The Invincible Dragon Emperor
chapter-32

“Hoy!”

Outside the Frigid Cloud Valley, Lu Li was fierce to the point of being monstrous. Every time he wielded his Heaven Kylin Sword, there would be one Iron Spur Wolf getting hurt or killed. He did not know how to use Xuan Skills, so he just cut and chopped, taking advantage of his terrifying strength and the 2000-pound Heaven Kylin Sword.

Although the Heaven Kylin Sword was cracked, it was still a peerless treasured broadsword. Unique in material, sharp in its blade, it would cut clean through iron as though it were mud.

Lu Li had this freaky Sword Arts in that he was so fast in making his moves. Even with a 2000-pound Heaven Kylin Sword in his hands, he still could wield for three to five times within the short period of a breath.

Of course, he did not use his full strength in fighting against the Iron Spur Wolves. Just two cuts, the Iron Spur Wolf would be either dead or injured.

Just over an hour!

Lu Li had slaughtered 27 Iron Spur Wolves, much faster compared with the nearby warriors of the Liu Family. Even warriors at the peak of the Xuan Wu Realm would not be as quick.

Now there had been hundreds of dead bodies of the Iron Spur Wolves piling on at the entrance of the Valley. One warrior of the Liu Family was bitten to death, and several were injured. But finally, the Iron Spur Wolves retreated back into the Valley and disappeared.

“Withdraw and clean up the field.”

Liu Yi shouted and retired to her own tent, showing no care to the outside. Patriarch Hong sent someone to collect the bodies, treat the injured, and to cope with the aftermath of the battle.

Lu Li went back while carrying his broadsword in his hands. The External Clan Patriarch who was in the Spirit Sea Realm went over and talked to Lu Li seriously, “You are Lu Li?”

Lu Li wiped the wolf blood off his face and answered with a nod, “Yes, sir!”

“I am Cai Hui, one of the External Clan Patriarchs of the Liu Family. You can call me Patriarch Cai!”

This External Clan Patriarch was in his forties, of burly build. He was wearing a silver armor of the Liu Family. With the long sword in his hands, he had an imposing bearing. The Patriarch stared at Lu Li and said, “Follow me.”

Lu Li followed Patriarch Cai into a big tent. Patriarch Cai came in, sat at the head of the room, and asked Lu Li, “Hey kid, how much do you know about cultivation?”

Lu Li touched his nose in embarrassment and replied, “Not much actually. I just know some Realms of cultivation and something about the Xuan Wu Realm.”

“Um.”

Patriarch Cai nodded and continued, “You are now in the Xuan Wu Realm, and have just made it into the gate of Wu Dao. When you reach the peak of the Xuan Wu Realm, you need to condense Spirit Sea to strive for the Spirit Sea Realm.”

Lu Li had some information of this, so he nodded. Nonetheless, he listened attentively to Patriarch Cai. The latter paused and said, “When you open up all the energy channels in your body and have ample Xuan Energy, you can use Xuan Energy to condense Spirit Sea. It’s easier to be said than done. Of millions of warriors in average tribes, only one thousand can successfully condense Spirit Sea, maximum. Do you know why?”

Someone explaining cultivation for him was something Lu Li most welcomed. He made a bow slightly with his hands folded in front of his chest and answered, “I don’t know. Could Patriarch Cai please enlighten me?”

Seeing Lu Li’s attitude was quite good, Patriarch Cai was not so serious. He explained, “It is not hard to condense Spirit Sea, but it is easy to collapse. Without good means or precious pellets, the possibility of successfully condensing Spirit Sea is very low.”

Lu Li finally understood. Patriarch Cai stood up and continued, “It will be even more difficult when striving for the Soul Pond Realm from Spirit Sea Realm. Soul Pond, which means a Pond of Soul, is to build a pond inside your soul. The soul is the essence of a human. One careless act, not only won’t one reach the Realm, he will also have his soul shattered. Therefore, to make it to Soul Pond Realm, precious pellets and herbs aiming for souls are more needed. These pellets and herbs, each single one is priceless, amounting to the wealth of a tribe accumulated over the course of a hundred years.”

“Fate Wheel Realm, is the cultivation of Fate Wheel, i.e. the Wheel of Fate. You may not have heard about it, but every time a warrior cultivated a Fate Wheel, he can add to his life on earth another five hundred years. There are three Fate Wheels at the peak of the Fate Wheel Realm, which means 1500 years of life!”

“But… here is something you may not know. The mystical herbs to be consumed to cultivate one Fate Wheel will cost about 30% of the wealth gathered by the Liu Family over the years. Should there be three warriors in the Liu Family trying to cultivate Fate Wheel, Liu Family would become strikingly poor in an instant. Also, there is a less than 10% chance for the three warriors to be successful in cultivating a Fate Wheel. In other words, it is possible that all the wealth of the Liu Family cannot even make one warrior in the Fate Wheel Realm…”

“Huh?”

Lu Li was shocked. Nobody taught him anything about cultivation before, so this was fresh information for him.

He was stunned and frightened. He knew that the road to Wu Dao was hard, but he never imagined it to be this difficult. The Liu Family, which was the Overlord of the Wu Ling County, boasted a large number of mines, herbs and medicines, and resources to the point that one could not even imagine. Yet all of it could only be enough for three warriors at the peak of the Soul Pond Realm to try to make it to Fate Wheel Realm?

This was just Fate Wheel Realm. How much resources would the other following Realms of Eternal, Noble Lord and Human Sovereign consume? Maybe one thousand or ten thousand Liu Families? Who could know?

Patriarch Cai kept silent for a while and only continued after Lu Li had regained calmness, “Now you know. Without the support of a Big Family, no warrior can make important achievements by relying on himself. When you are young, your speed of cultivation is the fastest. But how can one person get so many resources alone? Even if you can, you will be too old to have any likelihood to make it to higher realms.”

“Yet to have the support of Big Families, you must swear your loyalty to the family. There is no free lunch in the world, so Big Families will not waste resources on a Guest Warrior who may leave at any moment. Hence… if you want to make it to higher Realms, you need higher position and bigger power, meaning you must join the External Clan of a Family and devote your heart and soul to the Family. Now do you understand?”

Patriarch Cai finally arrived at his goal at the end of his speech.

Lu Li understood, but he smiled a forced smile and cupped his hands in front of his chest. “Thank you for enlightening me. I will think about it carefully.”

Clearly, Lu Li didn’t mean that. Patriarch Cai therefore got a bit upset at Lu Li. Then Patriarch Cai waved his hand and said, “Be careful then. You can go on fights as you wish later.”

Lu Li walked out while carrying his Heaven Kylin Sword to get some rest in his tent and try to digest the alarming information he got from Patriarch Cai. After an hour, there came other bouts of Xuan Beasts roaring from inside the Valley. Lu Li grabbed his broadsword and rushed out to continue his fight.

He had just killed 27 Xuan Beasts. If nothing went awry, he could finish his quest within a day or two. Then he could go back to the County to report his completion of his mission. Once he was inside the County, he would be safe. After all, he had become the Guest Warrior of the Liu Family, so Di Ba could not attack him in public inside the County.

This time, Lady Yi didn’t even go out to observe the battle. But Patriarch Cai came out and organized dozens of people to fend off the Xuan Beasts.

This time, they were still Iron Spur Wolves that rushed out of the Valley. Lu Li now had experience in dealing with this kind of Xuan Beasts. He fought with ease and could slaughter one Iron Spur Wolf with just one or two attacks. He was utterly fast.

Again, Lu Li had killed more than 20 Iron Spur Wolves, and the bodies of dead Wolves piled up outside the Valley. Lu Li withdrew to take some rest after the wolf pack retreated.

This time, there was a long interval before the wolf pack attacked again. It was dusk. Lu Li had gone out to battle again. He was so gallant that the other warriors of the Liu Family started to look at him in a new way.

“Eighty-three wolves!”

After the wolfpack backed off, Lu Li went back with visible excitement. He had now killed 83 Iron Spur Wolves without even a single injury. If everything went on well, he could finish his quest and go back to the County tomorrow.

Since he was so brave, battlewise, he was treated better. People were sent to deliver him roasted meat and spirit.

Lu Li had a feast. Then he sat down with his legs crossed to start his cultivation. He was still working on the seventh energy channel which he only managed to open up about more than half. He figured he still needed about a day or two to open it up completely.

Lu Li was just about to go to bed after he cultivated to midnight when he heard some sudden noise came up outside accompanied with howling sounds. After a moment, Patriarch Cai shouted, “The Wolf King is leading a pack to attack. All of you, fight now!”

“Ah…”

Patriarch Cai had just finished his words when someone screamed in misery and many cried out in fear. Lu Li quickly grabbed his Heaven Kylin Sword and rushed out of the tent.

“Damn, the line of defense is broken through!”

Lu Li stared into the distance. In the dim light of the night, he saw numerous Iron Spur Wolves had made it into the base camp. At their forefront was a huge Wolf King more than three feet in height and nearly 10 feet in length. There was no one stopping of the Wolf King. Its ferocious bearing enveloped the entire base camp.

There originally were some people guarding over at the entrance of the Valley, but the Wolf King had broken this line of defense with his pack. The rest of the Iron Spur Wolves swarmed in. At that moment, there were at least 200 Iron Spur Wolves with more and more constantly coming out of the Valley.

“Block the entrance, otherwise, the whole wolf pack will come out and none of us can live!”

Patriarch Cai roared and charged forward toward the Wolf King with his saber in hand. Liu Yi made up her mind and shouted to Patriarch Hong and the other warriors, “Someone, come with me to block the entrance!”

Lu Li was in Liu Yi’s debt, so naturally, he could not just sit around. Of course, if all the wolves got out, he would be slaughtered as well. Lu Li shouted, “Lady Yi, I’ll go with you.”