Zhi asked the old men, “I understand that you want me to become the Emperor and I do not want to become him. Is there a golden midway, which we can agree on?” This as the thing that bugged Zhi a lot. He did not have any interest in becoming some Heavenly Emperor that had a giant bullseye painted on his back. The Azure Dragon just sighed as he said, “If another person obtains the Qualification, we will invest in him.

However, he also has to satisfy our criteria as well, not just the Heavens.” Zhi tilted his head as he asked, “Your criteria?” The man in white nodded as he said, “Yes. We are the four old monsters who are currently the four strongest in the Realm. If the new Candidate is someone with a vile heart or of a very dubious background, we will kill him.” Zhi could just nod to that.

The Emperor was the person who was supposed to protect the Realm, to have some tyrant take the Throne is going to end very badly. As for the background, no one knew whether the person was from this Realm or not. It may be an outsider who has slipped in somehow but they had not detected it. If the Throne ended up in the hands of a person like that, it may spell doom for the Realm.

To fight against a Heavenly Emperor inside his Realm is impossible. That is unless you are completely immune to the Heavenly Lighting and your strength far surpasses him. Zhi however understood very well, that no Heavenly Emperor. They needed to master the Laws of the 4 Elements and the Laws of Life and Death. To far surpass that was nigh impossible in their current situation.

Since Zhi had a guarantee that he would not be pressured into becoming the Emperor without any alternative, Zhi was happy enough already. If he truly mastered the 6 Laws before another Candidate showed up, then it would just be his bad luck. Zhi talked a bit more with the old men, but suddenly the old men started turning a bit illusionary.

Zhi was startled but the Azure Dragon just said, “Don’t worry, these clones are just all dissipating because they ran out of Qi.” Hearing this, Zhi just nodded his head. He could not do anything about that and he knew that the old men all had a very important job of erecting the Formation.

They don’t have the leeway to make clones that would be “real” and not dissipate over time. To come here in person, that would be an even bigger joke. After the old men had completely dissipated, Zhi looked at all of the things he had obtained.

He glanced over the jade slips that introduced all of the Pills and then the ones that had the Formations. After doing so, he just collected all of the Pills into his Ring. The next came the set of clothes and the Naginata.

After Zhi bound them, he was astonished to discover that both the Armour and Weapon made a complete set. By themselves, the armour and the Naginata were only Top Grade Earth Rank. However, if one had the set, it would be a Top Grade Heaven Rank. The gap between the Earth Rank and the Heaven Rank was enormous and usually it allowed a person to take on someone a Stage higher than him.

As his previous clothes and the Scythe came from the Art the Fruit gave him, he currently was lacking a good armour and also a weapon. The Naginata was also a long weapon like a Scythe. However, it was much more “flexible” with it’s attack methods.

Zhi also took a look at the Naginata Art that the man in white had given him. It compromised of 7 Basic Stances, 49 Intermediate Actions and 13 ways to channel the Qi to better aid attacks. What piqued Zhi’s interest was that, it did not have any killing techniques but rather it left it up to the user to figure out on their own.

These kinds of Arts were very precious because true masters had all developed their own style. What suits him, might not suit others and vice versa. Then Zhi also looked at the Cultivation Art. After looking through it, he realized why the Azure Dragon has said that it was the best Art a Dragon could have in the Realm.

The entire Art centred around tempering and strengthening the Dragon Form while at the same time, it reformed the Human Form to have the strength of his Dragon Form. The Art also held a method for the Human Form to use Dragon Qi. Dragon Qi was something that every Dragon had but their Human Form couldn’t handle the berserk and aggressive Qi, so they could not use it in their Human Form, only in their Dragon Form.

As Zhi looked over the gains, he just smiled bitterly as he saw how much the old fellows actually thought about the gifts. They all complemented each other very well. For example, the Art was used to it’s full potential with long weapons, the Artefacts that the man in brown had given him complemented the Art. Also, the weapon art that the man in white had given him was for the Naginata that the man in brown gave him.

Also, all of the Pills were also for someone who fought close quarters, so all of the gifts together complemented each other and made up for each other’s missing parts. For example, he had the Naginata but no Art to use with it. Or that he had the Cultivation Art but didn’t have the Pills needed to thoroughly temper his body.

Zhi just smiled as he slowly shook his head and put on the Armour. The armour looked like normal thread clothes, it consisted of a pair of pants, a shirt that’s sleeves were until his elbows and a vest with a hood. What puzzled Zhi was that all of the clothes were black but they had a red Dragon Cross Emblem on them. On the jacket and shirt, it was on the back, only the pants had a red dragon coiled around his leg. Seeing this, Zhi didn’t know whether to laugh or not, he like the design of the clothes very much and what was most important to him, they did not obstruct his movements.

Usually, all old experts wore battle clothes like these under their robes and when it came down to a fight, they would get rid of the robe as it would restrict their movement too much.

Only the juniors who didn’t know any better, used robes as their battle clothes. After putting on the clothes, Zhi made a few simple movements after feeling no discomfort he nodded to himself and picked up the Naginata for a closer inspection.

The shaft of the Naginata was completely black with a red dragon coiling around it, it was exactly two meters long. On one end was a black steel tip, it wasn’t big but about 10 centimeters long and 4 centimeters at width. The tip was sharp and it reminded Zhi of a spear head. On the other end, was a long blade, that reminded Zhi of a scimitar more than a blade. Usually, Naginata blades were thin and long but blade was 50 centimeters long and at it’s widest part, it was 20 centimeters wide.

It’s thickness wasn’t anything out of the ordinary at least with being 2 centimeters thick at the thickest part. The dragons mouth was the blade while it’s tail was the spear tip.

It was also very heavy and Zhi had a hard time using it effectively. It would be no problem to just carry it around or chop with it but to use it for more fluid movements and to transition from something like a chop to a sweep would need a lot of practise. The reason the Naginata was as heavy as it was, was all because of the materials used in it.

The materials used were the hardest, strongest and heaviest. A double handed weapon needs to be heavy or it just loses it’s only edge, weight. The Naginata was heavy bit Zhi smiled after he had taken a few casual swings with it. He liked the versatility of the weapon a lot. It had a long reach but at the same time, if practised well, could be used very flexibly to chop in the front and the next second stab back with the spear tip. It was a weapon that was strong in a one on one fight and also it was strong in a group fight.

For the he next few weeks, Zhi practised the Dragon Sovereign Art during the day and during the night cultivated the Supreme Dragon Art. His progress in both was noticeable as Zhi’s aura in Human Form turned more domineering like a Dragons, while at the same time, he could use the Naginata with more ease. After cultivating like that, Zhi felt a blockade in his cultivation.

Although he could just sit at Dragon Cross and cultivate, the progress would slow down considerably. What he needed now as to get real life combat experience, it wasn’t that he lacked that sort of experience but rather during a fight, it was far easier to comprehend Fighting Arts than by just sitting around and pondering on them. So, Zhi decided to go out and explore around.

After Zhi told this to the Four Island Lords and Fanghong, they all looked at Zhi seriously as the Four Island Lords started organizing a party to accompany him. Fanghong said he would personally do so and the Long Clan Ancestor was deep in thought.

These 7 people present were the core of the Island. 4 Island Lords made all the Decisions while the Long Ancestor and Fanghong provided the deterrence of a Primadorial God. Couple that with all of the Sovereigns and Paragons they had, there were very few powers under the Third Tribulation that actually dared to lock horns with Dragon Cross.

After Zhi said that he would go out alone, no one wanted to accept it. Finally, it ended with Zhi taking along the Long Ancestor that had gone through Nirvana Rebirth and a Paragon level powerhouse. This line up was something that Zhi fought hard for, since he understood very well now that his life didn’t belong to only himself any more. Thousands of people that belonged to Dragon Cross depended on him and millions of people that were under Dragon Cross’s protection also depended on him. It was not like it had been before that no one would have given a damn if he lived or died.

After this was clearly said to Zhi in the face by Feng, did he realize that he had become an important figure in these people’s hearts. Zhi had single handedly pulled most of these guys out of the gutters and given them a chance at life. What was best was that he didn’t discriminate against them at all and treated everyone equally.

The Long Clan Ancestor that had gone through the Nirvana Rebirth looked like a small azure dragon that was only 20 meters long. It only had the cultivation of a Core Formation Expert but it’s battle power was something that made Zhi whistle. The Long Ancestor could take on even a Peak Nascent Soul Expert.

The Paragon was also one of the old foggies who was at the Peak of the Paragon Realm. She needed just a little push to cross the boundary and enter the Primadorial God Realm. This Paragon was actually a person who specialized in Healing Arts but that did not mean that she was weak in combat. She could put up a fight against someone who was at the early Primadorial God Realm. Unless she released her Paragon Aura, you would only see a sweet old lady.

She had a few wrinkles on her and she excluded a “Grandma” aura. When Zhi thought about their line up, he chuckled. They had a little Dragon that was actually a Primadorial God Expert, the old woman who excluded a grandma aura was actually someone who could even wipe out any strong power of the Deity Plane by herself and then there was Zhi. Zhi was a person who common sense had forgotten to apply itself to. To try and use logic and common sense to read him would be the same as to try and teach a Phoenix to live and breathe underwater, it was just not going to happen.

When their little trio had left Dragon Cross, they went to the World in the Deity Plane that the Long Clan had called home. He had not sought revenge until now because his individual strength had been weak and it would have not been the same to use someone else’s hand to obtain justice.

Now that he had the strength, he might as well try to do his best to at least kill that bitch. When the trio had arrived at the world, they were greeted by endless mountains. Zhi asked the Long Ancestor where would be the best place to get combat experience and after getting the instructions, the trio started moving to the Mountain of Death that the Long Ancestor talked about.

The Mountain of Death was something that was a relic from Ancient Times. Everyone that was under the Second Tribulation could enter there but that place was riddled with dangers. It was one of the Danger Zones that was classified on the same level as the Ancient Battlefield. However, since the outskirts areas were relatively safe, the various powers sent their juniors here to be tempered.

Since you may never know what someone may obtain there, it also had a lot of rouge cultivators who tried to strike rich. It didn’t take long for Zhi and company to reach the entrance to the Mountain. As they neared the entrance, they heard sounds of a fight. Zhi did not turn a lot of attention to it at first because someone must have obtained something good and then others set their eyes on it.

However, as Zhi and the company flew along, suddenly a fireball flew towards them. Zhi just stopped and snorted. As he snorted, the fireball exploded as it dissipated. Zhi looked towards the direction that the fire ball came from and saw a bleeding young man clutching a Herb running from a group of luxuriously dressed young men that sent all kinds of attacks towards him.

Zhi realized that one of the fireballs must have gone off trajectory nearly hitting them but it still didn’t make Zhi’s mood any better. Zhi probed their cultivations and was astonished to see that the young man that was being chased was only an early stage Empyrean Immortal while the 12 people chasing him were all at least late stage Empyrean Immortals.

It was also obvious that the young men were aiming at the Herb but the young man that was chased seemed to regard the Herb more important than his life. Zhi looked at the situation coldly as he said, “Hedi, look after the early stage one, Long Ancestor, you stay behind Hedi.” Just as he was about to go, the Long Ancestor said, “I thought you didn’t play the Saint.”

Zhi just smiled as he turned to him, “I am no Saint but I ain’t a Demon either.” After saying so, Zhi started doing a backflip but mid flip, when his head was towards the ground, he suddenly stepped. It was as if the air was solid as a crack appeared where he pushed himself off.

This Art was a movement Art that he had found from his endless collection. It was called the Sky Emperor Art and it allowed sudden movement like this in mid air. As he flew off like a bullet, he landed right between the young man in the Early stage and the group of young men in luxurious clothing.

As he stood up, he looked at the group of young men and coldly asked, “Which one of you fired that Fireball at me?” Hearing this, every single one of the young men had a sneer on their faces as they saw that Zhi was only an early stage Empyrean Immortal. The young man that seemed like the leader just snorted, “Do you know, who we are? We are from-” Zhi cut him off by saying, “I did not ask you where you were from or who you were. I asked which one of you idiots shot the Fireball.”

One of the other young men, who was clearly angered, said loudly, “We are from the Myriad Domain Sect. Now get lost.” Zhi just looked at the young man in astonishment. He then just shook his head as he said, “Do you guys have noodles for brains? If I did not care about your Sect until now, why would I care about it now?” This statement both stupefied and angered the young men.

They had never seen a person who doesn’t give them any face after they say that they are from the Myriad Domain Sect. The one who seemed like leader narrowed his eyes as he said, “It would be best for you to leave now. The Herb that rat has is something that belongs to me.” The leader like youth pointed his sword at the bleeding young man and seeing this Zhi’s brows furrowed as he felt that this was somewhat of a familiar situation.

As he tried to remember where he met a situation like this, the bleeding young man screamed at the group, “Liars. I obtained this Herb all by myself and then you guys just showed up and tried to rob it from me.” Hearing this sentence, the leader like youth just snorted as he said, “Hmph, I had my eye on that Herb for some time already and thought that I would take it today. You jus-” His sentence was cut short by Zhi saying, “Ahh!”

He remembered now where he met a similar situation. It was when he saved Feng and Zhishi from the Humans who wanted to enslave them.