Chapter 655: Ten Years
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
After returning to the Seven-deity Regions, Zhou Bao was not disturbed, not that anyone would dare to do so.
Other than Mr.Feng IX, no one else knew about their experience in Thunder Emperor’s touring abode. However, w.a.n.g She and Child-endowing Buddha both benefitted quite a lot from the journey and went home smiling. Looking at the two’s relations.h.i.+p, they seemed to be much closer after the incident.
However, Zhou Bao had no idea that the two had gained a huge advantage under the guidance of Child-endowing Buddha during their journey. Could their relations.h.i.+p be bad when everyone had gotten a fairy weapon?
Hence, upon returning, both quickly started their closed-door training to refine their fairy weapons. Where could they find the time to stir up s.h.i.+t in Seven-deity Regions?
Zhou Bao did not care about the chaos in the Seven-deity Regions, as he needed time to practice. After gaining the Pool of Thunder Tribulation and strengthening The Black Pearl, he had a deeper understanding of the capabilities and power of the Supreme Fairy Weapon. He also understood several ways of practicing changes, which naturally meant that he had to do closed-door training to secure this foundation and understand his current phase. This was to prepare for future Void Thunder Tribulations.
He also knew from Mr.Feng IX that it would be best to undergo the Void Thunder Tribulation if he wanted to feel the willpower of the Void Immortal Realm. The power of the Thunder Tribulation was significantly lower in the macro world. At the same time, however, one could only accept the extremely blurry willpower of the Immortal Realm, perhaps even ignore it. This was not what Zhou Bao needed.
Furthermore, he was not like other people who only underwent the Thunder Tribulation once. He wanted at least six Thunder Tribulations at once and get the Karmic Rank of a Lord of Heaven. That meant that he would face bigger pressure. Even with his current cultivation and capabilities, he did not have enough confidence to undergo them successfully. In fact, if he had not attained the Pool of Thunder Tribulation, he would not have been that confident. The biggest difference between undergoing several Thunder Tribulations all at once from going one at a time was that the former would allow one to feel the continuous willpower of the Immortal Realm, otherwise it would feel discontinued. In the present world, it seemed like not much difference. However, for someone like Zhou Bao who practiced as a Powerful Divine from antiquity times, the change was huge.
3,000 Great Ways was the willpower of Immortal Realm experienced by the pract.i.tioners in the antiquity times who underwent numerous Thunder Tribulations. Initially, the pract.i.tioners who underwent Void Thunder Tribulation had felt just minor secrets of the Divine Sense. Once they continuously underwent three Thunder Tribulations, they could feel one of the 3,000 Great Ways. Of course, one would have to undergo the Thunder Tribulations six times consecutively in order to feel the complete 3,000 Great Ways. By going one step further for the seventh time, one would then be able to get a Divine Sense, which would be linked with what he felt earlier. If one managed to undergo the tribulation eight times at once, then he would have to be congratulated for completing all that was necessary to instantly reach the peak of an eight-tribulation Lord of Heaven. He could undergo the ninth tribulation anytime, hence securing his Karmic Rank of a Human Immortal.
Do you want to undergo the Thunder Tribulation nine times in a row to become Human Immortal?
Sorry, you do not have the chance. Even if you had the capabilities, the Void Thunder Tribulation could only be used for eight times. Even if you wanted to, you would not know where to go.
This was the benefit of undergoing several Thunder Tribulations at once. If separated, they would not give that many benefits, especially the seventh time. Even if one was able to feel the Divine Sense, it might not be suitable for him. It could even be a trap, causing him to be unable to practice anymore. If one underwent eight Thunder Tribulations at different timings, he would only be a beginner eight-tribulation Lord of Heaven at the end. It would be difficult for him to reach the peak of it. Without thousands, or even millions, of years of practice, it would be impossible to jump from beginner to peak. There was a huge difference between the two ranks.
Of course, the above-mentioned could only be attained on the basis of accepting the Void Thunder Tribulation. In an independent macro world, even if one underwent the Thunder Tribulation eight, or even eighty times, he would be unable to receive the willpower of the Void Immortal Realm. Also, he would not be able to completely understand any of the 3,000 Great Ways at all.
Ten years pa.s.sed gradually. Actually, in the present world, it was ten years. However, for Zhou Bao who was practicing in the Sea of Divine Power, it was 300 years.
The Wheel of Time could control the flow of the Azure Big World. However, after the Azure Big World received the macro world of stars, its powers increased incredibly. The Principle of Great Ways was one step nearer to completion. Even Zhou Bao could not activate the Wheel of Time as he pleased anymore.
Now, his limit was adjusting the time ratio with the present world to 30:1. For 10 years that this continued, he would have to stop for a year, that was the limit. If he forcefully activated it further, then the Principle of Great Ways of the entire Azure Big World would be destroyed.
Although Zhou Bao was in control of the Principle of Great Ways of the Azure Big World, he was unwilling to destroy it. Who was he trying to fool? This stuff belonged to him and his world. It was not worth it to forsake it in exchange for a short duration of time to spare. To a pract.i.tioner in the present world, time was never enough. However, for the under-thirty Zhou Bao, time was exactly what he had in excess.
“Father, you finally came out of your training! Uncle came many times but didn’t manage to see you. He seemed to be in a bad mood!”
“Don’t bother about him, he’s the Emperor of Great Jin, why is he always coming to my Wuyang Region!?” After going out from his training, Zhou Bao looked at the well-built teen welcoming him and said, “Eggie! It’s only been a few days since we met and your cultivation has improved so much! You’re reaching Level Eight soon!”
This teenager was his and Yan Yunfei’s son, Zhou Mu, nicknamed Eggie.
Apparently, Zhou Mu was not very pleased with this nickname. His expression shooked, “Father, I’ve told you many times, don’t call me Eggie, I am already a Level Eight expert. It’s embarra.s.sing!”
“Hahahaha, why shouldn’t I? What’s wrong with Eggie!” Zhou Bao had a sinister smile plastered on his face. “Where’s Dinosaur? Why can’t I see her?!”
“Father, don’t forget, sister had already said that if you continue to call her Dinosaur she’ll ignore you!”
“This little girl, what’s wrong with being called Dinosaur? No one would dare to bully her in the future!”
“Even if she’s not called Dinosaur, no one would dare to bully her!” Zhou Mu murmured at the side.
“Why, are you guys dissatisfied with your nicknames!”
Zhou Mu had nothing to say. Honestly, it was useless talking sense into his legendary-like father with extremely sinister interests. Think about it, a normal father would never name his twin children Dinosaur and Eggie? Together, they sounded like Dinosaur Egg, which was such a joke. However, Zhou Bao went ahead with these nicknames and even called them using these names from young till now.
When they were young, they did not think about it much. But as they grew older, they started to realize the inappropriateness of their nicknames. However, Zhou Bao, as usual, did not care about their feelings at all.
Perhaps this was the only resentment the two had against Zhou Bao.
“Oh, by the way, did anything interesting happen during these few days when I had my closed-door training?!”
“Nothing interesting, I heard that Lei Xu has succeeded as the Leader of Tian Long Taoism, and Uncle w.a.n.g became the top Elder. Also, the Infinite Star Sea is seeping heavily into the Seven-deity Regions these few days. Unknown experts have appeared in many places. Even some Individual Immortals from the few big sects have encountered some trouble. I heard that another three Individual Immortals from Divine Wind Palace had been killed!”
“The Divine Wind Palace has had their heyday, n.o.body cares about them anymore. For the past ten years, their real experts hid in the Grand Divine Wind Palace and dared not come out. They will still remain strong no matter how many Individual Immortals are killed!” Zhou Bao waved his hand and glanced at Zhou Mu’s handsome face. He looked helpless. “Eggie, only you’re here to welcome me today, is your mom throwing a tantrum again?!”
“Can the elderly not get mad at the way you treated uncle?!” Zhou Mu blinked and laughed.
“If you call her elderly again she’ll appear in front of you immediately and give you a good lesson!” Zhou Bao laughed heartily. “Let’s go and visit the ladies of the family and see what they can do to me!!!” As he spoke, Zhou Bao tapped his son’s shoulder, pulling him towards the backyard of his palace.
10 years was not long too for a cultivator, but it could also change a lot of things. For example, his daughter had grown from a toddler to a teen; a dynasty could die and a new one could be born, or another new generation of experts could grow and s.h.i.+ne. It could also happen that the influence of the Divine Wind Palace could shrink totally.
This was what could have happened in 10 years.
After returning to Wuyang Region from Thunder Emperor’s touring abode, Zhou Bao stopped asking about worldly matters. He had close relations.h.i.+ps with the cultivators who were in contact with w.a.n.g She openly and with Child-endowing Buddha secretly. He did not care about the rest.
With him guarding the Wuyang Region, whether he was present or not, not a sane soul would come and cause trouble. The addition of a suitable pathway had made the Wuyang Region the northern lord. Just like the Northern Yuan back in the days, the whole Northern area fell under his feet. As compared to Northern Yuan, the capability of Wuyang Region was even much stronger and had more deterrence.
However, Zhou Bao hadn’t taken the chance to unify and rule the northern area. If so, it would become an enfeoffed country. He had never wanted to touch the profits of the enfeoff elites. He even favored them a little at many instances. This led the northern leaders to take his orders. As for the Jin that enfeoffed them back then, these lords had already long forgotten about them.
The world changed very drastically, likewise for the world of cultivation. In the Thunder Emperor’s touring abode, the Divine Wind Palace lost their lord. There was huge internal chaos.
When Yu Taixu used to be around, he could still control the fights between different gangs in the palace using his strong capabilities. But with him dead, internal chaos arose in the Divine Wind Palace and divisions started to appear. If it was not for the intervention of the Highest Elder who stopped the disputes using his thunderbolt hands, perhaps Divine Wind Palace, who had reigned the Heaven Realm for thousands of years with its power, would really fall into pieces.
Even though forcefully controlled the internal problems, there was increasing pressure from outside.
Mr.Feng IX, who entered the Thunder Emperor’s touring abode with Yu Taixu, came back alive and told everyone all that happened in the journey. The remaining Four Great Sects, even the few greatest sects of Three Western Regions, all heard about how Yu Taixu, the lord of Divine Wind Palace had fallen. When they heard that a Supreme Fairy Weapon had also disappeared, they secretly sucked in a cold breath and started getting into action.
By losing multiple fairy weapons, a Supreme Fairy Weapon and a lord, without doubt, the capabilities of Divine Wind Palace must have fallen tremendously. Although no one was sure how much, at least they knew that the Divine Wind Palace was not all high and mighty like it used to be. Indeed, as expected, the heavily-injured Divine Wind Palace could not gain back their previous status. Their influence had shrunk tremendously. Apart from giving up the Central Mainland Region, the Divine Wind Palace also gave up another region in the Four Eastern Regions. That was how they managed to secure the Four Great Sects.
In the Central Mainland Region, Zhou Bao initially expressed with a stern att.i.tude that he would give up the influence of the School of Five Virtues. The majority of the Divine Wind Palace and the royalty of Great Jin all expressed their anger. However, there was nothing the royalty could do. As for the School of Five Virtues, after Zhou Bao and w.a.n.g She jointly-fought for it, its influence had greatly declined and returned to its home base, the Divine Wind Palace. This lost influence had been supported on The Man of Honor Ji Zhongtang and The White Blademaster Lu Shaoyou.
The previous Chief of Tian Long Taoism was now the top Elder. The grudge between w.a.n.g She, The White Blademaster Lu Shaoyou and The Man of Honor Ji Zhongtang had already become the most talked-about in the Jianghu. It was not only pa.s.sed by mouth, numerous busybodies even invented their own stories and spread them in restaurants. People were interested to find out what will be the ending of the trio’s grudge.
However, they could not know that w.a.n.g She had revealed to Ji Zhongtang his ident.i.ty 10 years ago. After leaving with a cold smile, both parties seemed to not have any more dealings. When Zhou Bao and his team returned from Thunder Emperor’s touring abode and fought against the School of Five Virtues, Zhou Bao and w.a.n.g She displayed an overwhelming power. Eventually, the ending was marked by the recognition from the School of Five Virtues. There was no drama of any sort that the public wanted to see.
The influence of the Four Great Sects had expanded to two regions and it no longer pressured the Divine Wind Palace. As the internal chaos in the palace ceased, the Four Great Sects and Divine Wind Palace was, once again, at an awkward stage of balance. This was a fragile yet delicate balance that could be broken anytime. However, no one knew who would break it first.
In the past ten years, the largest events that had happened would be the seeping of Infinite Star Sea’s influence as well as the exploration of the Ancient Ruins. In the second year since Zhou Bao returned from Thunder Emperor’s touring abode, a series of strange events happened in the martial arts world of Jianghu. Many talkative experts emerged all of a sudden. Even Individual Immortals and Genuine Immortals started to appear in inexplicable places. Their strange appearances always caused a huge ruckus. Initially, the pract.i.tioners did not notice it. Once, a Level Nine expert was unconsciously drawn by a strange energy from a nearby mountain. He went to take a look and found a heavily-injured pract.i.tioner. This pract.i.tioner’s attire was very strange. Being extremely hurt he was still trying to s.n.a.t.c.h the expert’s body to be reborn again. Eventually, he failed to succeed because of his wounds. However, this expert managed to suck away a part of his memory, which revealed a big secret.
It turned out that these pract.i.tioners came from the Infinite Star Sea and have entered the Heaven Realm macro world. When the Four Great Sects from Four Eastern Regions picked themselves up from their previous defeat and entered the Infinite Star Sea to explore, the pract.i.tioners from Infinite Star Sea were attracted by the Heaven Realm. Behind the Infinite Star Sea was the Milky Way Star Area and the Purple Scorpion Star Area, as well as the strength of 14 macro worlds.
These macro worlds have been pa.s.sed from antiquity times. They were not like the macro worlds from Heaven Realm that have been broken for generations, hence losing their inheritance. These ones have been pa.s.sed down continuously. Thus, they were very clear about the secrets from antiquity times. They knew every single detail about many of the secrets in the Heaven Realm, just like how the guy who got possessed by Devil Fetus knew where the Thunder Emperor’s touring abode was. There were even many schools of these macro worlds that started from the Heaven Realm.
Hence, after discovering the secret of the Heaven Realm, the strong sects and higher officials from these macro worlds started to come up with endless ideas to search for the traces of the Heaven Realm, which had been lost for thousands of years. Eventually, they found a clue in the Infinite Star Sea. They did some reverse engineering using the two destructed Transmitting Formation. Although they did not manage to calculate the exact location of the macro world, they luckily managed to recover one of them. They then worked on it and made it a one-way Transmitting Formation.
A one-way Transmitting Formation did not require to be connected to another magic formation from the macro world where you planned on going. By directly using the Law of s.p.a.ce, a one-way Transmitting Formation would forcefully transport the pract.i.tioners from the Infinite Star Sea to the Heaven Realm. This method was very dangerous. It could even be called a no-return method.
Unless necessary, no one wanted to do this.
But that was nothing to worry about for them. The highest officials from the two powerful Star Areas and 14 macro worlds have thought of a few methods. They provided a large sum of money and also equipped the people with secrets of the Ancient Ruins that were pa.s.sed down from the sects and gangs from the antiquity times. There used to be countless inheritances from the sects in antiquity times. However, they were well hidden in the endless s.p.a.ce-time mazes of the Heaven Realm. As long as one of the secrets was acquired, one could increase his capabilities tremendously. Precisely because of this, many pract.i.tioners who were unable to improve further were attracted. At the same time, they even thought of an extremely cunning method to get the most out of it. There were a large number of pract.i.tioners in the 14 macro worlds, plenty more than in the Seven-deity Regions. When the gra.s.s patch is big, you get all kinds of sheep. In the 14 macro worlds, there were many black sheep who have triggered many to be after their lives, or simply were failures. The highest officials actually allowed these people to enter the Transmitting Formation and even promised on their own name that they would be able to return safely. Their sins were washed away once and for all, even if they raped the favorite daughter of the highest official from each of the 14 macro worlds, they would still be forgiven. This made many b.a.s.t.a.r.ds who had been pushed to the limit to choose this.
That Level Nine expert, for example, was a subordinate of the Dragon Thunder Palace. He understood the seriousness of the matter and immediately reported back. The palace did not waste any time and also notified the other Four Great Sects instantly.
This incident was sort of a breather for the Divine Wind Palace on a certain level. They regained their footing and from then on, the five biggest sects fought hand in hand to kill these pract.i.tioners from the Infinite Star Sea.
Initially, their tactic was very obvious but still effective. However, everyone soon realized that there were too many pract.i.tioners from the Infinite Star Sea. They also found out that the Transmitting Formation randomly chose the places where it transported the people into Seven-deity Regions. This caused the task of finding intruders much more difficult. Most importantly, because these intruders knew many secrets of the Heaven Realm, they would usually appear at places with ancient sect inheritance. This ancient sect inheritance was much more worth than the price of their intruding. Soon, the killing plan became a search-for-treasure kind of plan. After a Genuine Immortal found two Pure Yang Celestial Devices and a broken fairy weapon in an Ancient Ruin, the act of digging for ancestors’ treasures became common in the Seven-deity Regions. Now, they no longer killed intruders directly. Instead, they would ask them for the secrets of the Ancient Ruin. In just a short 10 years, 23 Ancient Ruins had been discovered. Among them, seven were useless. However, the remaining 16 had things like Pure Yang Celestial Devices and Highest Heaven Celestial Devices buried in them. Many extinct mysterious objects like Spiritual Stones and medicinal herbs were also found there. The pioneers and leaders of this search for Ancient Ruins was marked by Child-endowing Buddha of Snow Mountain Great Wheel Temple, finding a huge medicinal garden and a fairy weapon in the ruins of a sect from antiquity times.
A Fairy weapon, it was a complete fairy weapon.
Although it seemed immoral, the benefits were very attractive. At least the few big sects from the Seven-deity Regions have more or less gained one or two fairy weapons, as well as numerous Pure Yang Celestial Devices. They even had countless new Magic Drugs and Spiritual Stones. In just 10 years, the whole Seven-deity Regions seemed to have returned back to the medieval period.
However, the situation had cooled down. Instead, the cultivation of the Four Eastern Regions had changed drastically.
A large amount of higher rank pract.i.tioners from sects other than the five biggest sects were coming out. They ranged from Level Seven experts to even Individual Immortals. The large number was far too big for the five biggest sects to be able to stop them all. For such a thing to happen, one of the reasons was Zhou Bao sinisterly releasing that few pieces of prescription of elixir. This made becoming an expert master of martial arts no longer an impossible feat for normal martial arts pract.i.tioners. Ten years ago, teen experts like Zhou Bao and Ji Yeyue were enough to cause a sensation in the Central Mainland Region. Now, however, in these 10 years, there were at least 50 teen experts rising from just Jin of Central Mainland Region alone. They were increasing by hundreds. As a result, the price of medicinal herbs required to make Bone-Forging Pill, Tendon-Changing Pill, Blood Exchanging Pill and Marrow Cleansing Pill all increased tremendously. The market for medicinal herbs in the Seven-deity Region was taken over by chaos for a period of time. As for Anyuan Store, it had already stockpiled a huge amount of medicinal herbs, hence earning a huge benefit out of them. Furthermore, with the support of Zhou Bao’s Azure Big World, these low-level medicinal herbs were always obtainable to him. He could have whatever amount he wanted. However, there is always an extent to all issues. If the ground was made of gold, then gold would not have any value anymore. Hence, Zhou Bao did not sell his medicinal herbs.
The slow 10 years pa.s.sed by in an instant. The Seven-deity Regions changed drastically. It no longer looked like it used to.