Nine Star Hegemon Body Art c1-2048

by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k

  That was why he was bitterly smiling. He hadn’t even returned his debt, and a new one was already piled on.

  “There’s no need for you to care about this debt. Anyone who sincerely has good intentions for our Spirit race is our precious guest. Do you know those Dream Butterflies you attracted when you first entered the Forest of Life? The Dream Butterflies are the most sensitive spirit creatures within this forest. For them to like you means you truly care about us. We don’t have anything to repay you with, so this is just a bit of kindness from us,” said the Spirit Emperor.

  “Spirit Emperor, what trouble have you encountered? I want to help,” said Long Chen.

  “This trouble isn’t so simple. It might not be long before the Forest of Life will cease to exist.”

  “Is it really so grave?”

  “The Dark Forest has gathered reinforcements from many different powers, inflating their forces. And even before this, just the Dark Forest alone was hard enough to resist. Now, the Spirit race warriors are no longer able to block them, and the battle lines are being forced closer and closer to us. The Forest of Life itself is not able to kill other lifeforms, and being infected by their grievance and resentment is toxic to us. The Spirit race warriors and spirit beasts are the only things we can depend on. But looking at the current situation, there’s no hope,” sighed the Spirit Emperor. “So thank you for coming here, but we don’t want to implicate you. That would just make us feel worse. Throwing away your lives for a hopeless battle isn’t worth it.”

  “Since we’ve come, we came prepared. Even if we have to die, we will stand beside you. Even if we have to fight to the last man, to the last drop of blood. This is the spirit of the Dragonblood Legion,” said Long Chen firmly. These were his principles, and the principles of the Dragonblood Legion.

  “But if you help us, you will become the enemies of all the Martial Heaven Continent’s powers,” warned the Spirit Emperor.

  Chapter 1407 Traitors of the Human Race

  “Why would that happen?” asked Long Chen with shock.

  “The answer would take a long time to explain…” The Spirit Queen sighed and began to tell Long Chen a story he had never heard before.

  Rumor had it that in the immortal era, the Spirit World had had very good relationships with the human race. The Spirit race had powerful life energy skills and had helped the human race countless times against their powerful enemies.

  In that battle of the immortal era, in order to help the human race, the Spirit World had lost many of its experts. It had been forced to seal itself off to recover.

  Then the dark era came. The Spirit World was also attacked, with foreign tree demons invading. At that time, they still hadn’t recovered from their previous losses.

  When the dark era ended, the Martial Heaven Continent had been devastated, and the Spirit World had taken disastrous losses. The Dark Forest grew stronger. At first, they only managed to take over a small part of the Spirit World, but now they began to spread.

  Other than their powerful tree demons, the Dark Forest also had berserk Magical Beasts. As for the Forest of Life’s spirit trees, they couldn’t kill other creatures. Only their Spirit race warriors and spirit beasts could fight them.

  However, they were unable to stop the advance of the Dark Forest. The Dark Forest’s territory grew greater and greater, while the Forest of Life’s territory shrank with each passing year.

  This was a slow battle. Since the dark era had passed, and the human race had recovered, the Spirit race asked for help.

  However, the Sovereigns that had once led the human race heroically had all fallen, and the Martial Heaven Continent had completely changed.

  Each person was selfish, and no one came to help the Spirit race. In fact, people began to curse the Spirit race for betraying their trust and not helping the Martial Heaven Continent during the dark era. They thought that the huge losses they had taken were all because of the Spirit race’s betrayal.

  “How could they be so shameless?!” raged Long Chen. “This was too evil!”

  Although he hadn’t spent a long time with the Spirit race’s people, he had no doubt whatsoever toward them. They would never lie.

  “If they just didn’t help us, that would be one thing. But then after having a falling out with us, they began to help the Dark Forest suppress us,” said the Spirit Queen sadly.

  “Are they worse than beasts?” Long Chen couldn’t imagine this. Just what had happened to the human race? Why would they do something so treacherous? Suddenly, he had a thought. “Could it be…?”

  “Yes. It stemmed from greed. Everything in the Forest of Life is filled with life essence. The spirit beasts, the spirit trees, the spirit warriors, all lifeforms within the Forest of Life are treasures in the outside world that can extend a person’s lifespan.”

  As expected. In front of great enticement, humans would also become depraved. Even a saint could become a devil.

  “Does the entire Martial Heaven Continent side with the Dark Forest?” asked Long Chen. If the Xuantian Dao Sect had also sided with the Dark Forest, he wouldn’t know how to feel about it.

  “About all of them. The Corrupt path, the ancient races, Pill Valley, the Xuan Beasts, they all stood by the side of the Dark Forest. As for the Righteous path, they acted like they didn’t see anything. But some sects stealthily sent some people to kill the creatures in the Forest of Life, so the Righteous path also isn’t our friend,” answered the Spirit Queen.

  Hearing this, Long Chen sighed with relief. As long as the Xuantian Dao Sect hadn’t participated in killing them, he could accept it.

  He finally realized what Li Tianxuan had been about to tell him. Clearly, Li Tianxuan had already figured out the situation in the Spirit World and had predicted that Long Chen would be surrounded by enemies.

  But even if Li Tianxuan had told him all this, Long Chen would still have come to the Spirit World without any hesitation.

  The thing that disappointed him was that whether it was the Xuantian Dao Sect, the Heaven Splitting Battle Sect, the Heavenly Sword Gate, or the Wine God Palace, all these sects he had a close relationship with had all chosen to be silent in the face of the Spirit World’s crisis.

  Then he supposed that any single sect couldn’t become enemies with so many sects. They could only act like they didn’t know anything.

  At the same time as he was disappointed, he was enraged. If people could abandon the allies that had fought alongside them so easily, were they even worthy of being called cultivators? Was this in order to live a longer but sullen life? If you didn’t even dare to do the things you wanted to do, then what was the point of cultivating?

  “Spirit Queen, on behalf of the human race, let me apologize. I’m ashamed of my ancestors, for their actions. But the Dragonblood Legion and I will stand together with you. We will live and die together,” swore Long Chen.

  “Are you prepared to become enemies with the entire Martial Heaven Continent?” asked the Spirit Queen.

  “If I have to be enemies with them, then fine. In any case, I have plenty of enemies already. I don’t mind increasing the scale a bit more.” Long Chen smiled.

  Wasn’t that precisely the case? The ancient races, Corrupt path, and Pill Valley were his mortal enemies. Which one didn’t want his life?

  As for the Xuan Beasts, as soon as he had accepted Cloud, he had made his preparations to be enemies with them.

  To put it bluntly, a dead pig wasn’t afraid of boiling water. Since things had already reached this point, he might as well do what he wanted.

  Although he had many things to accomplish, if he didn’t even dare to repay his debts, then would having a higher cultivation base matter? This wasn’t his first time putting his life on the line, and he was already used to it.

  “Long Chen, thank you.” The Spirit Queen was extremely grateful. After being betrayed by so many humans, this was her first time encountering a human who would sacrifice their life for them for a small
favor.

  “Spirit Queen, I have many questions I want to ask you.”

  “Ask away. As long as I know, I will answer.”

  “Why are the spirit warriors all women? Where are the male warriors?”

  This was something that he had been holding back for a long time. In all the Forest of Life, he hadn’t seen a single male.

  “There are no male warriors in our Spirit race. These warriors are not humans. They are the fruit of the Life God.” The Spirit Queen raised her head to look at the giant tree.

  “They’re fruit?” Long Chen jumped in shock. How was this possible?

  “Yes, the fruit of the Life God Tree. They took human form with the Life God Tree’s power. Bows and arrows are the martial weapons that allow them to unleash their greatest power. Although their arrows are made of ordinary wood, when they shoot, they will pray to the Life God, giving their arrows divine power that can pierce the armor of experts and the hide of Magical Beasts.

  Now Long Chen understood why their arrows were so strangely powerful.

  “It is because they are the fruit of the Life God Tree that they are like pure and naive children. They are like a sheet of white paper. After years of fighting against the Dark Forest, countless spirit warriors have lost their lives. In order to protect everyone, the Life God has spent all its energy. You can also see how bad the Life God Tree’s situation is. It’s unable to give birth to any more spirit warriors. Originally, when the spirit warriors die, a portion of them will transform into spiritual qi and return to the Forest of Life to be absorbed by the Life God Tree. But when the Martial Heaven Continent’s experts capture them, they will refine them into divine life elixir.” Fury appeared on the Spirit Queen’s face. The spirit warriors who landed in enemy hands all suffered miserably.

  This was why Gui Yan had captured those spirit warriors. But with the Corrupt path’s lecherousness and cruelty, they would inflict even more suffering on them.

  “What is the origin of the Dark Forest? They invaded the Spirit World during the dark era. Was that a coincidence or part of a scheme? If it’s part of a scheme, what is their goal?” Long Chen was extremely curious toward the Dark Forest. Just how had those tree demons formed an agreement with the Martial Heaven Continent’s experts?

  “I’m ashamed to say that our heads aren’t as clever as the human race’s. We’ve never been able to figure out why they appeared,” said the Spirit Queen apologetically.

  Long Chen was dumbfounded. Even after tens of thousands of years, they were unable to figure out their goal?

  He quickly thought of how Pill Valley’s experts said that the Dark Forest’s tree demons were all wooden-headed fools. They weren’t very intelligent.

  It was just that the Spirit Queen looked very wise, so it was unexpected that even she wouldn’t know such a thing.

  “That’s fine. We can figure that out later. Then tell me, other than their greed for the Forest of Life, is there anything else that attracts the Martial Heaven Continent’s warriors here?”

  “Yes. Within the Spirit World lies part of the Ancient Battlefield. Back when the human race was still allied with the Spirit World, when devil creatures invaded us, they were suppressed by a Sovereign. That battle was extremely intense, and heaven and earth were destroyed. Spatial cracks now litter that region. Rumor has it that countless experts of both the humans and those devil creatures died at that time, and their treasures were left behind. However, the divine might of a Sovereign still lingers there, so neither we nor the Dark Forest’s tree demons can approach there without being annihilated,” said the Spirit Queen.

  “A Sovereign’s divine might that makes you unable to approach the battlefield?” Long Chen was shocked to learn that a Sovereign had once fought in the Spirit World.

  “Yes. Only humans can get close to that area, but I heard that the battlefield is extremely dangerous. Countless adventurers have entered without ever leaving.”

  Sovereigns were legendary existences that dominated anyone in the same realm. Only one Sovereign would appear in one generation, so the title of Sovereign was synonymous with unrivaled.

  Rumor had it that the Sovereigns were the result of all the world’s karmic flow condensing into one person. Only one Sovereign could be born in one era, and only when that Sovereign fell would it be possible for a second Sovereign to be born. So the Sovereigns that had risen during previous eras were all figures that had led that era. They were god-like existences.

  “I’ll definitely have to go to that battlefield. Perhaps I can get some treasures.” A fiery light appeared in Long Chen’s eyes.

  Chapter 1408 Primal Chaos Soil

  After chatting with the Spirit Queen for a long time, he gained an understanding of the Forest of Life’s power.

  The Forest of Life had ninety million spirit warriors. They possessed such long lifespans that they had to be measured in millenia.

  The longer they lived, the greater their combat power would be. They had no cultivation base rankings. Instead, it was their age that was used to divide their power. They were split into Spirit Kings, Spirit Generals, Spirit Guards, and Spirit Soldiers.

  They could generally be equivalent to the human race’s Life Star, Soul Transformation, Jade Core, and Foundation Forging realms. The Spirit Guard that Long Chen had saved was very powerful amongst Spirit Guards, which had allowed her to fight so long against Gui Yan.

  In truth, Gui Yan hadn’t been fighting all-out at that time. He had intentionally let some spirit warriors escape to draw more reinforcements. His appetite was quite big.

  The Spirit race’s warriors would only reach the level of a true Spirit Soldier when they had reached two hundred years of age. Without reaching that age, their combat power would be even lower.

  The spirit warriors’ appearances never changed. They appeared the same as when they had just been born. Other than their own people, no one else could tell them apart.

  Those who had lived for two hundred to a thousand years were called Spirit Soldiers, one thousand to two thousand were Spirit Guards, two thousand to five thousand were Spirit Generals, and five thousand to ten thousand were called Spirit Kings.

  When Long Chen heard this, he couldn’t help being speechless. These pure and naive ladies had actually lived for so long.

  However, he supposed since they were the fruit of the Life God Tree, he could understand it. It was just regretful that the Spirit race had taken huge losses to help the human race during the battle of the immortal era.

  Then the Dark Forest had come and continuously fought against the Spirit race until there were no longer any Spirit Kings left.

  There were less than ten thousand Spirit Generals, and about eight million Spirit Guards. But not all the Spirit Guards were as strong as the one Long Chen had encountered. That Spirit Guard had almost reached the level of a Spirit General, which was why she had been able to block Gui Yan. Then there were over eighty million Spirit Soldiers.

  There were also over three thousand eleventh rank Magical Beasts, a hundred thousand tenth rank Magical Beasts, and an uncountable number below that level in the Forest of Life. A force of this level would be shocking on the Martial Heaven Continent.

  However, compared to the Dark Forest, the Forest of Life didn’t have the slightest chance of winning. That was because the Dark Forest had finally brought back the Heaven Devouring Forest they had set up on the Martial Heaven Continent in order to raise a group of extremely powerful tree demons.

  The Martial Heaven Continent was different from the Spirit World. The Martial Heaven Continent was full of strife and slaughter, and tree demons all liked to absorb that air. It was beneficial to their growth.

  Furthermore, the spirit trees were unable to directly participate in the battle. They could only bestow their power to the spirit warriors and spirit beasts. When they were injured, they would use their own energy to heal them. The tree demons had no such restriction.

  “How long ago did they suddenly get reinf
orced?” Long Chen suddenly thought of something.

  “Three months and seventeen days ago according to the units of the Martial Heaven Continent. What about it?” asked the Spirit Queen upon seeing Long Chen’s expression change.

  “Over three and a half months ago? That’s not long after I caused a falling out with Pill Valley…”

  Long Chen gave a simple summary of what he had done in Pill Valley. The Spirit Queen was completely dumbfounded. Long Chen had almost destroyed Pill Valley, as well as provoked a huge fight between them and the Heaven Devouring Forest, causing the Heaven Devouring Forest to take heavy losses.

  “The Dark Forest has secret connections to many of the powers of the Martial Heaven Continent. So I will make a very brazen guess. Back when the Dark Forest first established spatial channels to spread their roots to the Martial Heaven Continent, they made it seem like this was simply the actions of the Dark Forest, but the truth was that they had already received the approval of Pill Valley, the Corrupt path, the ancient races, and the other various powers. That was why they weren’t immediately destroyed when they first entered the continent. Once they had established themselves, they began to spread rapidly, blocking off the way from the Eastern Xuan Region to the Central Xuan Region. They would occasionally kill experts crossing through them, but due to their secret connections with powers like Pill Valley, they couldn’t be eradicated.

  “Because of the Heaven Devouring Forest, the Dark Forest’s power grows greater and greater at a rapid rate. Most likely, the Dark Forest doesn’t even view the Forest of Life as an opponent any longer. They simply want to get more benefits from growing in the Martial Heaven Continent. But because of their falling out with Pill Valley, although it looked like they settled things, they are filled with hatred. They view the Forest of Life as a fat slab of meat, and they’re using you as a bargaining chip with the Corrupt path, ancient races, and other powers.

  “All these other powers were invited into the Spirit World, but I believe only the Pill Valley was rejected. Pill Valley is under great pressure as it is and doesn’t have the energy to participate in this matter. Others can enter and get benefits, but Pill Valley can’t. This is their way of punishing Pill Valley for the previous battle. That’s why, at the very least, our opponents won’t include the flame cultivators of Pill Valley. That will make things much easier on us, and I’ll be able to come up with certain stratagems for the battle. Do you want to hear my suggestions?” asked Long Chen.