Wang Sheng felt somewhat emotional inside. Just before, he had been wondering which place would be suitable to practice the Wind and Rain Summoning Technique, and wasn’t Dream Prefecture the perfect place?
There was no real rush for now. He and Zhu Xiao had come early to scout things out.
They hadn’t even planned to be the first ones to make a move.
They would wait until the initial wave of competition was over and the waters had been tested. That would be the moment for the strongest among them to act.
In truth, those who participated in the initial struggle were aware of this fact too. But fortune favors the bold, and those individuals were supremely confident, intending to snatch success from the jaws of danger.
Hence, there was no need for either of them to be overly anxious, and Zhu Xiao wasn’t urging him on.
Now whenever Wang Sheng arrived at a place, he would employ the Rainfall Technique, and the progress bar for “Wind and Rain Summoning” rose rapidly.
Of course, Zhu Xiao had always believed that Wang Sheng did this out of kindness. Though the rainfall could only alleviate urgent problems and not solve the underlying issues, it still helped many people.
Advancing on their way, Wang Sheng continued to use his secret technique to cause rain.
By the time they neared the treasure, his skill had nearly reached level five.
But—
“Why aren’t you using the Rainfall Technique now?” Zhu Xiao asked, puzzled. Wang Sheng hadn’t used the Rainfall Technique this time when faced with an even more critical situation.
It was a group of refugees moving ahead. They were getting closer to the center and could no longer hold on, starting to flee.
Zhu Xiao felt that, given the previous scenarios, Wang Sheng would have likely brought rain for this group.
Wang Sheng looked at the relentless procession of refugees and then up at the sky, cloudless for miles.
He then said, “I’ve already employed the secret technique!”
It wasn’t that he hadn’t used it, but rather that it had been ineffective.
“I have used it, but…”
“This is just the limit of Divine Thought Secret Technique at present. The Wind and Rain Summoning is affected by the environment. Summoning wind is somewhat manageable, but summoning rain seems impossible here; it’s being influenced.”
Wang Sheng couldn’t exactly say he was disappointed—it was something he had anticipated, which is why he had been contemplating improvement.
He did have some ideas, but making them reality would be challenging and require time or perhaps wait for the surprise of a Breakthrough.
Zhu Xiao didn’t say much more.
Save those who could be saved, and for those who couldn’t, so be it.
After contemplating how to refine his technique, Wang Sheng left directly with Zhu Xiao.
And the marching refugees heard a phrase.
“A hundred miles from here, it is raining, perhaps you might survive!”
Naturally, it was Wang Sheng who had spoken, although Zhu Xiao had wanted to say something, just that Wang Sheng beat her to it.
She understood why he would say such a thing.
To offer hope—could ignite the will to live in many more.
If one of the refugees had said these words, perhaps they wouldn’t have much effect, but coming from her or Wang Sheng, the results were different.
Mystique, the unknown, sometimes represented hope.
After they spoke, indeed, hope for life ignited in the eyes of quite a few among the refugees.
These were matters that Wang Sheng and Zhu Xiao no longer needed to concern themselves with.
After realizing that they couldn’t produce rain, the two hastened their pace towards the location of the treasure.
After a while, they came upon a “deep pit.”
The ground around the pit was cracked, and within it lay countless animal carcasses, with those of fish being the most numerous.
“This place used to be Dream Lake, right? It has completely dried up?”
Wang Sheng had looked at the map and was familiar with some important locations in Dream Prefecture.
This “deep pit” was actually the former site of Dream Lake.
Logically speaking, it shouldn’t be this severe, if Dream Lake has dried up to this extent, then the drought must affect more than just one prefecture.
Zhu Xiao obviously knew something about the situation, she said, “The fact that the lake has dried up to this extent and the drought is confined, seems to be because the range of influence of that treasure is currently only this large, the closer you get to it, the greater the impact!
Not only that, this range seems to be expanding, it was said that initially, it only affected the area around Dream Lake, but now it can affect an entire prefecture!”
“The range is constantly expanding?”
A growth-type treasure?
Wang Sheng became more and more interested in the treasure that seemed to be the Fire Spirit Pearl from the description.
However, he was also puzzled.
“How did you determine that the treasure has not yet matured?”
From Zhu Xiao’s words, even she, a leader of a Great Grandmaster-level force, seemed to be facing such a powerful treasure for the first time; under these circumstances, how could she tell that the treasure hadn’t reached maturity?
Zhu Xiao did not answer directly but responded, “Come with me and see for yourself!”
She led Wang Sheng further on, heading towards the depths of Dream Lake.
The deeper they went, the hotter it became, and there were even places where flames were burning.
Subsequently, the flames became more numerous, until they were everywhere.
Eventually, Wang Sheng even saw magma flowing across the ground.
This place, which was clearly a lake, had now become a mountain of fire.
At the same time, Zhu Xiao reminded, “We’ll soon be close to the treasure. Do you need to conceal yourself?”
Wang Sheng thought for a moment and ultimately used the Divine Skill nurtured by his Five Internal Gods, Golden Light!
This Divine Skill, if fully achieved, could theoretically be Immune to All Techniques; but at the moment, it was just beginning to emerge, so its only effect was to hide his appearance.
If he could avoid showing his face, he would.
As for other Great Grandmaster forces starting their investigation from Yuelai Inn—
Setting aside whether Yuelai Inn would let them succeed in their investigation, if he could change others’ perceptions of the tiger chariot, did it mean that the appearance he was displaying was necessarily real?
Perhaps only Zhu Xiao, a top Great Grandmaster with extremely sensitive perception, knew his true appearance.
Before long, the two arrived near the treasure.
Under Divine Thought, there were many people hidden around.
Grandmasters, Great Grandmasters, top Great Grandmasters—in the open or in secret—all coveting the treasure.
It was the first time Wang Sheng had “seen” so many Great Grandmaster-level powerhouses.
But his main focus now was on the treasure floating in the sea of fire not far away.
The treasure was a fiery red, round gemstone, crystal clear. It looked as if countless flames were burning inside the Treasure Bead, poised to burst forth with endless high temperatures.
Around it, tongues of flame danced seductively, licking at the bead, circling around it, with a terrible temperature repelling everything that wanted to approach, possessing extremely strong offensiveness.
At the same time, Wang Sheng also understood why Zhu Xiao said the Treasure Bead had not yet matured.
Although it was not very obvious, with Wang Sheng’s abilities, he could clearly see that the interior of the bead was not filled with flames; there was still a portion that was empty.
Most crucially, this empty space was being continuously devoured by fire, and, concurrently, the protective flames on the outside faded a little. It wouldn’t be long before these flames completely dissipated…
(PS. Made some edits, changing First Grade Martial Artist to First Grade, and so on)