Chapter 718: Yunzhou
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The generosity from Fate Creation Boy benefited Zhou Bao a lot.
The three Hidden Treasures had attracted all the sects to try and scramble for them. The pract.i.tioners in the Heaven Realm World were crazy about them. However, only Zhou Bao and his trusting subordinates knew that besides those three, Zhou Bao himself had attained already ten of those and shared them with his region. Those who got the Hidden Treasure of antiquity times in the Wuyang Region had practiced for 300 hundred years in a nameless s.p.a.cetime in the Heaven Realm World. Among them, those who had the lowest cultivation reached the Level Five Tribulation Venerable while those who had the highest cultivation were at the Level Eight Tribulation Venerable. Zhu Ba was one of those.
His strength sharply increased after he had already completely launched his ancient bloodline. Meanwhile, his phase had reached the Level Eight Tribulation Lord of Heaven. In terms of the combat capability, he was even equal to a Human Immortal.
Zhou Bao’s former subordinates, like Jiang Xiao, also had a cultivation of the Six Tribulations Lord of Heaven. Wuyang Region’s strength soared to an extremely amazing state. Even without Zhou Bao, who had the strongest combat capability, the combined strength of his subordinates was not lower than any other super sect.
Certainly, all this went on under a cloak of secrecy. Only those concerned, Zhou Bao and Fate Creation Boy knew about it.
As time went on, the atmosphere in the Heaven Realm World became more and tenser. Fate Creation Boy went back to his original position. The endless s.p.a.cetime of the Heaven Realm World was readjusted, which indeed restricted most of the Lords of Heaven from the Alien Realm to enter. However, everything was not as calm as expected.
In the hollow, there were lots of Lords of Heaven, Human Immortals and even Immortals in many macro worlds. Among them, a small group of them ignored the inhibitions set up by Fate Creation Boy and went through the endless s.p.a.cetime outside the Heaven Realm World because they had special capabilities. They could hide under the rules of the Heaven Realm World and integrate into it. Although there were not so many people capable of that in one macro world, the combined macro worlds would lead to a substantial quant.i.ty. The most annoying thing was that they were cleverer now. After one had reached to the Heaven Realm World, they would instantly look for a legal and secret ident.i.ty to conceal themselves. The best way to achieve this was to kill a person and get his ident.i.ty the violent way, which was an easy job to a Lord of Heaven.
However, their strategy was by no means perfect, and secrets could be easily exposed.
In the past three months, the disguisers penetrated one by one in the Divine Wind Palace, Palace of Eternal Life and Extraterrestrial Divine Mountain respectively, which made the other super sects in the Seven-deity Regions vigilant. Fright was everywhere. The atmosphere in the pract.i.tioner section also grew tense.
Those big sects only found out two cases, let alone the small sects and the well-known families for cultivation. For a while, every pract.i.tioner in the Heaven Realm World felt nervous and scared and looked at others with insecure eyes. Many acquaintances also kept each other at a distance and stopped contact. Everyone was waiting for the ending of this event.
“It seems something big is going to happen!”
At a small restaurant in the Qinlingjun City in Yunzhou, Zhou Bao was expressionlessly watching the dark sky and sighing heavily.
Yunzhou saw three Governors in more than ten years after Ma Tianchang’s resignation from the Governor position. However, all of them hadn’t stood for a long time in this position. One reason was that they were not as capable as Ma Tianchang. The other one was that they did not have Ma Tianchang’s social connections. Therefore, they could only hold that position for a short time. In addition, Yunzhou, which had once been managed by Ma Tianchang with great effort for about ten years, gradually declined. However, the reasons should not be attributed to them solely. With the rise of Wuyang Region in the northwest, Yunzhou was not the only important border in Jin as it had been ten years ago. Meanwhile, the goods exchanged with the south did not take Yunzhou as its trade center anymore. The real trading center transferred towards the northwest. Besides, the Wuyang Road was straight and ten thousand meters long. All this rendered Yunzhou not to be the strategic port anymore. Now, it was only an ordinary inland prefecture. With the effects from several Governors in the past, did anyone rely on it to regain past glory?
However, some places in Yunzhou still kept its glory, for instance, the Wu Family.
The Wu Family’s glory profited from Zhou Bao. People all over the world knew that King Wuyang Zhou Bao came from the Wu Family. But they were also sure that his achievements actually had nothing to do with his family.
Zhou Bao was a grateful person and took care of the Wu Family very well. In particular, after the establishment of the Anyuan Store and Zhou Bao’s control over the Wuyang Region, the ironware business had to go through the Wu Family. So to speak, the Wu Family monopolized the ironware manufacture in the whole northwest area. Zhou Bao’s reputation also supported the business. More than ten years later, the Wu Family’s strength surged and became a strong aristocratic family in Jin. Its strength was not lower than that of the millennium families.
The previous four smelting families now took the Wu Family as the main one. The Wu Family’s old house in the Qinlingjun City was the second biggest buildings after several expansions. Then, which one is bigger than that monstrous construction?
Surely, the answer was the Zhou’s yard.
Zhou Bao came back to the Qinlingjun City for relaxation. His practice had already reached a bottleneck, which made him gloomy. He was a Human Immortal and was going to practice the Three Flowers. However, it was hard to do so. Although the Dharma Power-restoring Skill, Immortal Body Technique and Red Centipede Mind-concentrating Skill among the Seven Wonderful Techniques were regarded as a shortcut to the practice of the Three Flowers, according to the current situation, even the shortcut was a necessary way. Acc.u.mulation was also needed because he could not succeed in one day. Besides, he suffered a plot from the Vast Sea Emperor. He was not calm in the heart after he had been lured by the Primordial Demon Wu Chen’s words in the Infinite Star Sea. If he forced himself to practice and perceive, he would possibly be possessed by the devil.
Consequently, he came out to entertain himself and improve his restless mental state. Unconsciously, he went straight to the Qinlingjun City.
Despite Zhou Bao’s great reputation, only a few of people in the world knew his true face. When he lived in the Qinlingjun City before, he was still a child. Other than the Wu Family’s old house, he often went to the bookstalls as well. Even if someone saw him, he, as a boy, would not give others deep impression. Later, when he became famous, he had never openly shown up in Qinlingjun City. Therefore, n.o.body would really identify him there.
Where he sat was not far away from the Wu Family’s old house. He was at a table near the window on the third floor inside a restaurant, so he could clearly see the integral building at a short distance.
“Alas. Looking back, my wish was to practice until Level Seven Expert Realm. Then I would build a small villa in the Qinlingjun City and just stay here quietly for the rest of my life. But who could have guessed what actually happened?” Seeing the endless Wu Family’s old house and the new-built Zhou’s villa which was even more magnificent, Zhou Bao sighed with emotion in his heart. “It seems that’s the street. Right there I got several prescriptions of the elixir. This changed my life and also the practice situation in the world. Hehe. I still remember that I meddled the Dark Sect’s Xue Wuya with the Anesthetic Pill. Someone with a strength lower than Level One won a Level Eight expert. I was indeed a talent!”
Thinking of those years, Zhou Bao became excited. Especially, having killed Xue Wuya by meddling him with the Anesthetic Pill was really heart-stirring.
“Em? Who’s that guy?” When Zhou Bao was recalling, he suddenly saw a figure not far away whose face was really familiar. He took a careful look and could not help laughing. What a coincidence it was. That person was his acquaintance. She was Ma Linglong, the Yunzhou Governor Ma Tianchang’s runaway daughter. Later, she married Lei Ming, one of the Chiefs in the Tian Long Taoism.
Although she was almost 40 years old, she looked like a young lady in her twenties because of her lasting energy. She was still in a hurried state and wandered around the marketplace in Yunzhou.
“Interesting! Ma Tianchang is not the Yunzhou Governor any longer. Why is she here? No, she got married. However, even if she’s married, she shouldn’t show up in Yunzhou to visit her parents. Does Ma Tianchang own a territory in the north? Although he doesn’t care about it much, it was prosperous. Ma Tianchang and his wife also moved there and stay home now. n.o.body knows what they are doing there. But Ma Linglong had a reason to know that. Besides, it seems like her husband is not here. Did she run away from home and came to Yunzhou for relaxation?” Zhou Bao thought.
Zhou Bao’s strength had greatly increased recently, though he should not belittle Ma Tianchang who had once been the Yunzhou Governor. After all, Ma Tianchang was now the lord in the north and Marquis in the north of the town.
After all, he had a strong backing too.
He was from the Fifth Manor at the Longevity Mountain.
Once, Zhou Bao had been interested in Ma Tianchang and the Fifth Manor much more. Regrettably, based on his current strength, he could not enter the Fifth Manor, at least not yet. He could not even come into the Longevity Mountain. However, he could not figure out Ma Tianchang’s strength. Whatever, Ma Tianchang was a Genuine Immortal at the Venerable Realm.
A Genuine Immortal at the Venerable Realm! It sounded like it was nothing. However, more than ten years ago, he was the Yunzhou Governor and managed the whole city alone. At that time, even a Level Nine expert was called a Grandmaster!
He, as a Venerable, sitting at the city-wall inside Yunzhou, was laughing at others. Thinking back, the fairy weapon Jade Bottle was astonis.h.i.+ng the world, Zhou Bao felt that Ma Tianchang seemed to play bad his cards or perhaps he had some hidden purpose.
If he was just a venerable trying to play his cards against the world, it would be acceptable. However, if he had some other purposes, Zhou Bao had to guard against him in advance.
The Heaven Realm World was declining due to less and less population. However, after much deliberation, a lot of talented people were still here in concealment. According to Zhou Bao’s current strength and combat capability, he could never be off guard. He would plan each new step carefully because he was afraid that some eccentric expert would appear and ruin everything. Without those misgivings, he would have already leaked out the Fiery Eyes bloodline without hesitation and let it come back to the world even if he had not destroyed the Divine Wind Palace.