The date for the competition over the profound qi veins quickly approached. Gu Zuo and Gongyi Tianheng mobilized their troops, and departed for Hyssop Heart City in a grand procession.
Ao Ying commanded three hundred battle slave elite soldiers, and accompanied them the entire way there.
This trip wasn’t for the sake of starting a war. Taking along these battle slaves served two purposes. Firstly, it was to keep up the appearances of a prodigy. Secondly, it was to prevent other people from taking action.
Besides this, there was an Ascendant Realm shadow cat who led one hundred shadow cat assassins. All of whom followed behind in the dark. On top of that, there were one hundred experts among the servile races who acted as guards and similarly accompanied the procession.
In addition, there were forty Tianlong Guards, being led by Dragon Two, whose second qi oceans had all become reddish-black. They carried feelings of intense excitement and wisps of surging qi as they protected Tianheng and Gu Zuo!
This wasn’t the first time Gu Zuo went out to travel with Tianheng, and it also wasn’t the first time he would be seeing other prodigies. However, it was still hard to avoid feeling somewhat nervous in his heart.
It wasn’t known what kind of skill level these prodigies would possess.
But to be honest, there had been Qi Xuanao and the others he met previously. Qi Xuanao wasn’t harsh on the eyes in terms of demeanor and style. As for the others, not to mention that vicious and sinister Ice Phoenix Goddess, Bao Hong’s performance was mediocre, and Fan Meng… He had been ensnared by the charms of the Ice Phoenix Goddess. Although he didn’t go so far as to lose his wits, Fan Meng still lacked some calmness when handling matters.
Now that Gu Zuo thought about it, these people were the prodigies of bronze-ranked subordinate organizations within the Ten Ultimates Domain. The testing methods of other forces weren’t as strict as that of Ten Ultimates Sect. As a result, while they were prodigies of bronze-ranked organizations, they wouldn’t necessarily be recognized as such by top-level, large organizations.
Gu Zuo didn’t voice this kind of conjecture.
In the end, whether or not Bao Hong and the others were the type of prodigy who were overstated or exaggerated, when the two of them went to fight for the profound qi veins, what they encountered were definitely going to be prodigies who were truly qualified.
And although this struggle over the profound qi veins was for the material benefit of one’s own organization, it was also the best tempering opportunity for prodigies to face equally monstrous geniuses and to gain a proper understanding of themselves.
Moreover…
Gu Zuo squeezed his fists somewhat nervously.
Amid this struggle, swords and spears had no eyes. In a moment of carelessness, even a prodigy might fall down and perish.
Though, this also wasn’t anything strange. Every time capable prodigies won the most resources, they waded through the blood of prodigies from other organizations, trampled upon the faces of those forces, and added to the glory of their own sects!
Within a few days, Tianheng and the others had already arrived in front of Hyssop Heart City.
However, at this time, the gatekeepers were demanding that anyone who came to this city had to leave their wild beasts outside the city gates &#k2014; It was because this city produced Hyssop Heart Flowers in abundance. This type of strange flower was an incredibly rare medicinal ingredient. Besides Hyssop Heart City, there weren’t many other places that could grow these flowers. The biggest characteristic of this plant was that it couldn’t be contaminated with the qi emissions of wild beasts. Otherwise, it would inevitably wither!
Therefore, everyone inside Hyssop Heart City wasn’t allowed to travel by wild beasts. As for the prodigies who came over this time to fight over the profound qi veins, regardless of how many matters they had to take care of, no matter how different their backgrounds, all of them needed to leave their wild beasts outside the city. If not, when the prodigies completed their tasks and left, it would cause the Hyssop Heart Flowers within the city to wither on a massive scale. This would negatively affect the gross annual income of Hyssop Heart City.
Tianheng wasn’t the kind of person who thought too highly of himself. Taking along wild beasts for his troops to ride was just for the sake of hastening the journey and maintaining the sect’s face. Since Hyssop Heart City had such rules, he naturally did as instructed.
Hence, under Tianheng’s orders, all of his subordinates dismounted from their steeds, and entrusted the care of the wild beasts to the city guards who came to warn them. They could come and retrieve their steeds before they went back.
However, although Tianheng was this cooperative, this didn’t mean that all prodigies would be as agreeable.
Just when Tianheng was on the verge of safely entering the city, great gusts of wind and sand surged up from behind. In the wake of this sandstorm was the arrival of troops who possessed boundless might and powerful strength.
As they quickly approached the city gates, a loud and clear voice spread out in all directions with the help of internal qi: “Flourishing Martial Sect’s Prodigy Huo Li has arrived — Bystanders, quickly move out of the way!”
When Gu Zuo heard such arrogant shouting, he couldn’t help turning his head to look.
This voice came over, but the troops still couldn’t be seen too clearly…
Obviously, the reason why that Huo Li made someone pass this message along so early was for Hyssop Heart City’s gatekeepers to open the city gates in advance, and to let this prodigy and his troops inside.
For this way of thinking, there naturally wouldn’t have been any problems if this was an ordinary city. The soldiers protecting the city wouldn’t demand that a prodigy showed etiquette to such small personages such as them. But Hyssop Heart City was different.
If they directly opened the city gates and allowed Huo Li to enter, the wild beasts they rode upon would similarly come in. At that time, the interior of the city would be greatly affected. How was that any good? Besides, Huo Li was so rampant and unbridled. If they made concessions, then what would those previous prodigies think? They were the ones who followed the rules and entered on foot, which included the pleasant and eloquent Gongyi Tianheng just now.
As a result, even though Huo Li announced his name upon arrival, Hyssop Heart City still couldn’t let them inside.
Once Prodigy Huo Li approached, not only didn’t the soldiers open the gates, all of the soldiers gripped their sabers, and took defensive positions.
Seeing that the soldiers at the city gates hadn’t obeyed his command, that Prodigy Huo Li naturally felt that he had lost a lot of face. He became furious right away. A fierce stream of fire blasted out, and quickly attacked those soldiers!
At once, a giant palm swatted out from a city gate tower, and extinguished this fire stream. Merely, since it was like this, Huo Li’s intention of venting his anger wasn’t fulfilled. He grew even angrier. An enormous fiery palm lashed out, and suddenly burned that giant palm until there was practically nothing left!
At the same time, a furious voice bellowed out: “This insignificant Hyssop Heart City actually dares to not give face? Truly intolerable! You’re not putting this great one in your eyes at all!”
This resonant voice carried a type of hot rage that flooded the heavens. Despite Gu Zuo being very far away, the power and grandeur of the imposing aura within that voice still somewhat shocked him.
Following the resounding words of this voice, another four or five enormous, fiery palms appeared in the sky. Each and every one slammed towards the city walls. The direct impacts caused the city walls to shake for a short while, and even a few cracks showed up afterward. This seemed to drain a bit of that person’s wrath, and the imposing aura slowly dissipated.
Apart from obstructing that stream of fire that targeted those city guards in the beginning, the person inside the city gate tower didn’t make any other moves. That first fiery palm destroyed his own palm strike, and the next few wrecked the city walls. That person appeared to be allowing Huo Li to vent his emotions.
Now that Huo Li calmed down somewhat, that voice resounded again: “It’s difficult for the Hyssop Heart Flowers within the city to endure the filthy qi of wild beasts. Thus, people can only travel by foot. This isn’t to deliberately make things difficult for esteemed visitors. I ask for everyone’s forgiveness.”
Huo Li was seated upon a luan-bell chariot. In front, a number of incomparably gigantic wild beasts were pulling the chariot. At this moment, there was cold laughter: “You won’t give face, but you still have your reasons?” His bearing was still insolent, “If I don’t want to walk, what will you do about it?!”
That voice slowly said: “If it’s like this, I can only ask Prodigy Huo Li to do as he pleases… But my Hyssop Heart City is still a law-abiding place.”
In other words, if someone didn’t follow the rules, then they could return from whence they came!
Huo Li smiled furiously: “Good, good, good! Nobody has dared to treat me, Huo Li, this way in all my twenty-odd years of living! This puny Hyssop Heart City is truly audacious! Right now, I, Huo Li, shall insist on riding my luan-bell chariot straight into the city. Let me see what you’ll do to stop me!”
Once he finished speaking, those wild beasts immediately erupted with imposing auras. The surrounding hundreds of battle slaves protecting the chariot also took out their weapons, and unleashed iron-blooded and cruel qi emissions from their bodies.
There was a fierce shout: “Kill—!”
The sound of galloping rumbled out as those hundreds of battle slaves followed the luan-bell chariot. With fearless momentum, they violently charged towards the city gates!
This kind of attitude was like they were going to fight till the bitter end.
Off to the side, when Gu Zuo saw this, his expression couldn’t help stiffening.
Did this Prodigy Huo Li not care about the occasion? Not to mention anything else, he and big brother, these two people, were right by the gates. There were several hundred subordinates around, too. What was the meaning of this guy rushing over while shouting about killing others?
In the blink of an eye, those murderous calls were getting closer. Originally, Gu Zuo and the others didn’t think about inserting themselves into the dispute between both sides, and prepared to take several steps back. However, the people rushing over didn’t care who they were, and immediately regarded them as accomplices to the soldiers guarding the gates. Those people directly rushed toward them while shouting challenge and yelling death, too!
This type of matter wasn’t something that a prodigy could tolerate!
Tianheng’s gaze turned cold as he made a hand signal.
In an instant, the forty Tianlong Guards stepped forward, and their bodies erupted with reddish-black qi waves. All of a sudden, their qi emissions became incredibly strange. But what was even more astonishing was that there seemed to be wisps of hot blood in the center of their chests, which caused their eyes to fill with excitement. At this time, they let out identical shouts, and abruptly stretched out their palms!
The next moment, forty reddish-black palm prints appeared, and faced the same direction. One palm print after another began to overlap.
One palm print, two palm prints, three palm prints…
The forty palm prints were instantly superimposed, but the strengthening of this attack’s might was more than forty times greater!
This kind of superimposed palm print towered in front of Tianheng and the others like an immoveable city wall. It carried an unimaginably frightening pressure that blocked all of the incoming attacks!
At the same time, the martial artists and wild beasts continued to rush onward until they were met with the Blood Palm. Yet, it was like they had touched something horrifying. At the moment of contact, they stuck to the Blood Palm, and quickly dissolved. In the end, they turned into the same reddish-black bloody liquid that slowly flowed and oozed across the ground…
T/N: Thanks for the corrections, Charysa.
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