“Why?” Xiao Chen asked, feeling suspicious.
Luo Zhen pointed to Elder Feng and said, “Let him get up, and I can tell you why.”
The old man’s voice was very clear, allowing everyone to hear it very clearly. They goggled in shock. A bona fide Martial Emperor, who had personally arrived in his true body, actually negotiated with Xiao Chen so that his own man could stand up.
Furthermore, from the looks of Xiao Chen, he was actually still deliberating it, appearing unwilling.
What was going on? To think that a Consummation quasi-Emperor could speak equally to a Martial Emperor! In this world where strength reigned, this thought was simply too incredible.
Xiao Chen shook his head and said, “No need. I can guess the reason why.”
With such a big drop, it had to be related to the Heart of an Emperor. Condensing the Heart of an Emperor would probably increase the difficulty of his Great Tribulation of wind and fire multifold.
In the eyes of others, the risk of trying to advance to Martial Emperor had risen by a lot.
In reality, Xiao Chen did not fear an increase in difficulty. He only feared not having enough time. Even if the difficulty did not increase, so what? If he did not have enough time to make it to the Great Tribulation of wind and fire, he would not even have a chance.
How much the difficulty increased did not matter. As long as Xiao Chen underwent the Great Tribulation of wind and fire, he had hope of advancing to Martial Emperor. Furthermore, the higher the danger, the greater the accomplishment if he succeeded.
“It looks like Senior also knows who is in the right and in the wrong in this matter. I am not an inflexible person. If there is any truly useful news to me, I do not mind letting him get up.”
Xiao Chen thought for a bit and continued, “Of course, if there is none, then he can only continue kneeling there. One needs to apologize for the mistakes one made.”
Luo Zhen, with a strange glint in his eyes, turned around and swept his gaze across, glancing at those people watching the excitement.
Sensing Luo Zhen’s gaze, these cultivators immediately understood what he wanted—to chase them away.
When his gaze landed on these cultivators, their hearts sank, and they left quickly, entirely on their own initiative.
Luo Zhen simply silently glanced around, and all the unnecessary cultivators within five kilometers around left.
Xiao Chen quietly raised his guard. Although this Luo Zhen did not look like one of those very strong Martial Emperors, he still presented quite a huge threat.
“In that case, I’ll tell you a piece of information. The Distant Sea Dragon Grave, the only Nine Star dragon grave of Dragon Grave Sea, is said to contain the Distant Ancient Dragon King’s Nine Star dragon grave. Three days from now, a group of Martial Emperors will be working together to explore it.”
Right after Luo Zhen said that, he placed his hand on Elder Feng’s shoulders, checking on Elder Feng’s condition. He could not help frowning.
There were actually eight strands of Primordial Energy left in Elder Feng’s body. Furthermore, every strand of them was very dense and contained a layer of purple sparks.
It would be hard not to injure Elder Feng while trying to free him. The situation appeared rather tricky.
Xiao Chen’s gaze flickered, his expression confused. He could not understand how this news was useful to him.
As one of eight great forbidden lands, the Distant Sea Dragon Grave always had Martial Emperor experts working together to explore it once every decade or century. This was very normal.
As a Remnant, it would be strange if there were no cultivators exploring them.
“Strange. Based on your expression, you seem unaware of the countless links between the Distant Sea Dragon Grave and the Dragon’s Gate. You’re not the least bit curious and don’t wish to explore its depths.”
Luo Zhen observed Xiao Chen’s countenance, speaking as he tried to undo the restriction on Elder Feng.
There is such a thing?
A strange light flickered in Xiao Chen’s eyes. Then, he raised his hand and undid the restriction on Elder Feng, allowing Elder Feng to heave a sigh of relief and quickly stand up.
When Luo Zhen saw Xiao Chen undo the restriction on Elder Feng, he also sighed in relief.
It would have been simple for Luo Zhen to destroy those eight strands of Primordial Energy since he was much stronger than Xiao Chen in the usage and understanding of Primordial Energy. However, this Primordial Energy was under Xiao Chen’s control.
If Xiao Chen wanted to, even though Luo Zhen was already here, he could use the restriction formed by the Primordial Energy to kill Elder Feng under Luo Zhen’s nose.
It seemed that this white-robed youth was not at all as arrogant as his performance made him appear to Luo Zhen. He knew when to pull back.
“In the future, your Azure Dragon Merchant Association can have the south of the city. Consider it the price of the Heavenly Essence Merchant Association’s impulsive actions.”
Rather than one more enemy, it was better to have one more friend. Clearly, the current Xiao Chen was already worthy of being friends with Luo Zhen, a Minor Heavenly Martial Emperor.
Since things had already reached such a state, Luo Zhen might as well take another step back and do Xiao Chen a favor at little cost.
Xiao Chen smiled faintly and accepted the other party’s peace offering without standing on ceremony.
He already achieved his purpose in establishing his might. If he continued pushing, wanting more, it would be somewhat unseemly.
“Whoosh!”
Luo Zhen carried Elder Feng and quickly left this place, flying towards Treasure Dragon Island. He moved extremely fast; others could not even see his afterimage.
“Old Luo, why did you let that brat off? With your strength, it should be easy to defeat him.”
Elder Feng clearly felt dissatisfied and deeply confused. Being forced to kneel by a junior was truly a tough pill to swallow.
Luo Zhen retorted indifferently, “What can we do about it? The Thunder Sovereign is supporting him, and so does the newly advanced Prime, the Supreme Sky Prime. We really can’t kill him.”
[TL Note: It is likely that the Supreme Sky Emperor changed his title at some point in time. Based on the story in the past, Martial Emperors have the right to change their titles. If the title they wanted was already taken by someone else, they would have to duel for the title.]
“We can humiliate him. He forced me to kneel; you can force him to kneel too,” Elder Feng immediately countered.
Luo Zhen said indifferently, “You are making too much of this. There are two things you got wrong in this matter. The first is that you were the one in the wrong, to begin with. If he purposely humiliated you for no reason at all, I would not mind teaching him a lesson.
“Your second mistake is your lack of foresight. Can you not see it? Once he advances to Martial Emperor, he will be like a dragon with golden scales. To think you still want to humiliate such a person! Are you going to be satisfied only when he becomes accomplished and bites you to death in one go?”
When Elder Feng heard that, he felt stifled; he did not know how to rebut this.
Luo Zhen said, “Let it go. If he did not have the Thunder Sovereign behind him, naturally, killing him to settle everything would be the best option. Since we cannot kill him, this is the best solution for now. Actually, you can’t be blamed. Without advancing to Martial Emperor, your experience is too limited. You cannot consider things beyond a certain point.”
Elder Feng’s expression dimmed. These words were like a stab in the guts since he could no longer reach Martial Emperor.
He would never know what that mysterious circle was like in this lifetime.
Even though he knew that his ken was too limited, he did not know where the limitation was. Just thinking of it made him feel aggrieved.
---
After Xiao Chen caught up with Jin Dabao on the Heavenly Star Island’s matters and learned that everything was fine, he started asking around about the Distant Sea Dragon Grave.
Initially, he did not have any notions of the Distant Sea Dragon Grave, one of the great forbidden lands.
Previously, when he came to the Dragon Grave Sea, he did not think about going to the Distant Sea Dragon Grave to explore and find fortuitous encounters.
However, this time, after what Luo Zhen said, bringing up the possibility of connections between the Distant Ancient Dragon Race and the Dragon’s Gate, he could not help feeling tempted.
Furthermore, Xiao Chen had grown significantly stronger and condensed the Heart of an Emperor. It should be much safer for him to enter the Distant Sea Dragon Grave now.
The news that he obtained from various places thoroughly piqued Xiao Chen’s interest. However, these events happened too long ago and were thus impossible to verify.
Nevertheless, the scars of the battles from tens of thousands of years ago were still preserved in there. And it was definitely true that the Azure Emperor entered and left the Distant Sea Dragon Grave eight times.
The Dragon’s Gate went back a long way. As for exactly how long it had been passed down for, maybe only the Clan Head of the Xiao Clan in the Sky Dome Realm would know.
However, it was definitely not just ten thousand years. It surely dated back to the Ancient Era. Before the war of the hundred races, it already possessed a complete set of inheritance.
Before the Azure Emperor, the Dragon’s Gate already had a glorious past. Supposedly, the Dragon’s Gate’s Sect Masters had all explored the Distant Sea Dragon Grave.
However, as this happened too long ago, there was no way to verify this information. The only one that could be confirmed was the Azure Emperor’s visits.
Xiao Chen organized the information he had on hand and muttered, “If all this information is real, then what is in the Distant Sea Dragon Grave that can attract all the past Sect Masters of the Dragon’s Gate that they went there one after another?”
The Distant Ancient Dragon Race was filled with mysteries.
Unfortunately, in order to find out, Xiao Chen needed to enter the core of the Distant Sea Dragon Grave.
With Xiao Chen’s current strength, he should not have any problems exploring the periphery of the Distant Sea Dragon Grave, able to enter and leave safely.
However, it might be difficult for him to return safely if he went to the depths. As for the core region, there was no need to think about it. That was a place where even a Greater Heavenly Martial Emperor had to tread carefully.
Even a Sovereign Martial Emperor would not be able to say that they could come and go as they pleased.
Now, there was an opportunity. Three days later, a group of Martial Emperors would be working together to explore the depths of the Distant Sea Dragon Grave. Xiao Chen could follow them and try to gain something through it.
Although he could not go to the core region, this would still be much better than lingering at the edges. Who knew, he might be able to discover something in the depths.
Xiao Chen had never been a person to hesitate. After thinking about it a little more, he quickly came to a decision.
Go!
There were still more three days. He could use this time to stabilize his cultivation and make his preparations.
It was already late at night. Xiao Chen sat cross-legged in the cultivation room of the quiet courtyard. Once again, he used the Heart of an Emperor to open that mysterious door of space and time.
The world behind the door remained hazy, unfathomable, and distant. It was boundless and vast, making one feel reverence and not dare to do anything to profane it.
Xiao Chen carefully absorbed Primordial Energy from the world behind the door. Wisps of pure-white energy trickled down.
Unlike the first time, he could not extract an entire strand of Primordial Energy this time. Not to mention ten strands, there was not even one strand.
All Xiao Chen obtained were these wisps of Primordial Energy that appeared like dew, which was very disappointing. Based on this speed, he did not know when he could form one complete strand of Primordial Energy.
Now that he thought about it, he understood why Ao Jiao had found it already incredible that he managed to obtain ten strands of Primordial Energy in one go.
However, after persisting for about fifteen minutes, the Heart of an Emperor could no longer keep the door open.
Xiao Chen stopped overthinking and focused, sending all the absorbed wisps of Primordial Energy into his Heart of the Emperor and adding them to those ten strands of Primordial Energy.
With his efforts over the past half month, the originally pure-white Primordial Energy had already turned purple from the infusion of his Law Energy.
Now, the Primordial Energy gained a lightning attribute, allowing Xiao Chen to use it more freely.
Of the twenty thousand Heavenly Laws surrounding the Heart of an Emperor, Xiao Chen already successfully infused three thousand.