Chapter 185: Azure Mountain
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Fang Ning was on his fifth day of vacation. As he would soon get a lot of money, he was finally willing to spend some money to create the Soaring Dragon Matchless Alliance as his game ID.
Luckily for him, the price to build the Wolf King’s Token had fallen significantly; it was now obtainable at around $2,000,000. This was the instability of the in-game market; a few months ago, it would’ve cost him nearly $10,000,000…
After creating his own clan, Fang Ning sat in his internet café and yelled towards the prison without standing up, “Andy, join my alliance with your in-game character! Bring your followers too!”
After shouting, he felt very satisfied. He had always been envious of those owners that played video games. They could order their employees to join their alliances, kill in-game bosses, challenge other people and fight clan wars together with an untouchable loyalty that mere passers-by could never achieve. The only reason the alliance would disband was either that the boss had lost interest in the game or that the game had closed its servers…
After a moment, players started joining. All of them were approved and had already mastered the Basic Cultivation of Souls technique. Thirty people joined in that instance.
The monster in prison number 40 had yet to surrender. It was hardheaded and furthermore, it came in later. Anderson had yet to find some time to punish him. As for the other two powerhouses in the solitary confinement, they were believers. They would never understand the situation they had been in for these past few months, so they also wouldn’t surrender for now. As for those in the normal prisons, around 80% of them had their own ideas.
Most of the alliances in the game were still founded by normal people. For them, having two to three certified masters was more than enough. In the game, those that managed to master the Basic Cultivation of Souls were already considered masters. For normal people, it would take them two to three months to master this technique, though this applied only if they had the potential. For normal beings, it would have taken half a year or longer. They could never compare themselves to those hellish beings in Fang Ning’s alliance.
The Soaring Dragon Matchless Alliance suddenly had thirty masters with the Founder of Master as its leader. This pushed this alliance to the peak of the server with its strength alone.
Although the alliance had just been created and members had just started to join, Fang Ning couldn’t wait to bring Anderson and the rest to shine in the game and enjoy himself all over the place. Their actions attracted the attention of a few passers-by, as well as those hiding in the dark…
The System suddenly interrupted Fang Ning and said, “Future millionaire Host, I have something for you.”
Fang Ning logged out from the spiritual-sense game mode and sat lazily on the chair, “Go on.”
System replied, “You were too focused on your game. Zheng Dao sent you a message through QQ.”
Fang Ning acknowledged it and opened QQ to check his inbox.
First and foremost, he had to enforce the order of his own domain so that he could play with ease. Zheng Dao never troubled him with such simple tasks, so something strange must be going on.
It was truly something huge. The message read, “Venerable one, the Truth Department has just sent a notification to every co-organizer and announced that in one week’s time, one of their important co-organizers will open its door. They will send two people out of the mountain, one male one female. Their looks and information, as well as their habits and personalities, has been sent to everyone.
“This special co-organizing unit is called the Azure Mountain. Its document is highly secured, and even with our level of authority, we still can’t find anything related to it. I’ve personally asked Master Ma from Mount Indigo, and he replied that that group will open their doors every three years and send some disciples down to earth. However, he wasn’t too sure about the exact location of the door. ”
“He only knew that those people only leave the mountain every three years and take away all the materials with their background. They only did two things. They will take away disciples of high potential regardless if he is a human, monster, ghost, or elf… They will also harvest any rare materials including herbs, rocks, food ingredients as well as many other strange beasts…”
Fang Ning pored over the message’s content. ‘This Master Ma’s tone is full of anger. Seems to me he was badly treated previously…’
He knew that before the Qixi Flame Meteor incident, the recovery of vitality could only happen at a slow rate, and there weren’t many weird occurrences happening in the world. Most occurrences that happened were kept a secret within a small group and a lot of the military secrets were highly guarded. Normal people would never know about them.
It was just like China’s big mushroom project; it was carried out in secret and before they incidentally blew up, no one knew they had them in their home. Furthermore, it took well over ten years after the incident for the others to figure out who the person in charge was…
The appearance of the flame meteor was like an explosion and could no longer be hidden away. With the power of the people, it was widely promoted.
Fang Ning said to the System, “Looks like we need to focus on getting more allies. A lot of the secret information is only known by those elders. We youngsters are full of energy but we lack depth. With more allies, we can gain more manpower to fight other monsters that descend from above and grow together.”
The System replied, “Then you can do whatever you please. I trust your instincts, millionaire Host.”
Fang Ning was satisfied. He felt that the System was stunned by how he had earned money through the Battle of the Beasts. The System had never realized that those prisoners in the penitentiary had the ability to help him earn money. For the System, those prisoners only represented Experience Points, chivalrous virtue, fame, as well as material…
Fang Ning thumped his chest confidently, “I will handle it. All you need to do is support me.”
He flipped through the information of the two people that Zheng Dao had sent to him and realized the Truth Department didn’t want anyone else clashing with them… This Azure Mountain that he never heard before was something he couldn’t ignore.
…
A week later. A rural mountain towered over the South-Eastern region of China. The mountain was only slightly popular among the locals, and from time to time had some local visitors would climb it. The road to the top was steep and hard to walk on.
On that road were three people that didn’t look like visitors.
It was February of Year 18. The Northern region was still cold, but the South-Eastern region was already teeming with green grass, new trees growing and birds chirping.
“Senior Gu, three years have gone by. Last year, the Heaven had just gifted the world with its power, so the people outside should have become a lot stronger. I should be able to enjoy myself this time.” A pretty looking teenage girl in her twenties was running around. She was an energetic person, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt with short pants.
“Junior Qi, we must finish our mission,” a man in his thirties with a robe answered. He looked normal, though he dressed rather old-fashioned. He was smiling calmly while talking to the lady.
The two of them were holding nothing, but the quiet man behind them was carrying a big duffle bag while following them.
Three of them walked passed a mountain road and through a forest before they stopped and shivered.
The lady suddenly frowned. “After three years, the vitality concentration in the outside world is still so thin. It’s better than three years ago, but it’s nothing compared to our Azure Mountain. The strength of the outside world must also be limited by this. I can’t enjoy myself out here.”
Senior Gu tried to appease her. “We should focus on our main task. I will contact those people first.”
As he finished his words, someone said from above.
“Haha, two masters from the Azure Mountain. I have been waiting for you two for some time now.”
A man flew down from above. That was Ren Ruofeng, who still looked like he was eighteen-years-old.
Senior Gu saw him but wasn’t surprised. He gave him a fist salute and said calmly, “Senior Ren, thank you for waiting for us here. Looks like you have already sensed it when we left the mountain. Your nets above snares below is truly effective. Congratulations on finally building it after ten years.”
He was praising his senior but he sounded calm, so whatever he said were merely niceties.
Ren Ruofeng chuckled, “You flatter me. This has been a collective effort. Please follow me. We’ll catch up, just like old times.”
Senior Gu nodded, “Yes, this time we will still need to trouble you for our trip down here. Of course, we will not be stingy with the rewards.”
After talking for a moment, the two of them followed Ren Ruofeng and left. The honest-looking teenager was sent away by another car.
…
After a moment, Ren Ruofeng reappeared at a nearby base camp and entered an office before sitting down.
Another worker entered and switched on a laptop. He opened a powerpoint file and projected it onto the big screen.
Ren Ruofeng personally explained the slides to the two, “Three years have passed since we last met, and the world has experienced a few changes. So just like in previous meetings, I will explain it to you two masters, and hope that our meeting can continue with a joyful atmosphere.”
Senior Gu replied, “Reasonable. Please go one with your presentation.”
Ren Ruofeng waved his hand, “No need to be so polite. I’ve also stayed in the Azure Mountain before, so we can’t say we’re strangers.”
That junior Qi gave him a disdainful look before turning away and remaining silent.
Senior Gu nodded and replied, “Yes, that is a gift from Heaven. Although the mountain only has few hundred disciples, around ten of them have greatly benefited from it. The outside world is more populated, so there should be more people that received the gifts. Our master has ordered us to leave the mountain, with one of the main reasons being find that group of people. We believe we can get more disciples back as compared to before.”
Ren Ruofeng nodded, “This should be easy. The Truth Department, along with other District Special Affairs Liaison Office, has control over China, so we can still provide some help if you need it.”
Senior Gu finally smiled, “That is the best we could’ve hoped for. According to tradition, so long as you can provide us with a suitable disciple, we can send another one into the arcane realm for his cultivation. He will adjust his mentality for half a year, followed by two years of cultivation.”
Ren Ruofeng smiled back at him, “Good to know that. I will continue with the situation on the outside.”
Senior Gu said, “Go ahead.”
Ren Ruofeng said, “Of the past three years, the first two years were relatively peaceful. After the Qixi Flame Meteor Incident last year, many things have changed. There are many extraordinaires appearing in the society and the vitality concentration has increased significantly. The current change over a day is equivalent to ten-days of changes in previous years.”
Junior Qi finally showed some interest and said, “Who are those extraordinaires? What are their power-levels, and how many of them are A-ranked?”
Ren Ruofeng looked at her and replied with a smile, “We are no longer just using the ABCD standard that was proposed previously. The dragon descendant from the Upper Realm convinced us into using their method of measuring power-level. From S to E rank are lake-level, pond-level, basin-level, bucket-level, sink-level, cutlery-level, and mug-level. All these are determined by how much water it can hold.”
“Pu,” Junior Qi held back her laugh and said, “Is this a joke? That dragon descendant must be toying with you guys…”
Senior Gu remained calm and nodded, “He is really from the Upper Realm.”
Ren Ruofeng nodded with agreement as he had been thinking of the same thing.
However, because he was fond of Vigilante A, he explained, “Hehe, even daily measurements have different units that we can use with countless standards. One thousand meters is one kilometer, one thousand grams is one kilogram, as well as inches, feet, and centimeters. As for martial arts, every clan has their own ways of measuring power-level. The Venerable one is a trustworthy member of our world and a famous hero, so what he said shouldn’t be taken lightly. Plus, this standard is well established and has already been used alongside our usual standard.”
Junior Qi was dissatisfied as she had been refuted by those two and said, “What is the name of that dragon descendant, and how strong is he? Why didn’t he mention anything above lake-level?”
Ren Ruofeng shook his head, “That is the Venerable Dragon God. According to our investigations, he should still be a pond-level. The Venerable one never mentioned anything better than lake-level. He must have sensed that in this world the maximum power-level permitted is the lake-level, so it is pointless to talk about anything above it.”
