Alchemy Emperor of the Divine Dao

Chapter 2328  Huai Jian

Ling Han fled, and the five elites resolutely abandoned their pursuit. After all, it would be impossible to catch him.

What did it matter that they didn't want to give up? They couldn't catch up to Ling Han at all, so attempting to pursue him would simply be a waste of energy.

Ling Han roared, and his voice rumbled across the sky like thunder.

This time, he had not only recovered his cultivation, but he had even advanced to the Eleventh Secret. He could almost advance to the Ascending Origin Tier. This was naturally delightful news.

Several days later, he arrived at the nearest city. Sure enough, he was able to make contact with Qi Shuang, Yuan, and the others.

They had been waiting in this city since long ago, and they would venture out to search for the others every once in a while. Up until now, Ling Han, You Yuan, and three other people still hadn't returned yet. This was half of their group, so they naturally couldn't leave. They grew increasingly anxious as the days passed by.

Upon seeing Ling Han and the three other people return, they were naturally beside themselves with delight.

Because Ling Han and the others all practiced the Heaven Deceiving Technique, and because none of them actively revealed their cultivation level, no one discovered their explosive rise in cultivation. If they knew about this, they would most likely be reminded of the Ancestral King's blood. Otherwise, how could their cultivation levels have risen by so much in a mere five years?

In any case, could a vial of Ancestral King blood help so many people achieve such a huge rise in cultivation level?

They naturally wouldn't consider this.

"You Yuan won't be returning," Ling Han said with a shake of his head. "I personally witnessed him being killed by five elites at the Third Leaf of the Ninth Lotus. If I hadn't been quick enough, and if I hadn't fled in time, perhaps I would've been killed too."

"What?!" Qi Shuang and the others exclaimed in shock.

Just who was You Yuan?

Even though he didn't have an Ancestral King or Heavenly Venerate as his master or father, his incredible talent as a monarch star had already attracted the attention of an Eighteenth Lotus Ancestral King. This Ancestral King would take him as a disciple after You Yuan advanced to the Ninth Lotus. Now, however, the latter had suddenly been killed? How were they going to report this?

"Who was so audacious? They actually dared to kill a monarch star?!" Qi Shuang roared in fury. His wings shook violently, triggering devastating gusts of wind.

Monarch stars were the future of a realm. At the very least, they could become Eighteenth Lotus elites. Thus, the death of such a prodigy was a huge blow.

"Those five people are very likely the same people who triggered the collapse of the spatial passageway," Ling Han said. Tapping the air, he summoned his memory of these five people's appearance, including the scene of them pursuing him. He had already prepared this well beforehand.

"As expected; it's them!" Yuan spat as he snapped his pincers. He had returned to investigate the situation once, and even though the small town with the Transfer Formation had indeed been destroyed, those powerful enough had still managed to survive. However, recalling the events of that day, it was indeed the five people shown in Ling Han's memories who had caused that disaster.

As it turned out, they were even crazy enough to target a monarch star, someone who represented the future of the realm!

Even though Ling Han was using these five people to cover up his crime, he didn't feel like he was wronging them at all. After all, they had indeed wanted to kill You Yuan. It was just that they had failed to succeed.

"When we arrive at the Four Splendor Academy, we have to report this to the Ancestral Kings. We have to hunt these five people no matter where they flee!" Qi Shuang said with killing intent. "They actually dared to kill a monarch star… They've trampled the bottom line of the Ancestral Kings!"

"How vile and detestable!" Yuan spat. He was also brimming with killing intent.

Even Wu Ya and the others were enraged. This wasn't because they had a good relationship with You Yuan, but rather because You Yuan was still in possession of some Ancestral King Blood. Since he had died at the hands of other people, this Ancestral King Blood had been naturally lost as well. This was the cause of their anger.

They had also sacrificed everything for this Ancestral King Blood, okay!

After composing himself, Yuan said in a solemn voice, "Let's continue."

You Yuan was already dead. This fact couldn't be changed no matter what they did. If anything was to blame, they could only blame him for being in possession of something valuable after having obtained some Ancestral King Blood. Moreover, those five people were also audacious to the extreme, actually daring to hunt and even kill a disciple of the Hundred Battles Academy. Moreover, the latter was a monarch star. Their actions would greatly affect the overall strength of the realm.

One had to realize that each monarch star had the potential to become a Heavenly Venerate, although the chances of this happening were pitifully slim.

They continued their journey, using Transfer Formations to traverse the mountains and waters. After 15 years of travel, they finally arrived at the Four Splendor Academy.

There were still 20 years until the Thousand Academy Tournament began. However, over 700 academies had already arrived, with many more arriving every few days. By the looks of it, everyone would arrive 10 years before the tournament began.

This was indeed a grand event. Brilliant monarch tiers could be seen everywhere in the Four Splendor Academy, and it was as if they were as abundant as cabbage. One could see dozens of them with a single glance.

Ling Han kept an especially low profile, and he dutifully cultivated with Hu Niu and the others. However, even though the Empress and Hu Niu had already reached the peak stage of the tenth secret, they still didn't dare to use the Ancestral King Blood. This was because their respective physique wasn't as powerful as Ling Han's. As such, they needed to be extremely careful and conservative.

In reality, Ling Han's rocket-like speed of cultivation also came with significant side effects. Right now, he needed to continuously strengthen his foundation. Otherwise, once he advanced to the Ascending Origin Tier, not being able to progress any further would be the least of his worries. At that time, he might even lose his life.

Thus, Ling Han definitely wouldn't advance to the Ascending Origin Tier before resolving the side effects of advancing too fast.

Anyhow, the Four Splendor Academy had naturally prepared accommodations for everyone who arrived. Generally speaking, there was little interaction between people as they were all preparing to show their wares during the tournament.

Moreover, such large tournaments would naturally lead to all kinds of gambles.

Sure enough, several gambling houses started to publish odds for the tournament, with some allowing bets for which academy placed first, and others accepting bets for which prodigy would reign supreme. They also accepted bets for the top 10 academies, the top 10 cultivators, and so on. Simply put, they accepted bets for all kinds of things. It was quite an astonishing sight.

Qi Shuang went over to have a look, and he returned with the newest lists of odds. There were five lists in total, and they naturally came from five different gambling houses.

The odds for the Hundred Battles Academy were one to five, and this was for being ranked around 70th among all of the academies. This was roughly equivalent to where they had placed last time. After all, the gambling houses wouldn't publish random odds without doing any research. They had naturally investigated and analyzed each academy and their representatives before publishing these odds.

As for the cultivator rankings, only You Yuan had managed to make it into consideration. His odds for coming first were one to 11, a clear sign that the gambling houses didn't fancy him at all.

"The Eternal Dragon Academy still has the lowest odds!" Qi Shuang remarked. They all looked at the first line of the lists. Indeed, it was identical across all five lists.

The odds for the Eternal Dragon Academy achieving victory was 10 to 11, a remarkable number given that there were 1000 academies participating in this tournament. However, no one found this strange. After all, the Eternal Dragon Academy had a mighty disciple who was destined to create history. His odds in the cultivator rankings were also the lowest.

He was called Huai Jian, and it was rumored that he had been born with a sword in his embrace[1]. As he grew older, this sword also grew with him. His skill with the sword was peerless, and even the Ancestral Kings praised his brilliance. They said that if they were at the same cultivation level, they would find it difficult to block 10 of his attacks.

If only a single Ancestral King had said this, everyone could perhaps treat it as a light-hearted joke. However, several Ancestral Kings had said this, so this was definitely a serious endorsement of Huai Jian's freakish strength.

[1] The characters for the name "Huai Jian" literally translate to "embracing sword".