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Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Arrogant brat!”
Echoes of angry shouts reverberated from the mist as powerful auras arose, followed by multiple attacks unleashed, striking towards Wang Hou.
Wang Hou’s aura stirred in response, repelling every strike.
Then, he raised his palm and ripped the mist apart by force, exposing the many imposing buildings that stood atop the mountain.
The mist… was actually a trick of the eye, protecting Tantra’s Holy Grounds from being discovered by mortal humans.
Laughing, Wang Hou continued stepping over thin air to land before a temple.
“And here I was thinking that the monastery of Tantra had some profound guiding precept since it was known as the Diamond Realm and all, but now it looks like it’s just a name.”
Many of Tantra’s elites were standing before him.
Younger disciples stood at his sides.
Tantra was a Buddhist school, and their elites as well as disciples were naturally mostly shaved monks with vow marks, although some did not have the mark despite being dressed like a monk.
Clearly, the Tantras’ so-called sealing the mountain was not performed in the literal sense. Where would have they gotten their younger disciples if the mountain really was closed off?
And now, many of the Tantras’ auras were raging as they glared at Wang Hou. The powerful hidden trainings of the Tantra brewed within their bodies, and they were ready to attack at full strength at any given moment. Even so, Wang Hou was not concerned at all, as if it had nothing to do with him.
He looked up towards the main temple, laughing. “Does the head monk really refuse to see me?”
“Amitabha!”
A distant Buddhist chant resounded form within the temple then, and was followed by an old voice, “Come in, Mister Wang.”
Wang Hou entered the temple, and the doors closed with a loud boom by themselves.
He looked around, and found that the interior of the temple grew darker and darker until it became pitch-black. One would not find their fingers in here, and Wang Hou could not see further than three feet despite his vision, and even his spirit was restrained.
The corner of his brow twitched then as he thought in astonishment, “What the heck? Is that geezer-who-can’t-die really that powerful? I might not win against him, damn it…”
He wanted to retreat by instinct.
But now that things had come to this, he had to steel himself and keep going.
Laughing, Wang Hou calmly said, “Fine cultivation, head monk!”
He couldn’t afford to panic!
If he did, wouldn’t his overbearing character fall apart?
He strode forward without caring if there was any ground ahead or if he was running into a wall ahead. He simply kept walking by instinct as if having a stroll in the park.
There was no telling how long had passed. It felt at once like an instant and an hour.
That was when the darkness suddenly parted, and a golden holy radiance appeared at the edge of the darkness. Wang Hou looked up to find a dry, shriveled figure sitting cross-legged beneath the aura.
He was wearing a bright-yellow kasaya1 that bares one shoulder. His visage, filled with wrinkles, was ancient and his eyes milky. From his appearance alone, one would think that he would fall down from a poke, and yet, Wang Hou could feel qi and power that was as vast as the ocean.
“The Tantra is said to have a lost art known as the Dragon Elephant Prajna. There are thirteen tiers, but one would be buffed with the strength of a dragon and an elephant once learnt. This geezer-who-can’t-die must have mastered it.”
Even as the thought crossed Wang Hou’s mind, he offered the old monk a fist-palm salute. “Head Monk, Wang Hou, at your service.”
“Please sit, Mister Wang.”
When the old monk opened his mouth, one could see that he barely had any teeth left!
***
Wang Hou only left the temple after two hours, his hands clasped behind his back as he stepped over thin air with an incredibly smug aura. As he stood outside the Diamond Realm, he calmly said, “Head monk, I will send someone to make a copy of the secret martial arts text you’ve promised me.”
“Even if allowing only three persons into your Secret Realm is too few, I will follow the ground rules you have set. Anyone who could enter shall be granted permission. If they couldn’t… well, I won’t have anything against that.”
“And the elites of Tantra must be brought out into the world, to protect the country and its people.”
Wang Hou’s voice echoed over all directions before he left.
And when he was gone, the temple doors opened again, and the skinny head monk stepped out alongside an old man who looked about to die as well.
“Head monk!”
A group of monks approached them, with a divine elite speaking out, “Head monk, the Tantra school has stood for a thousand years—why should we fear an arrogant brat like Wang Hou? You may have granted him an audience out of benevolence eight years ago, and yet he bit the hands that fed him, fighting this way to the Diamond Realm!”
The head monk smiled and turned towards the one who spoke. “Eight years ago, when Wang Hou first reached the boundary of the divine, the flick of your finger alone had defeated him. Now that he could overwhelm you with a turn of his palm, is that not enough?”
“Head monk!”
The one who spoke wanted to say something else but stopped with a pained expression.
He was the monk wearing a kasaya but bearing inch-long hair. Standing at a towering height of one point nine meters, his figure certainly resembles a beast. With his thick brows, large eyes, and beard, he had the bearing of one of Mount Liang’s gentlemen.
Meanwhile, the head monk had looked up towards the horizon, a profound radiance showing in his milky eyes then.
All those years ago, his martial arts predecessors had forged the Stargate with their very own bodies to seal the skies, preventing Earth from being invaded by otherworldly beings.
Have those otherworldly beings started coveting Earth again?
Withdrawing his gaze, the head monk somberly said, “Notify all elders to convene. We shall discuss the matters of sending our disciples out into the world and opening our Secret Realm. Additionally, make a copy of all the lost arts of Tantra—save for the secret legacies from the founder—and send it to Wang Hou.
“Tantra is within the Hua Nation’s borders, and we are her citizens. If we don’t contribute a little… Wang Hou would not abide by us!”
At those words, the head monk couldn’t help laughing.
Wang Hou… was quite something.
How old was Wang Hou when the head monk was assured that he could easily overwhelm him?
He was forty, tops, whereas the head monk himself was hundreds of years old, and not far from the grand limit.
***
A clearing, hundred miles away from ‘Diamond Realm’, the holy grounds of the Tantra school.
Wang Hou descended from the skies above, and strode into a temporarily built ‘command center’.
General Li, in his military uniform came to meet him, the worried look on his face receding as he asked, “How did it go? What did the head monk say?”
The five holy grounds have a long history and hold much depth. If they could step out into the world, send their elites to suppress the Ferals wreaking havoc everywhere, they would greatly lighten the pressure which the Hua Nation was facing, relieving the military considerably so that they would not have to keep their nukes at arm’s reach to intimidate the Feral Kings.
Wang Hou looked around.
General Li waved his hand, and the others quickly left the room.
Then, a spirit power extended, isolating the command center.
Frowning, General Li said, “Isn’t this unnecessary, Old Wang? Only military elites and top-level officials could come close to this spot, and we don’t have to keep this from them.”
“Keep, my foot!”
Wang Hou’s upright gait suddenly slumped as he dropped on a chair, rubbing his belly as he cursed, “Hell, I almost didn’t make it back. Even if that head monk is basically lifeless, he has actually reached Void-pinnacle. The plans we made beforehand wouldn’t have been of use at all.”
General Li was stunned.
The plan…
Yes.
Wang Hou had definitely drafted a plan.
It was simple and straightforward: Wang Hou would knock down their door and fight his way in with his martial arts, while using the intimidation of nuclear might to force the five holy grounds to yield.
However, it had only been days since Wang Hou reached the Void…
But with the other guy being a Void-pinnacle, what would his intimidation by force achieve?
Laughing bitterly, he said, “So, it’s a bust?”
“Nope, I managed.”
Wang Hou smiled. “I had to change the plan in the spur of the moment and appeal to emotion. The head monk was reasonable enough to agree to some of my little requests.”
General Li was delighted, but soon scowled again, “If that’s so, we don’t have to visit the other holy grounds now, do we? According to our theory, Tantra was supposedly the weakest of the five…”
If a Void-pinnacle suddenly popped up in the weakest Holy Ground, the other Holy Grounds could well have a Zero-Void elite. If there really was one, said elite could destroy a city with a slap, let alone nuclear intimidation.”
“Of course I’m going!”
Wang Hou rose to his feet, his overbearing presence still peerless. Even so, his tone was slightly miserable as he said, “Still, we need a change of tactics. I’ll visit them personally, and I could be subtle if necessary. What if I could convince them by appealing to emotion?”
***
At the same time, Jiang He had just finished dinner.
After that, he had stepped out into the yard to groom the flourishing willow tree and checked whether grasses had grown over the graves yet, when a call reached him.
He took a look at the number…
It was unknown.
He answered.
“Hello, I’ve seen your post on the Warrior Home forum. You’ve mentioned you want Orirocks?”
A voice of a middle-aged person spoke from the other end of the call, cutting straight to the point.
“Yes.”
Jiang He replied, and asked in return, “Do you have Orirocks for sale?”
The voice became silent for seconds before saying, “I do have Orirocks, but I’m trading it for items and not selling. Do you have any items that promote longevity and detoxes?”
“Yes, I have the items you want.”
Delighted, Jiang He said, “Well, it depends on whether you have enough Orirocks, and everything is good if that’s the case.”
Could he be that lucky?
Were Orirocks not unmarketable? And yet managed to catch a seller by just posting?
It had literally fallen right into his lap.
The voice on the other end appeared delighted too, and quickly said, “What’s the item you have that promotes longevity? The Nine Orifice Lotus? The Golden Lotus of Tianshan? How much of one’s lifespan could it increase? And what is that detox item? Would it work against the venom of the Six-Eyed Desert Spider?”
“…”
Jiang He became quiet.
The Nine Orifice Lotus?
The Golden Lotus of Tianshan?
Those items were too profound, although he did see them in Zhou Yu’s inventory of treasures. Still, there only photos and introductions—the Martial Arts department does not have stock, but they were the two rare floral spirits that extends lifespan being studied right now.
As for the Six-Eyed Desert Spider…
While he had not heard of it, Jiang He knew about the six-eyed sand spider, having watched a TV program about it. It was tiny—its body was only around 10mm while its legs stretched up to 60mm, but its venom was extremely lethal, and an adult could die from its bite if medical treatment was not administered in time.
“So, the Six-Eyed Desert Spider is a Feral evolved from the six-eyed sand spider…”
Asking since he was unsure, Jiang He asked, “The venom must be lethal, right?’
Then, he laughed, “But that’s fine. I have a divine antidote —cucumber!”
“…”
There was silence from the other end of the call, before the person asked slightly angrily, “Then what’s that treasure of yours which extends lifespan?”
“Eggplant.”
Jiang He replied earnestly. “Not only does it promote longevity, it eases swells and stops bleeding too… wait… hello, hello? Hello?”
What the heck!
Jiang He was a little speechless.
I was just getting to the good part, why did you hang up on me?
You must be sick in the head!
