Prologue, Part 1 - The fight between four Rulers

Near a valley, between four powerful empires, in a huge mountain that acts as a wall between two cities.

Four figures with powerful auras surrounding their bodies fly past a rocky passage that looks as though it’s about to erupt. Their manner is as though they are teleporting, appearing and disappearing every hundred or so meters.

“This should be it. The natural energy in this place is getting more and more agitated. If this continues any longer, our control over our own spiritual energy will diminish! We should be careful and avoid fighting in this place, or the consequences could be dramatic.”

“Let’s just hurry and get a move on. There’s something about this place that doesn't feel right!” The man that had spoken had the physical profile of a monkey, with large arms and shoulders, holding a sturdy hammer with his right hand.”

“Would you look at that! The Blazing Forge Duan Zhang is having the creeps! Do you want me to play a lullaby for you?” The second person was thinner and taller, with a smaller waist. He was carrying a zither on it’s right side, appearing extremely similar to the elves in ‘Lord of The Rings’.

The two appeared to have an amazingly unfriendly relationship, as they kept shouting at each other like children. “Old bastard, do not even thinking about taking out that zither of yours! If you do, I will make an oath to the heavens that unless I, Duan Zhang, am killed, I will slaughter your entire Qin clan, leaving only you, all alone, to have fun with your nonsensical instrument.”

“As if I were afraid of your power! As a reminder, our spiritual energies are nearly at the same level, so don’t get any stupid ideas. I’m not that easy to deal with.”

After the dispute between the two infuriated men went on for a couple of minutes, a cold but bewitching voice suddenly sounded in the dark passage. ”Hey, you two old geezers! If you don’t shut up this instant, I’ll inject deadly poison into your bodies by biting you. The pain you’ll suffer would be like horns planted all around your bodies! So clap your mouths shut unless you want to have a taste of hell!” When they heard this voice resound within their ears, the two men involuntarily straightened their bodies a little.

The third figure looked enchanting and bewitching. Although it’s body was that of a beautiful women, it’s lower part displayed under the robe was surprisingly a snake tail that drifted attractively in the air. That bewitching appearance of a snake woman appeared extremely exotic and refined, and the eyes added an additional enchantress feeling.

However, that cold feeling contained within them caused the men around her, that unconsciously had a sudden arousal from looking at this somewhat portrait-like body, to fear for their life.

Nearing the snake woman, a fourth red shadow let out a cold laughter. “You’re always threatening us, although you’re the only women here, Snake Queen. Aren’t you afraid that us men will react because of this direct blow to our pride?” Although the red shadow had laughed as it spoke, the cold and thick killing intent present in it’s voice showed that he had no intent on hiding his thoughts. The appearance of this nimble but strong blood-red body, was that of a cunning and bloodthirsty blood demon that has survived countless bloodbaths. Between the four people, he was the one that gave the aura closest to a tyrant.

These four totally different but similarly powerful people appeared like four punishment demons that had come to deliver their judgment.

“Even if you wanted to, you would never dare to do anything to me, Jian Xue, as you know that whatever you do might kill you. Also, who would dare to hit such a beautiful woman?”

“Mph, I can’t deny you on that point. Moreover, I must say that these two old geezers are really getting on my nerves. Whenever they meet, it always ends up in a fight. They will soon make me lose my nerves. It’s as though they were born with a death wish! It won’t be long before they both stab each other’s backs.” Deng Xue darkly laughed once again as he looked at the two men quarreling at the front. The atmosphere over there was like a volcano that was about to erupt.

The four shadows kept going on for tens of kilometers.

As they neared their destination, the oppressive natural energy was getting consistently more agitated. Finally, a normal human’s body would explode the instant it would come into contact with this crazily suppressive natural energy. Even the four dominant figures were suppressed by it until they could only display around 70 percent of their strength.

As they saw a crack in the wall, Duran Zhang advanced towards it down with his armor, coincidentally venting his anger.

“Crack!”

Struck by this pitiless blow, the crack on the wall swiftly expanded under the indifferent gazes of the four people.

“Bang!”

After only a few seconds, sixty meters wife of wall exploded as rocks flew all around them. What happened next them totally unexpected.

As the wall exploded and crumbled, a blinding light passed through the layer of dust, forcing the four of them, who had stayed underground for a long time, to reflexively shut their eyes for a few seconds.

When they opened them again, what was revealed in front of them was an enormous and majestic valley, hidden by the surrounding mountains.

Trees that were at least 20 meters high expanded until the end of their view, and a river as long as the valley itself flowed quietly in the middle of it all. The scene seemed to come from another world where the heavens and the earth lived in harmony with each other, like a fairy tale.

Seeing this, the four rulers, that had rarely left their own country before, immediately became dumb. In contrary to the cave passage in which they were earlier, the natural energy here was as calm as a lake.

After being dumbstruck for a few minutes, the four figures regained control of their mind once again. Immediately, they shot off explosively into this valley, hoping to find what they were searching for in this fantasy-like place.

Following a few minutes of flying in this enchanting setting, four shadows stopped in an open clearing deep in the valley. The four shadows were surprisingly Duan Zhang, Qin Feng, Snake Queen and Jian Xue.

Twenty meters in front of them, a pitch-black smooth and round sphere hovered a few feet over the ground.

As the four of them, who were extremely curious about this mysterious object, tried sensing it with their spiritual strength, they discovered that a heaven-defying amount of spiritual energy was trapped within this sphere, blocked by an invisible layer of energy.

“Amazing! How could such a high-grade item be present in such a place? It seems that even my family’s Meteorite Hammer is not on par with it! I can’t stop imagining all the things I could do, should I destroy that energy barrier!”

“As if I'd let your Duan clan become stronger. As far as I know, that would mean the destruction of my Qin clan. Do not dare take a single step forward!”

Immediately, the volcano surged once again until it was once again about to erupt.

“You two, what the hell did I say? Do you think you are strong enough to not give me any face?”

“This isn’t right. Why would that mysterious expert disappear all of a sudden while leaving such a valuable item behind? Something seems wrong! Be careful!” While saying this, Jian Xue suddenly spread his right hand and grabbed the empty air in front of him. In a mere fraction of a second, a bloody sword appeared in his hands out of nowhere while his imposing aura immediately intensified.

However, as they were about to shoot out in different directions, the Snake Queen’s voice sounded. “Don’t bother checking your surroundings. The hundreds of snakes present in this valley are already in my control. It appears that they indeed saw a middle-aged man appear in this very area with this item. However, it appears that he has left by using a sort of transportation array. No matter how much you search, all you’ll be able to find is this weird artifact.”

Although the Snake Queen was rumored to be able to control the snakes in her surroundings, it was after all a rumor. Therefore, when they heard this, although the three men were surprised, they were still somewhat skeptical.

Seeing this, the Snake Queen just shrugged her shoulders in nonchalant manner. So what if they didn’t believe her? As long as she could leave along with this object, she would be satisfied.

Sadly, she was not the only one whose thoughts drifted towards greed.

Looking at the two rivals’ eyes, she realized that they were already as red as bloodthirsty beasts that had discovered their weak prey. On the other hand, although Jian Xue’s eyes were as cold and dark as before, the killing intent present in them as well as his aura had become slightly overbearing at this moment.

Realizing that she wasn’t the only one with such thoughts, she stalled her body for a few minutes before calmly taking a step towards the artifact.

Suddenly, the tense atmosphere increased by a few hundred folds, and all six eyes locked themselves on this woman that had seemingly betrayed a truce pact.

“Bang!”

In the blink of an eye, four shadows shot forth like thunder bolts, leaving behind four images that did not dissipate for a long time.

As they entered a ten meters distance from it, a leg was kicked out. Finally, it heavily collided with a large hammer.

“Ding!”

Immediately, it was pulled back and a spear shot forth, blocking the hammer that was about to smash the leg owner’s head. Flowing like water, the spear then passed through the hammer’s defense, before quickly striking a fatal spot. A shadow immediately shot back a few hundred meters, clearly having received quite a serious injury.

Although the exchange merely lasted a one or two seconds, a participant had seemingly already been disqualified from the competition.