As expected, Green Province was more flourishing than Ding Hao had imagined.
Let’s make a vivid metaphor. If Snow Province was an undeveloped village Ding Hao visited in his life and one that did not even have a phone, then Green Province would a capital city with all the hustle and bustle. As the largest province of Northern Region, on the land of Green Province, even a medium city that humans inhabited was dozens of times larger than the biggest city of Snow Province.
It had been four days since they arrived at Green Province.
Under the arrangement of the 10 Mysterious Frost Holy Guards, Ding Hao and others from Snow Province were accommodated in a suburban manor 100 li away from the biggest city of Green Province, “Giant Holy City”. The master of the manor was a businessman with really high status. He had a mansion inside the city for his entire family, so he let the manor here. It’s quiet here and was suitable for cultivation and waiting.
However, many Snow Province geniuses felt indignant, feeling they had been looked down upon.
Because recently, rumor had it that all the young geniuses from other provinces were accommodated inside the city. Especially, Green Province geniuses who received places into Sage Battlefield lived in areas with the richest Spiritual Qi. Martial Emperor Inscriptionists personally cast inscription formation to help them improve cultivation and there were also other perks. Nevertheless, Snow Province people hadn’t even stepped into the city, which was really an insult.
A few prideful sect disciples went to ask for an explanation from the 10 Mysterious Frost Holy Guards. Probably because they had used aggressive words, they turned out to get beaten black-and-blue. Then, they could only stay at the manor to nourish their injuries and did not dare to say a thing anymore.
Today was the fourth day.
In two days, Sage Battlefield would officially open.
In time, escorted by Mysterious Frost Holy Guards, 3,000 young geniuses from various provinces would enter primeval ranges inside Giant Holy City because the space breach entrance of Sage Battlefield was inside the ranges.
Thousands of li around Giant Holy City lay a holy city where tens of millions of people lived. There were lakes, rivers, find fields, and forests. Plus, satellite cities surrounded and protected it within tens of thousands of li, making it extremely powerful and the top one city in Green Province. Even in the entire Northern Region, it was said that it was only second to Taibai Mountain where the Holy Palace of Mysterious Frost was situated, ranked second. In Giant Holy City, any sect was more powerful than nine sects of Snow Province. There were thousands of Level Seven, Level Eight, and Level Nine sects. Only sects ranked higher than Level Three were real masters here and controlled the vitality and bloodline of the vast city.
When the Snow Province people came here, they were like country bumpkins in town and got dazed. Even servants in the manor were actually experts in Martial Disciple and Martial Mentor realms. Those powerhouses looked at them as if they were unwanted cabbages on the road.
Ding Hao had stayed indoors to cultivate these days.
He, Li Yiruo, Li Canyang, Fang Tianyi, Li Lan, and other Swordsmanship-seeking Sect disciples lived in the same yard that occupied about five to six mu. Everyone had a regular wing room with a neatly-placed quilt. The rooms were just clean and could not compare with those in Swordsmanship-seeking Sect in any way.
Nevertheless, they did not care too much about it.
Ding Hao set a Rank Eight inscription formation that could effectively collect Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy and accelerate cultivation. He practiced indoors with everyone and tried to break through again before entering Sage Battlefield. They treasured every second and even politely declined the invitation from other sect disciples who wanted to tour Giant Holy City.
Ding Hao practiced inscription every day.
Again and again, he carved character inscriptions on the ground of the yard to make sure he maximized its power. Furthermore, with the time to enter the battlefield drawing near, something suddenly dawned on Ding Hao. Therefore, he spent most of his time studying large inscription formation.
That day, he modified the previous formation and wrote an “Immortal Piece” in the yard—
“On the rising sea, classics on longevity were preserved. The heavenly gods made it an immortal’s residence. When the sky was clear, laughter rang in the air. Riding on waves and whales, they looked elated. They took out spring silk to invite Queen Mother to a banquet in the depths on the red balcony. The crane flapped its wings to offer to take the mission, but the immortals insisted the green dragon fly there. They were afraid that Queen Mother would decline and even wooed Queen Mother’s close maidservant who was beautiful and wore long hair to persuade Queen Mother…”
It was a long poem that contained a few hundred words.
It was the first time Ding Hao had written such a long character inscription formation. Fortunately, he had support from Divine Awareness of Body Oven Realm at Medium Level and succeeded. However, the longer a character inscription formation was, the more demanding it was for the formation setter. It required not only powerful Divine Awareness. Every stroke was a Word Form, and every Word Form needed to connect with Divine Laws in heaven and on earth, which was a complicated process.
“You must know that on Sage Battlefield, Spiritual Qi is dozens of times richer than that of the outside world and natural treasures are abundant. Also, primeval Divine Laws and Qi tides exist. Many formations on the battlefield are dozens of and even hundreds of times more powerful than those outside. That’s why I asked you to study formations these days. When you enter Sage Battlefield, you’ll find it very helpful!”
In his mind, Saber Master’s voice rang.
Ding Hao nodded to agree.
The two old monsters were experienced and did not let Ding Hao down. The two seemed to know Sage Battlefield very well. Recently, they made Ding Hao make plenty of preparations and acted all mysteriously. They looked like they could not wait to get on the battlefield, but they did not tell him any inside stories. Ding Hao tried many times but failed to get anything out of them. In the end, he directly followed whatever the old monsters said. Anyway, the three had been close like family. Ding Hao believed that Saber Master and Sword Master would not deceive him.
Ding Hao finished the last stroke and felt a little weak. “Phew…” Sweat was all over his forehead but he looked satisfied. “Better than the last time. The formation should last 12 hours.”
After activating the formation, Ding Hao sat cross-legged on the spot to regulate breathing. When he opened his eyes, it was already afternoon.
The doors of the rooms around him were tightly shut.
Li Yiruo and others were seizing every minute to cultivate in their rooms.
Knowing the danger of entering Sage Battlefield this time, Ding Hao did not act selfishly. He distributed Highest Grade mysterious crystals to everyone according to their Qi property. Each one received about 10 crystals. They could absorb the dense energy from the crystals. With the help of the formation, their cultivation speed would be 10 times faster. Moreover, 10 Highest Grade mysterious crystals were enough for them to use in half a year.
After regulate breathing, Ding Hao slowly rose but couldn’t help looking at an ivory bracelet made of bones in his right hand.
At first glance, the bracelet looked as smooth as jade. Actually, it was covered in dense and tiny lines more than 100 times smaller than hair. Ordinary people’s eyes could not catch the lines at all. Ding Hao had studied them many times. Every time he looked at it with his full eyesight ability, he felt dizzy as if he were drunk and could not see a thing on it. Ding Hao even used the way of verifying ownership by dripping the blood on items in the legend. Unfortunately, after a full bowl of fresh blood was poured on the bracelet, there was still no reaction at all.
He paid so much attention because the bone bracelet was given by Elder Chen, the old servant of inspector Ding Honglei. On that day, at the last moment of Ding Hao’s entering the space gate, Elder Chen stuffed it to his hand without anyone noticing it.
The space gate instantly transmitted Ding Hao hundreds of thousands of li away. Naturally, Ding Hao could not have returned to ask Elder Chen why he would give himself the bracelet, nor could he know how the bracelet worked. He and two old monsters, Saber Master Sword Master, had studied several times but all failed to decipher the secret of the bracelet.
Sword Master reminded him again and again. “I guess Ding Honglei let the old man give this to you… the woman isn’t easy. She’s got something weird on her. You should be careful. But for some reason, the wretched girl seems to treat you differently. I wonder if that’s a blessing or disaster!”
Saber Master also advised. “You should wear it for now. Since Ding Honglei gifted it to you, it must be useful. Maybe you can use it on Sage Battlefield.”
Ding Hao nodded.
He also guessed that way.
Ding Hao’s sixth sense from Body Oven Realm, the fifth level of Mind Essential, told him that the bracelet did not pose any threat.
While Ding Hao was considering, footsteps rang outside the door. A servant of the manor thumped on the door. When the door opened, the servant glanced at Ding Hao and flatly said, “Gather here, country bumpkins. Hurry. The Mysterious Frost Holy Guard let me inform you that you’ll be leaving here tonight…”
The servant had a stuck-out mouth and bulged cheeks, looking mean. However, his strength was in the Great Martial Mentor realm. Thinking he was a citizen from a flourishing and big province, he did not try to conceal his looking down upon others or pride. There was obvious despise in the way he looked at the Snow Province disciples, plus, he did not talk or act nicely.
Ding Hao made a slight frown.
In the conversation, the doors of all the room in the western wing opened. Everyone heard the noise and walked out. Ren Xiaoyao the fat boy looked sullen and rolled his sleeves like he was going to beat someone up. The servant was the gutless type. Seeing the bad situation for him, he grudgingly took the initiative to run away…
Everyone laughed out loud.
Soon, they packed up their clothes and gear to head to the gathering place.
…
…
On the way, looking at the sky that was slightly turning dark, Ren Xiaoyao the fat boy grumbled while gnawing on a braised drumstick. “It’s so dark now. Could it be that they want to lure us somewhere and sell us?”
The gorgeous youth Lin Xin looked embarrassed and walked away from Ren Xiaoyao a little as a way of declaring that he did not know the wretched boy.
However, what Ren Xiaoyao said just now really spoke out what was on everyone’s mind.
Since they needed to enter the city this late, something expected must have happened. Unfortunately, the 10 escorting Mysterious Frost Holy Guards all acted seriously and had never taken off their armors on their bodies or the mask-like helmets. No one saw their real faces. Among all of them, only Mu Tianyang was qualified to talk to them. Except him, anyone with any question would not receive feedback from them.
… On the way, Ding Hao released his Divine Awareness and had seen things people did not observe. The seemingly normal ground was covered in hidden inscriptions carved by peerless experts, forming a giant and invisible embossed inscription formation. It was probably an inscription formation around level nine, which was terrifying. “Hmm? My goodness, this is… Within 50 li around Giant Holy City, even under the ground, there’s terrifying energy hidden everywhere. Once breaking out, it will instantly kill even a Demon King…”
In the night, everything blurred.
Looked at from afar, Giant Holy City located around mountains was really like a gigantic creature squatting in dark. More-than-500-meter-high city walls were as towering as hills, which was divided into five floors. On every floor, unbelievable experts guarded. Warriors in the primordial realm could only be low–ranking captains who stationed the guards around the camps here. Only superiors in the Martial King realm could lead his army in the city.
Hundreds of li around Giant Holy City, flying was forbidden.
In the manor they stayed at, no one sold horses. Therefore, when they left the manor, they could only walk fast along the ground. Only a few people had pet mounts or some simple magical weapons for walking. Most of them utilized their full magic skills to run, only to manage to catch up with the 10 Mysterious Frost Holy Guards and Mu Tianyang—who walked as if they were strolling. However, every step they took covered 100 meters. It was like a Magic Skill that could shrink the road into inches long.
In a blink of an eye, the city gate of Giant Holy City appeared in their sight.
A loud voice suddenly rang at the bottom of the city gate. “Look, those country bumpkins. I wonder which remote and small province they come from. They actually raced here. Couldn’t they offer even a skinny horse? Hahaha, poor them…”
