Chapter 1 The Beginning

Pure white airships, after landing, rapidly took off again. With a flash of spiritual light, they ascended to a height of several thousand meters, and then gradually accelerated.

Behind them, Mount Taibai and the hot spring tourist area disappeared into the snowy mist and clouds, leaving only a pale expanse around them.

Su Zhou and Shao Qiming sat in the inner seats, while the Demon Subduing Bureau's specialists stood, ready to deploy at any moment.

"We need to be able to conduct airborne operations as soon as possible. These seats were originally used to transport the wounded."

To Su Zhou's question of 'Why don't you sit?', the captain explained: "Because our enemies are generally located in the suburbs or in mountainous areas with extremely complex terrain, which may not allow the airship to land. And the enemies that require the Demon Subduing Bureau to dispatch usually require us to race against time."

"Separatists and the Undying Cult?"

Shao Qiming inquired at this time, and the leading specialist nodded: "Generally speaking, it's them. But occasionally there will be some ordinary malicious criminals, or those who take shortcuts and use improper means to break through as Zhenqi modified humans—not everyone can advance to the Xiantian realm, and there will always be people who want to use heretical methods."

It must be said that the Demon Subduing Bureau's airship is very stable and fast. Su Zhou sensed it slightly and concluded that the airship's speed was approaching three hundred meters per second, and in terms of technology and materials science, it was probably no less than the Earth world sixty years ago.

Through communication, Su Zhou and others also learned about the current situation of the Tianzheng Alliance.

The current Tianzheng Alliance is indeed a picture of peace and prosperity, with no foreign enemies and not too many internal troubles. The so-called separatists are just a small group of former high-level local forces that merged into the alliance, wanting to restore their former ruling position and plotting to carry out subversive attacks. The Undying Cult is just a remnant of the Demon Dynasty and their successors, wandering in every corner of the world, and have not yet been completely wiped out.

Initially, they were just some Demon soldiers who had not been wiped out. Their talents were insufficient, and even if they were immortal, it was difficult for them to continue cultivating. Therefore, these Demon soldiers gave their Undying Roots to their children and descendants, or selected successors, allowing their memories and souls to merge with them. In this way, through the Undying Root, they passed on experience and knowledge from generation to generation, and constantly replaced talented bodies.

The core members of the current Undying Cult are only eleven people, but most of them are Xiantian Martial Saints, and after a hundred years of the recovery of heaven and earth's Yuanqi, each member's strength is probably far superior to that of the former Demon Emperor.

Theoretically, in a world without extraordinary power, this small armed group would soon be wiped out, but unfortunately, in a world with extraordinary power, power and numbers are not equal, and the damage they can cause is extremely great. The Demon Subduing Bureau is the armed mobile force that deals with those remnants and various high-level extraordinary crimes.

"It's hard to imagine that this time, the Director directly gave the order."

Inside the cockpit, isolated from the transport cabin, two pilots chatted with respectful and surprised tones: "Since the Director stepped down from the podium, except for some major policy decisions, he has basically not managed anything... I originally thought that those founders of the alliance were now focused on cultivation, breaking through to the Ren Shen Tian realm, but I didn't expect them to still be paying attention to the outside world."

"Who knows, and it sounds like that guy who looks like a young man should be an old friend of the Director and the others, at least a hundred or two hundred years old... Don't be deceived by appearances, their strength, even the internal energy detector can't see through!"

The co-pilot was monitoring the surrounding data and the airship's route, and he also nodded, his eyes filled with anticipation: "The Xiantian realm's rejuvenation is so miraculous, it seems that after this mission, I should find an opportunity to try closed-door cultivation and break through to the Xiantian realm."

From Mount Taibai to the Liaozhou sea port, it doesn't take long. Soon, as the clouds gradually dissipated, a larger aerial platform appeared in the high altitude ahead of the pure white airship.

A giant, lotus-like steel disc-shaped aerial fortress with a radius of over five hundred and fifty meters was slowly floating at an altitude of about four thousand meters, and the Demon Subduing Bureau's airship slowly approached this aerial fortress and landed on it.

"We're here. This is the alliance's central air harbor in the northeast region."

Walking out of the airship, the captain of the Demon Subduing Bureau led Su Zhou and Shao Qiming towards the entrance of the fortress, and even the two from Earth couldn't help but marvel at this huge aerial creation.

"Such a huge aerial creation should have solidified levitation magic and be maintained by spiritual veins, right?"

Shao Qiming released a drone from his package again. He observed the seemingly empty airspace around him, and then nodded knowingly: "Sure enough, this is the estuary where the land spiritual energy and the ocean spiritual energy collide. The two spiritual veins impact each other, and the rising spiritual energy becomes a third spiritual vein in the air—and this aerial platform is built on this aerial spiritual vein. The design is really ingenious."

"Yes, it's indeed not bad. In fact, Earth has already found the equilibrium point where 'Earth spiritual energy' and 'space spiritual energy' collide, and has already built a large number of spiritual vein space stations there—theoretically speaking, the information after I land on the moon will need to be forwarded back to Earth from there."

Su Zhou, who knew more about Earth's secrets, nodded slightly. He and Shao Qiming used soul communication, so the Demon Subduing Bureau captain next to him couldn't hear: "Although the technology is the same, Earth should be a little more advanced, but looking at the appearance of the aerial fortress, it has been running for at least several decades, and the accumulated experience and data are also very valuable. A world is indeed a treasure trove."

"The Director is waiting for you inside."

The aerial platform is essentially a military airship transfer station. Although it is itself a huge armed warship, it cannot move around due to the spiritual vein being fixed, so it cannot exert the most important maneuverability of an armed airship.

The interior of the fortress was not as stuffy as imagined, nor did it have narrow passages with a large number of Zhenqi pipelines. The roads inside were spacious and had corresponding icon guidance. When the captain of the Demon Subduing Bureau led Su Zhou and Shao Qiming to the end of a corridor, in front of a heavy solid wood door, he stopped advancing: "The front is already a classified area, and my authority is not enough to enter."

After saying that, he turned and left, leaving the smiling Su Zhou behind.

"I really don't know if your acquaintance was here from the beginning, or if they rushed over here urgently."

Shao Qiming didn't relax his vigilance, because the Demon Subduing Bureau didn't confiscate weapons and equipment, so he still had a large number of special combat equipment in his arms and on his armed belt. He didn't have any affection for this world, and he still felt a little strange about the Tianzheng Alliance's overly rapid response: "Be careful, Su Zhou, don't let your guard down just because the other party is your old friend."

"Think about it carefully, although it's only been about two years for you, it's already been more than one hundred and forty years for them!"

"I know."

Su Zhou didn't care about this. He strode forward, and then pushed open the door with both hands: "But so what? Now it's me who wants to see them, and I never care about what they think of me."

"Let me see which old friend is in such a hurry."

The door opened.

In the quaint office, a figure slowly stood up, staring blankly at the door.

The man, still with black hair and a young appearance, had an aura like that of an old man. He looked at the young man who opened the door, first with doubt, and then with sudden realization.

"Su Zhou... Young Hero Su."

The man said slowly, his tone filled with emotion: "I originally thought that after that parting, we might be able to see you again in a few decades."

"I didn't expect that more than a hundred years have passed, but you have disappeared without a trace. Even though we found the Kunlun Secret Realm, we didn't get any news about you."

Walking out from behind the office, the man, still wearing a long sword at his waist, smiled at Su Zhou: "I really didn't expect that you would actually come back, and that I would be able to meet you again."

"You've gotten old, Zhou Buyi."

Facing the young man whose face still looked like he was in his twenties, Su Zhou sighed, but then he laughed again: "However, this might not be considered old—you who have already advanced beyond the Martial Saint realm, a mere two hundred years is probably just your youth."

"But these two hundred years have not left any traces on you."

Zhou Buyi, still heroic and handsome, even his former graying temples had all returned to black, but in terms of demeanor, he did indeed have a sense of vicissitude, as if he had experienced countless events—this vicissitude was not senility, but a kind of experience of countless worldly affairs: "You are still young, Young Hero Su."

After a brief conversation between the two, the room fell silent.

Shao Qiming stood behind Su Zhou, he looked at the strange man in front of him, and couldn't help but think: "This guy is the prototype of that unit of measurement that Su Zhou often used back in the day... More than a hundred years have passed, and he has also cultivated to the Overlord realm."

This was precisely what he was worried about—in the same era of spiritual energy recovery, civilizations in other timelines, whether in terms of technology or the number of strong individuals, would inevitably be faster than Earth... But since Su Zhou said it was okay, then he would choose to believe Su Zhou's judgment.

"You used your blood to treat all the seriously injured people at Mount Taibai that day, but the holy water and the blood in it were not used up, and we sealed them up."

Soon, Zhou Buyi spoke again, his tone carrying a kind of majesty derived from instinct, the aura of being in a high position for a long time, even after years of keeping a low profile, it was still the same: "At that time, we thought that as long as we used secret methods, then with the bit of spiritual blood you left behind, we could know when you would return... It's just that for more than a hundred years, it has never shown any abnormality, so we all felt that this secret method was wrong."

"But just over half a day ago, I discovered that this spiritual blood holy water, which should have been silent, had begun to emit a little brilliance... At that time, I knew that it was you who had returned. Then, I immediately discovered that you still appeared in the old place, still among the Mount Taibai mountain range."

"Your secret method is quite powerful."

Even Su Zhou was a little surprised: "My spiritual blood can actually be preserved for more than a hundred years? It seems that I'm also the kind of physique that doesn't rot after death."

Zhou Buyi stared at the 'acquaintance' in front of him, his eyes filled with surprise and also doubt, but after hearing the familiar, unpretentious, and impolite way of speaking, the man couldn't help but smile wryly: "That has been improved several times, what you see is already the twenty-somethingth version. Back then, before my master passed away, I also helped improve a lot."

"Sit."

As he said that, two chairs were lifted up by invisible internal force and flew out from the side, and Su Zhou sat down directly. Shao Qiming was a little slower, which also attracted Zhou Buyi's attention: "This is..."

"A friend of mine from Kunlun."

When in doubt, a Kunlun friend. Su Zhou didn't care whether this would be exposed, anyway, the most important thing was the friend, not where they came from. Then he asked: "Your master, are you referring to Li Daoran... Grandmaster Li has also passed away?"

"Yes."

Speaking of this, Zhou Buyi's tone became a little low. He knocked on the table, and after a while, a service person came in, served tea, he took a sip himself, and then said slowly: "After the Demon Dynasty was wiped out, we originally thought that this was the end of all struggles, but we didn't expect that this was just the beginning."

"First, there were the guys inside who wanted to reuse the power of the Divine Tree, then there were bandits everywhere, armed forces, independent villages... and a large number of An Dynasty refugee forces who had immigrated abroad and were deeply rooted."

"Going on expeditions to the south and battles to the north, sometimes it was our own people fighting each other, sometimes it was fighting with the remnants of the Demon Dynasty and other independent refugee forces. Not to mention the battles, there were also failures in breakthroughs, sudden changes in the environment caused by the recovery of heaven and earth's Yuanqi, Qi deviation, or major errors in the research of new technologies... With so many accidents and battles, my master died in a not-so-honorable assassination by the Undying Cult."

Speaking of this, he sighed a long sigh: "Building a huge country requires a lifetime of effort, and too many people died due to too many dark wounds from prolonged battles, unable to break through, and died of old age... Hey, Young Hero Su, can I call you that? Of the people back then, I should be the only one still alive..."

"Call it, a name is just a name."

Hearing this, Su Zhou also sighed slightly. He had actually made the corresponding psychological preparations. Now that Zhou Buyi was still alive, it was better than the worst result he had expected: "It sounds like you're really lonely, no wonder you contacted me as quickly as possible when you noticed I was coming."

"...Yes."

The man with a sword at his waist sat in his seat, he closed his eyes, recalled for a moment, and then opened his eyes and said: "Forget it, this is humanity, birth, old age, sickness, and death. Thinking about these things is nothing more than sentimentalism, messing up the mind."

"I see that Young Hero Su you have now also broken through to the 'Tiangang Martial God' realm, and your strength is strong, and I can't see through it. The cultivation information in the alliance should be useless to you... In this way, if you are interested, let this old bone of mine take you for a walk and see the prosperous age that our Hundred Families have created since you left!"

"Okay."

Su Zhou naturally wouldn't refuse, he laughed: "Will you pay for the meals along the way?"

"Huh? Of course." Zhou Buyi was stunned for a moment by Su Zhou's words, and then he laughed, his voice filled with generosity: "These small things are naturally on me."