Chapter 2018: 2018

Inside the core region, Long Chen was amazed. Even he was able to sense the Heavenly Dao energy fluctuations in this place. He couldn’t absorb it, but it seemed to be immensely beneficial to the other heavenly geniuses. It was quickening the rate at which their manifestations awoke.

“Good thing I came. If this many people were conned into joining Pill Valley’s side, it really would be over.”

Long Chen sighed. If even half of these people ended up joining Pill Valley, it would be enough to trample over the continent. That was ignoring just how strong they would be after the Brahma secret realm. If they awakened their manifestations, they would be even more terrifying.

Even if their manifestations didn’t fully awaken, they would have grown much stronger. The Heavenly Daos would assist them even more in combat.

If even a few hundred of them succeeded in awakening their manifestations, that might be enough for Pill Valley to launch an immediate attack on the Martial Heaven Alliance.

“What a con! All the inheritances here are for Pill Valley’s disciples! We can’t even get in!”

Long Chen heard people cursing and that drew his attention. He then flew over and saw a group of a dozen disciples of the ancient family alliance. They were covered in blood and looked gloomy, standing over an altar.

“What’s going on?” asked Long Chen.

Those disciples were people he had just allowed in. They were very grateful to him, and so one of them immediately responded, “This altar is a transportation formation that leads to an underground trial region. We risked our lives, managing to get to the end, but just as we were supposed to get the reward, the master of the trial said that since we weren’t Pill Valley’s disciples, it wouldn’t give the reward to us! What a con!”

Those disciples all had ugly expressions. One of them in particular was pale, on the verge of collapsing.

“Your Yuan Spirit is injured. You should hurry and eat this pill, or your Yuan Spirit will dissipate within three days.” Long Chen flicked a medicinal pill to that disciple.

That disciple hastily swallowed it. In the trial, his Yuan Spirit had been gravely injured. He had also known this, but he had thought that he would be able to recover with his own abilities.

“Many thanks, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen.” After consuming the pill, the disciple felt a gentle energy nourishing his Yuan Spirit, slowly healing it.

“I suppose that you don’t need this trial then? If you don’t need it, I’m going in to take a look,” said Long Chen.

“We don’t want it. Please, go ahead!” said the disciple. They had almost died inside, but the reward had actually been held back and they had been transported out. If Long Chen wanted to enter, they naturally wouldn’t argue.

“Alright then!” Long Chen walked onto the altar. A light flashed, bringing Long Chen underground.

“Do you think senior apprentice-brother Long Chen can pass?” asked one disciple.

“Perhaps. After all, a monster on his level can’t be judged by us. Ugh, if it weren’t for Di Long, we might be fighting alongside him. But now, there’s a clear dividing line between us…”

BOOM!

Just a moment after Long Chen vanished, the ground rumbled. Those disciples jumped in shock.

Cracking sounds appeared and the altar rocked intensely.

“Run!”

Those disciples’ expressions changed. They had been planning on staying here until Long Chen came out, but now it seemed that such a thing would risk their very lives.

BOOM!

The altar exploded and those disciples were blown back. They turned back, shocked.

“What is senior apprentice-brother Long Chen doing?”

Rumbling continued to ring out. Meanwhile, the ground crumbled and exploded, shooting dust into the air.

As for Long Chen? As soon as he entered the trial region, a mass of stone puppets attacked him. They were very powerful, and their auras were not weaker than ordinary Empyreans.

With a snort, Long Chen blasted them apart with his fists. His punches were so powerful that the surrounding walls cracked and crumbled. Aboveground, the altar shattered.

This wasn’t his home, so he didn’t mind smashing it up. If it was up to him, he wouldn’t leave anything valuable for Pill Valley.

As he advanced, more of those stone puppets appeared. They grew stronger, but they were unable to stop him.

He quickly reached the final part and stood before a giant palace. Its gates slowly opened when he arrived.

Long Chen directly slashed apart the gates. “Who has the time for you to open so slowly.”

Holding Evilmoon, Long Chen walked in. As soon as he was in, a pillar of golden light enveloped him from the roof.

A mechanical voice rang out, “You are not my disciple and cannot accept my inheritance. Hurry and leave-”

Long Chen directly slashed apart the light beam. “Who cares about your inheritance? Hurry up and hand over any treasures you have.”

Long Chen looked around. Evilmoon suddenly unleashed black light, tearing through the walls.

“Break!”

The palace resisted, with countless runes lighting up. However, it was still torn apart by Long Chen’s slash.

The walls crumbled, revealing cases, and Long Chen gathered them. Opening the first one, he found it was empty. Opening another, he found it was also empty.

He opened thirty-one cases, and as a result, they were all empty. His expression darkened. He couldn’t be this unlucky, right?

Finally, in the final case, he found something. It was a bead surrounded by flames. It was pretty.

“Hey, Huo Long, let me see what it is!” Long Chen had just taken out the bead when Huo Long flew out of his arm and devoured it.

Huo Long returned to his primal chaos space, continuing to digest the flame energy it had previously absorbed from the Earth Flame Spirit Beast.

Long Chen was speechless. Huo Long was a bit too impatient, wasn’t it? It didn’t even give him a chance to see what it was. But when he examined Huo Long, he found that its aura had grown stronger.

After thinking about it, Long Chen concluded that the bead was an Earth Flame Spirit Birthing Bead. It was used to give greater spirituality to Earth Flame Spirit Beasts. Normally, Earth Flame Spirit Beasts were not very intelligent, and so they were more instinctual. Oftentimes, their instincts told them to devour their masters. But with greater intelligence, they grew closer to their masters.

This kind of treasure was something he had only heard of but never seen before. It might look like nothing, but it was a treasure to Huo Long. After all, Huo Long’s intelligence was extremely high, and as its intelligence grew, it would be able to work together with Long Chen even better.

It was too bad that Long Chen’s luck was terrible. He only obtained a single one of these beads. If he could obtain enough of them, Huo Long’s intelligence would not lose out to humans.

Long Chen flew out of the ground, unleashing a wave of dust. Those disciples of the ancient family alliance were in the distance, staring in shock at him. Long Chen had actually destroyed the underground trial.

Long Chen nodded to those disciples and flew off. He quickly saw another group of dejected disciples gathered together.

They were also disciples who had gone through a difficult trial, only to be taken out when they reached the end. This group was unlucky, and several of their members had died inside the trial.

“Bastards from Pill Valley, how dare you con us like this?! You left all the trials here to your own disciples!”

“Good thing that we entered through the opening that Long Chen made, or we’d be stuck like this after swearing loyalty to them.”

“As expected of such sinister people, they left all the good stuff to their own disciples, while tricking us into entering.”

Those disciples were cursing amongst themselves. They had realized that this was a trap. If they had really used the barrier breaking bead, just how terrible would it have been?

Although Long Chen had said that they were fake and couldn’t bind them, there was always a chance. That slightest chance could apply enough pressure to become a heart-devil when they tried to advance to the Netherpassage expert. Feeling a set of eyes staring at them the entire time to make sure they kept their oath, how could they possibly comprehend life and death?

Thinking of that, they felt a burst of fear. Pill Valley was truly hateful. Just as they were cursing, they noticed Long Chen.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen!”

What Long Chen hadn’t expected was for this group of disciples, who were members of the Xuan Beasts, to actually call him senior apprentice-brother Long Chen.

It seemed that just like the ancient races, the Xuan Beasts were not all the same. After all, there would always be good apples and bad apples. But with the bad apples in control, Long Chen had subconsciously thought of all the Xuan Beasts as bad.

Long Chen asked them about this trial region, and just like last time, he smashed it apart. This time he was luckier, and he obtained three Earth Flame Spirit Birthing Beads and two flame attribute divine items.

With a smile, Long Chen tossed the Earth Flame Spirit Birthing Beads to Huo Long. Just as he was about to leave, one of the Xuan Beasts called out to him.

“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, please wait. We know of many other similar regions. Do you want them?”