The Black Dragon Empire's Sky Star City was less than ten miles from the Star Regional Lake. In this city with a population numbering in the millions, there was a high end restaurant called the Nine Star White Jade Restaurant. It had nine levels, each level being more luxurious than the last. On the outside surface of the building was a very valuable white jade wallpaper, with gold carved on it as well, it was something special in the whole Black Dragon Empire.
On the seventh level of the restaurant, many top level Astral Reaching Realm warriors sat in the middle of the hall, chatting with each other.
"Everyone, don't try to figure this out again. I think that Ye Chen will not be able to walk out of the forbidden area within five years, and he might even die in there as far as I know." The speaker was a middle-aged man with a square face and big nose, having a rather high cultivation; he was at the Late Astral Reaching Realm, which made him quite famous in the Sky Star City. Half a year ago, after Shen Tujue announced the news, it spread out at an extremely fast speed within the South Rudra Region. As a result, all the Astral Reaching Realm warriors had been talking about this for half a year, since Ye Chen was just so memorable from the Hidden Dragon Rank competition, in which he won all the way and eventually beat the top warrior of the young generation, Sikong Sheng. It had been two years now since the competitions, and he was again top of the generation, becoming an Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior. He had also killed the White Bone ghost warrior of the Nine Ghost Cult on the Blood Demon Battlefield. The news of him escaping from the top four Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors had shocked everyone in the South Rudra Region. Therefore, it was reasonable that his name would pop out in conversations constantly.
"Indeed, the possibility of him coming out is very small. But, even if he made it out, it might not be a good thing. After all, he had killed the core master of the Floating Mountain Martial School, Jin Huang, and then the White Bone ghost warrior. Both the Floating Mountain Martial School and the Nine Ghost Cult would not let him go, and his future would be quite worrisome."
"Yeah, the head core master from the Floating Mountain Martial School, Shen Tujue, must be the one chasing after him for his school. According to the rumors, his cultivation is stronger than the head core master of the Heartless Marital School, Fei Youdao. He had already developed the warrior spirit, which represents the top power amongst the Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors. On the other hand, the remaining members of the Nine Ghost Cult would not be easy to take on either. There were two other ghost warriors just as powerful as the White Bone ghost warrior, especially the number one among them, the Five Poison ghost warrior. His body is full of poison, and even the breath he breathes out is powerful enough to poison a whole village of people. Competing with him, his opponent would be poisoned without even noticing. Even if it were not too serious, the warrior's attacking power would be affected, leaving the opponent no chance of fighting back."
"This Ye Chen is so good at causing trouble. All of these people come from such a powerful background, the Floating Mountain Martial School, the remaining power of the Nine Ghost Cult… No matter who comes at me from amongst them, I would not be able to fight back." Being able to sit on the seventh floor of the Nine Star White Jade Restaurant would mean they were all Astral Reaching Realm warriors, but they were only the normal ones. The most powerful one among them would be a Late Astral Reaching Realm warrior; they were not even that powerful, not to mention being at the top or extreme level. If a normal Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior attacked them, they would all have to die.
Tap! Tap! Tap
At this moment, a stepping sound came from the staircase. Although it was rather quiet, but everyone there heard it, and could not help but look over.
After three breaths of time, a young man appeared in everyone's sight.
He wore a blue robe, with a longsword around his waist, and his long black hair tightened up in a simple fashion. With that gentle jade-like sight, although he was not the most handsome man in the world, he was definitely good-looking.
It was indeed Ye Chen.
After running for dozen hundreds of miles, the first city Ye Chen arrived at was the Sky Star City, which was the closest to the Star Regional Lake. The distance was less than ten miles.
On the way here, Ye Chen had thought about it, and he knew that the news of him leaving the forbidden area would not be hidden for long, since there were bound to be people who would recognize him. As for the reason that he was able to do so, he had thought about the consequences of him saying that he had broken through using only Astral Reaching Realm cultivation, which would be too shocking for the world to comprehend, since the iron rule had never been broken before. Therefore, he had decided to make an obvious comeback, creating an illusion that he did not even go deep into the foggy forbidden area.
However, there would also be a day when the illusion would be broken, but he knew that it would not be broken too fast, and he was confident that before that day arrived, he would have gained enough power to protect himself.
The levels above the seventh floor of the Nine Star White Jade Restaurant could only be accessed by powerful Astral Reaching Realm warriors, among which, a lot of them would recognize him. This was why he decided to set the restaurant to be the first location. In a way, he wished to use their mouths to spread the news that he had returned.
"Oh my god! It is Ye Chen!"
Indeed, just as Ye Chen had expected, two of the people on the seventh floor had recognized him. The two had been to the Hidden Dragon Rank competition, and Ye Chen's appearance had made a deep mark in their brains.
"What? Are you sure?"
"Why should I lie to you? He is indeed Ye Chen."
"I cannot believe it! He somehow made it out alive? It is so hard to comprehend."
"What on earth!"
The guy who was just talking about that Ye Chen would not make it out for at least another five years was shocked at what he saw, looking like he had just seen a ghost.
Ye Chen smiled lightly and sat down by the table next to the window as the group chatted about him, as if he had not heard anything at all.
"Should we go say hello? I have heard that he has quite a good personality."
"Yeah, I never heard anything bad about him. Let's go together."
The two who had recognized Ye Chen stood up, walking towards Ye Chen.
"Warrior Ye, we have heard about you for a long time now."
The two held their hands in front of their chest as a gesture of being respectful.
Ye Chen reached out his head, "Sit."
'This Ye Chen is indeed friendly. He has even asked us to sit down. How nice.' The two looked quite happy, and were even more respectful as they sat down.
One of the two asked the waiter to prepare the best dish and alcohol.
"Warrior Ye, we two had been hearing about you for so long. Being able to sit down and eat together today, we really appreciate the opportunity." The guy on the left with a black mole on his face said with a bright face.
Ye Chen smiled as he said, "Isn't the meaning of life just doing the things you like? Drinking alone is quite boring. I would not refuse anyone else who would like to join."
"Hehe, how nice."
Seeing the three who were having a great chat, the others on the seventh level were extremely jealous and regretful at the same time. How could they have not thought about doing that? If they had done that, it would be them sitting there.
"Warrior Ye, I, too have heard a lot about you."
One of the others who was sitting nearby could not resist anymore, as he said forcibly.
Ye Chen did not make it hard for the others. They were all welcome to sit down with him and drink.
"Warrior Ye!"
"Warrior Ye!"
"…"
As the others saw what had happened, they all stood up and tried to chat with Ye Chen. They knew that they would earn a bit more reputation in the future by doing so, being able to talk to the rarest martial genius in the past thousand years. If Ye Chen became more powerful in the future, then it would be even better. They would be able to tell this story to their children, 'Your father, I, once drank and chatted with Ye Chen.'
There were getting too many people, so Ye Chen laughed and pushed all of the tables on the seventh floor together, creating a huge ten-meters long table. Everyone gathered together and drank as a group.
"Warrior Ye, that forbidden area is regarded as the graveyard of powerful Astral Reaching Realm warriors. How did you manage to get out? Please tell us and let everyone learn from you."
"Yeah, warrior Ye, the news of you being out would spread out in the whole Black Dragon Empire within this month. After this month, probably the whole South Rudra Region would know of it."
Ye Chen sipped on his alcohol and said, "Actually, I did not go deep into the forbidden area, so I came out five months ago already. I had been recovering. As you know, I had been chased by top four Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors, so it would be impossible for me to make it out without any wounds."
"You did not go in deep?"
Everyone realized the fact that Ye Chen had actually not made in deep. As for being wounded, it would be quite normal, it would be weird if he did not get wounded at all, since the top four Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors would be deadly for anyone else. Being able to make it out alive had already proven his ability. Now, after hearing what Ye Chen had said, recovering for the past five months would be quite reasonable, since it would be easy for a normal Astral Reaching Realm warrior to recover from wounds, but it would be quite hard for the powerful warriors. Although it would be hard to kill them, their wounds would be relatively harder to cure as well, because it affected their mentality and even soul sometimes.
"Congratulation on your safe return, warrior Ye. I will raise a toast for that."
"Me too!"
This party lasted all the way until midnight.
…
Inside the guest room of the restaurant, Ye Chen sat on the bed with his feet tugged under his body. The four months of him trying to find the way back affected Ye Chen dramatically, it was even more challenging than the Double Sword King and the Iron Sword King statue's will power test.
Will power… What could be regarded as will power?
Being powerful on the surface was not the true power. Being internally powerful would be the true goal, the unbreakable power which would break through one's destiny.
Four months and seven days of the boring trip had increased Ye Chen's will power to an extremely horrifying level. After a general calculation, he found that he had used his soul power two hundred thousand times in that amount of time. If it were any other Astral Reaching Realm warrior, he or she would have gone crazy by now or even broken down. Or, in other cases, he or she would have given up directly. Without reaching the Seas of Souls Realm and not being able to make it out of the forbidden area, even if Seas of Souls Realm warriors would not have Ye Chen's endurance and determination. Doing the same thing day after day for four months and seven days in a row and repeating it thousands of times per day, what a horrifying challenge!
And, this was not even the most horrifying part. Back then, Ye Chen himself did not even know if he could make it out at all, as everything was unknown. There rarely would be any warriors out there who could stand up again after countless times of failures. This period of tough time would equal other people's whole life worth of suffering.
Of course, on the contrary, being able to win over his own mind time after time was also rewarding, more than one might expect.
With the powerful will power, his sword intent had also become unbreakable. Each tiny beam of it was amazingly pure. Without exaggerating, in competing only with the sword intent, no one could be Ye Chen's opponent. Right then, the total quantity of his sword intent was roughly the same as a Seas of Souls Realm warrior. Competing with its power, even a normal Seas of Souls Realm sword artist would not be his opponent, and would be beaten within minutes.
On top of his soul sea, a three-fingers-long, ancient looking longsword shone silver light; it was the light of his will power. From the knowledge and sword art of the Battle Empire, he had learned that within the Seas of Souls Realm, only the master of the realm could shine the halo-like light. In the case of anyone below that level, only rare cases could do it. However, Ye Chen managed to do so at just the Astral Reaching Realm.
"Once the light is out, the will power would never disappear."
He took in a deep breath, as a bright light appeared, ready to project into people's souls.
The Black Dragon Empire's Sky Star City was less than ten miles from the Star Regional Lake. In this city with a population numbering in the millions, there was a high end restaurant called the Nine Star White Jade Restaurant. It had nine levels, each level being more luxurious than the last. On the outside surface of the building was a very valuable white jade wallpaper, with gold carved on it as well, it was something special in the whole Black Dragon Empire.
On the seventh level of the restaurant, many top level Astral Reaching Realm warriors sat in the middle of the hall, chatting with each other.
"Everyone, don't try to figure this out again. I think that Ye Chen will not be able to walk out of the forbidden area within five years, and he might even die in there as far as I know." The speaker was a middle-aged man with a square face and big nose, having a rather high cultivation; he was at the Late Astral Reaching Realm, which made him quite famous in the Sky Star City. Half a year ago, after Shen Tujue announced the news, it spread out at an extremely fast speed within the South Rudra Region. As a result, all the Astral Reaching Realm warriors had been talking about this for half a year, since Ye Chen was just so memorable from the Hidden Dragon Rank competition, in which he won all the way and eventually beat the top warrior of the young generation, Sikong Sheng. It had been two years now since the competitions, and he was again top of the generation, becoming an Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior. He had also killed the White Bone ghost warrior of the Nine Ghost Cult on the Blood Demon Battlefield. The news of him escaping from the top four Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors had shocked everyone in the South Rudra Region. Therefore, it was reasonable that his name would pop out in conversations constantly.
"Indeed, the possibility of him coming out is very small. But, even if he made it out, it might not be a good thing. After all, he had killed the core master of the Floating Mountain Martial School, Jin Huang, and then the White Bone ghost warrior. Both the Floating Mountain Martial School and the Nine Ghost Cult would not let him go, and his future would be quite worrisome."
"Yeah, the head core master from the Floating Mountain Martial School, Shen Tujue, must be the one chasing after him for his school. According to the rumors, his cultivation is stronger than the head core master of the Heartless Marital School, Fei Youdao. He had already developed the warrior spirit, which represents the top power amongst the Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors. On the other hand, the remaining members of the Nine Ghost Cult would not be easy to take on either. There were two other ghost warriors just as powerful as the White Bone ghost warrior, especially the number one among them, the Five Poison ghost warrior. His body is full of poison, and even the breath he breathes out is powerful enough to poison a whole village of people. Competing with him, his opponent would be poisoned without even noticing. Even if it were not too serious, the warrior's attacking power would be affected, leaving the opponent no chance of fighting back."
"This Ye Chen is so good at causing trouble. All of these people come from such a powerful background, the Floating Mountain Martial School, the remaining power of the Nine Ghost Cult… No matter who comes at me from amongst them, I would not be able to fight back." Being able to sit on the seventh floor of the Nine Star White Jade Restaurant would mean they were all Astral Reaching Realm warriors, but they were only the normal ones. The most powerful one among them would be a Late Astral Reaching Realm warrior; they were not even that powerful, not to mention being at the top or extreme level. If a normal Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warrior attacked them, they would all have to die.
Tap! Tap! Tap
At this moment, a stepping sound came from the staircase. Although it was rather quiet, but everyone there heard it, and could not help but look over.
After three breaths of time, a young man appeared in everyone's sight.
He wore a blue robe, with a longsword around his waist, and his long black hair tightened up in a simple fashion. With that gentle jade-like sight, although he was not the most handsome man in the world, he was definitely good-looking.
It was indeed Ye Chen.
After running for dozen hundreds of miles, the first city Ye Chen arrived at was the Sky Star City, which was the closest to the Star Regional Lake. The distance was less than ten miles.
On the way here, Ye Chen had thought about it, and he knew that the news of him leaving the forbidden area would not be hidden for long, since there were bound to be people who would recognize him. As for the reason that he was able to do so, he had thought about the consequences of him saying that he had broken through using only Astral Reaching Realm cultivation, which would be too shocking for the world to comprehend, since the iron rule had never been broken before. Therefore, he had decided to make an obvious comeback, creating an illusion that he did not even go deep into the foggy forbidden area.
However, there would also be a day when the illusion would be broken, but he knew that it would not be broken too fast, and he was confident that before that day arrived, he would have gained enough power to protect himself.
The levels above the seventh floor of the Nine Star White Jade Restaurant could only be accessed by powerful Astral Reaching Realm warriors, among which, a lot of them would recognize him. This was why he decided to set the restaurant to be the first location. In a way, he wished to use their mouths to spread the news that he had returned.
"Oh my god! It is Ye Chen!"
Indeed, just as Ye Chen had expected, two of the people on the seventh floor had recognized him. The two had been to the Hidden Dragon Rank competition, and Ye Chen's appearance had made a deep mark in their brains.
"What? Are you sure?"
"Why should I lie to you? He is indeed Ye Chen."
"I cannot believe it! He somehow made it out alive? It is so hard to comprehend."
"What on earth!"
The guy who was just talking about that Ye Chen would not make it out for at least another five years was shocked at what he saw, looking like he had just seen a ghost.
Ye Chen smiled lightly and sat down by the table next to the window as the group chatted about him, as if he had not heard anything at all.
"Should we go say hello? I have heard that he has quite a good personality."
"Yeah, I never heard anything bad about him. Let's go together."
The two who had recognized Ye Chen stood up, walking towards Ye Chen.
"Warrior Ye, we have heard about you for a long time now."
The two held their hands in front of their chest as a gesture of being respectful.
Ye Chen reached out his head, "Sit."
'This Ye Chen is indeed friendly. He has even asked us to sit down. How nice.' The two looked quite happy, and were even more respectful as they sat down.
One of the two asked the waiter to prepare the best dish and alcohol.
"Warrior Ye, we two had been hearing about you for so long. Being able to sit down and eat together today, we really appreciate the opportunity." The guy on the left with a black mole on his face said with a bright face.
Ye Chen smiled as he said, "Isn't the meaning of life just doing the things you like? Drinking alone is quite boring. I would not refuse anyone else who would like to join."
"Hehe, how nice."
Seeing the three who were having a great chat, the others on the seventh level were extremely jealous and regretful at the same time. How could they have not thought about doing that? If they had done that, it would be them sitting there.
"Warrior Ye, I, too have heard a lot about you."
One of the others who was sitting nearby could not resist anymore, as he said forcibly.
Ye Chen did not make it hard for the others. They were all welcome to sit down with him and drink.
"Warrior Ye!"
"Warrior Ye!"
"…"
As the others saw what had happened, they all stood up and tried to chat with Ye Chen. They knew that they would earn a bit more reputation in the future by doing so, being able to talk to the rarest martial genius in the past thousand years. If Ye Chen became more powerful in the future, then it would be even better. They would be able to tell this story to their children, 'Your father, I, once drank and chatted with Ye Chen.'
There were getting too many people, so Ye Chen laughed and pushed all of the tables on the seventh floor together, creating a huge ten-meters long table. Everyone gathered together and drank as a group.
"Warrior Ye, that forbidden area is regarded as the graveyard of powerful Astral Reaching Realm warriors. How did you manage to get out? Please tell us and let everyone learn from you."
"Yeah, warrior Ye, the news of you being out would spread out in the whole Black Dragon Empire within this month. After this month, probably the whole South Rudra Region would know of it."
Ye Chen sipped on his alcohol and said, "Actually, I did not go deep into the forbidden area, so I came out five months ago already. I had been recovering. As you know, I had been chased by top four Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors, so it would be impossible for me to make it out without any wounds."
"You did not go in deep?"
Everyone realized the fact that Ye Chen had actually not made in deep. As for being wounded, it would be quite normal, it would be weird if he did not get wounded at all, since the top four Extreme Astral Reaching Realm warriors would be deadly for anyone else. Being able to make it out alive had already proven his ability. Now, after hearing what Ye Chen had said, recovering for the past five months would be quite reasonable, since it would be easy for a normal Astral Reaching Realm warrior to recover from wounds, but it would be quite hard for the powerful warriors. Although it would be hard to kill them, their wounds would be relatively harder to cure as well, because it affected their mentality and even soul sometimes.
"Congratulation on your safe return, warrior Ye. I will raise a toast for that."
"Me too!"
This party lasted all the way until midnight.
…
Inside the guest room of the restaurant, Ye Chen sat on the bed with his feet tugged under his body. The four months of him trying to find the way back affected Ye Chen dramatically, it was even more challenging than the Double Sword King and the Iron Sword King statue's will power test.
Will power… What could be regarded as will power?
Being powerful on the surface was not the true power. Being internally powerful would be the true goal, the unbreakable power which would break through one's destiny.
Four months and seven days of the boring trip had increased Ye Chen's will power to an extremely horrifying level. After a general calculation, he found that he had used his soul power two hundred thousand times in that amount of time. If it were any other Astral Reaching Realm warrior, he or she would have gone crazy by now or even broken down. Or, in other cases, he or she would have given up directly. Without reaching the Seas of Souls Realm and not being able to make it out of the forbidden area, even if Seas of Souls Realm warriors would not have Ye Chen's endurance and determination. Doing the same thing day after day for four months and seven days in a row and repeating it thousands of times per day, what a horrifying challenge!
And, this was not even the most horrifying part. Back then, Ye Chen himself did not even know if he could make it out at all, as everything was unknown. There rarely would be any warriors out there who could stand up again after countless times of failures. This period of tough time would equal other people's whole life worth of suffering.
Of course, on the contrary, being able to win over his own mind time after time was also rewarding, more than one might expect.
With the powerful will power, his sword intent had also become unbreakable. Each tiny beam of it was amazingly pure. Without exaggerating, in competing only with the sword intent, no one could be Ye Chen's opponent. Right then, the total quantity of his sword intent was roughly the same as a Seas of Souls Realm warrior. Competing with its power, even a normal Seas of Souls Realm sword artist would not be his opponent, and would be beaten within minutes.
On top of his soul sea, a three-fingers-long, ancient looking longsword shone silver light; it was the light of his will power. From the knowledge and sword art of the Battle Empire, he had learned that within the Seas of Souls Realm, only the master of the realm could shine the halo-like light. In the case of anyone below that level, only rare cases could do it. However, Ye Chen managed to do so at just the Astral Reaching Realm.
"Once the light is out, the will power would never disappear."
He took in a deep breath, as a bright light appeared, ready to project into people's souls.
