Chapter 962: The White Tiger’s Breakthrough
Jian Chen immediately became filled with indescribable delight when he heard that all three of the deacon elders were actually willing to obey his words. All three of them were Fifth Heavenly Layer Saint Kings, so every single one of them was a supreme expert. The power Jian Chen possessed would increase once the three of them decided to follow him.
Before, Jian Chen had thought of trying to make the deacon elders and the divine generals submit to him. He had considered it but he had dismissed the thought as soon as it appeared. This was because he knew that both the divine generals and the deacon elders were people of great power in their respective halls. Their statuses were extraordinary, and with that naturally came a great pride. Subduing them and making them follow him would be extremely difficult.
The reason why the three of them had agreed so straightforwardly was all because the hall elders of the Heaven’s Spirit Hall had been helping him secretly. The three deacon elders would have rather died than submit without the persuasion of the hall elders.
“Please use a secret technique to swear a blood oath that you will never betray me,” Jian Chen maintained his calm demeanor and said.
The three deacon elders gnashed their teeth before they all swore a blood oath. They used their own essence blood to draw up an ancient contract. They handed it over to Jian Chen. With this contract, Jian Chen basically held the lives of the three in his hands at all times.
“Warrior Jian Chen, does this satisfy your needs?” A hall elder asked calmly, though he felt quite heavy-hearted.
Jian Chen was obviously extremely happy after gaining the loyalty of three Fifth Heavenly Layer Saint Kings but he showed none of it. He said nonchalantly, “Since your Heaven’s Spirit Hall is so sincere in your apology, I naturally won’t be petty. The enmity that once existed between us is now all wiped off the slate.”
Jian Chen left with the three deacon elders after resolving the matters with the Heaven’s Spirit Hall, making way directly to the territory of the Sea Goddess Hall. The hall elders had also dismissed the three deacon elders from their positions in the Heaven’s Spirit Hall. As such, they were now people completely unbound to anything. They could now move freely between the three territories of the sea realm.
The group of people outside the Heaven’s Spirit Hall did not disperse for quite some time even after Jian Chen had left. They all stood outside and stared off in the direction where the four people had left; they were all in complete dejection.
The three deacon elders were virtually people of the same age as the hall elders. The hall elders possessed a friendship of thousands of years with the three of them, so they were extremely close. Their departure naturally affected the hall elders by quite some bit.
All the elders and emissaries were utterly dejected. They just could not understand why the esteemed hall elders would make such a decision. The great Heaven’s Spirit Hall actually feared a junior; not only did they shy away from battle, they even sent away the three great deacon elders to satiate the person’s anger. All of them struggled to find a reason even after much thought, feeling great disbelief for the whole matter.
This was completely different to how the Heaven’s Spirit Hall would normally resolve matters.
“Let’s go. Remember, do not leak a simple part of what has happened today to the outside, and do not seek revenge with Jian Chen. Those who do not comply will suffer the most severe punishment,” a hall elder said gruffly.
Everyone could not help but dismiss their thoughts of revenge when they heard the mention of the most severe punishment. They were in fear.
Jian Chen flew through the air with the three deacon elders. They traveled extremely quickly, shooting through the sky like meteors.
“Three elder, how may I refer to you?” Jian Chen smiled faintly as he turned around to ask.
These three people had once tried to hunt him down, but they were now completely people of his side. Jian Chen was also able to dismiss all his previous impressions of them as a result.
“Lan Jing!”
“Xin Pian!”
“Mochas!”
The three people all stated their names. They were all old men who seemed like they were in their seventies, and they all wore cloth robes. Their appearances were not striking in any shape or form, so it really was difficult to tell by appearance alone that they were Fifth Heavenly Layer Saint Kings.
The three deacon elders clearly were unable to truly give into following Jian Chen. The three of them remained stern and said nothing else other than stating their names.
The four of them no longer spoke anymore for the rest of the trip. They directly arrived at the Turtle clan. Currently, virtually all the experts of the clan were out at war under Tai Dou’s lead. They were forcefully seizing back their former crystal mines, so the clan seemed quite empty.
“We greet the ruler!”
“We greet the ruler!”
As soon as Jian Chen returned to the clan, all the people he passed by knelt down and greeted him courteously. They looked toward Jian Chen in respect and admiration.
After organizing where the three deacon elders would live and allowing them to settle down, Jian Chen immediately locked himself up in a secret room and entered the saint artifact.
Nubis was still devoting himself to the study of the Tian Level Saint Technique and had no impression of time. Meanwhile, Xie Wang was using the cultivation method left behind by the Octoterra Emperor to cultivate.
Jian Chen did not disturb the two of them and instead made his way directly into the depths of the hall, before arriving before a thirty meter tall door.
Rumble! The door opened under the artifact spirit’s secret control. As soon as even a crack had appeared, a vast pressure gushed out and filled the hall.
The pressure was still not powerful enough to affect Jian Chen in any way, but it was filled with a domineering aura. This aura was actually countless times denser than the aura of the serpent dragons on the divine hall of the Serpent God Hall.
With the door’s opening, a harmonious white light suddenly shone out, illuminating the entire hall.
The origins of this harmonious white light was actually a huge white tiger that lay there with its eyes closed. It was thirty meters long and completely covered with snow-white fur, while each strand of its hair shone with harmonious light. Meanwhile, a pair of huge wings were unfurled comfortably in the space as they floated up and down slowly.
In the recent years, the white tiger had always spent its time in the saint artifact to increase its strength through consuming heavenly resources. Its strength really could have been described as skyrocketing, as it had just broken through to Class 7 right now.
Perhaps due to sensing Jian Chen’s arrival, the white tiger’s eyes suddenly snapped open. When it saw Jian Chen, its eyes lit up and it produced an excited cry. It then proceeded to run toward Jian Chen.
Mid-air, it shrank quickly and by the time it had landed on Jian Chen’s shoulder, it had turned back to the size of a household cat.
“Mrrrr…” The white tiger produced a deep purr. As it lied on Jian Chen’s shoulder, it nibbled his hair while laying his front paws on Jian Chen’s head. It seemed to be grumbling about why Jian Chen took so long to visit it.
Jian Chen could not help but smile from the bottom of his heart when he saw how mischievous the white tiger still was. He extended a hand to lift the white tiger from his shoulder to his lap, before gently rubbing its furry head.
Although the white tiger was now a Class 7 Magical Beast, its age was barely anything like that. It still possessed the temperament of a child even after his mind had grown up by quite a lot.
“Class 7 Magical Beasts can take on a human form. Xiao Bai, can you turn into a human now?” Jian Chen asked the white tiger.
The white tiger completely understood Jian Chen’s words, so it responded by shaking its head. Its bright little eyes were filled with confusion, clearly uncertain why it could not take a human form.
Jian Chen smiled gently and said, “You’re a Winged Tiger God, something that’s on a completely different level to ordinary magical beasts. Perhaps the reason you can’t take a human form is exactly because of that. Once you power up some more in the future, you’ll be able to take a human form sooner or later.” Jian Chen’s expression changed with that as he felt that the barrier he cast down outside had been tampered with by someone. He placated the white tiger before leaving directly.
Leaving the secret room, Jian Chen found a Saint Ruler of the Turtle clan standing outside pale-faced. Jian Chen could tell with a single glance that he was quite injured.
“I greet the ruler. This one has only disturbed the ruler’s seclusion because this one had no other choice. Please punish me,” the Saint Ruler knelt down immediately and said with respect.
Jian Chen looked at him sternly and asked, “What has happened, and what’s the reason for your injury?”
“When we went to take back our crystal mines, we were met with the obstruction of powerful foes. Many members of the Turtle clan has been injured, and the ancestor of the Taihong clan, Tai Dou, has also been injured by two experts that were of the same cultivation level as him,” the Saint Ruler said deeply. His complexion was horrible.
Jian Chen’s face sank when he heard that. “How dare they! Assemble the elders and experts of the Taihong clan immediately in the conference hall.”
“Yes, ruler!”
Jian Chen sat expressionlessly on the throne in the conference hall, while a group of people gathered below. They all stood there quietly and no one spoke, causing the atmosphere to become rather heavy.
Almost half of them were pale-faced, clearly quite injured.
Jian Chen glanced past all of them and growled, “Tai Dou, tell me the strength of the opponent.”
Tai Dou stepped up and said, “Ruler, the opponent is very powerful. They are a famed clan in the territory of the Sea Goddess Hall and possess two 16th Star experts. They are both as powerful as me, and they also possess a 15th Star expert and many 14th Star Seasoul Warriors. Their strength completely exceeds us.”
“Alright, I understand,” Jian Chen replied softly, before sitting there quietly.
Three old men walked into the hall not long afterward. They walked in with their chests high, steps in sync and unhurriedly. They did not even glance at the experts in the hall, directly ignoring them.
They were the former three deacon elders of the Heaven’s Spirit Hall.
With their entry, the people who had no idea who they were revealed gazes of suspicion, secretly trying to guess their identities.
The three deacon elders walked right to the very front before stopping. They all looked at Jian Chen calmly and one of them asked, “Jian Chen, for what have you summoned the three of us?”
The deacon elder spoke to Jian Chen as an equal, without displaying any forms of respect.