Mu Chen reached the edge of the Enlightenment Lake, his expression as calm as the waters had been before the recent disturbances. As he approached the shore, a phenomenon occurred that made the nearby observers gasp in disbelief.
The massive volume of water, previously surging with violent ripples, suddenly recoiled. It parted away like a heavy velvet curtain, creating a dry, hollowed-out passage that led straight into the dark depths.
Without a moment of hesitation, Mu Chen stepped off the edge and jumped into the abyss, falling straight down into the heart of the lake.
The environment beneath the surface was a world removed from the light of the sun. It was a place of complete, suffocating darkness, where the only sound was the whistling of eerie, spectral winds. These were no ordinary gusts; they were Spirit-Severing Winds, sharp and jagged enough to tear the flesh from the bones of anyone below the Golden Core realm.
Without a high-grade defensive treasure to shield them, a cultivator would be shredded into a bloody mist before they even reached the first hundred meters.
As Mu Chen descended further, the silence was broken by the sound of frantic screaming and colorful cursing echoing through the passage.
"Damn it all! What kind of bastard heavenly treasure is this?" a voice shrieked from the darkness nearby. "I just entered this cursed hole and two of my low-grade defensive treasures have already been pulverized! This isn't a trial; it's a robbery!"
Another cultivator's voice rose in a desperate, cracked wail. "I curse the ancestor who created this realm to the tenth generation! There should have been a warning sign outside! 'Caution: High probability of becoming a meat slurry!' Is that too much to ask?"
"My Spirit-Shield Umbrella is smoking! It's actually smoking!" a third voice joined the chorus of misery. "If I survive this, I'm retiring to become a pig farmer. At least pigs don't shoot wind blades at your face!"
In the midst of this chaotic symphony of despair, the struggling cultivators suddenly saw a figure pass through them. Mu Chen was falling straight down, his hands tucked casually in his pockets, his posture so relaxed it was as if he were taking a midday stroll through a flower garden rather than plummeting into a deathtrap.
"Damn... who was that?" one warrior stammered, his eyes bulging as he watched the blur of Mu Chen's calm face pass him by.
"Damn him to the pits!" another hissed, clutching a cracked jade talisman. "He's moving like he's in his own backyard, and here I am, my heart bleeding from the loss of my treasures! Where is the justice?"
...
As Mu Chen and Xiao Diao reached the two-hundred-meter mark of their descent, they encountered a scene that was truly strange and bizarre, even for this world. In the middle of the dark passage, a man was sitting cross-legged, hovering in mid-air as if he were a merchant at a bustling marketplace.
He looked to be an early Golden Core cultivator, and he had a wide array of shimmering treasures spread out on a floating spiritual mat before him.
The man was shouting at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing against the walls of the water-curtain. "Two hundred thousand spiritual stones for a medium-grade defensive treasure! Get them while they're whole!"
"Five hundred thousand spiritual stones for a high-grade treasure! Your life is worth more than a handful of rocks, isn't it? Don't be stingy with your survival!"
Spiritual stones were the primary currency and fuel for Golden Core and Nascent Soul experts, serving as a concentrated source of spiritual energy for cultivation. Seeing this blatant display of opportunism, Mu Chen and Xiao Diao looked at each other. Mu Chen couldn't help but let a small smile play on his lips.
"He is an interesting guy," Mu Chen remarked.
Xiao Diao shook his head, a dry chuckle escaping his throat. "Who would have thought we would see a roadside merchant in the middle of a divine descent? This world never ceases to find new ways to be ridiculous."
At that moment, a cultivator who was a peak Foundation Realm expert barked at the merchant, his face red with fury. "You old bastard! Why don't you just skin us alive while you're at it? Two hundred thousand for a medium-grade treasure? That's triple the normal market price! You're a thief!"
The old man didn't get angry at the insult. Instead, he maintained a serene, professional smile and spoke in a soothing tone. "Young man, you are far too rude, and such an attitude is not good for a cultivator's heart. Since you've offended my sensibilities, I'll have to adjust the price. It's now two hundred and fifty thousand spiritual stones for you."
The Foundation Realm expert almost choked to death on his own rage. A thick vein throbbed on his forehead as he pointed a trembling finger. "You—!"
"Two hundred and sixty thousand," the old man said flatly, his smile never wavering.
Before the first man could explode, another cultivator stepped forward, trying to use his status. "Senior, I am from the Zhou family of the Cloud Sea Kingdom. Perhaps you could show some face and—"
The old man cut him short with a dismissive wave. "Young man, below heaven, what kingdom, what family, what sect? We are all just pawns in the grand game." The old man let out a long, theatrical sigh as if he had just imparted a nugget of deep, ancient wisdom.
The Zhou family cultivator wanted to scream foul at this "Senior," but he held his tongue. He had seen the price rise for the first man and didn't want to test the merchant's greed any further.
As Mu Chen and Xiao Diao drifted past, Xiao Diao looked at the merchant and said, "I have to say, old man, you are really black-hearted. Taking advantage of people when they're about to be shredded? That's cold."
The old man looked at them, his eyes narrowing as he noticed they were falling through the Spirit-Severing Winds without a single scratch or a visible defensive treasure. He immediately guessed they were either protected by a treasure of such high quality it was invisible, or they were Golden Core experts themselves.
"It's not about being black-hearted; it's business," the old man replied, his tone becoming more pragmatic. "I am a rogue cultivator at the early Golden Core stage. I know my limits. I know I can't fight for the ultimate treasure against mid or late Golden Core experts. Even if I somehow got lucky and grabbed something, do you think those big sects and imperial families would let me leave with it? I would be chased to my death. This way, I collect my stones and leave. It's safer."
Mu Chen heard this and nodded. "You sound reasonable."
The old man had clearly thought this through. Collecting a mountain of spiritual stones from desperate people was a slow way to increase cultivation compared to finding a divine treasure, but it was infinitely better than dying in a hole for a prize he couldn't keep.
Xiao Diao spoke up again. "But do you really think they'll buy at these prices?"
Before the old man could even open his mouth to answer, a cultivator nearby shouted in a desperate, cracking voice. "Senior! Five hundred thousand! Just give me a high-grade treasure, quickly!"
The man spoke with a bleeding heart. This was his lifelong saving, decades of hard work and hoarding, and today he was dumping it all into a single artifact. His mid and low-grade treasures had already been destroyed, and he knew that if he didn't secure protection now, he would be dead before he saw the bottom.
Since he had already crossed more than half the distance, he decided to risk everything to reach the end and search for new opportunities.
The old man looked at Xiao Diao and smiled knowingly. He turned to the desperate cultivator and handed over a shimmering shield. "You made the right choice, young friend. Here you go."
Xiao Diao joked as they continued their descent, "Haha, old man, it would be better if you found a very good place to hide after leaving this place. Otherwise, these people won't be letting you off easily."
"That's exactly what I plan to do," the old man called out after them.
Mu Chen and Xiao Diao continued downward, crossing another hundred and thirty meters of darkness before they finally reached the end of the passage. Mu Chen landed softly on solid ground, he took a moment to look around, his eyes adjusting to the new environment.
It was like stepping onto an ancient battlefield. The air carried a heavy, scary feeling that weighed on the soul. Despite the atmosphere, the spiritual energy here was incredibly dense, much purer than in the outside world. From the far-off shadows, the roars of spiritual beasts echoed, sounding ancient and hungry. The ground beneath their feet was not soil, but a carpet of bleached bones.
Xiao Diao spread his divine sense out, his whiskers twitching as he scanned the horizon. "People have gathered in that direction. It looks like they've found something of interest. How about we go and see for ourselves?"
Mu Chen nodded. "Let us go."
With a thought, a swirling cloud manifested under Mu Chen's feet, lifting him up and carrying him away in the direction Xiao Diao had pointed.
...
The Fiery Rock Mountains were located three hundred miles away from Azure City, which happened to be the general area where Mu Chen and Xiao Diao had landed. These fiery mountains covered an extremely vast territory, characterized by jagged peaks and glowing embers.
Within this range, not only did a massive number of spiritual beasts reside, but there were even powerful existences comparable to peak Golden Core realm experts lurking in the shadows. For this reason, the various sects, orthodox families, and imperial families had chosen to explore its depths as a collective group rather than venturing in alone.
They arrived at a valley formed by a vast, narrow fissure in the earth. Above the valley, a dense, shimmering mist lingered, and from the depths of the fissure, the low, rhythmic sound of churning magma constantly echoed.
The concentration of fire-element Divine Power was so high that it had formed a dense, glowing red-orange net within the valley, firmly sealing off the passage that led further into the depths.
As Mu Chen and Xiao Diao reached the location, the cloud descended.
The experts who were already gathered there turned to watch them approach. Among the crowd was the Imperial Prince of the Canglan Kingdom, Lu Ming. He was dressed in a resplendent golden robe, though it was embroidered with only four dragons, marking his status as inferior to the eight-dragon robe of Sun Liang.
As soon as Lu Ming saw Mu Chen, he stepped forward, his face breaking into a polite smile. "Brother Mu Chen, I didn't expect to run into you here."
His personal guards immediately followed his lead, bowing and greeting him in unison. "Young Lord Mu Chen."
Prince Lu Ming had been strictly instructed by his father, King Lu, before entering the lake. The King had told him that if he met Mu Chen inside, he was to do everything in his power to befriend the boy. No matter what happened, he was never to make Mu Chen his enemy. Lu Ming had heard of Mu Chen's deeds and understood the gravity of his father's warning. Thus, the moment he saw Mu Chen, he came to the front to show his respect.
Seeing a Prince of the Kingdom greeting a plain-clothed youth with such deference, the nearby cultivators were shocked.
"Who is that guy and that little creature? Why is the Prince being so polite to him?"
"Is he from the Great Xia Dynasty's royal family itself? Or maybe he's a young lord from one of the four great clans?"
At this time, a voice spoke up slowly, laced with a tremor of fear. "He is the one who beat our sect disciples... the Nine Phoenix Valley."
The speaker was the same fatty who had dragged his Senior Brother Zhang away after Xiao Diao had broken the man's "eggs" on the mountain peak.
Another cultivator nearby sneered, "So what? That doesn't make him anyone special. Even I can beat Nine Phoenix Valley disciples. What's so good about that?"
Hearing this, the nearby Nine Phoenix Valley disciples turned a bright shade of red from embarrassment. They wanted to catch that man and beat the life out of him. Did he really need to add that last part? Could he not have stopped after the first sentence?
However, they were even angrier at the fatty. What kind of junior brother was he, constantly bringing up their shame to everyone they met?
The fatty spoke again, his eyes wide. "No, it's not just that! Later, I did some inquiry about him in the city. I found out people call him the Devil in the Canglan Kingdom! He turned people into golden coins right at the city gate! There are also rumours that he's the one who saved Marshal Ning Wang from an assassination plot!"
Hearing this, everyone in the vicinity turned to look at the fatty, then back at Mu Chen. Even the fatty's own friends stared at him as if questioning his sanity. "Damn, what kind of bullshit crap he is spitting? Is he a god? Turning people into coins?"
The fatty felt his hair stand on end from the intensity of their staring. He gulped hard. He knew it sounded absurd, but he had verified the stories—it was the terrifying truth.
One of the Nine Phoenix Valley disciples, a senior brother to the fatty, stepped forward and delivered a light smack to the back of the fatty's head. He looked at the surrounding cultivators and forced a smile. "Fellow cultivators, please don't take my junior brother seriously. His mental state has been unstable lately. His soul technique has gone astray and he's seeing illusions."
Hearing this everyone diverted there gaze from fatty. And before fatty could spout more nonsense his sect disciples pulled him back.