Chapter 1887: The Sage's Shrine

Unexpectedly, even though it was so well hidden, it was detected. His expression tightened, and Zhang Xuan suddenly shrank back, throwing a punch forward to meet the attack.

Although he still hadn't broken through to the Ancient Sage level, his combat power was already comparable to Dripping Blood Rebirth. His true qi burst along his meridians, forming a massive net of heaven and earth before his eyes.

Boom!

Fist and palm clashed, and Zhang Xuan swayed slightly.

The owner of this fist was in no way weaker than him—also a super powerhouse at the Dripping Blood Rebirth realm.

“Can’t fight a prolonged battle…”

His purpose in coming here was to find traces of Kong Shi capturing the “god,” not to cause trouble. To avoid complications, he had to end this quickly; otherwise, if the Ancient Sages of the Hundred Schools of Thought detected him, leaving smoothly would not be so easy.

With a flick of his palm, the Dragon Bone Divine Spear appeared in his hand, infused with the full force of his body, and stabbed through the air toward the fist.

In an instant, a fine crack appeared in space, like a needle piercing skin. Although the power was extremely strong, not a shred of energy leaked out. Even ten meters away from the shrine, without seeing it with one’s own eyes, one could not detect that a battle between Ancient Sage-level experts was taking place.

Bang!

The fist and the divine spear collided. The latter seemed to be injured, and the hand withdrew. Zhang Xuan lunged forward and stepped inside.

What appeared before him was a spacious hall. In the center stood a statue of Kong Shi, and in front of it, a soldier clad in golden armor stared at him woodenly, murderous intent in his eyes.

The attack just now had been unleashed by him.

“This is… a Shi-Character Golden Soldier?”

Frowning, Zhang Xuan was stunned.

He had thought it was an expert from the Great Confucian Hall guarding the shrine, but unexpectedly, it was just a golden-armored guard formed from a character.

He had seen something like this once before, in the ruins of Ancient Sage Ran Qiu.

“A single character has the combat power of an Ancient Sage Triple Layer… Could it have been left by Kong Shi?”

His heart shook.

He did not deny that Kong Shi’s strength was unparalleled in history, but he had never imagined it could be this formidable!

A single written character possessed the power of an Ancient Sage Triple Layer Dripping Blood Rebirth, and could even hold its own against him… If a whole bunch were written, wouldn’t nothing in the world be able to withstand it?

As soon as this thought arose, he shook his head.

Although the Shi-Character Golden Soldier was very powerful, it was not something that could be casually written. It required not only a deep understanding of calligraphy from the writer but also nourishment from true qi and blood essence. With his current strength, he could at most write characters at the Immortal Realm Great Perfection level, and no more than three of them.

Any more than that, he couldn’t do.

“No matter how strong, it’s just a character!”

His divine sense spread out, and he found that the previous battle had not attracted anyone else’s attention. Zhang Xuan breathed a sigh of relief, raised his brows, and without hesitation, stepped forward and thrust his spear again.

With several consecutive moves, the power at the spear tip converged, forming a swirling vortex.

His spear technique conformed to the Great Dao. It looked simple, but when executed, it was ever-changing and impossible to defend against.

To end the battle quickly, Zhang Xuan held nothing back this time. His true qi surged along his reforged meridians, emitting power comparable to a Void Shattering Realm expert. In less than two breaths, the Shi-Character Golden Soldier before him was shattered, reverting into a pool of ink and vanishing before his eyes.

He quickly looked up and saw that it had transformed into a huge character “儒” (Confucian), which landed on the wall behind the statue.

Seeing that this character had finished its attack and there were no other attacks or formations, Zhang Xuan went before Kong Shi’s statue, bowed a few times, and then looked around.

The Shi-Character Golden Soldier just now, like the one in Ancient Sage Ran Qiu’s ruins, should be a kind of test. Only by defeating it could one be qualified to stay here.

The shrine was empty, with only a statue. He walked toward a side door, which led to a corridor with walls covered in reliefs.

“This is… Kong Shi’s life?”

His eyes lit up.

The reliefs before him depicted Kong Shi’s life, starting from his birth and moving forward along the timeline.

As his eyes fell on them, Zhang Xuan’s entire soul seemed to sink into them, transcending the shackles of time and space, accompanying Kong Shi through his magnificent and turbulent life.

Kong Shi’s birth was not like the legends—a born sage. From every perspective, he was very ordinary, at most intelligent and fond of learning, liking to read books.

At that time, the Spirit Race ruled the continent, and the status of humans was extremely low. From initial mediocrity, he suddenly seemed to awaken, his cultivation advancing by leaps and bounds. Within a year, he broke through the Nine Levels of Martial Artists, the Nine Levels of Mortal Transcendence, and even the Nine Levels of Saint Domain!

His rate of progress was in no way inferior to Zhang Xuan’s!

As his cultivation grew, Kong Shi never stopped. He campaigned across various states, rescuing humanity from the Spirit Race. During this time, he propagated the philosophy of the teacher, took in disciples, established the Master Teacher Academy, and taught the world.

The Spirit Race felt threatened and besieged him. Trapped with many of his disciples in Chen and Cai for several months, they barely escaped. In the crisis, he created the Spring and Autumn Ceremony, broke through to Ancient Sage, shattered the predicament, and even ambushed and killed the ruthless one, driving the Spirit Race completely into the Ancient Battlefield, sealing them there so they could no longer do evil.

“It seems that Kong Shi’s breakthrough to Ancient Sage was not simply about comprehending the laws of time…”

Walking forward, Zhang Xuan pondered.

The Spring and Autumn Ceremony contained the mysteries of time. He had also been to the Confucius Temple, where the flow of time was indeed different from the outside world.

Ancient Sage Ran Qiu’s breakthrough should have been in spear techniques; Ancient Sage Qiu Wu comprehended space… He had always guessed what Kong Shi had comprehended. Now it seemed it was time, but not just time!

The ancestor of the Zhang family had become an Ancient Sage through comprehending time, and his strength was also extremely strong. But compared to this teacher of ten thousand generations, he was far inferior.

With doubts in his heart, he continued to look.

After driving the Spirit Race into the Ancient Battlefield, they performed a ritual to summon the “god,” and then Kong Shi captured it.

Seeing this, Zhang Xuan’s breathing quickened slightly.

The purpose of coming here was to find this; he hadn’t expected to be on the verge of knowing the answer.

He hurriedly looked further. The reliefs carved that Kong Shi took the “god” away from the core location of the Master Teacher Continent, the Master Teacher Academy headquarters, to a remote place.

This place was somewhat desolate, with very thin spiritual energy, and almost no decent buildings or cities could be seen.

After arriving here, the “god” either was killed or something else—it disappeared without a trace. Kong Shi seemed to have been injured and stopped to recuperate.

One of the later reliefs depicted entering a small world. If his guess was correct, it should be the Kunxu Realm, where the Hundred Schools of Thought were located.

This was the last one.

“Kunxu Realm, could it be…”

Seeing that the last stele depicted the Kunxu Realm, Zhang Xuan looked again at the desolate place where Kong Shi had taken the “god.” After examining it carefully, his eyelids twitched.

He actually recognized this place…

It was the outside world’s… Tianxuan Kingdom!