by Dragon King
Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi were the weakest pair among the eight cultivators and probably even among all the participants in history. After all, the weakest participant so far was at low-tier Zhen-level. That was why Oldman Zeng mocked them, and Zhao Hongyu had no choice but to ignore him.
This opening was only 30 years after the last time, and the Four Ocean Dragon Palaces had sent relatively young cultivators to participate. 20 years later, the Nine Dragon Palace would open again and then again after another 50 years. It meant that any cultivators under 20 years of age could be able to enter the Nine Dragon Palace three times if they were given the opportunity. That was why the Four Ocean Dragon Palaces had all sent young cultivators who were all royal descendants.
“Well, it’s almost time. The Nine Dragon Palace will show up any minute now.” Sensing the undercurrent, Elder Xu and Elder Hu looked up into the sky and tried to smooth things over.
In fact, South Ocean and North Ocean were prompted by West Ocean to agree to the extra opening since West Ocean stated that the reason behind the proposal was to celebrate Zhao Kuo’s success in passing the Heavenly Tribulation. East Ocean had no reason to say no.
The truth was, East Ocean was at its weakest period. In the younger generations, they had no extraordinary talented cultivators. Zhao Yanzi was lazy in cultivation and now didn’t even have a Dragon Core, Hao Ren had just entered the world of cultivation, and others in East Ocean were just ordinary cultivators. East Ocean would gain the least benefits from this opening of the Nine Dragon Palace.
Boom!
While Elder Xu and Elder Hu looked up, a huge palace that was bigger than a mountain appeared in the high sky.
The powerful pressure it released made people want to bow at it.
With a low murmur, Oldman Zeng summoned a huge umbrella and blocked the overwhelming pressure temporarily.
The palace was grey and ordinary-looking, but the buzzing array formation around it was emitting black lightning flashes.
The palace was almost as big as a city.
A small-scale white array formation fell from the sky. In the four corners of the array formation were four circles which had different colors: red, yellow, green, and blue.
“Zi, Ren, stand in the dark red circle in the east,” Zhao Hongyu instructed.
It was Zhao Yanzi’s first time witnessing the Nine Dragon Palace, and she was stunned by it. Hao Ren pulled her into the red circle.
Standing in the green circle opposite them, Zeng Yitao glared at Han Ren. Then, he turned to Zhao Yanzi and said, “Little Zi, you are mine.”
Boom!
With a white flash, the array formation on the meadow vanished.
(TL Note: Hey guys, here is the release for today. The adventure with Zi begins! We do understand that some of you are upset by the announcement yesterday, but there is little that we could do. If you are in NA or EU, even if you have to purchase SS, it will cost less than the daily coffee, and it will directly support the translators, the author, and the platform. If you really don’t want to spend any money and don’t have enough free SS, you can check out our own website - noodletowntranslated.com. We currently have one continuing series there and will add more free series in the future.)
212 Little Burden
When the dizziness passed, Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi found themselves on a wasteland.
Everything was engulfed in a white mist as if they were in a forest in the early morning. The air was humid and foggy; they couldn’t see anything beyond two meters.
Dressed in the thin Taoist robes, they felt cold. Hao Ren circulated the Spirit Concentration Scroll to keep warm, but Zhao Yanzi, without her Dragon Core, was shivering.
Hao Ren reached out and held her hand. She was about to shake his hand off when a surge of warmth traveled from his hand into her body. Realizing Hao Ren was trying to keep her warm, she nestled her hand into his palm more securely.
In this unfamiliar environment, Hao Ren didn’t dare to move aimlessly. Standing at where he was, he took out the map Zhao Hongyu gave him and began to study it.
Looking up at Hao Ren, Zhao Yanzi took out a mini-compass from her bracelet and pointed. “This is east.”
Hao Ren turned to look at her, happy with her contribution. He set the map in the right direction and found that they needed to move west since Zhao Hongyu had told them that the place they landed on was to the east of the Origin Dragon Grand Palace.
“Follow me.” Hao Ren put away the map and pulled Zhao Yanzi toward the west.
Zhao Yanzi stumbled along with him like a reluctant follower.
“Zi.” Hao Ren stopped abruptly and turned to look at her.
“Yeah?” Zhao Yanzi looked up.
“I need you to understand one thing before we move forward. We are not here for fun. As you have seen, the cultivators who have entered the Nine Dragon Palace are all selected elites of the Four Ocean Dragon Palaces, and it’s a rare opportunity for us to come here since this place only opens every 50 years.” With his eyes locked on her, Hao Ren said the words with emphasis.
Zhao Yanzi pouted when Hao Ren continued, “For me, it’s not a leisurely tour. I want to find some godly elixirs to help your Third Uncle recover his cultivation strength.”
Zhao Yanzi had been defiant at Hao Ren’s lecture. Hearing his last sentence, she froze and bit her lip slightly.
“We have only six hours, which is only one afternoon. I hope you will work together with me since what we are doing is related to the recovery of your Third Uncle’s cultivation strength and related to the power balance between West Ocean and East Ocean.” Hao Ren looked very earnest.
Zhao Yanzi looked at him, and a determined expression appeared.
“Let’s go.” Hao Ren tugged on her hand and continued forward.
This time, Zhao Yanzi didn’t wait for him to drag her along. Instead, she quickened her steps and followed him closely.
She turned to look at Hao Ren and found his serious expression quite cool.
Hao Ren consulted the map while silently counting his steps. He estimated that one step covered a distance of about 50 centimeters, and the product of 50 centimeters and the number of steps would be the distance between the initial position to the Origin Dragon Grand Palace.
This data may not be useful to this trip, but it would be important information for future use.
Zhao Yanzi didn’t know what Hao Ren was mumbling about. If she had known that he was estimating and measuring the distance, she would have admired his attention to detail.
The atmosphere was gloomy while the dense white mist reduced their visibility. Zhao Yanzi clutched Hao Ren’s hand and leaned closer to him, absorbing the warmth from his body.
“Zi, check if our direction is right,” Hao Ren said.
“Ok!” Taking out the compass, she checked carefully. “We are still walking to the west.”
“We have walked 12,859 steps now, which is about 6,000 meters.” Hao Ren calculated in his mind. “With the walking speed of 5 kilometers per hour, we have spent about one hour here already.”
“Of the six hours allocated to us, one hour has passed.” Hao Ren told Zhao Yanzi.
“Really? One hour already?” Zhao Yanzi was astonished.
“Let’s hurry!” Hao Ren began to jog, dragging Zhao Yanzi along with him.
While jogging, Zhao Yanzi put away the compass, still surprised that one hour had passed already.
They needed to save their energy in the Nine Dragon Palace, but time was more precious!
With the ancient array formations still operating in the Nine Dragon Palace, they couldn’t fly using Dharma Treasures in here.
Even walking was consuming their Nature Essence! Zhao Yanzi got the Nature Essence transferred to her from Hao Ren and didn’t feel the loss, but Hao Ren was conscious that his Nature Essence was dwindling with each step they took.
The ordinary-looking wasteland was not ordinary at all! Hao Ren had been absorbing the essence from this space and turning it into
his own Nature Essence. Otherwise, he would have been exhausted.
That was why the Four Ocean Dragon Palaces used to send cultivators who were between 50 to 60 years old instead of younger cultivators even though the younger ones could enter twice. After all, the weak cultivation strength of young cultivators was not even enough to be consumed by the wasteland in the Nine Dragon Palace!
While they were running, Hao Ren felt like his Nature Essence was pouring out like the water in a waterfall!
His Nature Essence was not abundant, to begin with, and it was now almost running out!
Hao Ren stopped immediately and took several deep breaths. He calculated and found that they had just run about 200 steps!
“What? You’re tired so soon?” Zhao Yanzi looked back at Hao Ren in surprise since she knew his physical strength was way better than hers.
Hao Ren released her hand. “Try and run by yourself!”
“Running is not difficult for me!” As the best runner in her school, Zhao Yanzi swung her arms and began to run.
Six steps later, she felt a heavy pulling force on her legs. She lost her balance and fell to the ground.
Seeing her awkward posture, Hao Ren couldn’t help but laugh. He walked over and pulled her up.
Zhao Yanzi’s face reddened, realizing that Hao Ren had dragged her along with his Nature Essence for so long.
“Let’s continue,” Hao Ren said mildly as he grabbed onto her hand.
Zhao Yanzi nodded and blushed.
She even felt like her hands were hot.
Zhao Yanzi turned to look at Hao Ren while walking. “Do… Do you think I’m a burden?”
“What?” Hao Ren froze and then said to her. “No. You know how to read a compass, right?”
Red-faced, Zhao Yanzi pursed her lips and gave him a fierce look, baring her white teeth at him. “Is that all I can do?”
“Let’s move on. Burden or not, you are with me today.” Hao Ren quickened his steps and tightened his grip on her soft hand, dragging her to the west.
Zhao Yanzi slowed down a bit and looked at Hao Ren’s side face, suddenly feeling touched.
213 A Wasteland Full of Treasures
The white mist surrounded them, and the visibility there was only half a meter, reduced even more from the beginning.
If it were not for the compass, Hao Ren would have thought that they were totally lost.
They were wondering how much more distance they needed to cover when the black grand palace made of huge rocks appeared before them.
Even though the tower was in a cylinder shape, the foundation was in a square shape.
They looked up and found that the tip of the tower was not visible in the white mist.
The Tower of Heaven!
The huge tower made with huge crude rocks greeted them with a surge of prehistoric essence!
Zhao Yanzi tugged at Hao Ren’s arm and leaned toward him. “How much time is left?”
“We have walked 16,389 steps in total which is about 8,000 meters. It took us about one and a half hours,” Hao Ren answered her.
“Then, we still have four and a half hours.” Zhao Yanzi nodded. She realized she had been walking with Hao Ren, hand in hand, for more than 10,000 steps, and it was a little milestone on its own.
She released her grip slightly, she became afraid seeing this black palace and grabbed onto Hao Ren’s hand again, slightly embarrassed.
Oblivious to her little movements, Hao Ren opened the map and began to study it.
The entrance was a bit further from where they were. After entering the palace, they could follow the route that was drawn by earlier explorers and enter the core region of the grand palace.
“Let’s go!” Putting away the map, Hao Ren pulled Zhao Yanzi toward the entrance of the grand palace.
Zhao Yanzi followed him closely through the black gate in the east of the palace and into a dark and gloomy tunnel.
Swoosh!
Hao Ren released a mass of fire which he made with his fire-elemental sword energy. It was used as a torch to illuminate the surroundings.
The black tunnel was made with unknown black rocks. Although there was no skeletons or spider webs, the echoing of their steps and the shadows made by the fire made Zhao Yanzi nervous.
Hao Ren consulted the map at each turn. Although there were no traps in here, one wrong step could cost them precious time.
However, in the palace, the suppression they felt out in the wasteland disappeared, which meant that this palace could block the unique essence-sucking force of the wasteland.
“Uncle, I’m afraid,” Zhao Yanzi said abruptly after a while.
“With the map, we have nothing to fear,” Hao Ren answered, checking the map while walking.
The map showed that they were now only three turns away from the grand palace.
“If we can’t get out, we’ll spend our lives meandering in the palace, right?” Zhao Yanzi asked.
“Damn! You are a small cultivating dragon! Where’s your courage?” Hao Ren thought to himself and almost said the words out loud.
However, when he looked at Zhao Yanzi’s small face illuminated by the fire, he saw that she was, after all, a schoolgirl. He comforted her in a gentle voice, “We are fine. If there are any dangers here, your mom wouldn’t have let you come.”
“Ok…” Zhao Yanzi answered hesitantly, leaning closer to him.
They turned left, walked down a slope, then went forward and turned right… A brightly illuminated Origin Dragon Grand Palace suddenly entered their view!
The black stone statue of the Origin Dragon which was nearly 100 meters tall stood majestically in the center of the grand palace, emitting glittering black light!
Its 18 black arms were holding 18 different weapons, and its mouth held a huge gold bead!
It was this gold bead that illuminated the entire grand palace as if it was daylight.
They walked around the stone statue and found four incense desks in the four corners around the statue. The desks in the south, west, and, north all had three burning incense sticks on them.
It meant that the other three teams had been here earlier than them. Judging from the remaining lengths of the sticks, they knew Zeng Yitao of West Ocean was the first to reach this place.
“Let’s hurry up and light the incense sticks,” Zhao Yanzi urged.
“Ok.” Hao Ren took her back to the incense desk to the east. After taking out an incense stick that was emitting Nature Essence, he lit it up with fire-elemental sword energy before respectfully sticking it into an ancient-looking incense furnace.
The incense stick burned slowly, emitting a fragrant scent. Obviously, in the Origin Dragon Grand Palace, even Zeng Yitao didn’t dare to set a trap for them.
Hao Ren kneeled and kowtowed before the stone statue with Zhao Yanzi. Then, he consulted the map and took her to the main gate of the grand palace.
However, Hao Ren was baffled. Looking from the outside, the palace had its tower top up into the depth of the mist, and he guessed that it was taller than 100 meters. But in the grand palace, the dragon head of the Origin Dragon statue nearly touched the ceiling of the palace, which meant that there should be several or dozens of levels on top. However, while he walked from the eastern entrance to the grand palace, he didn’t see any paths or any ancient teleportation array formations leading to the higher levels.
There wasn’t enough time for Hao Ren to figure this question out, and he and Zhao Yanzi were really weak and couldn’t explore the palace. Hao Ren put aside his bafflement and walked toward the main gate facing the stone statue. There was a faint white light screen on the gate.
The moment they went through the white light screen, their vision suddenly cleared!
The gloomy mist vanished, and Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi could finally see mountains, rivers, and meadows!
They were not ordinary mountains, rivers or meadows.
All kinds of unknown celestial herbs emitting intense essence were spread all over
the plain, and celestial water flowed in the rivers with surging essence!
The mountains were so high that each of them was at least thousands of meters tall with their peak out of their sights!
Prehistoric Land! This was the true Prehistoric Land, a piece of land that was there when the world was just created!
Different from the Prehistoric Land in the legends, there were no Spirit Beasts or Demon Beasts; there were only lively and abundant celestial herbs all over the mountains and plains.
Seeming to have sensed the Nature Essence in the air, Little White chirped in Hao Ren’s necklace.
Hao Ren suddenly remembered that Little White had come in here with them in his necklace, so he opened the hidden space and let it out.
Little White rolled in the air, turning into its Snow Lion form before landing on the ground.
Cultivators liked places with intense essence, and so did Spirit Beasts. The intensity of the essence was hundreds and even thousands of times higher compared with the hidden space in the necklace, and Little White ran around Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi in extreme happiness.
In fact, the high intensity of essence in the Prehistoric times was the main reason there were a large number of Spirit Beasts and Demon Beasts at that time. As a Spirit Beast, Little White felt like at home here!
“Roar! Roar!” Lifting its head, Little White roared in exhilaration!
Putting away the map, Hao Ren looked around the beautiful scenery of green mountains and blue rivers. They were now out of the Origin Dragon Grand Palace, and the next step was to find one of the nine branch palaces.
