Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
There is indeed more!
Su Jingxing perked up.
These fellows. They insisted that there were only the stones earlier on.
Now that there is a flag, it’s clear they intentionally concealed it.
One can probably tell that this flag is extraordinary with the naked eye.
That’s why this bunch of people deliberately chose to ignore it.
Yet, they’re starting to panic and want to get rid of it now.
What kind of flag could have been discovered together with the Soul Nurturing Stone?
$u Jingxing thought to himself. He held his breath and continued listening.
“Must we deal with it?”
“Why? You want to keep it until it’s exposed?”
“That big client already has his eyes on us. He’s a fourth-grade martial artist. Are you sure you want to go toe-to-toe with him?”
“That’s not what I meant. I just find it a pity. We can tell at one glance that this flag isn’t an ordinary item. In my opinion, it looks a little like an ancient war flag!”
“It does look a lot like a war flag. In ancient times, anything that could be chosen to be a war flag would have a certain use, which makes it a rare treasure or a spirit weapon!”
“Heh, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a rare treasure or a spirit weapon. Is there anyone here who can control it?”
“Why have you stopped talking? Keep going! Since no one can control it, are we going to court death by keeping it?”
“Things haven’t progressed to that stage yet, Old Li. The situation is a little chaotic right now, and we are being targeted. For the sake of everyone’s safety, we decided to take care of this flag.”
“That’s right. If I’m not mistaken, the mysterious stone tablet, the Soul Nurturing Stone and this flag all came from the same place! They only reappeared because of the commotion in the Sky Water River and were discovered!”
“Now, we know what kind of treasure the Soul Nurturing Stone is and that the flag is also very special. Needless to say, all the major factions in the city are vying for the mysterious stone tablet. If we keep the flag, not only will the big client who bought the Soul Nurturing Stone come looking for us, all the
major factions in the city will as well!
“Rather than being forced to hand over the flag then, we might as well get rid of it now.
“The question is, how should we deal with it? Look at it. It’s been charging for more than a month, and it doesn’t seem to have any intention of stopping. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I could never imagine a flag that could “eat” electric currents.”
“That’s because you…”
Ooh~
Crack! Crack!
“What’s going on? Power failure?”
“No, look at the flag!”
Shouts of alarm filled the room.
Su Jingxing even heard the sound of an electric arc exploding.
It seems like there’s a blackout?
And the flag that is surrounded by a bunch of people has undergone some sort of change?
Just as he was pondering—
Bam!
A loud crack broke the silence.
Su Jingxing, who was leaning against a corner, looked out the window when he heard the commotion. He saw a dark shadow breaking through the night sky and flying into the distance.
‘The war flag?
The charging flag escaped?
‘As soon as the thought emerged in his mind, Su Jingxing was already moving.
Similarly, he darted out of the window at lightning speed and soared into the night sky. His speed increased to the maximum as he locked onto the black shadow and gave chase swiftly.
However, Su Jingxing soon realized that he wouldn’t be able to catch up to it with his lightness skill.
He decisively took out the Thunderbolt, enlarged it, and stepped on it. Driving it with the Divine Spirit Control Technique, he traveled at the speed of sound at once.
Then, his speed doubled, tripled, quadrupled, quintupled and sextupled!
Back when he was at the limits of the human body, Su Jingxing could only fly at four times the speed of sound.
After obtaining the Transcendent Body Card, his physique had undergone a qualitative change. His maximum speed could now reach six times the speed of sound.
With this speed, he managed to catch up to the black shadow.
‘When he got close enough to his target, he realized that the black shadow was indeed a large and wide flag.
It was entirely black, and only had a crimson moon embroidered on the upper right comer.
At this moment, this flag was flying through the air at high speed, tearing through the night wind and flapping in the wind.
The direction it was flying towards was the Green Cloud Mountain!
Both of them were flying at high speeds.
Su Jingxing chased after the flag. One after another, they soon arrived above the Green Cloud Mountain.
Whoosh!
After entering the borders of the Green Cloud Mountain Range, the war flag suddenly accelerated and charged into the depths, disappearing from sight.
Su Jingxing followed suit and flew out of the Green Cloud Mountain Range.
But the war flag was gone.
He lost it!
“It stayed on Green Cloud Mountain?”
Su Jingxing turned around and returned to the Green Cloud Mountain Range.
This time, he slowed down and circled around the depths of the Green Cloud Mountain. He paced back and forth in the sky, sensing for the fluctuations of the war flag.
Finally, he sensed something deep in the center.
However, he couldn’t pinpoint the exact location.
It seemed like the fully charged war flag had found its source?
The source of the Sky Water River was none other than Green Cloud Mountain.
Compared to the place where the Flying Lions members sealed themselves, the place where Su Jingxing was currently loitering was the true center and deepest part of the Green Cloud Mountain Range.
‘There were many stories going around about the center region of the Green Cloud Mountain Range
Some said that the strongest experts had been buried here, some said that there were peerless treasures buried deep in the center, and others said that Green Cloud Mountain was a burial ground, and the center of it all was a cemetery.
Different versions of various stories had been circulating for more than a thousand years.
No one knew the truth.
While the disappearance of the war flag in this region served to confirm that there were secrets in this center area, it also highlighted the extraordinary nature of the war flag.
Su Jingxing hovered in the air, pondering the matter for a while, but eventually decided against investigating it.
Firstly, he had no idea where the war flag came from or what its specific function was.
Even if he found it and kept it in his possession, it might not be of use to him.
Secondly, when Su Jingxing was listening in on the group’s conversation earlier, he thought that one of the men was very right.
The mysterious stone tablet, the Soul Nurturing Stones, and the war flag all came from the same place!
If these three items came from the same place, it meant that they might have some sort of connection.
Su Jingxing had seven Soul Nurturing Stones in his possession. If he went back and studied them carefully, he might be able to find out what this connection was.
Thirdly, there was a high chance that the war flag wouldn’t leave again after returning to this place.
‘There was no need for Su Jingxing to search for it urgently. Keeping it here wouldn’t affect him much.
Finally, there was danger in the center region of the Green Cloud Mountain Range.
The level of danger was quite high. Even though no one knew what it was, Su Jingxing could feel an indistinct threat coming from the ground as he flew through the air.
If he landed down rashly, he might end up getting into trouble there.
With these factors combined, Su Jingxing decisively left and returned to his small courtyard at the foot of the mountain.
The first thing he did when he got back was to take out the seven Soul Nurturing Stones and put them together to see if he could find any secrets.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anything even after examining them for a long time.
Apart from the strange sense of comfort growing stronger with the increase in the number of stones, there was nothing else.
They did not contact the war flag or the mysterious stone tablet at all.
In the end, Su Jingxing had no choice but to give up and put away the seven Soul Nurturing Stones, ignoring them.
Only when he had a complete set of 12 Soul Nurturing Stones would they be effective.
Su Jingxing had no idea where the last five pieces were, so he could only keep them for now.
He decided to leave this matter aside temporarily.
Su Jingxing took out the card he had extracted from Di Donglei’s corpse.
‘The Function Card from a fourth-grade expert should not disappoint.
Skill Cards or True Energy Cards were both fine.
However, when he held the card in his hand and read the information, the feedback he received stunned him.
Memory Card!
He had actually extracted the memories of Di Donglei’s life.
Su Jingxing unlocked the card and watched Di Donglei’s life as though it were a movie.
Ever since he was a child, this Sect Master of the Divine Fist Sect had been the center of attention. Be it in school, practicing martial arts, or wooing girls, he was the envy of others.
After all, Di Donglei’s father was the previous Sect Master of the Divine Fist Sect.
Di Donglei was a second-generation martial artist who had inherited his father’s legacy.
Of course, he was also very talented. Ten years ago, he had stepped into the fourth-grade. Similar to Su Jingxing, half of his 90-year true energy cultivation had been converted into true fluid.
‘The Martial Art True Intent he wanted to condense was a statue.
That’s right. In Di Donglei’s memory, there was a statue left behind by his father. It held great significance and could be used as a weapon. It was incomparably tough.
‘When Di Donglei’s father was alive, he had also condensed a statue as his Martial Art True Intent. However, he had only succeeded halfway before dying.
‘When the statue was handed to Di Donglei, he spent days and nights trying to figure it out, but to no avail.
However, he had learned about the origin of the statue from his father before his death.
The Celestial Pole Sect!
An ancient sect that had existed for over a thousand years and was on the same level as the Hundred Flower Valley, the Celestial Pole Sect.
Di Donglei’s father turned out to be a disciple of the Celestial Pole Sect when he was young.
However, due to an incident, he was evicted from the sect. That was when he returned to Qinghe City and established the Divine Fist Sect.
Di Donglei’s father had not shared what incident it was. The old man simply handed some of his belongings to Di Donglei.
The strange statue was one of them.
There were also a few scrolls of beast skin parchment that contained secret affairs.
These beast skin parchments had given Di Donglei a lot of information that he didn’t know.
For example, the location of the Celestial Pole Sect.
For such ancient sects that had existed for more than a thousand years, the entrances to their sects would always be hidden by massive array formations. Ordinary people or average martial artists would never be able to locate them.
However, Di Donglei learned of the location of the Celestial Pole Sect through the beast skin parchments, as well as the way to enter the array formation.
Another example was the general situation of the major factions in the 18 prefectures of the Yu Nation.
There were introductions to organizations like Ci En Bank, the Golden Chen Family, the Tianlong Chamber of Commerce and so on.
Another example, beyond the first-grade was the Transcendent-grade!
On Earth Star, Transcendent-grade martial artists had a unique title.
Martial Sage!
Su Jingxing had no idea about this either. Ethereal Sword Immortal did not mention it, nor was she aware.
Thanks to Di Donglei’s memories, Su Jingxing was able to glean this secret information from the contents of the beast skin parchments.
‘Transcendent-grade martial artists were also known as Martial Sages.
According to the contents of the beast skin parchment, the title “Martial Sage” would often carry two more words in front.
Kingdom Defending!
Why were they called the Kingdom Defending Martial Sages?
There were no records about that on the beast skin parchment, and Di Donglei had no way of learning about it.
When his father was alive, he never told him these secrets.
All he knew was that a nation’s dynasty would collapse quickly without a Martial Sage.
This had been the case since ancient times.
This must be the origin of the “Kingdom Defending Martial Sage”, Di Donglei had guessed.
‘When Su Jingxing “saw’ this, his heart skipped a few beats uncontrollably.
Every nation had a Martial Sage.
Wouldn’t that mean that with 13 nations in the Eastern Continent and nine countries in the Western Continent, that there were 22 Martial Sages on the continents alone?
Yet, the world did not know about the existence of Martial Sages; they only knew about the strongest first-grade.
Most martial artists, and even third-grade powerhouses, were also unaware.
Su Jingxing couldn’t figure out the reason for this.
In short, through Di Donglei’s memories, Su Jingxing’s horizons had broadened.
Above first-grade was the Transcendent-grade. Martial artists in this grade were also known as Kingdom Defending Martial Sages.
Every Martial Sage could live for 360 years.
This was the increase in lifespan due to the change in life levels when one moved from first-grade to the Transcendent-grade.
Liu Chenglong made Su Jingxing swear an oath to protect the Yu Nation for a hundred years.
From the looks of it, that seemed somewhat unnecessary.
Even though they ultimately negotiated the duration to be only 10 years, with Martial Sages guarding the world, would they need a young man like him, who wasn’t even a third-grade martial artist, to protect it?
Watching till the end of Di Donglei’s memory, Su Jingxing was filled with excitement.
The mysterious stone tablet that all the factions in the city were after actually had to do with the legacy of the Martial Sages!
Not the Martial Sages of the Yu Nation, but the Martial Sage of the dynasty before Yu Nation came to be.
The Crimson Moon Martial Sage!
‘The Crimson Moon Martial Sage, Yue Dongliu.
This was the secret information that Di Donglei had learned from the beast skin parchments.
However, in the historical records, Yue Dongliu was merely a prince of the previous dynasty.
The Prince of Crimson Moon!
According to records, the Prince of Crimson Moon, Yue Dongliu had kept an extremely low profile in the imperial family of the previous dynasty and wasn’t particularly strong.
No one knew how he died in the end.
It had been a thousand years since his era.
Di Donglei made a conclusion after comparing the contents of the beast skin parchments with the patterns on the mysterious stone tablet.
This stone tablet was related to the legacy of the Crimson Moon.
He even suspected that the major forces who were attending the auction at the Myriad Treasures Court tonight also knew about this.
‘That the mysterious stone tablet was closely related to the legacy of the Crimson Moon.
Or rather, if one found the secret of the stone tablet, they would be able to locate the legacy ground left behind by Crimson Moon Martial Sage.
The legacy of the Martial Sage was many times stronger than the treasures stored in the Mausoleum of Prince Qin.
It was reasonable for the major factions to go crazy over it.
On that note, Di Donglei was only suspicious. The reason why he had taken advantage of the situation to seize the Soul Nurturing Stone from the Myriad Treasures Court was to verify this theory.
According to the beast skin parchments, the Prince of Crimson Moon, Yue Dongliu seemed to have obtained the legacy of the Great Moon Empire from 3,000 years ago.
Unfortunately, Su Jingxing ultimately got lucky.
Through the charged war flag that rushed to the center area of the Green Cloud Mountain Range on its own accord, Su Jingxing could almost be certain that Di Donglei’s guess was correct.
The mysterious stone tablet, the Soul Nurturing Stones, and the war flag were all related to the Crimson Moon Martial Sage!
It was highly likely that the depths of the center of the Green Cloud Mountain Range was the legacy ground of the Crimson Moon Martial Sage, Yue Dongliu!
“Ts…”
Su Jingxing sucked in a cold breath of air at the thought.
This is too shocking, really too shocking!
The secret had been revealed too quickly, too fiercely, and too shockingly.
Su Jingxing was momentarily stunned.
After a while, he took deep breaths to calm himself down and mulled over the situation.
“If the depths of the center of the Green Cloud Mountain Range is really the legacy ground of the Crimson Moon Martial Sage, what could be the function of the mysterious stone tablet that all the factions are vying for?”
“A map? A key?”
Su Jingxing couldn’t figure it out.
This matter was getting more complicated.
Even though not many people knew about the existence of the Crimson Moon Martial Sage, quite a number did right now.
‘They were currently limited to the factions in Qinghe City. Once the news got out
No!
Hasn’t the Hundred Flower Valley already sent people to Qinghe City?
“The disciple who was reduced to a mummy couldn’t have come to Qinghe City because of the Crimson Moon Martial Sage, could she?”
Agleam flashed across Su Jingxing’s eyes.
“If that’s the case, then the murderer who murdered a disciple of the Hundred Flower Valley must have been after the legacy of the Crimson Moon Martial Sage!”
