Moreover, Jiang Yue Feng’s talent was the lowest among all his disciples. Since even he had managed to break through to Heaven Tier, his other three disciples would all have definitely broken through too! If the four of them joined forces, Ling Han could think of no one that could defeat them.
Yet Jiang Yue Feng’s weapon was actually so completely broken from what looked to be a huge battle, and came floating out on the waters of an underground river with other Spiritual Tools.
Could there have been a battle royale among the ultimate warriors of Heaven Tier?
Ling Han lightly knocked on the saber’s blade. He had already decided that no matter what, he would have to go to the source of the underground river to take a look.
However, he managed to activate the Spiritual Tool and had even defeated a large group of Gushing Spring Tier elites. This naturally engendered the interest and attention of the higher ranks, so he was invited over that night, apparently to study the secrets behind the Spiritual Tools together.
Ling Han did not refuse. He too wanted to take a look at the other Spiritual Tools.
As a result, on this night, a total of eleven Spiritual Tools were placed on a table in front of him. All of them looked heavily worn out, as if they were damaged. If it was not said, who would believe that the things lying on this table were all immeasurably valuable?
“Young Friend Ling, how did you manage to resuscitate the Spiritual Tool?” A Spiritual Ocean Tier warrior from the Zhao Clan asked. His name was Zhao Wu Xue, and in his younger days, his nickname was Nobleman Wu Xue. His reputation as a romantic had once spread through the entire Imperial City, but unfortunately, he was already in his twilight years now, so the charm and grace of his youth were long gone.
This old man was already in the ninth layer of Spiritual Ocean Tier, and had been stuck for many years. Even if he managed to advance and break through to Spiritual Pedestal Tier, he would not have too many years to enjoy his new position. After all, anyone who did not manage to break through to Flower Blossom Tier were all mortals; the only difference was whether they were weaker or stronger mortals.
Ling Han smiled, and said, “I don’t know either. I had only grabbed the Spiritual Tool, and somehow, naturally gotten the acknowledgement of the Spiritual Tool.”
The seven old men who were seated all showed expressions of disbelief. However, because Ling Han represented Wu Song Lin, no matter how displeased they were, they dared not show it too openly.
Zhao Wu Xue smiled, and said, “Then that is really a coincidence. Somehow, Young Friend Ling is the one who encountered this kind of coincidence.”
“That’s right, I never imagined that something so coincidental would happen either,” Ling Han laughed as he took up one of the Spiritual Tools from the table and studied it closely.
The seven old men did not stop him. They were all observing every move that Ling Han made. Perhaps the key to activating these Spiritual Tools was some kind of special movement, so they naturally would not miss out on any single movement from Ling Han.
But they were destined to be disappointed, because this time, Ling Han was really just studying these Spiritual Tools.
All of these Spiritual Tools were heavily damaged, and the spirits of some of them had completely deteriorated. Moreover, the martial intent engraved in the seals on these Spiritual Tools were completely of a different vein than Ling Han’s own, so to him, all these Spiritual Tools were the same as mere trash.
Of course, the martial intent engraved in the seals on these Spiritual Tools still possessed a high value for research, because Ling Han could confirm that these were all Level Nine Spiritual Tools, forged by the powerful warriors of Heaven Tier!
He rubbed his chin, and slipped into pensive thought.
In that generation of his, there were merely seven powerful warriors of Heaven Tier. Even if his four disciples very quickly made their way up into the ranks of Heaven Tier, after he “died”, there would have been only ten Heaven Tier warriors.
Yet just here, there were already eleven Spiritual Tools.
Ling Han had seen it very clearly. The martial intents engraved within these eleven Spiritual Tools were all different. In other words, they were forged by eleven Heaven Tier warriors.
Moreover, these Spiritual Tools were only those that had been successfully “fished”. An even larger number of Spiritual Tools had not yet had their spirits deteriorated, and had long escaped capture.
Going by these calculations, exactly how many powerful warriors of Heaven Tier had there been?
One hundred? One thousand?
How could there have been so many!
Ling Han did not understand. Could it be that after he had “died”, a golden age came to the field of martial arts, allowing Heaven Tier warriors to rise up one after another? If that was not the case, how else could this be explained?
He closely studied the other ten Spiritual Tools. The martial intents engraved on them were all very unfamiliar, and definitely did not belong to the other six rulers that had been his equals.
It looks like unless he headed to the source of the underground river, there was no way for him to get more information.
Ling Han shook his head, and placed the Spiritual Tool back down on the table. He asked, “Everyone, have you managed to think of some way to break through the invisible blockade to advance to the source of the underground river?”
Hearing him address them as “everyone”, Zhao Wu Xue and the others all revealed expressions of displeasure. The hierarchy of martial arts was extremely strict, and a little martial artist of Element Gathering Tier actually dared act so casually in front of them? Yet the latter represented Wu Song Lin, and Wu Song Lin was in Spiritual Pedestal Tier, and so was much stronger than them. Going by this calculation, Wu Song Lin’s representative indeed had the right to be their equal.
They all felt aggrieved, and started to grumble about Wu Song Lin. Why had he sent such a representative over? Wasn’t this a deliberate insult to them?
“There is no way to break through that blockade. Most likely, even Spiritual Pedestal Tier warriors would be helpless against it, unless… unless that person is willing to come!” Zhao Wu Xue shook his head, but when he said the last few words, his eyes fell upon an old man.
This was a man of the Imperial Qi Family, and his name was Qi Jiu Shan.
The other five Spiritual Ocean Tier warriors all nodded. “That person” was of course the mysterious Flower Blossom Tier warrior of the Qi Clan. In their eyes, Flower Blossom Tier was the strongest level in this world, able to do the impossible.
Yet Ling Han could not agree with this opinion. Flower Blossom Tier had indeed left the bounds of mortality, and possessed unbelievable power—for example, possessing a lifespan of up to three hundred years, or for another example, being able to soar through the skies!
However, the Spiritual Tools here were all as high as Level Nine, and what could a Level Six Flower Blossom Tier martial artist do against Level Nine Spiritual Tools? At that time, it was even likely that ultimate warriors of Heaven Tier had died in battle, and had their Spiritual Tools broken, so how could it be that the invisible wall could be dispersed by Flower Blossom Tier martial artists?
He did not point this out, because this was too universally shocking a thing to mention. It would be best for him to maintain a low profile.
“Tomorrow, I would like to go take a look,” he said.
Immediately, there were objections, yet even more nodded in agreement.
“Young Friend, please do. You are representing Grandmaster Wu, so do have this right,” Qi Jiu Shan said with a smile.
‘Damn, what a fake smile!’ Ling Han thought secretly. He knew that these seven people were still suspicious of him, wanting to see if he had some kind of special method to disperse the blockade. He did not expose their thoughts and simply nodded before taking the treasured saber and leaving.
On the next day, he, together with Liu Yu Tong and Li Si Chan, followed the river’s course upstream.
He had originally intended to advance on his own, but could not win against the pleas of the two girls, so he could only bring them along. Behind them followed Zhao Wu Xue and the others, altogether fourteen Spiritual Ocean Tier martial artists—including a few who had not participated in their discussion the night before. Today, they had all come.
The source of this underground river was the foot of the mountain, and there was no way to advance further. They could only dive into the water in order to advance further.
There are no martial artists who do not know how to swim, so they all went into the water. They had not advanced much before everything in front of them turned dark. If they advanced a bit more, they wouldn’t even see the fingers of their own hands anymore. They could only feel the bone-piercing cold of the river’s waters.
Thankfully, there was air circulating in the underground river. Otherwise, no matter how much better they were at holding their breaths than normal people, they would not be able to swim too far.
After at least an hour, there actually appeared a spark of light flickering in front of them.
At first, Ling Han thought that they had finally come out of the mountain, and the exit was in front of them, but very quickly, he realized something was not right. It was actually a seal made up of rays of light, as if a fishing net was stretched out in front of them, stopping them from advancing further.
“Yi, this is…. Light of God!”