Fantasy World: I Can Travel To Cultivation World

Chapter 180 Handle It Yourself!

If not for his understanding of Zhou Mubai, Zhou Minghao might have thought Zhou Mubai was lying.

How could a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator possess such strength?

Luis wasn't even a sword cultivator, yet his power was overwhelming and completely uncharacteristic. A Foundation Establishment cultivator nearly bridging the gap to contend with a Half-Step Golden Core? It defied common sense.

Even Zhou Mubai, with all his talent, could barely hold his own against a Golden Core cultivator. It was impossible for him to fight back and forth on equal footing with such an opponent.

"Everyone, the reply from Qianyuan Sword Sect has arrived."

Zhou Minghao's words immediately captured the attention of everyone in the hall, including Luis.

In recent days, the Zhou family cultivators had been on edge after learning that God Killer Shen Jue might still be alive. The Shen Jue Rebellion had left scars on the Zhou family, and its devastation was well-documented in their clan records.

"Clan leader," an elder seated near the bottom of the hall bowed respectfully. "What did Qianyuan Sword Sect say in response?"

"Dispose of it yourself!" Zhou Minghao replied curtly.

"...This?"

The room fell into stunned silence. The elders exchanged confused glances.

What exactly did "dispose of it yourself" mean?

Was Qianyuan Sword Sect washing their hands of the matter, leaving Guang'an Prefecture and the Cangzhou cultivators to fend for themselves?

Zhou Mubai and Luis both frowned.

Given their understanding of Qianyuan Sword Sect, it was highly unlikely the sect would outright abandon them.

Unless… they had a bigger plan in mind—a long game to catch a bigger fish.

The two exchanged knowing looks, arriving at the same conclusion.

If Shen Jue remained hidden behind the scenes, would the Qianyuan Sword Sect send a few Nascent Soul True Lords to Guang'an Prefecture to take control of the situation?

At the very least, they could suppress this corpse chaos.

But solving the immediate crisis would not address the root problem: Master Shen Jue himself.

Simply suppressing the chaos caused by the corpses in Guang'an Prefecture would undoubtedly be only a temporary solution. It wouldn't address the root cause of the problem.

In this situation, the best strategy would be to divide the battle into two fronts: light and dark.

The cultivators of Guang'an Prefecture would fight openly against the corpse servants refined by Shen Jue. Meanwhile, the secret forces arranged by Qianyuan Sword Sect would lie in wait, ready to strike when Shen Jue inevitably revealed himself.

Only by capturing the mouse that had been hiding for four hundred years could the problem of Master Shen Jue truly be resolved.

Zhou Minghao understood this deeper strategy. Zhou Mubai understood it, and so did Luis.

But the Zhou family's elders seemed oblivious, their faces filled with indignation and outrage.

Luis couldn't help but feel a deep sense of admiration for the person who had devised this plan within Qianyuan Sword Sect.

Only with convincing performances could you catch big fish.

And the group of Zhou family elders in the hall, unaware of the real strategy and burning with righteous anger, were undoubtedly the best actors.

"Clan leader!" one elder exclaimed. "Since Qianyuan Sword Sect won't support us, we don't need to grovel before them any longer.

We cultivators of Guang'an Prefecture will resolve this matter ourselves! Besides, Qianyuan Sword Sect has always treated us Cangzhou monks unfairly—especially during the Battle of Zhennan Pass!"

At this point, the atmosphere in the hall grew even more heated.

The unfair resolution of the Battle of Zhennan Pass had always been a thorn in everyone's side.

Ye Wudao, the ancestor of the Ye family, had fled the battlefield and yet was not executed. His punishment was merely symbolic: a hundred years of confinement in his residence.

That wasn't a punishment—it was blatant favoritism and protection.

Why? Because Ye Wudao had a powerful father: the third elder of Qianyuan Sword Sect.

Without that connection, Ye Wudao would have been torn to pieces by the united families of Cangzhou for his crimes.

Golden Core cultivator or not, Ye Wudao's betrayal had led to the deaths of tens of millions of cultivators.

Among the fallen were many geniuses, some comparable to Zhou Mubai.

If Ye Wudao could stop one Zhou Mubai, could he stop a second? A third?

Moreover, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of Foundation Establishment cultivators in Cangzhou.

How could Ye Wudao, a mere cultivator in the early Golden Core stage, resist such a force?

Yet, because of Ye Wudao's powerful background and the decree of Qianyuan Sword Sect, the cultivators of Cangzhou in Ten Thousand Star Sea had no choice but to swallow their anger.

"Good," Zhou Minghao said as he rose from the clan leader's throne, his voice steady and authoritative. "Since everyone believes we cultivators of Guang'an Prefecture can handle this ourselves, why not let my Zhou family take the lead?

What do you think about joining forces with the Yang family, the Wu family, and the Hartmann family of Hartmann Island? Together, we can send out invitations to our fellow cultivators in Guang'an Prefecture and discuss forming a coalition army."

"This…"

The Zhou family elders, who had been shouting so fervently moments ago, now hesitated.

The thought of facing the infamous Shen Jue made their hearts tremble with fear.

After all, Shen Jue, the God Killer, who had inherited an immortal legacy, was once able to kill Golden Core cultivators as effortlessly as one might kill a dog.

The scarcity of Golden Core cultivators in Cangzhou today was largely due to Shen Jue's reign of terror.

Otherwise, Cangzhou and its neighboring states wouldn't lag so far behind the other regions of Ten Thousand Star Sea in terms of Golden Core cultivators.

Back then, the Zhou family had been forced to barricade themselves within their estate. They only survived Shen Jue's onslaught thanks to their fifth-order mountain protection formation, which held until reinforcements from Qianyuan Sword Sect arrived.

Had the Qianyuan Sword Sect delayed by even a few days, the Zhou family would have vanished from history, just like the many other great families that disappeared during that dark period.

Shen Jue's atrocities were infamous. He commanded an army of rogue cultivators, wreaking havoc across the land.

Everywhere his forces went, they burned, looted, and slaughtered. Immortal cultivation families were wiped out, their resources pillaged, and their estates set ablaze.

Though Shen Jue spared the spiritual veins, there was little else he wouldn't dare to destroy.

What's even more astonishing is that when the major families in Cangzhou united to form a coalition against him, they discovered that Shen Jue was as slippery as a loach.

Whenever he found himself in a desperate situation, the God Killer Shen Jue could always rely on the magic weapons inherited from the immortals to survive and escape with his life.

It left everyone feeling utterly helpless.

It seems now that the Qianyuan Sword Sect only managed to seriously injure him back then—they neither captured nor killed him.

Zhou Minghao noticed the hesitation among the elders, and his expression darkened.

"Why? You were arguing so fiercely just now, but now you've all gone silent? Are you scared to death?"

Hearing this provocation, how could the Zhou family elders remain silent?

One elder stepped forward and declared loudly, "If I, Zhou Mingyue, am afraid of death, may I be struck down by thunderbolts!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

A muffled rumble of thunder echoed through the hall.

Zhou Mingyue had made a solemn oath in public, a declaration that could not be taken lightly.

His boldness sparked a wave of emotion in the hall.

One by one, the elders stood up, their voices rising in unison:

"No regrets even if I die! At worst, I'll fight to the end!"

"Exactly! Fight them!"

"What's there to fear? I survived the dangers at Zhennan Pass. How could I be afraid of a few undead creatures? What a joke!"

"Precisely!"

The hall erupted with shouts of determination.

Zhou Minghao observed the fiery resolve in their eyes and couldn't help but feel pleased.

Good acting! Great acting!

Their emotions and expressions perfectly embodied the spirit of those ready to lay down their lives.

Zhou Minghao nodded in approval.

Outside the hall, Luis turned to Zhou Mubai and said, "It'll take at least a month to notify the fellow Daoists in Guang'an Prefecture, and probably several more months to form the coalition.

I have to return home first. If I don't, I'll never stop worrying."

Zhou Mubai understood Luis's concern and offered reassurance.

"Brother Luis, don't worry. The Zhao family's territory lies to the right of my Lingbei Island, and your Hartmann family's Hartmann Island is to the left. Even if someone wanted to reach your family, they'd have to get past mine first!"

Luis nodded but remained resolute. "Even so, if I don't go back, I'll feel uneasy. And if I'm uneasy, I can never be at peace."

Realizing he couldn't persuade Luis to stay, Zhou Mubai simply bowed and said, "Take care on your journey, Brother Luis."

"Thank you. You take care as well, Brother Zhou."

With that, Luis turned into a beam of light and flew off Lingbei Island, disappearing into the horizon.