Chapter 331: The First City
Chiyue Town, underground prison.
As terrifying qi and blood descended, the entire underground prison began to shake. The many prisoners who had committed crimes in Chiyue Town all felt suffocated to the extreme; quite a few collapsed directly to the ground, completely unable to move at all.
“How can such powerful qi and blood descend? Could it be that a Heavenly Human Realm Grandmaster has come to Chiyue Town?” In the prison, Isaac, the former White Feather Gang Leader, sensed the qi and blood falling from above. Though it was difficult to move, his eyes were full of excitement. “I knew the Leader and the others would not let this go. After killing Lord Mo Xiao of the Seven Guardians, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall cannot avoid paying a heavy price. This time Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is finished!”
Chiyue Prison was over a hundred meters deep below the surface. With the earth as a barrier, even a Blood Condensation Realm Martial Artist at the Peak High-level Blood Condensation Realm could not let their qi and blood affect Chiyue Prison in the slightest.
Only the Heavenly Human Realm Grandmasters he had once glimpsed from an extremely far distance possessed such terrifying qi and blood.
Heavenly Human Realm Grandmasters, as existences standing at the peak of the Four Regions, were figures to whom even the major Domain Cities had to show some respect. Such existences would normally never appear in Chiyue Town. For one to show up in Chiyue Town now, and to so unreservedly erupt with such qi and blood, clearly meant this Heavenly Human Realm Grandmaster intended to teach Chiyue Town a lesson.
And among those with a great grudge against Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, within the Four Regions only the Smiling Skull’s enmity was the greatest, and they were the most likely to ignore the rules and send out a Heavenly Human Realm Grandmaster.
However, just as Isaac rejoiced for a short while, this terrifying qi and blood quickly receded like the tide, restoring Chiyue Prison to its previous calm.
“What is going on? Why was the qi and blood withdrawn so quickly?” Isaac stared at the dispersing qi and blood, completely bewildered.
He had been imprisoned in Chiyue Town, forced every day to mine hard labor for Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, just to wait for Smiling Skull’s retaliation against Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and for them to rescue him from here.
Now a Heavenly Human Realm Grandmaster had come, and the qi and blood had exploded without concealment. It was obvious a battle was about to begin.
And that was it?
Just as Isaac felt utterly perplexed, a voice very familiar to him came from outside the prison.
“In this situation, it should be that some genius disciple in the martial arts hall has broken through again.”
A towering middle-aged man of the Crystal Race, more than three meters tall, stood outside the alloy bars of the prison, with a young Crystal Race woman behind him, explaining to Isaac very calmly.
This Crystal Race middle-aged man was none other than the wilderness Crystal Bear, Hou Fei, whom Isaac had often seen and heard of in the wilderness outside the City of Light Chasing.
At this moment, Hou Fei was not only wearing B6-grade battle armor bearing the mark of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, his strength had also reached the level of an Intermediate Martial Artist. Compared to more than half a year ago when Isaac last saw him, when Hou Fei was not even a Quasi-Martial Artist, the difference was worlds apart.
“A disciple’s breakthrough? You think I will believe that? The prison is more than a hundred meters underground. Aside from a Heavenly Human Realm Grandmaster, who could manage such a feat? That Hall Master Lin Qi is only at the Blood Condensation Realm; who knows how far he is from the Heavenly Human Realm? How could a martial arts hall disciple possibly have such terrifying qi and blood?” Isaac instinctively did not believe it and instead showed disdain. “Now that our Lord Smiling Skull has arrived, although I do not know what that lord intends to do, if you let me out now and I am in a good mood, I might say a few good words for you so you do not have to die together with Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.”
But as soon as Isaac finished speaking, a silvery bell-like laugh echoed through the prison.
“Brother Hou Fei, this person is really crazy. He still thinks the people of Smiling Skull can save him. He has no idea that not long ago, Smiling Skull, Red Moon Merchant Guild, and Earth Star Pharmaceuticals jointly sent nearly a thousand Blood Condensing Realm masters and several Half-Step Heavenly Humans, all of whom were defeated by our Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s grey-robed disciples. What is more, three Half-Step Heavenly Humans were all killed by a single grey-robed genius disciple whose strength is not inferior to a Grandmaster.” The young Crystal Race woman looked at Isaac, unable to help laughing. “Those three forces are too busy licking their wounds to even think about it. How could they still dare to come to our Obsidian Martial Arts Hall headquarters seeking death?”
When the young Crystal Race woman finished, Isaac was completely stunned.
“The three families joined forces and were defeated? How is that possible! You are lying to me!” Isaac stared fixedly at the young Crystal Race woman, his gaze full of disbelief and madness.
Three top-tier major powers in the Four Regions joining forces, without Grandmasters taking action, would be difficult for even a Domain City to resist. Not to mention Obsidian Martial Arts Hall somehow producing a disciple who killed the three Half-Step Heavenly Humans and whose strength was not inferior to a Grandmaster. Who would dare believe such a thing?
“Gang Leader Isaac, Li Yuan is not lying to you. All of this is indeed true. In fact, this matter has already spread through the major powers of the Four Regions, and it likely will not take long before it spreads throughout every corner of the Four Regions.” Hou Fei looked at the somewhat deranged Isaac, sighing with emotion.
Back in the City of Light Chasing, the White Feather Gang, as a large wilderness gang ranked in the top hundred, had a gang leader, Isaac, who was a heroic figure that vagrants like him could only look up to. He constantly expanded the White Feather Gang, pushing it into the top fifty wilderness gangs and later establishing a foothold in the suburbs. Yet now he had become a prisoner of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, and their positions were reversed.
Still, Isaac refused to believe it and felt this was a conspiracy by Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
“Brother Hou Fei, this person really is crazy.” Li Yuan looked at Isaac, who kept muttering “you are lying to me,” and felt speechless. “We are only the prison guards. What benefit is there in lying to him? With that time, I might as well earn more contribution so I can become an inner disciple of the martial arts hall as soon as possible.”
“An inner disciple, huh?” Hou Fei looked at Li Yuan, who had already stepped into the level of a Quasi-Martial Artist. After hesitating for a moment, his expression suddenly became firm. “I can only go gamble once with the Master of the Pavilion.”
When Obsidian Martial Arts Hall recruited disciples from outside, they were initially all formal disciples. As long as they accepted work assigned by the martial arts hall, they could earn points and contribution normally. The points they obtained were the internal currency circulating within Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, which could be used to purchase resources each month and buy anything needed within Chiyue Town. Compared with the treatment offered by the various factions in the cities, it could only be considered average.
But becoming an inner disciple was completely different. Not only could they rent the martial arts hall’s gravity rooms and training rooms at a ten percent discount, they could also live in the inner disciple residential area and enjoy an energy density comparable to the city center.
In addition, the tasks available to inner disciples were better, and they could receive free resources every month. They also had free rental time each month in the Primary Gravity Room and the First Floor training rooms of the Cultivation Tower, and they could learn the hall’s core Spirit Shocking Cultivation Method up to the first two levels.
It could be said that the welfare and treatment inner disciples enjoyed were fully comparable to those offered by the genius training camps established in the cities.
…
Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, inside a Beginner Meditation Room.
After Lin Qi saw Xie Feina off, he took a deep breath.
“Fortunately, this time Lu Fanchen broke through to the Body Strengthening Secret Technique Third Level early. Otherwise, those three families would really have succeeded.”
Lin Qi looked out the meditation room window at another Beginner Meditation Room opposite. That Beginner Meditation Room was completely wrapped in qi and blood, and the intensity of that qi and blood was far stronger than his own, even with his triple-cultivation Bone Forging Realm.
Outside that Beginner Meditation Room, a crowd of players had gathered, each curiously discussing who inside had broken through to cause such a commotion that people within several kilometers could sense that terrifying qi and blood.
But at this moment, aside from the few people at that Beginner Meditation Room, only Lin Qi knew which player had broken through to the Blood Condensation Realm.
“Originally I thought it would take ten to twenty days. I did not expect her to break through so quickly. Could there have been some unexpected harvest in the battle at the Mountain of the Dead?” Lin Qi opened the player status panel in the system, still finding it a bit hard to believe.
Player: Luo Wu Shang
Martial Arts Level: Initial Stage Blood Coagulation Martial Artist （current Extraordinary Lifeform）.
Strength: 4 + 6 tons. （Blood Condensation Realm Intermediate Level Martial Artist standard: 800 tons）
Speed: 5 + 96 meters per second. （Blood Condensation Realm Intermediate Level Martial Artist standard: 2700 meters per second）
In the Transcendent State, her panel strength had reached as high as 445 tons. This was more than double the 180 tons of her previous Transcendent State at the Bone Forging Realm Advanced Level Limit.
It could be said that without even learning the Body Strengthening Secret Technique Third Level’s Energy Burst, Luo Wu Shang was already stronger than the erupting Lu Fanchen. Her real strength exceeded 778 tons. Although there was still quite a gap from the 1200-ton standard of the Heavenly Human Realm Mid-stage, it was 178 tons higher than the Grandmaster Standard of the Early Heavenly Human Realm.
Moreover, Luo Wu Shang’s cultivation method was the Dark Light Cultivation Method, which specialized in speed. Once Ghostly Light Step reached Second Level Perfection, her true speed would likely not be much lower than the Heavenly Human Realm Mid-stage standard of 3600 meters per second.
That meant Luo Wu Shang right now was practically a living Heavenly Human Realm Grandmaster.
Inside the Beginner Meditation Room, Zhang Qing Wei, Zhao Hu, and Yu Tian, the three Elders of Heavenly Might, looked at Luo Wu Shang, who held a crystal that was now only thumb-sized and faint red in color. Their eyes were filled with excitement.
“Success!”
“This time the plot boss was really tough. It even dropped something like Energy Blood Essence. If we had known, we should have killed a few more. Maybe we could have gotten three more.”
Remembering the battle at the stronghold, the three of them could not help feeling regretful.
At the time, several Blood Condensation Realm bosses they killed had dropped three faint red crystals. They did not know what these were. Only after returning to the martial arts hall and asking Yaklo for an appraisal did they learn that the faint red crystals were the legendary Energy Blood Essence, specially used for Blood Condensation Realm Martial Artists to cultivate.
Because of the highly pure energy contained in Energy Blood Essence, it could greatly accelerate the body’s quenching process, with efficiency more than ten times higher than that of Energy Crystals. Using a Beginner Meditation Room, after reaching Third Level Perfection of her cultivation method and Entry-level of the Fourth Level, Luo Wu Shang had decisively used three pieces of Energy Blood Essence to quickly complete the final quenching of all her bones and, in one go, finished the quenching of all her blood, thus achieving the Blood Condensation Realm in a single push.
“So extravagant? She actually used Energy Blood Essence to complete a rapid breakthrough in one breath.”
Listening to the voices coming from the monitoring mode on their smart watches, Lin Qi could not help sighing at how prodigal they were.
A city with a population of thirty million only produced twelve pieces of Energy Blood Essence a year, and one piece was enough for a Blood Condensation Realm Martial Artist to cultivate for one to two months.
Yet, as mentioned in Zhang Qing Wei and the others’ conversation, in order to help Luo Wu Shang break through to the Blood Condensation Realm, they had used three pieces. If the City Lord of the City of Light Chasing, Di Luoya, found out, he might vomit blood.
As a City Lord, he used only two pieces in a whole year, while Luo Wu Shang used three pieces in less than a day. The waste of energy was obvious.
However, waste aside, Luo Wu Shang’s promotion to the Blood Condensation Realm at this time was of great help to him and Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. It was equivalent to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall now having a Heavenly Human Realm Grandmaster sitting in town, enough to stand on equal footing with those truly top-tier major powers.
“Extract!”
Without another word, Lin Qi directly extracted Luo Wu Shang’s memory.
System: congratulations to the Host, Dark Light Cultivation Method Fourth Level Entry-level 5%.
“Do I still need nine pieces of Energy Blood Essence?”
Looking at the Fourth Level Dark Light Cultivation Method already poured into his mind, Lin Qi could not help feeling an urgent desire for Energy Blood Essence.
Although he had already reached a cooperation with Ling Ye, and once the handover with Tianhe Domain City was completed he would soon obtain a large batch of Energy Blood Essence, his consumption was also greater than that of ordinary people.
To quickly raise one cultivation method to the Blood Condensation Realm required three pieces of Energy Blood Essence. For three cultivation methods to all reach the Blood Condensation Realm required nine pieces.
Moreover, after reaching the Blood Condensation Realm, if players did not have Energy Blood Essence, it would be very difficult to increase the proficiency of their cultivation methods. Without Energy Blood Essence, they could not even attempt to practice them, let alone improve proficiency.
If he wanted to improve quickly, his demand for Energy Blood Essence would far exceed what those few hundred pieces from Tianhe Domain City could satisfy.
Just as Lin Qi was troubled about how Obsidian Martial Arts Hall should generate income next, a knocking sound suddenly rang out.
“Master of the Pavilion, disciple Hou Fei has something to report.”
“Come in.”
Lin Qi temporarily set aside the issue of income generation. With a slight lift of his hand, a surge of internal force pushed open the door of the Beginner Meditation Room, and the three-meter-tall Hou Fei walked in nervously.
“What is the matter?” Lin Qi asked Hou Fei gently.
He had some memory of Hou Fei. Back when Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was just starting out, Hou Fei’s reputation as a wilderness nomad was no less than Qin Mu’s. It was only because Qin Mu was slightly superior in skill and had first reached the Microscopic Realm that Hou Fei was defeated. Otherwise, who would win or lose between the two would have been uncertain.
Now that Hou Fei had joined Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, even though he was only a formal disciple, his chances of entering the Martial Arts Hall Guard Corps in the future were very high. Therefore, Qin Mu had taken care of Hou Fei to a considerable degree, specially arranging relatively easy work for him so that Hou Fei could quickly reach the Guard Corps assessment standard, which was a High-level Martial Artist.
As for the days when as long as one had good talent, or was merely a martial artist, one could take the assessment, those days were gone.
Not long ago, Yinuo had even sent a message suggesting that in future recruitment, the martial arts hall should add a rank of outer disciples. After all, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was no longer what it used to be. If they continued recruiting under the old conditions, crowded Chiyue Town would no longer be enough. In the future, one might even have to become an inner disciple to qualify to come to Chiyue Town to cultivate.
“Master of the Pavilion, my Crystal Race lineage has a secret concerning the Forbidden Zone within the Mountain of the Dead, and it is closely related to Smiling Skull and the Forbidden Zone. It might be of great use to you, Master of the Pavilion.” Hou Fei took a deep breath and spoke very respectfully to Lin Qi. “If it is useful to you, Master of the Pavilion, this disciple hopes to obtain two quotas for inner disciples.”
“A secret within the Mountain of the Dead? And it is related to Smiling Skull and the Forbidden Zone?” Lin Qi nodded, not particularly concerned about the two inner disciple quotas. “All right, go ahead. As long as your secret is useful, not to mention two inner disciple quotas, even two elite disciple quotas are fine.”
Seeing that Lin Qi agreed, Hou Fei immediately said, “Master of the Pavilion, have you heard of the First City?”
“You mean the first Domain City established after the global great cataclysm?” Lin Qi nodded. “I do know of this legendary city. The Domain Cities of the Four Regions today are all branches of the First Domain City. But did that First Domain City not suddenly disappear after the Forbidden Zone appeared? To this day, no one knows what happened to the First Domain City or where it is.”
“The First City is in the Forbidden Zone within the Mountain of the Dead.” Hou Fei said unhurriedly. “Smiling Skull has always been active in the Mountain of the Dead because they have been searching for the First City within the Forbidden Zone.”
“How do you know this secret?” After hearing this, Lin Qi could not help looking at Hou Fei.
The First City.
After the global great cataclysm, it was the first Domain City established by all races. All the technologies, martial skills, and cultivation methods of the current Four Great Domain Cities were but attempts to recreate the First Domain City.
