Hearing those words, Mengmeng nodded and muttered, “Then come back soon. We’ll go to the east side of the river with my Daddy. There are many treasures there. I’ll give you some good ones if I get the treasures.”
“Thanks, Mengmeng.”
Nina was touched. After that, she led the elves away.
Li Mu came over and greeted them.
“Zhang Hanyang, Moon Empress, you’re welcome to stay here for a couple of days. You can go in and out at any time you want. Don’t stand on ceremony. Elder Yi Hou and I will also go out on adventures. If you need anything, just tell any of our people who are here.”
After saying goodbye, he and his group also departed.
After a while, Zhang Han’s family of three was left alone in the small square.
“What are we going to do now?” Zi Yan blinked and asked.
“Let’s just stroll around. Actually, if we didn’t have to worry about them, we could totally go visit the Dal Star. It’s very close to this land. We can get there in two hours. But at the present… Well, let’s take the trip after the trial ends. We can now take a walk on the west side of the river. There are mountains and rivers to admire, and many spirit beasts, strange beasts, and some plants that I need to introduce you to.”
Therefore, in the next few days, Zhang Han played the role of an encyclopedia.
He kept introducing all kinds of plants, spirit beasts, and even strange beasts that they occasionally came across to Zi Yan and Mengmeng. His knowledge of the creatures was highly comprehensive.
As for the knowledge of the Cultivation World, the mother and daughter learned very fast, though what they saw on the Lost Continent was just the tip of the iceberg.
But with continuous learning and observation, their knowledge would gradually build up.
A week passed quickly.
In these past few days, all the forces on the Lost Continent had been spreading various kinds of news.
“The people who came with Zhang Hanyang are basically all at the Elixir Realm Last-Stage. Each of them is exceptionally strong. Many have sparred with them. As it turns out, they seem to have no rivals among those at the Elixir Realm Last-Stage.”
“That’s not surprising. You know what I saw earlier? That woman in black with big boobs fought against a spirit beast at the Elixir Realm Peak-Stage. But she was not at a disadvantage at all. The fight lasted for a good 20 minutes. In the end, she killed that spirit beast at the Elixir Realm Peak-Stage. Her strength is really terrifying, and she is very hot. How I wish I could be her Cultivational Partner.”
Ding Jiuming ranted, “I’m gonna kill you!”
He had disappeared from everyone’s sight for a few days. He was struggling with his complicated feelings about Mu Xue. But when he suffered a setback in the arena of love, he made unexpected progress in his cultivation. Bu fluke, he stumbled on a small secret realm and obtained the legacy in it. With the legacy, he comprehended a supernatural power and greatly enhanced his understanding of his several secret skills. He felt that he was not far from the Elixir Realm Peak-Stage.
He began to do some soul searching. He loved Mu Xue deeply, but he now knew Eldest Lady had no feelings for him.
That was a great blow to him. Mu Xue’s rejection was extremely heart-wrenching. However, as he adjusted his emotions, the dark side inside him backed away a lot. Now, he was kind of disillusioned with romantic relationships.
As for Shi Fenghou, he had made his name known on the west side of the river by dint of his unparalleled speed. Everyone called him “the man with wings”.
He had seized many opportunities and occupied three secret realms all by himself. No one saw what exact treasures he had obtained, but they noted that the wings on his back were getting more and more substantial, and his aura was about to reach the peak of the Elixir Realm.
Chen Changqing, Instructor Liu, Deep Flame, and others were all famous on the west side of the river.
Instructor Liu, in particular, was given the title “the jerk with a mace”. Because he gloatingly carried his mace wherever he went.
Most of the people in the Yuan Ying Realm went to the city on the east side of the river, waiting for Zhang Hanyang to come. There were a few people in the Yuan Ying Realm who stayed on the west side of the river, yet they didn’t dare to provoke Instructor Liu and the others. Some at the Elixir Realm Peak-Stage didn’t like their way of doing things and initiated a fight against them. But at last, they found that they couldn’t do anything to them at all.
“Is Zhang Hanyang’s force going to dominate the west side of the river?”
Many people welled up with indignation. Many precious lands had been taken by Zhang Hanyang’s people. They pocketed all the benefits and didn’t even leave any leftovers for the rest of the explorers. For that, they almost infuriated the public.
On the contrary, people like Nina and Li Mu, who had been famous all along, didn’t get much attention.
Finally, after a week of exploration, everyone came back. Their auras had more or less changed. Hardening oneself was surely a must-have stage in one’s growth.
Li Mu’s impression of these people had also changed.
He thought to himself several times, “Their aptitudes are intimidatingly great. Given time, these people could probably become the mainstay of their force and be famous across the Sea Dragon Star Area. How many years do they need? Five years? Ten years? Anyway… it’ll happen very soon.”
That evening, Li Mu held a feast again. Everyone attended.
Early the next morning, the group set off for the east side of the river.
“We’re finally gonna see the danger-ridden place on this land,” Zhang Guangyou looked ahead and said with emotion.
“Grandpa, it’s not dangerous as long as you follow Daddy. Anyway, we’re not expecting you to protect us,” Mengmeng “kindly” reminded him.
Zhang Guangyou was lost for words.
“Pfft!”
“That’s hurtful, my granddaughter!”
“Mengmeng,” Zi Yan softly pinched Mengmeng’s face and said, “your grandfather is very powerful. He is not a freeloader like you.”
Zhang Guangyou’s face suddenly turned gloomy.
“Eh, why not? Grandpa has been watching on the side all the time. He takes a sip of tea or wine now and then, looking relaxed and cool. Why is that any different from what I do?” Mengmeng immediately retorted.
Zhang Guangyou’s face darkened.
“Well, that’s understandable.” Dong Chen sighed. “You can’t expect every generation of your Zhang Clan to be insanely powerful. Now your dad is so mighty, it’s normal for your grandpa to be just ordinary.”
As soon as he said that, Zhang Guangyou’s face darkened even more.
“Woo-woo-woo-woo.”
Dahei showed its head from Mengmeng’s schoolbag and gave Dong Chen a thumbs-up, as though saying, “Great point!”
“Hahaha…”
Seeing this, Zhang Han suddenly laughed and said, “That’s enough. Stop making fun of my dad. if he gets angry and runs away, we will have to coax him back.”
“Hah, do I need to run away?”
Zhang Guangyou said grumpily, “Son, I’m thirsty. Get me a glass of water.”
While speaking, he smugly glanced at the others.
“What? No matter how awesome he is, he is still my son! Are you envious of me now?”
The corner of Zhang Han’s mouth twitched. He quickly fetched out a cup of Holy Spirit Water.
“My dear father, please drink some water.”
“Ouch!” Dong Chen’s heart ached when he saw this.
“A large cup of Holy Spirit Water! How extravagant!”
Zhang Guangyou hummed “uh-huh” from his nose, took the Holy Spirit Water, and drained it.
“Th-that’s the Holy Spirit Water?”
Li Mu, Yi Hou, and the others from the Cloud Shadow Sky, as well as Nina, Mo Wen, and the rest of the Elemental Elves, were all dumbfounded.
“It’s the incomparably precious Holy Spirit Water? They drink it by cups?”
“Gosh, that’s a treasure comparable to a top-level recovery medicinal pellet. One drop of it is worth ten thousand crystal stones. That’s something one can hardly find available on the market even if one has the money. But they drink it as ordinary water?”
These people were all dismayed.
They couldn’t think straight at the moment.
“Who in the world are they?”
Li Mu felt that his throat was a little dry.
“Each of them has a spatial treasure and sixth-tier treasures. They even casually took out a precious spirit treasure like the Holy Spirit Water.
“Their power is unfathomable!”
Li Mu suddenly realized that he did not seem to be at the same level as those standing across the field. Even though he was one of the Eight Great Young Masters in the Cloud Star Area, he had never lived in such luxury.
It was quiet on the field, but their mental activities were unusually active.
As for Mu Xue and others, they were not surprised at all. They also thought some treasures rare at first. But after hanging out with Zhang Han for a long time, they realized that those were no big deal.
“The river is ahead.”
Deep Flame suddenly looked to the front and said, “Yesterday, when we arrived at the river, we saw some fish swimming in the river. Their auras were extraordinary, so we didn’t dare to act rashly. If we annoyed one of them, all the fish might jump on us. If these fish were in the Yuan Ying Realm, they could leave the water and attack us. That would be troublesome.”
“Well,” Mengmeng licked her lips and said, “there is a lot of fish in it. They’re super delicious.”
Deep Flame did not know what to say to that.
He chose to shut up.
“As soon as I said that we couldn’t afford to mess with the fish in the water, you proved me wrong.
“Well, a child says what it thinks. Okay, it’s understandable…”
Deep Flame comforted himself inwardly.
“The east side of the river is not as formidable as they said. The area near the river is relatively safe,” Zhang Han said, “the real danger should be lying in the depth of that east side, where the real trial should take place.”
“That’s true.”
Yi Hou shook his head and said, “It’s just that the journey is tough. Strange beasts are everywhere on this part of the land. It’s relatively safe near the river. There are some relics of old cities here, which are either occupied by strange beasts or ghosts and other creatures. We have to conquer every city. Right now, there are five cities that are kind of safe, which are common resting places and trading places for everyone. There are several thousand people on the west side of the river, while nearly a thousand are on the east side. On this vast land, when we’re all scattered like this, the proportion of the lands we take is actually quite small.”
“We can go to the innermost city and make it our temporary residence,” Li Mu said with a smile.
At the feast last night, Li Mu asked Zhang Han if he could follow them to tour and learn about the east side of the river. After several days of contact, Zhang Han and the others had also accepted Li Mu as their “new friend”. Nevertheless, except for Mengmeng and Nina, it was the first time that Mu Xue and the others had found that the people in the Sea Dragon Star Area, such as Li Mu, were still on guard against them even though they seemed to be very close to them.
“Let’s go.”
The group crossed the river and officially stepped onto the east side of the river.
That was to say, from this moment on, it was Zhang Han’s showtime.
The people following him, including Li Mu and Nina, were all spectators waiting to see some eye-openers.
They traveled for another hour.
“The first city is right in front of us. We’ll reach the innermost city after a two hours’ trip from here,” said Yi Hou.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
As soon as he said that, more than a dozen people flew out of the small city ahead.
“Yi Hou?”
“You’re back.”
“I heard that there was a big fuss on the west side of the river. But we didn’t go back and missed a lot of wonderful battles.”
“I guess these people are Zhang Hanyang and Moon Empress’s force, aren’t they?”
“May I know which one of you is Zhang Hanyang? We’re here to pay our respects.”
“…”
Yi Hou briefly introduced them to Zhang Han and Zi Yan. After they greeted Zhang Han and Zi Yan, they got down to business.
“We’re also planning to leave the city. You haven’t received the news yet, have you?” an old man in a gray robe looked at Yi Hou and remarked.
“What news?” asked Yi Hou.
“Seventy miles in the southeast of Wood City, there is a magnificent Jade City. There are three Strange Beast Kings in it. I heard that they are guarding four kinds of fifth-tier treasures. It’s Zhong An of the Silver-winged Hall who discovered the treasures there. To everyone’s surprise, Zhong An is already at the Yuan Ying Realm Early-Stage. He sent out a message saying that he was looking for at most three other forces to help him seize the treasures, and the fifth-tier treasures they obtained would be equally divided among the forces. I got this news faster than others. If you want to go there, you have to hurry up,” the old man in grey said slowly.
His words made Li Mu’s countenance alter slightly.
“That guy’s broken through to the Yuan Ying Realm?
“He is even faster than me. Looks like he is something.”
“We planned to go to the Wood City first. Our young master and Princess Nina are going to go on adventures with Zhang Hanyang and broaden their horizons. Thus, we have to listen to his advice.”
Yi Hou told them the truth and cast his eyes at Zhang Han.
The old man in grey and the others looked slightly stunned.
“Going on adventures with Zhang Hanyang? You guys are just riding on his coattails. Just admit it.”
“Let’s take a look at the Wood City first, and then go to the Jade City,” Zhang Han replied flatly.
Hence, the old man in grey and the others told them the specific location and then left. They were going to the Jade City first to seize some places in the treasure-hunting team.
Four forces were just enough for the job. If too many forces joined in, there would inevitably be disputes over the distribution of the treasures.
Yi Hou wanted to go to Jade City as well. But he couldn’t leave Li Mu behind. Thus, he took the lead to fly toward Wood City. His speed had even picked up a lot without him realizing it.
Along the way, they encountered five strange beasts and fought three of them.
Zhang Han ungrudgingly told the others the basic information of the strange beasts and their weaknesses.
After the three fights, Li Mu and others deeply realized that Zhang Han’s strength was terrifying.
Zhang Han was able to defeat Yuan Ying Realm Early-Stage strange beasts with crushing force. This was already extraordinary. Even Yi Hou had to admit that if it were him who dealt with the strange beasts, the fights would probably be rather lengthy.
In an hour and a half, the group arrived in Wood City.
There were two huge wooden sculptures of eagles at the city gate, each of which was more than 1000 feet tall. They looked very majestic. The surrounding city walls were all made of wood as well.
“The wood of Mountain Oaks are both water-proof and fire-proof. Buildings made of such wood can stay the same for as long as a thousand years. I suppose this city has been here for a very long time…” Zhang Han informed when he saw the city.
This city was about the same size as the ancient royal palace of Hua nation. There were few people in the streets. In the central area, dozens of people had set up stalls to sell things, and there were only about 60 people walking around.
Adding the people who came here to get some rest and the people who went out to explore, there should be three or four hundred people living in the city.
This was the farthest city that had been fully explored on the east side of the river. It was convenient to travel from here to all the other places. Quite a few forces had settled down here.
“Daddy, that thing looks quite pretty.” When they walked on the street, Mengmeng suddenly pointed to an item on a stall on the right side. It was something like a crown. It was completely transparent as if made of crystal.
“You like it? Okay, I’ll buy it.”
Zhang Han chuckled and led the way to the stall. He pointed at the crystal crown and said, “I’ll take this.”
The stallholder was startled.
“Are you robbing me?”
He was a little confused.
“Ahem, how many crystal stones does it cost?” Li Mu asked with a light cough.
“Phew…”
The stallholder let out a sigh of relief upon hearing those words.
“The crystal crown is a third-tier spirit treasure, which can repel some attacks targeted at one’s soul sense. It can also make people feel refreshed when wearing it. As for the price…”
The stallholder hesitated for a moment and tentatively asked for a slightly high price, “How about 23 crystal stones?”
“Okay.”
Zhang Han waved his hand and 23 low-grade crystal stones flew to the stallholder. He then picked up the crystal crown and put it on Mengmeng’s head with his own hands, a smile dangling around the corners of his mouth. “This looks good. It’s mainly because my daughter is beautiful. Our Mengmeng looks like a real little princess now.”
“Hahaha.”
Mengmeng immediately laughed happily and took out a mirror to check her looks.
The stallholder thought, “He made the deal without blinking! How straightforward the buyer is!”
Li Mu dissed inwardly, “He spent 23 low-grade crystal stones on this dandy thing… I don’t know what to say.”
Nina exclaimed in her head, “Uncle Zhang really pampers Mengmeng.”
They walked about in the trading area in Wood City.
Zhang Han bought whatever Mengmeng or Zi Yan liked without bargaining.
All the stallholders were astounded.
“Holy cow! What a rich man!”
“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”
None of these stallholders had any Space Treasures. All their products were stored in their bags. Seeing Zhang Han and the others coming, they quickly took out some more cute items from their bags and placed them on the stalls. If they could sell a few of those things to Zhang Han, they could earn more than usual times.
Li Mu and the others didn’t say anything about the slightly higher price. On the land for trial, it was normal for the price to be higher. Moreover, from the looks of Zhang Han and the others, it seemed that the crystal stones the stallholders charged them were far less than they had expected.
Li Mu even heard Instructor Liu and the others discussing the price.
“How could it be this cheap?”
“The price here is really low.”
“…”
“Is this how the price looks like in rich people’s eyes?”
Li Mu felt that his way of spending money was not as lavish as theirs.
“Come and take a look. I have all kinds of beautiful little things. They’re attractive in price and quality.”
“Fellow, come here and have a look! You’ll definitely find something you like.”
Some of the stallholders directly began to cry their wares.
The effect was actually quite good. Each of them sold quite a few things.
In addition to Zhang Han’s family of three, Zhang Guangyou also made some purchases. Of course, these were gifts for Rong Jiali.
Zhao Feng, Ah Hu, Instructor Liu, and others also bought a few things.
“We’ve done enough shopping.”
Zi Yan pressed her lips into a smile and said, “It’s not really the time to shop for souvenirs. Didn’t you say that we would go shopping on the Dal Star after we finished the trial? Let’s do the shopping then.”
“Oh, okay.” Mengmeng nodded seriously.
She liked shopping the most.
“Then, shall we head to Jade City now?” Yi Hou inquired. He thought that it was about time.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Zhang Han responded.
The group then left Wood City and went straight to their next destination.
After more than an hour’s flight, they finally arrived in Jade City.
Jade City was not very large. It was about the same size as the Heavenly Knights Sect. The whole city was made of jade. Looking down from the sky, one could see that in the center of the city, there was an energy cover. Inside the cover grew four kinds of fifth-tier spiritual herbs.
The three strange beasts and their subordinates were stationed around the energy cover in three different directions, vigilantly watching the place, as if three kings on this land.
Among their subordinating standing behind them, many were also strange beasts. There were more than 100 of them. Each of the leading strange beasts had about 40 subordinates.
“It seems that they have absolute faith in guarding the treasures.”
“No wonder Zhong An couldn’t seize the treasures on his own. Anyone else would find it difficult to defeat all those strange beasts.”
“They’re over there. Let’s go and have a look.”
Li Mu and Mo Wen discussed for a moment and went to the front gate of Jade City. There were already many people gathered there, including the members of the Silver-winged Hall, some they had met before, and about 20 people from other forces.
“Zhang Hanyang, Moon Emperess, Li Mu, Yi Hou, and Mo Wen, you are also here.”
Zhong An, the hall master of the Silver-winged Hall, took a look at them and voluntarily informed, “There are already three forces here. Will you join us as the fourth one? Or do you want to go in as an independent force?”
If they wanted to compete for the treasures, Zhong An would have no choice but to let them.
However, Zhong An figured that Zhang Hanyang’s group might not be much interested in the fifth-tier spirit treasure.
Thus, he clarified the rules. He would let them decide whether they would play by the rules.
Zhong An was never desperate to obtain any spirit treasures. He thought it good fortune if he got one. And if he lost it to others, it was just his fate.
But his question made other people’s faces change slightly. Some of them were Yuan Ying Realm cultivators who were not on the west side of the river a couple of days ago. At this time, they sized up Zhang Han and Zi Yan several times. They had also heard about the downfall of the Tiger Talisman Royal Family, so they couldn’t help but feel a little heavy-hearted.
“Zhang Hanyang and Moon Empress are here.”
“They are not the kind to mess with. Their strength is the strongest among all those on the Lost Continent. In the face of such strong cultivators, we have to let them have their way.”
“I hope we would not end up leaving empty-handed this time.”
Many people were somewhat anxious. They all cast their eyes over Zhang Han and his people.
“Consider us the fourth party. Our main purpose is to gain experience. We just want to follow Zhang Hanyang and his group to see the great view on the east side of the river. If we get any treasures, it’ll naturally be theirs,” Li Mu said with a smile.
