by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
“I suppose that you don’t need this trial then? If you don’t need it, I’m going in to take a look,” said Long Chen.
“We don’t want it. Please, go ahead!” said the disciple. They had almost died inside, but the reward had actually been held back and they had been transported out. If Long Chen wanted to enter, they naturally wouldn’t argue.
“Alright then!” Long Chen walked onto the altar. A light flashed, bringing Long Chen underground.
“Do you think senior apprentice-brother Long Chen can pass?” asked one disciple.
“Perhaps. After all, a monster on his level can’t be judged by us. Ugh, if it weren’t for Di Long, we might be fighting alongside him. But now, there’s a clear dividing line between us…”
BOOM!
Just a moment after Long Chen vanished, the ground rumbled. Those disciples jumped in shock.
Cracking sounds appeared and the altar rocked intensely.
“Run!”
Those disciples’ expressions changed. They had been planning on staying here until Long Chen came out, but now it seemed that such a thing would risk their very lives.
BOOM!
The altar exploded and those disciples were blown back. They turned back, shocked.
“What is senior apprentice-brother Long Chen doing?”
Rumbling continued to ring out. Meanwhile, the ground crumbled and exploded, shooting dust into the air.
As for Long Chen? As soon as he entered the trial region, a mass of stone puppets attacked him. They were very powerful, and their auras were not weaker than ordinary Empyreans.
With a snort, Long Chen blasted them apart with his fists. His punches were so powerful that the surrounding walls cracked and crumbled. Aboveground, the altar shattered.
This wasn’t his home, so he didn’t mind smashing it up. If it was up to him, he wouldn’t leave anything valuable for Pill Valley.
As he advanced, more of those stone puppets appeared. They grew stronger, but they were unable to stop him.
He quickly reached the final part and stood before a giant palace. Its gates slowly opened when he arrived.
Long Chen directly slashed apart the gates. “Who has the time for you to open so slowly.”
Holding Evilmoon, Long Chen walked in. As soon as he was in, a pillar of golden light enveloped him from the roof.
A mechanical voice rang out, “You are not my disciple and cannot accept my inheritance. Hurry and leave-”
Long Chen directly slashed apart the light beam. “Who cares about your inheritance? Hurry up and hand over any treasures you have.”
Long Chen looked around. Evilmoon suddenly unleashed black light, tearing through the walls.
“Break!”
The palace resisted, with countless runes lighting up. However, it was still torn apart by Long Chen’s slash.
The walls crumbled, revealing cases, and Long Chen gathered them. Opening the first one, he found it was empty. Opening another, he found it was also empty.
He opened thirty-one cases, and as a result, they were all empty. His expression darkened. He couldn’t be this unlucky, right?
Finally, in the final case, he found something. It was a bead surrounded by flames. It was pretty.
“Hey, Huo Long, let me see what it is!” Long Chen had just taken out the bead when Huo Long flew out of his arm and devoured it.
Huo Long returned to his primal chaos space, continuing to digest the flame energy it had previously absorbed from the Earth Flame Spirit Beast.
Long Chen was speechless. Huo Long was a bit too impatient, wasn’t it? It didn’t even give him a chance to see what it was. But when he examined Huo Long, he found that its aura had grown stronger.
After thinking about it, Long Chen concluded that the bead was an Earth Flame Spirit Birthing Bead. It was used to give greater spirituality to Earth Flame Spirit Beasts. Normally, Earth Flame Spirit Beasts were not very intelligent, and so they were more instinctual. Oftentimes, their instincts told them to devour their masters. But with greater intelligence, they grew closer to their masters.
This kind of treasure was something he had only heard of but never seen before. It might look like nothing, but it was a treasure to Huo Long. After all, Huo Long’s intelligence was extremely high, and as its intelligence grew, it would be able to work together with Long Chen even better.
It was too bad that Long Chen’s luck was terrible. He only obtained a single one of these beads. If he could obtain enough of them, Huo Long’s intelligence would not lose out to humans.
Long Chen flew out of the ground, unleashing a wave of dust. Those disciples of the ancient family alliance were in the distance, staring in shock at him. Long Chen had actually destroyed the underground trial.
Long Chen nodded to those disciples and flew off. He quickly saw another group of dejected disciples gathered together.
They were also disciples who had gone through a difficult trial, only to be taken out when they reached the end. This group was unlucky, and several of their members had died inside the trial.
“Bastards from Pill Valley, how dare you con us like this?! You left all the trials here to your own disciples!”
“Good thing that we entered through the opening that Long Chen made, or we’d be stuck like this after swearing loyalty to them.”
“As expected of such sinister people, they left all the good stuff to their own disciples, while tricking us into entering.”
Those disciples were cursing amongst themselves. They had realized that this was a trap. If they had really used the barrier breaking bead, just how terrible would it have been?
Although Long Chen had said that they were fake and couldn’t bind them, there was always a chance. That slightest chance could apply enough pressure to become a heart-devil when they tried to advance to the Netherpassage expert. Feeling a set of eyes staring at them the entire time to make sure they kept their oath, how could they possibly comprehend life and death?
Thinking of that, they felt a burst of fear. Pill Valley was truly hateful. Just as they were cursing, they noticed Long Chen.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen!”
What Long Chen hadn’t expected was for this group of disciples, who were members of the Xuan Beasts, to actually call him senior apprentice-brother Long Chen.
It seemed that just like the ancient races, the Xuan Beasts were not all the same. After all, there would always be good apples and bad apples. But with the bad apples in control, Long Chen had subconsciously thought of all the Xuan Beasts as bad.
Long Chen asked them about this trial region, and just like last time, he smashed it apart. This time he was luckier, and he obtained three Earth Flame Spirit Birthing Beads and two flame attribute divine items.
With a smile, Long Chen tossed the Earth Flame Spirit Birthing Beads to Huo Long. Just as he was about to leave, one of the Xuan Beasts called out to him.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, please wait. We know of many other similar regions. Do you want them?”
Chapter 2019 Crazily Destroying Everything
The ground exploded over and over again. Long Chen tore through the Brahma secret realm’s trial regions, destroying the trials and taking the final rewards.
Those trials were supposed to give a single reward to anyone who passed before transporting them out. The remaining treasures were for others. But Long Chen ignored that rule, directly destroying the formations and taking the treasures.
This Brahma secret realm was one of Pill Valley’s inheritance lands. Everything here was man-made. However, for some reason, Pill Valley had lost control of it, and only Life Star disciples could enter now.
As for those Life Star disciples from Pill Valley, many of them were in the middle of the trials when Long Chen barged in, terrifying them.
However, Long Chen didn’t kill them. As he had said, having taken their money, as long as they didn’t attack him, he wouldn’t attack them.
That didn’t stop
him from crushing hundreds of the trial regions. Those trial regions were told to him by other disciples who were filled with anger toward Pill Valley. If it hadn’t been Long Chen, they might have fallen for their trap and be bound to their will.
Telling Long Chen where Pill Valley’s trial regions were didn’t benefit them in the slightest, but seeing those trial regions be destroyed one by one allowed them to vent some of their rage.
After passing on the information to Long Chen, the majority of the disciples chose to find a secluded place and calmly attune themselves to the Grand Dao that was present here. They hoped to awaken their manifestations quicker.
After flipping through some of the trials, Long Chen started showing people what the rewards were. They were treasures only to Pill Valley’s disciples. Outside of Pill Valley, they were essentially useless.
As for that legendary eleventh tier medicinal pill, it never appeared. It was just nonsense. He didn’t find a hint of it.
Pill Valley’s con this time had been exposed by Long Chen. They had been hoping to draw a portion of these neutral experts to their side, but now they had ended up offending them without having the so-called god’s oath to bind them. The chances of them ever joining Pill Valley in the future had sharply dropped.
Long Chen’s guess was that Pill Valley’s goal had been to draw these people in, and when those people realized that all the good things here were kept from them, they would be forced to listen to orders thanks to the god’s curse.
Other than that, while the treasures here couldn’t be obtained by them, there was the energy of the Grand Dao present that helped them awaken their manifestations, and afterward Pill Valley could always give some further compensation to calm their anger. After all, they would have already sworn the oath. Furthermore, after being tricked, would these prideful heavenly geniuses really say what had happened? That would only further embarrass them.
What these geniuses feared most was having their Dao-hearts influenced by some god’s curse. Even if the god’s curse was fake, it would leave a seed of doubt that would affect their futures.
It was precisely due to this that the disciples felt great hatred for Pill Valley. They would rather give Long Chen information about the trial regions for free just to vent.
After a few days of work, everywhere Long Chen had gone was in ruins. The disciples around to see it all felt very refreshed.
Some of those disciples even followed Long Chen to see him destroy more trials. It was a beautiful sight to them.
In fact, some people even felt that just watching Long Chen fight was beneficial to their own cultivation. Quite a few people activated photographic jades to record the sight.
Long Chen obtained plentiful rewards. He had gained over three thousand of the Earth Flame Spirit Birthing Beads, and over two hundred flame divine items. He had also killed dozens of powerful Earth Flame Spirit Beasts.
Huo Long was benefiting immensely. It was growing stronger and more intelligent.
As for Long Chen, he was quite generous. If people gave him information on the trial regions, he wouldn’t mind giving away what he had found if it wasn’t useful to Huo Long.
At first, those people politely declined, as just watching Long Chen destroy these trial regions was satisfying. But then Long Chen just tossed those things to them. Those things were not cheap. If put on the market, they would be worth quite a bit of money. They were priceless treasures to flame-attribute cultivators.
Seeing Long Chen toss such things to them, those disciples were even more motivated to find the locations of the trial regions.
…
“Bastard!”
When news of what was happening within the Brahma secret realm reached Pill Valley’s experts, they were infuriated. Elder Tianqi clenched his teeth so hard that they creaked.
He could no longer act like a calm sage. Instead, it looked like flames were about to burst from his eyes.
Long Chen was destroying the entire Brahma secret realm, and they couldn’t stop him. There were dozens of Elders nearby, looking nervously at Elder Tianqi.
“Perhaps we should alert the divine daughter!” probed one Elder cautiously.
“Are you an idiot? The divine daughter is currently being blessed by the divine light within the Brahma Divine Palace. How could we disturb her right now?!” cursed Elder Tianqi.
That Elder immediately shut his mouth, but inside, he cursed Elder Tianqi who had failed to capture Long Chen in the beginning. Now he was spreading his rage at them.
“Then what should we do?” demanded another Elder.
That Elder’s status was too high for Elder Tianqi to rage at him. He took a deep breath and said, “Long Chen cannot be allowed to leave Pill Valley. Right now, he’s being a miserable rat destroying as much as he can. He has also ruined the valley master’s plans, and those who should have become loyal subordinates are now hostile. Tch, those thankless wretches, do they not know that we are the ones who gave them the chance to enter the Brahma secret realm? We let them enter for free!”
Elder Tianqi suddenly burst into curses. He had cursed more today than he had over most of his life.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it right now. We can only wait for the divine daughter to come out of seclusion, or for some people to awaken their manifestations and challenge Long Chen. We can only wait.” Elder Tianqi sighed helplessly. “However, it’s only a matter of time. The pillar of the Martial Heaven Alliance is Long Chen. As long as he dies, the Dragonblood Legion will become a headless dragon and fracture, with the Martial Heaven Alliance’s morale plummeting. So no matter how much damage Long Chen causes, as long as we capture him in the end, we will still be the winners. Elder Qi Li, you’re in charge of the grand formation. If there’s the slightest mishap, you know the consequences.”
That Elder Qi Li smiled faintly and calmly said, “Elder Tianqi, don’t worry. I have thirty-six of my disciples keeping watch, as well as one hundred and sixty thousand disciples of the Flame Divine Palace guarding eight divine formations. It is not impossible for Long Chen to leave Pill Valley. Even the valley master himself wouldn’t be able to leave without the tablets of every one of us.”
Things had been raised to their highest level of caution. The grand formation was fully activated. To go through the formation would require the tablets of thirty-six Elders from Pill Valley and seventy-two Elders from the Flame Divine Palace. Furthermore, eight checkpoints needed to be closed before the entire formation would be released.
The Brahma secret realm only had one exit, and it didn’t border any other world. Even breaking through space wouldn’t work.
Once the Brahma secret realm closed, everyone inside would be brought out. At that time, Long Chen would be caught.
“As long as you understand. Remember, because the Heaven Reaching Ancient Castle’s people have already left, people know that Long Chen has come here. We have to be able to stop an attack from the outside as well. There can be no mistakes this time,” said Elder Tianqi. There was a sinister light in his eyes. Perhaps he was considering just how to torture Long Chen once he was captured to release the rage in his heart.
…
Long Chen spent seven days destroying the trial regions. On the seventh day, he encountered a terrifying Earth Flame Spirit Beast in an underground space.
It was actually the Black Illusion Dragon Flame. Its power was astonishing, and Long Chen spent several hours fighting it before working together with Huo Long to draw it into the primal chaos space.
It was unknown just how many years it had been alive. Despite how powerful Huo Long was, devouring it was very difficult.
In the end, Huo Long had furiously swallowed it in one gulp and then entered a state of slumber. It was clearly focused on digesting its energy and would be unable to assist Long Chen for a short while.
Adding on all the other flame beasts it had consumed, Huo Long was full. It couldn’t eat any more.
During the time that Lon
g Chen had been destroying the trial regions, the majority of experts had settled in. They vanished, finding their own places to enter seclusion.
The Brahma secret realm was huge, and Long Chen couldn’t just go around breaking trial regions. With Huo Long in seclusion, Long Chen decided to calm down. He looked in a certain direction and began rushing toward the center of the Brahma secret realm.
Chapter 2020 The Brahma Divine Palace
Long Chen spent the better part of a day flying before he saw a set of divine pillars in the distance. Each pillar had an expert sitting on top of it.
On those pillars, he saw Di Feng, Xie Luo, and the like. It seemed that this place was specially arranged for awakening their manifestations.
They were square pillars hundreds of meters tall, and the light of the Grand Dao bathed them. Di Feng and the others had formed a whirlpool of Heavenly Dao energy above them, absorbing the energy.
Long Chen also saw Xiong Tianba in the distance. He was in a meditative state, his manifestation active behind him as he communed with the Heavenly Daos.
There were only one hundred and eight of the pillars. However, they weren’t all occupied by Pill Valley. In fact, they were mostly occupied by experts from other powers.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, don’t go any further! There’s a barrier head. If you go any further, you’ll be killed.” Someone in the distance suddenly shouted to Long Chen.
Long Chen turned over, only to find that there were actually even more experts seated in the nearby areas. His attention had been focused on the divine pillars, but when he looked around, he saw tens of thousands of people.
“What’s going on?” Long Chen walked over to that person.
Amongst these people, Long Chen saw many hostile gazes. It seemed that most of these people were loyal to Pill Valley. They hadn’t wasted any time in the outer regions, instead charging over to this place.
However, there were also some neutral experts that had ended up running into this place without any information.
“Ah, there’s actually a formation guarding this place. No wonder I didn’t notice them.” When Long Chen walked over, he found that fluctuations were enveloping this place. There was a faint divine light present. It seemed that this area was also suited to comprehending the Grand Dao, but the effect was not as good as the divine pillars.