Chapter 240: The Hidden Dragon Ancient City
Translator: Sheryl Editor: Hitesh
After half a month, Ye Chen had finally crossed the border of the south side of the Black Dragon Empire and reached the land in between the three nations.
This land seemed to have no edge, and the mountains all seemed ancient. In the beginning, Ye Chen had not realized any difference, but after a while, he started to sense the ancient aura of the land. The Ying and Yang here had been completely switched, and the natural sense could not be more confusing; the whole place was indeed mysterious.
“The Hidden Dragon Ancient Place had existed since the ancient era. Legend said that seventy-two dragon fountains had been trapped under the town, among which the Earth Qi Dragon Fountain was the most famous one. It had controlled the Earth Qi in the whole South Rudra Region. ‘Now that I can sense it with my own senses, it is indeed different. It is definitely not weaker than an ancient place. And in some areas, it is even better here. But why do all those ancient places no longer exist in the real world while the Hidden Dragon Ancient Place does?’
Ye Chen was shocked at what he saw with his eyes, so he spread his soul power. He could almost hear a number of dragon roars, which seemed to contain the power to tear apart people’s souls.
After entering the Hidden Dragon Ancient Place, one could see more and more warriors traveling past. Some of them were chatting as they flew by, but one could still clearly hear the respectful tone in their voices.
“The Hidden Dragon Ancient Place is not a place that any of the nations in the South Rudra Region can take over. In the past, there were some super nations which wanted to take over the Hidden Dragon Ancient Place and build their capital on top of it so they could have all the luck there. They only lasted seventy-two days, after which the nation fell. All of the royal families died, and their bloodline was annihilated Ever since that, no one had ever thought about taking over the ancient place again. Even Life and Death Realm warriors would not underestimate the place.”
“The Hidden Dragon Ancient Place is both a place of luck and death. According to the records, there had been a lot of Life and Death Realm warriors who had died in the Hidden Dragon Ancient Place, which included a top warrior who was titled King. It had also killed some of the kings from other species who showed disrespect to the Hidden Dragon Ancient Place. Twenty-something years ago, the leader of the Nine Ghost Cult had also thought about taking over the place, but I guess you already know how that worked out – the whole Nine Ghost Cult had been destroyed, and even the leader of the cult had been hunted by both the Mysterious Queen and the Dragon King. No one really knew what had really happened to him after that, I guess he had done something he shouldn’t in the Hidden Dragon Ancient Place.”
“The power of the Nine Ghost Cult’s leader was unbelievable, enough to even compete with the Surreal King. And twenty years ago, the Mysterious Queen was still young, and she did not have enough experiences yet. Although the Dragon King was an old generation king level warrior already, there was still no chance for him to take on the leader of the Nine Ghost Cult yet. Normally, even if the two had cooperated and attacked the leader of the Nine Ghost Cult, it would still be impossible to kill him since the battles between the Life and Death Realm warriors were not like normal battles, there would rarely be any deaths. Even if the leader of the Nine Ghost Cult could not beat the two, he could still have been able to get away safely. So I think he must have received some major damage in the Hidden Dragon Ancient Place and decreased his power.”
“Some things can just not be explained. All those details would only be known to those people who were involved. so what is the point in guessing anyways? No matter how mysterious the Hidden Dragon Ancient Place is, that has nothing to do with us. As long as the young generation could get some luck from this, all we need to do is watch.”
“True. On the top of that Dragon Platform, and with the enhancement of the luck here, I wonder who would be able to win the luck in the whole South Rudra Region from the Dragon Fountain.”
“Those old pals have probably arrived already. Let’s hurry up!”
Those people were all Astral Reaching Realm warriors, who traveled extremely fast. After few blinks, they had traveled ahead of all the other warriors and disappeared in the front.
Hearing those people, Ye Chen gasped. ‘A lot of Life and Death Realm warriors had died in the Hidden Dragon Ancient Place, even including a King level warrior?! Fall of a super nation?! The death of the leader of the Nine Ghost Cult?!’
Each one of those facts was extremely shocking. This ancient place was no longer normal in the eyes of Ye Chen, it was a crossroad of light and darkness, luck and death.
“The seventy-two dragon fountain matches the seventy-two places in the Hidden Dragon Rank. It looks like that the competitions aren’t just built randomly. There seems to be a lot of meaning behind everything, we should not underestimate anything.” Thoughts flashed through Ye Chen’s brain as he sped up and flew towards the Hidden Dragon Ancient City.
The Hidden Dragon Ancient Place was bigger than any of the top three nations. There were countless mountains, seemingly with no end. However, in the center of the ancient place was a special place. It seemed to be the starting and finishing point of the mountains. All of the mountains had come from all directions and eventually merged up there. It looked like countless dragons were lying there with some of them diving into the ground and some of them meeting in the middle. And in this huge area was an extremely ancient city located, holding the dragon fountains below it. It could not look more normal, but still had that unspeakable superior atmosphere.
This ancient town was indeed the location for the competitions of the Hidden Dragon Rank – the Hidden Dragon Ancient City.
The history of this ancient city was untraceable, all people knew was that it had been there for a long time ever since the ancient era. It was still the same after thousands of years, which was why even the Life and Death Realm warriors would have to respect the place and watch what they were doing, in case they did anything to offend the luck.
Millions of warriors had already gathered in front of the grassland right outside the south gate of the town. People were everywhere, making it look like an ocean made of people.
The martial institutions that had come early had already made a simple building on that grassland for their disciples to live in and train. As for the lone travelers, they were neither that picky nor considerate. They sat on the floor and made bonfires to cook, and would keep yelling this and that to their friends.
People from the Sky Cloud Martial School had not arrived that early, but there was still some time to kill. So the inner masters had built eight wooden houses on the little hill ten miles from the south gate.
Outside the wooden house.
Luo Hanshan looked into the distance, and could not help but be shocked, “So many people! And they are all Clasping Yuan Realm warriors.”
“Millions of Clasping Yuan Realm warriors… it is indeed crazy. You see, even the clouds in the sky have been cleared out.” Zhu Mei was standing right next to him. She looked up into the sky, where millions of Zhen Qi waves had blended together. Although they were all well-controlled and under suppression, the Zhen Qi vibrations were still horrifying. Even the Life and Death Realm warriors would be killed when facing these many Clasping Yuan Realm warriors and not use some kind of special tricks. But of course, Life and Death Realm warriors could just escape from these kinds of situations and no one would be able to stop him.
Xu Jing was still looking cold as always and did not say anything.
Luo Xinglie walked out from the wooden house and said emotionally, “The competitions of the Hidden Dragon Rank are closely related to the future of our Sky Cloud Martial School. After entering, everything you do would matter to the School, so do not disappoint me.”
“Yes, leader.” The three nodded seriously.
In the following few days, a lot of people from different martial institutions arrived every day. And because of overpopulation, the space close to the south gate had almost been fully crowded. Some of the martial institutions had to remove some of the Lone travelers so that they could build their humongous houses for their disciples to stay.
“Look. It is the number thirty-seven on the last time’s Hidden Dragon Rank – Wei Renjie. His blade art could adjust its level according to his opponents, and I heard that he had already mastered the entry level of his blade intent.”
“Number thirty-eight, Qi Shaofeng is here as well.”
“And the Number forty-five, the Monster Childe, Leng Wuqing is here as well! Last time, he had beaten a couple of Clasping Yuan Realm warriors when he was only at the peak-level Late Condensing Reality Realm. And now that he has reached the Early Clasping Yuan Realm, I wonder what kind of power he would have. I think even the Mid Clasping Yuan Realm warriors in the young generation would not dare to say confidently that they could win against him.”
Hearing their discussions, Luo Hanshan and Zhu Mei’s heart both skipped a beat. Before they came, they thought that with their cultivation, they would at least have a chance of fighting with the other people for the top seventy-two. But now that they saw the people around them who had made more improvements than them, their hopes started to deflate. Especially that Wei Renjie, he was one of the most powerful warriors among all the people they had met and had somehow mastered the entry level of his blade intent. Not to even mention to fight him face to face, it would be great if they did not fall apart when facing his blade intent alone.
Qi Shaofeng and Leng Wuqing were quite powerful as well, one of them had extraordinary talent, and the other one was no stranger to cross-realm battles. These people were not the ones they could handle.
Glancing at Xu Jing who still had not said anything, Luo Hanshan sighed unnoticeably: ‘There is always someone more powerful indeed. Ye Chen, I wonder who powerful you are right now right.’
Shaking his head, Luo Hanshan forced a laugh. ‘Ye Chen’s talent and comprehension ability were undoubtedly powerful, but he has still started way too late after all. Otherwise, he might actually make it into the Hidden Dragon Rank, maybe even into the top forty, or even top thirty.’ It was not that he underestimated Ye Chen, but those warriors who had made it into the rank last time had all grown so fast and so powerful.
HO! HO! HO!
The sound of beasts could be heard from the distance.
“Someone from the rank 6 Sunset Martial School is here.”
“And the Sky Falling Martial School, the Heartless Martial School, the Sky Demon Martial School.”
“Fire Spirit Martial School, the Ice Extreme Martial School, and the Floating Mountain Martial School are in the back.”
All of the noises on that grassland had been silenced all of the sudden. The rank 6 martial institutions were not like all the other martial institutions that were lower than rank 7. Normally for a marital institution, reaching from rank 7 to rank 6 was a major challenge, just like a warrior trying to reach the Astral Reaching Realm from Clasping Yuan Realm. There must be a really powerful warrior in their martial institution for them to upgrade their rank. All those seven martial institutions had very long history of thousands of years. And among them, the Floating Mountain Martial School had the most powerful background, which was even longer than the other top three nations. In their martial school, there had been two king-level warriors, one of whom was the Stone King, and the other was the Mysterious King.
There was a huge area of empty space closest to the south gate, reserved especially for the seven rank 6 martial institutions. No one dared to fight against them, and no one chose to get closer.
Different kinds of powerful beasts had landed on the ground. All of the people from the seven rank 6 martial institutions had jumped down from the beasts and chose where they wanted to stay.
Some of the martial masters from different martial institutions had gathered together and chatted quietly while the young generation stood in the front, looking very noticeable.
The head disciple of the Sky Falling Martial School, Lin Yun, glanced at the other people, a cold sneer appearing on his face. ‘The champion place of this year’s Hidden Dragon Rank is me.’
Li Daoxuan, who had come from the Heartless Martial School, had his eyes fixed on the south gate of the Hidden Dragon Ancient City.
The top two disciples of the Sky Demon Martial School, Mo Yan and Murong Qingcheng, had exchanged a look. They both saw the seriousness in each other’s eyes. After three years, all the old opponents had all entered such high cultivation, especially Lin Yun from the Sky Falling Martial School, who they both found quite threatening.
A red halo appeared in the eyes of Mo Yan as he stared at Lin Yun, and said slowly, “His Qi has gotten five times stronger as compared to three years ago.”
“Five times!” Murong Qingcheng did not say anything after. She knew that her head disciple had trained the Sky Reaching Demon Art, of which he had also mastered the Sky Reaching Demon Eyes. He was able to analyze the power level of his opponent’s Qi, so it should be accurate.
The Fire Spirit Prince of the Fire Spirit Martial School had also realized Lin Yun’s difference. He sneered. ‘No matter how powerful you are, you will still be the stepping stone for me to get to the top.’
Not far away, the head disciple of the Ice Extreme Martial School did not show any kind of emotion, looking like a cold block of ice. His white clothes were dancing in the wind, spreading out chilly white qi.
Everyone had a different Qi and different aura. They were already secretly competing, no one losing to anyone. If a person with powerful soul power were here, he would even be able to sense the vague spark in the air, a sign of aura battles.
However, this situation had soon changed. A teenager with deep eyes walked over with both of his hands resting behind his back. Wherever he went, all of the natural yuan qi would follow him. He seemed like a natural born king, his aura so high up there and making it look like he was looking down at everyone. Even Lin Yuan’ aura could not compete with him.
“Sikong Sheng!”
On that grassland, someone yelled out with a low voice.
