Chapter 433 - On July 7th in the Palace of Eternal Life

He unexpectedly found that the screen in front of him had turned light red, and the countless pornographic images had been replaced by a fierce battle. The warriors with divine spears in their hands were fighting against the demons on the ground. The Gods, in gold armor, with infinite power, were controlling lightning and thunder to fight in the sky. There were many mysterious dead beings, strange ancient divine beasts and ominous beasts on the screen scroll. Limbs were flying, bones were piled up like hills, blood had flowed like a river, and the floating corpses trailed for a thousand miles. The sky was torn apart with cracks, and the ground had collapsed with a large amount of magma bursting out. The black smoke had covered the sky and earth…

“This…”

That screen had been there all the time without anyone changing it. But why did the images on it suddenly changed?

Could it be that…?

A bolt of lightning flashed in Ding Hao’s heart. He suddenly understood that the screen was actually a treasure. Since it was able to block his Divine Awareness, perhaps, it was a Precious Weapon, even more powerful than the Magical Weapons.

He wondered if it had any other functions in addition to blocking Divine Awareness.

After a long time, Ding Honglei behind the screen seemed to have finally awakened from a long memory, and said with a sigh, “Well, you can leave.”

Slightly stunned, Ding Hao then stood up and walked outside in bewilderment.

“Wait,” Ding Honglei suddenly uttered.

Ding Hao stopped at once.

“You’re quite congenial to me. Here’s a little gadget. Keep it for fun.”

Before her voice could fade away, a ray of white light had flown out through the screen. Ding Hao reached out to grab it. When he touched it, he only felt his palm become slightly cold. Looking closely, he found it was a thumb-sized jade pendant, transparent and bright like a suet white jade. It wasn’t a seal cut with patterns, but two lines of beautiful small words—

“On July 7th in the Palace of Eternal Life, we made a vow together deep in the night as no one else was there.”

It read like a love poem.

Ding Hao only thought that everything he had experienced in the inner hall that day was extremely strange. He didn’t know the purpose of that mysterious Inspector Ding Honglei. With confusion, he turned back and asked, “What is it?”

“Keep it well. You’ll know if we meet again in the future,” Ding Honglei’s voice behind the screen became lazy again, as if she was too tired, “Don’t tell others about what happened here today… Moreover, ask the insatiable hunks outside the door to go away. I’m a bit tired today, and everything will be discussed tomorrow.”

Hunks?

Stunned for a short while, Ding Hao immediately understood that she was referring to the heads of the nine major sects.

What arrogance! Were those martial arts dominators in Snow Province just a group of insatiable hunks in her eyes? No wonder she didn’t want to see them at all those days. It wasn’t because she was unavailable, rather she unwilling.

Ding Hao nodded and turned away without a word.

That time, Ding Honglei refrained from stopping him one more time.

Although Ding Hao didn’t turn around, he felt a pair of eyes were staring at him tightly until he stepped out through the inner hall’s door.

…

…

When Ding Hao stepped out of the main hall behind Elder Chen, everyone’s eyes were trained on him. Li Jianyi’s eyes carried a little relief. But Fang Xiaoan, the School Master of the Tranquility Academy, slightly narrowed his eyes, where there were traces of light flashing.

That was the first time Ding Hao had observed the previous most powerful person in the Snow Province so closely.

Fang Xiaoan looked like an ordinary scholar in his forties, with a thin body, a white face and no beard. With a white Confucian shirt and a square scarf on his head, he had neither a king’s momentum nor impressive features. Unless you knew his identity, it was difficult to imagine that such a poor scholar-like man had sent the Tranquility Academy to the top and cultivated a peerless genius like Mu Tianyang in the previous ten years.

While Ding Hao was looking him up, he was also observing Ding Hao.

Two rays of clear light, seemingly from the depths of Hell, flashed in his eyes at intervals. He just frowned tightly and didn’t speak.

“The inspector said that he was a bit tired today, please go back and wait until tomorrow to discuss everything.” After conveying Ding Honglei’s words, Ding Hao approached Li Jianyi and the other experts of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect. He whispered to them for several seconds and then they left together.

“Everyone, please go back,” said Elder Chen coldly, and then turned to enter the hall.

Dumbfounded, Fang Xiaoan and the others knew it was impossible to ask anything else. So, they could only suppress the thick doubts in their hearts and leave with endless speculation.

…

Returning to the Swordsmanship-seeking Mountain Villa, Ding Hao secluded himself for refining again.

Li Jianyi didn’t ask him what had happened in the main hall, nor did he ask why the inspector would want to see him alone. Since even the Head didn’t ask, it wasn’t easy for the other sect giants to say anything more. They just held more curiosity and awe in their eyes toward Ding Hao.

Many people, including Tang Folei, found themselves increasingly unable to understand him.

Was he really just an orphan, born in the waste area of the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect’s back mountain?

Ding Hao couldn’t explain anything about that.

Because even he himself didn’t understand what the day’s events meant.

Sitting quietly in the practice room, he didn’t start practicing immediately that time, but took out the little jade pendant in his hand to observe. Its smooth and cool touch made him feel peaceful. The two lines of small words were very delicate, which should have been carved by a woman. Although he understood what the sentence said, he didn’t know what it meant…

“On July 7th in the Palace of Eternal Life, we made a vow together deep in the night as no one else was there.”

Ding Hao read that sentence over and over again with confusion in his heart.

Every time he read it in whispers, he would have a new understanding, as if there was a stunning woman whispering something in his ears. It was obviously a love poem, containing a very sweet meaning. It described a scene where two people in love were dating before flowers and under the moon. Though shallow, it seemed to have magic which could always disturb Ding Hao’s thoughts.

Except for the poem, there was nothing special in the jade pendant. It was white and flawless, but not made of a top-grade gem. Ding Hao had also released his Divine Awareness to inspect its interior, but found no restriction or aura fluctuations. Obviously, it was neither a Magical Weapon nor a Precious Weapon.

That was where the weirdness lay in.

As a person of high rank in the Holy Palace of Mysterious Frost, Ding Honglei regarded even the heads of the nine major sects as insatiable hunks. But why would she want to see him particularly, and even give him that jade pendant? Was it just a whim?

Ding Honglei’s behavior was really weird.

After thinking for a long time, Ding Hao couldn’t figure out why and could only keep the jade pendant in his Storage Ring temporarily.

His Storage Ring was still the one he made when he tried to refine weapons for the first time. Its internal space was only a few dozen square meters. The storage capacity was limited. Those days, he had bought a lot of interesting things from various shops, auction houses and stalls by the Mirror Lake. At the moment, his ring was already full.

“It’s time to refine another Storage Ring. Although the Black Serpent Ring has sufficient capacity, I’m afraid that it will cause unnecessary trouble with its long history, which is something I refuse.” Thinking for a moment, Ding Hao gave up the intention of using the Black Serpent Ring.

The meeting with Ding Honglei in the inspector’s main hall that day had given him a warning. Since the world was vast, there would be countless experts. He had just gotten some achievements. How distinguished were Li Jianyi and the others! But they dominated only in the Snow Province, quite a small district. Out of the Snow Province, even Elder Chen, an old servant of Ding Honglei, didn’t pay attention to those vassals in the Snow Province.

“Keep on practicing…”

Ding Hao sat cross-legged on the futon, sank his spiritual power inside his dantian, and soon entered the empty state.

…

…

According to the itinerary set by the sect, after Li Jianyi and the others returned from the inspector’s mansion, they would leave the Swordsmanship-seeking Mountain Villa and return to the sect. And each sect would slowly wrangle over the rest of the business in the next six months. According to the process of the previous Grading Meetings, it would be very fast to clearly define the new territory of each force by the end of the year.

But at noon, when Li Jianyi and the others returned, they told Ding Hao very unexpected news.

“A big event happened. The Sage Battlefield in the Northern Region was opened. In the entire Northern Region, maybe we from the Snow Province were the last to get news. The inspector appointed a group of talents from the Snow Province to the Green Province for training. And Senior Brother Ding, you’re on the list…” Li Jianyi’s expression was a little strange. Nobody knew whether he was excited or worried. He added, “You’ll depart in ten days. The Holy Palace of Mysterious Frost will send the Mysterious Frost Holy Guard to personally escort you to the Green Province.”

Sage Battlefield?

Ding Hao was stunned for a moment, then surprise rose in his heart.

It was absolutely big news. It was said that the Sage Battlefield in the Northern Region had been closed for 50 years. “Why would it open now? Why would Ding Honglei ask me to go…?”

Anyway, it was a good thing.

The historical facts in the past ten thousand years proved that the talents who wanted to be top geniuses in martial arts all yearned for the Sage Battlefield. Although it was a mysterious and dangerous place for burying bones, filled with risks, the people who came out of it alive ultimately became super experts in their own provinces; it would be just around the corner for them to reach the Martial King and the Martial Emperor stages.

“Who else is on the list?” Ding Hao asked quietly.

“All the top 50 young talents on the Snow Province Hidden Genius List. Besides, because the quota to enter the Sage Battlefield this time was unexpectedly increased, the inspector has given 20 extra places to the nine major sects. Each sect can recommend their gifted disciples as candidates. And…” Speaking of that, Li Jianyi had a strange expression again, “The inspector specially gave you six places. You can choose people to follow you to the battlefield, which is a treatment that has never been seen before.”