Chapter 827: Hundred Immortals Forest
Translator: Lordbluefire Editor: Lordbluefire
Qin Wentian quietly cultivated. Today, he finally stepped out of the cave and prepared to leave this place.
Sorrowless, the monk from the Western Desert Prefecture was still there deep in his comprehension, in an immersed state where he forgot everything, pursuing the true essence of that technique with all his heart.
Qin Wentian was silently impressed by this third ranker of the Western Desert Prefecture, Sorrowless. His focus was completely inconceivable. After he sunk into his state of immersion, he was akin to an immovable rock, steadfastly comprehending that technique, not feeling greed over the other immortal techniques that could be found in the Eastern Sage Cliff. Such a temperament wasn’t something ordinary people could achieve and he could do so probably because of his life experience growing up in the harsh environment of the Western Desert Prefecture.
Outside the cave, there were still people lingering there, hesitating to step within because of the deterrence factor caused by the corpses lying outside. This cave had already been taken over by two powerful characters and no others could enter.
Many days have passed since they stepped into the Eastern Sage Cliff. This scene wasn’t anything special, there were many geniuses who occupied secret places, not allowing others to enter within. They wanted to strengthen themselves while not sharing the good fortune with others. Such tyranny was possible because of absolute strength.
At this moment, upon seeing that Qin Wentian had exited the cave. The lingering geniuses all turned their attention onto him. They only saw a light as sharp as swords flickering within his eyes, causing the hearts of them all to be filled with wariness and trepidation. After which, they saw Qin Wentian transform into a wind roc as he road the wind and directly soared through the skies.
In the air, Qin Wentian’s eyes were fixed on the majestic sight below. The Eastern Sage Cliff Mountain Range was boundlessly vast and there are a countless number of secret places where one could seek good fortune from. Qin Wentian completely had zero interests regarding the geniuses here, the only thing he wanted was to borrow this opportunity to strengthen himself further.
Qin Wentian also somewhat understood why the Heavenly Talisman Realm would set such a mission. The banquet organized by the Eastern Sage Immortal Sect occurs once every hundred years and they would surely do their best wanting to recruit the strongest and most outstanding disciples. They would naturally not spare the effort and allow the participants to grow stronger before selecting the cream of the crop. If he and his fellow disciples succeeded in this mission, they would be able to obtain benefits from both the Heavenly Talisman Realm as well as the Eastern Sage Immortal Sect.
Participating in this selection test had already far exceeded the usefulness of cultivating alone in self-seclusion.
And in here, ordinary people wouldn’t dare to soar high up through the skies because they could be easily spotted by others and suffered attacks. After all this was a selection test and only 1,000 participants could pass this stage.
Qin Wentian indeed saw quite a number of people below him. There were many geniuses who occupied secret places, or cultivated alone, or fought against each other to gain sole access to the immortal technique found, or fighting for no purposes at all. He didn’t bother about them, he merely sped past silently and although there were some who noticed him, nobody launched attacks at him. Maybe, it was because his speed was too quick.
Finally at this moment, Qin Wentian saw an ancient peak below him. There were many stone platforms located there and runic inscriptions could be seen engraved on the mountain walls, transforming into many diagrams.
Qin Wentian’s silhouette flickered as he descended onto a stone platform and stared at the mountain walls. Dazzling golden light flashed, and the light was actually emanating from numerous runic diagrams that arranged themselves into a seal in the shape of a circle, sealing away the entrance to the cavern leading to the interior of the ancient peak. It was as though there also was a secret place for cultivation within there but to enter it, one first had to break the sealing diagram. This was perhaps the reason why no one was wasting their time by lingering in the surroundings here.
Standing on the platform, Qin Wentian contemplated the seal for a moment before he walked towards it. He stretched out his hand and placed it on the circular seal as streams of runic inscriptions glimmered with light. In just an instant, a dazzling light erupted forth from the circular seal as all the runic diagrams congregated together transforming into a door that swung open, allowing Qin Wentian entry within.
After stepping through, the door closed again. The interior of the cavern sudden opened up to a wide panorama as a cool and refreshing intent drifted over. In front of him there was another stone platform for cultivation and there were waterfalls by the left and right side to him. Traces of mist permeated the air, causing one to feel as though they stepped into paradise.
Right ahead, there was a simple and unadorned statue that exuded immortal qi and seemed to have the great dao engraved within it. That statue sat cross-legged and there were also many immortal scrolls situated right in front of it.
"Junior apologizes for any transgression that might occur." Qin Wentian bowed to the statue, because he wanted to show respect to a senior and not for any other reason. He walked up and took the immortal scrolls to read, sinking his perception into them. A moment later, a countless number of words floated before his eyes, entering into his sea of consciousness.
The words in the immortal scrolls weren’t an innate technique or cultivation art. But rather, it was a very detailed recording of the experiences of this immortal as well as his views on cultivation.
Only after a long moment did Qin Wentian place the first immortal scroll down. He turned his gaze onto the statue as his eyes flickered with a hint of admiration. Not many senior-level characters would record their experiences down for the latter generations to view. The others would rather leave behind immortal techniques and arts, seeking for a successor because recording down their views and experiences couldn’t guarantee instant success or any clear advantage. It would only be a waste of time and energy.
But in reality, the experience through one’s cultivation processes was of invaluable aid to the latter generations.
Qin Wentian quickly took up the second scroll and the more he read, the more engrossed he was. He even forgot the flow of time as he fully committed himself to finish reading through the experiences of this immortal.
Qin Wentian’s eyes gleamed as many thoughts appeared in his mind. He stared at the statue ahead before getting up and bowing to it once more. After which, he then moved to the stone platform and sat down cross-legged.
Violet-gold light flashed, Qin Wentian actually directly released his fifth astral soul. Instantly, a violet-golden light illuminated the cavern, painting the space with a resplendent glow.
Behind him, a violet-gold giant of suppression appeared. This silhouette was more corporeal compared to illusory and its body flowed with fearsome runic inscriptions, granting it a marvelous strength of terrifying suppressive might.
From the notes of that immortal, he as well as the other supreme powers in the immortal realms believed that for those below the immortal-foundation level being able to condense a violet-gold astral soul would make that person a supreme genius, one in a billion. They were extremely rare individuals worthy of nurturing and no matter where these people went to, there would be experts willing to take them in because of how powerful violet-gold astral souls are.
The strength of a violet-gold astral soul was recognized by everyone. But as to why it was strong, other than the fact that the astral energy within it was of a higher quality, this immortal believed that those who possessed a violet-gold astral soul have an innate advantage in cultivation allowing these people to step into the immortal foundation realm quicker compared to others. But of course this wasn’t any huge secret, many were also aware of this but what this immortal was interested in, was the question...why?
This immortal felt that violet-gold astral souls contained their very own law energy. The shimmering runic network that flowed around it was by itself a kind of law. It was only because Celestial Phenomenon Ascendants were still too weak, hence they had no way to excavate that might.
He also felt that for those who possess a strong bloodline power, their bloodline surely contained the might of law energy. These types of law energy wouldn’t manifest themselves when one was still weak. Only when they grew stronger and stronger would the law energy within the bloodline manifest, granting them abilities they never knew they had before.
These two observations recorded were things which Qin Wentian was very interested in. Other than this, many other observations this immortal had on cultivation would be of extreme benefit for his own cultivation path.
Hence, Qin Wentian started to analyse his own astral soul deeper, while also focusing on being more in tune with himself in sensing the power of his bloodline. He sank into a marvelous state, knowing nothing of the conflict of the world outside and caring nothing for it.
The fires of combat in the external world had already been ignited. There were geniuses clashing against each other everywhere. Each of them had comprehended quite a few innate techniques and they grew stronger and stronger as time flowed by. But with regards to all of this, Qin Wentian who was in the midst of that marvelous state, knew nothing about it.
Qin Wentian’s cultivation process lasted till the very day before he walked out of the cavern. This time, he sat on the stone platform outside the cavern and started practicing his swordplay and bell technique while infusing his new insights into them. Occasionally, he would also ponder over the law energy enchantment in this place.
Gradually as he practiced, just his casual attacks also received a boost in strength but he was oblivious to all as he continued testing out his theories one after another. While all this while, the number of participants in here were continuously dwindling.
Outside the Eastern Sage Cliff Mountain Range, there were many experts of the Eastern Sage Immortal Sect that gathered together, including the immortal kings from the various prefectures.
"How many participants remain in there?" Somebody asked. A moment later, an old-looking cultivator that was responsible for this place replied, "Currently there are still around 3000+ participants. It would take a month or two more before the first selection round is concluded."
"Mhm, alright. I wonder how’s the standard of this batch of geniuses." Someone spoke in a low voice.
"I’m not too sure about others but I know the few geniuses from the Eastern Prefecture are extremely powerful."
"The geniuses from my Western Desert Prefecture are also very strong. At the very least, they are stronger than the batch a hundred years ago." The immortal king from the Western Desert Prefecture added.
"Hehe, so are the geniuses from my Underworld Prefecture."
The prefecture lords started to speak. The Idlecloud Immortal King from Cloud Prefecture laughed, "There are also quite a few good seedlings from my prefecture this time around."
"Cloud Prefecture? That place has never produced geniuses capable of being the top three rankers in the recruitment event ever, right?" The immortal king from the Blazing Sun Prefecture impolitely spoke, his words causing the Idlecloud Immortal King to snort coldly but he had no way to refute those words. That was the truth.
When among themselves, the prefecture lords of the thirteen prefectures would also be competitive with each other.
"That’s true. Anyway I believe the top three this time around should be either geniuses from the Eastern Prefecture or my Western Desert Prefecture."
"Hahaha, let’s wait and see. It’s been so long, they should have already discovered the Hundred Immortals Forest. If the location of the first test was directly in the Hundred Immortal Forest instead, the selection test would conclude even faster. There would even be some extremely powerful characters being eliminated too early due to clashing against some other equally strong opponents.
In the central area of the Eastern Sage Cliff Mountain Range, lies the Hundred Immortals Forest.
Over there were 360 statues of immortals. Each of them contained a terrifying immortal will and there were stone platforms before each of the statues, allowing ascendants to comprehend vividly the strength of immortals.
At this moment, in the vast area of the Hundred Immortals Forest, there already were geniuses on the stone platforms before each of the immortal statues. If one were to pay attention, they would realize that for those geniuses who were ranked close to the top, the stone platforms which they were on would be closer to front.
What was truly astonishing was that right now in the Hundred Immortals Forest, there were already many corpses littering the ground as over a thousand had perished. The Eastern Sage Cliff Mountain Range was so vast, but only this place seemed like a burial ground that had buried a countless number of geniuses. From this, one could very well imagine how intense the combat was. And at this moment, another great battle erupted out as thunderous rumbling sounds echoed through the air.
"SCRAM!" A terrifying roar sounded out, only to see that some of the participants were fighting over a stone platform before an immortal statue. Jun Mengchen transformed into a god of war, his entire body enveloped by a dazzling king armor. The strength of his attacks could shake the skies and he was currently surrounded by three other experts. But even so, no traces of fear could be seen in his eyes, only an incomparable loftiness and arrogance.
After Jun Mengchen comprehended several techniques, he arrived at the Hundred Immortals Forest and discovered that through the immortal statues, it was possible to have a clear feel of how tyrannically powerful immortals are and this place was much more suitable to cultivate those immortal-ranked techniques which they discovered earlier as well. However, as the number of geniuses who discovered this place increased, a fight for the limited number of spots instantly broke out. It was incomparably tragic and those powerful geniuses who couldn’t be fought against alone were instantly ganged up and killed!