Chapter 309: Immortal’s Cave
After dealing with the two men, Jian Chen collected the Space Belts of both Earth Saint Masters. Turning their bodies aside, Jian Chen didn’t see anything else of value on their bodies. While these two were Earth Saint Masters, aside from their robes and Space Belts, there wasn’t any Space Rings to be seen.
Space Rings were treasures within the Tian Yuan Continent that were symbols of status and power. Although Earth Saint Masters were qualified to have a Space Ring, not all of them had one.
Jian Chen looked at the bloody Yun Zheng and spoke to him, “Let us go back and treat your injuries. Walking out here with injuries isn’t a safe thing to do.” The two then left the area.
Yun Zheng watched the slowly disappearing back of Jian Chen with some remaining shock. Before he had even blinked, Jian Chen had killed two Earth Saint Masters; something like this would give him an everlasting impression of Jian Chen.
“Ai, could he be one of the rumored geniuses?” Yun Zheng sighed before running to catch up with the receding figure of Jian Chen.
The two figures returned to the cave where the bloody figure of Yun Zheng attracted the attention of everyone. The one friendliest to Yun Zheng, Senior An, stood straight up with a furious expression, “Yun Zheng, what bastard did this to you? Tell me, and I’ll go tear them limb from limb!”
Seeing just how concerned Senior An was, Yun Zheng smiled faintly, “I had some bad luck. When I was hunting, I came across two Earth Saint Masters. But fortunately, brother Jian Chen came along and killed them both.”
Hearing Yun Zheng, Qin Xiao who was lying nearby stared at Jian Chen with a surprised look before turning suspicious and doubtful at Yun Zheng’s words. “Jian Chen, is what he says true? You were able to take down two Earth Saint Masters by yourself?” Qin Xiao spoke with an expecting tone.
Sitting nearby, Qin Jue’s ears shook slightly, but his eyes didn’t open.
Jian Chen nodded his head, but gave no response.
Qin Xiao took on a pleasantly surprised look as he spoke with some excitement, “Jian Chen, just how did you grow to become so amazing in such a short amount of time? When we first initially fought, I knew that you were already amazing, but I didn’t think that you would be able to kill an Earth Saint Master so easily!”
“That is because during the time I left the Tianqin clan, I managed to make a breakthrough to become an Earth Saint Master.” Jian Chen replied.
Hearing that, Qin Jue’s eyes snapped open as he looked at Jian Chen with shock. Even as his eyes opened, he remained as still as a statue.
“So it was like this…” Qin Xiao spoke with some understanding.
…….
Time went by in a flash soon there was only half a month remaining in the competition. In that time, Jian Chen had rarely ventured out and spent the majority of his time within the cave and silently protected Qin Xiao. The yellow clothed girl had used her Solunar Bow to make a new cave for her to privately cultivate. Senior An and Yun Zheng both constantly walked outside and came back to the cave with bruised bodies the majority of the time. A few of the times, they had been chased down by several strong Earth Saint Masters back “home” where Jian Chen would promptly deal with them.
The power that Jian Chen would constantly display always reminded Senior An and Yun Zheng of his strength. Those of the same cycle were miles away from Jian Chen’s level. Second and Third Cycle Earth Saint Masters were not an opponent for Jian Chen at all. Not too long after, Jian Chen had unconsciously become the pillar for Yun Zheng and Senior An.
After several more days, Qin Xiao’s body had been completely healed. Almost as if he had provoked Jian Chen’s ire, Qin Xiao immediately set himself about to cultivate as soon as he was healed with the assistance of monster cores in order to reach the Earth Saint Master realm as soon as possible.
As for Qin Jue who had healed even earlier, it was almost as if he cherished words like gold. Ever since he had met Jian Chen up until now, he had never said more than ten words total. This had made him even more quiet than Katafei back in Wake City.
In the quiet cave, only the sounds of the crackling fire could be heard inside as the light constantly flickered.
Jian Chen sat in a meditative position in a corner of the cave with a Class 5 Monster Core in his hand in order to absorb it. With the Gesun Kingdom on the verge of danger and the Changyang clan as well, he had to hurry up and increase his strength. There was no time to squabble around and waste time.
Within the dark cave, everyone was cultivating, causing the leaking energy from the monster cores to gather within the cave. It was as if the cave was originally filled with this energy and was paradise for cultivators.
At this time, the sounds of rapid footsteps could be heard. Jian Chen’s ears shook slightly from the sound, but he made no movements to get up from his position.
The footsteps grew closer as Senior An and Yun Zheng both entered.
“Jian Chen, I’ve news, good news! I’ve heard from someone on the outside that there is cave to the south of the forest that used to have a senior cultivator in it. There’s treasure inside, and I’m willing to bet there’s at least one Heaven Tier Battle Skill!” Senior An spoke out hurriedly.
The moment Jian Chen heard the words “Heaven Tier Battle Skill”, he instantly snapped open his eyes. Although everyone was cultivating within the cave, in this sort of condition, they remained vigilant to the outside world. Not even the subtle and sudden gust of wind would be able to escape their notice.
Qin Xiao’s eyes widened as he said, “Heaven Tier Battle Skill? Are you sure that’s right? What if some enemy was trying to announce false news and later set up a huge trap for everyone?”
Senior An shook his head, “That I don’t know. But many people are already heading on over there, I’ve heard that even the five experts are going there.”
“Five experts? What five experts?” Qin Xiao questioned.
“The five experts are men with a very well known reputation and are also the strongest men around. In a short amount of time, practically everybody and everyone knows their names.” Yun Zheng spoke out to Jian Chen. While he knew Jian Chen was strong, he didn’t know whether or not he was stronger than the five experts.
Jian Chen’s heart skipped a beat, “Who are the five experts and what are their names?”
“They are called Qin Ji, Dugu Feng, Tianmu Ling, Shi Xiangran and Jiede Wukang.”
TL Note; Qin Ji is not from the Tianqin clan.
Jian Chen narrowed his eyes slightly at the mention of one of the names as he muttered, “I’ve no idea that he would covet these treasures or even be called one of the Five Experts.”
“Jian Chen, shall we go or stay?” Qin Xiao spoke, clearly showing that Jian Chen was the leader.
Jian Chen hummed to himself before saying, “We are going.” Standing up, he spoke again, “There’s no time to waste, we have to go now. There’s only fifteen days of the competition remaining.”
Afterward, Jian Chen led Senior An, Yun Zheng, Qin Jue and Qin Xiao out of the cave while the longbow girl coincidentally flew out from her cave as well to follow.
“I’ve heard there is a Heaven Tier Battle Skill in the southern caves. We’re going to go investigate, do you want to come along?” Jian Chen asked the girl.
For a moment, the girl’s eyes rested upon Jian Chen before nodding slightly without any more words.
“This time, we may come across our dear old friend, you should prepare yourself.” Jian Chen said.
With that, the six people flew out of the caves toward the south.
On the way, Jian Chen noticed plenty of people rushing the south as well. With information about a Heaven Tier Battle Skill being left behind in a senior cultivator’s cave, every single person was rushing on over.
These men were primarily Great Saint Masters with a small bag to hold their possessions on their backs. Their Space Belts had long since been taken from them aside from a few sets of clothes and food. For these men without tokens, the Earth Saint Masters wouldn’t bother them any longer unless there was some sort of deep grievances they had between each other. So these Great Saint Masters could travel on the road without any major fears.
Occasionally, there would several fights that broke out among foes, but those did not impede Jian Chen’s group at all. Many of those who saw Jian Chen’s group were quite smart. When they saw the colorful clothes and the Space Belts that swayed with their bodies every step, each one of them could guess that the people with Jian Chen were all extremely strong.
They traveled for five days when Jian Chen and the group finally reached a dense forest. In this location, there were several groups of competitors that were all here to see if the information was accurate or not.
“I’ve heard that there are several extremely strong magical beasts guarding the cave. Even the five experts and around thirty Earth Saint Masters fought several times without a chance of success of entering the cave.’
“That’s right, I’ve heard there were several battles, and some of the Earth Saint Masters already died. Only three of the five experts still remain untouched.”
“The magical beasts guarding the cave are too strong! If it goes on like this, then I’m afraid no one will be able to enter the cave before the time is up!”
“Nothing is guaranteed just yet. Right now the secret of this place is already leaked. Haven’t you seen the never ending stream of people coming here? Just wait for the five experts to all assemble, then they’ll be able to enter.”