Chapter 175: Returning to the Western Campus
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Deep in Omen Ridge, there was a giant chasm that stretched for thousands of meters long. It emitted a constant stream of poisonous miasma which had polluted thousands of miles of the surrounding area, resulting in a dead zone.
This was the entrance of the Chikong Secret Mansion.
Zhang Ruochen and others had just emerged from under the ground and did not have time to report what happened in the underground to the Deputy Headmaster.
Suddenly, there was a long and wheezing noise from underground.
A man, whose entire body was wrapped by lightning, flew out from the chasm and jumped tens of meters up in the air.
It was Han Sanfu.
He had activated a thunderbolt Sacred Mark, his Genuine Qi was imbued with the power of thunder. Thus, when he circulated his Genuine Qi with all his power, he was able to summon thunderbolt power.
Han Sanfu was once the Chief of the Moon Worship Demonic Sect of the Moon Commandery and ruled over all the disciples in the commandery. He was an imposing man. But now, he seemed in a difficult position. He was wounded heavily and had at least five wounds on his body.
A look of panic crossed his face. After escaping from the chasm, he immediately rushed to the east.
“Han Sanfu, do you really think that you can escape from the Chikong Secret Mansion again?”
The silver robed Deputy Headmaster of Eastern Campus sat cross-legged to the east. Seeing Han Sanfu who was rushing towards him, he showed a cold smile. Then, he suddenly stood up and struck out a palm towards Han Sanfu.
Although Han Sanfu was powerful, after all, he remained as a warrior at the Completion of the Earth Realm while the cultivation of Deputy Headmaster of the Eastern Campus was in the Heaven Realm. Very quickly he blocked Han Sanfu down.
The other three Deputy Headmasters were about to lend their hands to subdue Han Sanfu when another, even louder ear-piercing cry came from the chasm. Even the ground shook slightly this time.
Threads of Spiritual Blood rose from the ground and converted into a blood cloud.
Within the blood cloud, there was a long human-shaped shadow, emitting a terrifying power.
A closer look revealed that within blood cloud, there actually stood a bloody but beautiful woman. The woman’s hair was long, dripping with blood and her skin was crystal clear; she looked as if she was carved out of white jade.
Seeing this beautiful woman rushing out from the chasm, Deputy Headmasters stunned for a moment.
Northern Deputy Headmaster recognized the woman’s face and asked, “Lu Han, is that you?”
As a reply to the question the bloody haired woman dissolved into a streak of blood and flew towards Northern Deputy Headmaster, letting out an ear-splitting laugh. “Such a rich aroma of blood, he must be delicious!”
“Be careful, Deputy Headmaster Jing Hong. She has been possessed by Half-Saint’s Light and has turned into an evil blood-drinking creature.”
Western and Southern Deputy Headmasters both struck out towards the woman with their unique martial techniques at the same time.
The destructive power of a battle between warriors of the Heaven Realm was terrifying. Even a single streak of Sword Breath was strong enough to kill a warrior of the Earth Realm.
Zhang Ruochen and others quickly retreated to a distance.
Shortly after, the battle finished.
Han Sanfu was captured by Eastern Deputy Headmaster and once again, locked into the Chikong Secret Mansion.
However, Lu Han escaped. Even with all three of Deputy Headmasters working together, they could not stop her.
Since she was protected by Half-Saint’s Light, the attack of three Deputy Headmasters was not able to do any harm to her.
As Lu Han had already reached the Heaven Realm, her speed was astounding. Dissolving into a streak of blood, she flew into the boundless expanse of Omen Ridge.
Western and Northern Deputy Headmasters immediately gave chase while Eastern Deputy Headmaster rushed back to the School of the Martial Market to notify more masters in order to work together to defeat Lu Han.
Southern Deputy Headmaster who entered the Chikong Secret Mansion was left behind. He subdued the escaped prisoners and locked them up again.
Students who entered the Chikong Secret Mansion eventually returned to ground. First 40 people entered the Mansion but only 24 made it out alive. Nearly half of them were dead.
Some were killed by the underground savage beasts, while others died fighting over the treasures.
The spy who released Black Market prisoners was also discovered. It turned out that he was Wang Kun, the second-best student of the Northern Campus. He who ranked 99th on the Profound Board was a powerful prodigy.
Southern Deputy Headmaster personally executed Wang Kun and removed his head. The rest of the body was thrown into the chasm and smashed to smithereens.
The School of the Martial Market would never treat spies with mercy. Once they were discovered, all would be executed.
Out of the top 10 students of the Western Campus, seven survived including Luo Shuihan, Huang Yanchen, Duanmu Xingling, Tuo Muzi, Zhang Ruochen, Si Kongshu, and Zi Qian.
The Intermediate Relic Exploration exam had come to an end. Each person had greatly increased their cultivations and also received large amounts of valuable cultivation resources.
As long as they refined and absorbed these cultivation resources, their martial cultivation would increase by leaps and bounds. Moreover, once they had entered the Internal School, they would be able to quickly become masters.
Furthermore, they were all the best of the best. Now that they had passed the Intermediate Relic Exploration exam, they would receive further training and gain special attention from the School.
Under the escort of the Southern Deputy Headmaster, Zhang Ruochen and others returned to Western Campus.
Luo Shuihan, Huang Yanchen, Duanmu Xingling, Tuo Muzi, and Si Kongshu had all entered the Earth Realm and became the internal students. They stayed at Western Campus for three days before receiving the summons from the Internal School. Leaving Western Campus, they were officially becoming a part of the Internal Academy.
Of the entire Dragon Martial Temple, only Zhang Ruochen remained.
Dragon Martial Temple was unusually peaceful. He did not hear Duanmu Xingling’s laughter and did not have to worry about Huang Yanchen’ scolding.
Zhang Ruochen secluded himself for refinement. He wanted to refine the cultivation resources gained from the Chikong Secret Mansion so as to increase his cultivation.
Sitting cross-legged in the internal space of the Time and Space Spinel, Zhang Ruochen took out a third of a meter long jade box and placed it in front of him.
Opening the box, a rich wave of Saint Power and medicinal scents wafted out.
There were 68 Three Leaf Holy Clovers. Each contained a powerful medicinal nature. For a warrior at the Initial Stage of the Black Realm, one was probably enough to break into a new realm.
Zhang Ruochen was not rushing to refine all the Three Leaf Holy Clover at once, instead, he refined one per day and spent the rest of his time to practice the Dragon and Elephant Palm.
He did not want to just refine the Three Leaf Holy Clower, he also wanted to absorb the medicinal power and make its power his own.
After a fortnight, Zhang Ruochen had refined 15 Three Leaf Holy Clovers that his cultivation had increased again. The Genuine Qi in his Qi Lake had reached about 60%, which was as twice as much compared to last month’s.
Increasing his cultivation was actually a secondary goal.
More importantly, the elevation of Zhang Ruochen’s physical quality.
Zhang Ruochen could now reach the speed of 77 meters per second. In terms of speed, he was now far ahead of No.1 of the Profound Board.
However, his goal was not to be No.1 on the Profound Board but to reach the Ultimate Realm of the Black Realm.
Achieving 81 meters per second was the threshold for reaching the Ultimate Realm of the Black Realm.
It seemed that Zhang Ruochen was not far from reaching the Ultimate Realm of the Black Realm. In reality, he still had a long way to go. It was possible that he might never reach the Ultimate Realm.
“Given my current rate of cultivation, when I reach the peak of the Completion of the Black Realm, I could only reach the speed of 79 meters per second. I won’t be able to break into the Ultimate Realm of the Black Realm.”
Zhang Ruochen held a book in his hands that was a meter long and half a meter thick.
During Late Antiquity, all prodigies of the Black Realm who reached or surpassed the speed of 75 meters per second had been recorded in this book.
Speaking of Late Antiquity, it referred to the period between 10,000 years and 500 years ago.
Over Late Antiquity, no one had ever reached the Ultimate Realm of the Black Realm in Kunlun’s Field. Nine prodigies had reached the speed of 80 meters per second, 78 reached 79 meters per second, 760 reached 78 meters per second…
Everything had been clearly recorded in the book. There was a total number of 750,000 names recorded where each of them had a remarkable story to tell.
The top prodigy of the 36 commanderies, Zhang Tiangui, only reached 73 meters per second in the Black Realm.
It could be said that all of the 750,000 geniuses who were listed in the book were more talented than Zhang Tiangui.
However, out of all the prodigies, not even one managed to reach the Ultimate Realm of the Black Realm.
What was particularly remarkable were the nine prodigies who reached 80 meters per second. They were even more dazzling and admirable than Zhang Ruochen in the Black Realm, but even so, they all failed. None of the prodigies succeeded.
Zhang Ruochen closed the thick book and sighed. “In the thousands of years of Late Antiquity, there were so many prodigies, and even more if we were to consider the recent Ages, but how many were able to reach the Ultimate Realm?”
Zhang Ruochen was very aware of how difficult it would be to reach the Ultimate Realm of the Black Realm, but once he succeeded, he would be able to summon the Chord of Gods for the second time and would greatly benefit from it.
“Perhaps there were people who reached the Ultimate Realm of the Black Realm but were not recorded in this book. Kunlun’s field is vast, and even if the Martial School has a long reach, they still wouldn’t be able to record every piece of information about a warrior. At least, the Martial School has no record of me reaching the Ultimate Realm of the Yellow Realm.”
Zhang Ruochen gradually regained his confidence. His gaze showed nothing but strong determination.
Just because others didn’t achieve it, it didn’t mean he couldn’t.
“Zhang Ruochen, Deputy Headmaster Qing Hua wants to see you.” Blackie’s voice floated into the Time and Space Spinel.
“Deputy Headmaster Qing Hua is back! I wonder how it went chasing Lu Han?” Zhang Ruochen was very interested in Lu Han’s incident. He immediately left the Time and Space Spinel and welcomed the Deputy Headmaster.