of less than one in a hundred for Foundation Establishment and below.
Third, even if Possession is successful below the Soul Transformation Realm, the lifespan will still be the original one, merely a change of skin, and the Cultivation will never advance.
However, Zhang Tie was completely unaware of this at the moment.
The most important thing right now was to leave this troublesome place first, find a safe and comfortable place to rest properly, and then slowly sort out and digest these newly acquired memory fragments after his physical and mental strength had recovered.
Zhang Tie had originally intended to retrieve the high-grade Magical Artifact from the pile of rubble, but after careful consideration, he gave up.
After all, his strength was low, and if the Magical Artifact had been tampered with and marked for tracking, it would only bring him danger.
With that thought, Zhang Tie took a deep breath, enduring the pain in his body and his mental exhaustion, slowly stood up, and slowly walked forward.
At this time, the dense dark clouds in the sky also gradually dispersed like receding tide water.
The rain, which had initially been pouring, gradually became a drizzle.
Zhang Tie walked slowly, his mind filled with countless thoughts.
He knew that from this moment on, his destiny had undergone earth-shshattering changes.