Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
“Put this on.” Wang Lin flicked his finger, and a ray of purple light landed on Shi Tianhao’s hand. It was a ring-like object.
It was the ring left behind by the Hades Emperor, brought into the Void Battleground by Big Luo. Back then when Big Luo was faced with the Yun Cheng Hades, he was used as a sacrifice by the Yun Cheng Hades like a cicada shedding its shell. And after he was severely injured, Wang Lin rushed to the scene and brought back Big Luo along with his ring.
Seeing that the outer realm before him was indeed related to the Hades Emperor, Shi Tianhao wanted to break the barriers and enter to retrieve the treasure, so Wang Lin handed the ring to him.
Shi Tianhao received the ring and dove into the entrance of the outer realm. Besides him, Ning Wan’ge also entered the gourd-like realm while Zhu Yi and Wang Lin remained outside to prevent anyone else’s interference.
Zhu Yi looked at Wang Lin and gestured at him. “Congratulations to Third Junior for successfully cultivating the Virtual Entity.”
Wang Lin returned the gesture in respect, showing a few traces of warmth within his calm eyes. “You’re too kind, Second Senior.”
Zhu Yi directed his vision towards Big Luo, who was being cared for by E Shen. After a brief look, Zhu Yi frowned, “He’s exceeded his limits by too much. I’m afraid he’ll need a long time to recuperate. Luckily, he has Third Junior by his side to help him stabilize his injuries, otherwise they may worsen.”
As he said this, he gently flicked his fingers. The chirp of a phoenix sounded, crisp and pleasant to the ear.
The glowing figure of a phoenix created from flowing light appeared amidst the void space, circling about. The surface of its body was blazing with a fiery radiance. From the flames, exuded a mystifying energy akin to the rebirth of a phoenix, rising from the ashes. This phoenix landed on Big Luo and helped him to further stabilize his injuries.
Among the various disciples under Lin Feng, besides Shi Tianhao who wields the Origin Holy Light, Xiao Yan, Wang Lin, Yang Qing and Ge Qingwu have each cultivated abhijina with healing effects. Xiao Yan and Wang Lin’s abhijina are slanted towards healing the spirit’s Tao Foundation, while Yang Qing and Ge Qingwu’s abhijina lean towards healing the tangible damages of one’s vital energy and blood essence.
Zhu Yi’s Rebirth of the Phoenix Spell is also aligned more towards the latter. Coordinating with Wang Lin’s mana, both sides combined forces and catalyzed the recovery of Big Luo’s injuries to a greater extent.
“Both me and Big Luo Junior always carry the elixirs crafted by Big Senior with us. I’ve already made him consume the elixir to harness its medicinal properties,” said Wang Lin.
Zhu Yi replied, “That’s good. I’ve already heard about what happened from Master. If nothing unexpected crops out, I’ll still need you to escort Big Luo Junior back to the Greater World.”
“Oh? Do Little Junior and you still have other things to attend to?” asked Wang Lin.
The Yi Talisman above Zhu Yi’s head glowed brilliantly. He replied, “The strange changes that the Immortal Dragon City is undergoing is slowly coming to an end. Its chaotic spiritual energy levels are restabilizing. I can sense that this treasure has entered this Void Sea from the outer void space.”
Wang Lin’s eyes flashed. “Oh? Has the Great Qin Empire already eradicated that Ya Yu?”
The Qin Emperor Shi Yu perished during the War of the Two Worlds. His Magical Treasure of Destiny, the Immortal Dragon City, was lost to the boundless void space. The opposing parties of the Earth Dragon King and Zhu Yi have been powerless in retrieving it, and in the end, the slumbering Immortal Dragon City vanished into the void space, with its whereabouts being incredibly difficult to locate.
The Mana Trace which Shi Yu left on the Immortal Dragon City has disappeared entirely. Even though the Great Qin Empire had always possessed and cultivated the Immortal Dragon City, even they found it extremely difficult to locate their treasure.
On the other hand, the Earth Dragon King and Zhu Yi each left their respective Mana Traces on the Immortal Dragon City during their scuffle. Once the Immortal Dragon City’s strange phase of changes ends and its spiritual energy stabilizes once again, they could try searching for it.
With the Celestial Sect of Wonders eliminating the usurped Great Zhou Emperor Liang Pan and Zhu Hongwu, the Great Qin Empire kept negotiating with the newly throned Zhou Emperor Liang Gan. Besides this, the Great Qin Empire was also preoccupied with claiming the captured Ya Yu Grand Sage from the Great Zhou Empire.
During the War of the Two Worlds, the Yayu Grand Sage suddenly attached Prince Gunyang and other cultivators from the Great Qin Empire. With Prince Gunyang severely injured, the Hou Ning Dragon King created a split avatar and flew over to aid the Earth Dragon King and the Azure Skies Dragon King in battle against Zhu Yi and Shi Yu. After gravely injuring the Qin Emperor Shi Yu, he joined forces with the Azure Skies Dragon King and killed Shi Yu.
No one could ascertain whether Shi Yu would have survived if the Hou Ning Dragon King did not enter the battle, but the latter’s aid certainly sped up Shi Yu’s defeat.
The Great Qin Empire naturally bore a deep hatred for the Dragon tribes, just as the Great Zhou Empire did for the Yayu Grand Sage.
The Great Zhou Empire’s Ancient Geyun World was suddenly sealed off many years ago. Outsiders assumed that this Middle World was too old, with its resources exhausted and its spiritual energy becoming extremely weak, nearing destruction. While previously inconspicuous, it has now aroused the suspicions of the Great Qin Empire.
After Zhu Yi and Shi Tianhao acted against Liang Pan and Zhu Hongwu, the Great Qin’s cultivators immediately forced themselves into the Ancient Geyun World. Even though it was empty and desolate, the Great Qin’s cultivators still managed to find traces of clues.
And after the War of the Two Worlds ended, Liang Pan and Zhu Hongwu immediately arranged to relocate the Yayu Grand Sage to avoid any suspicions and investigations.
But the Celestial Sect of Wonders acted too hastily. After careful and dedicated searching, the Great Qin’s cultivators followed these minute clues and finally discovered the Yayu Grand Sage’s whereabouts.
In response to Wang Lin’s question, Zhu Yi replied, “Yes, they have successfully dispatched him.”
The newly throned Qin Emperor Shi Zongtang left a group of avatars with low mastery levels at Tianjing City to negotiate with the new Zhou Emperor Liang Gan while he personally charged over to Prince Gunyang, trapping the Yayu Grand Sage with a group of Great Qin powerhouses, sustaining hefty injuries themselves before finally butchering the Yayu Grand Sage.
Shi Yu gently tapped his feet on the Higan Golden Bridge and continued, “I’ve already notified the Great Qin Empire of the Immortal Dragon City’s recovery. They have the right to know, but the final result may not be what they had hoped for. The Immortal Dragon City’s strange changes following Shi Yu’s failure at the sacrificial ceremony was certainly beyond anyone’s expectations.”
As for his speculations on this matter, Zhu Yi has already shared his knowledge and personal deductions with Lin Feng and his fellow disciples after the War of the Two Worlds. After hearing this, Wang Lin nodded, “No wonder even Master expressed his astonishment.”
“Indeed. But regardless whether the Great Qin’s cultivators or our Celestial Sect rush over, the Earth Dragon King and other powerhouses from the Dragon Tribes would certainly have also noticed the Immortal Dragon City’s changes,” said Zhu Yi.
“Because of Master, the Origins Dragon King is afraid to enter the Black Sea, so we don’t have to worry about him, but the Earth Dragon King and the Shen Dragon King are still pure-blood Celestial Dragons in the Vipralopa Stage after all. If they exit from the Black Sea at the same time, their strength cannot be underestimated.”
“Based on your previous estimations, that shouldn’t happen this soon. Could the Immortal Dragon City have come into contact with a space with sped-up timeflow when it entered the Void Battleground?” asked Wang Lin.
Zhu Yi muttered in agreement. “Yes, but it’s still quite a distance away from complete recovery. The closer it is to a complete recovery, the stabler its spiritual energy would be, and it would be easier for both us and the Dragon tribes to follow the clues to its location. But it may not necessarily be an easy feat if it remains in the Void Battleground – a large-scale Void Storm would easily cause all our previous efforts to go to waste. But now that I’ve cultivated the Virtual Entity and formulated the Way of Changes, I’m confident of outspeeding the Dragon tribes.”
“I’ve reaped a considerable amount of rewards when I entered the Void Battleground this time. They should come in handy for you and Little Junior.”
Among the various disciples in the sect, especially among the four who entered the sect the earliest, Wang Lin and Zhu Yi’s relationship was comparatively duller, perhaps due to differences in their opinions, personality and style.
But having been in the same sect for so many years, their interactions have never ignited any conflicts. Even though their opinions on certain matters are not aligned, their bond deepened over constant intellectual discourse, but they would not waver in their opinions whenever their perspectives differed.
Their daily explorations and discussions about mantras interestingly became the time where they interacted the most. One is proficient and hence knowledgeable, while the other is knowledgeable and hence proficient. Both of them are the most accomplished cultivators in Buddhist spells, and the previous research discussion during the Karmic Theory Debate also created many conversation topics for them on mantras.
Zhu Yi smiled, “I’ve already heard about the Ancient Satanic Heart Curse for a long time.”
“Among our fellow disciples, Little Junior should benefit the most from this class of abhijina beside me.”
Zhu Yi nodded in agreement. “Correct. Once Little Junior harnesses this spell, he’ll definitely take a great step forward on the road to cultivating his Virtual Entity. He might even attain his Virtual Entity immediately like you did.”
As they conversed, the outer realm beside them began vibrating. Shi Tianhao and Ning Wan’ge flew out from the realm.
“We’ve got what we wanted. Let’s go.” Shi Tianhao grinned widely, “But we’ve already gathered half of it. The remaining spell restrictions have been broken beforehand, most likely by the Heavenly Charms Grand Sage. If Third Senior didn’t rush over in time, there would have been none left.”
Wang Lin replied, “Second Senior has already informed me about the Immortal Dragon City’s situation. You should continue on your journey together while I’ll take these things back to the Greater World with Junior Big Luo. This is the Ancient Satanic Heart Curse that I invented. It’s not complete, but you can still learn from its flaws. You can explore it further on your journey.”
Two rays of light fired out from his eyes and landed in front of Zhu Yi and Shi Tianhao.
Both of them used their own Supernatural Awareness and swept up the light before them, then focused their attention. Shi Tianhao chuckled, “Hm, is this the first trace of emotions, will, ideas and thoughts at the beginning of all creation, when everything was a chaotic blurry mess and the heavens and earth were not separated? Indeed, indeed, understanding these principles would be greatly beneficial to my cultivation of the Yingyuan and Huangshen Bodies. Thank you, Third Senior.”
Upon hearing that, Wang Lin cracked a faint smile. Zhu Yi also opened his eyes at one side, “People’s hearts and will, emotions and ideas, spirit and initiative, all coexist as one … This is indeed fascinating. Thank you, Third Junior.”
“No worries, I’m glad that it’s useful. In that case, I’ll return to the sect and have Master take a look at Junior Big Luo.” With that, Wang Lin turned around to glance at Ning Wan’ge. Ning Wan’ge let out a sigh, “With this settled, I don’t have any other matters to tend to in the Void Battleground. I’ll return to the Greater World with you. I still need to settle down and think some things over thoroughly.”
Even with Wang Lin’s current abhijina levels, leaving the Void Battleground was not an effortless feat. They had to spend some time searching for a spot in the realm with weaker changes before breaking through the void space and departing from the Void Battleground.
They were not returning to the Ying Sea, insteading heading straight for Mount Yujing to regroup with Lin Feng himself.
