The Central Continent was the biggest continent on planet Daiyu. It was also known as the Xingyun Dynasty governed by the Xingyun Imperial Family, one of the two imperial families on the planet besides the Tang Dynasty on the Tang Continent.
Out of all the other continents, it was considered the most powerful and prosperous.
From the Emperor and his Ministers down to the commoners in its 8 states, everyone was happily living their lives.
This situation where peace reigns throughout the empire were due to the Emperor's strict laws on corruption and violence. He was a man of benevolence who believe that the empire should place the protection of its citizens above all else because without them, there would be no empire to speak of.
To demonstrate this fact, he made a clear contrast between the cultivation world and the mortal world.
The large sects and clans had gotten a warning that if their conflicts or struggle over cultivation resources ever get the common people involved, then they would have to pay a heavy price.
The Emperor himself was a Saint realm being and not just an ordinary one, but one that was said to be on the verge of going beyond that realm.
Under his command were his three generals, who were shockingly also Saint realm beings but had alone recently broken through. This lineup made it so that one word from the Emperor could bring catastrophe to the sects and clans, making them afraid and wouldn't dare to go against his order.
The only exception where the cultivation world came in contact with the mortal world, was when the sects held their Disciple Selection Ceremonies.
They would go into the mortal world and choose children who had developed Spirit roots to enter their sects. The Emperor did not prevent this because for a sect to grow a new generation of talented disciples was needed.
In fact, his second son was a Conclave disciple of a Sage-level Sect called the Solitary Sword Sect and was considered to be extremely talented being that he was only sixteen.
For most Sects, a disciple would need to be in the Core Formation realm or have immense talent to qualify for a Conclave disciple position. The prince checking both of those boxes made one see that he was not to be looked down on.
In contrast to him was his older brother the Crown Prince, who was at the late stage of the Foundation Building realm. But even so, no one would look down on him for having a lower cultivation level than his little brother. Due to one fact that when he tested for a Spirit root, it was discovered that he possessed one of the Legendary Physiques, the Nine Sun Extreme Yang Physique.
Due to his physique having a fire attribute, he decided to become an Alchemist.
An alchemist was someone who studies the Dao of alchemy by learning the different spiritual herbs, and concocted medicinal pills using pill formulas.
Alchemists could be separated into Grades 1 to 9.
A Grade 1 alchemist could only concoct grade 1 pills that only affect Qi Gathering realm cultivators, while a Grade 2 alchemist could produce grade 1 and grade 2 pills that can affect Foundation realm cultivators.
There were some geniuses that could concoct grade 2 pills while still being in the Qi Gathering realm, but they were rare.
Alchemy masters have always been sought after. It was to the point where some sects and clans would go as far as to exhaust a countless number of resources to train their alchemy disciples, but only a few could actually achieve something.
The number of people who had reached the 1st Grade was plenty, but going up the ranks they become fewer and fewer. The highest level of alchemy masters on planet Daiyu was the 5th Grade, and they could be counted on one hand.
The reason why practicing alchemy was so difficult to begin with, was that in addition to studying thousands of different spiritual herbs and their properties, while also memorizing hundreds of pill formulas, alchemists must also focus on cultivating their Spiritual Qi as well.
For example, if a Grade 1 alchemist wanted to concoct a grade 2 pill, they would have to be in the Foundation realm, if not then their Qi Gathering realm Spiritual Qi would run out before they could concoct the pill.
For most Qi Cultivators, cultivating Spiritual Qi was already difficult. Now having to learn alchemy on top of that would only slow down their cultivation progress. So most consider it a waste of time learning it. At the very least they would study the basics and that's it.
This year the crown prince was nineteen years old, and it was said that if he had focused on cultivation alone instead of diverting his attention to alchemy, he would have surpassed his younger brother's cultivation a long time ago.
When the crown prince decided to become an alchemist, the Emperor was very supportive of his decision.
He had taken the liberty to hire several renowned alchemy masters to teach his son about alchemy. He even gifted his son a top-quality pill furnace used by Grade 4 alchemists and sent out an order to build a large courtyard that took up a third of the palace.
Inside the courtyard was an alchemy lab that had the best facilities and tools used by top-level alchemists.
The Emperor had wanted his son to have the best of everything as he pursued his goal.
However, once the crown prince had actually started practicing alchemy, the Emperor immediately regretted his decision.
"Booooom….!!"
A loud explosion echoed from the Imperial Palace.
Two palace guards that were guarding the palace gates turned their heads to look in the direction of the explosion. One of them sigh and said.
"Is the Crown Prince really concocting pills? That's the sixtieth explosion today and it's still noon."
The other guard that was to his side shook his head corrected.
"You're wrong, that's not the sixtieth it's the sixty-second."
The guard who was corrected turned his head and looked at his compatriot with a bitter smile on his face.
"My bad, it looks like my ears are starting to fail me."
On the south wing of the palace, a miniature mushroom cloud could be seen rising into the air from a building.
At the building's entrance, a teenager with bright red hair wearing golden imperial robes could be seen coming out of the smoke.
After struggling out of the entrance he coughed a few times before saying.
"Ah, it was a bust again."
After letting out a heavy sigh he shook his head in disappointment.
"Crown prince, Young Master Li Fang is here to visit you."
A middle-aged man wearing servant's attire said while approaching the teenager.
"Junior brother Fang has come to visit me?"
He asked in a perplexed tone.
"I wonder why he decided to visit, fine let him in."
The servant received the order and headed back to the courtyard's entrance.
After a while, another teenager could be seen strolling through the courtyard towards the smoky building.
He wore black and white inner and outer robes.
As he walked through the courtyard he gave off the feeling of being one with heaven and earth, as if he and the heavens were in total balance. Even the pace of his steps was balanced and equal, sounding as if someone was playing a piano key rhythmically. Each beat sounded alike with the same interval between them.
"Haha, Junior brother Fang what's with the sudden visit?"
The Crown Prince had his hands behind his back while a smile spread across his lips.
However, if it wasn't for the black smudges on his face and clothes, he would've looked a bit more charming. Some of the black smudges had even gotten on his teeth making his smile a bit weird.
"Senior brother Bao, my father is a general under your father his majesty's command. We've known each other since we were little, do I need a reason to visit you?"Li Fang's response caused the Bao to be taken aback for a moment."Well that's true, we could be considered close, but…"Bao eyed Li Fang for a brief second before he continued."…I heard that general Ying's daughter is visiting the palace today. Did junior brother Fang perhaps want to meet with her?"Li Fang was now standing in front of the Bao and looking at the height of the two young men, one could tell that the Bao was half a head taller than Li Fang.After hearing Bao’s question, Li Fang cocked his head over his shoulder and asked."Senior brother, what kind of pills are you concocting? Do you mind if I see one?"Realizing Li Fang was changing the subject, Bao blocked the view of his alchemy lab's entrance and said."Junior brother Fang, I'm not concocting any pills at the moment, it's just a little experiment. Now, d
On the Holy Continent was the famous Chan School.Although they weren't considered the top power on the continent, given the fact that they're the oldest institute on the planet with thousands of years of history, even if the major sects and clans had a hundred guts they wouldn't dare think of going against them.They were able to survive as long as they have while watching hegemon sects and clans, rise and fall. This led people to believe that under their seclusive nature there must be a terrifying force, one that has been building up for thousands of years.It was even rumored that long ago the continent was named by them.It was in the Hundred Mountain Range where the Chan School disciples secluded themselves to focus on their Buddhist doctrines within their three divisions, namely, the Sila Division, Dharma Division, and the Dhyana division.The Sila division disciples mainly focus on learning virtue and self-discipline, while the Dharma division disciples focus on learning and un
Ruthless, savage, barbaric, cold-blooded, and backbiting.The Blood Continent can be described as such and much, much more.The Blood Sect was the strongest power on the Blood Continent and they were the most infamous heretic sect on planet Daiyu.To show how harsh the conditions in the sect were; they would purposely limit the cultivation resources for their disciples and encourage fighting amongst each other.The sect's motto was, "Only the strong will survive, trust no one but yourself, if you want something, kill for it."From that alone, one could see that they follow the rule of the jungle, where only the strong will survive and the weak would be killed.Even though the sect had rules for killing between disciples, as long as there was no evidence incriminating the killer or the person killed wasn't a top genius, then the sect would most likely ignore it.Throughout the entire Blood Sect, disciples could be seen fidgeting while their eyes shifted about as if someone was going to
Within Longmin’s courtyard, Longwei could be seen standing in front of a tree in the training grounds.His right hand was on the hilt of his sword while his left hand was holding its blue scabbard.With closed eyes, he stood there calmly, his posture straight as an arrow.A sudden gust of wind blew past causing his clothes and hair to flutter in the wind.It also caused a dozen leaves on the tree to become detached from its branches and start floating down towards him.Tightening his hand around the hilt of the sword, Longwei started emitting a sharp and fierce that soared to the sky.Looking at him, he resemble a heavenly sword that was about to tear open the firmament.An intangible force started to spread from his body to cover three feet in his surroundings.Within that space, he became a ruler that could decide life or death.The twelve leaves were all within that three feet space.With a quiet swish, Longwei drew his sword from its scabbard causing a silver streak of light to da
Longmin frowned upon hearing his brother's shameless comment.After glaring at him, he went on to his main point.“When you executed the sword movement a moment ago, how did you view the sword in your hand?”Longwei was already in a sitting position and when he heard his brother’s question, he only shrugged his shoulder and said.“I just see it as a sword I’m going to use to cut the leaves.”“And that’s where your mindset is off. I’ve read some old texts in the clan that spoke about becoming one with your weapon and viewing it not as a weapon, but as a part of you. I think that if you're able to view your sword not just as a sword but as an extension of yourself, then you’ll be able to step across that final watershed and allow the sword intent seed within your dantian to bloom into real sword intent.”Longwei pondered on those words for a while, before jumping up from his sitting position and going up to the tree.Longmin made way for his brother.When Longwei was back to his origina
Leaving the Wu Clan, Longmin and Longwei walked around the bustling city of Lou Fu.The both of them had changed their appearance due to the insistence of Longwei, but Longmin had been reluctant as he wasn’t fond of disguising himself as his brother did.Walking along the streets of Lou Fu Longmin eyes glisten with curiosity as he looked left and right at all the different buildings and people.He hadn’t been outside of the clan in six years, and for those six years, all he had been doing was reading the books in the clan’s library, front to back and back to front. Now that he was allowed to leave the clan he wanted to explore every inch of the Wu Continent and see all the places he had read about in those books.One thing he realized was that all the people he walked past were cultivators. Though he wasn’t that surprised as he read somewhere that the City of Lou Fu was where all the top sects and clans reside. They had set up stores that sell all sorts of top-quality resources useful
Longmin and Longwei had reached the Yellow Leaf Valley and were now waiting with the disciples of the major sects and clans for the Lesser Pocket Realm to open.The Yellow Leaf Valley itself was located within the Yellow Leaf Mountain range on the eastern side of the Wu Continent.The name was given to it because of the countless yellow-leafed orchid trees in the area.Whether it was winter, summer, autumn, or spring, they would be filled with resplendent yellow blooming flowers. Another name that was given to this type of orchid tree was the eternally blooming sunflower orchid tree.There was even a legend among cultivators and mortals involving why they were blooming all year round.It was said that in the past there was once a roaming scholar who stumbled upon this mountain range by accident. At that time, the numerous orchid trees only bloomed once after an entire sixty-year circle and the leaves they bloomed were blood red.When the sagely scholar happened upon the mountain range
The Yellow Leaf Valley's Lesser Pocket Realm was the biggest of the three Pocket Realms on the Wu Continent. It was also a special place of cultivation for the younger generation of the various sects and clans.Every fifty years when the Pocket Realm opens, the Core Formation disciples would go through fierce competition within their own organizations to be chosen as one of six candidates to enter the Pocket Realm.This in itself was extremely difficult to accomplish, as one would need to have the strength and talents to outperform thousands of other candidates, and stand out among their peers as one of the strongest in their generation.It wasn't a stretch to say that every disciple who stood here at the Yellow Leaf Valley was a terrifying genius, who had proven themselves by struggling through muddy waters to clinch a spot to enter the Pocket Realm.But out of nowhere, these two greenhorn young masters of the Wu Clan came and snatched away two of the limited spots for themselves, an
“Sixty million mid-grade Spirit Stones!!”Bao’s frustrated voice echoed across the deathly silent Auction House. Looking at his face one could see that it was extremely red, and it seemed as if his chest was about to burst from how hard he was breathing.Everyone became dumbfounded when they heard such an absurd number of Spirit Stones. All eyes stared at the booth Zen Chi was in wondering if he would continue to bid, but only silence permeated the Auction House.Old man Fen's voice then spoke up, “Sixty million mid-grade Spirit Stones going once!… Sixty million mid-grade Spirit Stones going twice!… does anyone want to bid any higher?”When the crowd below heard old man Fen's question, they were looking at him as if he had grown two more heads.Seeing the crowd's gaze directed to him, old man Fen chuckled to himself.“Congratulations to the Crown Prince for obtaining the coffin of the 118th prince of the Eternal Darkness Clan for sixty million mid-grade Spirit Stones. It’s very fittin
Hearing the question directed at him, old man Fen nodded his head before saying, “We have indeed found their Ancestral Tomb. And as some of you might know, our Divine Merchant Guild is owned by the Fang Immortal Clan on planet Lin. Due to our discovery of the Tomb, in order to not cause any major conflict over it we have made an agreement with the other Immortal Clans to auction off the treasures inside in this year’s main event auction. So this announcement isn’t just being re-laid here, it’s currently being announced across all the other planets at our auctions that are occurring ruffly at the same time. And just like now…”Old man Fen pointed at the coffin and then continued, “They’ve also received one of these coffins and are making the announcement the same way I am. Maybe they even have another old man Fen making the announcement too.”Old man Fen then chuckled to himself after he made that joke.In the crowd, the expressions on everyone’s faces became more and more shocked each
Even though Long Wei had not said his name that loudly, Zhen Chi seemed to hear it since his head instantly turned to look in the direction of their booth.Seeing Long Wei and the others, Zen Chi flash a smile in their direction before he followed the attendant which led him to a VIP booth that was coincidentally next to theirs, albeit a little lower in position.Their booth was one of the few that was on the top floor, all the other VIP booths were on a lower level.Both Li Fang and Bao had also taken notice of Zen Chi’s appearance. Li Fang was heard saying, “It looks like Zen Chi had taken an interest in this auction.”Long Wei snorted upon hearing that then said, “What is he doing here? Wasn’t he supposed to be sending a challenge to that demoness? Can he afford to waste time attending this auction?”Bao who was silent had a thoughtful full expression on his face before he slowly said, “The Divine Merchant Guild always holds this smaller auction before their main event. This smalle
The disciples from the Blood Continent just have too bad of a reputation and no one wanted to be associated with them or be in an area where there was a possibility of encountering one of those cold-blooded savages.With a significant number of the crowd leaving, the people who hadn’t heard the news became confused, but once they were told each and every one of them scrunched up their faces before quickly leaving the area.But even so, there were quite a few of them that stayed as they were unwilling to miss an opportunity such as this to see so many geniuses gathered in one place.On the first day of the four-day auction, they prayed that maybe those from the Blood Continent wouldn’t appear until the latter days.As that was happening among the crowd, a swooshing sound suddenly echoed in the distant horizon, and the people in the crowd looked towards it, only to stare wide-eyed in astonishment as a large and majestic phoenix made of pure fire approached this area at blind speed.In o
The Divine Merchant Guild Auction was the biggest auction held on the Central Continent by the well-known Divine Merchant Guild.They are one of, if not the biggest suppliers of cultivation resources on not only the Central Continent but the entire planet Daiyu. Wait no! That’s not right either, they’re actually the biggest supplier of cultivation resources between all of the four planets in this Lower Realm.Rumors say that they are owned by a powerful Clan on planet Lin that goes by the name of the Fang Clan.For some people, it was really hard to believe that a force that spans an entire Lower Realm was owned by one clan, but if you were to believe further rumors which stated that their Founding Ancestor was an Immortal, then the fact that they have such wealth and power to stretch an entire Realm wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility.Powerful clans like them were known as Immortal Clans, and there were quite a few of those Immortal Clans stationed on the planet Lin, making
When Long Wei heard that his face scrunched up in confusion before he asked again, “Why does the second prince of the Xingyun Dynasty live in an isolated pavilion in the guest quarters when he visits? Isn’t he supposed to have a courtyard for himself somewhere else?”The servant still had to listen carefully to understand Long Wei’s slurred words, but he managed to understand and his face was covered in hesitation, before he slowly said, “Um.. honored guest, it was the second prince’s choice to have this arrangement.”With a frown still on his face, Long Wei asked again, “Why?”Hearing his question, the servant became even more hesitant and a little nervous as well. As a servant, he didn’t want to speak about the matters involving the second prince, but he didn’t want to offend this guest by not answering either.Just as the servant was wondering what to do, a cold voice suddenly spoke from behind them.“Because I don't like to be bothered and this place is peaceful and quiet...”When
After a while, Long Wei completely emptied the cup before he slammed it down on the table.He then turn to look at Longmin, who in turn also looked towards him.Without saying anything Long Wei nodded his head, and then turn to Bao and Li Fang who were conversing, and said, “Well, it wasn’t a pleasure seeing you both, so my brother and I will take our leave now.”Longmin had already begun getting up with Long Wei following behind him.Bao upon hearing Long Wei’s words turned to look at him.He then thought to himself.‘Father had probably intended for me to accompany them to buy time for the news to reach the Wu Clan's ears.’With that thought in mind, Bao suddenly spoke up and said to the two brothers, “Are you both planning on leaving the Continent?”Long Wei paused his steps and turn to answer Bao, “No, actually we only came here to settle some personal matters, but that had already been solved so we're just going on a sightseeing tour of your continent.”Hearing that, Bao perked u
Coughing for a moment, Bao then looked at Longmin’s rather handsome appearance, which Bao was quite unwilling to admit was better than his own, before looking at Long Wei’s simple and average face.He knew that Long Wei was always wearing his disguises and he had never seen his true appearance even till now, but since Li Fang said both he and Longmin were twins, he couldn’t help but feel a bit strange knowing Long Wei had always looked better than him, he just felt the news to be too sudden.Long Wei was looking at Li Fang with slight surprise, while Longmin took the words out of his mouth by asking the question, “How did you see through elder brother’s disguise?”“Oh, so this brat’s the older twin, no wonder he’s so annoying.”After not seeing this bastard for nearly three years, Long Wei had completely forgotten his hatred for Li Fang, but meeting him now, the hatred he once felt was slowly coming back.This got him thinking about how he had first met Li Fang when he was on a debauc
After being shocked for a moment, Li Fang finally regain his composure and pulled his grip from Longmin’s hold.“It’s the first time someone has discovered me when I use my concealment ability.”Bao looked at Li Fang and said in a perplexed tone.“Junior brother Fang I didn’t know you had such abilities. Were you hiding it all this time?”Li Fang smiled and began walking around the table to sit on the empty side. After sitting Li Fang poured himself a cup of tea while saying.“You guys weren’t the only ones that were improving over the past few years. And as for my concealment ability, well, Sying Mu and Yuyan is not the only one who had tapped into their Legendary Physique.”Soon after Li Fang finished saying that, Long Wei scowled at him and said, “How long were you listening to us? And who do think you are trying to sneak attack me from behind, you perverted bastard!”Unfazed by Long Wei's harsh words, Li Fang casually took a sip from his tea before he said, “Stop being so dramatic