Prelude: Temple of Doom 9

"No One Enters!" Afanzo shouted.

His thick aura laced with his voice formed large black golden chains that wrapped around every cultivator within the vicinity. Those below the Heavenly Door Realm froze in place unable to move an inch, even to twitch an eyebrow. They became ice sculptures in the brilliant summer night.

Afanzo's aura had bloated up all the way to the Pseudo-Immortal Realm, paired with his vast array of ancient artefacts his combat strength reached the level of a Peak Stage Human Immortal, beings that could wipe out mortal solar systems with a breath and blow up a galaxy at their full power.

Noticing that the temple opened its doors, Afanzo materialized a spear in his right hand. The spear was large, towering over him by a good three meters. He swung it to te left and dragged it back to the right. Light pulsed from the tip and as if in understanding, the gigantic spear-shaped temple trembled.

Long ago when he was a mere mortal cultivator, Afanzo chanced upon a purple pearl during one of his adventures through the vast wilderness of the western continent of Gaia. The pearl had a miraculous ability to draw in blood from various beast's and sentient plants and then refine that blood into his own blood stream. At first he thought it was nothing special, but with each beast he killed the refined blood became purer and purer, to the point that some of the blood rise an entire grade. And as it's purification abilities increased, so did its refining abilities. Overtime it refined his simple human blood into something few people on his planet could only dream of. Within him, flowed the blood of an ancient flood dragon that terrorized Gaia more than a few thousand years ago.

"Who's this?" Long Wei raised a brow.

His sensitive Phoenix-Dragon bloodline felt two powerful auras on Afanzo's body. One had was intertwined with the presence and aura he felt earlier, something of such a high grade that even his bloodline felt threatened-almost. And the other, was something primal. Something he felt familiar with, yet at the same time absolutely disgusted by. It was Dragon-like, but not at the same time. He scanned his mind for any similarities and found something.

The Aura belonged to a Flood Dragon, a Vicious beast that had a taste of dragon blood and evolved to something greater. But calling it a dragon was an insult to what he stood for.

The Aura did little to Long Wei. He didn't even need to take action and Afanzo's aura avoided him full out. Feng Li who was wrapped around in a thin film of Void Qi gained the same treatment, making them the only two to not experience the aura for what it was.

"A native. Interesting speach he had earlier. To long to listen," Bai Yunru said.

It took him a few seconds to break the influence of Afanzo's Aura with the aid of his sword. Tang Pengfei followed after, by igniting an aura isolation formation he always had on him. Kun Hui was frozen on the spot for a full ten seconds before his powerful Physique adapted to the aura.

"He thinks he set up a trap or something similar. Not realizing that we would have come here the moment we saw that temple regardless. But I'm in awe at the Formation's used. Someone was pretty sadistic," Tang Pengfei chuckled,"With you here, I don't think we have anything to worry about. Wait-"

"Things would have been different if he were an actual Human Immortal. But Pseudo-Immortal Realm trash have nothing on me," Long Wei pursed his lips, " What's he waiting For?"

"Lord Xiaodan, is that you?" Tang Pengfei corrected his pair of glasses to make certain he wasn't seeing things.

"In the flesh," Jinwu Xiaodan gave a rile smile.

"Didn't expect you to be friends with Long Wei, good, good," Tang Pengfei flew over to Jinwu Xiaodan and patted him on the shoulder,

"Mmm," a flush of red bloomed on Jinwu Xiaodan's face.

What friend? A few hours earlier he was about to kill his acquaintance. If they became true friends after that then he'd chop his legs and kneel at the Palace entrance for a full day.

"He isn't difficult to talk to right?" Tang Pengfei smiled.

"Just…leave me alone," Jinwu Xiaodan pushed aside Tang Pangfei, "I'm just helping him with a few things."

"My question," Long Wei hated repeating himself. His Void Phoenix Dragon aura sneaked into his voice, sending shivers down everyone's spine.

Tang Peng Fei stopped annoying and flew back to Bai Yunru's side.

"It's an ancient Entrapment formation," Bai Yunru said, "Bloodline linked."

"Correct!" Tang Pengfei chimed in, "It's an interesting one. That man over there is the catalyst. And blood. The blood of anyone of these natives would activate it as well. He is waiting for more natives. It needs more blood than what was offered. These type of Formations are classified as Demonic by The Orthodoxy for a reason after all. "

"So if I kill him the formation will deactivate?" Long Wei asked.

"Nope. It will blow up or form a barrier that locks us out until it finds another catalyst," Tang Pengfei said.

On more than one occasion, Feng Li tried jumping into the conversation and adding a few tidbits and thoughts of his own. He didn't. He felt so weak and powerless, and most of all he feared being humiliated for his weak cultivation base. So he chose to remain quiet insyead and listen.

"There is something I need in that temple. Apart from that, I won't lay a hand on anything else," Long Wei said, "So feel free to explore as much as you want. Anyone who makes it to the topmost level, I'll kill."

Long Wei boomed his voice with the aid of qi, so that everyone with the radius of the temple could hear him loud and clear.

"I have no objections," Bai Yunru stated.

"Me neither," Tang Pengfei said.

"No problems here," Kun Hui hesitated for a second before agreeing.

Jinwu Xiaodan didn't bother asking, he didn't plan on fighting Long Wei for any treasure within the temple. He wanted to set the record straight on his behalf so that his status doesn't become shaky within the Golden Crow Clan.

One splinter group with four Saint Realm experts similarly agreed. Another with three Saint Realm Experts remained silent, not wanting to make promises they could not keep. The last, with five Saint Realm experts felt that a single Long Wei wasn't enough to send them packing, so they decided to agree verbally but had pans on fighting him out for the treasure.

No one bothered asking the opinions of those below the Saint Realm. They weren't worth it. What ever they, with the highest cultivation, decided would be so.

To all that, Long Wei didn't care. Whether people agreed or disagreed with him, it didn't matter. One simply had to have enough power to back up their side if the the need ever rose. And even then…

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