AGM 562 – Journey into the Immortal Martial Realm
The others returned to the inn. Qin Wentian heaved a sigh of relief upon learning that everyone was safe.
In the following days, Qin Wentian didn’t go out. Other than cultivating together with Mo Qingcheng, he would occasionally find Fan Le and the rest to drink and chat in leisure. Naturally he didn’t forget to ask about Bai Qing.
It turned out that after Fan Le and the others exited the royal tomb, they gathered together and went exploring the various secret realms of Grand Xia. On an occasion, they ventured into a forbidden area in Grand Xia named the Devil Statue Cliff. Over there they encountered many dangers and almost died in there. Eventually, they narrowly managed to escape with their lives.
It was Bai Qing who saved them, they couldn’t forget that in front of that fear-inducing devil statue, Bai Qing’s entire body radiated devilish might, staring at that recovering devil statue while acquiring the time needed for them to exit safely. However, the consequences of her actions resulted in Bai Qing being trapped in the Devil Statue Cliff; even her life and death was unknown.
After hearing this news, Qin Wentian was exceptionally worried about Bai Qing’s safety. But according to Ouyang Kuangsheng, although after the royal tomb Bai Qing did roam around Grand Xia with them, her personality was extremely detached, always keeping to herself. Nobody knew what she was thinking about, but they could all clearly feel the loneliness in her heart. Even if it wasn’t for the sake of rescuing them, Bai Qing would have never exited the Devil Statue Cliff, she would have continued to stay within to pursue the unknown secrets inside even if it meant facing death.
Yun Mengyi was a female, she was the one who understood Bai Qing’s heart the most. She said something causing Qin Wentian to feel very uneasy. Bai Qing had entered Mara; that was a heart devil, she had no way to walk out of it. Hence, the value of her life to her was extremely little. She didn’t see her life as important.
Yun Mengyi’s words kept revolving in Qin Wentian’s heart, making him feel extremely unbearable.
He naturally understood that this has everything to do with Bai Qing’s past. Back then, the things the Bai Clan did to him had already caused Bai Qing to walk a stray path, leading her to practice the devil arts. The devil arts would slowly influence one’s personality, eventually forming a heart devil; this was an extremely difficult path to advance on and just the slightest mistake would condemn one to eternal damnation.
After which, they met again. Bai Qing suffered an attack purposely from him to repay the debts her father and elder sister owed him. Just a call of the name ‘Wentian gege’ caused the tension in her heart to ease, allowing her to repair relations with her family. Only then did Bai Qing show signs of turning for the better. But after her master died and Qin Wentian got seriously injured, Bai Qing descended once more into Mara.
Thinking back to the days of the past, that naive and adorable lass who always loved to follow him and called him ‘Wentian gege,’ Qin Wentian couldn’t help but feel extremely anxious. He definitely had to return to Grand Xia. After settling the matters in Grand Xia, he would enter the Devil Statue Cliff to search for Bai Qing.
As to the reason why Qin Wentian focused so much on cultivation without leaving the inn, this wasn’t just because he was worried about the revenge by Di Shi and his clan. That day, he had personally witnessed the strength of four era-suppressing geniuses, any one of them were true blazing suns of this generation and in addition, there were four others ranked as highly as them. Not only that, there were Heaven Chosen of the Nine Great Sects, as well as the other monstrous talents of ancient countries and reclusive sects. One could very well imagine how intense the competition in the Immortal Martial Realm would be. He naturally hoped to raise his strength as much as he could during this period.
The Immortal Martial Realm was also termed as the burial grounds for geniuses. One could only wonder how many geniuses this cruel place would eliminate in this batch of participants. The remaining geniuses that were filtered by the baptism of blood would naturally stand out as being conspicuously brilliant.
…………
The Immortal Martial Realm was just outside the Immortal Martial City. This ancient city was constructed at the border of the Immortal Martial Realm.
Ten years between activations, the Immortal Martial Realm was a separate dimension. There were rumors saying that the master of the realm was someone on the same level as the sect leader of the Royal Sacred Sect, someone who had already reached the legendary realm above that of Celestial Phenomenon Ascendants.
There were also rumors that the Immortal Martial Realm, other than acting as a filter for the generations of elite geniuses in the Royal Sacred Region, had another purpose and that was the master of the realm was seeking a successor.
In any case, there were just too many rumors about the Immortal Martial Realm. Although this place was known as the burial ground of geniuses, there was still no lack of cultivators willing to enter.
This was a sacred place in the Royal Sacred Region, nobody was willing to miss out on this opportunity. Although many people would die within, it was worth it as there are also many fortuitous opportunities that one could seek inside. For those who once engraved their names upon the ranking monument in the Immortal Martial Realm, several of them became the emperors of ancient countries or sect leaders of great reclusive sects later on. Right now, outside the Immortal Martial Realm, there was a sea of people so vast that one look wasn’t able to reach the end of them. Everyone who was interested in entering the Immortal Martial Realm all gathered in this place, causing this area of a few hundred square miles to be completely filled with people.
This was the first time Qin Wentian had seen such an overwhelming scene. When he was in Grand Xia for the Heavenly Fate Rankings, he already thought that the scene there was majestic enough. But when compared to the Immortal Martial Realm, there was no way to even talk about it. Firstly, was because the number of people in Grand Xia wasn’t able to match those in the Royal Sacred Region, the difference was simply too great. Secondly, the experts in Grand Xia were far from able to stand on equal grounds with those from the Immortal Martial Realm, and their obsession with strength was incomparable.
“Truly shocking.” Fan Le grinned as he spoke. The whole lot of them flew through the air amidst countless others. They didn’t dare to move too quickly for fear of colliding with others.
“Grand Xia is truly a place of desolation when compared to the Royal Sacred Realm, no wonder these powerhouses were too lazy to even go lord over Grand Xia,” Ouyang Kuangsheng spoke in a low voice, similarly taken aback.
“Grand Xia was once powerful before, it was part of the three grand empires of the Royal Sacred Region. But because others coveted it, Grand Xia’s treasury was ransacked, and after a period of several thousand years, the powerhouses of the previous generation had all already migrated out of Grand Xia, which led to the present Grand Xia today.” Yun Mengyi sighed, this was a vicious cycle. The places where the strong gathered would grow stronger and stronger as countless experts flocked to them. For weaker places, even if demon-level geniuses were born there, those locations no longer held any attraction once the geniuses matured to a certain strength, causing them to leave, which in turn makes the weak place weaker and weaker.
This was a golden pyramid of the martial path. Strong people all desire to stand on the peak, and this included the Heaven Chosen of the Royal Sacred Region as well. Once their strength grew to a certain point where the Royal Sacred Region wasn’t able to contain them, they would also leave for a better place.
“How many people are there here? There must at least be a million, can the Immortal Martial Realm contain so many people?” Fan Le asked.
“The majority of those here are only here to spectate or to send their close ones off. The ratio of those entering should be around one to ten and this is considered already excellent odds,” Ye Lingshuang who was by the side replied. “After all, ordinary cultivators would never dare to enter the realm. Just seeing the majesty of this place is sufficient for ordinary cultivators to know their place.”
“Thank you, beautiful sister,” Fan Le winked as he glanced at Ye Lingshuang. His narrowed eyes gleamed with a bright light, which caused Ye Lingshuang to be speechless. She didn’t know why Qin Wentian had such a shameless friend whose eyes always gleamed with light whenever he saw beautiful girls. However, recently Ye Lingshuang also began to understand Fan Le’s character. According to his words, it’s natural to love beautiful things, and he acted like this simply because he was bursting out with universal love.
“Qingcheng, don’t enter the Immortal Martial Realm.” Qin Wentian held on to Mo Qingcheng’s hand, his gaze gentle.
Mo Qingcheng smiled sweetly as she replied in a low voice, “Why can’t I enter?”
“Your talent lies in medicine and alchemy while the Immortal Martial Realm is purely a place to temper one’s combat prowess. It doesn’t matter if you are weaker when it comes to combat, I don’t wish to put you in any danger,” Qin Wentian gently spoke, his words causing the sweet smile on Mo Qingcheng’s face to grow even sweeter. She nodded and stated, “Mhm, okay, I will listen to you. But you must promise me to be careful in the Immortal Martial Realm.”
“Don’t worry, even I’ll take care of myself, I’ll still care about you, I can’t bear to lose you.” Qin Wentian squeezed the dainty hand of Mo Qingcheng, causing an expression of shyness to appear on her face.
She rolled her eyes and replied, “Glib tongue.”
Qin Wentian initially had the thought of getting Di Tian here to help him, but in the end he abolished that notion. Di Tian was his other true self and if he, Qin Wentian, really died in the Immortal Martial Realm, he would still survive.
Their group finally neared the entrance of the Immortal Martial Realm, and up ahead were many silhouettes akin to celestials who were clad in white. They stood around a gigantic stone monument and there were three large and imposing words glimmering with resplendent radiance engraved onto it – Immortal Martial Realm.
This over hundred meters tall stone monument was none other than the Immortal Martial Realm Monument. This place was also the entrance for the Immortal Martial Realm.
A few hundred meters behind the stone monument, there were a total of eighty-one stone pillars. The eyes of the crowd all shone when they stared at the pillars. Those from ancient clans and reclusive sects all radiated a keen battle intent. All of them wanted to stand atop one of the stone pillars.
Right now, the silhouettes of the three Immortal Martial Realm envoys flickered as they appeared on top of the Immortal Martial Monument. Their eyes held a terrifying penetrating power as they glanced over the crowd. Silence instantly descended onto the crowd as countless silhouettes inclined their heads, staring at the envoys above. Just this scene alone caused the hearts of the vast majority to palpitate.
“Holders of the Immortal Martial Medallion, ascend the stone pillars,” the envoy standing in the centre of the three spoke. His voice was soft, yet it thundered through space, permeating a region of hundreds of miles.
“The eighty-one holders of the Immortal Martial Medallions are those whom the envoys hold in the highest regards. The vast majority of them are geniuses from the Nine Great Sects or from ancient countries, reclusive sects or supreme clans.” The crowd stared ahead as eighty-one silhouettes flew through the air towards the stone pillars.
“Di Shi, the Heaven Chosen from the supreme Di Clan, one of the eight era-suppressing geniuses. I heard that his younger brother was killed just recently.”
After Di Shi, the other geniuses all ascended the stone pillars.
“Gu Liufeng, that’s Gu Liufeng. How handsome!”
“That must be Li Tian, his physique is so robust!”
“The number one beauty under the heavens, Lin Xian’er also obtained a Immortal Martial Medallion.”
“Who’s that maiden? She’s actually so beautiful to the extent it’s comparable to Lin Xian’er?”
“The princess of Grand Zhou, Princess Qiaoyang. As outstanding as expected, who says females can’t be comparable to males?”
“That must be the Saint Child of the Supreme Demon Sect. What an overwhelming demonic qi.”
“Nangong Shuang from the Nangong Aristocrat Clan also arrived. I wonder if the Nangong Aristocrat Clan still hates the Celestial Maiden Sect.”
One medallion holder after another ascended the stone pillars. The instant they appeared they immediately caused a torrential wave of commotion through the crowd. These were all the Heaven Chosen of this generation!