Chapter 347: Alerting Bell
After an unknown period of time, Yi Yun woke up in a groggy state. He opened his eyes and found that his body was covered in a sticky substance.
The Blood Yang Elixir’s energy was too violent for a Purple Blood realm warrior. Back when the City Lord gave him the Blood Yang Elixir, he did it with the intention of letting Yi Yun use water to dissolve it and slowly drink it.
However, Yi Yun had swallowed it all in one mouthful.
“I actually fainted. Looks like that really exceeded the limits my Dantian could take…” Yi Yun took a few deep breaths and slowly calmed his mind. He then checked his Dantian and was stunned on probing it.
He was surprised to find that the Yuan Qi had condensed together in his Dantian. It had completely solidified.
This was the mark of the Yuan foundation realm!
He had finally broken through to the Yuan foundation realm.
Yi Yun was delighted. It had been nearly two years since he began practicing martial arts.
Mortal Blood realm warriors were not considered martial artists.
The Purple Blood realm was the beginning steps of a martial artist. It was the transitional zone between mortal and warrior.
And now, with the Yuan foundation realm, he was at the actual beginning. He had laid the foundation for his future martial arts path.
As he slowly clenched his fists, Yi Yun realized that his body was filled with energy.
This was the strength that came from having a deep cultivation level. With this, he would not be drained of all his strength, unable to fight after conjuring the Golden Crow species totem once.
Even after breaking through to the Yuan foundation, Yi Yun found that there was still an intermittent burning sensation within his body. There were still remnants of the Blood Yang Elixir’s energy surging through his veins and meridians. It could very well make a resurgence.
Yi Yun gave it some thought and decided to carry on cultivating by using this energy for his cultivation technique.
And now, Yi Yun had the complete set of the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’ jade scrolls.
This was the perfect opportunity for him to cultivate the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’.
Yi Yun took out the Divine Ebony box and from it, laid out the nine jade scrolls. These nine scrolls were the dreams of many elites in the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom. Even amongst the members of the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom’s royal family, only those who had extraordinary talent and the qualifications to become a Prince, or even a Divine Emperor, had the right to cultivate with the complete set of the nine original jade scrolls.
Yi Yun took the first scroll up. This was the first volume of the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’.
Actually, Yi Yun had already mastered the first level of the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’, but back then Yi Yun did not cultivate using the original version, instead he cultivated using a copy which was made by a Tai Ah Divine Kingdom Sage who had great accomplishments in the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’.
A copy would naturally have some tiny differences from the original. Usually, these tiny differences would not affect anything, but Yi Yun still wanted to look at the original version. He wanted to see these tiny differences in the original cultivation technique, so that he could correct any unknown errors he might have. He could also look for greater inspiration from it.
After taking the jade scroll in hand, Yi Yun sank his sensed within it and what he saw shocked him.
Yi Yun had the Purple Crystal in his body, so he was very sensitive to the control of energy. He was surprised to find that, in his energy vision, every word and stroke in the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’ jade scroll contained a trace of energy.
It was as if, after all this time, the energy traces had greatly weakened. However, they still existed. In contrast, in the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’ copy, there were no traces of energy.
“It looks like the person who created the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’ was far beyond the Sage realm. Indeed, if it was a cultivation technique created by a Sage, how could it become the foundation pillar of the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom?”
Ever since the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom was established, tens of millions of years ago, there had been a countless numbers of Sages. Top Sages were not lacking in numbers. Besides, there were even peerless Sages such as the Tai Ah Divine City’s founding City Lord, but he had never heard of any of them creating a cultivation technique that could match the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’.
The Sages of every Tai Ah Divine Kingdom generation would attempt to add some improvements to the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’; however, these additions might not really be beneficial. At least, at a higher martial Dao realm, these additions might be meaningless.
Yi Yun read through the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’ and subconsciously became engrossed in it. He knew that the cultivation technique was only temporarily lent to him for studying. So if he did not take this opportunity to memorize more of it, he did not know when he would have the chance to read it again.
So even though he could not completely understand the contents in the last few volumes of the ‘Tai Ah Sacred Technique’, he still managed to store all of their contents in his mind.
Month after month, time silently passed. Yi Yun did not know for how long he had been in this chamber.
This day, he suddenly heard “Dang! Dang! Dang!”, the sound of metallic percussions. They were resounding like thunder across the Tai Ah Divine City.
Yi Yun’s chamber was soundproof, and would be nearly completely isolated with the chamber door closed.
Under normal circumstances, there would be absolute silence inside the chamber. However, there was one sound in the Tai Ah Divine City that could transmit directly into the chamber.
That was the sound from the Divine Wilderness Bell!
This Divine Wilderness Bell was a magical treasure. It could only be rung by a person with a peak-human lord cultivation level. Its sound could be delivered thousands of miles away and even sound isolating arrays could not ward it off.
“The Divine Wilderness Bell has rung!?”
Yi Yun was alarmed. The main purpose of the Divine Wilderness Bell in the Tai Ah Divine City was to warn. It was only rung when an enemy was invading, when the safety of the Tai Ah Divine City was being threatened.
And the things that could threaten the Tai Ah Divine City was few and far between. A typical small-sized beast horde would not even be able to come within 100,000 feet of the Tai Ah Divine City, so there was no need to ring the Divine Wilderness Bell.
In fact, it was said that the Divine Wilderness Bell had not been rung in the past millennium.
Could it be…?
A dark cloud shrouded Yi Yun’s heart. He rushed out of his own residence and immediately met Luo Huo’er who also came running out of her residence.
“Miss, what has happened?” Dong’er was plugging her tiny ears as she nervously asked.
Outside of the residences, the chimes of the Divine Wilderness Bell were even more ear-shattering. If one’s cultivation level was lacking, it would cause one’s organs to resonate with the bell chimes, making it quite unpleasant.
“This should be the Divine Wilderness Bell…” Luo Huo’er, in contrast, was not worried. She found it novel to hear the bell for the first time.
“Yi Yun! Come to the city gates!”
At this moment, a solemn voice rang in Yi Yun’s ear. This voice belonged to the City Lord!
Yi Yun glanced at Luo Huo’er, from her expression he could tell that she had received a similar message.
“Let’s go!”
Yi Yun pushed open the central divine tower’s outer door and followed the tower’s sloping emergency passage staircase, running down the tower.
…
When Yi Yun came out of the central divine tower, he realized that in the past months of his reclusive training, the Tai Ah Divine City had changed and was no longer the same.
The Divine City’s four walls were shimmering with several defense arrays. Piles of bone relics were stored in large metal boxes, as the source of energy for the arrays.
These were the strategic reserves of the Tai Ah Divine Kingdom. They were all taken out in times of need.
There were several catapults installed all along the city’s four corners. Amongst these catapults was the legendary Primal Divine Crossbow.
The Primal Divine Crossbow was driven by a huge array. More than 10 human lords had to combine their forces in order to control one Primal Divine Crossbow. The crossbow used the Primal Arrows Yi Yun saw the first time he entered the Tai Ah Divine City.
They were four meters long and every arrow was made out of a special metal. The cost of their construction was high and they weighed a million jin.
Back then, Yi Yun and the other recruits had all failed to pierce into the purple tungsten wall using the Primal Arrows. Even Yi Yun failed the first time he tried. Although he could lift the Primal Arrow, he was still not able to steadily pierce it. Releasing his hand made the arrow fall to the ground.
Because of these experiences, this terrifying weapon was still fresh in Yi Yun’s mind.
This was a weapon that could even threaten primordial species. With so many human lords and sages in the city, and with the support from other factions, the Tai Ah Divine City’s combat strength was rather terrifying.
Yi Yun walked straight ahead and found that there were a lot more warriors in the Tai Ah Divine City compared to before. The cultivation levels of these warriors were mostly at human lord. They came from all sorts of factions, and were the backbones of several large factions.
These human lords were all dressed in armor, with their weapons in hand.
All of them looked solemn. No one could rest easy against the legendary Shepherd Boy who nearly annihilated the Shen Tu family clan.
Yi Yun could feel a thick war-like atmosphere coming from those people.
This time, it was no longer a battle on a stage, but a real life and death battle.
Winning allowed you to stay alive while losing most likely meant complete annihilation!
When Yi Yun reached the city gates, a lot of people had already gathered there. They were Sages of factions from all over. They were all standing above the city gate.
Yi Yun saw Cang Yan, Jian Ge and his quasi-master Grandmaster Yuehua.
They slightly nodded at Yi Yun and did not say a word. They were all focusing on something far into the distance.
Yi Yun even saw the Tai Ah Divine City’s City Lord, who was now standing with the Seven Star Pagoda Owner. They were discussing something.
Yi Yun did not bother the City Lord and instead walked over to Cang Yan who looked relatively free, “Is it the Shepherd Boy?”
Cang Yan did not look back as he carried on looking at the distant horizon.
This old man that was usually laughing now had a serious face. He nodded, “It should be. We have outposts deployed in a radius of 1500 kilometers from the Divine City. Just now, a scout from one of the outposts transmitted the news of a large-scale beast horde emerging. Later on, nothing came from him. It’s most likely that he has already given his life for his country…”
Cang Yan’s tone sounded bleak when he said that.
Died for his country?
Yi Yun’s heart sank. Everyone knew that being a scout was extremely dangerous. The first person to die was the scout when a beast horde happened. However, a person had to go. This was war. There was no choice in the matter.
Cang Yan said, “Now, the City Lord has ordered all scouts from the outposts to retreat to the Tai Ah Divine City. With the beast horde’s speed, they would probably appear within two hours…”
Two hours…?
Yi Yun looked at the sky. Everyone in the Tai Ah Divine City had been activated. Clearly, while he was in reclusive training, these warriors protecting the Divine City had experienced numerous exercises.
Now, although everyone were somewhat worried, no one panicked.
Catapults after catapults were raised. The large arrays on the city walls were activated. The airspace above the Tai Ah Divine City was enveloped by a colorful, lit up haze.
Those were the light beams of the array.
