Chapter 1089 – The Red Wilderness
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At dawn, the sky above the Red Desolate Sea was already covered with a layer of morning mist. On Carefree Island, a large group of disciple had gathered, around 3000-4000 cultivators in total.
These 3000-4000 cultivators were the main force that was being sent into the Red Desolate Mystic Realm.
Of these people, 95% of them were Revolving Core disciples. Of true high stage Life Destruction and Divine Sea realm disciples, there were only about a hundred of them.
These Revolving Core disciples were basically the young disciples of Carefree Island. On average, their talent wasn’t too great. There were some that came from distinguished martial arts families that were a bit better than the rest. But even so, upon arriving at Carefree Island, they all had to follow the rules. If they wanted to be vigorously trained by Carefree Island, they would have to show unparalleled talent or honestly carry out the missions assigned to them.
Of the over 3000 Revolving Core disciples, each one of them had a saint artifact level spatial ring. These were given to them to gather resources in the Red Desolate Mystic Realm.
As for the 100 plus high stage Life Destruction and Divine Sea realm disciples, they were the direct disciples of Carefree Island. Even peak direct disciples like Ye Rosewater and White Mirrorjade were among them.
This was a large transmission event that required 20 billion violet sun stones. As for the four God Beast Clans, it only cost them a few billion violet sun stones when they sent their disciples to the God Beast Mystic Realm smelting trial.
Of course, the four God Beast Clans only did so to help temper their disciples, giving them more experience, and allowing them to seek their own lucky chances in the God Beast Mystic Realm. To them, violet sun stones were only considered an investment into their junior disciples. The payoff would only be seen in the future.
As for Carefree Island, they went to gather resources for their sect; this mission involved the livelihood of their sect’s future. It wasn’t a mission to help train their junior disciples. Moreover, as long as they weren’t robbed, then the greater their investment, the more profit there would be. The two instances naturally couldn’t be compared.
Of the 20 billion violet sun stones, 80% of them was used to transmit the 100 plus direct disciples. As for the 3000-4000 Revolving Core disciples, they only cost the remaining 20% to send over.
Lin Ming was also in this massive troop of people. He stood by himself in a corner. All around him, the other disciples were casting glances his way. Some had fear in their eyes, some had curiosity, some had goodwill, and some were even hostile.
The news of Lin Ming entering the 30th level of the simulation mystic realm and taking the simulation treasure without a single wound had already spread to the ears of all the direct disciples.
“He’s Lin Ming? He looks to be around 30 years old.”
Some of the direct disciples began to speak to each other with true essence sound transmissions. Lin Ming was over 30 but still appeared to be around 20 years old; it was impossible to tell his true age from his appearance alone. Lin Ming was destined to break into the Divine Lord realm in the future. Once he did, he would be able to maintain this appearance for perpetuity. He wouldn’t need to consume part of his cultivation to maintain his youthful good looks like many female martial artists chose to do.
“At this age, an eighth stage Life Destruction cultivation is quite the ruthless suppression. If it were an ordinary talent, this would be normal but for a genius like Lin Ming, the greater they suppress their cultivation the more it shows off their ability. This is because it is more difficult to perceive the Laws when one’s cultivation is low, so the average martial artist simply can’t afford to do this. Only those monstrous geniuses would forcibly suppress their cultivation so much to consolidate their foundation and perceive the Laws to a high degree at the lower realms.”
“Don’t look at his eighth stage Life Destruction cultivation. His true combat strength is far greater than an early Divine Sea powerhouse.”
“Yeah, just look at that Liu Yun and what sort of fate he suffered.”
The disciples discussed with each other. At this time, in front of Lin Ming, a white-clothed youth appeared, holding a folding fan in his hands. He had a light and courtly appearance, nothing suggesting he was about to head to a life or death battlefield. Rather, it looked like he was about to wander around and enjoy the scenery.
“Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, I never imagined that you would be participating in this life or death war. Honorable Sect Master, he, seems a bit too willing.” The youth who spoke was White Mirrorjade. At the same time he sighed again and said, “For such a talent like Junior-apprentice Brother Lin, you should at least break into the Divine Sea before entering the Red Desolate Mystic Realm. If you did, you would surely be able to fight one against a hundred, overwhelming any and all. But now, it seems a bit dangerous. After all, there will be late Divine Sea powerhouses participating in the war within the Red Desolate Mystic Realm. If Junior-apprentice Brother Lin were to meet them, perhaps…”
White Mirrorjade faded off here, no longer speaking. But Lin Ming spoke up, “Senior-apprentice Brother White does not need to worry about me. I naturally have methods to save my own life.”
“Haha, that would be for the best. If Junior-apprentice Brother Lin meets life threatening danger, remember that your life is the most important thing and to escape as soon as you can. Junior-apprentice Brother Lin is worth far more than any amount of resources,” White Mirrorjade advised.
He turned to the other disciples and began to caution them one at a time. Everything he said was just worthless chatter, but many of the disciples were moved. After all, White Mirrorjade’s status was far higher than these ordinary direct disciples.
“Everyone has arrived! Prepare to embark!” The one responsible for today’s operation was Carefree Island’s Great Elder. Of course, he was only directing the transmission; he wasn’t truly able to go to the Red Desolate Mystic Realm.
The Red Desolate Mystic Realm had three transmission array entrances, each belonging to the three different sects. They were all located underneath the seabed of the Red Desolate Sea.
Over 3000 disciples boarded a spirit ship. The spirit ship dove into the water, heading for the transmission array at the bottom of the sea. The Great Elder took out the 20 billion violet sun stones. In truth, these were not violet sun stones but violet sun crystals. Each violet sun crystal was worth 10,000 violet sun stones, so he didn’t take out 20 billion violet sun stones but 2 million violet sun crystals instead. With so many violet sun crystals piled up, they formed a massive crystal mountain. For a time, the brilliant purple light pierced through the 10,000 foot deep seawater, directly piercing through the skies.
A thousand miles away from Carefree Island, on a lonely and isolated mountain, there were several black cloaked martial artists secretly hiding deep beneath several layers of extremely hidden concealing array formations. They looked toward the purple light that shot up from the distance.
“The transmission array has opened. They didn’t even think of hiding the light of the violet sun stones.”
“Humph, hiding is useless. The three transmission arrays are connected to each other. Once one is activated, everyone else will know. Since they’ve gone in, so shall we! Mine the resources first and in 80 hours from now go and kill them all and take their resources. Give no quarter!”
“Haha, I can’t wait.”
The time to enter the Red Desolate Mystic Realm was 96 hours. After that, everyone would be transmitted out. 16 hours was enough for the final battle at the end. In order to maximize profits, it was best to allow everyone to gather resources for the first 80 hours.
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“So this is the Red Desolate Mystic Realm. It feels a bit different from the God Beast Mystic Realm.”
Lin Ming looked at the endless red desert under his feet. His surroundings seemed barren and the heaven and earth origin energy here was also very sparse. It was hard to imagine that there was a nearly unlimited amount of resources buried beneath this sand. By all reasoning, where there were resources, the heaven and earth origin energy should be extremely rich; just like it was in the Temple of Marvels.
It wasn’t just Lin Ming, but many disciples entering the Red Desolate Mystic Realm for the first time had this question. White Mirrorjade seemed to guess their thoughts and slowly explained, “It isn’t anything strange. The sand of the Red Desolate Mystic Realm is not ordinary sand. It is able to isolate origin energy fluctuations and also makes it very difficult for senses to penetrate through. The spirit energy of the Red Desolate Mystic Realm is covered up by this endless red desert. To look for resources, we have no choice but to dig down and hope that we get lucky. Even a Divine Transformation realm powerhouse would be in the same situation. Basically, using your divine sense here is useless. Regardless of your cultivation, there isn’t too great a difference in the amount of resources you can dig out.”
As White Mirrorjade spoke, many of the disciples began experimenting themselves. Their divine sense wasn’t able to penetrate more than several inches underground, but it was perfectly fine when investigating outwards.
“Alright, less banter and more work. We’ve paid a great price to enter this time to excavate resources, so let’s begin. Everyone will be listening to me. Are there any objections?”
White Mirrorjade glanced over at Ye Rosewater. Out of everyone present, only Ye Rosewater was similar to him in cultivation and status.
Ye Rosewater didn’t speak. She was clearly indicating that she had no objections at present.
White Mirrorjade faintly smiled. He pulled out a jade plate. Atop this jade plate was a vague three-dimensional image; this was a projection of this part of the red desert.
White Mirrorjade smiled as he saw this. “Hoh! Our luck isn’t too bad. There just happens to be a slightly purple mountain range near us. According to what we’ve learnt in the past, these purple mountain ranges should be filled with violet sun stone ore. But this purple mountain range isn’t too great. Several hundred people should be enough to excavate the area. To guarantee the highest efficiency, we’ll divide everyone into two groups for gathering. A smaller group will go to the purple mountain and everyone else will search the desert.”
As White Mirrorjade spoke, he pointed at the desert projection on the array disc. There really was a purple mountain range nearby.
After hearing this plan, Ye Rosewater frowned. “Split up? Our combined strength is much weaker than the joint forces of Splintersoul Mountain and the Occult Bone Clan, so why would we divide our forces?”
White Mirrorjade answered, “This is to ensure the highest degree of efficiency. This is the only way to do it, otherwise it will be very difficult to move around several thousand people. Moreover, this is the intent of the Highest Elders. They didn’t mention it before because they didn’t want any information leaking out.”
As White Mirrorjade spoke he flung out a jade slip token from his spatial ring toward Ye Rosewater.
Ye Rosewater caught the token and swept her senses through it. Indeed, there was mention of splitting up the forces so that more area could be covered. Although this meant improved efficiency, it was also much more dangerous.
“Junior-apprentice Sister Ye, you need to think about it some more. There simply isn’t anything for you to worry about. We just entered the Red Desolate Mystic Realm and we haven’t even had any time to gather resources. During this time, Splintersoul Mountain and the Occult Bone Clan aren’t so idiotic as to immediately attack us. Otherwise they will just lose people without being able to steal anything at all. There is no way they would do something so thankless and without benefits. That purple mountain range is very safe. The sand and rock of the Red Desolate Mystic realm shield all senses and you’ll even be mining in tunnels of the purple mountain. There will absolutely be no danger to anyone. Then again, even if you encounter danger, we can still hurry up to the location for support.”
White Mirrorjade’s words sounded fair and he also had the instructions of the Highest Elders on his side, so Ye Rosewater didn’t complain.
“I’ll divide the teams.”
White Mirrorjade easily divided the main group into two. White Mirrorjade’s own team had the vast majority of the group’s strength, and also his cronies. Those like Liu Yun and the others were all in his team.
As for the smaller team, they were far, far weaker. That team contained all of Ye Rosewater’s subordinates and there was even Lin Ming.
As for Ye Rosewater herself, she had been selected for White Mirrorjade’s team.
Ye Rosewater was immediately dissatisfied with such a distribution. “White Mirrorjade, just what are you trying to do? The difference in strength is far too great!”