Chapter 614 - Nine Spirit Purgatory

Chapter 614 - Nine Spirit Purgatory

Xiao Lin lived in the Nine Souls Pavilion, and since Long Chen was stationed there, he would sometimes come out and talk to him. But there were also times when Long Chen was completely alone. Long Chen realized that every time Xiao Lin was alone with him, it was a golden opportunity to use Control.

But Long Chen was careful. He needed to be friendly to Xiao Lin until the other party was no longer guarded towards him. Only then could he use Control, or he would fail even though his Martial Soul was strong. If he failed, everything would come crumbling down.

It was a risky move to infiltrate the Nine Souls Pavilion, but it was necessary for him to save Long Yue. Everyone else was waiting for the good news, so he could not fail.

For the next seven days, he stood guard for half a day at a time. Xiao Lin passed by a few times and talked to him every time.

At Xiao Lin’s age, he wouldn’t be able to advance anymore no matter how hard he cultivated, so there was no reason for him to cultivate. He was also more inclined to enjoy his twilight years, so his days were leisurely.

Of the three Martial Emperors, Xiao Lin was the only one Long Chen was on fairly friendly terms with. Not everyone in Martial Overlord City was evil. For example, Lady Mo was a pitiful and innocent woman.

Seven days later, Long Chen was already on good terms with Xiao Lin. Long Chen wasted no time and cultivated as he stood guard. Since he was disguised as someone at the First Earthly Martial Stage, he practiced the second stage of the Earthly Martial Fist whenever Xiao Lin passed. In reality, he had already mastered it.

But with his capabilities, he could feign it by making mistakes.

Xiao Lin started giving him pointers.

Long Chen heeded Xiao Lin’s advice and improved his cultivation. Time passed, and Long Chen saw that it was a good time to use Control since they had been talking for so long. Now that he had obtained Xiao Lin’s trust, he had to seize the opportunity as he didn’t know when his next chance would come.

As he spoke with Xiao Lin, Long Chen carefully used Control but started off weak. He planned to slowly increase the intensity of Control over a long period of time. Xiao Lin’s Martial Soul was strong, so it wouldn’t be easy to conquer it.

It wasn't until Xiao Lin’s eyes started to glaze over while they conversed that Long Chen knew that his technique had worked. But this was only the first step—it was still risky to ask for the answer now.

Control was not omnipotent.

Long Chen’s cultivation level was lower than Xiao Lin's, so the chances of failure were high. The moment Xiao Lin sensed any changes in Long Chen’s essence and Long Chen tried to attack him, Xiao Lin would immediately wake up.

Control could only dominate the minds of those weaker than him, and Long Chen could even command them to hurt themselves.

“When did you reach the Earthly Martial Realm?” Long Chen tried to prevent any large fluctuations in Xiao Lin’s emotions, so he asked a simpler question. These questions were also deemed normal to Xiao Lin.

“Twenty-seven...” Xiao Lin answered without any hesitation.

Long Chen then started to ask questions that slowly infringed on Xiao Lin’s personal life. Long Chen had already prepared the questions beforehand, and each one would require an answer that was buried deeper in Xiao Lin’s mind. That way, Xiao Lin wouldn’t wake up from the hypnosis due to shock.

Before he could react, a strong force pulled Long Chen into the hut. The door closed lightly, and the Hundred-War Martial King disappeared from the world once more.

Long Chen could only apologize to Lady Mo. The death of her husband didn’t concern him, and he only gave her some closure by appearing in front of her as the Hundred-War Martial King. Since she had a cousin who was also a Martial King, Long Chen was certain that her life wouldn’t be terrible. There were people living in worse conditions than her in the world.

The strong force sucked Long Chen into the Nine Spirit Purgatory.

He opened his eyes and was surprised by what he saw.

The Nine Spirit Purgatory was devoid of color. Everything was gray, including the sky. There were no signs of plants, and gray clouds covered the sky. A cold wind blew past the endless wasteland.

“This is the legendary Nine Spirit Purgatory ...” Long Chen looked around and realized two important things. One, everything was the same no matter which direction he looked. It was like a massive maze.

The second thing was that there was barely any nature’s spiritual energy here. It was weaker than even Baiyang Town. Long Chen realized that his essence was circulating much more slowly than usual, and he wasn’t able to replenish any essence that had been used up.

Long Chen had a thousand King Crystals that he had plundered from Yang Ninfeng, and he had eight hundred more of his own. Most of the King Crystals came from the Divine Fire Realm. Even the Martial Overlord might not have as many King Crystals as he did.

Each King Crystal contained an enormous amount of nature’s spiritual energy, so he wasn’t worried about his predicament right now.

But he could imagine how those without King Crystals would slowly become weaker if they were trapped here. Since the Nine Spirit Purgatory’s exit was also well hidden, many of them would’ve died here.

It was the most likely reason why the Martial Overlord had chosen this place as his prison.

It was a cruel environment without any resources.

I need to find Long Yue before I search for the compass.

He had a goal, but he could do nothing but smile bitterly. There was nothing in this barren land, so how would he find Long Yue? Where was the little hill? It might’ve been easier to find the hill if the flatland continued infinitely, but Long Yue was a different matter. It was possible that she was already dead.

Long Chen wasted no time and ran as fast as he could in one direction. A gray shadow ran across the barren land.

He didn’t know if he still needed his disguise, so he didn’t take it off yet.

“Huh?” Long Chen ran for a long time but met no one. In fact, the sky and land looked the same as the place he had just landed.

Suddenly, he saw footprints in front of him. On closer inspection, he realized that the footprints were his!