I picked up skill fragments in the demon world.

Chapter 962 Repairing the Space Channel
Zhang Chen neither agreed nor disagreed with Zhou Qiucheng's words, because in the capital, the most powerful force was indeed the army.

"Stop the car for inspection!"

As Zhang Chen and Zhou Qiu's carriage approached, a guard stepped forward, shouted a rebuke, and blocked the carriage's path.

Zhou Qiucheng lifted the curtain and took out a gold medal from his pocket: "I am Zhou Qiucheng of Chongzheng Academy. This is a token for communication."

After the guard took the gold token and checked it to confirm that it was correct, he asked again, "Password?"

Zhou Qiucheng said, "The pagoda suppresses the river demon!"

Upon hearing Zhou Qiucheng's words, the guard nodded and respectfully handed back the gold token: "Please come in, sir!"

The carriage continued on its way. Midway, Zhang Chen heard a noise, lifted the curtain, and saw groups of scholars walking out of the mountains.

Zhang Chen looked on with curiosity: "Could it be that they're on holiday?"

“The opening of the new world is such a momentous event that the court naturally had to clear the area in advance to prevent anyone from sabotaging it. All the scholars have been expelled to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the chaos. There aren’t many scholars in the academy, but there are definitely not few either, at least three thousand. If someone were to infiltrate, it would cause a huge loss to the Great Victory Royal Family,” Zhou Qiucheng said.

Upon hearing Zhou Qiucheng's words, Zhang Chen looked thoughtful. His eyes swept over the scholars who were discussing in the distance. The scholars' eyes were filled with a hint of curiosity, but they did not say anything. Instead, they lowered the curtain and closed their eyes to rest.

Time passed slowly, and as the group entered the academy, the air gradually quieted down. Guards stood guard everywhere, each one clad in iron armor, looking heroic and imposing.

"Not bad!" Zhang Chen praised, "The Great Victory over the Imperial Court is indeed well-founded."

“How could a hegemon who has suppressed the world for more than five thousand years not have any foundation?” Zhou Qiucheng said.

As they were talking, they arrived at the inner courtyard. Zhang Chen and Zhou Qiu got off the carriage and went into the academy. They walked down the tunnel. The inner courtyard had been completely cleared out, and there was no sign of the scholars. When they arrived at the bottom floor, only the seven teachers of the academy and a dozen or so old ancestors of the Great Victory Royal Family, dressed in black robes and exuding a decaying smell, were waiting in the passage.

"Zhang Chen has arrived." Zhou Qiucheng led Zhang Chen into the passage and addressed the crowd.

The old man's gaze fell on Zhang Chen, his expression unwavering, and he said calmly, "Let's begin."

As Zhang Chen walked away, the old patriarch of the Great Victory Royal Family, his face hidden beneath his black robe, looked at Zhang Chen's retreating figure with suspicion. He said to the Great Master, "This kid can repair that spatial passage?"

"This matter concerns his life, so it's no laughing matter. Don't worry, Ancestor," the Master said.

If Zhang Chen cannot repair the spatial passage, he will be unable to clear his name of his crimes and will be punished by the Great Victory King.

Upon hearing this, the old man in black robes said nothing more, but stood aside and looked Zhang Chen up and down, his eyes flashing with suspicion.

Zhang Chen arrived at the entrance of the passage, clasped his hands in a respectful greeting to everyone, and then asked, "Have all the materials I requested been prepared?"

"Having exhausted the resources of the entire nation, all the rare and precious materials have been accurately and completely gathered," the master replied.

Zhang Chen nodded upon hearing this and took the initiative to walk towards the area of ​​lightning and fire in the passage. Sure enough, he encountered boxes of secret treasures that the Great Victory Royal Family had plundered from all over the world to repair the passage, which shimmered brightly in the firelight.

Zhang Chen's gaze swept over the box, a hint of satisfaction appearing in his eyes. He turned to the crowd behind him and said, "Next, I'm going to repair the feng shui array. No matter what you see, you must not disturb me."

The old man nodded upon hearing this: "Go ahead and do it."

Without further ado, Zhang Chen picked up the rare and precious materials from the box and began digging around in the passage. He dug here and there, burying some treasures. The people from the Great Victory Royal Family wanted to learn his technique, but seeing Zhang Chen's erratic movements, they were completely baffled. They had no idea what Zhang Chen was doing and naturally couldn't see any clues.

What Zhang Chen needs to do is not just repair the Feng Shui array passage. To be honest, the final two barriers of thunder and fire in the world barrier are no match for Zhang Chen. What Zhang Chen needs to do is use the Feng Shui array as an anchor point to open up the key node of the barrier between the material world and the spiritual world, and then anchor it in the spiritual world, making it easier, less strenuous and more convenient for the Queen Mother of the West to take action.

With this feng shui array anchoring him, Zhang Chen could more easily extract that spiritual world with less disturbance, ensuring it wouldn't be noticed by this world. Moreover, he could use this opportunity to deplete the Great Victory Dynasty's treasures and resources—why wouldn't Zhang Chen do it?

Although Zhang Chen's feng shui skills may not be considered the pinnacle, his understanding and control of feng shui formations, gained through his dream of returning to ancient times to oversee the construction of the two great feng shui formations built by the Queen Mother of the West, has reached an unbelievable level.

The crowd watched Zhang Chen continuously setting up a feng shui formation, though they couldn't quite understand it. However, they felt that his every move was incredibly mysterious, as if it contained some kind of inexplicable and mysterious law.

"As expected of the person who cut off Zhang Shicheng's path to becoming a dragon, he was able to disrupt Zhang Shicheng's feng shui formation and ruin his dragon-transformation pattern. His understanding of feng shui formations is already quite profound, and probably no one in the world can match him." The master praised Zhang Chen as he watched his actions.

Upon hearing this, the patriarch of the Great Victory Royal Family said with a gloomy expression, "The eight great families correspond to the eight trigrams of heaven and earth, and their fortunes are continuous. The fact that such a person can be born shows that the fortunes of the eight great families are at their peak and can be described as uninterrupted."

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent. Everyone knew the deep-seated grudges between the Dasheng royal family and the Zhang family. The emergence of Zhang Chen from the Zhang family was not a good thing for the Dasheng royal family.

“Ancestor, you are mistaken. The continuous prosperity of the eight great families is the state of affairs in the past. Recently, the eight great families have encountered great troubles and are not far from disintegration,” the eldest master replied from the side.

Upon hearing this, the patriarch of the Great Victory Royal Family looked surprised and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

The elder said, “First, the Zhang family lost their clan's sacred artifact, the Book of Life and Death, and their ancestor died. Internal strife within the Zhang family caused a great upheaval, resulting in countless deaths and injuries. Furthermore, because of the events in the North, the other six families have severed ties with the Zhang family over the Pingbian King, and the other seven have chosen to support him. The fortunes of the eight great families have been ruined; they will never regain their former glory. If the seven great families cannot unite, they are nothing but clay chickens and earthen dogs against the Great Victory Royal Family, utterly vulnerable! And then there's the Gong family. They turned against the other seven families and had to submit to the Great Victory Royal Family, further increasing our chances of victory. The mere eight great families have long since declined and are no longer a threat.”

The old ancestor nodded upon hearing this: "That makes sense! However, it is beyond my expectations that the innate destiny of the eight great families has been broken in this way. Back then, even the founding ancestor of the eight great families was helpless against them. Now, they have managed to pry open the loophole in your generation. It is truly astonishing."

While everyone was talking, Zhang Chen had already filled the passage with various supplies. As he operated the feng shui formation, the spatial passage was gradually repaired, clearing away the power of thunder and fire to form a void passage.

"This person has such amazing feng shui skills. I wonder where he learned them from. You know, the Zhang family has never had such a powerful feng shui lineage." The patriarch of the Great Victory Royal Family asked again.

Upon hearing the words of the patriarch of the Great Victory Royal Family, the Great Master looked at Zhou Qiucheng and asked, "Zhang Chen once studied in Jinling City for a period of time. Have you ever heard of his lineage?"

“Zhang Chen’s lineage is a mystery. Back then, he ruined the grand plan of the Pingbian Prince’s Mansion in the North, which already showed his incredible abilities. He had already inherited the legacy at that time. When he was at my Jinling Academy, he was just learning some cultural knowledge,” Zhou Qiucheng replied.

He didn't know anything about Zhang Chen's lineage or background, only that Zhang Chen had become so powerful ever since he came into everyone's view.

"No matter what methods they have, with the fate of the eight great families broken, they have become monkeys in our palms and will find it difficult to escape again." The patriarch of the Great Victory Royal Family smiled disdainfully.

As he spoke, Zhang Chen's movements became faster and faster. The originally broken feng shui formation gradually revived, and mysterious lines flowed on the passage and the ground, turning into mysterious patterns that absorbed the power of thunder and fire. Then, a protective shield was erected to repel the power of thunder and fire, forming a passage.

"This kid has some impressive skills, he actually succeeded!" As Zhang Chen continued to repair and prop up the passage, everyone in the room praised him, their eyes filled with admiration.

That is a mysterious and unknown new world, containing countless wonders. If one could control a world, how prosperous would the Great Victory Dynasty become?

Ignoring the burning gazes of the crowd behind him, Zhang Chen pondered when to make his move: "Should I act immediately after repairing the spatial passage, or wait until I've sent everyone into that spiritual world before taking action?"

"Once you've repaired the spatial passage, act immediately. Under no circumstances should they be allowed to enter." Just then, the Queen Mother of the West seemed to sense Zhang Chen's hesitation and immediately spoke up from the side.

Zhang Chen was taken aback by these words: "What do you mean by that?"

"These people are all elites of this world, possessing great fortune and favored by the destiny of this world. If they enter the spiritual world, it means that the destiny of this world enters the other world, forming a cause and effect relationship between the two. The destiny of the people in the spiritual world is the chain connecting the Great Thousand World and the spiritual world. With the causal support of the Great Thousand World, it will be difficult for us to seize the spiritual world then," the Queen Mother of the West warned.

"When they enter that world, it's as if the Great Thousand Worlds has marked that world, forming a causal chain between them. If we want to take over that world, firstly, we must sever the causal chain of the Great Thousand Worlds; secondly, we must bear the karma of the Great Thousand Worlds. Either of these consequences will form shackles, dragging you into an abyss of no return." The Queen Mother of the West, fearing that Zhang Chen did not understand the importance of the matter, kept warning him.

Zhang Chen was startled upon hearing this. He hadn't expected there to be such a crucial point. If the Queen Mother of the West hadn't spoken up, he feared he would have gotten himself into serious trouble. Who knew what kind of chain reaction would result from moving a small world?

However, now that the Queen Mother of the West is guiding us, everything is no longer a problem.

(End of this chapter)