This Saint King Artifact was an Ancient Divine Disc, which was relatively easier to deal with.

Chu Chen used the Blood Dragon Spear to restrain the Ancient Divine Disc, then summoned the God Phoenix Diagram. Miraculous fluctuations rippled within the diagram, transforming into a powerful suction force that instantly drew the Ancient Divine Disc inside with a sharp whoosh.

The entire process was remarkably smooth.

Seeing that the God Phoenix Diagram had successfully captured the treasure, Chu Chen felt immensely pleased.

With a flick of his silhouette, he dashed out from the sea of Heterogeneous Flame.

The moment Chu Chen emerged, Feng Qing'er breathed a sigh of relief. She had been constantly worried that something might happen to him inside.

Now that Chu Chen was finally out, she noticed he wasn't holding the Saint King Artifact.

"Where is the Ancient Divine Disc? Hand it over!"

"The aura of the Saint King Artifact has completely vanished from the sea of Heterogeneous Flame."

"You must have taken it!"

"Hand it over right now!"

"Otherwise, don't even think about leaving!"

In an instant, a dense crowd of fifty to sixty people completely surrounded Chu Chen.

Chu Chen had long anticipated this. Even though he had already concealed the Ancient Divine Disc, these God Phoenix Valley disciples had caught the scent and swarmed him.

"Even if it is on me, what of it?" Chu Chen looked at them. "Treasures belong to those with the strength to claim them. I advise you to scram."

However, they remained packed tightly around him, showing no intention of yielding a path.

"Hand over the Saint King Artifact immediately!"

"It doesn't belong to you!"

"Hurry up!"

The surrounding God Phoenix Valley disciples pressed forward, shouting one after another.

Chu Chen swept a cold gaze across them.

"It seems you won't understand pain until your faces are slapped."

"If you have the ability, come and take it. I happen to have quite a few treasures on me."

Chu Chen spoke with absolute, overbearing dominance.

The surrounding God Phoenix Valley disciples stared at him with burning, furious eyes.

Without warning, someone bellowed, "Charge!" and the massive crowd surged toward Chu Chen like a torrential wave.

Facing this onslaught, Chu Chen remained as perfectly calm and unperturbed as before.

Let alone fifty or sixty disciples, even if there were five or six hundred, why should he fear them?

It was true they had numbers on their side, but they were utterly no match for him.

Confronted by the multi-directional siege, Chu Chen unleashed his dominance, striking out with a single palm toward the crowd. With a thunderous boom, a terrifying shockwave heavily slammed into their bodies.

They were instantly sent flying by the force.

Chu Chen had no intention of letting them off easily; though they could be spared the death penalty, they would not escape punishment.

He wielded the Blood Dragon Spear, sending a blood-colored dragon shadow sweeping across them. A succession of muffled cracks echoed as their Dantians were shattered one by one.

This was an immense loss for God Phoenix Valley, as the cultivation of dozens of disciples was destroyed in a single breath.

Combined with the previous deaths of Sun Chuanming and his cohort, Chu Chen was methodically tearing the sect apart. Yet, he never regretted his actions. He had come to God Phoenix Valley precisely to dismantle it from within, and half of that objective was now complete.

"You... you crippled all of them!" Ma Xiuyue said, her expression incredibly grave as she witnessed his ruthless methods. "The Sect Leader will never let you off for this."

"If you ask me, Senior Brother Wu, you should flee the moment we exit the secret realm." Ma Xiuyue deeply feared he would stay and be executed by the Sect Leader.

"I know what I am doing," Chu Chen replied with absolute composure. "At least I left them alive."

"There is a teleportation gate ahead," Feng Qing'er said, her eyes fixed on a structure further in. "Should we enter? I have no idea where it leads within the secret realm."

"Very well." Chu Chen was indifferent; following wherever the path led suited him perfectly.

Waves of glowing spiritual light currents rippled across the teleportation gate.

The three of them stepped onto the platform, and a shroud of radiance quickly enveloped them. The light flickered with increasing speed until it whisked them away into an entirely different space.

Chu Chen let out a soft exclamation of surprise and looked around.

He discovered that their new surroundings were exceptionally bizarre. The area was pitch-black, yet countless starlight glimmers drifted through the air.

Looking closer, he realized these glimmers were star stones. Star stones were a rare variant of Spirit Stones that contained a unique cosmic energy. This immense space was densely packed with them, indicating the area was highly unusual.

Though they had entered the gate together, Chu Chen could not see Ma Xiuyue or Feng Qing'er anywhere nearby.

"Miss Feng! Miss Ma!" Chu Chen called out into the dark.

Only a profound silence met his voice; there was no response whatsoever.

This filled Chu Chen with doubt. What exactly was happening here?

"What is this place?" Chu Chen murmured.

He swept his gaze across the surroundings once more but detected no immediate anomalies, only a pervasive strangeness. The space was extraordinarily vast, and the star stones floated aimlessly at every height, their twinkling lights casting a brilliant, celestial glow.

Gradually, Chu Chen sensed that something was amiss.

He had likely stepped into a massive Formation. These floating star stones appeared to be components of the array, though the grand Formation had not yet been assembled or fully activated.

Given the immense scale of this dim, starlit space and the sudden disappearance of his two companions, Chu Chen knew he had to find Ma Xiuyue and Feng Qing'er. They might be facing sudden danger, and time was of the essence.

He moved swiftly through the void, searching for any trace of them.

To his surprise, even after half an hour of searching, there was still no sign of the two women. How could two people vanish into thin air without a trace? There had to be a hidden mechanism at work.

In reality, Feng Qing'er and Ma Xiuyue were within the exact same space, merely concealed from view.

Feng Qing'er was frantic, desperately searching for Chu Chen but failing to see him no matter where she looked.

"Xiuyue, what is going on?" Feng Qing'er asked in a panic.

"We seem to have been obscured by the specific spatial laws of this region," Ma Xiuyue surmised. "Senior Brother Wu should still be inside this space with us."

"That is likely, but why would this wretched space deliberately hide us from one another?" Feng Qing'er simply could not comprehend it.

"There is no use dwelling on what we cannot understand," Ma Xiuyue said, sweeping her gaze across the dark void. "Our immediate priority is to find Senior Brother Wu."

"Alright. I must cause a disturbance so it is easier for Wu Qi to locate us."

With that, Feng Qing'er drew her Saint King Artifact, the Crystal Jade Ring Saber, and unleashed a powerful slash into the void.

The destructive energy was so immense that it visibly warped and compressed the surrounding space.

Chu Chen, who was still searching fruitlessly, suddenly felt the space surge violently. A brilliant radiance erupted in the upper reaches of the void, catching his attention instantly.