Rise of Humanity
chapter-270

Zhong Yue nodded, “I’d like to enter the Lesser Void World and meet with the Martial Masters of the South Barren. How can I not do so when I’m already here in the South Barren? It’ll definitely be a valuable experience to learn and compare our insights with one another!”

“Learn and compare the insights with the Martial Masters?”

Ao Fenglou shook his head, he said insouciantly, “The Martial Masters and Qi Practitioners each have different fortes, they rely more on their mortal bodies and focus on the close-quarter combats, which in turn, made them a perfect target in long range battles. The Martial MAsters infused their atman into their mortal body so that they could attain an incredible result with their mortal body while casting the skills aside. Junior Martial Brother Zhong, you will not be able to learn much from the Martial Masters as we the Qi Practitioners doesn’t infuse our atman and mortal body together, granting us a greater flexibility, there is no need to deliberately learn from the Martial Masters.”

However, Zhong Yue held a different opinion to his words.

Zhong Yue was proficient in the physique refining arts himself, even creating one of his own, the【Sun Moon Prodigious Emanation Art】, his mortal body physique was incredibly strong. Furthermore, he has been studying the Immortal Body totem patterns on the Kui Long’s cowhide, attaining some insights from there and thereafter, refine his physique stronger. The Immortal Body was an abstruse art that imbued the ways to refine both the physique and psyche, Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er couldn’t fully understand it yet.

While Ao Fenglou was a dragon, his mortal body was strong from birth and his arcane energy was abundant; and yet, even he said that the Martial Masters were undefeatable in the close-quarter combats, one could clearly infer how strong was the physique refining arts of the Martial Masters; or otherwise, the Zhong Li Celestial Race wouldn’t be able to stand a firm ground in the South Barren for so many years, even snatching over many islands near the coast of the Southern Sea from the dragon race.

As the undefeatable legends in the ways of mortal body, the Martial Masters’ arts could be used to be cross-referenced with the Immortal Body, by doing so, Zhong Yue could attain more knowledge and insights about the Immortal Body and refine his mortal body to a higher caliber — this was his true intention of meeting with the Martial Masters.

The Martial Masters were the closest living representation to the physique refining arts, they have turned mortal bodies into huge seals so that they could contain their psyche, arcane energy and spirit in their bodies, sealing every single strand of strengths in their bodies without a single leak — all to preserve their mortal bodies at their highest peak form!

The mortal bodies were their soul weapons, whether if it was the strengths, power or defensive capabilities, they were appallingly strong!

“You are a famous man now, as long as you’ve voiced it out that the Sword To The West Zhong Shan Clan member is going to challenge the world in the Lesser Void World, there would be countless experts swarming over to challenge you!”

Ao Fenglou said smilingly, “All of the races are allowed to enter the Lesser Void World, but there will be a cost as naturally — the Qi Practitioners that intend to enter the Lesser Void World will have to exchange their medicinal pellets with a token. The Qi Practitioners will have to bring the token along in the Lesser Void Token, the time duration is counted based on the medicinal pellets; there are lower-level dimensions and higher-level dimensions, spending time in the higher-level dimensions will consume more medicinal pellets and if the medicinal pellets in the token are used up, you’ll be teleported out from the Lesser Void World.”

In the Barrens, the golds and silvers were the trading units for the ordinaries, but to the Qi Practitioners, they trades with medicinal pellets; after all, every Qi Practitioners would have to consume the medicinal pellets to aid in their cultivation progress.

Hence, in the South Barren, everything was traded using the medicinal pellets; even the local delicacies bought by Qiu Jin’er was also traded with medicinal pellets.

The common medicinal pellets used in trading in the South Barren was the Five Elemental Pellet, a type of medicinal pellets that were commonly used by the Rebirth and Awakening Qi Practitioners, as majority of the Qi Practitioners were Rebirth and Awakening Qi Practitioners, the Five Elemental Pellet became very demanding and could be used as a trading currency.

Zhong Yue was stunned, he asked, “Determine the number of medicinal pellets in the token? Can the Lesser Void World do such thing? How did it do it?”

Ao Fenglou answered, “The ancestor of the South Barren, Lord Xia, was a courtier in a divine court of a sovereign god, his prowess and power, arts and skills, were all beyond the imagination of the Qi Practitioners like us.”

Zhong Yue nodded, the skills of the ordinary gods were already incredibly strong in his eyes, let alone a god that served as a courtier under a sovereign god and one who bore the title of a lord, his prowess would surely be beyond imagination.

Ao Fenglou took out two tokens and he said laughingly, “I’ve entered the Lesser Void World before, saw countless incredible sights, befriended numerous experts from different races, and plundered some tokens from the others. But as the passage of time, I’ve came here less and less often, I have a few tokens left with me. It is no doubt that we of the dragon race have treated you unfairly during the Ancestral Dragon Ritual in Eastern Sea, I’m embarrassed for what my elders have done. Please, take this two tokens as a small recuperations, there are some Five Elemental Pellets in them, sufficient enough for the two of you to spend a considerable amount of time in the Lesser Void World.”

Zhong Yue tilted his head and said, “Brother Fenglou, you are being overly polite, but what if I reject your good will?”

Ao Fenglou laughed out loud, “Then I’ll have no choice but to take you down. For you to reject the offer, it would simply mean that you’ve held grudges toward the dragon race, and you will seek justice for yourself once you’ve grown strong enough; which is why, I’ll have to kill you before you turn into a bigger issue in the future.”

Zhong Yue then nodded and accepted the two tokens.

Ao Fenglou summoned a dragon girl and gave his order, “Ao Shanshan, you will bring Junior Martial Brother Zhong safely to the Lesser Void World. Junior Martial Brother Zhong, I hope you can excuse me for not being able to accompany you to your destination, I’ll await for your good news!”

Zhong Yue clasped his hands together and thanked him, then walked out of the Dragon Palace Pavilion with Qiu Jin’er along with the dragon girl leading the way.

Ao Shanshan was the same dragon girl that commented on Zhong Yue’s appearance, she was a bright and vivacious girl, she gazed at Zhong Yue curiously, then turned to Qiu Jin’er and was puzzled at why did the young human girl kept eating snacks.

The trio was chatting while they walked toward their destination, Zhong Yue asked more about the Lesser Void World as he still didn’t know much about it.

Ao Shanshan answered smilingly, “If the Lesser Void World would only act as an arena for the cultivators to duel, it wouldn’t be worthy as the creation of the South Barren Lord Xia at all. Other than acting as an arena, the Lesser Void World also have many treasures hidden in it; not only that, but it was said to contain a bigger secret, one that was related to the galaxy of where our Ancestral Star is in. There was a rumor, it was said that someone once saw the divine court, the imperial palace of the Heavenly Monarch and also the specters of the gods; they said that it was the residence of the Heavenly Monarch in the Ancestral Star during his old age.”

“The Heavenly Monarch’s residence when he was old?”

Qiu Jin’er was shocked, she said, “Can senior martial sister tell us more about it?”

“It’s just a rumor, no one could validate its truthfulness.”

Ao Shanshan continued, “It was said that all of the Qi Practitioners that were in the Lesser Void World saw it, a starry dimensional space emerged out of nowhere in the sky, palaces shone bright in dazzling rays and the spectres of the gods loomed around it; the dragon gods soared in the clouds, the phoenix gods whistled like a song, and the Heavenly Monarch who was consecrated by the gods; it was a world shockingly scene! But this is nothing more than a rumor, the older ones described it to be so true but even a frequent visitor to the Lesser Void World like me have never seen such things before.”

Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er were enthralled, but they were also puzzled at the same time as how would the Lesser Void World be linked with the imperial palace of the Heavenly Monarch?

Ao Shanshan glanced around before lowered her head and whispered to them, “They say that Lord Xia have accidentally opened a dimensional tunnel that linked to the imperial palace hidden in the void, but it isn’t really an imperial palace, it’s actually more like an imperial tomb. Some older generation cultivators suspected that this Lord Xia was actually a tomb raider, he tried to create a passage to the imperial tomb but didn’t succeed, that’s why there is this Lesser Void World.”

Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er laughed, an honorable lord among the gods, a divine courtier in the divine court, how could Lord Xia be a tomb raider?

“Don’t laugh, Lord Xia might really be a tomb raider.”

Ao Shanshan was enthralled and said, “There are many secrets in the Lesser Void World, and there is also countless treasures, you can also see the ancient ruins and wrecked temples! It was said that Lord Xia tried to rob the imperial tomb but wasn’t strong enough to enter deeper into the tomb and had only plundered the outer rim. Even so, the outer rim of the imperial tomb was still abundant with treasures. A lot of the older Qi Practitioners even gave everything they’ve got just to stay longer in the Lesser Void World in hope that they could find a thing or two of the ancient treasures!”

The more she said, the weirder the story have turned; Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er shook their heads and were laughing in spite of themselves.

Unbeknownst to them, they have arrived at the center of the Fiery Capital, there were palaces built around an ocean of fire, in the midst of the fire ocean, there was a majestically looking statue of the Lord Xia with two fire dragons beneath his feet.

Ao Shanshan glanced at the two fire dragons and her countenance turned gloomy, uncontended with the dragon gods of the dragon race being stepped beneath Lord Xia’s feet as his rides.

But that was an ancient story that happened long ago in the past, even she didn’t know why her dragon ancestors were willing to be Lord Xia’s rides.

The statue of Lord Xia was over ten thousand feet tall with a slight surge of godly aura surrounding it. Despite it standing in the core of the blazing fire ocean, the statue remained unscathed; clearly, this statue wasn’t as simple as it looked.

Zhong Yue lifted his head and looked over, there were many Zhong Li Celestial Race experts all over guarding the place, uncountable Qi Practitioners from different races flew toward the palm of the Lord Xia statue, and disappeared away as soon as they landed down; while at the same time, there were also Qi Practitioners flying out from the godly statue’s palm, some were looking happy while the others were looking despondent.

“The entrance of the Lesser Void World is right on the godly statue’s palm.” Ao Shanshan said.

The trio flew up for over thousands feet into mid-air, Zhong Yue suddenly saw the figure of an expert sitting in the lotus position in the middle of Lord Xia’s palm, there were dazzling rays revolving behind him, forming into a thousand feet tall gate!

While the Qi Practitioners were coming in and out of the gate, it looked like the Lesser Void World would be right behind the gate!

“This Martial Master….”

Zhong Yue squinted his eyes, the Zhong Li Celestial Race expert was ceased of any air of the livings, but he was still looking lively as if he was still alive!

“This is the ‘spirit’ of the South Barren Fiery Capital, he was a Martial Divine Master, his mortal body has ascended to the level of gods!”

Ao Shanshan answered his question, “After the death of the Martial Divine Masters of the Xia family or the Zhu Rong family of the South Barren, because their mortal bodies were incredibly strong, their atmans would be sealed inside their dead mortal bodies, and if they were continued to be worshipped, their mortal bodies can ascend to the level of gods!”

“Godly mortal bodies?” Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin’er was shocked.

A godly mortal body, was does it exactly mean?

“The other races worshipped the spirits, either the celestial spirits or the demonic spirits, but the Zhong Li Celestial Race worships the spirits sealed in their mortal bodies, not only that, but their souls are also in it.”

Ao Shanshan was envious, she said, “It’ll be fine when the atman was in slumber in the mortal body, but if it is awakened, he would be exactly like a living Martial Divine Master!”

Spirits with mortal bodies, that was also one of the main reasons why the South Barren was so strong!

Of course, even if the mortal body had an atman sealed in it and allowed him to be as lively as a living being, but his nature was still a dead man — he could only be aroused momentarily after he was worshipped and unleash his incredible prowess.

But as the power of the worshippings end, his atman would fall into a long and deep slumber until he was called the next time.

However, a spirit with a godly mortal body, his prowess would be incredibly strong at the moment he was awakened, he would nearly be as strong as his past life!

Zhong Yue’s brows raised, he thought of the South Barren’s Martial Divine Master that was sealed in one of the copper palaces in the Seal Suppression Hall.

The Martial Divine Master would be dead already, but if the experts of South Barren salvaged him out from the copper palace and worshipped him, the Martial Divine master would be awakened momentarily and the Swords Gate….

The headmaster and Elder Shui, do they really have the confidence to allow Swords Gate to pass the calamity that will come at the end of the year?