Chapter 1045: Rich Harves

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The Emperor Yi Shooting Sun Bow was lifeless and required a finishing touch to complete it. Only by bringing back the Item Spirit could this divine bow regain its glory days.

“Oh, by the way, Ao Jiao, I keep hearing people talk about the Divine Weapon Ranking. What exactly is the Divine Weapon Ranking? Why is it that Divine Weapons that make it into the Divine Weapon Ranking would have Divine Might and rival Primordial Emperor Treasures?” Xiao Chen asked, recalling something as he put away the Primordial Emperor Treasure.

Ao Jiao explained, The exact reason is not clear. This ranking already existed at the birth of the Martial Epoch. As long as the Divine Weapon in your hand reached a certain standard, it would push off another Divine Weapon and automatically appear in the ranking.

“That mystical?”

It really is that mystical. According to what Sang Mu said in the past, that ranking is carved on a Divine Stone. In the past, his greatest wish was for the Thunder Wood Sword to be directly ranked on the Divine Weapon Ranking when it became a Divine Weapon. Unfortunately…

Xiao Chen smiled and said, “It’s fine. When the Lunar Shadow Saber becomes a Divine Weapon, I’m sure it will make it onto the Divine Weapon Ranking.”

Haha! I look forward to that day too. At that time, I will know the answer and can answer your question. Then, Ao Jiao said after a pause, Your friend is here.

Xiao Chen looked up. Xuanyuan Zhantian’s figure slowly appeared in his vision and approached closer and closer before landing on the island.

It was a hard-to-come-by coincidence that Xiao Chen met Xuanyuan Zhantian in the Cloud Sea Domain. Naturally, he had to touch base with him and reminisce about the old days. So, he sent Xuanyuan Zhantian a voice projection before he left.

“It seems that in the three years I haven’t seen Brother Xuanyuan, you met with many fortuitous encounters,” Xiao Chen said calmly.

Right now, Xuanyuan Zhantian was much weaker than Xiao Chen. However, he was more or less on par with the other outstanding talents of the Kunlun Continent.

Xuanyuan Zhantian’s will of kingship still had many places that could be improved, but its potential seemed to have been raised.

Xuanyuan Zhantian did not refute him. Smiling, he said, “It’s been pretty good. The sea is where I truly belong. I managed to raise my state of kingship to the will of kingship in this place. Through a fortuitous encounter, I cultivated a Cultivation Technique that fused the will into my physical body, the Battle King Art.

“I just reached Small Perfection, and it is already easy for me to defeat a regular great grandmaster-level Martial Sage.”

Merging the will with the physical body, this was the first time Xiao Chen heard of this. How could a will be merged with the physical body?

The next level after will was domain. As long as one raised the will of water to the peak, it could evolve into the comprehension of water. The will of thunder, will of ice, the will of fire, and the others mostly followed the same principle.

The domain that represented the will of kingship was the king’s domain, a powerful kind of domain. Once it was successfully comprehended, Xuanyuan Zhantian would be able to surpass many of his competitors right away.

Xuanyuan Zhantian could make out Xiao Chen’s doubts. He smiled and said, “The Heavenly Starry Ocean is a very vast world. The inheritance of the Martial Way was not broken or destroyed before the death of the last Sea Monarch. Several things are even more complete than what is preserved in the Kunlun Continent.

“Based on what I know, the will of thunder can merge with the body as well; the same goes for fire and ice. It can even merge two different wills into the body, like thunder fire and ice wind. There is no lack of geniuses in this world.”

Xuanyuan Zhantian spoke of some of his experiences in the Heavenly Starry Ocean, widening Xiao Chen’s horizon.

“Given your strength, there is no need for you to remain in the Cloud Sea Domain, right?” Xiao Chen asked.

Xuanyuan Zhantian nodded and said, “Originally, I was preparing to leave the Cloud Sea Domain after the trip to the treasure mountain, to continue seeking fortuitous encounters. Then, I will show off my skills at the Four Seas Hero Gathering.”

What’s the Four Seas Hero Gathering? Xiao Chen looked at Xuanyuan Zhantian with interest, waiting for him to give a detailed introduction.

Xuanyuan Zhantian smiled and said, “The Four Seas Hero Gathering is also known as the Heroes Pageant. It occurs every twenty years, and it is a major event hosted by an Immortal Holy Land, the Lunar Palace, that shakes up the entire Heavenly Starry Ocean.”

“Immortal Holy Land?” This was the first time Xiao Chen heard of this term, so he was curious.

Xuanyuan Zhantian explained, “This is just a term I coined. You should be familiar with the term Holy Land. There are about five or six Holy Lands extant on the Kunlun Continent.

[TL Note: The Three Holy Lands in the novel, plus the Dragon’s Gate for a total of four Holy Lands, are the ones in the Tianwu Domain. Based on this, there should be more Holy Lands in the domains of the other races.]

“However, in my opinion, these cannot be considered Immortal Holy Lands. After going through the Hundred Race War, and the even more horrifying War of the Emperors in the Savage Battlefield, all the Holy Lands of the Kunlun Continent from the Ancient Era, existences like the Fire Li Sect, suffered devastating blows, and their inheritances got broken.

“Only when their inheritance is unextinguished and intact for ten thousand years, fifty thousand years, a hundred thousand years can they be called an Immortal Holy Land. Because the Sea Monarch ruled the Heavenly Starry Ocean, and the position was passed down for many generations, a large-scale battle among Emperors never happened.

“Hence, the Holy Lands attached to the Sea Monarch Palace never had their line of inheritance broken. Of course, there were Holy Lands that vanished into the long river of history due to lacking Luck.

“Currently, there are a total of six Immortal Holy Lands in the Heavenly Starry Ocean: the Cyclic Astral Palace, the Five Poison Sect, the Yinyang Paradise, Myriad Fiend Island, the Heavenly Province Academy, and the Lunar Palace.”

“In the past, there was a formidable Buddhist Holy Land, the Minor Leiyin Temple. Unfortunately, ten thousand years ago, when the Azure Emperor led the Dragon’s Gate’s troops into the Heavenly Starry Ocean, they started their attacks with the Minor Leiyin Temple and completely eradicated it.”

[TL Note: I translated Minor Leiyin Temple partly with the pinyin phonetics because the Leiyin Temple is a part of famous Chinese legend, Journey to the West. The Leiyin Temple is the final destination of the journey of that group, where they retrieved the scriptures. Otherwise, translating Minor Leiyin Temple would give Minor Thunder Sound Temple.]

Immortal Holy Land. So that is what he meant by an Immortal Holy Land. It looks like the factions of the Heavenly Starry Ocean are larger than I originally thought.

Furthermore, there was the mysterious Buddhist Holy Land in the Heavenly Starry Ocean that the Azure Emperor destroyed.

Xiao Chen thought for a while before asking, “You don’t consider the Northern Sea Alliance an Immortal Holy Land?”

Even before Xiao Chen entered the Heavenly Starry Ocean, he had heard of the might of the Northern Sea Alliance.

Xuanyuan Zhantian shook his head and replied, “Naturally, they do not count. They are just an alliance of many factions. Of course, they are no weaker than the Holy Lands. There are also some ancient Noble Clans that are as strong as the Holy Lands. However, they are too closed-off and cannot be considered Holy Lands in my opinion.”

After Xuanyuan Zhantian said that, he sighed. “Nowadays, this very vast Heavenly Starry Ocean has millions of sects and billions of islands. They fight each other for resources and territory, with the Holy Lands taking the lead. It is very chaotic, and no one is willing to submit to another.”

Xiao Chen smiled and said, “It is indeed quite chaotic. There are Immortal Holy Lands, ancient Noble Clans, large factions like the Northern Sea Alliance, as well as other factions that rose up later.”

Xuanyuan Zhantian glanced at Xiao Chen and smiled. “Speaking of chaos, this matter is related to you. When the Azure Emperor destroyed the Sea Monarch Palace, with the Dragon’s Gate’s original strength, they could have suppressed all the Holy Lands. However, the Azure Emperor mysteriously fell, and the Dragon’s Gate was destroyed. Hence, the Heavenly Starry Ocean turned chaotic.

“If you can rebuild the Dragon’s Gate and reach the same heights as the Azure Emperor, you might be able to bring peace back to the Heavenly Starry Ocean.”

Unexpectedly, there was such a matter. Xiao Chen was unwilling to delve into this, so he changed the topic. “Let’s talk more about that Heroes Pageant. Why is the Lunar Palace organizing this?”

Xuanyuan Zhantian did not find this tiresome, so he carefully explained everything in detail. Xiao Chen finally understood the ins and outs of the Heroes Pageant.

The Lunar Palace’s position was extraordinary. Even though they were not ambitious, they were extremely strong and well-respected.

Initially, when the Lunar Palace organized the Heroes Pageant, it was for the sake of selecting outstanding talents from the entire Heavenly Starry Ocean to compete with the Immortal Cultivators of the Penglai Sea.

The battles between the youths were used to resolve conflicts and disputes between the Heavenly Starry Ocean and the Penglai Sea.

However, now, the Penglai Sea took the stance of hiding themselves and shunning the world, so they rarely entered into any disputes with the Heavenly Starry Ocean. Hence, the initial rationale behind the Heroes Pageant no longer existed.

The current Heroes Pageant was just an opportunity for the outstanding talents of various places to stand out from the rest, for the various Holy Lands to bare their teeth and fight for prestige.

Furthermore, in every Heroes Pageant, the Lunar Palace would take out extremely valuable prizes for the aggrandizement of the Heroes Pageant, deeply imprinting this event in everyone’s hearts. Thus, its popularity spread to the four major sea domains, the Eastern Sea, Southern Sea, Western Sea, and Northern Sea. Hence, it was now named the Four Seas Hero Gathering.

Xuanyuan Zhantian said, “There is still one year before the Heroes Pageant starts. You can come and partake in the festivities then.”

Xiao Chen shook his head and said, “I am not too interested in this. There are still many dangers waiting for me at Heavenly Star Island. I have to think of ways to quickly raise my strength.”

Xuanyuan Zhantian knew that Xiao Chen’s words were true. After chatting for a long time, they performed cupped-fist salutes and took their leave of each other.

On this trip to the treasure mountain, the two gained many benefits. They needed to find a place to organize these benefits and could not spend too much time chatting.

Actually, you can go and take a look at the Heroes Pageant. The Lunar Palace had lots of female disciples! Ao Jiao teased from the Immortal Spirit Ring.

Under Ao Jiao’s management, the most precious Spirit Tree in the Immortal Spirit Ring, the Lunar Cassia Tree, looked like it was going to bloom again.

Of course, this was largely due to Xiao Chen infusing a Peak Spirit Vein into the Immortal Spirit Ring.

“I’ll think about it later.”

Xiao Chen was currently very busy. He already took out the ten jade strips from the Ten Thousand Treasure Pavilion. Now, he sent in his Spiritual Sense and anxiously checked them, hoping to find Profound Martial Techniques suitable for himself.

“Profound Spear Technique—Heaven Burning Spear Technique!” Xiao Chen shook his head and set this jade strip aside. Clearly, he could not cultivate this.

Sword Technique, Staff Technique, Spear Technique… In the blink of an eye, Xiao Chen tossed five or six jade strips to the side. He could not use them at all. He could not help showing a somewhat disappointed expression.

“Profound Saber Technique, Thousand Frost Battle Snow.”

Xiao Chen’s face lit up in joy. There finally was a Profound Saber Technique. He was starting to think that the ten jade strips did not contain a single Saber Technique. If that was so, he would be very unlucky.

Furthermore, this was an ice-attributed Saber Technique, something that he lacked. This Thousand Frost Battle Snow came at a good time.

Xiao Chen carefully placed this jade strip away and checked the remaining three, only to find them not useful to him.

However, that was fine as well. Finding a Profound Martial Technique that matched him was already a good result.

As for the remaining nine, after making copies, he would be able to sell them for sky-high prices no matter where he auctioned them.

One Profound Martial Technique would definitely fetch at least one million Black Astral Coins and possibly much higher.

Then, Xiao Chen flipped his palm. A spatial ring appeared. This was the spatial ring of the loose cultivator Gao Yangyu. Xiao Chen was already extremely proficient in killing people and taking their treasures.

The instant he killed Gao Yangyu, he had silently taken Gao Yangyu’s spatial ring.

After all, Gao Yangyu was a quasi-Emperor. He should be able to bring Xiao Chen quite a pleasant surprise.

The only unfortunate thing was that the Azure Emperor’s saber light was too horrifying. It had not even left any dust from the eight quasi-Emperors; naturally, there was no hope for their spatial rings.

Otherwise, if Xiao Chen could have collected the spatial rings of all eight quasi-Emperors, then the already wealthy Xiao Chen would have become even richer.