At Burial Garden’s gate, the guards stationed by the Great Eastern Alliance all stared at the person who had just emerged from the gate, and someone loudly shouted, “You are in the Great Eastern Alliance’s Blazing Mist Flowzone! Lower your weapons and hand over your cosmic ring, and you will not be harmed.”
The person who had just exited the gate merely sneered. “Nothing but trash.”
As he spoke, his eyes widened. The void tore open and a terrifying wind swept through the area. Emperor Luo suddenly appeared in front of the newcomer, rushing out from the true universe with a hand raised to release a beam attack.
The newcomer simply waved a hand and dispersed Emperor Luo’s beam attack. “The Great Eastern Alliance? You can all die.”
Emperor Luo stared at the person in front of him, completely horrified. “Are you Xia Yi?”
Xia Yi had indeed exited the gate on Yima Planet. He had not expected the exit that he had found to lead to Blazing Mist Flowzone of all places.
Xia Yi formed a knife from his stellular energy and slashed out. So he was in the Great Eastern Alliance? This was perfect. He had not been able to get rid of Lu Yin, so he would clean up these bugs now.
Emperor Luo was taken aback. He knew that Xia Yi was not an ordinary Envoy, and Emperor Luo had no idea how to counter Xia Yi’s knife, so he immediately tried to dodge it.
However, there was too large a gap between Emperor Luo’s and Xia Yi’s strength. Just to start off, Xia Yi had a power level that surpassed 700,000 while Emperor Luo’s barely surpassed 500,000.
A single knife slash caused half of Emperor Luo’s body to crack.
Xia Yi raised a hand and released another attack, but a massive shadow suddenly covered him. It was Chen Huang. He and Emperor Luo worked together to protect the exit from Burial Garden on Yima Planet while the other two exit gates in the Great Eastern Alliance’s territory had been left to Liu Huang and the Second Nightking to protect.
The Second Night King had previously entered Burial Garden with Lu Yin, but the two of them had been separated the moment they entered. However, the Second Nightking’s strength was so high that he had managed to quickly find an exit and almost immediately leave Burial Garden.
He had not wanted to leave the place, but he was forced to follow Lu Yin’s orders.
The strength that Chen Huang and Emperor Luo possessed meant that there should have been no issues with them guarding one of Burial Garden’s exits, but unfortunately for them, Xia Yi had come out of their gate.
As the sharp attack slid by, Chen Huang’s enormous body was cut, and blood spilled out to rain down from the sky.
The two immediately joined forces to face Xia Yi, but they still could not put up a fight.
Xia Yi turned his head and instantly destroyed Yima Planet’s exit gate with a flick of his knife. His body flickered, and he suddenly appeared above Yima Planet. Once there, he raised his knife and said, “I’ll have all of you disappear.”
As the blade fell, it was blocked by a long trident that stopped the knife when it was still only halfway down. The trident contained an unspeakable pressure, and Xia Yi was startled that it had actually forced his knife back.
The patriarch’s expression changed drastically, and he stared in front of him.
Space twisted, and the Sea King stepped out of the true universe to confront Xia Yi.
Xia Yi frowned. “Sea King?”
The Sea King stared at Xia Yi. “The Court of Seven Name’s Xia family patriarch, Xia Yi.”
“Rumors claim the Sword Sect captured you, but they’re now a part of the Great Eastern Alliance. Is that why you were released?” Xia Yi asked.
Sea King clasped his long trident. “That is none of your concern. Leave.”
Xia Yi grew stern. “Do you think that you can stop me?”
“I can certainly try.”
The sudden impact of the two weapons caused space itself to tremble, and shockwaves swept out in all directions. The Sea King and Xia Yi were evenly matched, but Xia Yi suddenly used the Triple Blade Will to attack in a different direction. However, his attack was sliced through by a sword attack, and a second attack followed right behind.
Xia Yi’s pupils instantly shrank. This was not good! There was a true powerhouse present. Xia Yi instantly turned and fled without even looking back.
However, a sword appeared from the void, and it sliced into Xia Yi. The man spat out a mouthful of blood as he collapsed. Liu Huang’s Fourteenth Sword was not something that Xia Yi could endure.
The Sea King stared in amazement a short distance away, and he watched as Liu Huang moved forward, grabbed Xia Yi, and took the man away without even speaking a single word to the Sea King.
Emperor Luo awkwardly appeared from the surface of Yima Planet. Half of his body was riddled with cracks, but he approached the Sea King despite his serious injuries.
The Sea King put away his trident as he stared at Emperor Luo. “Where’s Wang Wen?”
Emperor Luo felt confused. “Wang Wen?”
The Sea King’s face contorted into an angry expression. “That little bastard dared to hit on my daughter! He’s dead!”
The Sea King instantly disappeared into the void.
Emperor Luo opened his mouth, but he had no words. This seemed to be a family matter.
Also, judging by the Sea King’s attitude, Wang Wen was not in any mortal danger. After a moment’s thought, Emperor Luo decided to send a message to Wang Wen and Liu Huang at the same time.
In the Ross Empire’s mobile fortress, Wang Wen was reviewing some information on his gadget when he received Emperor Luo’s message. This was bad! His interactions with Hai Qiqi had been discovered!
Wang Wen instantly tried to call Lu Yin, but it was already too late. The Sea King was above Wang Wen’s head, and the Envoy dropped down right in front of Wang Wen. The youth was easily grabbed as the Sea King said, “Little brat, you’re coming with me.”
Both Wang Wen and the Sea King disappeared.
Wang Wen had been kidnapped by a furious Sea King. No one made any efforts to stop the Sea King, though prayers were muttered, hoping that Lu Yin would be able to save the young man.
***
At this moment, Lu Yin was also uttering prayers that he would be able to find an undiscovered gate to Burial Garden. His eyes blazed with anticipation.
In the blink of an eye, almost another half month had passed. By this time, it had been a month since Lu Yin had arrived in the Starfall Sea, and he had spent the vast majority of this time with Si Xiao’er, searching for one of Burial Garden’s gates.
While they had not managed to find any gates, Lu Yin had seen a great deal of Grayweed Continent.
During this half a month, the arrival of many people with ancient bloodlines had created waves in Burial Garden, and many legends had appeared, which was unprecedented for Burial Garden.
There was a legend that said that when a person with an ancient bloodline entered Burial Garden, they had inexplicably grabbed a piece of jade from the sky, obtaining an inherited cultivation art.
There was a legend that someone with an ancient bloodline had suddenly lost their mind and started spouting ancient words that no one could understand.
There was a legend that there was a wandering corpse in Burial Garden that was constantly seeking a particular person with an ancient bloodline. After finding the person, the wandering corpse followed them around like an underling.
There was a legend that said when the massive wandering corpse of a giant astral beast stood up and stretched one time, a plaque fell out and killed many people, but the plaque was covered with ancient characters.
There was a legend about a mountain covered with tea plants with a wandering corpse that spent its time growing tea, but it would also teach people ancient battle techniques.
…
Burial Garden became far more active once people with ancient bloodlines started to enter it, and even more phenomena were seen. The wandering corpses became far more active, and there was even one person who was bored and kicked a rock, only to discover that the rock actually contained a cultivation art.
However, all of these stories were nothing more than minor ripples that spread through the universe compared to one particular rumor that caused everyone to focus all their attention on Burial Garden. Someone claimed to have seen Progenitor Chen.
Progenitor Chen had been the Fifth Mainland’s most impressive and peerless Progenitor. He had once single-handedly suppressed the entire Sixth Mainland, his Nine Clones Secret Technique had allowed him to face off against nine other Progenitors on his own, he had fought against the entire world in his youth and still lived to become a legend, and he was an existence that the Sixth Mainland refused to acknowledge. Everyone had thought that Progenitor Chen was dead, and the Seven Courts even guarded Progenitor Chen’s Mausoleum.
But, unbelievably, someone had actually claimed to have seen Progenitor Chen in Burial Garden.
No matter if the Progenitor was nothing more than a wandering corpse or even an illusion, any sighting of Progenitor Chen was enough to lure countless people into Burial Garden.
The sighting of Progenitor Chen shocked countless people, but it was not that sighting that lured the Hall of Honor, the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect, and other such monsters to start sending their people into Burial Garden. Rather, it was the rumor that a pillar of tribulation crystals had been found.
No one had even considered the possibility of someone uncovering a pillar of tribulation crystals in the depths of Burial Garden, and the person who discovered it actually did not know what it was or what it was used for. The pillar had been seen by others when it was dug out, and that person had not stopped anyone from taking pictures of the pillar or posting them onto the Human Domain’s network, which was how the Hall of Honor and the Sixth Mainland’s Daosource Sect had discovered it.
Neither the Hall of Honor nor the Daosource Sect revealed the truth. Instead, they both secretly sent some powerhouses into Burial Garden with the mission of finding people who had found tribulation crystal pillars while also searching Burial Garden.
In Astral-1, or rather, the former Astral-1, Wu Da was blankly staring at the headmistress, as well as the headmasters of the Astral Combat Academy’s other branches. He nervously swallowed.
The headmistress of the former Astral-1 was an old woman with silver hair. Wu Da had never seen the woman before, and he was not alone; no one from his class or even his seniors had ever seen the headmistress as she was always in seclusion and did not concern herself with outside matters. The headmistress had only moved when the Sixth Mainland invaded, and she had casually killed an Imprinter before moving Astral-1 to a safer location.
This mysterious headmistress was not looked at with respect by not only a student like Wu Da, but also by the headmasters of Astral-2, Astral-5, and Astral-6. No one knew this old woman’s true strength.
“Are you Wu Da?” the silver-haired old woman asked in a kind tone while smiling at the young man.
Wu Da gulped and quickly nodded. He nervously licked his lips and forced out a smile. “Yes, I’m Wu Da, a student, and I offer my greetings to the headmistress.”
The old woman smiled. “You’re a pleasant child.”
As she spoke, she waved a hand and brought up a display in the air that showed a set of images. Each one was of Burial Garden, and many of them showed items that people had found. One of the images showed a pillar of tribulation crystals.
The old woman pointed at the pillar. “Did you take this picture?”
Wu Da nodded.
“Why?” The old woman was genuinely curious.
Wu Da grew embarrassed. “This- this student wanted to raise my popularity by publishing pictures of Burial Garden. I hope to establish my own company in the future.”
The old woman was confused by this explanation.
Wu Da explained, “Burial Garden’s opening is a major event that everyone in the entire universe is focused on, and everyone wants to go in and explore it, hoping to find a lucky opportunity. I don’t dare to dream of such success for myself, as I don’t have the strength needed to explore Burial Garden, but I can still take some pictures and share my thoughts on what I see. I wanted to be the only reporter in the universe who’s reporting on what’s happening inside Burial Garden.” Wu Da grew increasingly excited as he spoke. “This student’s dream is to become the greatest reporter in the universe! It’s my goal now, and even after graduating, it will still be true!
“This dream is why, even when I was just a Melder, I reported on the various battles within the Astral Combat Academy, and the most famous battle that I ever reported on was one of Lu Yin’s. Even when I’m able to wander through the universe by myself, I’ll never forget my original goals and dreams…”
The old woman just listened as Wu Da shared his dreams. She never interrupted, and simply smiled.
The other headmasters rolled their eyes. As far as they were concerned, someone who was not solely focused on cultivation was walking down the wrong path. If one was willing to enter Burial Garden, then they needed to have the desire to explore. A student had no future ahead of them if they were not even willing to take some risks and explore.
However, regardless of what anyone else thought, Wu Da only wanted to report on what happened in Burial Garden. Still, the place was simply too massive, and the topics that he had covered was not even the tip of the iceberg, though he had still photographed everything that he had seen. His behavior meant that, when Wu Da left Burial Garden, there had been nothing on him when he had been searched, and his status as a student of the Astral Combat Academy had ensured his survival.
The old woman looked at Wu Da with admiration. “That’s excellent, Child. It’s better to have a dream than no dream at all, and you can do as you wish.”
She then handed Wu Da a power vessel. “Keep it close to your body where no one can see it. It will protect you from danger.”
Wu Da grew excited. “Thank you, Headmistress! Thank you!”
He then left in great excitement, as his dream had been recognized, and by the headmistress of Astral-1 at that!
